14th August “Partition Horrors Remembrance Day” – Another Strategy to Fuel the Politics of Hate & Division! A day of mourning and introspection is being transformed into a day of further spawning hatred and division – India must Resist It!
Even as the entire country unites to celebrate the 75th Anniversary of our Independence on the 15th of August, yet once again the BJP-led Government is hell-bent on weaponsing its agenda of hate, by marking the 14th of August as “Partition Horrors Remembrance Day”. Let not a day of national mourning and introspection, be abused and exploited to further the politics of hate and create the Partition of our hearts and minds. Indians across communities must resist this nefarious design.
Undoubtedly the tragedy of Partition shrouded the euphoria of our hard-earned freedom. The Partition was an unparalleled human tragedy that has inflicted deep scars on the very soul of our nation. 75 years later it still evokes passions and a deep sense of hurt in those who directly suffered due to the tragedy and collectively too. The Partition resulted out of the confluence of Hate and political ambitions, as well as the British Colonial policy of divide and rule. Yet it was the common Indian masses who had to suffer due to the greed of a few. One should never forget the savage conse quences of the tragedies of the past but the wounds of those tragedies must not be exploited to further fuel hate and division, but in fact must be treated with care, love and healing. Keeping the wounds festering, makes the body gangrenous and only leads to further withering away of the society, even as it serves the political greed of a few. They do not care about the human cost of perpetuating hate. The Commemoration of “Partition Remembrance Horrors Day” on August 14 is a very subtle disguised attempt to perpetuate hate, keep the wounds festering and earn political dividends. The insanity fuelled by hate resulted in the tragic vivisection of our motherland and along with the displacement of millions of people and massacre of a million, which also consumed the life of Mahatma Gandhi, our Bapu.
On this 14th August, let us all come together and join in prayers for peace, love, equality, justice and unity to prevail and defeat Hate and it’s hordes, to truly commemorate the tragedy of partition and pledge that all of us will work to ensure that India or humankind never have to live through such a tragedy ever again. Thus let us all unite to defeat hate and it’s divisive hordes and work to spread the message of love, humanity and the unity of our country.
We indeed welcome the fact that the SGPC, has called for a day of rememberance of the victims of the Partition, The victims of Partition were Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs, all ordinary Indians. In keeping with the ancient spirit of India, a nation that was reborn on the 15th of August 1947 after the great sacrifices of our freedom fighters, let us all pray for salvation for their souls and pledge that we will not allow such a tragedy to occur ever again.
Dr. G G Parikh, Medha Patkar, Tushar Gandhi, Yogendra Yadav, Dr. Sunilam, Feroze Mithiborwala, Guddi S L, Arundhati Dhuru (NAPM, Uttar Pradesh), Sandeep Pandey (PeaceActivist), Meera Sangmitra (NAPM, Telengana), C. R. Neelkandan (NAPM, Kerala), Chinmay Mishra (Writer, Journalist, MadhyaPradesh), Alok Shukla (Chattisgarh Bachao Aandolan), Vishwas Utgi (Sanyukt Kamgar Kruti Samiti), Gautam Bandhopadhyay (Gandhi Vichar Foundation, Chattisgarh)
