MAKING OF AN IDEOLOGICAL STATE

BORNEO BULLETIN, 14th August 1996

            The emergence of Pakistan is not a usual historical development in the course of history. Not only is the course of movement which led to the creation of Pakistan special, but the motivation and purpose is also unique. Pakistan's creation is the fruit of an ideological movement.

There are days, which have special meanings in the history of nations. For Pakistan, 14^th August is a day when the dream of the poet-philosopher Allama Iqbal and the indomitable force of will of the lawyer-turned-nationalist leader, Mohammed Ali Jinnah were realized.

On this day the two-nation theory became a living example. The Muslims of India in particular and the world in general saw the creation of an ideological state. On 14^th August there came into existence, Pakistan, the largest Muslim state and the fifth largest state in the world.

When it was founded, many were skeptical about its survival. Pakistan has come a long way since its creation. Today, despite many social and economic problems, the country is self-sufficient in many consumer goods and is also making rapid progress in the establishment of sophisticated capital goods industries.

Bearing in mind what Pakistan had to start with and the difficulties it had to face along the way, what it is today is no small achievement. Today, it is one of the most developed Muslim countries with a solid and impressive scientific, economic, agricultural and industrial infrastructure. It is also one of the relatively more stable countries in Central and South Asia. Pakistan, rich in history, culture and landscape, with a massive work force has a potential for developing into a promising modern Islamic state.

14^th August is a special day of joy for Pakistanis as on this day, 49 years ago; they became citizens of an ideological state of their aspirations. But this day also reminds Pakistanis of the sacrifices they had to pay to achieve their goal. Partition of Akhund Bharat, India, had its price. The partition saw the biggest and bloodiest migration in history, millions killed and millions uprooted. In the great migration of 1947, 15 million people crossed the new borders, dividing families and beliefs. The sacrifices were immense. Independence Day thus also brings to mind sad memories for Pakistanis.

For the Muslim community of undivided India, the closing decades of the 19^th century and the early decades of the 20^th, were a period of acute mental confusion and emotional distress. The downfall of the Muslim Mughal empire, the bloody reprisals that followed the uprisings against British authority in 1857, the extinction of the privileges, values and usages of the old feudal order, the ascendancy of their non-Muslim compatriots to most available positions of power and wealth sorely lacerated the collective mind.

Adversity had also made them kin to the other Muslim peoples beyond their borders who were similarly afflicted, namely, the Ottoman Turks, Arabs of the Middle East, Libyans, Moroccans and Tunisians. They awaited a consoling and uplifting voice to lead them out of their wilderness and despond.

Leading voices of an earlier era, the timid voice of liberal reformists urging them to come to terms with the alien ways of their British rulers and the strident voice of religious divines exhorting them to reject the blandishments of the infidel and return to the fold of ancestral tradition, no longer appealed to the new intelligentsia.

Allama Iqbal, the poet-philosopher, was best attuned to the sources of the nature of their intellectual and spiritual malaise of the giants of modernism and tradition pulling at their wrists. Over the years he chiseled out his answers to the contemporary social, political and religious problems of Indian Muslims in particular.

Not only Iqbal see in Pakistan the only solution of the political, social and economic ills of the Muslims living in the subcontinent, he also realized that the man who alone could achieve it was Mohammed Ali Jinnah.

Few individuals significantly alter the course of history, says the writer Stanley Wolpert. Fewer still modify the map of the world: Hardly anyone can be credited with creating a nation-state. Mohammed Ali Jinnah did all three.

Hailed as the Great Leader (Quaid-i-Azam) of Pakistan, he virtually conjured that country into statehood by the force of his indomitable will. His place of primacy in Pakistan's history looms like a lofty minaret over the achievements of all his contemporaries in India.

He was one of recent history's most charismatic leaders. Quaid-i-Azam's shrewd and skillful leadership combined brilliant advocacy and singular tenacity to win his suit for the creation of Pakistan on behalf of the Muslim Nation.

In a letter to Quaid-i-Azam, Iqbal wrote in 1937: 'you are the only Muslim in India today to whom the community has the right to look up for safe guidance through the storm which is coming to North-West India, and perhaps to the whole of India'.

Iqbal enunciated his cherished ideals for Indian Muslims in an address in 1930 in the following words: 'One lesson I have learnt from the history of Muslims. At critical moments in their history it is Islam that has saved Muslims and not vice-versa … The meaning of this, however, will dawn upon you only when you have achieved a real collective ego to look at them. In the words of the Quran, Hold fast to yourself; no one erreth can heart you, provided you are well guided.' Seventeen years later on 14^th August 1947 the truth and meaning of these words actually dawned upon the Muslims when Pakistan was created.