Templating Pakistani Designs in the Light of History

26 Jun, 2000    ·   377

Brig S.S. Chandel notes that Pakistan naming its missiles after Ghauri and Ghaznavi has more to do with Pan-Islamism rather than the two being just Muslim heroes
Brig. SS Chandel
Pakistan ’s Ghauri and Ghaznavi missiles are named after two Islamic heroes who savaged Hindu India. Both Mohammad Ghauri and Mahmood Ghazanavi were Afghans. But they possessed an aggressive Islamic mind set that was Pan Islamic.

 

 

Mahmood Ghazbavi invaded India between 1010 and 1027 AD; he paid respectful obeisance to the Caliph and inscribed Al-Oiadir Billah’s name on his coins; he depicted himself in his Fateh Names as Warrior for the Faith and sent part of the plunder from India to the Caliph. In return, the Caliph conferred upon him the titles of Amin-ul-Millah (Chief of the Muslim Community), Yamin-ud-daula (The Right hand) and Kahif-ud-daula-al Islam.

 

 

Muhammad Ghauri was equally a zealot. He began his series of invasions in 1175. Although he did suffer defeats at the hands of Bhim Dev Solanki of Gujrat in 11789 and Prithvi Raj Chauhan in 1191, he returned in 1192 to defeat Prithvi Raj and Jai Chand in 1193. Pillage, plunder, enslavement of the masses and conversions followed in the wake of these invasions. He also paid traditional obeisance to the Caliph.

 

 

Two points need to be underscored. One, that both these Muslim invaders, like those before and after, considered themselves to be torch bearers of the Faith; its epicentre was  not the present Pakistan, but the Caliph in Baghdad. Two, the Caliph’s moral authority ran across the Islamic world although he gave little military or material help at that juncture. But the Arabs provided moral encouragement and valuable military expertise in the form of tactical and technical knowledge garnered from their campaigns in the West, and military leadership at various levels.

 

 

The tide has now reversed as the epicentre changed; however, the wellsprings remain the same. Islam continues to be the driving force, and conversion of Dar-ul-Harb to Dar-ul-Islam the lode star. To achieve that end, Afghanistan, Sudan, Algeria, Saudi Arabia (Osama-bin-Laden belongs to that country), Yemen, and others provide Mujahideens and Ansars, while the oil rich Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Libya provide funds and military technology bought once again from the West, apart from China, North Korea and the financially strapped East European countries. Some reorientation had to be exercised in the changed geo-strategic situation after 800 to 1000 years. But the emotional thrust remains unchanged. 

 

 

For strategic analysis, therefore, Pakistan’s depth, reach and resources should be gauged in terms of the whole Islamic bloc, moderated by two factors, namely, the might of the US and nuclear deterrence. The strategy adopted is that of terror and proxy war whereby these two countervailing factors cannot be brought bear. Pakistan is playing this game astutely. The US and the rest of the world are innocent of the bloody history of the Islamic invasions, and watch impassively. 

 

 

 

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