-Akshayaram Viswanathan
August 14, 1947 Day when All Indian Muslim League succeeded in achieving what was considered to be an absurd dream. The day when an Independent Muslim state of south-Asia was made possible, India witnessed two million people die in chaos and all those who compromised their national identity for religious identity were called Pakistanis.
Tehrik-e-Pakistan was a political movement in 1940 aimed for creation of Pakistan from the Muslim majority area of British India, which was backed by Muslim League and Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Let us keep an open mind and try to understand the birth of Pakistan.
August 14, 1947 Day when All Indian Muslim League succeeded in achieving what was considered to be an absurd dream. The day when an Independent Muslim state of south-Asia was made possible, India witnessed two million people die in chaos and all those who compromised their national identity for religious identity were called Pakistanis.
Tehrik-e-Pakistan was a political movement in 1940 aimed for creation of Pakistan from the Muslim majority area of British India, which was backed by Muslim League and Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Let us keep an open mind and try to understand the birth of Pakistan.
While it was argued by Muslim League that their demand for Pakistan was because Muslims were treated second class citizen among Hindus and lived constantly in fear, Jinnah himself said that(we quote him)"I have gone through the length and breadth of India and i know how vulnerable Muslims are feeling today" in a cabinet mission headed by Stafford Cripps.
Muslim League projected themselves as a sole representative of Muslims and labelled Congress a Hindu party when the president of the Congress party Abul Kalam Azad was himself a Muslim, while Jinnah wanted Mahatma Gandhi to announce Congress as a Hindu party Mahatma made it clear that Congress will have equal representatives of all the religious and ethnic groups.
Extreme communalism was always the basic ideology in which Muslim League built themselves up, at times when liberal communalist and nationalist leaders like Abdul Gaffar Khan, Asaf Ali were in full support of Mahatma and his views of building a nation with Hindu and Muslim unity, Muslim League wanted to have its own Country.
Muslim League and Jinnah clearly operated on demand and supply policy, When liberal communalist demands were met by Mahatma, there was no work left for the party to do other than joining hands with congress and Mahatma Gandhi whom they hated for having sizable control over the Muslims of the land, hence only way that is possible is to demand things knowing that would be unacceptable and absurd .
Jinnah himself followed the path of nationalist becoming extreme communalist, Jinnah came back to India after becoming Barrister in 1906 as a follower of Dadabhai Naoroji. He immediately joined Congress as Dadabhai's secretary. Aga Khan first president of Muslim League wrote a letter in 1906 stating Jinnah as the toughest opponent. Sarojini Naidu too called Jinnah as ' Ambassador of Hindu-Muslim Unity'.
As late as 1925, Jinnah told a young Muslim, who said that he was a Muslim first "My boy, no, you are Indian first and then a Muslim", as the time passed Jinnah was forced to let go of his nationalist identity as it would cost him leaving all his political influence, British too indirectly favored Jinnah and Muslim League as they were feared by the growth of Congress and its popularity and acceptance in the masses.
Another important aspect of the issue is that Muslim League had failed in appealing to Muslims for accepting the new education system which was introduced by British, rather feared sizable Hindu population adapting it and getting a lucrative position at the Indian Civil Service(ICS). Not adapting to any other form of education system other than Madrasas(i.e Islamic education) made Muslim more unemployed and made them insufficient in so many fields.
If only Muslim League changed their political approach and had their agenda primarily based on the collective development of Muslim at large then they would not have needed "Pakistan" to get political attention and influence. If only Jinnah could have channelized his ability in inclusive growth of the state with the help of Muslims then he would not have faced changing of his core ideology for personal benefits.
Extreme communalism was always the basic ideology in which Muslim League built themselves up, at times when liberal communalist and nationalist leaders like Abdul Gaffar Khan, Asaf Ali were in full support of Mahatma and his views of building a nation with Hindu and Muslim unity, Muslim League wanted to have its own Country.
Muslim League and Jinnah clearly operated on demand and supply policy, When liberal communalist demands were met by Mahatma, there was no work left for the party to do other than joining hands with congress and Mahatma Gandhi whom they hated for having sizable control over the Muslims of the land, hence only way that is possible is to demand things knowing that would be unacceptable and absurd .
Jinnah himself followed the path of nationalist becoming extreme communalist, Jinnah came back to India after becoming Barrister in 1906 as a follower of Dadabhai Naoroji. He immediately joined Congress as Dadabhai's secretary. Aga Khan first president of Muslim League wrote a letter in 1906 stating Jinnah as the toughest opponent. Sarojini Naidu too called Jinnah as ' Ambassador of Hindu-Muslim Unity'.
As late as 1925, Jinnah told a young Muslim, who said that he was a Muslim first "My boy, no, you are Indian first and then a Muslim", as the time passed Jinnah was forced to let go of his nationalist identity as it would cost him leaving all his political influence, British too indirectly favored Jinnah and Muslim League as they were feared by the growth of Congress and its popularity and acceptance in the masses.
Another important aspect of the issue is that Muslim League had failed in appealing to Muslims for accepting the new education system which was introduced by British, rather feared sizable Hindu population adapting it and getting a lucrative position at the Indian Civil Service(ICS). Not adapting to any other form of education system other than Madrasas(i.e Islamic education) made Muslim more unemployed and made them insufficient in so many fields.
If only Muslim League changed their political approach and had their agenda primarily based on the collective development of Muslim at large then they would not have needed "Pakistan" to get political attention and influence. If only Jinnah could have channelized his ability in inclusive growth of the state with the help of Muslims then he would not have faced changing of his core ideology for personal benefits.
If only had these things happened we would have a neighbouring country in the west that is sharing a great friendship with us, would have no problem in Kashmir, nor the world will worry about a south-Asian country that would export terror globally.
This tragic story of partition surely teaches that the solutions all the major problems that we face should not be derived out of personal interest or benefit bur rather on a collective term.
This tragic story of partition surely teaches that the solutions all the major problems that we face should not be derived out of personal interest or benefit bur rather on a collective term.
Jai hind
Akshayaram Viswanathan
