Archive for the '1947' Category

Aza’adi Special-Pakistan at the Crossroads: To be, But What to be? That is the Question!

Athar Osama August 14th, 2007

By: Athar Osama

Today is the Sixtieth Anniversary of the Independence of Pakistan. Today, sixty years ago, Pakistan came into being as a state established for the Muslims of the subcontinent to fashion their lives according the requirements of their own religion. Sixty years have gone by and Pakistan has a come a long way from a weak and fragile–almost by design–state that was declared a geographical absurdity to one that has not only survived but, in some ways, thrived as well. In other ways, though, Pakistan continues to struggle to define itself till this day. It is a state where power belongs to a small elite group of individuals and not to the people. It is state where it cannot be said with surety and conviction that the govern-ors govern with the consent of the governed. It is a state where extreme poverty still exists for as many as half of the country’s population and a country that continues to score among the lowest in the world on key indicators of human development whether it is education, health, mortality or economic and political freedom–alongside countries of sub-Saharan Africa.

pk11-UPPPollonGovernanceSystems.JPGWhile we should all be thankful to Allah Almighty for giving us this piece of land, that we can call our home, and its people, our people, we should also not leave any stone unturned to make this piece of land the envy of the world. We are far from that aspiration and there is a long way to go. In fact, some of us may argue that we aren’t even moving in the right direction. Ironically, Pakistan is a country that has not yet come to terms with some of the most important questions that must define a country’s march into the future:

  • What is the purpose of its existence (e.g. Whether it was created as a state for the Muslims or an Islamic State?)
  • What should be the system of governance that would be put into practice (e.g. Democracy or Dictatorship), and
  • And how do we, Pakistanis, see Law and Constitution, whether the latter is a mere piece of paper to be followed, if convenient, and discarded, if necessary or defines “rules of the game” that must be adhered-to to bring order and stability to our lives.

No wonder then, that every now and then, we, Pakistanis, find our country at a crossroads. It is also no surprise then that on this–the 6oth Anniversary of Pakistan’s Independence–a lot of Pakistanis are asking themselves the same question. What was Pakistan created for and why does it exist? Understanding Pakistan has engaged with this debate before (here, here, and here) as we looked at the passage of the Objectives Resolution (here). We add two new perspectives to this debate in this Aza’adi Special Edition of Understanding Pakistan.

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Aza’adi Special: Jinnah and the Islamic State – Setting the Record Straight

Understanding Pakistan Project Team August 14th, 2007

By: Pervez Hoodbhoy

This essay originated from my lecture in Karachi in 2007, delivered at the invitation of the Jinnah Society in cooperation with the Oxford University Press of Pakistan. 

What did Quaid-e-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, want for the country he was destined to create in 1947? Surely I cannot say anything new on this venerable and much-discussed historical subject; the experts know much more. But, as we approach Pakistan’s sixtieth anniversary, the matter of Jinnah and the Islamic State is still a hot one. It is confounded both by the wishful thinking of my well-meaning liberal friends, as well as conveniences invented at different times by Pakistan’s military, political, and religious establishments. Therefore, it seems to me that objectivity, honesty, and clarity are still desperately needed if we are to clean out old cobwebs and chart a new course for the future of our country.

What is Pakistan all about? For decades, Pakistani school children have grown up learning a linguistically flawed (but catchy) rhetorical question sung together with its answer: Pakistan ka matlab kya? La illaha illala! [What is the meaning of Pakistan? There is no god but Allah!]. They have been told that Pakistan’s raison d’etre was the creation of an Islamic state where the Sharia must reign supreme.

Surely this has had its effect. A recent survey by the World Public Opinion.Org (April 24, 2007) found that 54% of Pakistanis wanted strict application of Sharia while 25% wanted it in some more dilute form. Totaling 79%, this was the largest percentage in the four countries surveyed (Morocco, Egypt, Pakistan, Indonesia) .

But was sentiment for Sharia and the Islamic State strong in 1947 among those who fought for Pakistan?

Mr. Jinnah’s thoughts inevitably enter the argument. This, of course, does not necessarily mean that Pakistan was, or is, obligated to become the fulfilment of his vision. Pakistan is much more than Jinnah and it will eventually go in the direction that its people want it to go.  But it certainly is of the greatest intellectual and historical interest to ask two key questions:

a) Did Jinnah want Pakistan to be a Muslim majority state where individuals, whether Muslim or otherwise, would be free to live their lives more or less as they do in countries in the rest of the world?

      Or,

b) Did Jinnah want an Islamic state? And, if so, what was his understanding of such a state.

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Aza’adi Special: Jinnah’s Vision of Pakistan

Understanding Pakistan Project Team August 14th, 2007

By: Yasser Latif Hamdani

Today being the 60th anniversary of Pakistan’s independence is an opportunate moment to look at Quaid-e-Azam’s vision of Pakistan delivered 60 years ago, by Mr. Jinnah, Pakistan’s undisputed Leader, Governor General and elected President of the Constituent Assembly elaborated his vision for the future of Pakistan.

Jinnah’s vision is unambiguous.

  • The state would be completely impartial to religion of the individual.
    The state where every citizen would be equal and there would be no distinction between citizen on the basis of faith or caste or creed.

A lot of controverey has emerged about this speech. Any student of political science would tell you that is the classic exposition of a modern secular democratic state. However, the issue of whether this constitutes a “secular” state or an “Islamic” state is besides the point. A rose by any name is after all a rose.

Here is what Mr. Jinnah said on that fateful day. It is worth reading in the full:

“I know there are people who do not quite agree with the division of India and the partition of the Punjab and Bengal. Much has been said against it, but now that it has been accepted, it is the duty of every one of us to loyally abide by it and honourably act according to the agreement which is now final and binding on all. But you must remember, as I have said, that this mighty revolution that has taken place is unprecedented. One can quite understand the feeling the exists between the two communities wherever one community is in majority and the other is in minority. But the question is whether it was possible or practicable to act otherwise than has been done. A division had to take place. On both sides, in Hindustan and Pakistan, there are sections of people who may not agree with it, who may not like it, but in my judgment there was no other solution and I am sure future history will record its verdict in favour of it. And what is more it will be proved by actual experience as we go on that that was the only solution of India’s constitutional problem. Any idea of a United India could never have worked and in my judgment it would have led us to terrific disaster. May be that view is correct ; may be it is not; that remains to be seen. All the same, in this division it was impossible to avoid the question of minorities being in one Dominion or the other. Now that was unavoidable. There is no other solution. Now what shall we do? Now, if we want to make this great State of Pakistan happy and prosperous we should wholly and solely concentrate on the well-being of the people, and especially of the masses and the poor. If you will work in co-operation, forgetting the past, burying the hatchet you are bound to succeed. If you change your past and work together in a spirit that every one of you, no matter to what community he belongs, no matter what relations he had with you in the past, no matter what is his colour, caste or creed, is first, second and last a citizen of this State with equal rights, privileges and obligations, there will be no end to the progress you will make.”

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Aza’adi Special: Iqbal and Jinnah’s Idea of Pakistan as an Islamic State

Understanding Pakistan Project Team August 14th, 2007

By: Allama Ghulam Ahmed Parvez 

(This is an abridged-excerpted version of a larger piece published on this website before - here.)

pk2-IQAllamaIqbal5.jpgAccording Allama G. A. Pervez Allama Iqbal was the real intellectual force behind the notion of an Islamic state and Jinnah was merely an agent to implement Iqbal’s idea. In the above-cited piece, this how he explains: 

Iqbal’s Notion of an Islamic State

This state of affairs prevailed throughout the Muslim countries for centuries together where Mazhab was accepted as true Islam. We should, however, consider ourselves fortunate in as much as a voice was raised in our time and from our own country, to distinguish between Deen and Mazhab, and the Ummah was called upon to revive true Islam in the light of the Quran. This was the voice of Iqbal, the great thinker, and still greater scholar of the Quran. This, he said, was possible only if we had a piece of land in which a State was established purely on the lines indicated by the Quran, thereby wiping out completely the rule of man, in any form, be it capitalism or priestcraft. This scheme of his he pronounced in his Presidential Address of All-India Muslim League Session at Allahabad, in 1930. Such a State, he said:

“Would mean security and peace for India resulting from an internal balance of power, and for Islam an opportunity to rid itself of the stamp that Arabian Imperialism was forced to give it, to mobilise its law, its education, its culture, and to bring them into closer contact with its own original spirit and with the spirit of modern times.”  (Speeches and statements of Iqbal–p.15)

Two years later, while addressing the nation at the Annual Session of the All-India Muslim Conference at Lahore, on 21-3-1932, he said:

“The possibilities of the faith you represent are not yet exhausted. It can still create a new world where the social rank of man is not determined by his caste or colour, or the amount of the dividend he earns, but by the kind of life he lives; where Capital cannot be allowed to accumulate so as to dominate the real producer of wealth. This superb ideal of your faith, however, needs emancipation from the medieval fancies of theologians and legists. Spiritually, we are living in a prison-house of thoughts and emotions which, during the course of centuries we have woven round ourselves. And be it further said to the same of us– men of older generation– that we have failed to equip the younger generation for the economic, political and even religious crises that the present age is likely to bring. The whole community needs a complete overhauling of its mentality in order that it may again become capable of feeling the urge of fresh desires and ideals.” (Ibid p.55)

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