HVK Archives: Golden thought: Let's celebrate the end of Raj too
Golden thought: Let's celebrate the end of Raj too - The Asian Age
M H Askari
()
5 May 1997
Title : Golden thought: Let's celebrate the end of Raj too
Author : M H Askari
Publication : The Asian Age
Date : May 5, 1997
In the general excitement of the celebration of the 50 years of Pakistan, the fact
that the year 1997 also marks the golden jubilee of the end of the British Raj in
the subcontinent appears to have been relegated to the background. In the various
programmes drawn up to mark the 50th anniversary of the birth of Pakistan, the
emphasis seems to be on the fact of partition rather than on the end of foreign
domination - an event that deserves to be celebrated with an equal, if not perhaps
greater, fervour.
If the establishment of Pakistan on August 14, 1947 was the glorious culmination
point of the long struggle of the Muslims to establish their identity as a
separate nation, the struggle itself grew out of the larger freedom movement, to
which the Muslims of the subcontinent contributed quite as much as the other
communities. Indeed, liberation from foreign domination was of special
significance for the Muslims as it was with the dethronement of the last Mughal
Emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar, that the British succeeded in bringing the
subcontinent under their colonial rule.
Although the process of disintegration of the Mughal empire had started more than
a century earlier, it was in 1857 that it met its formal demise. This did not
happen without a full-fledged revolt against the British in which practically all
sections of the society participated. The revolt was suppressed with great
ruthlessness and with Bahadur Shah Zafar and his progeny being made prisoner and
remorselessly persecuted. However, even after the revolt was put down, the spirit
behind it 'was never extinguished. On the contrary, it continued to manifest
itself in various forms with greater or lesser intensity until 1947, when the
British found themselves confronted with no option but to withdraw. The creation
of Pakistan in 1947 was the result of a chain of events that was set into motion
with the revolt in 1857.
Even though the Muslim leadership was prominent in the overall freedom struggle
from the outset, there is a tendency in Pakistan to look upon it somewhat
apologetically since the Congress played a dominant role in it. The fact that for
quite some time the Congress and the Muslim League pursued their political
objectives concurrently, almost as part of the same mainstream, is often played
down. It is also frequently not realised that what eventually concretised in the
end of the British Raj may not have at all come about without the militant nature
of some of the earliest revolutionary movements launched by prominent Muslim
religious leaders and intellectuals. It was Saiyyid Ahmad Barelwi under whose
leadership a jihad was launched against the Sikh conquest of the Punjab and the
Frontier towards the latter part of the 18th century, and it was Shah Abdul Aziz,
the son of the great scholar Shah Waliullah, who about the same period issued the
fatwa that with the ascent of the British, India had come under Christian
domination and was virtually dar-ul-harb.
The origin of the two-nation theory is often traced to Sir Saiyyid (181798) who
emerged as the leading Muslim reformer and thinker after the revolt of 1857 and
who launched a crusade not only to salvage Muslims from their strong sense of
defeatism after the loss of the Mughal empire but also against the religious
obscurantists who were beginning to gain the leadership of the Muslims. Prof.
Khalid Bin Sayeed strongly disputes that Sir Saiyyid, even though he counselled
Muslims against joining the Indian National Congress, should be regarded as
anti-Hindu. He quotes Sir Saiyyid as describing India as a beautiful bride whose
two eyes were Hindu and Muslim but also points out that Sir Saiyyid stressed that
the beauty of India depended upon the fact that the two eyes shone with equal
lustre. However, Sir Saiyyid was opposed to wholesale extension of representative
government to India as he believed that majority government was possible in a
society where the voters belonged to a homogeneous nation.
It is not without significance that when the Muslims came increasingly under the
influence of Western education and culture, the educated Muslim elite felt that
Hindus and Muslims should get together to evolve a common nationality and serve
their country by awakening public opinion in favour of political reforms. Prof.
Khalid Bin Sayeed recalls that the Quaid-i-Azam began his political career with
such ideals, and believes that the liberal sections of the Muslim League, led by
the Quaid-i-Azam, succeeded in persuading both the Congress and the Muslim League
to hold their annual sessions in Bombay in 1915. Again, in 1916, the two parties
held their annual sessions in Lucknow. Presiding over the League session,
Quaid-i-Azam expressed the view that "towards the Hindus our attitude should be of
goodwill and brotherly feelings and cooperation in the cause of our motherland
should be our guiding principle." He also brought about what came to be known as
the Lucknow Pact through which the Congress conceded the principle of separate
electorates to the Muslims and in return the Muslims were guaranteed a share of
seats in all provinces. However, it was the infamous Nehru Report dealing with
the communal problem which marked the beginning of the divergence in the politics
of Muslims and Hindus.
It is relevant to recall that Muslims took a leading part in several of the
revolutionary movements which were launched during the freedom struggle. The
Ghadar Party was part of the revolutionary movements. Prominent among its leaders
were Shaikh-ul-Hind, Maulana Mahmud Hasan, Maulvi Obaidullah Sindhi, Maulvi
Barkatullah, Maulana Hussain Ahmad Madni. During World War I, a "provisional
government" of (free) India was established in Kabul which included Maulana
Obaidullah Sindhi and Maulana Barkatullah, among others. The "provisional
government" sent missions to Russia, Turkey and Japan for soliciting their aid in
liberating India. Efforts were also made to raise troops which included, among
others, a large number of Punjabi young men who had migrated to Kabul under the
Hijrat movement. Maulana Obaidullah Sindhi was a witness to three revolutions -
one in Kabul, another in Russia and a third in Turkey.
In his Our Freedom Fighters (first published in 1969), G. Allana has given a
graphic account of his meetings with Maulana Obaidullah Sindhi' in Karachi in the
early Forties. He recalls that the Maulana was a revolutionary whom Jawaharlal
Nehru had praised in his autobiography.
Allana says that the Maulana Sahib made no secret of his disagreement with
Gandhiji on many issues of fundamental importance, and quotes him as having said:
"Gandhiji wrongly believes that he can take India back thousands of years. He
forgets that there lives in India another nation, with another language, a new
culture, a new way of thinking and this nation has as much right in India as
Gandhiji has.." Allana also says that Maulana Obaidullah had started a new
political party known as Jumna, Narbada, Sindh, Sagar Party with its offices in
Karachi, Lahore and Delhi. The aim of his party was that "India should not be
considered as one country but. like Europe, it should be divided on linguistic and
cultural lines."
Fifty years after the end of the British Raj, it seems important to remember that
in the struggle, for independence the people who now belong to three separate
countries, Pakistan, India and Bangladesh, were inspired by one and the same
motivating ideal - freedom. A befitting way to commemorate the moments of struggle
would perhaps be by having at least one joint programme for celebrating the golden
jubilee.
(By arrangement with Dawn)
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