Mythical India The Great British Deception

September 25, 2024

By: Shaz Irshad c2024

MITGBD is a non-fiction book about some root causes of the animosity and conflict between India and Pakistan. Animosity that has festered for over 75 years resulting in the death of a million lives, abuse and destruction of countless families, as well as regional instability. This book is unique in that it highlights some basic facts and aspects of South Asian history that have been misrepresented or misinterpreted to create a narrative which proposes that a long existent country was ‘partitioned’ in August 1947 to make Pakistan.
That narrative is incorrect and is a major component of the animosity between India and Pakistan.
The reality of what happened, was that India and Pakistan were both created on 15th August 1947.
The thesis is supported by highlighting the misrepresentation and or misinterpretation of the origins and purpose of institutions and structures established by the British (primarily to support the administration of their territories). Irshad shows that the impact of those structures was to create the impression or narrative of a ‘pseudo-State’ which enabled a ‘myth’ to become established, i.e. South Asia was a long existent single state or country called ‘India’ or ‘Bharat’ or ‘Hindostan’ or ‘British India’. This is despite the fact that there is irrefutable evidence to show that even the British knew that South Asia wasn’t a single country. Irshad also proposes that thousands of native South Asians (from all backgrounds), born and educated during the ‘British Raj’ (i.e. after the British crown took direct control of terrtories conquered by the British East India company (1857-1947), bought into this narrative.

Many, of these ‘well to do’ and educated, native South Asians wanted to emulate western, colonial notions of democracy and became active in anti-British movements. These elite group of South Asian ‘rebels without a cause’, started off with access to the higher echelons of British rulers, followed by demands for British withdrawal from ‘India’, and Independence for the long existent ‘India’.
The book also shows that most native ‘independent states’, weren’t part of the independence movements and that they supported the British, especially in WWI and WWII and even right up to Aug 1947, many of them wanted to remain independent, but practical issues and coercive rhetoric from native politicians, put paid to that option.
Irshad proposes that the subsequent desire for manifestation of the myth (by the native ‘rebels without a cause’), led to the maladministered creation of India and Pakistan in Aug 1947. This catastrophically mismanaged process was drenched in the blood of a million South Asians, the abuse of thousands, as well as the destruction of millions of families and homes.
Shahzad Irshad was born into a family that lost their home and became refugees when India and Pakistan were created, but has lived in the UK since September 1963, in a mixed community environment and would love to see peace in South Asia. In 1998, disheartened by the ongoing death and destruction caused by the animosity between India and Pakistan, Irshad embarked on a journey to learn more about the history of South Asia. That journey and research are presented in this book, the underlying message of which is to
1) recognise the propagation of misinformation.
2) acknowledge faults in ALL of the ‘founding South Asian politicians’.
3) acknowledge the horrific behaviour of some ordinary people from ALL communities.
Irshad hopes that it may then be possible (a big wish), for ALL communities involved to try and forgive each other and move forward, to create routes to peace.

The eBook is available
at
https://vh2o.co.uk/pages/shop-new

Paperback will
available by end Sept

.