British Colonial Policies and the Muslim World
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British Colonial Policies And The Muslim World Syed Aslam First Edition 2013 Copyright 2013 by Syed Aslam Publishers The Muslim Observer 29004 W. Eight Mile Road Farmington MI 48336 Cover The British attack on Delhi 1857 ISBN 978-1-4675-6201-0 Printed in USA ii Dedicated to The Victims of British Colonial Policies iii CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS V FOREWORD VI INTRODUCTION 1 1. SHORT HISTORY OF BRITAIN 9 2. TRADER TO COLONIZER 18 3. WAR OF INDEPENDENCE 21 4. BAHADUR SHAH ZAFER 31 5. THE PARTITION OF INDIA 35 6. THE GENOCIDE 52 7. KASHMIR 72 8. MALAYSIA 90 9. PRINCE AMONG SLAVE 97 10. THE MIDDLE EAST 101 11. CREATION OF KUWAIT 125 12. THE IRAQ WARS 128 13. ZIONISM AND ITS COST TO THE USA 142 REFERENCES 168 INDEX 173 GLOSSARY 177 iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Thanks to my friend Dr. Mashooq Ahmed for sharing his family’s story of the Bihar riot of 1946 and for the account of how his parents survived the massacre of Bihari Muslims in Bangladesh in 1971. I am obliged to Mr. Bashir Hyder of Oklahoma who gave me firsthand information about the genocide of Non-Bengali Muslims of Bangladesh. He also managed to arrange a talk with a lady in Karachi, Pakistan whose whole family was massacred in Jessore, Bangladesh. I must thank also to Dr. Kalim Ajiz the great poet of Bihar for sharing his story of the Bihar riot in which all of his family members were massacred in the village of Telhara. I am obliged to my cousin Dr. Husain Majid and my friend Dr. Habib Zuberi for reading the manuscript. Thanks also to my nephew Irfan Jafry for suggestions and for reading the draft of this book and my grandson for technical support. I am grateful to my sister Sofia Anjum Taj for designing the cover of this book. In the end I must thank my wife Shahnaz Aslam for her cooperation and help. v FOREWORD In this book Syed Aslam shows that the British polices during the past two hundred years have been harmful for Muslim interest around the world. Most of the problems the Islamic world is facing today are largely the result of that British Colonial Policies. Consider countries like Malaysia, India, Pakistan, Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and, most important of all, Israel and see what the British have done there. In Malaysia the British brought so many Chinese that the Malay Muslims would have become minority in their own home land. To avoid that they had to let Singapore become a separate country because of its large Chinese population. In India the British used the divide and rule policy which brought the Hindu and Muslim community to a very sharp divide. As a result of this, many communal riots happened and thousands of people lost their lives. Finally, the subcontinent disintegrated into three countries India, Pakistan and Bangladesh (formerly East Pakistan). The division of the Indian subcontinent brought death destruction and colossal misery to the Muslims of India. The transition to Bangladesh from East Pakistan created havoc and more than half million Non-Bengali Muslims were massacred in a matter of weeks by the Awami League terror groups. The British left India in 1947 dividing the country and creating the Kashmir problem. This problem has hurt both Pakistan and India. But Pakistan being a smaller country is hurting more because it invests huge recourses in the army to defend against India. Very little is left for social programs vi as a result of which Pakistan is becoming poorer and poorer with a great deal of social unrest. After the defeat of the Ottomans in 1918 a major part of the Muslim World was in the hands of the British. They were free to divide the Muslim lands as they wished and that is exactly what happened. In the early nineteen twenties when the British came to Cairo, Egypt to draw the boundary lines between fragmented Muslim lands of the Middle East, not a single Arab leader or the King were present. They drew the boundary line at will creating countries like Iraq, Kuwait, Jordan, Syria, Bahrain, Qatar, Lebanon, Amman, Eden and the Jewish home land of Israel. The fragmentation of the Muslim World was in the interest of the West, but the creation of Israel became a thorn in the throat of the West. Why? Because it created huge security problems especially for the USA. America has suffered colossal economic losses which Mr. Aslam has discussed in the book's last chapter. I am honored to write a forward for Syed Aslam's book. “British Colonial Policies and The Muslim World” Dr. Fida Hasan Toledo Ohio vii INTRODUCTION o event in the history of the world has affected the N Muslim World more than the British Colonial policies. Other people and country like Ireland and countries of Africa have also suffered from British Colonial policies but to talk about them is out of the scope of this book. It is one thing to rule a country, but it quite another thing to create problems intentionally where ever British ruled. This book has been written for the sole purpose of exposing the wickedness (Fitna) of British Colonial policies and its effect on the Muslim Ummah. Millions of Muslims throughout the world have suffered and will continue to suffer for many generations to come because of these British Colonial policies. This subject is very vast, so I can't claim that I have covered it all. The book begins with a short history of the British people. It is worth knowing a bit of British history because it explains why the British people managed to create an empire where the sun would not set. It shows that the English people were very active politically. In 1215 King John had to sign the Magna Carta, which stated that the king was not above the law. The king only ruled by the will of the people, and that if he broke his part of the contract, then the people had the right to overthrow the king. It shows how the power of the monarchy diminished and the power of the people increased through the parliamentary system. Finally Britain began a transition to the modern system of cabinet government led by a Prime Minister, which occurred more than 250 years ago. 1 The next chapter deals how the British East India Company became the ruler of India from a trading company. Within eight years of its conquest by Robert Clive of the East India Company in 1757, the state of Bengal was on its knees and what was once one of the richest provinces in Asia became one of the poorest. The accumulated capital in the possession of the Nawab of Bengal was looted and more than three million pounds were taken out of Calcutta and sent to England.1 The manufacturing base was debilitated through heavy taxation and the market was flooded with cheap goods from England. The successors of Robert Clive were even more ruthless in their exploitation. Warren Hastings, the Governor General who succeeded Robert Clive, starved the begums (queens) of Awadh to extract from them their collection of jewels (1765). When Srirangapatam fell, the state treasury of Tippu Sultan was looted and a sum of over two million rupees fell into British hands. The golden throne of Tippu Sultan was broken up, melted down and distributed among the conquering British troops.2 Similar episodes were repeated in the kingdoms where the Company managers, exploiting internal rivalries for succession, extracted huge sums from the Rajas and Nawabs. Surplus capital disappeared from India. The taxation imposed by the Company ensured that additional capital growth in native hands would be impossible. The Company’s objective was profit and its relentless pursuit made the Company managers oblivious to the welfare of the general population. In essence the East India Company was nothing but an armed gang of thugs who were looting the vast country at will. The Muslim rulers who came to India did not send the Indian wealth outside of India like the British did. One hundred years of misrule by the East India Company made every Indian jittery. They were waiting for 2 an excuse to fight the British and kick them out of India. In 1857 the British-Indian Army revolted against the East India Company and the war of Independence started. The rebel army captured Delhi and other cities in northern India. The loss of Delhi was a crushing blow to British prestige. It took the British nearly two months to regroup and the siege of Delhi began which lasted for seven weeks. Finally in September of 1857 Delhi was recaptured by the British. After reclaiming Delhi, thousands of girls were raped by the white British soldiers. It was savagery on a colossal scale, thousands of Muslims and Hindus were executed every day for months. Most people of Delhi were expelled by force and the city became a ghost-city. The same story was repeated in other recaptured cities of northern India. It is estimated that in ten years, ten million people were murdered by the British.3 Bahadur Shah Zafar was arrested and exiled to Rangoon, Burma. All of his sons and grandsons were assassinated except two who were also exiled with the last Mughal king. After subduing the people of northern India the victorious British showed no mercy to the vanquished, especially the Muslims. The British government took over the rule of India from the East India Company and began to introduce a number of policies which included divide and rule policy.