Conflicting Views About The Origin of Pakistan
Conflicting Views About The Origin of Pakistan
There are so many different and opposing views about the origin of Pakistan that it seems
very difficult and challenging to adopt a single view, with authority, about the origin of
Pakistan.
a) British policy of Divide and Rule: Mahatma Gandhi, whilst speaking in the second session
of the Round Table conference in London in 1931, said that the quarrel between Hindus
and Muslims was ‘coeval with the British advent’ in India. It would be difficult to maintain
such a position historically because the conflict between Hindus and Muslims had started
long before the emergence of the British power in India. Perhaps Emperor Aurangzeb
(1658-1707) was responsible for increasing Hindu-Muslims tension by trying to Islamize
the Moghal government. On the contrary to Aurangzeb’s Islamization attempts, Hindu
power had alarmingly grown under the leadership of Marathas (Shivaji).
b) It has also been argued that Muslims separatism really started after the British conceded
separate electorates to Muslims in 1909. This decision has often been described as a part
of British Divide and Rule policy…but the cultural and religious differences that already
existed between Hindus and Muslims prior to 1909. E.g. Hali’s Musaddas and Chatterjee’s
Anandamath (the Abbey of Bliss). The Hindus’ detestation was more towards Muslims-
their former rulers and had made it clear that their struggle was not against British who had
really come to India as liberators. But however ….the British not only failed to bring
reconciliation between widened the gap that exited between the two communities through
the concession of separate electorates to Muslims. However, if the British had planned to
divide Hindus and Muslims, it seems that the Congress and Muslims League leaders did
very little to frustrate British design. By looking at the divide and rule thesis, the unifying
influences (modernization of Indian life through education, commerce, and industry, civil
services, Army and Judiciary) of British rule in India should not be ignored.
c) Two Nation Theory…even Jawaharlal Nehru admitted that many a Congressman was a
communalist under a national cloak. Abul kalam Azad pointed out that Jinnah could not be
blamed entirely for the turn of events that brought about the establishment of Pakistan. It
was Sardar Patel who had been communal-minded from the beginning.
d) Another popular view regards Pakistan as no more than a personal triumph of the brilliant
strategy and will-power of Quaid-i-Azam. Some have gone so far as to suggest that had
Jinnah died earlier, there would not have been Pakistan.
e) Revisionist’s School of Thought: Jalal’s view.
Each, perhaps, contribute its share and Pakistan was brought about by a multiplicity
of factors. But perhaps a dominant or decisive cause of Pakistan is that there has
never taken place a confluence of the two civilizations in India-the Hindu and the
Muslims (KBS).
Post-1857 India: Persian ceased to be the official language…Hindus holding all the
lucrative positions.
In 1871, in Bengal, of the 773 Indians holding responsible government jobs, the Muslims,
even though their numbers were approximately equals to Hindus in the province, occupied
only 92 positions as compared with 681 held by the Hindus.
Sir Syeed Ahmad Khan Reformist Movement: liberal rational views in a conservative
Muslim society.
…long before the Mutiny the Mogul Princes had abdicated their political leadership to
religious leaders. E.g. Syed Ahmad Berelawi, Shah Abdul Aziz, Faraiziyah Movement,
Militant Movements.
Sir Syed and the Indian National Congress:
…India as a beautiful bride whose two eyes were Hindu and Muslim, but he added the
proviso that the beauty of India depended upon the fact that the two eyes shone with equal
luster.