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New Year's Message |
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Muhammad Iqbal |
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The modern age prides itself on
its progress in knowledge and its matchless scientific
developments. No doubt, the pride is justified. Today space and
time are being annihilated and man is achieving amazing successes
in unveiling the secrets of nature and harnessing its forces to
his own service. But in spite of all these developments, the
tyranny of imperialism struts abroad, covering its face in the
masks of democracy, nationalism, communism, fascism and heaven
knows what else besides. Under these masks, in every corner of the
earth, the spirit of freedom and the dignity of man are being
trampled underfoot in a way of which not even the darkest period
of human history presents a parallel. The so-called statesmen to
whom government had entrusted leadership have proved demons of
bloodshed, tyranny and oppression. The rulers whose duty it was to
protect higher humanity, to prevent man's oppression of man and to
elevate the moral and intellectual level of mankind, have in their
hunger for dominion and imperial possessions, shed the blood of
millions and reduced millions to servitude simply in order to
pander to the greed and avarice of their own particular groups.
After subjugating and establishing their dominion over weaker
peoples, they have robbed them of their possessions, of their
religions, their morals, of their cultural traditions and their
literatures. Then they sowed divisions among them that they should
shed one another's blood and go to sleep under the opiate of
serfdom, so that the leech of imperialism might go on sucking
their blood without interruption. As I look back on the year
that has passed and as I look at the world in the midst of the New
Year's rejoicings, it may be Abyssinia or Palestine, Spain or
China,1 the same misery prevails in every corner of man's earthly
home and hundreds of thousands of men are being butchered
mercilessly. Engines of destruction operated by science are wiping
out the great landmarks of man's cultural achievements. The
governments which are not themselves engaged in this drama of fire
and blood are sucking the blood of the weaker peoples
economically. It is as if the day of doom had come upon the earth,
in which each man looks after the safety of his own skin, and in
which no voice of human sympathy or fellowship is audible.
The world's thinkers are stricken dumb. Is this going to be the
end of all this progress and evolution of civilization, they ask,
that men should destroy one another in mutual hatred and make
human habitation impossible on this earth? Remember, man can be
maintained on this earth only by honouring mankind, and this world
will remain a battleground of ferocious beasts of prey unless and
until the educational forces of the whole world are directed to
inculcating in man respect for mankind. Do you not see that the
people of Spain, though they have the same common bond of one
race, one nationality, one language and one religion, are cutting
one another's throats and destroying their culture and
civilization by their own hands owing to a difference in their
economic creed? This one event shows clearly that national unity
too is not a very durable force. Only one unity is dependable and
that unity is the brotherhood of man, which is above race,
nationality, colour or language. So long as this so-called
democracy, this accursed nationalism and this degraded imperialism
are not shattered, so long as men do not demonstrate by their
actions that they believe that the whole world is the family of
God, so long as distinctions of race, colour and geographical
nationalities are not wiped out completely, they will never be
able to lead a happy and contented life, and the beautiful ideals
of liberty, equality and fraternity will never materialize.
Let us therefore begin the New Year with the prayer that God
Almighty may grant humanity to those who are in places of power
and government and teach them to cherish mankind. |
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1.
The references here are to Italy's invasion of Abyssinia, the unrest in Palestine
resulting from the Peel Commission's recommendation to partition Palestine,
civil war in Spain and the invasion of China by Japan. |
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