H I S T O R Y

Punjabi Muslims and Creation of Pakistan-5
Professor J.S. Grewal

THIS bold outline of the major developments of about a century has to be seen in a somewhat larger context.  The extension of the British empire to the Punjab introduced great many changes-administrative, economic, socio-cultural and political – which obliged the people of the Punjab to respond more or less creatively to this new historical situation. The responses were both individual and collective.

What mattered more in the long run was collective responses in the form of new organizations and associations. These associations could be primarily cultural, social, religious, or political. The early collective responses were mainly socio-religious.  By their very nature, the associations for socio-religious reform created communitarian consciousness for collective action. Through their concerns, aspirations and activities in the Punjab the regional identity which had begun to emerge in the early nineteenth century, gradually but surely, receded into the background. What came to the fore was Hindu, Muslim and Sikh identities.

At the same time, secular associations also began to be formed for various purposes.  The most important of these were political associations like the Indian Association of Lahore and the Indian National Congress. These associations did not address themselves to all the important issues faced by all the religious communities and, being democratic in their constitution and working, they gave an edge to the members of the majority community over others. The leaders of the Muslim community soon came to feel the need of a communitarian organization to safeguard and promote their interests.  In this way arose two competing concepts in the political arena.

Should the common interests of all the religious communities get precedence over the interests of a particular religious community became a question of vital importance and everyone could not find an easy answer to this question. The issue became all the more serious when it came to the question of sharing and exercising political power.

The first answer which suggested itself to some of the Muslim leaders of India was to have representation through separate electorates, with or without weightage.  This was conceded by the British rulers in 1909. Between the Acts of 1909 and 1919 the Congress was also inclined to accommodate the League on the issue of separate representation to evolve a common platform for political struggle against the colonial rulers. The result of this rapprochement was the Lucknow Pact of 1916, participation of the Congress leaders in the Khilafat movement, and participation of Muslim leaders in the non-cooperation movement.

Meanwhile the Punjabi Muslim leaders began to carve out a distinct political path for themselves in order to safeguard and promote Muslim interests on the basis of regional identity. They became increasingly satisfied with their dominant share in the political power in the province. Left to themselves, they could have opted for a united India, with a large measure of autonomy for the provinces. A solution on these lines was not unacceptable  to the Congress leaders, provided the whole of the Indian subcontinent was integrated into a single state, with its constituent units reorganized on the basis of languages.

In other words, the claims of cultural regions could easily be reconciled with Indian nationalism. After the failure of the Congress-League rapprochement, it became increasingly clear that the Congress was not prepared to accommodate the claims of religious identities. With the failure of the Moti Lal Nehru Committee in 1928, the possibilities of evolving a Constitution acceptable to all religious communities became rather remote.

Jinnah raised the question of ‘minorities’ for some time, but in reaction to the exclusive nationalism of the Congress leaders he brought to the fore a religious identity and that too only of the Muslims, to the fore, opposing Indian (‘Hindu’) nationalismwith Muslim nationalism. The dichotomy between ‘secular’ and ‘religious’ nationalism created grooves which became deep enough to make all other ‘minorities’ irrelevant, if not invisible. The Unionists weakened the regional option by accommodating the Muslim League. Consequently, they became too weak to stem the rising tide of ‘religious’ nationalism. The victory of the Muslim League in the elections of 1946 symbolized the victory of the idea of Pakistan.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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