Dawn: Nadeem Paracha: Today many Pakistanis are aware of Jinnah’s August 11, 1947, speech in which he clearly explains Pakistan to be a democratic Muslim majority country where religion has nothing to do with the business of the state.
Well-known historians have all maintained that to Jinnah the Muslims of undivided India were a separate cultural entity requiring their own homeland.
Jinnah’s desire to see this through was born from his awkwardness with the idea of a post-colonial India subjugated by the ‘Hindu-dominated’ Indian National Congress: even though the Congress was almost entirely secular.
However, there is absolutely no evidence that Jinnah’s push to carve out a separate Muslim country was made in order to construct an Islamic state.
For years Pakistanis have debated about how Jinnah went about claiming Pakistan. Was he able to think it through, or did he fail to perceive the vulnerability of his claim?
Many also believe that his claim in this respect was too open-ended. That’s why it was easily exploited by some who eventually turned it into a monolithic entity and a militaristic bastion of Islam.
Categories: Ahmadiyyat: True Islam, Asia, Awareness, Politics, Secularism
It is very interesting, yet thought provoking that whenever intellectuals in Pakistan discuss the partition of British India into two distinct entities, the response comes quickly from two particular quarters. One from the religious circles inside Pakistan who try to prove that Pakistan was created on the name of Islam and the second more furious comments come from Indian diaspora who criticize the entire idea of Pakistan.
While self criticism and reflection from outside is beneficial, one should not forget two basic realities.
First, Pakistan is a fact and all this negative wishful thinking on the part of Indians is harmful towards the process of bringing the people of these nations closer.
Secondly, none of the statements made by any important leader of Pakistan movement and especially of Qauid-e- Azam talks of Islam as the basis for the creation of the country. No doubt the land of the pure was for the Muslim minorities of Hindustan but for socioeconomic reasons and not for religion. Mr. Jinnah actually left Congress Party because of the injection of Hindu nationalism by Gandhi, which he saw harmful for the freedom movement. People should research deeply before painting the political struggle of poor Muslims with the brush of hatred.
How true & our politicians & religious leaders are trying to change the wording of Mr Jinnah.