Author:
Publication: The Free Press Journal
Date: September 23, 2002
Contrary to popular perception,
the concept of two-nation theory which led to the creation of Pakistan
was not conceived by Mohammad Ali Jinnah, says a new book, reports PTI.
Rather, the idea was germinated
much before in the late 19th century by one Ameer All, according to the
book, 'Pakistan from Jinnah to Jehad'.
The book, coauthored by former CBI
Director S. K Datta and Delhi-based journalist Rajeev Sharma, says Ameer
All in his book 'The Spirit of Islam' published in 1891 had said, 'It can
hardly be disputed that real history of India commences with' the history
of Musalmans'. He settled In London and founded the London Branch of the
Muslim League in 1908.
The authors say that Maulana Obaidullah,
born of Sikh parents in 1872, became an Islamic fundamentalist and told
Mahatma Gandhi that "India should not be, considered as one country, but
like Europe should be divided on linguistic and cultural lines."
According to the authors, the second
most important person fired with imagination of Muslims was Chaudhury Rehmat
Ali, a lawyer from Punjab, who spent his entire life for the creation of
Pakistan. The word 'Pakistan', say the authors was coined by him. Again,
they say the Aligarh Muslim University, established by Sir Sayeed Ahmed,
educated the middleclass Muslims who, instead of becoming liberal, became
pioneers of the Pakistan movement and propagators of the two-nation theory.
The authors further say that leaders
of the Dhaka Muslim League Conference in 1906 said "Mohamedans are a distinct
community with additional interests of our own which are not shared with
other communities."
According to them, on October 1,
1906 a group of Muslims under Agha Khan met Lord Minto in Shimla demanding
separate electorate for Muslims. They described themselves as 'the nobles,
jagirdars, talukdars, zamindars, lawyers and merchants, subjects of His
Majesty, the King Emperor, in different parts of India'. This, say the
authors, is the class that led the Pakistan movement subsequently.
Therefore, the two-nation theory
was not the creation of Jinnah who entered the mainstream of Muslim politics
much later in 1920.
The book also says the concept of
a separate Muslim homeland was first articulated by Allama Mohammad Iqbal,
the great Urdu poet, in his presidential address at the Allahabad session
of the Muslim League held on December 29, 1930. Iqbal, say the authors,
was a Kashmiri, whose grandfather, a Sapru-Hindu, had settled in Lahore
in Punjab and embraced Islam.
The book says that Jinnah, whose
ancestors were Rajput Muslims from Punjab later settled in Kathiawar (Gujarat),
started his political career in 1906 by attending the Calcutta Congress
session as secretary to the Congress president Dadabhoy Naoroji. From 1906
to 1920, he was a nationalist, calling himself an Indian first and then
a Muslim.
In those days, say the authors,
Gopal Krishna Gokhale was a great admirer of Jinnah and called him 'the
best ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity'. The secular, modern and forward-looking
Jinnah was set to soon capture the centrestage of Indian politics. He was
even opposed in the beginning to the separate electorate demand of the
Muslim League, say the authors.
