Should we celebrate or mourn independence

By Shafqat Ali Inqalabi

After defeat of the British imperialists in the Second World War when it started evacuating its colonies at the same time USSR came to the world map as an important socialist state meanwhile Mao's great revolution crossed many steps of success and changes in the worlds map at such conditions was expected.
on 3rd June 1947 Lord Mount Baitan along with Jinah and Nehru formulated the final plan to divide Indian subcontinent under which rulers of small states were given the right to decide either to join Pakistan or remain with India, despite its defeat in the second world war the British imperialists did not kept itself indifferent to the socialist state of USSR and Mao's revolution on the very boarders of Gilgit Baltistan. on 1st august 1947, the British Raj was compelled to give Gilgit agency to maharaja of Kashmir but it kept its two important workers as major Alexander Brown and captain Mathasion in Gilgit region and worked for there government and London from Gilgit scouts. On the other hand after gaining independence the newly born state of Pakistan's army too was ruled by a British citizen general Grecy. After the formula of 3rd June maharaja of
Kashmir announced its independent status instead of acceding to India or Pakistan. this stance of the maharaja of Kashmir was not acceptable to the British imperialists and they started conspiring against maharaja of Kashmir from that very day with aid of general Gracy, major brown and there Pakistani Muslim agents because British Raj was very well aware of the fact that if Gilgit Baltistan is not made disputed and its control not handed over to Pakistan which was at the time serving as a base camp for the operations of British imperialists, USSR and china will get an easy access to India. After separation of Muslim league the pro Russia communist party of India was becoming second largest party of the country and joining of Russia, new china and India was a great danger for the British imperialists. it is a fact that the war of mid 40s was war between two economic systems as one part of the world was considering socialism as its sole survivalance while the west was trying to strengthen capitalism and make its position strong in the world and to achieve its goals the British imperialists used Muslims and pro religion slogans.

Coming to the issue, did Gilgit Baltistan have independence in 1947? Was it a revolution or a mere accident? What dose history tells about this revolution? Were we independent on 1st November 1947? If we got independence then where did it vanished after just 16 days? Should we celebrate or mourn the independence of 1st November?
today we are again celebrating 1st November like always and this day is celebrated for last 61 years but the mass of Gilgit Baltistan is still doubt full of what happened on this day sixty years ago. No book of history written after 1947 succeeded in satisfying mass of the region because they have shown only one dimension of the picture and nobody has bothered to write about realities hidden under myths. The realities behind the curtain that history reveals are as follows. no body can deny this fact that in the last month of October a military action took place in Gilgit Baltistan and the local rebellions had gained success and a new independent state was formed which functioned for 16days having its own president, army and a local commander of that army. Questions arise here as on whose directives did the resident of Gilgit Baltistan came to Abotabad to telegram in Karachi. On which conditions did Mir of Hunza and Mir of Nagar wrote letters for accession? Why did Jinah and Liaqat Ali Khan rejected there request? What were major brown and cap Matheson doing in Gilgit? Why did the president of independent state of Gigit become a mere employee of Pakistan
?
The incidents of 1st November can be called a struggle for independence. We cannot deny the efforts of colonel Hasan Khan, Shah Khan, Babar Ali, Safi Ullah, Fida Ali and Shah Zaman. We should accept that we had a strong military front in 1947 but we were too weak on the political front. Our nation was not politically mobilized on 1st November 1947. We had no political party and neither had institutions due to which our military success turned to political failure. Today we are celebrating the 62nd Independence Day without basic rights and independence. Those who consider there journey from Gilgit to Rawalpindi as independence, those for whom getting jobs in Pakistan is independence, those for whom hanging around is independence should celebrate this day otherwise there is no logic of celebrating this long lost independence day. people should think of turning this unsuccessful attempt of 1st November into a success and execute a careful and well planned revolution otherwise the accident of 1st November will reaped itself and we will remain indifferent to it. Another Sardar Alam will write another epic saga of Gilgit Baltistan and say on the directives of Pakistan I sent people to Gilgit Baltistan for revolution. Or another foreigner like major brown term the revolution as his success and give it to his masters.
we should pledges on this day to bring our nation out of the slavery and grant them back there identity which was snatched through a special conspiracy so that the coming generations might celebrate independence day with pride and in the true sense. We should pledge not to repeat the political mistakes that happened in 1947. Now it's for you to decide whether to continue celebrating this fake independence in a half hearted way or gain the recall independence. Now it's up to you to choose the morning independence or celebrate independence.

Note
The above article was published by weekly bang e sahar karachi in urdu on November 2008