Pakistan : As Envisaged by Allama Iqbal and Quaid-e-Azam M.A. Jinnah

A strange phenomenon indeed that even after a lapse of 62 years of Pakistan having come into existence, a controversy is still raging as to which type of system was intended to be implemented here Secular, Theocratic or any other. A group of so- called intellectuals opine that the architect of Pakistan, Quaid-i- Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, wanted it to emerge as a Secular State. They base their arguments exclusively on Quaid’s address to the Constituent Assembly on August 11,1947 .On the other hand, there is the religious orthodoxy, that had initially opposed the very creation of Pakistan under the pretext that since they had been promised by the Indian National Congress, that the Muslims would be free to discharge their religious obligations freely in India after independence, there was no need to create a separate state for the Indian Muslims. However, no sooner did Pakistan come into existence, these so- called “ Ulema” flocked to the new born state and had the temerity to claim that since Pakistan was created in the name of Islam, they only were the competent authority to determine the Islamic system to be implemented here .Now, who does not know, that their’s is essentially a retrogressive and purely ritualistic brand of “ Islam”, which they intend to impose, here forcibly.

Best way to resolve this riddle is to learn the truth from the proverbial “horse’s mouth” Who can be the better judge to resole the dilemma than the founders of Pakistan, namely, Allama Iqbal, who conceived the idea of a separate state for the Indian Muslims and Quaid-i-Azam M.A. Jinnah , who realized Iqbal’s dream by securing a country for them— the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, . Given here under, are excerpts from the speeches and addresses of these giants, to make the issue crystal clear.

Iqbal, the spiritual father of Pakistan, who conceived the idea of a separate state for the Muslims of the Indian sub-continent, said during his presidential address at the annual session of the All India Muslim League at Allahabad in 1930, that” India was the biggest Islamic country and in it Islam could be sustained as a living cultural entity only if it was centralized in a specific territory.( for that, he demanded ) formation of a consolidated Muslim State in the best interest of India and Islam. For India, it means security and peace resulting from an internal balance of power; for Islam an opportunity to rid itself of the stamp that Arabic Imperialism was forced to give it, to mobilize its laws, its education, its customs, its culture, and to bring them in close contact with its own original spirit and with the spirit of modern times”.

The Founder’s Vision and Ideology

Sir Syed Ahmed Khan first mooted the idea of an independent Muslim nation in late nineteenth century. Subsequently Allama Sir Muhammad. Iqbal in 1930 proposed the establishment of an independent Muslim state in the northwestern part of the Asian Subcontinent. However the idea of Pakistan was first propounded by Mr Ch. Rehmat Ali in his pamphlet “Now or Never” in 1933. At that time the Muslim League leadership including Mr Jinnah did not support or even consider it. Up till that time Mr Jinnah was an ardent supporter of Hindu-Muslim unity in British India. The Manchester Guardian best describes his attitude and views of that period “Mr Jinnah’s position at the Round Table Conference was unique. The Hindus thought he was a Muslim communalist, the Muslims took him to be pro-Hindu, the princes deemed him to be too democratic, the British considered him an extreme nationalist, with the result that he was a leader without a following.”

Jinnah's Vision of Pakistan

By Sharif al Mujahid

For some years now, Quaid-e-Azam Jinnah's vision of Pakistan has been a source of controversy and conflict. Much of this has however tried to cut Jinnah to fit a predetermined image. A close look at Jinnah's long and chequered public life, encompassing some forty-four years (1904-48), helps determine the core values he was committed to throughout his political career.

This paper examines how Jinnah’s politics evolved through main phases, which, though distinct, yet merged into the next, without sudden shifts. It analyses how his liberalism underwent an apparent paradigmatic shift from 1937 onwards, and led to him advocating the charismatic goal of Pakistan, and to elucidate it primarily in Islamic terms. Finally, the Islamic strain in his post independence pronouncements and his 11 August 1947 address is discussed, and an attempt made to reconcile it with his other pronouncements.

Jinnah as Liberal

In the first phase of his public life (1904-20) three main influences shaped Jinnah's personality and politics:

• Nineteenth century British liberalism, first absorbed during his four-years' (1892-96) stay in England as a student of law,

• The cosmopolitan atmosphere and mercantile background of metropolitan Bombay where he had established himself as an extremely successful barrister since the turn of the century, and

• His close professional and personal contact with the Parsis, who, though only a tiny community provided an example of how initiative, enterprise and hard work could overcome numerical inferiority, racial prejudice and communal barriers.

These formative influences seem to have prompted Jinnah to join the Indian National Congress. Fashioned after liberal principles and cast in their mould, the Congress was at that time pledged to take India on the road to self-government through constitutional means. Soon enough, he rose high in its echelons, high enough to be its 'spokesman' for its representation to the Secretary of State on the reform of the India Council in May 1914. Jinnah believed in moderation, gradualism, ordered progress, evolutionary politics, democratic norms, and above all, in constitutionalism. When the Congress sought to abandon these liberal principles in 1920 and opted for revolution and extra constitutional methods, he walked out of the Congress for good.