Lot
of opinions for and against have been expressed
on the views of Maulana Azad. The fact is that
Maulana Azad was no doubt an Aaalim of repute
but he remained with the Congress party and did
not favour the creation of Pakistan and neither
he joined the Muslim League. Our Quaide Azam was
also a member of the Congress party but he left
the Congress party because he could not
reconcile with the idea of a united India with
the Hindus in majority ruling India and
exploiting and discriminating the Muslim
minority. The Muslims due to conservatism were
already very backward in education and
businesses and other fields as compared to the
Hindus. The Quaide Azam sincerely wanted to
uplift the Muslim masses from the deep
slumber of backwardness and make them a modern,
educated and a highly progressive nation. The
Muslims inspite of being in majority in Punjab,
NWFP, Sindh, Baluchistan, FATA, Northern Areas,
PATA, Bengal, Assam and Kashmir, were still
comparitively backward except the rich Muslim
Zamindars, Waderas, Jagirdars, Maliks and
Sirdars who hardly cared for the welfare and
uplift of their poor brethren in faith as they
mainly suferred from colonial mentality of
keeping the Muslims under their sway and rule.
Prior to partition, the pro Congress Red Shirt
party of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan was ruling NWFP,
while in Punjab the Unionist party of Sikander
Hyat Khan was ruling. Baluchistan was under the
control of local Sirdars except the settled
areas. Kashmir was under the rule of a Hindu
Maharaja. Undivided Bengal was also under a pro
Congress rule. Hence Quaide Azam undertook a
mass contact tour under the banner of Muslim
Leaque to fulfil the dream of Allama Iqbal for a
seperate Muslim state not a religious state as
erroneously being propagated. The dream of
Quaide Azam was that after partition of India
there will will two independent states-one with
the Hindu majority, India with a large Muslims
minority and the other, Pakistan of a Muslim
majority with a large minority community and in
this way both the States will maintain friendly
and business relations on equal footing and will
be responsible to protect the interest of each
other,s minorities and give them adequate
representation in all fields of life. Quaide
Azam never favored transfer of population and
stretched his friendly hand to the Sikhs to join
Pakistan with full religious protection to
prevent division of Punjab. But Master Tara
Singh refused and unleashed a terror by killing
Muslims and attacking trains of Muslim refugees
which produced counter action and thus there was
large scale killings on both sides
which resulted in mass exodus of refugees from
both sides.
After the death of Quaide Azam and later
assasination of Liaquat Ali Khan, there was
political bickering and turmoil. The
constitution could not be made and the Mullah
parties who had no political standing at that
time, taking advantage of the situation advanced
a new idea that Pakistan should be a religious
state which meant that it will be ruled by
Mullahs alone. They coined a new slogan that
"Pakistan Ka Matalab Kia La Illaha Illalah "
which was never heard before during the Pakistan
movement. THe Muslim Leaque was not a Mullah
party and neither Quaide Azam nor Liaquat Ali
Khan and other leaders were Mullahs. They wanted
a modern state of Muslims for peace and
progress. The Quaide Azam clearly said in his
historical speech in the first session of the
constituent assembly on 11th Aug.1947 that
Pakistan will not be a religious state and
that religion will be purely a personal matter
with no interference of the state and all
Pakistanis regardless of their religions and
affinities will be equal in the eyes of the
state. The Quaide Azam knew well if he
proclaimed Pakistan as a religious Islamic
state, then the great religion of Islam will be
exploited by vested groups for their selfish
ends and the issues of sectarianism and their
diferrent beliefs, practices, Sharia laws,
Maslak and Fiqah differences of each sect and
group will crop up ending in Muslim disunity and
discord. We have already seen how Gen Zia
exploited Islam for his personal rule and he
promulgated different Sharia Laws for each sect;
a sunni thief's hand would be cut but if he is a
shia thief only his finger will be cut; drinking
of wine was allowed to non muslims but there
were lashes for Muslim drunkards. For Zina
there were lashes for Muslims but not for non
Muslims. etc. Today we see how people are being
killed due to religious extremism and suicide
bombings all in the fair name of Islam. Hence
the need of the hour is to nationalaise all
Masajids and Madressah and upgrade their status
and mange them well on modern lines. The
religious parties and groups may be banned as
also the religious literature being printed by
every Ulema and Scholar creating confusion and
deviation in the society. This is necessary to
maintain peace on the religious front to end its
exploitation as in all Arab states and Iran.
Now as far as the opposition to the
creation of Pakistan or partition of India is
concerned it was not Maulana Azad alone who
opposed the creation of Pakistan, there were
plenty of other reputed Muslim leaders including
religious leaders and Aalims who opposed the
division of India. Those who opposed the
partition included Maulana Hasrat Mohani,
Maulana Maudoodi, Maulana Hussain Ahmed Madni,
Zakir Hussain, Ex president of India, Khaksar
Tehrik (Allama Mashriqi), Majlis Ahrar ( Khwaja
Iftekhar and Gam Lala), Syed Attaullah Shah
Bokharii, Maulivi Mazhar Ali. Maulana Suleman
Nadvi, Jamiat Ul Ulema Hind now Jamiat Ul Ulema
Pakistan ( Maulana Mufti Mahmood), Momin Group,
Shia Conference, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, the
Red Shirt leader of Pakhtoons, Fakhruddin Ali
Ahmed Ex President of India, Rafiq Ahmed Khidwai,
Hafiz Mohammeed Ibrahim, Unionist Party led By
Sikander Hyat Khan etc. Even Maulana Mohammed
Ali Johar was not in favour of dividing the
Indian Muslims or Muslim Ummah. He had
suggested that proper weightage in all fields
may be given to Muslims living in Hindu majority
provinces to protect their interest. All these
leaders can not be condemned as they had valid
arguments against the partition. They thought
the combined Indian Muslims as a whole will be a
great force to face the onslaught of any Hindu
domination/discrimination against their
religion, culture and interest. And in any
political set up on all India basis, the Muslims
will be adequately and forcefully represented.
Morover there will be perfect unity of all the
Muslims to protect their common interest
against any discrimination, harrasment, anti
Muslim fighting and killings etc. and they
will not fight against each other in the face of
Hindu onslaught. These learned leaders also felt
that if the Muslims are divided due to
partition, the position of the remaining Indian
Muslims will become worse and they will be at
the mercy of the Hindus. They will be subjected
to all sort of discrimination in all walks of
life and job opportunities will become dim and
they will have to face taunts and harrasment to
go to Pakistan which later actually closed its
doors to Indian Muslims by imposing
visa/ passport requirements. The fact is that
the Pakistan movement had greater support from
the Indian Muslims. Besides these leaders felt
that our rich heritage left by nearly 800 years
of Muslim rule will be left over in India. These
included various landmark buildings, palaces,
Masajids and Madressahs and Minarets like Taj
Mahal(Agra), Qutub Minar (Delhi), Char Minar
(Hyderabad Deccan), Jama Masjid and Red Fort in
Delhi, Imam Bargah in Lucknow, numerous Palaces,
numerous Mazars of Saints like Khawja Moinudiin
Chishti (Ajmer Sharif), Salim Chishti, Hazrat
Nizamuddin Aulia (Delhi), Khaja Bande Nawaz
Gaisu Daraz (Gulbarga Sharif) and many other
revered saints and famous Madressahs like
Deoband and Bareilly will all be left over in
India with no proper upkeep. Besides the famous
Muslim University, Aligarh, Osmania University,
Hyderabad Deccan and Jamia Millia in Delhi etc,
will also be left over in India with no proper
Muslim patronage. Even Quaide Azam's personal
will to transfer about Rs. 10 lacs to Aligarh
Muslim University for the betterment of the
Indian Muslims was dishonoured by our selfish
politicians. Hence suffiice it to say that every
action of merit has its own demerits. If
Pakistan had been properly and honestly managed
by the politicians according to the
constitution with no inroads of dictatorships
with an honest bureaucracy, honest police system
like the Shurta Police of Saudi Arabia, cheap
and quick judical system with exemplary
punishment to criminals instead of allowing
bails, adjournments, medical ground leave, stay
orders and other delaying tactics, then our
country would have become a model Muslim
State. The tragedy today is that there is large
scale corruption, bunglings, Loot Mar, killings,
suicide bombings in which innocent lives are
lost, sectarian fights and killings, robberies,
dacoities, Bank Holdups, Car, Motor cycle and
cell phone snatching, religious exploitation and
fanaticism, secessionist tendencies among the
Baluchis with abundance of social evils, sins
and Un Islamic practices with no end in sight.
Muslims are praying under police guard in their
own country due to sectarian killings and
suicide bombings. Muslims are fighting
Muslims. Hundreds of thousands of Muslims were
killed in our internal wars between Pakistan and
Bangladesh (former East Pakistan), then in
Baluchistan during Bhutoo's rule, and now in
NWFP/ FATA and other areas, the extremists
Talibans are fighting and killings Muslims who
oppose them and now our army is engaged in
warfare with these extremists and thus on both
the sides Muslims are being killed which tarnish
the image of Pakistan as a safe haven of
Muslims. Either we need a Khomeini Saheb to
eliminate all criminals, thugs and crooks,
looters and exploiters, sins and evils or we
need a Mustafa Kemal Ataturk to put our country
on the right track.
NB: My latest article on religious exploitation
and terrorism in Pakistan published in Urdu
Times ( Mag. section), Toronto dated 24
Dec. 2009 may be seen. My articles also appear
In Pakistan Abroad, Toronto.
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