The creation of Pakistan contained the germs of discord between "West Pakistanis" and Bangalis. Initially, the population of East Bengal supported the creation of Pakistan, that is, the partition of the Indian subcontinent into two constituent parts following the withdrawal and departure of the British. The Bengali support for the creation of Pakistan was a result of the transformation of the Bangalis in British occupied India. During the British rule in the Indian subcontinent, the dominant section of the Muslim upper class had two components, the zamindars (landlords) and the ulema (clergy). A few words about these "landlords" is absolutely necessary. The British consolidated their rule in Bengal by instituting the zamindars. The zamindari and-holding system gave the land-owners the right to crop share and revenue collection from the cultivators in the land entitled to them by the British. In return these land-owners would provide an annual entitlement charge to the colonial authorities. The Muslim League represented these "men of property and influence." In order to counter the Indian Congress' support among the nationalist Muslim communities as well as serve as a counter-weight to Indian nationalism, the Muslim League advanced the notion of "two-nation theory."
The communal separatists devised the "two-nation theory." This "theory" claimed that the Muslims and the Hindus in the subcontinent constituted two different and irreconcilable nationalities. This "theory" did not explain how in spite of vast class, linguistic, ethnic, social, and cultural differences, Muslims in the subcontinent constituted one nation, other than that the Muslim constitute a unified nation on a basis of "divine sanction."
The idea of a distinct state for the Indian Muslims was first proposed by Muhammed Iqbal; his scheme, which did not include Bengal, was confined to setting up a separate state for Indian Muslims in the North-West of the subcontinent. The name Pakistan was coined by Chaudhuri Rahmat Ali along with a group of students in Cambridge. Pakistan was an acronym that stood for Punjab, Afgania (Pathan), Kashmir, Sind, and istan, which is Persian for country. Hence, Rahmat Ali's scheme too failed to include the "lesser breed" of Bangali Muslims.
The demand for Pakistan was originally dismissed as a naive scheme. It was initially viewed as nothing more than a bargaining tool for the leaders of the Indian Muslims. Despite the incorporation of the demand for Pakistan into its program, the Muslim League failed to mobilize grass-root Muslim support for itself. This fact is reflected in the Muslim League inability to attain a majority among Indian Muslims prior to the election of 1946.
In its struggle for independence from the British, the Indian National Congress had utilized the religious sentiment of Muslims towards the Turkish Sultanate under the Caliphate title. The Muslims supported Turkey which had entered the First World War on the German side against the British. The Indian nationalist leaders built up the Khalifat movement against the British. However, the Khalifat movement died its natural death when Kamal Atuatur, the reformist dictator, abolished the nominal position of Caliphate in 1924. The Indian Congress' strength among Indian Muslims never quite reached the level that it had during the Khalifat movement. Subsequently, the Muslim League gained and exerted influence on the Muslim anti-colonialist movement.
It was Jinnah, earlier hailed as "the ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity," who led the demand for Pakistan under the slogan of "Divide and Quit." This demand was the political expression embodying the national aspirations of Muslim landlords, rising business men, civil servants, mullahs (priests), and religious pirs (saints). The demand for an independent state for Indian Muslims became a living force among the Muslim masses because of its appeal to Indian Muslims that they would have separate development free from what was described as Hindu domination and exploitation, with an opportunity for economic prosperity.
On March 23, 1940, the Muslim League adopted the Lahore Resolution, moved by Fazlul Huq of Bengal, which called for political independence by creating two states for Muslims. It stated:
The communal separatists devised the "two-nation theory." This "theory" claimed that the Muslims and the Hindus in the subcontinent constituted two different and irreconcilable nationalities. This "theory" did not explain how in spite of vast class, linguistic, ethnic, social, and cultural differences, Muslims in the subcontinent constituted one nation, other than that the Muslim constitute a unified nation on a basis of "divine sanction."
The idea of a distinct state for the Indian Muslims was first proposed by Muhammed Iqbal; his scheme, which did not include Bengal, was confined to setting up a separate state for Indian Muslims in the North-West of the subcontinent. The name Pakistan was coined by Chaudhuri Rahmat Ali along with a group of students in Cambridge. Pakistan was an acronym that stood for Punjab, Afgania (Pathan), Kashmir, Sind, and istan, which is Persian for country. Hence, Rahmat Ali's scheme too failed to include the "lesser breed" of Bangali Muslims.
The demand for Pakistan was originally dismissed as a naive scheme. It was initially viewed as nothing more than a bargaining tool for the leaders of the Indian Muslims. Despite the incorporation of the demand for Pakistan into its program, the Muslim League failed to mobilize grass-root Muslim support for itself. This fact is reflected in the Muslim League inability to attain a majority among Indian Muslims prior to the election of 1946.
In its struggle for independence from the British, the Indian National Congress had utilized the religious sentiment of Muslims towards the Turkish Sultanate under the Caliphate title. The Muslims supported Turkey which had entered the First World War on the German side against the British. The Indian nationalist leaders built up the Khalifat movement against the British. However, the Khalifat movement died its natural death when Kamal Atuatur, the reformist dictator, abolished the nominal position of Caliphate in 1924. The Indian Congress' strength among Indian Muslims never quite reached the level that it had during the Khalifat movement. Subsequently, the Muslim League gained and exerted influence on the Muslim anti-colonialist movement.
It was Jinnah, earlier hailed as "the ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity," who led the demand for Pakistan under the slogan of "Divide and Quit." This demand was the political expression embodying the national aspirations of Muslim landlords, rising business men, civil servants, mullahs (priests), and religious pirs (saints). The demand for an independent state for Indian Muslims became a living force among the Muslim masses because of its appeal to Indian Muslims that they would have separate development free from what was described as Hindu domination and exploitation, with an opportunity for economic prosperity.
On March 23, 1940, the Muslim League adopted the Lahore Resolution, moved by Fazlul Huq of Bengal, which called for political independence by creating two states for Muslims. It stated:
"the areas in which the Muslims are numerically in a majority as in the North-Western and Eastern Zones of India should be grouped to constitute 'Indian States' in which the constituent units shall be autonomous and sovereign."
The Lahore Resolution, which later came to be widely discussed and debated, was effectively by-passed by the Delhi Resolution. Moved by H.S.Suhrawardy of Bengal and adopted in the Muslim League Legislators' Convention on April 9, 1946, it stated:
"any formula devised by the British Government for transferring power from the British to the people of India...will not contribute to the solution of the Indian problem [unless]...the Zones comprising Bengal and Assam in the North-East, and the Punjab, the NWFP, Sind and Baluchistan in the North-West of India...be constituted into one sovereign independent state and...implement the establishment of Pakistan...two separate constitution-making bodies be set up for Pakistan and Hindustan" (emphasis added).
Pakistan, as it came into being, was the paradigm of an artificial state. This newly independent state was a geographical anomaly; it was separated into two parts by approximately 1,600 kilometers of Indian territory. The Western part consisted of the provinces of Sind, Baluchistan, North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), and a divided section of the Punjab, while the Eastern part consisted solely of East Bengal.
The socio-cultural diversity between the two wings of Pakistan was enormous. In fact, this diversity was extended even to the very basis, the ideological pretext, that is, the religion of the people, which was to serve as the unifying force in this country; Islam was understood, interpreted, and exercised in different ways in these two separate wings. The history of Islam in "West Pakistan" and East Bengal was completely dissimilar.
In spite of having established Pakistan on the basis of the "two-nation theory," a section of the high command of the Muslim League still retained the idea of establishing a secular parliamentary state. The contradiction in the position was clearly spelt out in Jinnah's inaugural address to the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan on August 11, 1947. He declared:
The socio-cultural diversity between the two wings of Pakistan was enormous. In fact, this diversity was extended even to the very basis, the ideological pretext, that is, the religion of the people, which was to serve as the unifying force in this country; Islam was understood, interpreted, and exercised in different ways in these two separate wings. The history of Islam in "West Pakistan" and East Bengal was completely dissimilar.
In spite of having established Pakistan on the basis of the "two-nation theory," a section of the high command of the Muslim League still retained the idea of establishing a secular parliamentary state. The contradiction in the position was clearly spelt out in Jinnah's inaugural address to the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan on August 11, 1947. He declared:
"Any idea of a United India could have never worked and...would have led us to a terrific disaster...we should begin to work in that spirit and in course of time all these angularities of the majority and minority communities---the Hindu community and the Muslim community---because even as regards Muslims you have Pathans, Punjabis, Shias, Sunnis and so on and among the Hindus you have Brahmins, Vashnavas, Khatris, also Bengalees, Madrasis, and so on---will vanish...this [difference] has been the biggest hindrance on the way of India to attain her freedom and independence and but for this we would have been a free people long ago...you are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other places of worship in this state of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed---that has nothing to do with the business of the State. We are starting with this fundamental principle that we are all citizens and equal citizens of one State...you will find that in course of time, Hindus and Muslims would cease to be Hindus and Muslims, not in the religious sense, because that is the personal faith of each individual, but in the political sense as citizens of the State" (emphasis added).
The theoretical confusion and the opportunistic nature of Pakistan's ruling elite is clear in Jinnah's inaugural speech.
The Pakistani ruling-class, having established the state of Pakistan on the basis of the "two-nation theory," could not find the ideological justification for establishing a secular state. The mullahs and the right-wing elements in the Muslim League wanted Pakistan to be a state with "pan-Islamic ideals" since Pakistan, they claimed, was not merely a state for Indian Muslims but also a "Muslim State." The mullahs and their allies argued that since Pakistani was established to be a state for the Muslims in India, the state structure and its laws should be based upon the precepts laid in the medieval religious laws. Yet, the liberal bourgeois component of the Pakistani ruling class wanted to establish a secular state that functioned on the basis of civic laws. If, indeed, religion had nothing to do with "the business of the State," then why carve a separate state for Indian Muslims? The Pakistani ruling elite were confronted with the dilemma of over-riding their own claim that Pakistan was to be an Islamic state for Indian Muslims. The liberal bourgeoisie could not justify advancing secularism in Pakistan since the state was established on the basis that Muslims in India constitute not just a distinct religious community, but a separate nation. That the Indian Muslims did not constitute one homogenous nationality became apparent in the confrontation of nationalities in the state of Pakistan and the eventual secession of East Bengal from Pakistan. The secession of East Bengal demonstrated that the claims of national unity based upon religious conceptions could not prevent the disintegration of the state of Pakistan.
The Pakistani ruling-class, having established the state of Pakistan on the basis of the "two-nation theory," could not find the ideological justification for establishing a secular state. The mullahs and the right-wing elements in the Muslim League wanted Pakistan to be a state with "pan-Islamic ideals" since Pakistan, they claimed, was not merely a state for Indian Muslims but also a "Muslim State." The mullahs and their allies argued that since Pakistani was established to be a state for the Muslims in India, the state structure and its laws should be based upon the precepts laid in the medieval religious laws. Yet, the liberal bourgeois component of the Pakistani ruling class wanted to establish a secular state that functioned on the basis of civic laws. If, indeed, religion had nothing to do with "the business of the State," then why carve a separate state for Indian Muslims? The Pakistani ruling elite were confronted with the dilemma of over-riding their own claim that Pakistan was to be an Islamic state for Indian Muslims. The liberal bourgeoisie could not justify advancing secularism in Pakistan since the state was established on the basis that Muslims in India constitute not just a distinct religious community, but a separate nation. That the Indian Muslims did not constitute one homogenous nationality became apparent in the confrontation of nationalities in the state of Pakistan and the eventual secession of East Bengal from Pakistan. The secession of East Bengal demonstrated that the claims of national unity based upon religious conceptions could not prevent the disintegration of the state of Pakistan.
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