ME AND MAULANA: A PERSONAL RECOLLECTION OF WAHIDUDDIN KHAN - John M. Butt

Emergence of Pakistan by Chowdhury Mohammad Ali and (b) The Nation that Lost its Soul, by Showkat Hayat Khan. These books unfolds some lesser known and talked about important events of history. In his book, “Peace in Kashmir,” Maulana writes, “I have always been of the view that unrealistic politics has played havoc with Kashmir. Now people should come out of their dream world and learn to live in the world of practical realities.” He further writes that “The aim of this book is to assist the people of Kashmir to emerge from the disillusionment and start afresh from new found courage and confidence.” He further writes: Success in life can be achieved by availing of a second chance which is always there to be tapped. For instance the chance of success for India was to rise as an undivided India, but that could not be realized. Then our leaders availed of the 2nd chance and now India is fast emerging as a powerful, developed country. As history shows many countries who lost first chance have gained a new life by availing the 2nd chance. The future of Kashmir lies with India.” Now that Maulana is no more, the best tribute to him will be to acknowledge his love and goodwill, his great academic work on Kashmir, to have a relook on his books and rediscover the essence of his message which is equally relevant even today. –The writer is a prominent poet, K A S Officer (Retd.)