Muslimizing Calcutta

Excerpts from a letter from Raghib Ahsan to M.A. Jinnah, 25 January 1947 follow.   This is from the Zaidi collection of Jinnah papers.  There is no reply from Jinnah to Ahsan in the Zaid collection.  Ahsan's ideas are not in any way binding on Jinnah.  This letter however illustrates the mood of the times.  Demographic engineering was in the air.  The refugees driven from Bihar by Hindu rioters presented an opportunity.

Because of imperfect imaging from my iphone, there are lacunae.

Emphasis added.

The contradiction within Pakistani nationalism

Prof. Ishtiaq Ahmed describes the contradiction within Pakistani nationalism crisply.

Pakistan is not able to shed its foundational idea so easily.  After claiming Pakistan on the grounds that the Muslims of British India were a separate nation by virtue of their religion, it has proved to be impossible to turn around and say that religion is irrelevant to the state.   And if Pakistan is a Muslim state, the question immediately arises - just who is a Muslim?   In fact, this becomes the central question.  So instead of an inclusive nationalism, there is a religion-based nationalism with gradually narrowing answer to this question.

The shape of the Pakistan to come

Excerpts from Jinnah on the nature of the proposed independent, sovereign state or states of the Lahore Resolution.

The Mussalmans should not be afraid of being crushed by the Hindu majority provinces. Let us in the minority provinces, Mr Jinnah said, "face our fate, but free the Muslim Majority provinces to live and form their own government in independent states in according with Islamic laws." (A.P.) {emphasis added}


Speech at a public meeting
Ahmedabad, Dec 27, 1940.
The Civil & Military Gazette, Dec 29, 1940
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(Post started on July 5, 2010).

The Genesis of Pakistan

Jinnah on the origin of Pakistan:

The only solution therefore was "Pakistan", which was already there and was not of his own creation.

Speech at the Sir Lesli Wilson Muslim Hostel
Karachi, Dec 25, 1940
The Star of India, Dec 26, 1940
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Pakistan, went on Mr Jinnah, had existed for ages.  Their homelands were in the north-west and the east where the Mussalmans were even to-day in a majority of 70 percent.

Speech at a public meeting
Ahmedabad, Dec 27, 1940.
The Civil & Military Gazette, Dec 29, 1940
___

"It was after mature consideration that the Muslim League passed the Lahore Resolution popularly known as Pakistan.  Pakistan has been there for centuries.  It is there today and it will remain till the end of the world.  They are our homelands.  They were taken from us, {by the British} and we want them back."

Speech at the meeting of the Muslim University Union
Aligarh, March 10, 1941.
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(Post started on July 4, 2010).

India unsuited for democracy

Another recurrent theme in Jinnah's speeches is that a united India was not suited for democracy.  Nor were the Hindus suited to democracy.

Fate of Muslims in Partitioned India

The J-Man, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, generously was willing to sacrifice the Muslims who would remain in a partitioned India, as the quotes that accumulate here will show.

What counts?

In the "J-Man and his Pakistan" published in the Daily Times, we are given the number:

Three dozen.

All of these groups, of course, use the same arguments and the same selective quotes out of context from Jinnah.  Jinnah’s ambiguous references to Islam, Islamic ideals and Islamic unity are used to demolish his vision of the state which he clearly expressed on — as per last count — at least three dozen occasions.

To which I add some more numbers:

Zero

In my book I showed that there are literally hundreds of references to Islamic terminology and principles in Mr. Jinnah’s speeches. Additionally, whilst he stressed the absolute equality of non-Muslim citizens in Pakistan, he never once used the word ‘secular’ to describe the country.

Ninety

Prof Abdul Waheed Siddiqui has counted 90 speeches made by Jinnah between 1940 and 1947 in which he spoke of an Islamic State.

 I think Hoodbhoy has it right:

Decades after the horrific bloodbath of Partition, the idea of Pakistan remains hotly debated. It did not help that Jinnah died in 1948, just a year after Pakistan was born, with his plans still ambiguously stated. He authored no books and wrote no policy paper. He did make many speeches, of which several were driven by political expediency and are frankly contradictory. These are freely cherry-picked today, with some finding in them a liberal and secular voice; others, an embodiment of Islamic values. The confusion is irresolvable.