On 1 Jan 1938, amidst the build up to the Second World War, Allama Iqbal made a passionate condemnation of imperialism in a New York message broadcast on All-India Radio.
It was just a few months before his death.
It was just a few months before his death.
"The tyranny of Imperialism struts abroad, covering its face in the masks of Democracy, Nationalism, Communism, Fascism and heaven knows what else besides.
Under this masks, in every corner of the earth, the spirit of freedom and the dignity of man are being trampled underfoot.
Under this masks, in every corner of the earth, the spirit of freedom and the dignity of man are being trampled underfoot.
The so-called Statesmen to home government and leadership of man were entrusted have proved demons of bloodshed, tyranny and oppression.
The rulers whose duty was to protect and cherish those ideals which go from a higher humanity, to prevent man's oppression of man
The rulers whose duty was to protect and cherish those ideals which go from a higher humanity, to prevent man's oppression of man
and to elevate the moral intellectual level of mankind have in their hunger for dominion and imperial possession 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 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."
84 years later, this message is as relevant, perhaps more.
84 years later, this message is as relevant, perhaps more.
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