z:\ ambedkar\vol 08\vol8 04.indd MK SJ+DK 1 10 2013/YS 13 11 2013 218
218 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
Thus a deeper study of the disruption of Turkey and Czechoslovakia shows that neither local autonomy nor the bond of religion is sufficient to withstand the force of nationalism, once it is set on the go.
This is a lesson which the Hindus will do well to grasp. They should ask themselves : if the Greek, Balkan and Arab nationalism has blown up the Turkish State and if Slovak nationalism has caused the dismantling of Czechoslovakia, what is there to prevent Muslim nationalism from disrupting the Indian State ? If experience of other countries teaches that this is the inevitable consequence of pent-up nationalism, why not profit by their experience and avoid the catastrophe by agreeing to divide India into Pakistan and Hindustan ? Let the Hindus take the warning that if they refuse to divide India into two before they launch on their career as a free people, they will be sailing in those shoal waters in which Turkey, Czechoslovakia and many others have foundered. If they wish to avoid shipwreck in mid-ocean, they must lighten the draught by throwing overboard all superfluous cargo. They will ease the course of their voyage considerably if they—to use the language of Prof. Toynbee—reconcile themselves to making jetsam of less cherished and more combustible cargo.
V
Will the Hindus really lose if they agree to divide India into two, Pakistan and Hindustan ?
With regard to Czechoslovakia it is instructive to note the real feelings of its government on the loss of their territory caused by the Munich Pact. They were well expressed by the Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia in his message to the people of Czechoslovakia. In it he said* :—
“Citizens and soldiers....I am living through the hardest hour of my life ; I am carrying out the most painful task, in comparison with which death would be easy. But precisely because I have fought and bacause I know under what conditions a war is won, must tell you frankly... that the forces opposed to us at this moment compel us to recognize their superior strength and to act accordingly....
*Alexander Henderson— Eye-witness in Czechoslovakia (IIarrap, 1939), pp.
229-30.