Daily Times: It is quite fashionable to state that the world has seen only two ideological states formed on the basis of religion — Pakistan and Israel. This is a factually incorrect statement. First of all, neither Pakistan nor Israel was formed on the basis of religion in the strictest sense; Pakistan less so than Israel. Secondly, the cases of Pakistan and Israel beyond the superficial similarities that are the favourite hobby horse of armchair theorists and amateur historians are more striking in their contrasts than in their similarities. To begin with, Pakistan was essentially a demand limited to South Asia. The claim of the Two Nation Theory was never that Muslims everywhere were a nation but that Indian Muslims were a distinct nation on the basis of language, traditions, culture, etc. Those who mistakenly and unthinkingly argue that the ‘al-Bakistan’ phenomenon is a natural consequence of the Two Nation Theory should read Jinnah’s speech in 1941 — long after the Lahore Resolution — which stated that his Muslims were Indians and were asking for India for Indians when explaining the Pakistan demand. Given the fact that it was limited to the Muslims of South Asia, the question of it being a theological demand did not arise. Indeed the cultural factors that the Two Nation Theory was based on were deliberately non-theological because the Muslims of India themselves were divided into several sects. It is for this reason that Jinnah told Louis Fischer that the idea of Pan-Islamism was an impractical one and that beyond friendly relations with Muslim countries, Muslim India would have no desire to link up with Central Asia and the Middle East, as was alleged by Gandhi.

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