Al Jazeera – September 23, 2024
Lebanon sees deadliest day since civil war as Israeli attacks kill 492
Israeli warnings and air strikes on Lebanon raise fears of regional escalation into full-scale war.
Israeli air raids hitting mostly southern and eastern Lebanon have killed at least 492 people and wounded at least 1,645, according to the country’s health ministry, in the deadliest day of conflict in Lebanon since its 1975-90 civil war.
The ministry said the death toll on Monday included at least 35 children, 58 women and two medics as the bombardments hit homes, medical centres, ambulances and cars of people trying to flee.
Tens of thousands of Lebanese fled the south, and the main highway out of the southern port city of Sidon was jammed with cars heading towards Beirut in the biggest exodus since the 2006 fighting.
The government ordered schools and universities to close across most of the country and began preparing shelters for people displaced from the south.
Some attacks hit residential areas of towns in the south and the Bekaa Valley in the east. One strike hit a wooded area as far away as Byblos in central Lebanon, more than 129km (80 miles) from the border and north of Beirut.
The Israeli military also said it conducted a “targeted strike” in Beirut, without offering immediate details.
Israeli media reported that the target of the strike was senior military commander Ali Karaki, the head of the southern front, but Hezbollah said he was in good health and in a safe location.
The Israeli army said it had struck more than 1,300 sites used by the Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah. The increased hostilities raise further fears of an all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah or even a wider regional conflagration.
Israel’s military warned people in Lebanon to move away from places used by Hezbollah, which launched a barrage of rockets into northern Israel on Sunday.
The warnings ignored the possibility that some residents could live in or near targeted structures without knowing they are at risk.
Many people who received warnings told Al Jazeera that they did not know where to go.
“They [also wondered] how they are supposed to know where Hezbollah has stored its weapons,” Al Jazeera’s Dorsa Jabbari said, reporting from Beirut.
“They don’t share this information readily, … so it’s created a lot of confusion and a lot of anger.”
Jabbari said people in Beirut are “anxious about not only what is happening in the south but about how close they are to actually being in a full-out war between Hezbollah and Israel”.
On Monday evening, the Israeli government announced a nationwide state of emergency until September 30.
The Israeli media outlet Haaretz said that under the declaration, the army is granted powers to issue instructions to the Israeli public, allowing it to ban ga
The intensification of the fighting across the shared border, which has seen low-level skirmishes since Israel launched its war on Gaza in October, follows last week’s explosions of pagers and walkie-talkies, which killed dozens of people in Lebanon.
Early on Monday, Israeli army spokesperson Daniel Hagari said its forces conducted “extensive strikes” against Hezbollah posts after identifying attempts to fire rockets.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday after the strikes that Israel faced “complicated days” and called on Israelis to stay united as the campaign unfolded.
“I promised that we would change the security balance, the balance of power in the north. That is exactly what we are doing,” he said in a message issued after a situational assessment at military headquarters in Tel Aviv.
His government recently declared that it was shifting more focus to the fighting with Hezbollah in a bid to allow about 60,000 Israelis who evacuated from border areas to return home.
Asked by a reporter whether the army was planning a ground invasion into Lebanon, Hagari said, “We will do everything necessary to return the residents of the north to their homes safely.”
Lebanese media reported that people across the country, including Beirut in central Lebanon, have been receiving Israeli phone warnings telling them to evacuate.
Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) reported that “citizens in Beirut and a number of areas are receiving landline telephone warning messages whose source is the Israeli enemy, asking them to quickly evacuate.”
Information Minister Ziad Makary’s office in Beirut said it received a landline call featuring a recorded message that told it to evacuate the building to avoid an air strike.
The NNA labelled the phone warnings “part of the psychological war that the enemy has adopted”.
‘Battle of reckoning’
The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed concern on Monday over the escalating tensions between Israel and Hezbollah, urging for de-escalation and a diplomatic solution.
“The Secretary General is indeed alarmed by the escalating situation along the Blue Line. He’s very concerned about the large number of civilian casualties being reported by the Lebanese authorities, as well as the thousands of displaced persons amid the most intense exchange of fire across the Blue Line since October of last year,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters during a news conference.
White House spokesperson John Kirby said the United States still believes there is room for a “diplomatic solution” while warning Israel there are “better ways” to allow its residents to return to their houses in the north.
Hezbollah deputy chief Naim Qassem told mourners at the funeral of one of the group’s commanders killed last week in Beirut: “We have entered a new phase, the title of which is the Open-Ended Battle of Reckoning.”
On Saturday, Hezbollah launched dozens of rockets at Israel’s Ramat David Airbase, east of Haifa, in its farthest-reaching attack inside Israel.
Monday’s salvo was among the heaviest cross-border fire exchanges between Israel and Hezbollah since the start of the war in Gaza.
The two parties have been exchanging nearly daily fire since October 8 with the Iran-backed group saying it would stop only once a ceasefire is achieved in the Palestinian enclave.
But while those exchanges were largely confined to border areas and were aimed at primarily military targets, they have escalated dramatically this week.
Israel’s shift of focus was initiated in a wave of unprecedented attacks. On Tuesday and Wednesday, thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies exploded in Beirut, targeting Hezbollah’s rank and file members as well as civilians and sending shockwaves across the country.
At least 37 people were killed and more than 3,000 were wounded in the explosions. These were widely blamed on Israel, which has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility.
On Friday, an Israeli strike killed a senior commander of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan unit and second-in-command of the group’s armed forces, Ibrahim Aqil.
The strike in the Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh killed at least 45 people, including 10 civilians.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/9/23/israel-warns-lebanon-civilians-of-air-strikes-on-hezbollah
Common Dreams – September 23, 2024
Fears of ‘Imminent Catastrophe’ Mount as Hezbollah Hits Back Amid Israeli Airstrikes
by Brett Wilkins
Fears of an all-out Middle East war mounted Sunday as Hezbollah fired more than 100 rockets into Israel, whose military continued bombing targets in southern Lebanon while moving troops, tanks, and other equipment toward the northern border.
During a Sunday funeral speech for three members killed in Israeli airstrikes, Hezbollah Deputy Secretary-General Naim Qassem declared an “open-ended battle” with Israel was underway. Hezbollah is reeling from last week’s unprecedented surprise attack on communication devices that killed dozens of people and wounded thousands more, as well as Israeli airstrikes on Beirut suburbs that have slain dozens of Lebanese including women and children and injured scores more.
The dead include senior Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Aqil.
“We admit that we are pained. We are humans. But as we are pained, you will also be pained,” Qassem told mourners at Aqil’s funeral, directing his remarks to Israel.
In Israel, air raid warning sirens blared warnings of incoming Hezbollah rocket fire that penetrated further south in Israel than at any time in nearly two decades, sending residents scrambling for shelters. Israeli media reported 13 people injured—one of them seriously—and heavy damage to homes and cars.
As officials closed schools, limited gatherings, and ordered hospitals to move patients in the north, the Israel Defense Forces moved troops, tanks, and other equipment toward the border with Lebanon. Numerous social media posts said Israeli reservists had received emergency call-up orders, known as Tzav 8s.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that his far-right government would “take whatever action is necessary to restore security” in the northern part of Israel.
“No country can accept the wanton rocketing of its cities,” he said. “We can’t accept it either.”
Hezbollah said it would not stop fighting until Israel stops its assault on Gaza, for which it is on trial for genocideļ¾ at the International Court of Justice.
Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, the United Nations envoy for Lebanon, said on X, formerly known as Twitter, that “with the region on the brink of an imminent catastrophe, it cannot be overstated enough: There is NO military solution that will make either side safer.”
European Union foreign policy chief and European Commission Vice President Josep Borrell said on social media Sunday that “the E.U. is extremely concerned by the escalation in Lebanon, following Friday’s attacks in Beirut and the increasing cross-border violence between Israel and Hezbollah.”
“Civilians on both sides are paying an enormous price,” Borrell added. “An immediate ceasefire is needed.”
In the United States, White House national security spokesman John Kirby toldABC‘s “This Week” on Sunday that the Biden administration—which supplies Israel with billions of dollars in arms and diplomatic cover—is “involved in extensive and quite assertive diplomacy.”
“We want to make sure that we can continue to do everything we can to try to prevent this from becoming an all-out war there with Hezbollah across that Lebanese border,” he added. “We still believe that there can be time and space for a diplomatic solution here.”
Brett Wilkins is a staff writer for Common Dreams.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/israel-lebanon-escalation-rockets
Al Mayadeen – September 23, 2024
Day 353 of Gaza genocide: 41,455 killed, 95,878 injured by 'Israel'
Many victims are still trapped beneath the rubble as the IOF hinder and obstruct the work of Gaza's Civil Defense and rescue teams.
Over the past 24 hours, the Israeli occupation forces committed three massacres against Palestinian civilians and families in Gaza, killing 24 and injuring 60 others, as the Israeli occupation persists in its relentless bombardment of various areas across Gaza for the 353rd day.
While some of the victims were transported to the few partially functioning hospitals and medical centers across the Strip, many are still trapped beneath the rubble as the IOF hinder and obstruct the work of civil defense and rescue teams.
This raises the total death toll in Gaza to 41,455 murdered and 95,878 injured by "Israel".
Residential building demolitions ongoing
The Israeli demolition of residential blocks continues as part of its systematic campaign to prevent Palestinians from returning to their homes. Israeli media have reported previously that the occupation intends to establish settlements and military bases in the leveled areas.
Our correspondent reported that a Palestinian was killed by Israeli forces west of the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza on Sunday. Another Palestinian was also killed in an Israeli drone strike in the Ma'an area, east of Khan Younis, in the southern part of the Strip.
Furthermore, in the northern Jabalia camp, several people were injured in an Israeli bombardment targeting a Nassar family home, while others were wounded following an Israeli drone strike on individuals at the Beit Lahia beach.
The Israeli occupation forces demolished residential buildings near the Dawla intersection in the southern part of the al-Zeitoun neighborhood, southeast of Gaza City, and in the Tel al-Sultan neighborhood, west of Rafah City, according to our correspondent.
This comes after the Israeli occupation committed a new massacre in the al-Shati refugee camp, west of Gaza City, on Sunday, targeting the Kafr Qasim school, which houses hundreds of forcibly displaced Palestinian families.
Countercurrent – September 23, 2024
Most recent Israeli bombing of a school-turned-shelter
is latest crime against Gaza’s displaced people
by Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor
Palestinian Territory – The Israeli bombing of another school sheltering displaced people in Gaza City’s southern Zeitoun neighborhood on Saturday morning, killing more than 20 Palestinians at once, is the latest possible war crime committed by Israel in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli aircraft bombed the Zeitoun (C) school, located in the Zeitoun neighborhood in the south of Gaza City, on 21 September at 11:30 am. The attack resulted in the killing of 21 Palestinians, the overwhelming majority of whom were children and women. Those killed included 13 children and six women, one of whom was pregnant and killed with her three-month-old fetus. Thirty others were injured, nine of whom were children who had to have their legs amputated.
The Euro-Med Monitor field and legal team visited the targeted school immediately after the Israeli attack, and did not witness any sign of armed personnel or equipment there. A review of the victims’ names revealed that they were all civilians, and were mostly women and children, which refutes the Israeli army’s claim that it had targeted a school being used as a military command and control centre by armed groups.
This claim has been repeated by Israel as the number of schools-turned shelters it has targeted for bombing has increased. Since August, Israel has bombed a total of 21 of these schools, including eight in September. As a result of these attacks, 267 Palestinians have been killed and hundreds more have been injured.
Targeting and destroying schools over the heads of displaced persons cannot be justified, and constitutes a flagrant violation of the principles of distinction, military necessity, proportionality, i.e. the need to take necessary precautions. While the Israeli army tries every time to justify these attacks by claiming that it is attacking military targets, it never offers any proof to support its claims.
The Israeli army is deliberately destroying the remaining shelter centres in the Gaza Strip, including schools and public facilities, with the aim of creating a coercive environment that forces civilians to evacuate their areas of residence towards the central and southern sections of the Strip. About a week ago on 15 September, it destroyed Ghazi Al-Shawa School in the northern city of Beit Hanoun after contacting a number of displaced persons there in an attempt to force them to evacuate the area without justification. Ghazi Al-Shawa School was one of the last schools that remained as a shelter centre in that area.
The world’s nations must fulfill their international obligations by putting an end to Israel’s genocide of Palestinians and other serious offenses in the Gaza Strip; safeguard the lives of civilians there; and ensure Israel abides by international law and the rulings of the International Court of Justice by imposing strong sanctions on it and cutting off all financial, military, and political support for it. This includes an immediate stop to all sales, exports, and transfers of weapons to Israel, including export licenses and military assistance.
Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor is a Geneva-based independent organization with regional offices across the MENA region and Europe
World Socialist Web Site – September 23, 2024
Biden hosts Quad meeting directed against China
Oscar Grenfell
Over the weekend, US President Joe Biden hosted a leaders’ meeting in Delaware of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad), a de facto alliance of the anti-China military powers in the Indo-Pacific—America, Japan, India and Australia.
As with all such gatherings, the meeting was couched in platitudes about “development” and “cooperation” in the Indo-Pacific. Biden administration officials claimed that the Quad was not directed against any particular country.
Those assertions were refuted in a “hot mic” moment that exposed the real thrust of the alliance.
Apparently unaware that his microphone was still live, Biden told the other government leaders that “China continues to behave aggressively, testing us all across the region, and it’s true in the South China Sea, the East China Sea, South China, South Asia and the Taiwan straits.” He added that this was “true across the scope of our relationship, including on economic and technology issues.”
Those remarks were an exercise in projection. In reality, the US has engaged in a full-court military, diplomatic and economic press against China, based on explicit fears that Beijing’s economic growth threatens the regional and global hegemony of American imperialism.
While falsely assigning blame to China, Biden’s remarks did point to the scope of the confrontation. He identified flashpoints across the entire region as well as the critical issues of economic and technological development.
Even in comments that were intended to be private, there was an evident contradiction. Amid a slowdown of the Chinese economy, Biden stated that President “Xi Jinping is looking to focus on domestic economic challenges and minimise the turbulence in China’s diplomatic relationships.”
But, Biden hastened to add, Xi was simply seeking to “buy himself some diplomatic space, in my view, to aggressively pursue China’s interest.” It was a change of “tactics,” not “strategy.”
Media coverage has focussed on the “embarrassment” of the “hot mic” incident. Biden’s remarks are revealing, however. They underscore the reality that whatever Xi and the Chinese leadership do, the US is determined to press ahead with its aggressive confrontation. Biden’s message also had the character of an insistence to the allied leaders that they not let up in their own involvement in the US-led anti-China activities, whatever Beijing’s shifts and maneouvres.
The “hot mic” episode is the framework within which the 6,000 word “Wilmington Declaration,” adopted by the leaders, should be read. It does not explicitly mention China, but it includes the usual host of thinly-veiled US accusations against Beijing. The entire purpose of the Quad over more than a decade has been to deepen the collaboration of its four constituent parts against China.
A particular focus was the South China Sea. The declaration states: “We continue to express our serious concern about the militarization of disputed features, and coercive and intimidating maneuvers in the South China Sea.” It references the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which Washington continually invokes against Beijing, despite refusing to sign on to the agreement itself.
The declaration insists on the right to “freedom of navigation” exercises, which have entailed US and allied warships sailing in or near waters claimed by China in provocations that risk a shooting war. Similar points were made in relation to the East China Sea.
An entire paragraph is dedicated to a related denunciation of North Korea’s “destabilizing ballistic missile launches and its continued pursuit of nuclear weapons,” with its government accused of violating international law and threatening “peace and stability.”
Those allegations, against a beleaguered tinpot regime, are absurdly hypocritical coming from American imperialism, which has waged continuous war for the past 30 years and is currently setting entire regions ablaze. The dictatorship in Myanmar was also denounced over its human rights violations, with the real concern no doubt being its ties to Beijing.
The concrete measures outlined in the statement are largely directed toward facilitating and extending maritime aggression targeting China.
The declaration hails the Quad’s 2022 establishment of an “Indo-Pacific Partnership for Maritime Domain Awareness (IPMDA).” Essentially this is a pact for the surveillance and monitoring of the Indian and Pacific Oceans by the US and its allies. That includes the establishment of a data monitoring/spying centre in India and the rollout of data to countries throughout the region.
The statement says this will help countries to “monitor the activities in their exclusive economic zones—including unlawful activity. Australia commits to boosting its cooperation with the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency to enhance regional maritime domain awareness in the Pacific through satellite data, training and capacity building.”
The four leaders announced a “new regional Maritime Initiative for Training in the Indo-Pacific.” This would enable allies to “monitor and secure their waters, enforce their laws, and deter unlawful behavior.” A parallel legal commission is being set up to “uphold the rules-based maritime order in the Indo-Pacific”—code words for US dominance.
As part of its more than decade-long military build-up in the Indo-Pacific, the US has deliberately inflamed territorial disputes between China and several regional states, transforming them into trigger points for a potential war.
Over the past year, this agenda has been ratcheted-up still further. The Philippine government, under the right-wing President Bongbong Marcos, has provoked clashes with Chinese coast guard and civilian fishing vessels in disputes over territorial control of elements of the South China. Under conditions where the Marcos regime is closely integrated with the US military, these clashes have posed the imminent threat of a far broader war.
It is in that context that the Quad leaders announced that “the US Coast Guard, Japan Coast Guard, Australian Border Force, and Indian Coast Guard, plan to launch a first-ever Quad-at-Sea Ship Observer Mission in 2025, to improve interoperability and advance maritime safety, and continuing with further missions in future years across the Indo-Pacific.” That will be a joint expedition in support of anti-China provocations.
Some media outlets jumped the gun and reported that the joint coast guard mission would focus on the South China Sea. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese refused to confirm or deny that when asked during a press event. Such a move would be a major escalation, posing the risk of direct clashes between US and Chinese forces.
While pontificating about “peace,” “freedom” and the like, the Quad leaders solidarised themselves with the Israeli regime and its genocide of the Palestinians. They denounced the October 7 Palestinian military operation, but said nothing about Israel’s terrorist attacks in Lebanon the previous week.
The US-funded genocide and moves to a regionwide Middle Eastern conflagration are one front in a developing global war, which also includes the US-NATO proxy war against Russia in Ukraine and the US confrontation with China in the Indo-Pacific.
While expressing “deepest concern over the war raging in Ukraine,” the statement was somewhat muted on that conflict, under conditions where the US is moving to authorise Ukrainian strikes deep inside Russian territory, in a policy that threatens all-out war between NATO and Russia. The muffled language was likely because India, while fully-committed to the anti-China aggression, maintains substantial economic ties with Russia.
The response of hawkish military-intelligence commentators to the gathering was mixed. Persistent frustrations have been voiced that the Quad has not implemented even more aggressive and concrete measures against China, and that its intermittent meetings often feature the announcement of already-unveiled initiatives.
The political crisis of capitalist governments internationally was also a feature of the leaders’ summit. Biden will no longer be the US president after the November 5 election. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced his resignation in August. Albanese faces an election by May under conditions of mass hostility to his government, including over the cost-of-living crisis and its support for the Gaza genocide.
Of the four leaders, Indian President Narendra Modi’s position would appear to be the most secure, but that only underscores the bogus character of the references to “human rights” and “democracy.” Modi is an autocratic figure whose rule, based on Hindu nationalism, has included a crackdown on civil liberties and the murder of political opponents abroad.
Notwithstanding this political crisis, the Quad leaders emphasised that the pact would continue, including in the event of a Trump presidency in the US. The pact forms part of an entire US-led network of military and diplomatic alliances in the Indo-Pacific, all directed at preparing for war against China.
Whatever the upheavals, the leaders were insisting the war drive would proceed. It is the only response that the imperialist powers, led by the US, have to the historic crisis of the global capitalist system.
Countercurrent – September 23, 2024
Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan:
If you remember this man, your faith in peace will never die
by Bharat Dogra
These are difficult times for those who believe firmly in creating a world based on peace. Every day the world appears to be drifting more and more towards conflicts and even the threat of the third world war. In these difficult times it is a source of strength and sustenance if we remember those who have made the most important contribution at world level to peace with justice.
One such truly great person whose contribution to the path of peace and peaceful, non-violent resistance to injustice will never be forgotten is Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, more popularly known to his followers as Badshah Khan. Badshah means king, but this great man did not rule by force, he ruled with love over the hearts of his countless admirers.
He was born in the communities of Pathans and Pakhtoons in the parts of Pakistan located close to the Afghanistan border areas. Most of his work was among these communities which were widely regarded as being very violent and revengeful. However it is in these communities that he constantly and successfully spread the message of love and peace, creating volunteers of peaceful resistance who were involved in numerous struggles against British colonial rule. They were known to die in the struggle but would not raise their hands in counter-violence. The moral strength they created was so strong that soldiers refused to fire on these valiant but entirely unarmed freedom fighters. Soldiers were willing to go to jail for long years but they could not fire on these entirely peaceful freedom fighters because of the moral and ethical strength of the movement these freedom fighters had created.
Mahatma Gandhi was so deeply inspired by this phase of the freedom movement that he said that coming here was like a pilgrimage for him. Although Badshah Khan regarded Mahatma Gandhi as his mentor, Gandhi in turn regarded him as someone who was highly inspirational for him.
A legacy of the freedom movement of India which remains extremely important not just for India but for all of South Asia relates to the enduring great importance of inter-faith harmony which is extremely important for peace, stability and prosperity of this region.
A very important achievement of the freedom movement was that some of the greatest leaders, each of them with a following of millions, were able to create a consensus on some very basic issues of enduring importance. One of these related to inter-faith harmony. Within the main Congress led movement Mahatma Gandhi, Badshah Khan (Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan ), Jawaharlal Nehru and Maulana Azad were the most important pillars of inter-faith harmony, although many other leaders of great stature also contributed much to this. Subhash Chandra Bose was another great pillar of inter-faith harmony, which was so visible in the Azad Hind Fauj he mobilized. Outside the main Congress movement, Bhagat Singh and his colleagues were known for very firm commitment to inter-faith harmony and strong opposition to communal and sectarian trends. This consensus of great leaders with following of vast millions was based on their firm beliefs on this issue and also on an understanding that inter-faith conflicts can cause enormous distress and destruction.
Some leaders of freedom movements who preferred a secular role for state did not engage very actively with religion. However Mahatma Gandhi while accepting secular role of state engaged on a regular basis with realizing a positive role of religion among masses and utilizing the spirituality associated with various religions to prepare a stronger base for some highly desirable socio-economic objectives. In local context he put more emphasis on Hindu-Muslim unity as a base of national progress, and Badshah Khan was the leader who came closest to him in this approach.
This strong commitment of Gandhi helped in the emergence of the leading political party— Congress — as a representative of all religious communities. The tallest among Muslim leaders to emerge were Badshah Khan (also called Frontier Gandhi ) and Maulana Azad. The former in particular was very close to Gandhi, they both said they were inspired by each other. Badshah Khan formed an organization, largely composed of Pashtuns, called Khudai Khidmatgars (Servants of God).
Although Pashtuns were known at that time as people very prone to violence, thousands of Khudai Khidmatgars in and around Peshawar, during the 1930s, presented one of the most noble examples of non-violent resistance to colonial rule and its atrocities, so much so that Gandhi considered his visits there to be like pilgrimages. If any minorities like Hindus or Sikhs were threatened, the Khudai Khidmatgars were willing to take great risks to protect them. When Hindu soldiers led by Chandra Singh Garhwali were asked to open fire on Khudai Khidmatgars by colonial rulers, they refused to do so, instead accepting imprisonment for several years for this refusal.
Such inspiring examples of inter-faith harmony were repeatedly seen in several phases of freedom movement led by Mahatma Gandhi. Leaders like Maulana Azad close to him presented interpretations of Islam and the Koran which were very much in keeping with this spirit of harmony and peace.
Unfortunately colonial powers saw this growing unity as a threat to their rule and hence went all out to promote leaders from the opposite camp who had a sectarian and divisive agenda. Hence during a critical phase of a few decades, including the Second World War years, the most powerful support of the government authorities went to those leaders and forces who wanted to create divisions and conflicts among various religious communities of India. This strengthened them to promote their divisive agenda, paving the way for the extremely tragic partition of the country, with millions killed and uprooted.
Gandhi was heartbroken, but till the end he kept on his efforts for reducing conflict and restoring peace, travelling in conflict zones at great risk and fasting for prolonged periods to appeal for peace. Often these efforts had amazing success in actually bringing peace to zones of big conflicts. He continued these efforts till at last he himself fell to the bullets of a fanatic in 1948.
Thus the great Gandhian project of inter-faith harmony got badly disrupted due to factors beyond his control, but this should not lead to an underestimation or devaluing of his life-long efforts to minimize inter-faith coflict and promote harmony. To reduce misunderstandings, he called upon people of different faiths to realize true spirituality based on peace and harmony. He encouraged those who presented such interpretations of religious texts, contributing himself also to this task. He urged people not to be distracted by occasional references to violence in religious texts, saying that these need to be seen in a specific context and not as a general guidance.
He also urged people to form an understanding of other faiths on the basis of perspective of devotees of those faiths, to have an attitude of understanding and an open mind. At the same time, he said, narrow interpretations should not be allowed to obstruct progress, harmony and justice in present times. Hence he was a devoted religious person who wanted to live in harmony and understanding with people of all religions and faiths as well as atheists under secular governance. This view of a religiously inclined person can be very useful even today.
Badshah Khan remained a living embodiment of this thinking of Gandhi for a long time after the Mahatma left us. Even in very adverse conditions imposed by Pakistani authorities, among his beloved Pashtun people he continued to attract millions of followers with his message of peace, justice and harmony. He combined this with an abiding and in fact growing concern for social and economic justice.
This came out clearly when the Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi went out of her way to invite him to come to India in his late years, to address the Indian Parliament and accept the respect and honor of a grateful nation which had been missing his benevolent presence for several years. He spoke passionately about inter-faith harmony as well as about social and economic justice. It was a great learning to see that despite the several years spent in Pakistani prisons (preceded by colonial regime’s imprisonments), he avoided bitterness and spoke with great kindness. His simplicity was even a step ahead of Mahatma Gandhi.
The present generation owes it to the legacy of such great leaders to strive relentlessly to create a South Asia based on their great vision of inter-faith harmony and socio-economic justice.
Bharat Dogra is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include Planet in Peril, Protecting Earth for Children, When the Two Streams Met (freedom movement) and Man Over Machine ( Gandhian Ideas For Our Times).
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