Author: Prafull Goradia
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: April 14, 2007
While sponsoring the Pakistan Resolution on
March 23, 1940, Jinnah elucidated as to what the Muslims were. In his own
words, "Muslims are not a minority; they are a nation, of a nation and
they must have their homeland, their territory and their state. We wish to
live in peace and harmony with our neighbours as a free and independent people.
We wish our people to develop to the fullest our spiritual, cultural, economic,
social and political life in a way that we think best".
Jinnah hailed from Saurashtra, a peninsula
in Gujarat. He spoke either Gujarati or English. He was born an Ismaili Khoja.
He was not at home with Urdu. While the bulk of his political support came
from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, his financiers were Gujarat Muslims, whether
Khoja, Bohra or Memon. These facts underline that he did not really represent
the heartland of what is Pakistan. Yet, he is still the acknowledged father
of Pakistan and no President of that country comes on television without his
portrait in the background.
In essence, what Jinnah spoke was the true
voice of the sub-continental Muslim. He was a life president of the Muslim
League when he led the 1945-46 general election. The League won an overwhelming
mandate for what was a one-point programme of the party, namely, Partition.
On obtaining the mandate, his party's demand was for an exchange of population.
Shaukat Hayat Khan, Mohd Ismail of Madras,
Raja Ghazanfar Ali Khan and Ismail Chundrigar of Godhra queued up to articulate
that the Muslims of what will remain as Hindustan must be allowed to migrate
to their holy land. On April 8, 1946, Sir Feroze Khan Noon went to the extent
of threatening the re-enactment of the murderous orgies of Changez Khan and
Halaqu Khan if non-Muslims took up an obstructive attitude against population
exchange.
These statements were reported by The Dawn
which was then published in Delhi and later transferred to Karachi. On December
3, the Nawab of Mamdot, on the next day the Bihar Muslims League as well as
the Sindh leaders Pir Ilahi Bux and Ghulam Hussain Hidayatullah, were vociferous
on the same demand. But before that, in a press conference at Karachi on November
25, Jinnah said: "I am of the opinion that the authorities, both central
and provincial, should take up immediately the question of exchange of population".
To sum up, the unquestioned leaders of the
Muslims of the sub-continent had three central points to make. One, that the
Muslims are not a minority but a separate nation, distinct from non-Muslims.
Two, they are civilisationally different and, therefore, cannot flourish without
their own homeland.
Three, that all the momins of the sub-continent
must gather in the holy land. By implication, all the kafirs should transfer
to Hindustan. Mr Manmohan Singh as well as former Prime Minister IK Gujral
are two outstanding examples of the resulting hijrat from Pakistan.
The concept of 'minority' is of European origin.
Most people on the continent were Christian. Almost every country had some
Jews and many a pocket of eastern Europe was Muslim. In enclaves like Bosnia,
Albania as well as Turkey, it was the Christians who needed protection.
The concept of 'minority' became formal after
the League of Nations debated the issue after World War I on the ruins of
the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires. Broadly, two solutions were considered
to deal with people in smaller numbers. One answer was to ask countries to
offer safeguards to the 'minorities' whereby they would not suffer discrimination.
To restate this point, the effort was to ensure equal rights and not superior
privileges.
The second solution was an exchange of population.
For example, under the Treaty of Lausanne, 1923, the League of Nations supervised
the transfer of most Christians from Turkey to Greece and the migration of
most Muslims from Greece to Turkey. Similarly, the Turko-Bulgarian exchange
took place.
Posterity found the second solution preferable.
Neither Turkey nor Greece nor Bulgaria has had any communal clashes since
then. But Bosnia, Kosovo, Serbia as well as Russia have witnessed fighting.
The Indian experience has been different.
Since the advent of Mohammed bin Qasim into Sindh in 711 AD, there was, for
the following thousand years, a crawling flood of Islamic conquests. Except
for the far south, most parts of the country came under the Muslim yoke. As
a corollary, most rulers imposed jizya or poll tax on non-Muslims and gave
them the status of dhimmi or second class citizens.
The shari'ah was supreme and the Islamic world
recognised India as a dar-ul Islam. The conquered lands which were distributed
to the followers of the conquerors, were given away as wakfs. India became
a dar-ul harb only after the British government assumed direct control over
the Indian empire in 1858.
The Muslim population at that time was 15
per cent. Evidently, the minority ruled a majority for many centuries in most
parts of the country. With the advent of the British, Muslims also became
subjects like Hindus.
At the turn of the 20th century, the myth
of 'minority' began to be discussed. The British also played along with the
new myth because it suited them for the purpose of divide and rule. The self-proclaimed
Muslim minority had little interest in safeguards. Instead, they insisted
on parity with Hindus. The high watermark of parity was reached when the British
government conceded the right of the Muslim League to have an equal number
of ministers in the pre-Partition cabinet at New Delhi.
In any case, until it suited Nehruvian politics,
'minority' was seldom on the minds of Muslims. They believed themselves to
be a separate nation. This justified their demand for Partition. A minority,
as understood in Europe, was supposed to be patriotic. Its members were loyal
citizens but because they belonged to a different religion or ethnicity, they
needed safeguards.
On the other hand, they were punishable, including
as traitors, in the event of disloyalty. Secession resulting in Pakistan should
have been treated as treason if the Muslims were to claim to be a minority.
It is only because they claimed to be a nation that they were given a separate
homeland.
