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Pakistan MovementThe Pakistan Movement or Tehrik-e-Pakistan has its origins in the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh (present day Uttar Pradesh). Muslims there were a minority, yet their elitehad a disproportionate amount of representation in the civil service and overall influence.The idea of Pakistan began from this part of Northern India, from the elite of this region

to popular following and then onwards to the rest of India.[1] The movement was led bylawyer Muhammad Ali Jinnah and such leaders as Allama Iqbal, Liaqat Ali Khan, FatimaJinnah, Bahadur Yar Jung, Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar, Huseyn ShaheedSuhrawardy, A.K. Fazlul Huq, and Sardar Abdur Rab Nishtar, Sir Ziauddin Ahmed.

Minority MuslimsMuhammad Ali Jinnah desired to build a state on a principle, composed of three parts,one nation, one culture, one language. Pakistan was to be the homeland of Muslims

belonging to British India. Jinnah represented the Muslims of the British Raj, who belonged to the provinces where Muslims were a minority, i.e., present-day Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat and Maharashtra. Muslims who migrated to Pakistan after the

partition are known as Muhajirs in Pakistan today.The replacement of Persian, in 1837, with English and the local languages, of the various provinces of British-ruled India, as official and court languages, resulted in Hindi beinggiven the same status as Urdu as an official language of the United Provinces of Agra andOudh. This made the Muslim elite wary. Furthermore, the democratization process by theBritish in the late 1800s, made these Muslims feel that they would lose all of their

privileged influence.In 1909, the British allowed their subjects elect part of their Legislative Councils. Thismove added further to the fears of marginalization among Muslims as they made up only20% of the population of British India and, to make matters worse, only a small number of them (20%) even bothered to vote (1881 census). The provinces where the Muslims

were a minority were the most alarmed, particularly those belonging to the UnitedProvinces of Agra and Oudh as the Muslim elite there had the most to lose. In the UnitedProvinces, Muslims made up only 13.4% of the population but held 45% of the civilservice jobs.In the late 1800s, the Muslims from the United Provinces assembled under Syed AhmedKhan. First of all, he wanted to improve education within his community. Toward thisgoal he founded the Muhammedan Anglo-Oriental College (MAO College) in Aligarh in1869 which later developed into the Aligarh Muslim University by 1911. MAO College

produced the first opponents of the Indian National Congress. Congress claimed torepresent all Indians, but Muslims made up only 6.6% of the delegates between 1892 and1909.The 1882 local self-government act had already troubled Syed Ahmed Khan. When, in1906, the British announced their intention to establish Legislative Councils, Muhsin al-Mulk, the secretary of MAO College, hoping to win a separate Legislative Council for Muslims, led a delegation to meet with Viceroy Lord Minto, a deal to which Mintoagreed because it followed the British divide and rule strategy.[citation needed] The UPMuslims were over-represented in the delegation, which included only seven Punjabisand one Bengali, totally out of proportion to their numbers.

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The role of the graduates from Aligarh in creating the Muslim League and then taking part in the Khilafat movement shows the significance of UP Muslims in the origin of Muslim separatist ideas in India. These Muslims actually had a sense of Muslim identity.Separatist feelings among Muslims developed due to not discrimination but social andeconomic factors. The Muslim elite of UP saw their influence being challenged by the

Hindu elite who benefited from their much more speedy integration into the Englishmedium education system.Though Muslim separatism was diluted as a result of the irregularity of socialdissatisfaction felt by the community, people from present-day Uttar Pradesh, Bihar,Gujarat (Jinnahs native state) and Maharashtra were anxious to distance themselves fromthe growing Hindu influence. However, the Muslims in majority from Greater Punjab,Greater Bengal, Sindh, and North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) did not share the samesentiment, as they ruled their own regions: Punjab and Bengal. Jinnahs task was toconvince these Muslims into backing the two-nation theory.For Jinnah, Islam laid a cultural base for an ideology of ethnic nationalism whoseobjective was to gather the Muslim community in order to defend the Muslim minorities.

Jinnahs representation of minority Muslims was quite apparent in 1928, when in the All-Party Muslim Conference, he was ready to swap the advantages of separate electoratesfor a quota of 33% of seats at the Centre. He maintained his views at the Round TableConferences, while the Muslims of Punjab and Bengal were vying for a much moredecentralized political setup. Many of their requests were met in the 1935 Government of India Act. Jinnah and the Muslim League played a peripheral role at the time and in 1937could manage to gather only 5% of the Muslim vote. Jinnah refused to back down andwent ahead with his separatist plan. He presented the two-nation theory in the nowfamous Lahore Resolution in March 1940, seeking a separate Muslim state,[2]The idea of a separate state had first been introduced by Allama Iqbal in his speech inDecember 1930 as the President of the Muslim League.[3]. The state that he visualizedincluded only Punjab, Sindh, North West Frontier Province (NWFP), and Balochistan.Three years later, the name Pakistan was proposed in a declaration in 1933 by ChoudharyRahmat Ali, a University of Cambridge graduate. Again, Bengal was left out of the

proposal.[4]. In the Lahore Resolution of March 1940, the proposed states nameremained unrecognized and its borders so undetermined that it was not clear whether there would be one Muslim state or two. It stated that the areas in which the Muslims arenumerically in a majority, as in the north-western and eastern zones of India should begrouped to constitute independent states in which the constituent units shall beautonomous and sovereign.Part of Jinnahs strategy to entice the leaders of those provinces who continued to opposethe idea of Pakistan was to present all the provinces as loose groupings of the state. The1937 election resulted in a major shift in Indian politics; the Congress won in seven

provinces and lost in four. The Congress success worried the Muslims. Jinnah graspedthis moment and suggested that Muslims would be left to contend with a Hindugovernment after the withdrawal of the British. He stated that Hindu Congress wasputting Islam in danger.

Conclusion

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In conclusion, Muslim separatism has its origin in the provinces where the minoritarianMuslims resided as they faced social and political marginalization. In 1946, the Muslimmajorities agreed to the idea of Pakistan, as a response to Congress, portrayed as theHindu party by Jinnah, winning in seven of the 11 provinces. This was a small momentof political unity as the Muslim League had not completely established itself in the

provinces where the Muslims were in a majority. The principal role of the Muslims of UPwas clearly visible from their over-representation in the governing body of the MuslimLeague. Prior to 1938, Bengal with 33 million Muslims had only ten representatives, lessthan the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh, which were home to only seven millionMuslims. The desire of the Muslim minorities to dominate a nation that was still to becreated, or whose creation had to be sustained, became obvious soon after Partition in1947, when a clause in the Lahore Resolution which stated that constituent units [of thestates to come] shall be autonomous and sovereign was not respected. This clause wasused only to bring on board Muslim majorities. Once Pakistan was born, there was nolonger any need to woo Muslims who were in majority in any region.

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WASHINGTON DIARY: Elimination of ideological boundaries Dr Manzur Ejaz

For Quaid-e-Azam, Pakistan was just a creation of a nation where the majority of citizens would be Muslims like Algeria, Turkey or Egypt. After their independencenone of these countries adopted theocratic rule

A few days back Prime Minister Gilani reiterated that the army is diligentlydefending Pakistans geographical and ideological boundaries. One would like tobelieve that Mr Gilani is just puttering the oft-repeated clich of ideological

boundaries. However, a closer examination shows that the ruling elites, while trying to

eliminate armed religious bands, are trying their best to cling to the ideological boundaries defined by Ziaul Haq and his pro-theocracy allies led by Jamaat-e-Islami (JI).

There were several questions regarding ideological boundaries that had to be addressed firstbefore the implementation of the concept, but Zia and his groomed military-civilian leadershipsnubbed the opposing views for political expediency of that period. First and foremost thequestion was: which religious school will be followed in defining the ideological boundaries?Will it be the Islam defined by the Sufis or by the mullahs? Second, how will the different sectsconsent to a consensus about the boundaries and third, can Pakistan claim to be a modernstate if the minorities are accorded second or third class citizenship?

The most powerful justification for imposing the ideological boundaries is given by the sloganthat Pakistan was created for Islam or Pakistan ka matlab kia, La Ilaha Illilah. Before 1970such slogans were very rare and Ayub Khans successful suppression, good or bad, of pro-

theocracy forces Maulana Maududi was sentenced to death and his life was spared due toexternal appeals shows that religious forces were not in a challenging position.

The religious grouping could not gain credence because they had opposed the creation of Pakistan and the founder of the nation, Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, who was quiteclear that Pakistan was not going to be an Islamic theocratic state. He was a westernisedliberal person with routines that would be prohibited by Ziaul Haqs defined ideologicalboundaries. I am sure the great Quaid would have spent his entire life behind bars if he hadcontinued with his breakfast and evening routines. For Quaid-e-Azam, Pakistan was just acreation of a nation where the majority of citizens would be Muslims like Algeria, Turkey or

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Egypt. After their independence none of these countries adopted theocratic rule.

The slogan mentioned above was popularised to combat Zulifkar Ali Bhutto and his PeoplesParty. The religious parties and traditional ruling classes perceived Bhutto as a mischief-makerintent upon unleashing, intentionally or otherwise, liberal and progressive trends. As a matterof fact, when the JI popularised the slogan Pakistan ka matlab kia, La Ilaha Illilah, Habib Jalibgave the real meaning to this slogan in his very famous poem of the time in these words:

Khait wadairon se lay lo, milein lutairon se ley lo,

Koi rehay na aali-jah, Pakistan ka matlab kia La Ilaha Illilah.

(Take the land from the feudal and mills from the exploiters. No super-citizen should exist anymore. This is the meaning of La Ilaha Illilah.)

Alas! Habib Jalib lost in defining the slogan and his opponents won even during Bhuttosregime when he declared Ahmadis a minority, banned liquor and racing and designated Fridayas a weekly holiday. Zia, supported and brought to power by the Pakistan National Alliance(PNA) a joint front of mullahs, ruling elites with tactical military support took Bhuttoshypocritical Islamisation to its logical conclusion.

After the ideological boundaries were fully defined, whatever happened was against every bigor small desire Habib Jalib had expressed in his memorable poem. Unlike 1970, land reforms,increasing labours share in industry, giving people shelter, bread, education and healthservices was never put on any partys election manifesto or were never made the focus of theelection debates. In the 1970 elections the atmosphere was so progressive that even the JIhad to insert a limit on land holdings in its manifesto.

So-called strengthening of the ideological boundaries freed everyone of social responsibilityand in a convoluted manner individuals went on a binge for personal gains. It was in directcontravention of Sufi Islam, where the individual was made responsible to himself and tofellow humans around him/her and the state or Shariah (state-imposed rules) had nothing todo with personal or societal well being. Sufi thought emerged as a revolt against the negativesocial experience under theocracy. The essence of Sufi thought sought love and liberationthrough personal efforts, leaving the worldly rule-making in the hands of the state. It meantthat the state should be secular and religious practices should be left to individuals.

The Sufis experience once again proved its validity. Except comforting the mullahs by banningalcohol, prostitution, gambling, etc., the imposition of so-called ideological boundaries gavebirth to every possible social ill. Not only the consumption of alcohol increased manifold,heroin and other fatal drugs became common. Prostitution, ousted from Shahi Mohallas,proliferated in every corner of every city. The only change that took place was that the policeand civil administration increased their income from pimps and bootleggers.

Besides the spread of social ills, ideological boundaries gave birth to quite expectedsectarianism. Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Sipah-e-Sahaba, Tanzim-i-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi(TNSM) and many other sectarian organisations created havoc in the country, unleashing themurders of innocent citizens. And it was the reign of demonological boundaries that gave birthto Salafi Islam that created the Taliban and other types of jihadis. It is interesting that otherthan Saudi Arabia, no Muslim country has emulated the Salafi version of Islam. It is alsonoteworthy that this version of Islam, prevailing in tribal Saudi Arabia, has resonated inlimited circles of Pashtun tribals (not among settled or urbanised Pashtuns) and nowhere else.Therefore, the entire gambit of ideological boundaries and its impact has to be re-examined.Eliminating the Taliban or the armed jihadis is just the starting point and the deep rootedideological troubles are not going to go away automatically.

The writer can be reached at manzurejaz@yahoo.com

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