The Promised Messiah and Mahdi — Page 222
THE PROMISED MESSIAH AND MAHDI. REVOLUTIONARY HISTORICAL CHANGES. The world is dynamic and it is always changing. Not all changes are necessarily good for the people affected by them. War and violence may lead to downfall and destruction. Ever since 1889 when the Promised Messiah, Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, founded the Ahmadiyya Movement, revolutionary changes have been occurring in the world. Many historians have remarked about the rapid changes that have occurred in the last century as being phenomenal. Great empires entrenched in 1889 have disappeared from the historical scene. Gone are the European Colonial powers. from Asia, Africa, and South America, though their cultural and political legacy persists. . New nations have come into existence in the developing world. The Muslim world has recovered a great deal compared to their sorry state of affairs at the end of 19th century. Muslim majority areas are now independent states, where masses are gradually returning to their heritage of Islamic religious, social, and cultural values. But new dangers also have appeared. In some of the Islamic countries there have emerged extremist groups which indulge in religious intolerance, violence, and at times terrorism to gain their political and social goals. Some of this turmoil is probably a reaction to the political and cultural domination of the Western countries. . In addition, there are some non-Muslim states who also deny human rights and practise state terrorism; but their actions are mostly ignored and tolerated. Two prominent examples are India and Israel. . In the North Indian state of Kashmir, India and its Border Security. Forces have suppressed the popular Kashmiri movement for selfdetermination resulting in the death of 17,000 people in the past 5 years. Kashmir is a disputed territory since the division of the. Subcontinent into India and Pakistan in 1947. The founding fathers of. India, including Nehru, pledged that the people of Kashmir would be given freedom of self-determination according to the resolutions of 222