Armstrong
RETIRED TTA
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First you say the history with the most evidence is most credible then you use personal correspondence(which is not evidence), if you were to ask an 'octagaraian' hindu from India, they will say that's all BS and nothing of that sort happened.
Not saying your wrong though, just never seen Pakistanis defend this viewpoint against the knowledgable historians on here. BTW who are the 'established historians' of British India who accept pirpur report, I must ask?
Correspondences with people who were there & then when these historical events were happening is 'historical evidence' indeed or so most of the books on History I have read seem to think. Even Ms.Jalal & Akbar Ahmed with their books on Quaid make do with correspondences with people who were in the midst of things & draw their conclusions from that.
Which is not to say that 'historical documents' are worthless - No ! I've gone through 2 volumes of Zaidi's documentation of the Muslim League's different speeches, pamphlets, issues etc. & I'd look forward to go through the remaining volumes in addition to others. But 'historical documents' are understood in a 'historical context' & that is where you need 'human input'. At other times a lack of 'documentary evidence' is supplemented by these same 'correspondences' to understand events as they unfolded & to fill the gaps in recorded history that exist. It is this same 'human input' which forms the bulk of 'historical narratives' out there & the exact reason why these are 'narratives' or 'opinions' & not 'gospel' & are debunked & reaffirmed in a continuous cycle each generation.
When I talked about 'octagenarians' I wasn't referring to the 90 something cobbler down the street or some religiously charged fanatical old guy; I was referring to people who were at a time part of the Indian National Congress as their supporters & political workers & some of them switched to the Muslim League whereas others left politics altogether & yet a few remained die hard Congressmen till the end. I was referring to the civil servants & the army men who had served the British Realm at that time & were there when '48 happened & were there when the massacres were taking place during the migrations. I was referring to the ones who immigrated from Bihar & Jallandar & experienced the discrimination during the Congress Ministries era.
In all honesty all the people I've talked to might be pathological liars & yet all the books written for & or against the Partition & the creation of Pakistan make do with the same 'liars' & expound the hypothesis they came up with by taking the same disjointed 'facts' out of the same cauldron as others.
P.S There aren't any established historians of the Indian Subcontinent that I know of but yes a lot of people have written on it & indeed some of them do have a degree in History to back their claims up with. Perhaps you should go through Pyarelal's book on Gandhi or even Azad's own book on India & Indian Muslims. Perhaps you should read Ahmed Hassan Dani, G.Allana, Akbar Ahmed, Durrani, Zaidi, Bolitho & others who were there when all of this was happening.
Read both sides...both narratives ! Read as much as you can & then weigh things up as being 'substantiated or otherwise' ! But read those who were 'there', I can't stress that enough !
@Armstrong @Zarvin, yaro dono tu tu mein mein khattam karro. In the Pakistan I envision, one of your shall be my Defence Secretary and the other Secretary of State.
I shall also have a special division to suppress all religious freedoms, under the watchful eye of Zarvan. I'll keep him high on Halwa juice!
@Zarvin should be the Minister for Religious Affairs !
And Zarvan should be the President of the State Bank of Pakistan ! *usury, interest - *
I'm gonna be the Chief of Army Staff !
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