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Historical Background of Pakistan and its People

The above table reveals that during the 5000 years of Pakistan's known history, this country was part of India for a total period of 711 yrs of which 512 yrs were covered by the MUSLIM period and about 100 years each by the Mauryan (mostly BUDDHIST) and British (CHRISTIAN) periods. Can anybody agree with the Indian 'claim' that Pakistan was part of India and that partition was unnatural? It hardly needs much intelligence to understand that Pakistan always had her back towards India and face towards the countries on her west. This is true both commercially and culturally.

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well I think the Southern India has been a part of India then for a much lesser time... or for that matter even North Eastern India.. and Pakistan should include Indian Historical Punjab also.. Kashmir has also not been a part of India for a very long time... Again Kalinga, Magadha empires were distinct..So what do we call India??

This relatively flat piece of land bordered by mountains and water otherwise called India has been truly united as a political entity under 1 ruler only for a very brief period under the Mauryan Empire, the British Empire and the Mughal empire...

Being such a vast country India cannot have cent per cent cultural similarities as a matter fact in India as in Pakistan customs, languages/dialects, ethnic groups change rapidly from one part to the other.... the uniting cord of India and Pakistan has been language both have been derived from a common ancestor, ethnic groups can be broadly clubbed together, Topographies can be clubbed together.. It is quite clear that Balochistan serves as the buffer area b/w India and Iran.. NWFP and HK Mountains B/w Afghanistan/Central Asia and India... Himalayas b/w India and TIbet... and the dense Jungles and Hills and harsh terrain of NE b/w India and Burma...


sir India is an ammalgamation .. and that ammalgamation includes lands which now form part of Pakistan.. it is not as though Pakistan and INdia were divided by 100 leagues of oceans.. The only 2 provinces which can be considered distinct/buffer zones are NWFP and Balochistan ... though I can by using your logic point out that Eastern Afghanistan can also be considered a part of India ;-)


I think such articles can only claim to be false shot in the arm for people still trying to find substance in the 2 nation theory.. as I have said 2 nation theory was not a clash of civilsations or this land was chosen because it divided the 2 people into opp. culture.. simple fact is these districts had more muslims.. and as we all know in a democracy relative majority wins and not absolute.. so .. this was nothing but a clash of egos influence and power struggle... and the populace voted as per their interests.. :enjoy:
 

The British had emerged as the dominant force in South Asia. Their rise to power was gradual extending over a period of nearly one hundred years. They replaced the Shariah by what they termed as he Anglo-Muhammadan law. English became the official language. Thes and other developments had great social, economic and political impact especially on the Muslims of South Asia.

The failure of the 1857 War of Independence had disastrous consequences for the Muslims. Determined to stop such a recurrence in future, they followed deliberately a repressive policy against the Muslims. Properties and estates of those even remotely associated with the freedom fighters were confiscated and conscious efforts were made to close all avenues of honest living for the Muslims.

Indian Reaction to Britishers

The Muslims kept themselves aloof from western education as well as government service. But their compatriots, the Hindus, did not do so. They accepted the new rulers without reservation. They acquired western education, imbibed the new culture and captured positions hitherto filled in by the Muslims. If this situation had prolonged, it would have done the Muslims an irrepairable loss. The man to realise the impending peril was Sir Syed Ahmed Khan (1817-1898), a witness to the tragic events of 1857. His assessment was that the Muslims' safety lay in the acquisition of western education and knowledge. He took several positive steps to achieve this objective. He founded a college at Aligarh to impart education on western lines. Of equal importance was the Anglo-Muhammadan Education Conference, which he sponsored in 1886, to provide an intellectual forum to the Muslims for the dissemination of views in support of western education and social reform. Similar were the objectives of the Muhammadan Literary Society, founded by Nawab Abdul Latif (1828-93), but its activities were confined to Bengal.

Sir Syed Ahmed Khan was averse to the idea of Muslims participation in any organised political activity which, he feared, might revive British hostility towards the Muslims. He also disliked Hindu-Muslim collaboration in any joint venture. His disillusionment in this regard primarily stemmed from the Urdu-Hindi controversy of the late 1860s when the Hindu enthusiasts vehemently championed the cause of Hindi in place of Urdu. He, therefore, opposed the Indian National Congress, when it was founded in 1885, and advised his community to abstain from its activities. His contemporary and a great scholar of Islam, Syed Ameer Ali (1849-1928), shared his views about the Congress, but he was not opposed to Muslims organizing themselves politically. In fact, he organized the first significant and purely communal political body, the Central National Muhammadan Association. Although its membership was limited, it had above fifty branches in different parts of the subcontinent and it accomplished some solid work for the educational and political uplift of the Muslims. But its activities waned towards the end of the 19th century.


All-India Muslim League

At the dawn of the 20th century, a number of factors convinced the Muslims of the need to have an effective political organization. One of the factors was the replacement of Urdu by Hindi in the United Provinces. The creation of a Muslim province by partitioning the Province of Bengal and the violent resistance put up the Hindus against this decision was another. But the most important factor was the proposed consititutional reforms. The Muslims apprehended that under such a system they would not get due representation. Therefore, in October 1906, a deputation comprising 35 Muslim leaders met the Viceroy at Simla and demanded separate electorates. Three months later, the All-India Muslim League was founded at Dhaka mainly with the object of looking after the political rights and interests of the Muslims. The British conceded separate electorates in the Government of India Act of 1909 which confirmed League's position as an All-India Party.


Hindu-Muslim Relations

The visible trend of the two major communities going in opposite directions caused deep concern to leaders of all-India stature. They struggled to bring the Congress and the Muslim League on one platform. Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah (1876-1948) was the leading figure among them. After the annulment of the partition of Bengal and the European powers' aggresive designs against the Ottoman empire and North Africa, the Muslims were receptive to the idea of collaboration with the Hindus. The Congress-Muslim League rapporchement was achieved at the Lucknow session of the two parties in 1916 and a joint scheme of reforms was adopted. In the Lucknow Pact, the Congress accepted the principle of separate electorates and the Muslims in return for 'weightage' to the Muslims of the Muslim minority provinces agreed to surrender their slim majorities in the Punjab and Bengal. The post-Lucknow Pact period witnessed Hindu-Muslim amity and the two parties came to hold their annual sessions in the same city and passed resolutions of similar content.

The Hindu-Muslim unity reached its climax during the Khilafat and the Non-cooperation Movements. The Muslims of South Asia, under the leadership of Ali Brothers, Maulana Muhammad Ali and Maulana Shaukat Ali, launched the historic Khilafat Movement after the First World War to protect the Ottoman empire from dismemberment. Mohandas Karamchand Ghandhi (1869-1948) linked the issue of swaraj (or self-government) with the Khilafat issue to associate the Hindus with the Movement. The ensuing Movement was the first country-wide popular movement. Although the movement failed in its objectives, it had far-reaching impact on the Muslims of South Asia. After a long time they forged a united action on a purely Islamic issue which created momentarily solidarity among them. It also produced a class of Muslim leaders experienced in organizing and mobilizing the public. This experience was of immense value to the Muslims during the Pakistan Movement.

The collapse of the Khilafat Movement was followed by the period of bitter Hindu-Muslim antagonism. The Hindus organized two highly anti-Muslim movements, the Shudhi and the Sangathan. The former movement was designed to convert Muslims to Hiduism and the latter was meant to create solidarity among the Hidus in the event of communal conflict. In retaliation, the Muslims sponsored the Tabligh and Tanzim organizations.

Muslim Demands

In the 1920s the frequency of communal riots was unprecedented. In the light of this situation, the Muslims revised their constitutional demands. They now wanted preservation of their numerical majorities in the Punjab and Bengal; separation of Sind from Bombay; constitution of Baluchistan as a separate province and introduction of constitutional reforms in the North-West Frontier Province. It was partly to press these demands that one section of the All-India Muslim League cooperated with the Statutory Commission sent by the British Government, under the chairmanship of Sir John Simon in 1927. The other section of the League boycotted the Simon Commission for its all-white character and cooperated with the Nehru Committee to draft a constitution for India. The Nehru Report had an extremely anti-Muslim bias and the Congress leadership's refusal to amend it disillusioned even the moderate Muslims.

Several leaders and thinkers having insight into the Hindu-Muslim question proposed separation of Muslim India. However, the most lucid exposition of the inner feelings of the Muslim community was given by Allama Muhammad Iqbal (1877-1938) in his presidential address to the All-India Muslim League at Allahabad in 1930. He proposed a separate Muslim state at least in the Muslim majority regions of the north-west. Later on, in his correspondence with Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, he included the Muslim majority areas in the north-east also in his proposed Muslim state. Three years after his Allahabad address, a group of Muslim students at Cambridge, headed by Chaudhry Rahmat Ali, issued a pamphlet Now or Never in which, drawing letters from the names of the Muslim majority regions they gave the nomenclature of Pakistan to the proposed state.

Round Table Confrences & Elections

Meanwhile, three Round Table Conferences was convened in London during the period 1930-32, to resolve the Indian constitutional problem. The Hindu and Muslim leaders could not draw up an agreed formula and the British Government had to announce a 'Communal Award' which was incorporated in the Government of India Act of 1935. Before the elections under this Act, the All-India Muslin League, which had remained dormant for some time, was reorganised by Muhammad Ali Junnah, who had returned to India in 1935 after a self imposed exile of nearly five years in England. The Muslim League could not win a majority of Muslims seats since it had not yet been effectively reorganised. However, it had the satisfaction that the performance of the Indian National Congress in the Muslim constituencies was bad. After the elections, the attitude of the Congress leadership was arrogant and domineering. The classic example was its refusal to form a coalition government with the Muslim League in the United Provinces. Instead it asked the League leaders to dissolve their parliamentary party in the Provincial Assembly and join the Congress. Another important Congress move after the 1937 elections was its Muslim mass contact movement to persuade the Muslims to join the Congress and not the Muslim League. One of its leaders, Jawaharlal Nehru, even declared that there was only two forces in India, the British and the Congress. All this did not go unchallenged. Quaid-i-Azam countered that there was a third force in South Asia constituting the Muslims. The All-India Muslim League, under his gifted leadership, gradually and skilfully started to consolidate the Muslims on one platform. It did not miss to exploit even small Congress mistakes in its favour.

Muslim Nationalism

The 1930s saw realization among the Muslims of their separate identity and their anxiety to preserve it within separate territorial boundaries. An important element that brought this simmering Muslim nationalism in the open was the charater of the Congress rule in the Muslim minority provinces during 1937-39. The Congress policies in these provinces hurt Muslim susceptibilities. These were calculated aims to obliterate the Muslims as a separate cultural unity. The Muslims now abandoned to think in terms of seeking safegaurds and began to consider seriously the demand for a separate Muslim state. During 1937-1939, several Muslim leaders and thinkers inspired by Allama Iqbal's ideas, presented elaborate schemes of partitioning the sub-continet on cummonal lines. The All-India Muslim League on March 23, 1940, in a resolution at its Lahore session, demanded separate homeland for the Muslims in the Muslim majority regions of the subcontinent. The resolution was commonly reffered to as the Pakistan Resolution.

The British Government recognized the genuineness of the Pakistan deman indirectly in the proposals for the transfer of power which Sir Stafford Cripps brought to India in 1942. Both the Congress and the All-India Muslim League rejected these proposals for different reasons. The principle of secession of Muslim India as a separate dominion was, however, conceded in these proposals. After the failure, a prominent Congress leader, C. Rajagopalachari, suggested a formula for a separate Muslim state in the Working Committee of the Indian National Congress, which was rejected at the time but later on, in 1944, formed the basis of the Gandhi-Jinnah talks.

The Pakistan demand was popularised during the Second World War. Every section of the Muslim community - women, students, Ulema and businessmen - was organised under the banner of the All-India Muslim League. Branches of the party were opened in the remote corners on the subcontinent. Literature in the form of phamphlets, books, magazines and newspapers was produced to explain the Pakistan demand and distributed largely.

Faliure of Hindu-Muslim Negotiations & Elections

The support gained by the All-India Muslim League and its demand for Pakistan was tested after the failure of the Simla Conference 1945. Elections were called to determine the respective strength of the political parties. The Muslim League swept all the thirty seats in the central legislature and in the provincial elections also its victorywas outstanding. After the elections, on April 8-9, 1946, the All-India Muslim League called a convention of the newly elected League members in the central and provincial legislatures at Dehli. This convention which constituted virtually a representative assembly of the Muslims of South Asia, on a motion by the Chief Minister of Bengal, Hussein Shaheed Suhrawardy, reiterated the Pakistan demand in clearer terms.

British Efforts to Break Deadlock

In early 1946, the British Government sent a Cabinet Misiion to the subcontinet to resolve the constitutional deadlock. The Mission conducted negotiations with various political parties but failed to evolve an agreed formula. Finally, Cabinet Mission announced its own plan which, among other provisions, envisaged three federal groupings, two of them comprising the Muslim majority provinces, linked at the Center in a loose federation with three subjects. The Muslim League accepted the Plan, as a strategic move, expecting to achieve its objective in a not-too-distant future. The Congress also agreed to the Plan but soon realising its implications to the Congress, its leaders began to interpret in a way not visualised by the authors of the Plan. This provided the All-India Muslim League an excuse to withdraw its acceptance of the Plan and the party observed August 16 as a 'Direct Action Day' to show Muslim solidarity in support of the Pakistan demand.

In October 1946, an Interim Government was formed. The Muslim League sent its representatives under the leadership of its General Secretary, Mr. Liaquat Ali Khan, with the aim to fight for the party objective from within the Interim Government. After a short time the situation inside the Interim Government and outside convinced the Congress leadership to accept Pakistan as the only solution of the communal problem.

Independence

The British Government, after a last attempt to save the Cabinet Mission Plan in December 1946, also moved toward a plan for the partition of India. The last British Viceroy, Lord Louis Mountbatten, came with a clear mandate to draft a plan for the transfer of power. After holding talks with political leaders and parties, he prepared a Partition Plan for the transfer of power which, after its approval by the British Government, was announced on June 3, 1947. Both the Congress and the Muslim League accepted the plan. Two largest Muslim Majority provinces, Bengal and Punjab was partitioned. The assemblies of west Punjab, East Bengal, and Sind; and in Baluchistan, the Quetta Municipality and the Shahi Jirga voted for Pakistan. Referenda were held in the North-West Frontier Province and the District of Sylhet in Assam which resulted in an overwhelming vote for Pakistan. On August 14, 1947, the new state of Pakistan came into existance.
 

Euphoria fades

The new nation of Pakistan began its journey from independence riding a ground swell of public support. in this too, my findings contradict the conventional narrative in Bangladesh history books. Bengali scholars argued that although the Urdu speaking group was very pleased with the turn of events, Bengalis knew from the very beginning that things would not go their way. The stories I collected paint a different picture. Just as Ansar Ali asserted that no Muslim from his generation could truthfully claim they were not pro-ML at the time, the interviews make it clear that in 1948 at least, it was impossible not to feel buoyant about the new state. MSI, who later was branded as a collaborator for his role in 1971, recollects: "I was standing on this brick road, what they called a herringbone road, because that was how the bricks were arranged. And on that day, I was so happy, I looked up at the sky, and made a small prayer: 'Allah, please don't let this country go into the hands of the mullahs.'"

So optimistic was the mood, that even the Urdu speaking "outsiders" who came to from India were welcomed by local residents. What is equally remarkable about the early years of Pakistan is how quickly this euphoria faded. Several factors contributed to this, of which the most unexpected was the sudden death of Jinnah, his terminal condition being something that he had kept secret until his dying day. Following the loss of the Qaid i Azam (father of the nation), came the mysterious assassination of his successor, Liaqat Ali Khan. In contrast with India's relatively stable two decades of rule by Nehru, Pakistan got off to a very bumpy start.

In spite of the political upheavals in the beginning, there were many economic opportunities in the new state. At least in the initial years, there was such a dearth of qualified Muslims, every person with even a high school degree was guaranteed a choice assignment. Gradually though, a pattern emerged and it became clear that the dominant group was, and would continue to be, Urdu speakers who had migrated to Pakistan from India (primarily from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh)-- popularly known as the mohajirs. Bengali historians in the 1960s ascribed this imbalance to a systematic bias against Bengalis. However, my travels and interviews in Karachi made it clear that there were other explanations for this imbalance. The mohajirs often came from villages where they had left everything behind, and had often been witness to large-scale carnage. For these people, there really was no looking back-- Pakistan was the promised land. Because of the Darwinian self-selection that went into the migration process, these migrants came to Pakistan with an incredible amount of drive and desire to succeed. Generally, the people that chose to migrate also had a high level of education. Sakr Khanu Badruddin Lakhani, a Karachi resident and migrant from Bihar, described how her mother already had a Bachelors' degree-- a highly unusual achievement for a woman in 1944.

One other, more controversial aspect of the mohajir success story is their alleged aptitude for business. Many of the mohajirs had been wealthy in India, and managed to bring a large portion of their savings with them. These savings were often seed money for new ventures in Pakistan. Prior business connections also helped them to win the confidence of government institutions. At the same time, Bengali historians assert that, the mohajirs received biased treatment when applying for loans and permits. In response to this, the otherwise even-handed Hasan Zaheer states in The Separation of East Pakistan: The rise and realization of Muslim Bengali nationalism: "The fact of the matter was that the Bengali middle classes had failed to take advantage of the tremendous opportunities offered by the departure of Bengali Hindu businessmen. They failed to exert themselves to learn new trades, and did not develop entrepreneurial flair as the locals and migrants from India did all over West Pakistan. There was no indigenous capital or enterprise in East Pakistan to set up industries or take over the trade." Mr. G Inam owned the largest construction company in East Pakistan, but lost everything after 1971 when he had to migrate to Karachi. He explained his own success as the result solely of hard work: "Nobody handed me anything. I came over to what is now Bangladesh, and I had a burning desire to succeed. I did everything I could to get to that objective, but I had to work hard for it." Although these arguments made a strong case that the mohajirs were "more talented and entrepreneurial" than the Bengalis, Professor Mojaffar Ahmed added a different angle to this debate when he reminded me that Bengali businessmen could often not even get a permit if they did not have Urdu-speaking partners. Clearly hard work was important, but belonging to a group perceived to be "business-minded people" did not hurt either.

The language movement

The 1952 language riots, protesting the imposition of Urdu as the only state language, were of pivotal importance in Pakistan's early trajectory. Coming only four years after independence, the incident revealed deep contradictions lying underneath the surface of the new state. The attempt to impose Urdu as the state language in order to foster solidarity resulted in quite the opposite. The action was a major blunder because it alienated even the most die-hard Pakistan and ML supporter. Because Urdu was only spoken by 4% of the general population, the incident revealed a streak of blatant favoritism. That people like Mofaxxal Haider Chowdhury would be furious over the incident was no surprise, since his specific field of study was Bengali. But the move alienated even those who saw Pakistan as a "savior" to Muslims of the subcontinent. Jubeida Khatoon entered the new state with great enthusiasm. Particularly in light of her horrific experience during the Calcutta riots, she was quite inclined to accept many government impositions as "necessary" for unity. But even she declared that, the move to ban Bengali was a mistake on the government's part. Clearly, the planners had thought that casting Urdu as an Islamic language would be sufficient to convince people of the necessity of one state language. But their calculations overlooked the incredible importance of language and culture for the middle class Bengali-- of whom, a large portion in 1952 were Muslims who had stayed on in Pakistan.

The language riots served as the first indication of bubbles of discontent that were beginning to surface in East Pakistan. However, in their desire to present a smooth narrative of continuous Bengali resistance to central hegemony, Bengali historians stress that, since 1952, Bengalis have simply been more and more aware of their deprivation. leading logically to the events of 1971. In fact, my research revealed that, although there was immense anger at the time of the actual riots, once the state language ordinance was repealed, much of this hostility dissipated. 1952 was pivotal in two ways: firstly because a conflict based on issues of language helped Bengali Muslims to start differentiating themselves from the other Muslims who were fellow Pakistanis. Secondly, it gave Bengalis their first taste of street power, where demonstrations alone were enough to reverse an edict that was one of Jinnah's last wishes before dying. This feeling of empowerment was to have ominous impact on the military dictatorship of Ayub Khan in the future.

Martial Law

Following a tumultuous decade of civilian rule, the military dictatorship of Ayub Khan took over in 1958. Army rule, with all its oppressive trappings, had significant impact on the situation in East Pakistan. Firstly, the Punjabi elite of the army displaced the mohajir from their lofty positions in the civil bureaucracy and the business community. This meant that, the already negligible Bengali share of the pie shrunk even further. In addition, the Punjabi military rulers took a very hostile approach to the Bengali middle class. To Ayub Khan and others like him, the Bengali middle class, with its pride in education and gentle manners, was the antithesis of the practical warrior code of life that the army was now bringing to Pakistan. Conflict was frequent in the ten years of Ayub's rule. Aminul Kawser Dipu tells this striking anecdote, which illuminates the air of distrust that prevailed on both sides; "I was in the train station, waiting for something. Now, at that time, I am a thin boy, very slight in build. There was a convoy getting on the train, and they were very smartly marching onto reserved carriages. Anyway, I soon lost interest in them and went over to the platform. I was doing something, don't remember, perhaps looking inside the carriages, when suddenly I feel something on my back. Next thing I know, I am lying on my back on the other side of the platform, staring as one convoy marches away. Apparently what happened was, I was in the way of one group marching along. So the company leader just picked me up and threw me to the side. I am so young, and yet I remember, right then and there, I developed pure hatred for these bloody Urduwallahs. Is this any way to treat a human being? I knew then, it was impossible to live with them."
 

The Ayub Years

Ayub ruled Pakistan almost absolutely for more than ten years, and his regime made some notable achievements, although it did not eliminate the basic problems of Pakistani society. A land reforms commission appointed by Ayub distributed some 900,000 hectares (about 2.2 million acres) of land among 150,000 tenants. The reforms, however, did not erase feudal relationships in the countryside; about 6000 landlords still retained an area three times larger than that given to the 150,000 tenants. Ayub's regime also increased developmental funds to East Pakistan more than threefold. This had a noticeable effect on the economy of the eastern part, but the disparity between the two sectors of Pakistan was not eliminated.

Perhaps the most pervasive of Ayub's changes was his system of Basic Democracies. It created 80,000 basic democrats, or union councillors, who were rural influentials or leaders of urban areas around the country. They constituted the electoral college for presidential elections and for elections to the national and provincial legislatures created under the constitution promulgated by Ayub in 1962. The Basic Democratic System had four tiers of government from the national to the local level, and each tier was assigned certain responsibilities in administering the rural and urban areas, such as maintenance of elementary schools, public roads, and bridges.

Ayub also promulgated an Islamic marriage and family laws ordinance in 1961, imposing restrictions on polygamy and divorce and reinforcing the inheritance rights of women and minors.

For a long time Ayub maintained cordial relations with the United States, stimulating substantial economic and military aid to Pakistan. This relationship deteriorated, however, in 1965, when another war with India broke out over Kashmir. The United States then suspended military and economic aid to both countries, thus denying Pakistan badly needed weapons. The USSR intervened to mediate the conflict, inviting Ayub and Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri of India to Toshkent. By the terms of the so-called Toshkent Agreement of January 1966 the two countries withdrew their forces to prewar positions and restored diplomatic, economic, and trade relations. Exchange programs were initiated, and the flow of capital goods to Pakistan increased greatly.

The Tashkent Agreement and the Kashmir war, however, generated frustration among the people and resentment against President Ayub. Foreign Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto resigned his position agitated against Ayub's dictatorship and the loss of Kashmir. Ayub tried unsuccessfully to make amends, and in March 1969 he resigned. Instead of transferring power to the speaker of the National Assembly, as the constitution dictated, he handed it over to the commander in chief of the army, General Agha Muhammad Yahya Khan. Yahya assumed the presidential office and declared martial law.

Civil War

In an attempt to make his martial-law regime more acceptable, Yahya dismissed almost 300 senior civil servants and identified 30 families that were said to control about half of Pakistan's gross national product. To curb their power Yahya issued an ordinance against monopolies and restrictive trade practices in 1970. He also made commitments to transfer power to civilian authorities, but in the process of making this shift, his intended reforms broke down.

The greatest challenge to Pakistan's unity, however, was presented by East Pakistan, led by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, leader of the Awami League, who insisted on a federation under which East Pakistan would be virtually independent. He envisaged a federal government that would deal with defense and foreign affairs only; even the currencies would be different, although freely convertible. His program had great appeal for many East Pakistanis, and in the election of December 1970 called by Yahya, Mujib, as he was generally called, won by a landslide in East Pakistan, capturing a clear majority in the National Assembly. Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) emerged as the largest in West Pakistan.

Suspecting Mujib of secessionist politics, Yahya in March 1971 postponed indefinitely the convening of the National Assembly. Mujib in return accused Yahya of collusion with Bhutto and established a virtually independent government in East Pakistan. Yahya opened negotiations with Mujib in Dhaka in mid-March, but the effort soon failed. Mujib was arrested and brought to West Pakistan to be tried for treason. Meanwhile Pakistan's army went into action against Mujib's civilian followers, who demanded that East Pakistan become independent as the nation of Bangladesh.

There were a great many casualties during the ensuing military operations in East Pakistan, as the Pakistani army attacked the poorly armed population. India claimed that nearly 10 million Bengali refugees crossed its borders, and stories of West Pakistani atrocities abounded. The Awami League leaders took refuge in Calcutta and established a government in exile. India finally intervened on December 3, 1971, and the Pakistani army surrendered 13 days later. On December 20, Yahya relinquished power to Bhutto, and in January 1972 Bangladesh established an independent government. When the Commonwealth of Nations admitted Bangladesh later that year, Pakistan withdrew its membership, not to return until 1989. However, the Bhutto government gave diplomatic recognition to Bangladesh in 1974.

The Bhutto Government

Under Bhutto's leadership a diminished Pakistan began to rearrange its national life. Bhutto nationalized the basic industries, insurance companies, domestically owned banks, and schools and colleges. He also instituted land reforms that benefited tenants and middle-class farmers. He removed the armed forces from the process of decision making, but to placate the generals he allocated about 6 percent of the gross national product to defense. In 1973 the National Assembly adopted the country's fifth constitution. Bhutto became prime minister, and Fazal Elahi Chaudry replaced him as president.

Although discontented, the military remained silent for some time. Bhutto's nationalization programs and land reforms further earned him the enmity of the entrepreneurial and capitalist class, and the religious elements saw in his socialism an enemy of Islam. His decisive flaw, however, was his inability to deal constructively with the opposition. His rule grew heavy-handed. In general elections in March 1977 nine opposition parties united in the Pakistan National Alliance (PNA) to run against Bhutto's PPP. Losing in three of the four provinces, the PNA alleged that Bhutto had rigged the vote. The PNA boycotted the provincial elections a few days later and organized demonstrations throughout the country that lasted for six weeks.

Zia Regime

When the situation seemed to be deadlocked, the army chief of staff, General Muhammad Zia Ul-Haq, staged a coup on July 5, 1977, and imposed another martial-law regime. Bhutto was tried for political murder and found guilty; he was hanged on April 4, 1979.

Zia formally assumed the presidency in 1978 and established the Sharia (Islamic law) as the law of the land. The constitution of 1973 was amended accordingly in 1979, and benches were constituted at the courts to exercise Islamic judicial review. Interest-free banking was initiated, and maximum penalties were provided for adultery, defamation, theft, and consumption of alcohol.

On March 24, 1981, Zia issued an order for a provisional constitution, operative until the lifting of martial law in the future. It envisaged the appointment of two vice presidents and allowed political parties approved by the election commission before September 30, 1979 to function. All other parties, including the PPP, now led by Bhutto's widow and daughter, were dissolved.

Pakistan was greatly affected by the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan in December 1979; by 1984 some 3 million Afghan refugees were living along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan, supported by the government and by international relief agencies. In September 1981 Zia accepted a six-year economic and military aid package (worth $3.2 billion) from the United States. After a referendum in December 1984 endorsed Zia's Islamic-law policies and the extension of his presidency until 1990, Zia permitted elections for parliament in February 1985. A civilian cabinet took office in April, and martial law ended in December. Zia was dissatisfied, however, and in May 1988 he dissolved the government and ordered new elections. Three months later he was killed in an airplane crash, and a caretaker regime took power.
 

Muhammad Ali Jinnah

Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah​
Early Life Political Career Demand for Pakistan
Leader of a Free Nation

Father of the Nation Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah's achievement as the founder of Pakistan, dominates everything else he did in his long and crowded public life spanning some 42 years. Yet, by any standard, his was an eventful life, his personality multidimensional and his achievements in other fields were many, if not equally great. Indeed, several were the roles he had played with distinction: at one time or another, he was one of the greatest legal luminaries India had produced during the first half of the century, an `ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity, a great constitutionalist, a distinguished parliamentarian, a top-notch politician, an indefatigable freedom-fighter, a dynamic Muslim leader a political strategist, and, above all one of the great nation-builders of modern times. What, however, makes him so remarkable is the fact that while similar other leaders assumed the leadership of traditionally well-defined nations and espoused their cause, or led them to freedom, he created a nation out of an inchoate and down-trodeen minority and established a cultural and national home for it. And all that within a decase. For over three decades before the successful culmination in 1947, of the Muslim struggle for freedom in the South-Asian subcontinent, Jinnah had provided political leadership to the Indian Muslims: initially as one of the leaders, but later, since 1947, as the only prominent leader- the Quaid-i-Azam. For over thirty years, he had guided their affairs; he had given expression, coherence and direction to their ligitimate aspirations and cherished dreams; he had formulated these into concerete demands; and, above all, he had striven all the while to get them conceded by both the ruling British and the numerous Hindus the dominant segment of India's population. And for over thirty years he had fought, relentlessly and inexorably, for the inherent rights of the Muslims for an honourable existence in the subcontinent. Indeed, his life story constitutes, as it were, the story of the rebirth of the Muslims of the subcontinent and their spectacular rise to nationhood, phoenixlike.

Early Life

Born on December 25, 1876, in a prominent mercantile family in Karachi and educated at the Sindh Madrassat-ul-Islam and the Christian Mission School at his birth place,Jinnah joined the Lincoln's Inn in 1893 to become the youngest Indian to be called to the Bar, three years later. Starting out in the legal profession withknothing to fall back upon except his native ability and determination, young Jinnah rose to prominence and became Bombay's most successful lawyer, as few did, within a few years. Once he was firmly established in the legal profession, Jinnah formally entered politics in 1905 from the platform of the Indian National Congress. He went to England in that year alongwith Gopal Krishna Gokhale (1866-1915), as a member of a Congress delegation to plead the cause of Indian self-governemnt during the British elections. A year later, he served as Secretary to Dadabhai Noaroji(1825-1917), the then Indian National Congress President, which was considered a great honour for a budding politician. Here, at the Calcutta Congress session (December 1906), he also made his first political speech in support of the resolution on self-government.

Political Career

Three years later, in January 1910, Jinnah was elected to the newly-constituted Imperial Legislative Council. All through his parliamentary career, which spanned some four decades, he was probably the most powerful voice in the cause of Indian freedom and Indian rights. Jinnah, who was also the first Indian to pilot a private member's Bill through the Council, soon became a leader of a group inside the legislature. Mr. Montagu (1879-1924), Secretary of State for India, at the close of the First World War, considered Jinnah "perfect mannered, impressive-looking, armed to the teeth with dialecties..."Jinnah, he felt, "is a very clever man, and it is, of course, an outrage that such a man should have no chance of running the affairs of his own country."

For about three decades since his entry into politics in 1906, Jinnah passionately believed in and assiduously worked for Hindu-Muslim unity. Gokhale, the foremost Hindu leader before Gandhi, had once said of him, "He has the true stuff in him and that freedom from all sectarian prejudice which will make him the best ambassador of Hindu-Muslim Unity: And, to be sure, he did become the architect of Hindu-Muslim Unity: he was responsible for the Congress-League Pact of 1916, known popularly as Lucknow Pact- the only pact ever signed between the two political organisations, the Congress and the All-India Muslim League, representing, as they did, the two major communities in the subcontinent.

The Congress-League scheme embodied in this pact was to become the basis for the Montagu-Chemlsford Reforms, also known as the Act of 1919. In retrospect, the Lucknow Pact represented a milestone in the evolution of Indian politics. For one thing, it conceded Muslims the right to separate electorate, reservation of seats in the legislatures and weightage in representation both at the Centre and the minority provinces. Thus, their retention was ensured in the next phase of reforms. For another, it represented a tacit recognition of the All-India Muslim League as the representative organisation of the Muslims, thus strengthening the trend towards Muslim individuality in Indian politics. And to Jinnah goes the credit for all this. Thus, by 1917, Jinnah came to be recognised among both Hindus and Muslims as one of India's most outstanding political leaders. Not only was he prominent in the Congress and the Imperial Legislative Council, he was also the President of the All-India Muslim and that of lthe Bombay Branch of the Home Rule League. More important, because of his key-role in the Congress-League entente at Lucknow, he was hailed as the ambassador, as well as the embodiment, of Hindu-Muslim unity.


Constitutional Struggle

In subsequent years, however, he felt dismayed at the injection of violence into politics. Since Jinnah stood for "ordered progress", moderation, gradualism and constitutionalism, he felt that political terrorism was not the pathway to national liberation but, the dark alley to disaster and destruction. Hence, the constitutionalist Jinnah could not possibly, countenance Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi's novel methods of Satyagrah (civil disobedience) and the triple boycott of government-aided schools and colleges, courts and councils and British textiles. Earlier, in October 1920, when Gandhi, having been elected President of the Home Rule League, sought to change its constitution as well as its nomenclature, Jinnah had resigned from the Home Rule League, saying: "Your extreme programme has for the moment struck the imagination mostly of the inexperienced youth and the ignorant and the illiterate. All this means disorganisation and choas". Jinnah did not believe that ends justified the means.

In the ever-growing frustration among the masses caused by colonial rule, there was ample cause for extremism. But, Gandhi's doctrine of non-cooperation, Jinnah felt, even as Rabindranath Tagore(1861-1941) did also feel, was at best one of negation and despair: it might lead to the building up of resentment, but nothing constructive. Hence, he opposed tooth and nail the tactics adopted by Gandhi to exploit the Khilafat and wrongful tactics in the Punjab in the early twenties. On the eve of its adoption of the Gandhian programme, Jinnah warned the Nagpur Congress Session (1920): "you are making a declaration (of Swaraj within a year) and committing the Indian National Congress to a programme, which you will not be able to carry out". He felt that there was no short-cut to independence and that Gandhi's extra-constitutional methods could only lead to political terrorism, lawlessness and chaos, without bringing India nearer to the threshold of freedom.
The future course of events was not only to confirm Jinnah's worst fears, but also to prove him right. Although Jinnah left the Congress soon thereafter, he continued his efforts towards bringing about a Hindu-Muslim entente, which he rightly considered "the most vital condition of Swaraj". However, because of the deep distrust between the two communities as evidenced by the country-wide communal riots, and because the Hindus failed to meet the genuine demands of the Muslims, his efforts came to naught. One such effort was the formulation of the Delhi Muslim Proposals in March, 1927. In order to bridge Hindu-Muslim differences on the constitutional plan, these proposals even waived the Muslim right to separate electorate, the most basic Muslim demand since 1906, which though recognised by the congress in the Lucknow Pact, had again become a source of friction between the two communities. surprisingly though, the Nehru Report (1928), which represented the Congress-sponsored proposals for the future constitution of India, negated the minimum Muslim demands embodied in the Delhi Muslim Proposals.

In vain did Jinnah argue at the National convention (1928): "What we want is that Hindus and Mussalmans should march together until our object is achieved...These two communities have got to be reconciled and united and made to feel that their interests are common". The Convention's blank refusal to accept Muslim demands represented the most devastating setback to Jinnah's life-long efforts to bring about Hindu-Muslim unity, it meant "the last straw" for the Muslims, and "the parting of the ways" for him, as he confessed to a Parsee friend at that time. Jinnah's disillusionment at the course of politics in the subcontinent prompted him to migrate and settle down in London in the early thirties. He was, however, to return to India in 1934, at the pleadings of his co-religionists, and assume their leadership. But, the Muslims presented a sad spectacle at that time. They were a mass of disgruntled and demoralised men and women, politically disorganised and destitute of a clear-cut political programme.

Muslim League Reorganised

Thus, the task that awaited Jinnah was anything but easy. The Muslim League was dormant: primary branches it had none; even its provincial organisations were, for the most part, ineffective and only nominally under the control of the central organisation. Nor did the central body have any coherent policy of its own till the Bombay session (1936), which Jinnah organised. To make matters worse, the provincial scene presented a sort of a jigsaw puzzle: in the Punjab, Bengal, Sindh, the North West Frontier, Assam, Bihar and the United Provinces, various Muslim leaders had set up their own provincial parties to serve their personal ends. Extremely frustrating as the situation was, the only consulation Jinnah had at this juncture was in Allama Iqbal(1877-1938), the poet-philosopher, who stood steadfast by him and helped to charter the course of Indian politics from behind the scene.

Undismayed by this bleak situation, Jinnah devoted himself with singleness of purpose to organising the Muslims on one platform. He embarked upon country-wide tours. He pleaded with provincial Muslim leaders to sink their differences and make common cause with the League. He exhorted the Muslim masses to organise themselves and join the League. He gave coherence and direction to Muslim sentiments on the Government of India Act, 1935. He advocated that the Federal Scheme should be scrapped as it was subversive of India's cherished goal of complete responsible Government, while the provincial scheme, which conceded provincial autonomy for the first time, should be worked for what it was worth, despite its certain objectionable features. He also formulated a viable League manifesto for the election scheduled for early 1937. He was, it seemed, struggling against time to make Muslim India a power to be reckoned with.

Despite all the manifold odds stacked against it, the Muslim Leauge won some 108 (about 23 per cent) seats out of a total of 485 Muslim seats in the various legislature. Though not very impressive in itself, the League's partial success assumed added significance in view of the fact that the League won the largest number of Muslim seats and that it was the only all-India party of the Muslims in the country. Thus, the elections represented the first milestone on the long road to putting Muslim India on the map of the subcontinent. Congress in Power With the year 1937 opened the most mementous decade in modern Indian history. In that year came into force the provincial part of the Government of India Act, 1935, granting autonomy to Indians for the first time, in the provinces.

The Congress, having become the dominant party in Indian politics, came to power in seven provinces exclusively, spurning the League's offer of cooperation, turning its back finally on the coalition idea and excluding Muslims as a kpolitical entity from the portals of power. In that year, also, the Muslim League, under Jinnah's dynamic leadership, was reorganised de novo, transformed into a mass organisation, and made the spokesman of Indian Muslims as never before. Above all, in that momentous lyear were initiated certain trends in Indian politics, lthe crystallisation of which in subsequent years made the partition of the subcontinent inevitable. The practical manifestation of the policy of the Congress which took office in July, 1937, in seven out of eleven provinces, convinced Muslims that, in the Congress scheme of things, they could live only on sufferance of Hindus and as "second class" citizens. The Congress provincial governments, it may be remembered, had embarked upon a policy and launched a programme in which Muslims felt that their religion, language and culture were not safe. This blatantly aggressive Congress policy was seized upon by Jinnah to awaken the Muslims to a new consciousness, organize them on all-India platoform, and make them a power to be reckoned with. He also gave coherence, direction and articulation to their innermost, lyet vague, urges and aspirations. Above all, the filled them with his indomitable will, his own unflinching faith in their destiny.

The New Awakening

As a result of Jinnah's ceaseless efforts, the Muslims awakened from what Professor Baker calls(their) "unreflective silence" (in which they had so complacently basked for long decades), and to "the spiritual essence of nationality" that had existed among them for a pretty long time. Roused by the imapct of successive Congress hammerings, the Muslims, as Ambedkar (principal author of independent India's Constitution) says, "searched their social consciousness in a desperate attempt to find coherent and meaningful articulation to their cherished yearnings. To their great relief, they discovered that their sentiments of nationality had flamed into nationalism". In addition, not only lhad they developed" the will to live as a "nation", had also endwoed them with a territory which they could occupy and make a State as well as a cultural home for the newly discovered nation. These two pre-requisites, as laid down by Renan, provided the Muslims with the intellectual justification for claiming a distinct nationalism (apart from Indian or Hindu nationalism) for themselves. So that when, after their long pause, the Muslims gave expression to their innermost yearnings, these turned out to be in favour of a separate Muslim nationhood and of a separate Muslim state.

We are a nation", they claimed in the ever eloquent words of the Quaid-i-Azam- "We are a nation with our own distinctive culture and civilization, language and literature, art and architecture, names and nomenclature, sense of values and proportion, legal laws and moral code, customs and calandar, history and tradition, aptitudes and ambitions; in short, we have our own distinctive outlook on life and of life. By all canons of international law, we are a nation".

Demand for Pakistan

The formulation of the Musim demand for Pakistan in 1940 had a tremendous impact on the nature and course of Indian politics. On the one hand, it shattered for ever the Hindu dreams of a pseudo-Indian, in fact, Hindu empire on British exit from India: on the other, it heralded an era of Islamic renaissance and creativity in which the Indian Muslims were to be active participants. The Hindu reaction was quick, bitter, malicious.Equally hostile were the British to the Muslim demand, their hostility having stemmed from their belief that the unity of India was their main achievement and their foremost contribution. The irony was that both the Hindus and the British had not anticipated the astonishingly tremendous response that the Pakistan demand had elicited from the Muslim masses. Above all, they faild to realize how a hundred million people had suddenly become supremely conscious of their distinct nationhood and their high destiny. In channelling the course of Muslim politics towards Pakistan, no less than in directing it towards its consummation in the establishment of Pakistan in 1947, non played a more decisive role than did Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah. It was his powerful advocacy of the case of Pakistan and his remarkable strategy in the delicate negotiations, that followed the formulation of the Pakistan demand, particularly in the post-war period, that made Pakistan inevitable.

Cripps Scheme

While the British reaction to the Pakistan demand came in the form of the Cripps offer of April, 1942, which conceded the principle of self-determination to provinces on a territorial basis, the Rajaji Formula (called after the eminent Congress leader C.Rajagopalacharia, which became the basis of prolonged Jinnah-Gandhi talks in September, 1944), represented the Congress alternative to Pakistan. The Cripps offer was rejected because it did not concede the Muslim demand the whole way, while the Rajaji Formula was found unacceptable since it offered a "moth-eaten, mutilated" Pakistan and the too appended with a plethora of pre-conditions which made its emergence in any shape remote, if not altogether impossible. Cabinet Mission The most delicate as well as the most tortuous negotiations, however, took place during 1946-47, after the elections which showed that the country was sharply and somewhat evenly divided between two parties- the Congress and the League- and that the central issue in Indian politics was Pakistan.

These negotiations began with the arrival, in March 1946, of a three-member British Cabinet Mission. The crucial task with which the Cabinet Mission was entrusted was that of devising in consultation with the various political parties, a constitution-making machinery, and of setting up a popular interim government. But, because the Congress-League gulf could not be bridged, despite the Mission's (and the Viceroy's) prolonged efforts, the Mission had to make its own proposals in May, 1946. Known as the Cabinet Mission Plan, these proposals stipulated a limited centre, supreme only in foreign affairs, defence and communications and three autonomous groups of provinces. Two of these groups were to have Muslim majorities in the north-west and the north-east of the subcontinent, while the third one, comprising the Indian mainland, was to have a Hindu majority. A consummate statesman that he was, Jinnah saw his chance. He interpreted the clauses relating to a limited centre and the grouping as "the foundation of Pakistan", and induced the Muslim League Council to accept the Plan in June 1946; and this he did much against the calculations of the Congress and to its utter dismay.

Tragically though, the League's acceptance was put down to its supposed weakness and the Congress put up a posture of defiance, designed to swamp the Leauge into submitting to its dictates and its interpretations of the plan. Faced thus, what alternative had Jinnah and the League but to rescind their earlier acceptance, reiterate and reaffirm their original stance, and decide to launch direct action (if need be) to wrest Pakistan. The way Jinnah manoeuvred to turn the tide of events at a time when all seemed lost indicated, above all, his masterly grasp of the situation and his adeptness at making strategic and tactical moves. Partition Plan By the close of 1946, the communal riots had flared up to murderous heights, engulfing almost the entire subcontinent. The two peoples, it seemed, were engaged in a fight to the finish. The time for a peaceful transfer of power was fast running out. Realising the gravity of the situation. His Majesty's Government sent down to India a new Viceroy- Lord Mountbatten. His protracted negotiations with the various political leaders resulted in 3 June.(1947) Plan by which the British decided to partition the subcontinent, and hand over power to two successor States on 15 August, 1947. The plan was duly accepted by the three Indian parties to the dispute- the Congress the League and the Akali Dal(representing the Sikhs).

Leader of a Free Nation

The treasury was empty, India having denied Pakistan the major share of its cash balances.On top of all this, the still unorganized nation was called upon to feed some eight million refugees who had fled the insecurities and barbarities of the north Indian plains that long, hot summer. If all this was symptomatic of Pakistan's administrative and economic weakness, the Indian annexation, through military action in November 1947, of Junagadh (which had originally acceded to Pakistan) and the Kashmir war over the State's accession (October 1947-December 1948) exposed her military weakness. In the circumsances, therefore, it was nothing short of a miracle that Pakistan survived at all. That it survived and forged ahead was mainly due to one man-Mohammad Ali Jinnah. The nation desperately needed in the person of a charismatic leader at that critical juncture in the nation's history, and he fulfilled that need profoundly. After all, he was more than a mere Governor-General: he was the Quaid-i-Azam who had brought the State into being.

In the ultimate analysis, his very presence at the helm of affairs was responsible for enabling the newly born nation to overcome the terrible crisis on the morrow of its cataclysmic birth. He mustered up the immense prestige and the unquestioning loyalty he commanded among the people to energize them, to raise their morale, land directed the profound feelings of patriotism that the freedom had generated, along constructive channels. Though tired and in poor health, Jinnah yet carried the heaviest part of the burden in that first crucial year. He laid down the policies of the new state, called attention to the immediate problems confronting the nation and told the members of the Constituent Assembly, the civil servants and the Armed Forces what to do and what the nation expected of them. He saw to it that law and order was maintained at all costs, despite the provocation that the large-scale riots in north India had provided. He moved from Karachi to Lahore for a while and supervised the immediate refugee problem in the Punjab. In a time of fierce excitement, he remained sober, cool and steady. He advised his excited audence in Lahore to concentrate on helping the refugees,to avoaid retaliation, exercise restraint and protect the minorities. He assured the minorities of a fair deal, assuaged their inured sentiments, and gave them hope and comfort. He toured the various provinces, attended to their particular problems and instilled in the people a sense ofbelonging. He reversed the British policy in the North-West Frontier and ordered the withdrawal of the troops from the tribal territory of Waziristan, thereby making the Pathans feel themselves an integral part of Pakistan's body-politics. He created a new Ministry of States and Frontier Regions, and assumed responsibility for ushering in a new era in Balochistan. He settled the controversial question of the states of Karachi, secured the accession of States, especially of Kalat which seemed problematical and carried on negotiations with Lord Mountbatten for the settlement of the Kashmir Issue.

The Quaid's last Message

It was, therefore, with a sense of supreme satisfaction at the fulfilment of his mission that Jinnah told the nation in his last message on 14 August, 1948: "The foundations of your State have been laid and it is now for you to build and build as quickly and as well as you can". In accomplishing the task he had taken upon himself on the morrow of Pakistan's birth, Jinnah had worked himself to death, but he had, to quote richard Symons, "contributed more than any other man to Pakistan's survivial". He died on 11 September, 1948. How true was Lord Pethick Lawrence, the former Secretary of State for India, when he said, "Gandhi died by the hands of an assassin; Jinnah died by his devotion to Pakistan".

A man such as Jinnah, who had fought for the inherent rights of his people all through his life and who had taken up the somewhat unconventional and the largely mininterpreted cause of Pakistan, was bound to generate violent opposition and excite implacable hostility and was likely to be largely misunderstood. But what is most remarkable about Jinnah is that he was the recepient of some of the greatest tributes paid to any one in modern times, some of them even from those who held a diametrically opposed viewpoint.

The Aga Khan considered him "the greatest man he ever met", Beverley Nichols, the author of `Verdict on India', called him "the most important man in Asia", and Dr. Kailashnath Katju, the West Bengal Governor in 1948, thought of him as "an outstanding figure of this century not only in India, but in the whole world". While Abdul Rahman Azzam Pasha, Secretary General of the Arab League, called him "one of the greatest leaders in the Muslim world", the Grand Mufti of Palestine considered his death as a "great loss" to the entire world of Islam. It was, however, given to Surat Chandra Bose, leader of the Forward Bloc wing of the Indian National Congress, to sum up succinctly his personal and political achievements. "Mr Jinnah",he said on his death in 1948, "was great as a lawyer, once great as a Congressman, great as a leader of Muslims, great as a world politician and diplomat, and greatestof all as a man of action, By Mr. Jinnah's passing away, the world has lost one of the greatst statesmen and Pakistan its life-giver, philosopher and guide". Such was Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the man and his mission, such the range of his accomplishments and achievements.

Allama Muhammad Iqbal

Allama Muhammad Iqbal
(1877 - 1938)

Iqbal, Sir Muhammad (1873-1938), philosopher, poet, and political leader, was born in Sialkot. In 1927 he was elected to the Punjab provincial legislature and in 1930 became president of the Muslim League. Initially a supporter of Hindu-Muslim unity in a single Indian state, Iqbal later became an advocate of Pakistani independence. In addition to his political activism, Iqbal was considered the foremost Muslim thinker of his day. His poetry and philosophy, written in Urdu and Persian, stress the rebirth of Islamic and spiritual redemption through self-development, moral integrity, and individual freedom.His many works includeThe Secrets of the Self (1915), 23); a long poem; A Message from the East (19and The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam (1934).

Although Iqbal did not live to see the creation of an independent Pakistan in 1947, he is nevertheless regarded as the symbolic father of that nation

Allama Muhammad Iqbal is generally known as a poet and philosopher, but he was also a jurist, a politician, a social reformer, and a great Islamic scholar. People even bestowed on him the title of "Shaere-Mashriq" (Poet of the East!). It may sound strange that Iqbal never considered himself a poet as is evidenced by his correspondence with Syed Sulaiman Nadvi [1885-1953].

"I have never considered myself a poet. Therefore, I am not a rival of anyone, and I do not consider anybody my rival. I have no interest in poetic artistry. But, yes, I have a special goal in mind for whose expression I use the medium of poetry considering the condition and the customs of this country."

(translated from the original in Urdu; Maktoobat, Volume I, page195)
Iqbal's contribution to the Muslim world as one of the greatest thinkers of Islam remains unparalleled. In his writings, he addressed and exhorted people, particularly the youth, to stand up and boldly face life's challenges. The central theme and main source of his message was the Qur'an.

Iqbal considered the Qur'an not only as a book of religion (in the traditional sense) but also a source of foundational principles upon which the infrastructure of an organization must be built as a coherent system of life. According to Iqbal, this system of life when implemented as a living force is ISLAM. Because it is based on permanent (absolute) values given in the Qur'an, this system provides perfect harmony, balance, and stability in the society from within and the source of security and a shield from without. It also provides freedom of choice and equal opportunity for the development of personality for everyone within the guidelines of Qur'an. Thus, in Iqbal's opinion, Islam is not a religion in which individuals strive for a private subjective relationship with God in the hope of personal salvation as it is done in secular systems. Iqbal firmly opposed theocracy and dictatorship and considered them against the free spirit of Islam.

Humanity, as a whole, has never faced the challenge posed by the enormity and the complexity of human problems, such as it is facing today. The problems have taken on a global dimension now and transcend the barriers of race, color, language, geography, and social, political and religious ideologies. Most of the problems of mankind are universal in nature and, therefore, require a universal approach to the solution. Iqbal's universal message is an attempt to address this challenge faced by humanity.

Through his travels and personal communications, Allama Iqbal found that the Muslims throughout the world had detached themselves from the Qur'an as a guiding principle and a living force. After the disaster following the Balkan War of 1912, the fall of the caliphate in Turkey, and many anti-Muslim incessant provocations and actions against Muslims in India (1924-27) and elsewhere by the intellectuals and so called secular minded leaders, Allama Iqbal suggested that a separate state should be given to the Muslims of the Indian subcontinent so that they can express the vitality of Islam to its fullest. In his 1930 Presidential speech delivered to the annual session of Muslim League at Allahabad, Allama Iqbal stated:

"I, therefore, demand the formation of a consolidated Muslim state in the best interests of India and Islam. For India, it means security and peace resulting from an internal balance of power; for Islam, an opportunity to rid itself of the stamp that Arabian imperialism was forced to give it, to mobilize its laws, its education, its culture, and to bring them into closer contact with its own original spirit and with the spirit of modern times."
Iqbal's "Deeda-war" (visionary), is like Iqbal himself. He could foresee what others could not. Whereas others only have a short term view of things, a visionary sees the problems in a long term perspective and develops some sort of cosmic sense. A nation is indeed fortunate if it produces a few such individuals in centuries. Such individuals, although very rare, change the course of history forever, as indeed Iqbal did. Pakistan owes its existence to Allama Iqbal. Thus, the people of Pakistan owe a great deal of gratitude to this extraordinary visionary.

Allama Iqbal's contributions are numerous and it is not possible to give even a glimpse of his work here. A brief outline of Allama Iqbal's life and achievements is presented below:

1877 Born at Sialkot (present Pakistan) on Friday, November 9, 1877. Kashmiri origin.
1893-95 High School and Intermediate - Scotch Mission College, Sialkot.
1897 B. A. (Arabic and Philosophy) - Government College, Lahore. Awarded Jamaluddin Gold Medal for securing highest marks in Arabic, and another Gold Medal in English.
1899 M.A. (Philosophy) - Government College, Lahore. Secured first rank in Punjab state and awarded Gold Medal.
Reader in Arabic, Oriental College, Lahore.
1900 Read his poem "Nala-e-Yateem," (Wails of an Orphan) at the annual function of Anjuman-e-Himayat-e-Islam at Lahore.
1901 Poem 'Himala' published in Makhzan.
Assistant Commissioner's Examination (didn't qualify due to medical reasons).
1903 Assistant Professor, Government College, Lahore. Published his first book, "Ilmul-Iqtasad" (Study of Economics), Lahore.
1905 Traveled to England for higher studies.
1907 Ph.D., Munich University, Germany (Thesis: Development of Metaphysics in Persia).
1907-08 Professor of Arabic, London University.
1908 Bar-at-Law, London. Returned to India.
Started law practice on October 22, 1908.
Part-time Professor of Philosophy and English Literature.
1911 Wrote and read famous poem "Shikwa" (Complaint) at Lahore.
Professor of Philosophy, Government College, Lahore.
1912 Wrote the epoch-making "Jawab-e-Shikwa" (Reply to Complaint).
1913 Wrote "History of India" for middle school students, Lahore (now out of print).
1915 Published a long Persian poem "Asrar-e-Khudi" (Secrets of Self). Resigned from professorship to spread the message of Islam.
1918 In counterpart to "Asrar-e-Khudi", published "Rumuz-e-Bekhudi" (Mysteries of Selflessness) in Persian.
1920 English translation of "Asrar-e-Khudi" by Prof. R.A. Nicholson of Cambridge University entitled "Secrets of Self."
Visited Kashmir and presented his famous poem "Saqi Nama" at Srinagar.
1923 Awarded knighthood "Sir" at Lahore on January 1, 1923. Published "Pay am-e-Mashriq" (The Message of the East) in Persian. It was written in response to Goethe's West-Ostlicher Divan.
1924 Prepared an Urdu course material for Grade 6,7 students at Lahore. Published "Bang-e-Dara" (Call of the Caravan) in Urdu in March 1924.
1926 Elected to Punjab Legislative Council, Lahore (1926-1929).
1927 Published "Zaboor-e-A'jam" in Persian.
1929 Delivered his famous six lectures at Madras, Osmania University at Hyderabad, and Aligarh. He made very thought provoking comments on the latest scientific and philosophical developments of the 1920s in the light of Islamic teachings.
1930 President, All India Muslim League. Elaborated on the idea of an independent Muslim state in his presidential speech at Allahabad. [Refer to 1924-28 events in particular and 1912-29 in general in the Muslims in the Indian Subcontinent - V 1800 - 1950 CE].
1931 Published "Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam," - a collection of six lectures, Lahore; it was also published by Oxford University.
Participated in Mo'tamar-A'lam-e-Islami (World Muslim Conference) in Palestine.
Participated in the Second Round Table Conference, London, September 7 - December 31, 1931.
1932 Visited Paris and met French philosophers Bergson and Massignon. Bergson was astonished to hear his remark on the Islamic concept of time.
Published "Javed Namah" in Persian. It was a reply to Dante's 'Divine Comedy'.
Participated in the Third Round Table Conference, London, November 17 - December 24, 1932.
1933 Allama Iqbal met Mussolini in Rome after Mussolini expressed his interest to meet him.
Visited Qurtuba, Spain and wrote the poems "Dua" (Supplication) "Masjid-e-Qurtuba." (The Mosque of Cordoba).
Served as Advisor to the Government of Afghanistan on higher education (October 1933).
Awarded Honorary D. Litt degree by Punjab University on Dec. 4,1933.
1934 Musafir (Traveler) in Persian.
1935 Published "Bal-e-Jibril" in Urdu.
1936 Published "Zarab-e-Kalim" in April 1936, "Pas Che Bayad Kard" in Persian, and "Payam-e-Mashriq" in September 1936.
1937 Ulema from Al-Azhar University visited Allama Iqbal at Lahore.
1938 Jawahar Lal Nehru visited Allama Iqbal at Lahore in January 1938.
Allama Iqbal died at Lahore on April 21,1938. He was a versatile genius-poet, philosopher, lawyer, educationist, politician, and a reformer. "Armughan-e-Hijaz" published posthumously. It was a collection of Urdu and Persian poems.

Allama Iqbal's other famous poems include 'Zubur-e-Ajam' in Persian, and 'Shama-o-Shaer' (The Candle and the Poet), 'Taswir-e-Dard' (The Picture of Agony), 'Naya Shiwala' (New Temple), 'Tuloo-e-Islam' (The Dawn of Islam), all in Urdu. The last three were written to unite his countrymen for the common good.

Translations
English "Shikwa" (Complaint) and "Jawab-e-Shikwa" (Reply to Complaint) translated by Altaf Husain.
Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam," - a collection of six lectures, translated by Prof Arberry, Oxford University.
Arabic "Zarab-e-Kalim" and "Payam-e-Mashriq" translated by Dr. Abdul Wahab Azzam, Professor, Al-Azhar University, Cairo.
Turkish "Payam-e-Mashriq" translated by Dr. Ali Ganjeli.
German "Payam-e-Mashriq" translated by Professor Hell.
French Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam," - a collection of six lectures, translated by Madame Eva Meyerovitch, Paris.
Latin 'Javed Nama' translated under the title 'II Poema Celeste' by Professor Alessander Busani.
Indonesian Asrar-e-Khudi translated by M. Burhan Rangkuti.
 

January 16, 2008
The First Pakistanis
By Moin Ansari

Farming had not started. Most of the Subcontinent was covered in ice. Some of the first Pakistanis were hunter gatherers. Most societies and human beings have developed in and around rivers. So we discovered stone implements around the Soan River.

It seems some of Pakistan’s most valuable treasures are buried under the soil. It took many dedicated archeologists to discover the remains of tools used by the Pakistanis who lived in the riverina between the Soan and the Jhelum

The oldest evidence of life in the Subcontinent was found in the digs made in Soan river valley located in about 35 miles near Rawalpindi. Surface finds from Soan valley between the Indus and the JheIum and stone tools made of quartzite, pebbles, flint and flakes of the same time that were found in the Soan valley testify to the existence of hom-erectus human beings who fashioned stone implements.

A hunter-gatherer society is one whose primary subsistence method involves the direct procurement of edible plants and animals from the wild, foraging and hunting without significant recourse to the domestication of either. The demarcation between hunter-gatherers and other societies which rely more upon domestication (see agriculture and pastoralism and neolithic revolution) is not a clear cut one, as many contemporary societies use a combination of both strategies to obtain the foodstuffs required to sustain themselves.

Hunting and gathering was presumably the only subsistence strategy employed by human societies for more than two million years, until the end of the Mesolithic period. The transition into the subsequent Neolithic period is chiefly defined by the unprecedented development of nascent agricultural practices. Agriculture originated and spread in several different areas including the Middle East, Asia, Mesoamerica, and the Andes beginning as early as 12,000 years ago. Many groups continued their hunter-gatherer ways of life, although their numbers have perpetually declined partly as a result of pressure from growing agricultural and pastoral communities. Areas which were formerly unrestricted to hunter-gatherers were, and continue to be encroached upon by the settlements of agriculturalists. In the resulting competition for land use, hunter-gatherer societies either adopted these practices or moved to other areas. Jared Diamond has also blamed a decline in the availability of wild foods, particularly animal resources. In North and South America, for example, most large mammal species had been hunted to extinction by the end of the Pleistocene.[1]

As the number and size of many agricultural societies increased, they expanded into lands traditionally used by hunter-gatherers. This process of agriculture-driven expansion soon led to the development of complex forms of government in agricultural centers such as the Fertile Crescent, Ancient Pakistan, Ancient China, Olmec, and Norte Chico; and set in motion the impetus for further expansion through warfare and colonization.

As a result of the now near-universal human reliance upon agriculture, the few contemporary hunter-gatherer cultures usually live in areas seen as undesirable for agricultural use

According to the Wikipedia:

The Soanian is an archaeological culture of the Lower Paleolithic (ca. 500,000 to 1250,000 BP) in South Asia, contemporary to the Acheulian. It is named after the Soan Valley in the Sivalik Hills, Pakistan. The bearers of this culture were Homo erectus.

On Adiyala and Khasala about 16 km (10 miles) from Rawalpindi terrace on the bend of the river hundreds of edged pebble tools were discovered. At Chauntra hand axes and cleavers were found. No human skeletons of this age have yet been found. In the Soan River Gorge many fossil bearing rocks are exposed on the surface. The 14 million year old fossils of gazelle, rhinoceros, crocodile, giraffe and rodents have been found there. Some of these fossils are in display at the Natural History Museum of Islamabad.

The oldest evidence of human life (150,000 years ago) in Pakistan was found in the Soan River valley of Pothohar Plateau region of Punjab. This human activity, called Soan Culture, discovered in the form of pebble tools scattered long the river.

Robin Denell was one of the first ones to discover the sites.

The British Archaeological Mission to Pakistan, under its Field Director Professor Robin Dennell, carried out research into the Palaeolithic of Pakistan in the 1980’s and 1990’s. The first part of this work (1981-85) was based in the Soan Valley, near Islamabad, and resulted in the revision (with his geological colleague, Prof. Helen Rendell) of the Pleistocene and Palaeolithic sequence established by de Terra and Paterson in the 1930’s. This phase of fieldwork also involved the excavation of an open-air settlement ca. 45,000 years old, and the discovery of stone artefacts almost two million years old at Riwat. This research was published as a monograph “Pleistocene and Palaeolithic Investigations in the Soan Valley, northern Pakistan” (British Archaeological Reports S544).

The second part of this research involved six seasons (1986-90 and 1999) of field survey and excavation in the Pabbi Hills, which comprise a long sequence of river- and floodplain deposits between 2.5 and 0.5 million years old. This research resulted in the collection of over 40,000 fossil specimens from over 600 places, and these provide one of the best accounts of the fossil record of a riverine and flood-plain landscape, as well as the basis for a detailed biostratigraphy of the Early Pleistocene in southern Asia. Although no hominid remains were found, over 350 stone artefacts were found, many of which are believed to be derived from fossil-bearing deposits and may thus be up to two million years old.

This research is currently being prepared as a research monograph and a series of scientific papers, and no further fieldwork is being planned. Related publications are listed below

The Ice melted around 6000 BC. And the first agricultural settlements in the Subcontinent were in Mehergarh Baluchistan. We will be posting more details about Mehergarh, and pre-Harrpan findings in this site.
Publications relating to the Palaeolithic and Pleistocene of Pakistan and South Asia:

Books:

Rendell, H.R., Dennell, R.W. and Halim, M. (1989) Pleistocene and Palaeolithic Investigations in the Soan Valley, Northern Pakistan. British Archaeological Reports International Series 544. (364 pp., 110 figs).
This covers the fieldwork in the Soan Valley, including the discovery and dating of the controversial artefact horizon at Riwat, dated to a minimum of ca. 1.9 Mya. The excavation of the much later open-air site (site 55) at Riwat, dated to ca. 45,000 b.p. is also described. The monograph also includes re-assessments of earlier research (notably by de Terra and Paterson in the 1930’s), and critiques of our present understanding of the Pleistocene and Palaeolithic sequence in this part of the world.
A second monograph is currently in preparation on the surveys and excavations in the Pabbi Hills between 1986 and 1991.

Articles:

1983 Preliminary report on the early prehistoric occupation of the Potwar Plateau, northern Pakistan. In South Asian Archaeology (Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on asian Archaeology), ed. B. Allchin, 10-19. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
1985 (with H. Rendell) Dated lower Palaeolithic artefacts from northern Pakistan. Current Anthropology 26 (3), 393.
1987 (with H. Rendell) Asian axe 2 Million Years Old. Geographical Magazine 59 (6), 270-272.
1987 (with H. Rendell) The dating of an upper pleistocene archaeological site at Riwat, northern Pakistan. Geoarchaeology 1, 6-12.
1987 (with H. Rendell and E. Hailwood) Magnetic polarity stratigraphy of Upper Siwalik Sub-Group, Soan Valley, Pakistan: implications for early human occupance of Asia. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 85: 488-496.41)
1988 (with H. Rendell and E. Hailwood). Early tool-making in Asia : two-million year-old artefacts in Pakistan. Antiquity 62: 98-106.
1988 (with H. Rendell and E. Hailwood) Late Pliocene artefacts in Pakistan. Current Anthropology 29 (3): 495-498.
1988 (with B. Allchin) 1987 report of the British Archaeological Mission to Pakistan palaeolithic project. South Asian Studies 10: 145-147.
1989 (with H. Rendell and E. Hailwood) Artefacts du Pliocene tardif dans le nord du Pakistan. L’Anthropologie 92 (3): 927-930.
1989 Report of the British Archaeological Mission to Pakistan 1980-89. Man and Environment 14 (1): 129-131.
1989 Reply to “Early artefacts from Pakistan? Some questions for the excavators” by M. Hemingway and D. Stapert. Current Anthropology 30 (3): 318-322.
1989 (with A. Jah, R. Jenkinson, H. Rendell and S. Sutherland) Upper Siwalik palaeoenvironments and palaeoecology in the Pabbi Hills, Northern Pakistan. Zeitschrift fur Geomorphologie 33 (4):417-428.
1990 Progressive gradualism, imperialism, and academic fashion: Lower Palaeolithic archaeology in the twentieth century. Antiquity 64: 549-558.
1990: (with L. Hurcombe, H. Rendell and R.Jenkinson). Preliminary results of the Palaeolithic programme of the British Archaeological Mission to Pakistan, 1983-1987. In South Asian Archaeology 1987. (Proceedings of the International Conference of South Asian Archaeologists in Western Europe, Venice, July 1987), ed. M. Taddei and P. Callieri, 17-29.
Dennell, R.W. (1991) Report of the British Archaeological Mission’s Potwar Project for the year 1989-90. South Asian Studies 7: 161-165.
Dennell, R.W. (1991) Pakistan’s Prehistory: A Glimpse at the First Two Million Years. British Archaeological Mission to Pakistan Series 3: Ancient India and Iran Trust, Cambridge. 44 pp.
(with H. Rendell, M. Halim and E. Moth) (1991) Site 55, Riwat: a 42,000 yr.-bp. open-air palaeolithic site from northern Pakistan. Journal of Field Archaeology 19: 17-33.
(with H. Rendell) (1991) De Terra and Paterson, and the Soan flake industry: a perspective from the Soan Valley, Pakistan. Man and Environment 16 (2): 91-99.
(with L.M. Hurcombe) Paterson, the British Clactonian and the Soan Flake Industry: a re-evaluation of the early palaeolithic of northern Pakistan. In South Asian Archaeology 1989. (Proceedings of the International Conference of South Asian Archaeologists in Western Europe, Paris, July 1989), ed. C. Jarrige: 69-72.
(with L.M. Hurcombe) A Pre-Acheulean in the Pabbi Hills, northern Pakistan? In South Asian Archaeology 1989 (Proceedings of the International Conference of South Asian Archaeologists in Western Europe, Paris, July 1989), ed. C. Jarrige: 133-136.
Dennell, R.W., Hurcombe, L.M., Coard, R., Beech, M., Anwar, M. and ul Haq, S. (1992) The 1990 field season of the British Archaeological Mission to Pakistan in the Baroth area of the Pabbi Hills, northern Pakistan. South Asian Archaeology 1991 (Proceedings of the Conference of South Asian Archaeologists in Europe, Berlin, July 1991), 1-14.
Dennell, R.W. (1993) Evidence on human origins: a rediscovered source in the Upper Siwaliks of northern Pakistan. Interdisciplinary Science Reviews 18 (4): 379-389.
(with H.M. Rendell, L. Hurcombe and E.A. Hailwood) (1994) Archaeological evidence for hominids in northern Pakistan before one million years ago. Courier Forschungs-Institut Senckenberg 171: 151-155.
(1995) Do human origins lie only in Africa? New evidence from northern Pakistan. Cranium 12 (1): 21-24.
(1995) (Coard, R. and Dennell, R.W.) Taphonomy of some articulated skeletal remains: transport potential in an artificial environment.. Journal of Archaeological Science 22: 441 - 448.
(1995) The early stone age of Pakistan: a methodological review. Man and Environment: 20 (1): 21 - 28.
(1995) (Dennell, R.W. and Hurcombe, L.M.) Comment on Pedra Furada. Antiquity 69: 604-5.
Dennell, R.W. and Roebroeks, W. (1996) The earliest colonisation of Europe: the short chronology revisited. Antiquity 70: 535-542.
(1997) Life at the sharp end: The world’s oldest spears. Nature 385: 767-768.
(1997) World’s oldest spears revolutionise theories on early man. Minerva 8 (3): 5-6.
(1998) Grasslands, tool-making and the earliest colonization of south Asia: a reconsideration. In Early Human Behavior in Global Context: The Rise and Diversity of the Lower Palaeolithic Record, 280-303, edited by M. Petraglia and R. Korisettar. London: Routledge.
(1999) The TD6 horizon of Atapuerca and the earliest colonisation of Europe: an Asian perspective. In Los primeros pobladores de Europa/The First Europeans, ed. E. Carbonell, Bermudez de Castro, J.M., Arsuaga, J.L. and Rodriguez, X.P. (1999). Burgos, Spain, 75-97.
(1999) Hunter-gatherer societies. In The Companion Encyclopedia of Archaeology Volume 2, ed. G. Barker. London and New York: Routledge, 797-838.
(1999) The Palaeolithic and Pleistocene potential of the Indus drainage system: a review of recent work. In The Indus River: Biodiversity, Resources, Humankind, ed. A. and P. Meadows, 306-319. Linnaean Society, London/Karachi: Oxford University Press.
(2001) From Sangiran to Olduvai, 1937-1960: the quest for “centres” of hominid origins in Asia and Africa. In Studying Human Origins: Disciplinary History and Epistemology, ed. R. Corbey and W. Roebroeks, 45-66. Amersterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
 
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Indus valley civilization(mohenjo-daro

 
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The Indus river valley civilization...

 
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Indus valley civilization(mohenjo-daro)


Guys,

This is a very good 3D short animation of the "dead city" and gives you a little idea how life must have been there.
A must see!
 
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I posted in other thread that claiming a share in IVC is a big trap for Pakistanis. I think they have started falling for it in a big way. Anyways, its a welcome change. Atleast Pakistanis have started to acknowledge their non-islamic history. Its a good beginning.
 
PART-7

Fortunately for India, at this opportune moment a man from Punjab, Chandragupta Maurya, was able to set up a strong government in the Gangetic Valley which extended its sway over most of northern India.


Sorry but Chandragupta was from Punjab?! The majority of the neutral historians think he was from the region Magadha, modern day Bihar and Bengal.
 
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