A LESSON FROM HISTORY

For some time I have been wondering if there was a historic event that steered the course of Indo-Pak subcontinent’s history in the direction that has resulted in the present pitiable situation. Arrival of the British East India Company stands out as one possible event having that impact. The following article contains mainly extracts from various Wikipedia articles put together in a logical order.

The East India Company (EIC), originally chartered as the Governor and Company of Merchants of London trading into the East Indies, and often called the Honourable East India Company, was an English and later (from 1707) British joint-stock company and megacorporation formed for pursuing trade with the East Indies but which ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent.

The East India Company traded mainly in cotton, silk, indigo dye, salt, saltpetre, tea and opium. The Company was granted a Royal Charter by Queen Elizabeth in 1600 making it the oldest among several similarly formed European East India Companies. Shares of the company were owned by wealthy merchants and aristocrats. It was an example of an English joint stock company. The government owned no shares and had only indirect control. The Company eventually came to rule large areas of India with its own private armies, exercising military power and assuming administrative functions. Company rule in India effectively began in 1757 after the Battle of Plassey and lasted until 1858 when, following the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the Government of India Act 1858 led to the British Crown assuming direct control of India in the era of the new British Raj.

The Company was dissolved in 1874 as a result of the East India Stock Dividend Redemption Act passed one year earlier, as the Government of India Act had by then rendered it vestigial, powerless and obsolete. Its functions had been fully absorbed into the official government machinery of British India and its private Presidency armies had been nationalised by the British Crown.

In 1612, James I instructed Sir Thomas Roe to visit the Mughal Emperor Nuruddin Salim Jahangir (r. 1605 – 1627) to arrange for a commercial treaty that would give the Company exclusive rights to reside and build factories in Surat and other areas. In return, the Company offered to provide the Emperor with goods and rarities from the European market. This mission was highly successful as Jahangir sent a letter to James through Sir Thomas Roe:

"Upon which assurance of your royal love I have given my general command to all the kingdoms and ports of my dominions to receive all the merchants of the English nation as the subjects of my friend; that in what place soever they choose to live, they may have free liberty without any restraint; and at what port soever they shall arrive, that neither Portugal nor any other shall dare to molest their quiet; and in what city soever they shall have residence, I have commanded all my governors and captains to give them freedom answerable to their own desires; to sell, buy, and to transport into their country at their pleasure.

For confirmation of our love and friendship, I desire your Majesty to command your merchants to bring in their ships of all sorts of rarities and rich goods fit for my palace; and that you be pleased to send me your royal letters by every opportunity, that I may rejoice in your health and prosperous affairs; that our friendship may be interchanged and eternal"

—Nuruddin Salim Jahangir, Letter to James I.

In 1614, Roe was elected Member of Parliament for Tamworth. From 1615 to 1618, he was ambassador to the court at Agra, India of the Great Mogul, Jahangir. The principal object of the mission was to obtain protection for an English factory at Surat. At the Mughal court, Roe became a favorite of Jahangir and was his drinking partner. This greatly enhanced Roe's status with the Mughals. His journal was a valuable source of information for the reign of Jehangir.

The Company, benefiting from the imperial patronage, soon expanded its commercial trading operations, eclipsing the Portuguese Estado da India, which had established bases in Goa, Chittagong and Bombay (which was later ceded to England as part of the dowry of Catherine de Braganza). The East India Company also launched a joint effort attack with the Dutch United East India Company on Portuguese and Spanish ships off the coast of China, which helped secure their ports in China. The Company created trading posts in Surat (where a factory was built in 1612), Madras (1639), Bombay (1668), and Calcutta (1690). By 1647, the Company had 23 factories, each under the command of a factor or master merchant and governor if so chosen, and had 90 employees in India. The major factories became the walled forts of Fort William in Bengal, Fort St George in Madras, and the Bombay Castle.

In an act aimed at strengthening the power of the EIC, King Charles II provisioned the EIC (in a series of five acts around 1670) with the rights to autonomous territorial acquisitions, to mint money, to command fortresses and troops and form alliances, to make war and peace, and to exercise both civil and criminal jurisdiction over the acquired areas.

William Hedges was sent in 1682 to Shaista Khan, the Mughal governor of Bengal in order to obtain a firman, an imperial directive that would grant England regular trading privileges throughout the Mughal empire. However, the company's governor in London, Sir Josiah Child, interfered with Hedges's mission, causing Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb to break off the negotiations.

In 1689 a Mughal fleet commanded by Sidi Yakub attacked Bombay. After a year of resistance the EIC surrendered in 1690, and the company sent envoys to Aurangzeb's camp to plead for a pardon. The company's envoys had to prostrate themselves before the emperor, pay a large indemnity, and promise better behaviour in the future. The emperor withdrew his troops and the company subsequently reestablished itself in Bombay and set up a new base in Calcutta.

In September 1695, Captain Henry Every, an English pirate on board the Fancy, reached the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb, where he teamed up with five other pirate captains to make an attack on the Indian fleet making the annual voyage to Mecca. The Mughal convoy included the treasure-laden Ganj-i-Sawai, reported to be the greatest in the Mughal fleet and the largest ship operational in the Indian Ocean, and its escort, the Fateh Muhammed. They were spotted passing the straits en route to Surat. The pirates gave chase and caught up with the Fateh Muhammed some days later, and meeting little resistance, took some £50,000 to £60,000 worth of treasure.

Every continued in pursuit and managed to overhaul the Ganj-i-Sawai, who put up a fearsome fight but it too was eventually taken. The ship carried enormous wealth and, according to contemporary East India Company sources, was carrying a relative of the Grand Mughal, though there is no evidence to suggest that it was his daughter and her retinue. The loot from the Ganj-i-Sawai totalled between £325,000 and £600,000, including 500,000 gold and silver pieces, and has become known as the richest ship ever taken by pirates.

It is really surprising that Mughal emperor Jehangir did not send his own ambassador to the court of the king of England. Instead he depended on the English ambassador to convey messages both ways. If he had done so, we would have had an account of England as it was then as seen by an Indian. It is also noteworthy that neither Jehangir nor the subsequent emperors demanded reciprocal facilities for Indian traders in the British Empire. From the above it is obvious that the Indians in those days had a reasonable naval strength.

It is not surprising that our present day rulers also seem to forget the interest of their people when dealing with foreigners. Something needs to be done to change this attitude.

I am unable to find who was the first person from the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent to travel to England in any ship and in any position. Any information or suggestion to that effect will be appreciated.

Caretaker PM

Pakistan needs a caretaker government to hold free and impartial elections. The assemblies have been dissolved and both government and opposition have proposed three trustworthy names each for the post of caretaker prime minister and are quarrelling and rejecting each other's nominations. How silly!
Six upright men have agreed to give two or three months for the noble cause of running the country while elections are held. Why discriminate among them. Let them form the cabinet and elect the caretaker prime minister from among themselves.

Kargil Flashback

The other day I watched parts of Saleem Safi’s interview of general Pervez Musharraf on Geo TV’s program Jirga. I watch him because Saleem has a decency that seems to be lacking in most TV interviewers. In reply to a question about Kargil operation, the general replied that his troops were in complete control of 5 posts on Kargil mountains and he had all but won the war when Nawaz Sharif surrendered for no reason. He said it with such conviction that I almost believed him until I recalled my own experiences. In those days I was in Saudi Arabia and used to follow the Kargil story through broadcasts of the Saudi youth radio station. The last broadcast I heard was a live interview of one of the mujahideen commanders fighting on the Kargil front. He was saying that fingers, noses and ears of many of his companions were falling off due to frost bite and their food supplies were running low; but they had enough ammunition and would rather die fighting than surrender.

If he was believing in reports that his troops were winning, Musharraf was living in a fool’s paradise.  Obviously the general had chosen his allies carelessly and sent the soldiers to positions where they could not be resupplied with provisions. That was bad planning. In fact even if you look objectively at the conquests of Alexander the great, they turn out to be meaningless meanderings with purposeless bloodshed ending in pitiable misery.

Karachi Burns

At sunset on 3^rd March, 2013 a vehicle laden with about 150 kilograms of high explosive was detonated on a road between two apartment blocks in Gulshan-e-Iqbal Block 6. The ghastly blast reduced most of the facing apartments to rubble killing at least 45 people and wounding about 150 including women and children. The road leads to a Shia enclave called Abbas town. At that moment in time the entire police force of the city had been deployed to provide security at a betrothal ceremony of two Peoples’ Party VIPs attended by the prime minister, chief minister and a host of other dignitaries. Rescue operations were carried out entirely by voluntary organizations.

 The targeted apartment blocks had a mixed community and the casualties were both Shias and Sunnis. However, biased by the recent Shia massacres in Quetta the press projected the event as a sectarian attack and only the funerals of the Shias were shown on television, ignoring the Sunnis.

 

The TTP (Tehrik Taliban Pakistan) has not issued any statement claiming responsibility, but their involvement is obvious. TTP is using old and nearly forgotten past Shia-Sunni conflicts to motivate its mostly Deobandi Sunni followers to strike localities near Shia enclaves, but those attacks are far outnumbered by their attacks on Sunni places of worship belonging to other sects and national military installations. They are fighting an urban guerilla war to destroy Pakistan as we know it. Why?

 

The TTP leadership has taken oath of allegiance to Mulla Omar of Afghanistan fame and has vowed to the mission of destroying all institutions in Pakistan to install him as the head of state of Pakistan and the Caliph of all Muslims of the world, eventually creating a world Islamic order that would exactly follow the norms and customs of the 7^th century Islamic state based in Madinah. This explains their continuous ravaging of non-religious schools, both boys’ and girls’. It also seems likely that they have assurance from Pakistan's arch enemy India that it will not take advantage of the civil war.

 

Mulla Omar has no qualification at all for his intended assignment or ambition, but he is a symbol of audacity in the face of allegedly Jewish instigated Christian military atrocities in Afghanistan. The apparition of TTP has arisen out of the dust of those blown up or roasted in US and NATO bombings in Afghanistan.

 

Unfortunately there are many sympathizers of the cause of TTP in Pakistan. They openly call Mulla Omar the Caliph of all Muslims, denounce democracy as Dajjal and preach boycott of the next general elections. They include intellectuals, wealthy businessmen and retired military officers who are totally disappointed by the massive corruption and misgovernment of the much trumpeted democratic government in Pakistan. The time has come for these gentlemen to review their priorities and show some concern for the humanitarian cause.

 

The reason why the incumbent government has not retaliated to the TTP invasions and acted to restore peace and order in the country is equally disappointing. New political forces of change particularly the Tehrik-e-Insaf of Imran Khan is threatening to wipe out the old political parties in the upcoming general elections. But if the elections are held in tense conditions, they may not be able to mobilize the voters who have never voted before and the much hated old guard can return to power and avoid accountability for another five years. What they do not know is that they may be creating a situation where a bloody revolution may be the only recourse and they may not even get a chance to defend themselves before being sent to the gallows or shot.

 

The above narrative may seem disgusting to those enlightened men and women who do not have any religious or sectarian prejudices. I don’t like it either. But you have to call a spade a spade and identify the problem before proceeding to solve it.