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Quaid-i-Azam's concept of Pakistan. By Professor Sharif al-Mujahid
Any discussion on Quaid's concept of Pakistan
must begin with a delineation of the principles
on which he sought to raise the Pakistan demand. The cardinal principle underlying the Pakistan demand was that Islam, to quote Allama Iqbal, had not only furnished the Muslims of the subcontinent with "those basic emotions and loyalties which gradually unify scattered individuals and groups", but had also worked as "a people building force," transforming them finally into "a well _ defined people." The unity of Indian Islam, so far as it had achieved unity, may first and foremost be attributed to (what Montgomery Watt calls) "a dynamic image, the image or idea of …. The charismatic community." This explains how, scattered though they were across the length and breadth of the subcontinent, they had yet developed the will to live as a nation on the basis, in Toynbean terminology, of their "social heritage." This "national will" in turn provided the Indian Muslims with the intellectual justification for claiming a distinct nationalism (apart from Indian or, more accurately, Hindu nationalism)for themselves.
Muslim nationhood in the subcontinent was, thus, raised not on the basis of race, language or geography, but primarily on the basis of religious sentiment. Nationalism, according to Renan, is "the dynamic expression" of the desire to live as a nation, and since that desire had been provided by Islam and its weltanschanung, Muslim nationalism in India, although also promoted by other factors from language to history to economy, was yet essentially religious in character. Pakistan, or the demand for it, was, thus, the result not primarily of racial, linguistic or territorial nationalism, but chiefly of religious nationalism. And Pakistan was demanded because, to quote the Quaid-I-Azam, "we wish our people to develop to the fullest our spiritual, cultural, economic, social and political life in a way that we think best and in consonance with our own ideal and according to genius of our people."
On another occasion, this time in his speech at Aligarh on 8th March 1944, the Quaid spelled out the basis of Pakistan's demand in the following words:
Pakistan started the moment the first non-Muslim was converted to Islam in India long before the Muslims established their rule. As soon as a Hindu embraced Islam he was an outcast, not only religiously,
but also socially, culturally and economically. As for Muslims, it was a duty imposed on him by Islam not to merge his identity and individuality in any alien society. Throughout the ages, Hindus had remained Hindus and Muslims had remained Muslims, and they had not merged their entities. That was the basis of Pakistan.
Such being the case, he told the Frontier Muslim League Conference on 21 November 1945, "The Muslims demand Pakistan where they could rule according to their own code of life and according to their own cultural growth, traditions and Islamic laws."
And what that code of life and traditions were, he had defined in a message to the Punjab Muslim Students' Federation on 19th March 1944. In that message, he had said, "Our bed _ rock and sheet _ anchor is Islam .... Islam is our guide and complete code for our life....."
Likewise, in his address to the League Karachi session (1943), he had said, "It is the great book, the Quran, that is the sheet _ anchor of Muslim India".
While during the struggle period (1940), the Quaid seldom talked of the future constitution of Pakistan, during the last year of his life when he presided over the destiny of the young nation, he referred on several occasions to the principles on which the future constitution of Pakistan would be based. For instance, in a broadcast talk to the people of the United States in February 1948, he declared :
I do not know what the ultimate shape of
Muslim nationhood in the subcontinent was... raised not on the basis of race, language or geography, but primarily on the basis of religious sentiment. Nationalism, according to Renan, is "the dynamic expression" of the desire to live as a nation, and since that desire had been provided by Islam and its weltanschanung, Muslim nationalism in India... was essentially religious in character.
This Constitution is going to be but I am sure that it will be a democratic type, embodying the essential principles of Islam ….. Islam and its idealism has taught us Democracy; it has taught equality of man, justice and fairplay to everybody. We are inheritors of these glorious traditions and are fully alive to our responsibilities and obligations as framers of the future Constitution of Pakistan
Likewise, he told the officers and men of the 5th Heavy Ack Ack and 6th Light Ack Ack Regiments in Malir, on 21 February 1948, "Now you have to stand guard over the development and maintenance of Islamic democracy, Islamic social justice and equality of manhood on your own soil." That is, the Quaid conceived of Pakistan as an Islamic Democracy.
And in his address to the Karachi Bar Association on 25th January 1948, he said,
"No doubt there are many people who do not quite appreciate when we talk of Islam. Islam is not only a set of rituals, traditions and spiritual doctrines. Islam is also a code for every Muslim which regulates his life and his conduct even in politics and economics and the life …… The qualities of equality, liberty and fraternity are the fundamental principles of Islam."
The he asked his audience pointedly:
"Why this feeling of nervousness that the future
Quaid said: "Pakistan started the moment the first non-Muslim was converted to Islam in India long before the Muslims established their rule. As soon as a Hindu embraced Islam he was an outcast, not only religiously, but also socially, culturally and economically. As for Muslims, it was a duty imposed on him by Islam not to merge his identity and individuality in any alien society. Throughout the ages, Hindus had remained Hindus and Muslims had remained Muslims, and they had not merged their entities. That was the basis of Pakistan."
constitution of Pakistan is going to be in conflict with Shariat Lw ?
In his 18th June 1946 message to the Frontier Muslim Students' Federation, the Quaid had described "Muslims Ideology" along with "Freedom and independence" as constituting the mainstay of the Pakistan demand. In that message, he had said.
"Pakistan not only means freedom and independence, but the Muslim ideology which has (got) to be preserved, which has come to us as a precious gift and treasure, and which, we hope, others will share."
And in the context of the Quaid's vocabulary, the phrase stood for "Islamic Ideology".
That is, Islam is that ethical ideal which, according to the Quaid, would spell out the social significance of a democratic dispensation in Pakistan. By the same token, Islamic values would form the basis of public morality in a democratic order in Pakistan. Conceived thus, Pakistan should not be Islamic and democratic, possessing these qualities as two distinct and separate attributes, but Islamic through the democratic process. Democracy, thus, becomes, as pointed out by Prof. Wilfred Cantwell Smith, "an aspect of its Islamicness, a part of the definition of the Islamic State."
To sum up, then to the Quaid, Pakistan was to be an Islamic Democracy. A democracy which would strive towards the establishment of (what he called) the Islamic principles of social justice and of equality of man. A democracy which would contribute towards "the onward march of the renaissance of Islamic culture and ideals' (vide, Id-ul-Fitr message, August 1947). And a democracy which would "live up to your (Islamic) tradition and add to it another chapter of glory," as also become "a bulwark of Islam" (vide, speech at Lahore, October 30th, 1947).
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