Interaction Team
The story of the Pakistan Movement is a mesmerizing journey filled with both celebrated and overlooked events that bring tears to the eyes and stir the soul when imagined. Here, we aim to provide a brief and balanced account of this extraordinary chapter in history. According to Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the father of the nation, the Pakistan Movement began when the first Muslim, Muhammad bin Qasim, set foot on the soil of Sindh, the gateway of Islam in India. However, for a more focused narrative, we start from the early 20th century. For the most part, this movement was a political and nationalist struggle for Muslim self-determination under British rule, with the ultimate goal of establishing an independent country for Muslims in British India.
If the history of the movement is examined, it can be seen that the Aligarh Movement, led by Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, laid the groundwork for the Pakistan Movement by fostering a sense of identity and purpose among Muslims, eventually supplying the new nation with its leading figures. The formation of the All-India Muslim League marked the formal commencement of the Pakistan Movement. Many of its leaders were educated in Great Britain, including graduates from Aligarh Muslim University and the University of Dhaka. Interestingly, it was the Muslim community from the minority provinces, like the United Provinces, that predominantly pushed the movement forward, rather than those from the Muslim-majority areas.
The Pakistan Movement was inherently linked to the broader Indian independence struggle but gradually evolved to seek a separate state that safeguarded the political rights of Muslims in British India. Along with the political leadership, Literary figures like poets Iqbal, the spiritual father of the movement, and Faiz, along with revered religious scholars like Ashraf Ali Thanwi, lent their voices and support to the cause. Within the Deobandi school of thought, there were divergent views. Leaders like Hussain Ahmed Madani of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind advocated for a united India under composite nationalism, while Ashraf Ali Thanwi and his followers, including Shabbir Ahmad Usmani, Zafar Ahmad Usmani, and Mufti Muhammad Shafi, provided religious support for the creation of Pakistan. Shabbir Ahmad Usmani’s faction broke away from the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind to form the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, backing the movement for an independent Pakistan. In recognition of their contributions, Usmani was honored with the privilege of raising the Pakistani flag in Karachi, while Zafar Ahmad Usmani did the same in Dhaka.
Thus, the Pakistan Movement was not just a political struggle but a tapestry woven with cultural, educational, and religious endeavors, each playing a pivotal role in the creation of a new homeland for Muslims in the subcontinent. Despite numerous political challenges and social hurdles, the Pakistan Movement ultimately triumphed, leading to the establishment of Pakistan on 14 August 1947.
During the early 19th century, Lord Macaulay’s radical educational reforms introduced Western languages like English and Latin, along with Western history and philosophy, into the curriculum. These changes led to the exclusion of religious studies and traditional languages such as Arabic, Turkish, and Persian from state universities. By 1835, English had become the official language, replacing Persian, which left many who had built careers around the latter language at a disadvantage. Traditional Hindu and Islamic studies lost support from the British Crown, and many madrasahs lost their financial endowment.
Amid these transformations, Sir Syed Ahmad Khan emerged as an inspirational figure for the Pakistan Movement. While few Muslim families sent their children to English universities, the Bengali Renaissance had made the Hindu population more educated, enabling them to secure lucrative positions in the Indian Civil Service and rise to influential posts in the British government. In 1930, Allama Muhammad Iqbal delivered a famous speech at the Allahabad annual session, which is often regarded as the inception of the idea for a separate state, later known as Pakistan.
Class conflict in colonial India took on a religious dimension, with Muslims generally being agriculturists and soldiers, while Hindus were increasingly seen as successful financiers and businessmen. According to historian Spear, an industrialized India was perceived by Muslims as a Hindu-dominated India. Sir Syed Ahmad Khan played a crucial role in transforming the cultural and religious identity of Indian Muslims into a separatist political force, framing nationalism within an Islamic context. The distinct sense of value, culture, and tradition among Indian Muslims persisted since the Muslim conquests in the subcontinent.
At the dawn of the twentieth century, a number of factors convinced the Muslims of the need to have an effective political organization. Therefore, in October 1906, a deputation comprising 35 Muslim leaders met the Viceroy of the British at Simla and demanded separate electorates. Three months later, the All-India Muslim League was founded by Nawab Salimullah Khan in Dhaka, mainly with the objective of safeguarding the political rights and interests of the Muslims. The British conceded separate electorates in the Government of India Act of 1909, which confirmed the Muslim League’s position as an All-India party.
The visible trend of the two major communities progressing in opposite directions caused deep concern to leaders of All-India stature. They struggled to bring the Congress and the Muslim League onto one platform. Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah was the leading figure among them. After the annulment of the partition of Bengal and the European Powers’ aggressive designs against the Ottoman Empire and North Africa, the Muslims were receptive to the idea of collaboration with the Hindus against the British rulers.
The Congress-Muslim League rapprochement was achieved at the Lucknow sessions of the two parties in 1916, and a joint scheme of reforms was adopted. In the Lucknow Pact, as the scheme was commonly referred to, the Congress accepted the principle of separate electorates, and the Muslims, in return for ‘weightage’ to the Muslims of the Muslim minority provinces, agreed to surrender their thin majorities in the Punjab and Bengal. The post-Lucknow Pact period witnessed Hindu-Muslim amity, and the two parties came to hold their annual sessions in the same city, passing resolutions of identical content.
The peak of Hindu-Muslim unity was noticeable during the Khilafat and Non-cooperation Movements. In the aftermath of the First World War, the Ali Brothers, Maulana Muhammad Ali, and Maulana Shaukat Ali spearheaded the historic Khilafat Movement. Their mission was to safeguard the Ottoman Empire from being dismantled. At this juncture, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, seeing an opportunity to unite the Indian populace, intertwined the Khilafat issue with the quest for Swaraj or self-government, thereby bringing the Hindus into the fold. This collaboration birthed the first nationwide popular movement in India.
Though the Khilafat Movement did not meet its intended goals but its impact on South Asian Muslims was profound. For the first time in a long while, they collectively rallied around a purely Islamic cause, fostering a fleeting but significant sense of unity. This movement also cultivated a cadre of Muslim leaders adept at public organization and mobilization, skills that proved invaluable in the later Pakistan Movement. However, the movement’s failure ushered in an era of intense Hindu-Muslim antagonism. The Hindus initiated the Shudhi and Sangathan movements, aiming to convert Muslims to Hinduism and to solidify Hindu unity in the face of communal tensions. In response, Muslims launched the Tabligh and Tanzim organizations to counter these efforts. The 1920s saw an extraordinary frequency of communal riots, and despite numerous Hindu-Muslim unity conferences, the fires of communalism burned unabated.
In this environment of discord, Muslims revisited their constitutional demands. They sought the preservation of their numerical majorities in Punjab and Bengal, the separation of Sindh from Bombay, the establishment of Balochistan as a separate province, and the introduction of constitutional reforms in the North-West Frontier Province. To advance these demands, a faction of the All-India Muslim League decided to cooperate with the British Government’s statutory commission, led by Sir John Simon, in 1927.
The Simon Commission later on itself became a point of contention. While one section of the League engaged with the commission despite being composed entirely of White members, another faction chose to collaborate with the Nehru Committee, formed by the All-Parties Conference to draft a constitution for India. The Nehru Report, however, was glaringly anti-Muslim, and the Congress leadership’s refusal to amend it led to a deep disappointment among even the moderate Muslims…
