‘This is only a subterfuge on their part intended to mislead the Muslims…’ (Jinnah, 28 June 1947) On 3 June 1947, the British Government announced its acceptance of the principle of federation as suggested by the All-India Muslim League, i.e. two sovereign states should be formed in the Indian subcontinent on the basis of the …
Jinnah on the Congress demand for ‘Shariah’ rule Read More »
‘That is where I am at variance with the Congress. They do not want the independence of India…’ Jinnah, Central Legislative Assembly, 19 November 1940 Gandhi, the Indian National Congress, the Hindu Mahasabha, the All-India Hindu League, the Liberal Federation and some other little bodies were ‘one and the same,’ according to Jinnah. He called …
‘… the quickest way to achieve India’s freedom is by the acceptance of the Pakistan scheme …’ (Jinnah, Bombay, 9 August 1942) The third, and the most crucial point in Jinnah’s argument was that by demanding the partition of India on an equitable basis, the Indian Muslims demolished both pillars of British imperialism, and they …
‘Western democracy is totally unsuited to India and its imposition on India is the disease in the body-politic.’ Jinnah, Time and Tide (London), February 1940 As already mentioned, Jinnah believed that Western democracy was the second pillar of British imperialism (by Western democracy, he meant the form of constitution ‘under which the government of the …
The more I study the primary sources of the Pakistan movement, the more I feel that the history of the British period has seldom been written from the perspective of All-India Muslim League (which I dare call the Muslim point of view). Of course, there are a few exceptions such as Pakistan Naguzeer Thha by Syed Hasan …
The outline scheme of Swaraj drafted on the Congress Khilafat Swaraj Party, prepared by Mr. C. R. Das, was laid before a meeting of leading member of the New Party at Bombay on January 29, 1923. There was no time to discuss it properly. Many of the members present (from almost all the larger Congress …
It seems that both the liberals and the conservatives in Pakistan have been missing the main point of the Quaid’s famous speech. You are free; you are free to go to your temples; you are free to go to your mosques or to any other place of worship in this State of Pakistan. You may …
What the Quaid said on August 11, 1947, and how it has been distorted Read More »
Pakistan was created by a political organization but the organization was unlike any other. It was a new type, the technical term for which was ‘group organization’ (although the term was never used by Iqbal or the Quaid, but both were familiar with it). It was believed that the country could only be maintained through …
The first constituent assembly of Pakistan (then including the present-day Bangladesh) was inaugurated on 10 August 1947, and remained in existence till October 1954. The setting up of this assembly had been demanded by the Indian Muslims in the Delhi Resolution of April 1946, as an embodiment of the new state. Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah …
Two years from now many of us will be celebrating the centenary of the first publication of The New State but it can easily turn into the kind of thing the author despised so much: talking about concepts without having any practical purpose in mind. Perhaps it can be helpful if we recall that …