Understanding Pakistan Project Team June 18th, 2007
Guest Column* By: Yasser Latif Hamdani
As we look at and comment upon Jinnah’s tenure as the first Governor General of Pakistan in the final year of his life, it is worth discussing some of his earlier contributions to Indian politics and his legacy, more broadly. Indeed, an argument can be (and has been) made that by the time Jinnah was sworn in as the first Governor General of Pakistan, he was well past even the twilight of an illustrious and remarkable political career and that his legacy had already been determined and What was to come later had much less to do with how the world remembered him. With that let me turn to Jinnah’s Pre-Pakistan legislative career and his overall legacy.
Jinnah’s Pre-Pakistan Legislative Career
As we celebrate M.A. Jinnah’s birth anniversay today, December 25, it behoves us to think deep and hard on his true legacy that, in addition to the creation of a country, included a long and extremely effective legislative career as a member of the central legislative assembly of India.
Indeed the greatest tragedy of the subcontinent is that both India and Pakistan have chosen to selectively remember this great man, especially by choosing to ignore his politics prior to the Pakistan Movement. However if both India and Pakistan were to revisit Jinnah’s pre-1937 Indian nationalist career, we would find much to celebrate together, even if we continue to differ on his later role as the champion of Muslim separatism.
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Understanding Pakistan Project Team June 11th, 2007
Guest Commentary* By: Yasser Latif Hamdani
The number one issue in the subcontinent which threatens the fabric of every nation state that exists today in the region is that of the inability of the central state structure to harmonise contending notions of identity. In no small way is this attributable to the events of the British Raj.
Consider this: Before the British colonised the subcontinent, the people of this region existed in overlapping sets of multiple identities, where contending sovereignty of identity groups was negotiated and power was shared at several levels. When the British came along, they brought with them the then in vogue European notions of nation and nation state. Differences between homogenous European nation states and the heterogeneous nature of India were glossed over when applying the same model here.
Later enthusiastic young Indian nationalists, including Muslims like Badruddin Tyabji and Mahomed Ali Jinnah, bought into this thesis of one Indian nation and remained committed to it for a very long time. It was only the fear of Hindu majoritarianism within this one Indian nation that forced Jinnah to revert to the thesis they had rejected hitherto i.e. India was not one nation but at least two or even more.
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Understanding Pakistan Project Team June 11th, 2007
Guest Commentary* By: Riaz Jafri
Soon after World War II, Winston Churchill – who had won the war for Britain - was defeated in the general elections and Mr. Atlee became the new Prime Minister of England. The Independence movement in India under the stalwarts like Gandhi, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru and many others had gained such a momentum that it made the British realize that they could no longer hold India in bondage to the crown. India had to be liberated sooner or later.
However, in their heart of hearts they also knew that they could not afford to leave India as a unified nation which could with its immense human and economic resources soon become a Super Power challenging their (British) and other Western countries’ authority in deciding the world affairs.
Attlee decided to act sooner rather than later and announced Independence for India in less than two years’ time - by June 1948. Such haste in the transfer of power, though viewed by some gullible Indians as a mark of victory for them was actually to serve the British sinister designs.
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