Traitor applies to a person who betrays his country by committing treason: turning against his own government, perhaps by selling secret information. Traitors are long active in Pakistan.
MIR JAFFER
The British EIC dream’s of “plundering Bengal” (Karen Armstrong’ Islam: A Short History, p 126) and ruling India wouldn’t have materialized if Mir Jafar, the commander in chief of Nawab Siraj-ud-Daulah had not “betrayed” his ruler right in the battlefield and been actively a part of the conspiracies hatched by the British commander in chief, Robert Clive. That “treachery” and “conspiracy” ultimately led to the defeat of Nawab and induction of Mir Jafar, with “British military support” as a “puppet ruler”, or “Clive’s Donkey”, in lieu of his “services of betrayal” for the Company.
As a part of the “betrayal-plan” between Mir Jafar and Robert Clive, Nawab was captured and executed on July 2, 1757, by Mir Jafar’s son Mir Miran in Jafar’s palace whose ruins in Murshidabad are now “commonly” nick-named as Namak Haram Deorhi. While Nawab’s mausoleum at Khushbagh Murshidabad, is well-maintained and shown respect by all visitors, Mir Jafar’s tomb also in Murshidabad, Jafarganj cemetery, is disrespected by all those who visit that site by throwing very derisive and abusive words, some even spit at his grave.
Sonia Amin, Professor of History, Dhaka University writes in her blog that when the tourist guide says “And here we are….the grave of Mir Jafar” pointing towards it, a surge of emotional tidal waves in one’s mind and body is felt that “this is the resting place of one of the most despised characters in Indian history; the man whose name has become a synonym for the word traitor wherever betrayal takes place.”
Jafarganj Cemetery where Mir Jafar and his relatives are buried is not maintained at all and looks extremely desolate and spooky in broad daylight, also. Although one may just presume that till Mir Jafar and his successors were used by British as “puppet rulers” of Bengal, the Jafarganj cemetery of Mir Jafar may have been “maintained” by the then local administration, yet neither his palace’s remnant (entrance gate) nor his grave are under Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), thus, heading towards their complete extinction.
Hostilities cease on death. That is why the cops doff their caps after a notorious criminal is found lying dead who deservingly, then, is allowed to be given a proper burial. But, why the ‘traitors’ and ‘betrayers’ of a cause or community or trust or country or nation are generally denied this respect even after their death. Why people revile them and their tombs, after hundreds of years of their death? Why their descendants, generation after generation, even, carry the tag of a family of “betrayers” and “traitors”?
MIR SADIQ
If betrayal of Mir Jafar in 1757 paved a way for EIC to lay the foundation of the British Rule in India, Mir Sadiq’s treachery of 1799 in the fourth Battle of Mysore finally confirmed and consolidated the Foreign Rule. The British removed the last obstruction in the way of their complete dominance over India when they won this battle by defeating and “martyring” Ruler of Mysore, Tipu Sultan at his Seringapatam fortress.
On the final day of confrontation, May 4, 1799, after a 32 days’ siege of his fortress, Tipu Sultan was “martyred” by the British troopers with the active support of Mir Sadiq, his own chief minister. Before his “martyrdom”, Tipu Sultan was approached for a “disgraceful” compromise or surrender by the British, (the Hindu, May 5, 2014), which he declined in these words: “Single day life of a tiger is far better than that of 100 years of a jackal”, hence, the name: Tiger of Mysore. He was dressed alike with his soldiers in the battlefield making it a bit difficult for the British to recognize him. But Mir Sadiq, as a part of the ploy, neared and bowed before Tipu Sultan as if showing a mark of respect. But it was a pre-planned signal to the British to identify and “martyr” Tipu on the battlefield.
After treacherously defeating and “martyring” Tipu, General Harris who led the British troopers said: “From this day the whole of India belongs to us”.
Being the grossest blunders of the betrayers, inflicting unending pain and destruction, the history of treachery naturally survives in the collective memory of the people. The hatred for these most despised people in human history has gone so deep in the memory and psyche of the people that even after centuries disrespect for them is showing no end.
And here in Pakistan we have no dearth of such traitorsa.
