I was reading this article titled Islam and Islamism in the subcontinent, in which I saw near perfect approximation of how Islamism emerged from Islam, though I am not so sure regarding its demise. Yes, I was a bit agreived as a Hindu, as I read the article, since the influence of Islam on India was mentioned in detail, but, pertaining to that it missed a point of note that Indian culture, and therefore Indic Islam was under the strong influence of Hindu traditions, who by far outnumbered the muslim rulers, and the Arabic settlers in the mughal period. Needless to say that due to differences between the customs of the two communities, even the mughal administration, which was relatively tolerant compared to other Arabic dynasties, committed attrocities against the Hindus at times. As a consequence, after the rule passed into the hands of the Brits, it was but natural for Hindus to blame the muslim community for their strife, coz a substantial number were hard done by, in some or the other form by the mughals. That's when the seeds of the rift between the two communities were planted, the fruits of which are for all of us to eat, now.
There's not an iota of doubt in my mind that the Brits' policy of divide and rule played its part to great effect in the establishment of Pakistan, as an Islamic state, the troubles associated with the partition were not unknown to the British administration, in fact in that they saw their last little battle won, only they couldn't estimate the consequences of the war that was about to ensue. Since then, India, which is a secular state with Hindus as majority has witnessed a number of wars against both Pakistan and China, and has always been reasonable in its retaliation, infact too reasonable or rather indifferent at times, beit the Indo China deal at Panchsheel which was followed by a Chinese attack on Indian soil, or the Tashkent agreement in which Russia, believed to be India's most trusted ally to date stabbed us into a deal causing our forces to retreat back to the line of control, and we gleefully oblidged. So, I think its worth a mention that the peace loving elements within the Sunni Islam, owe their roots mostly to the tolerant Indian, or Hindu culture, more than anything else. As a matter of fact, communal crimes have hit Jews and Hindus hardest, whilst Jews fight day in day out, we still like to talk about things, that's about the highest pinnacle of tolerance a human community can ever achieve. I am not necessarily proud of it all the times, but that is the way it is, atleast we don't go about killing others for things they are not remotely responsible for.
The major factors that can be attributed to the growth in ominous proportions of the Jehadi line of thought must include
(i) British policy of divide and rule.
(ii) Attrocities associated with the partition times, the day or rather days India burned.
(iii) The west taking the hardliners lightly believing the Jehadi outburst was similar to the Protestantism amongst Christians. For instance the US supported Pakistan against India and gave it huge economic aid, the major chunk of which was supposedly used to fund the terrorist goups which in turn attacked US or other western powers completing the cycle.
(iv) The frustration of educated Arabs at the relative underdevelopment there as compared to the west given they more or less matched their western/Christian counterparts for better part of the history, and in fact might've had a headstart initially as they probably saw the dawn of civilisations before the western hemisphere did. Arabs must be proud people for they have a rich and versatile culture the origins of which date back to pre historic times, but fate has so conspired against them that the powers of the world today are set continents apart from them, and they have no say in matters of global importance.
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