Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Qalb-i-Abid and Massarrat Abid
Qalb-i-Abid and Massarrat Abid
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
every (Hindu woman) learns the use of fire-arms, so that she can
fight for her honour. But O men! How dare you face your
womenfolk? If you have any stuff in you, you should know how
to keep the enemy at bay. Needless to add that the enemy
referred to was no other than the Muslim. He ended in the same
strain: Gentle folk, so long as you fear rascals, they will continue
to be impudent. They only dread the big stick. Give them a hard
fight This is the first of Swaraj.
In his presidential address to the Hindu Mahasabha in
December 1922, he categorical stated his only recipe for HindMuslim unity. ..it was that each should feel that the other was
strong enough to ward off successfully any unjust attack by the
other and thus alone harmony could be maintained. Bimal
Parsad argues: Malaviya, an important Congress leader who
growingly identified himself with the Hindu Mahasabha,
observed in course of his presidential address to the all-India
annual conference of that organization held at Gaya (Bihar) in
December 1922: The breaches in the past were due mainly to
the weakness of the Hindus. Bad elements among the
Muhammadans, feeling sure that the Hindus were cowards,
attacked them. 17 Hardyal, Shyam Prasad, Sawitri, Narang,
Dayanand, Gandhi and Madhok and may others who stood and
worked for Hindu supremacy in India and annihilation of
Muslims as a separate identity. They believed that The day
Muslims Indianisation is completed and their extra-territorial
patriotism is uprooted, the communal problem will cease to exist
in India. Muslims were therefore advised to discard Arabic and
Persian names advising them to Indianise themselves which
practically meant Hinduisation. Hardyal declared that the future
of Hindu race depends on: Hindu community, Hindu supremacy
and conversion of Muslim to Hinduism. 18 The Muslims were
therefore compelled and obliged to wakeup and organize
themselves as a separate identity. Another leader of the
Mahasabha, S. P. Mukerjee 19 believed that If the British rule is
withdrawn after a forcible division of India who will prevent the
free State of Hindustan from re-establishing its authority over the
entire Indian territory? 20
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
tendencies, Muslims were not likely to work with Hindus for the
liberation of India. 65 In 1937, Savarkar had said in his
presidential address to the Mahasabha: India cannot be
assumed today to be a Unitarian and homogeneous nation, but,
on the contrary, there are two nations in the main, the Hindus
and the Muslims 66
The elections were held in 1937 and the Mahasabha was
relegated to the background by the Congress Party, although
Mahasabha and Rashtriya Swayamasevak Sangh (RSS) had
intensified their communal agitation- 67 communalism flared up
again after the elections. 68 The Congress formed its ministries in
eight of the eleven provinces and ruled nearly for two years
(1937-39). The Muslims had a lot of complaints against the
Congress ministries policies. The broad impression created in
the mind of the Muslims by Congress rule was summed up by
the Pirpur Report, a committee appointed by the All-India
Muslim League to inquire into Muslim grievances in Congress
provinces. In its report, published at the end of 1938, the
committee observed: The conduct of the Congress Government
seems to substantiate the theory that there is something like
identity of purpose between Congress and the Hindu
MahasabhaWe Muslims feel that, notwithstanding the noncommunal professions of Congress and the desire of a few
Congressmen to follow a truly national policy, a vast majority of
the Congress members are Hindus who look forward, after many
centuries of British and Muslims rule, to the re-establishment of
a purely Hindu Raj.
The Pirpur reports view that there was an identity of
purpose between Congress and the Hindu Mahasabha is
endorsed by Ambedkar in the following words: The only
difference between the Congress and the Hindu Mahasabha is
that the latter is crude in its utterances and brutal in its actions
while the Congress is politic and polite. Apart from this
difference of fact, there is no other difference between the
Congress and the Hindu Mahasabha. 69 Savarkar presided an
annual conference of Hindu Mahasabha in which he delivered a
provocative speech implying that the Congress had failed to win
160
Muslims.
161
73
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
country with a fresh mind and get away from old ides. That was
the only way to tackle the problem. In this fast moving world,
there was the greatest need for scrapping old pacts and drawing
up new agreements. Mr. Jinnah then referred to the various
parties in this country. The Hindu Mahasabha was the loudest in
calling upon the British government to declare that they would
have nothing to do with the Pakistan scheme. He wondered
why the Mahasabha should ask for such a declaration from the
British Government. 88
On 17th February, 1941, while discussing the word
Pakistan and Lahore resolution, Mr. Jinnah declared My
attention has been drawn ---- out of this molehill. 89 And then
while addressing a Pakistan conference on 1st March, 1941, Mr.
Jinnah said that Even the secretary of state has declared that the
British government would not ignore ninety million Muslims
while farming a future constitution of India. While addressing
the Pakistan resolution, Mr. Jinnah said, the Muslims are
determined to fight for it, no matter who opposed it; that the
Muslims of Punjab would benefit most from the realization of
the Pakistan ideal in practice. 90
Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah Addressed a
special session of the Punjab Muslim Students Federation on 2nd
March 1941. 91 It may be mentioned that the Unionist party was
not cooperating with the Muslim League at this point in time.
None of the Muslim minister in the Punjab nor their
parliamentary secretary attended this session. Nawab Shahnawaz
Mamdot, Khan Bahadur Moulvi Ghulam Muhiy-ud-Din, Sheikh
Karamat Ali and some other member of Punjab Assembly
attended the session. Sheikh Abdul Qadir, Lady Abdul Qadir,
Lady Shafi, Malik Barkat Ali, Khalifa Shuja-ud-Din, Liaqat Ali
Khan, Chaudhary Khaliq-uz-Zaman, Nawabzada Rashid Ali
Khan, Syed Mohsin Shah, Mian and Begum Bashir Ahmad and
Mian Ameer-ud-Din were also present.
While addressing Jinnah said; "Ladies and Gentlemen!
In the first instance, let me again thank you for the honour you
have done me in asking me to preside over your deliberations in
170
171
172
done and, therefore, my appeal to you, young and old men and
women, is that we must work.
"Remember, you have got to achieve, in the first
instance, the goal, namely, that you want Muslim India to be
under our government. That you have to achieve; and you cannot
achieve that by merely passing resolutions. You realize, what it
means. Of course, we have declared on hundreds of platforms
that we are not a minority. Quite right, we are not a minority;
although, much to my regret, I say that Hindu leadership is still
harping on the same old story that we are a minority and that
they are willing to give all the safeguards according to the
principles laid down by the League of Nations. I read this
formula today laid down by a great Hindu leader, who spoke at
the Hindu Minorities Conference that was going on yesterday in
this city. Let me tell my friends, the Hindu leaders, that the
League of Nations is dead." "Don't you know that yet? Let me
tell them, you are living at least a quarter of a century behind.
Not only that, but you do not realize that the entire face of the
world is being changed from week to week and from month to
month in the European and other fields of battle. Cannot this
conservative community, this exclusive community, modernize
and change its intentions and views? But it is as clear as daylight
that we are not a minority. We are a nation." "And a nation must
have a territory. What is the use of merely saying that we are a
nation? Nation does not live in the air. It lives on the land, it
must govern land, and it must have territorial state and that is
what you want to get."
"Remember, it is not a small job. It is the biggest job that
you have ever undertaken in your life since the fall of the
Mughal Empire. You realize that it requires all the necessary
ingredients and preparation in order to achieve and realize that
goal. You will allow me to say, do not be carried away by
sentiments, do not be carried away by slogans. How is a nation
made? When it has fallen, how is a nation revived? These are the
questions.
173
174
175
176
177
compare this with that nonsensical talk that mere change of faith
is no ground for a demand for Pakistan? Can't you see the
fundamental difference? Now, therefore, I do not think really
that any honest man can possibly dispute the fact that the
Muslims are a nation by themselves, distinctly separate from the
Hindus. Suppose they are, and I have no doubt in my mind.
There are hundreds and hundreds of Hindus who honestly think
so and there are hundreds of Hindus who believe in this and who
have come to me and who have often said that this is the only
solution, viz., the Lahore Resolution. Therefore, it is no use
arguing this point any further. But how is the propaganda carried
on against it? The propaganda is carried on and, as I have told
you, I have tried to understand the arguments against it, without
any prejudice as far as it is possible for a human being to do so.
What is the argument?
"I will start with Mr. Gandhi. He says that it is a
vivisection of India. It gives you at once a feeling of horror. Is it
really to frighten the Muslims not to commit the vivisection of
India? It is really to frighten the Hindus that their motherland is
vivisected by these wretched Muslims!" "Here is a question that
may arise. May I know when was India one? Was it ever one?
Why use this word 'vivisection'? Then his disciple Mr.
Rajagopalacharia goes one step further and says and he
started by saying that it was cutting the baby into two! 1 say to
him, my dear fellow, where is the baby who is going to be cut
into two? He was not satisfied with that and he thought that it
was not enough and then he went further and said that it is when
two Hindu brothers are quarreling, one wants to cut the mother
cow in two halves! Now, ladies and gentlemen, I have always
very great respect for the religious feeling, and sentiments of any
community." "But if a foremost politician of the type of Mr.
Rajagopalacharia should rouse the feelings, the religious feelings
of the Hindus by giving this analogy that I was proposing to cut
the mother cow into two, it can only be described as a forlorn
hope on their part when they have no other cogent argument to
advance.
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
He makes it quite clear that 1 stand for my nation and the Hindu
domination'. He says in clear language that in this subcontinent
'Hindu raj must be established; that if the Muslims do not
behave, they will annex Afghanistan and carry the frontier to
Hindukush. The sooner the Muslims realize this position the
better for them. The Muslims cannot get one iota more
concession than as minority.' That is quite clear. All I say is that
Dr. Moonje, Mr. Savarkar and their colleagues are running
amuck and they are doing the greatest possible harm to the
Hindus and the least harm to the Muslims. 1 am glad that they
make it clear, not like the Congress, finessing and concealing
their real thoughts and playing in diplomatic language, none of
that. And I am glad to say that neither the Congress nor anybody
else now, thank God, can fool the Muslims.
Commenting at the Mahasabha attitude, Jinnah further
charged: "What is the Hindu Mahasabha doing? Its ambition is
to militarize and industrialize the Hindus, urge the Hindus to join
the Army, the Navy and the Air Force and support the war.
Militarize what? Industrialize what? The Hindu nation? I ask Mr.
Savarkar and field-marshal Moonje: Do you think
that
everybody in this country is a fool? Do you think that you can
fool the British? Why this sort of talk and why this lip-loyalty of
cooperation with an ulterior motive of filling the ranks of the
Army, the Navy and the Air Force by Hindus? And then what
will they do? The answer is clear. Then they say, Pakistan will
evaporate into the air and the British will go back to London
town and settle down there.' Don't you think that these gentlemen
who talk like this should be locked up somewhere?
"My young friends, the Hindu Mahasabha is dreaming.
Dreaming of what? They do not make any secret of it. Why is it
that they are against Pakistan? Why? Our proposal of Pakistan is
not inimical to them if they honestly and dispassionately
examine it. The Muslim says: Give me those parts of India where
we are in majority and where I have got my homeland. Let me
live there under my own rule and I undertake to protect the nonMuslim minority. You live in the Hindu India proper and you
can protect the Muslim minority. You have three-fourths.
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
was the head of the Mission. The main task of the Mission was
to secure an agreement between the two principal parties - the
Congress and the League; however, the Mission members held
wide range of negotiations with the Indian leaders and political
parties, etc. A Conference [the Second Simla Conference] also
took place in Simla (5-12 May).
The Mahasabha could only present its views through its
leader, Dr. S. P. Mookerji, and one of its members, L. B.
Bhopathar. A meeting between them and Sir Stafford Cripps and
A. V. Alexander took place on 15 April, 1946; a statement was
also submitted to the Mission, for its consideration. The crux of
the Mahasabha viewpoint was that the integrity and indivisibility
of India must be preserved at any cost; division of the country
would not only be unsound and disastrous but politically unwise
and suicidal. That a strong central government is needed,
principle of parity is not acceptable, constituent assembly should
be soverigned and Muslims must not be allowed to veto the
progress of Hindus. 154 Mookerji also argued that the Muslim
community had been given many concessions in the past-the
most dangerous being the right of separate electorates. He said
that the Muslims had been coming out with new claims from
time to time and "there was no end to their megalomania." Even
at this stage, the Mahasabha pleaded for the abolition of separate
electorates; the only "concession" it was prepared to concede
was the fullest provincial autonomy. 155 Sir Stafford Cripps
"appreciated" the Mahasabha point of view but also made it plain
that the British Government was not in a position to bring about
the changes the Mahasabha would have liked, for the British
were about to leave for good. 156
As the Congress and the League failed to reach an
agreement, the Mission on 16 May, 1946, offered a three-tier
constitutional Plan. The focal point of their Plan was the
preservation of a single state; it was proposed that there should
be: (A) a Union, the power of which would be limited to foreign
affairs, defence and communications; (B) three groups of
provinces (a) comprising the six Hindu majority provinces; (b)
the provinces of the Punjab, N.W.F.P., Sind, and Balochistan; (c)
205
206
207
208
209
Ibid, 247.
Dr. Abdul Hamid says that this party was established in early
1920s, whereas Peter Hardy mentions that Mahasabha was
founded in 1919. Peter Hardy, Muslims of British India,
Cambridge, 1972, p.208. Abdul Hamid, Muslims Separatism
in India, A Brief Survey, 1858-1947, Oxford University
Press, 1967, p. 178
Ibid. p. 185.
10
11
12
13
14
Ibid. p. 239-40
15
210
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
Ibid. p 108.
27
28
29
30
31
32
211
33
34
35
36
37
Ibid. p. 264
38
Ibid. p. 265.
39
Ibid. p. 248
40
41
Ibid. p. 164.
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
212
52
53
54
55
Ibid. p. 38.
56
57
Ibid. p. 216.
58
Ibid. p. 217.
59
60
Ibid. p 40.
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
Ibid. p. 317.
69
70
213
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
Ibid. p. 48.
78
79
80
Ibid. p. 102
81
Ibid. p. 112.
82
Ibid. p. 116.
83
84
85
86
87
Ibid. p. 125-26
88
89
Ibid. p.145
90
Ibid. p. 159
91
92
93
Ibid. p. 192.
94
Ibid. 214.
214
95
For details see, Stanley Wolpert, Jinnah of Pakistan; S. Qalbi-Abid, Jinnah, Second World War and the Pakistan
Movement.
96
97
98
99
100
101
Ibid. p. 338
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
Ibid., 456.
112
113
215
114
115
116
Here it may be noted that Mr. Jinnah was also not cooperating
with the British. He said, I could not play the role of a
recruiting sergeant to collect men, money and materials
without having any voice in their disposition
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
Ibid.
134
135
136
216
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
Ibid.
149
150
151
for details see, Ian Talbot, Khizr Tiwana, the Punjab Unionist
Party and the Partition of India, OUP, 2002; David Gimartin,
Empire and Islam, Punjab and the Making of Pakistan,
London, 1988.
152
153
154
155
156
Ibid.
157
217
158
159
Ibid. p 445
160
161
162
163
164
Ibid. p. 350.
165
Ibid. p. 624.
166
167
Ibid.
168
Ibid. p. 137
169
170
Ibid, p. 228
171
172
173
174