Pakistan Studies: Thought Paper # 1

Creation of Pakistan
The creation of Pakistan is traditionally viewed as the culmination of a religiously charged movement played out intelligently on the political platform by M. A. Jinnah and the AIML (All India Muslim League). The Two Nation Theory being the foundation of the awareness of the Muslim identity and the Islamic ideology. What is often overlooked, as Mr. Hamza Alavi elucidates in his articles Misreading Partition Road Signs and Social Forces and Ideology in the making of Pakistan, are the socio-economic factors in the making of Pakistan. Although the ultimate success of the AIMLs demand for a separate sovereign state was the result of the massive support from the Muslim masses which in turn was based on the call for the freedom of practicing their common religion, it was the socio-economic as well as the religious state of the Muslim minority that over time shaped up into the radical idea of a separate state. This paper will discuss how this inception took roots and developed through the various historical occurrences. The shock of the Muslims fall from power and grace in the late 19th century was unacceptable to the Muslim Ashraf or the upper-class Muslims who were powerful before the British rule. Their failure to accept their weak position was the reason that the Hindus established their place and importance in the British rule while the elite Muslims lagged behind. These Ashrafs took pride in their status and hence were aware of their religious identities. And even though Muslim separatism wasnt really recognized or realized widely at the grass roots or the poor or peasants, the representative class of the Muslims already feared Hindu dominance and this fear for their minoritys rights would later be reflected in the demands of separate electorates by the AIML in the early 20th century. Sir Syed Ahmad Khan and his contributions further established the seed of Muslim separatism in the late 19th century. Muslims were socially and economically weak by the beginning of the 20th century and also unrepresented politically, or so considered the Muslim elite and landlords, contrary to the All Indian National Congresss claim of being a party for all Indians; be it minorities or majorities. So in order to remedy this weak situation AIML was formed in 1906. The annulment of the partition of Bengal and the approval of separate electorates in 1911 were both major contributors to the Muslim separatist ideology as the former demonstrated the threat from Hindu dominance and the latter was a formal acknowledgement and recognition that the Minorities were indeed
M. Asfandyar Khan BS-ECO-2K10 REG#300

Pakistan Studies: Thought Paper # 1

threatened by the majorities agendas; which did not incorporate safeguards for the minorities this for the case of Muslims was again the threat of Hindu dominance. Jinnah, amid all the distrust that was now part of the Hindu-Muslim relation, was in favor of a united India and wanted autonomy and the protection of minorities. In the 1920s and 30s political events convinced Jinnah that the Muslims were indeed a separate nation and therefore required a state (not necessarily a sovereign country) for it to be safeguarded against conflicting Hindu agendas. It was more of an administrative demand instead of a religious one as Jinnah and most of the AIML leadership was still firmly secular but the failure of the AIML in the 1937 elections made them realize that the Muslims, who did not belong to the same social class as the Bengali Muslims were mostly peasants and the Punjabi Muslims were mostly landlords, were too internally divided in opinions on their socio-economic condition and their demands that it wasnt possible to unite them under one banner (that of the AIML) so the AIML leadership used the only thing that the Muslims felt passionately enough about to take part in a revolution presenting a united front to the opposing forces in order to finally gain control over their own administration and governance and that was religion. So under the flag of Islam AIML successfully drove the masses into a religious frenzy and gained popular support as reflected by their success in the 1946 elections. Thus Pakistan was created. But Jinnah was too intelligent and too much of a liberal not to understand that religious nationalism is inherently antiminorities. Therefore he wanted to go back on his pristine liberal convictions based on equal rights and equal citizenship. However, here he miscalculated. He believed that giving birth to an idea that Muslims are a separate nation by the virtue of faith in Islamto achieve political objective would not prolong the life of that idea once the objective was achieved. (Ahmed, 2010) Thus secularism was lost to religious nationalism and Jinnahs ideology was thwarted. Therefore the creation of Pakistan is the result of a struggle for the recovery of a nation which lost its power. Religion was the prime motivator ultimately but not at all root cause for the need for division of United India.

Bibliography
Ahmed, Ishtiaq. "Nationalism: Inclusive versus Exclusive." Daily Times, 29 June 2010.

M. Asfandyar Khan

BS-ECO-2K10

REG#300

Pakistan Studies: Thought Paper # 1

Alavi, Hamza. "Misreading the Partition Road Signs." Economic and Political Weekly, 2 November 2002. . "Social Forces and Ideology in the Making of Pakistan." Economic and Political Weekly, 31 December 2002.

M. Asfandyar Khan

BS-ECO-2K10

REG#300