Saturday, September 13, 2008

Sikkim region merged in Pre-Independence proposed map of Pakistan


In recent times I am very impressed with the work Barun Roy is doing in his blog http://beacononline.wordpress.com/. Through the exchange of emails, we do correspondence and I too had an opportunity to get published some of my articles. With Barun Roy's blog each day I get to read new information from the past that gives me immense pleasure. In today's news, he put on a proposed map of Pakistan designed by Chaudary Rehmat Ali and the interesting input there is the region of Sikkim merged in it. The map is set prior to pre-independence days.

Ali is the founder of the Pakistan National Movement. He coined the word "Pakistan" for 30 million Muslims who lived in the five northern units of India; Punjab, North West Frontier (Afghan) Province, Kashmir, Sindh and Baluchistan. He spoke of an independent homeland for Muslims, Pakistan, in the northern units of India, "Bang-i-Islam" for Muslims in Bengal, and "Usmanistan" for the Muslims in Hyderabad-Deccan.

The map that's more important have the region of Sikkim along with Bhutan merged with Bangistan, though there could be some mistaken since in Sikkim's history nothing is known or heard to happen regarding the Muslim nation theory. The subcontinent of India has been rechristened Dinia and has been shown with its dependencies Pakistan, Osmanistan (Hyderabad Deccan and its surrounding areas) and Bangistan (Bengal). Bordering the shores of the huge landmass of Dinia are the Bangian, Pakian and Osmanian seas, probably Chaudhry Rehmat Ali’s terms for the Bay of Bengal, Arabian Sea, and the Indian Ocean.

I was having a discussion with Barun over the topic and I was glad to read that Mohd Ali Jinnah had twice visited Darjeeling and once on his honeymoon. There had been no denying that the Pakistani flag was flying in places of Darjeeling, Kuersong and Kalimpong during the Independence, which does make the thing more complicated. As such Darjeeling districts do have some way or the other connection with the Pakistani administration!

I here recall one incident shared by my grandfather in Kalimpong "......I was about to hear one of the rare incidents though never recorded in pages of history from aja, he told me it was on 14th August 1947 at Town Hall, Kalimpong a Pakistani flag was hoisted just to find in the evening that the districts of Darjeeling were not part of Pakistan but it belonged to India. The same incident happened in other places of Darjeeling and Kurseong. So the next day that was on the 15th of August an Indian tricolour flag was hoisted. It was a huge confusion then, said Aja. 

He added though he never saw the Pakistani flag flying at Town Hall he had heard it, on that day he was at Bom Busty. He used to have a nice collection of George V and George VI coins but after Independence rumour ran high that British coins would remain invalid so one day he threw away a bag of old British coins on the maize field just to find that none of them was to be found the next day around. Aja regretted he should not have done it."

SOURCE OF MAP: http://moinansari.files.wordpress.com

2 comments:

  1. Nice story.... Your site is a really rich resource to learn the history of Sikkim. Really thankful to your huge efforts... keep it up!

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  2. Thanks Anant for your sweet comment....I am also learning about Sikkim and its that i place here for others.

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