Pakistan Resolution-Revisited

Each year on 23rd March we have a public holiday. We call it Pakistan Day. This date is very significant in our calendar. Sixtyfour years ago, on 23rd March 1940 a landmark resolution was adopted at the open session of All India Muslim League held at Lahore.
The resolution forms the basis of our demand for Pakistan and partition of India. It depicts the vision of the Quaid-i-Azam. It enshrines the ideology of Pakistan - an ideology that was buried with the Quaid-i-Azam.
All that was left was a public holiday on 11th September, the death anniversary of Quaid-i-Azam. This too is now withdrawn!
THE HISTORIC LAHORE RESOLUTION OF 23RD MARCH 1940, POPULARLY KNOWN AS PAKISTAN RESOLUTION, IS IN TWO PARTS:
Part (i) "It is the considered view of this session of the All-India Muslim League that no constitutional plan would be workable in this country or acceptable to the Muslims, unless it is designed on the basic principle, viz., that geographically contiguous units are demarcated into regions which should be so constituted, with such territorial adjustments as may be necessary, that the areas in which the Muslims are numerically in a majority, as in the North Western and Eastern Zones of India, should be grouped to constitute Independent States in which the constituent units shall be autonomous and sovereign".
Part (ii) "That adequate, effective and mandatory safeguard should be specifically provided in the constitution for minorities in these units and in these regions for the protection of their religious, cultural, economic, political, administrative and other rights and interests in consultation with them."
MINORITIES IN PAKISTAN: On day one, 23rd March 1940 when we announced to the world our demand for Pakistan we made a written commitment with future minorities of Pakistan to provide them adequate, effective and mandatory safeguard, specifically in the constitution for the protection of their religious, cultural, political, economic, administrative and other rights and interests in consultation with them.
Previous governments of Pakistan insisted on separate electorate, not in consultation with them but against their known preference for joint electorate. President Musharraf took the right step to introduce joint electorate but a lot more awaits to be done.
Quaid-i-Azam's famous speech of 11th August, 1947 welcoming the minorities of Pakistan as equal citizens of the State with equal rights and privileges came much later. This commitment was already there as an integral part of the Lahore Resolution.
PAKISTAN RESOLUTION AND RELIGION: Words like Muslim States or Islamic States do not appear in the resolution. It says "Independent States", not "Independent Muslim States" or "Independent Islamic States". Religion was not made a factor in the demand for Pakistan.
The demand for Pakistan was based on a universally-accepted democratic principle, the right of self-determination which an influential minority or a sub-national group in some specified areas could invoke to rid itself of the domination of a permanent intolerant majority. In our demand for Pakistan we were exercising this right of self-determination.
If religion was the basis for the demand of Pakistan and partition of India, there would have been a provision in the Lahore Resolution, impossible and impractical as it might be, for wholesale transfer of population ie all Muslims living in India come to Pakistan and all Hindus living in Pakistan go to India.
There is no such suggestion in the Lahore Resolution. If it was a Religious Divide what sort of a Religious Divide it was that left 40% co-religionists behind. Today more Muslims live in India compared to the Muslim population of Pakistan.
DEMOCRACY AND PAKISTAN: Some say, people are illiterate, they are ignorant, they are not fit to exercise their vote. Democracy does not suit Pakistan.
The fact remains, the demand for Pakistan was put forward in a democratic manner through a resolution duly proposed and duly seconded.
For two days, 23rd and 24th March 1940, Muslim League leaders from all parts of India who had come to attend this historic session, spoke on the Resolution explaining its features.
Finally at 3:00 pm on 24th March 1940, the Presiding Officer, Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah put the resolution to vote. He asked the audience, "Those in favour raise your hand". Hundred thousand hands went up to vote, "Yes".
From 1940 to 1947, the movement was carried forward in a peaceful, democratic way through public meetings, speeches, processions and writings in the Press. No civil strife, no hartals, no burning of tires, no jail bharo tehrik, no call for Jihad, no use of arms. It was peaceful. It was democratic all the way.
And then, in 1946 the British Government, wanting to ascertain whether the Muslim League was the sole representative of the Muslims of India and Pakistan was their creed called general elections in the country for Central and Provincial Assemblies. See the results of these elections.
CENTRAL ASSEMBLY: Muslim League won 33 out of 33 Muslim seats (100 percent). Provincial Assemblies: Muslim League won 389 out of 437 Muslim seats (89 percent).
The Muslim League candidates won 80% of popular Muslim vote. It was this vote cast in a general election which established Pakistan.
With this heavy mandate the Quaid-i-Azam had no difficulty in pressing the demand for Pakistan and partition of India on a reluctant British Government and a hostile Hindu Congress.
The elections were a referendum on Pakistan and we won the referendum hands down. The majesty of democracy prevailed.
NAME PAKISTAN: The Name Pakistan does not appear in the Resolution. So where does this come from. It is sometime said, P is for Punjab, A for Afghanistan meaning NWFP, K for Kashmir, S for Sindh and tan for Balochistan.
If so, where is B for Bengal, the largest constituent province of Pakistan whose leader Sher-e-Bengal A.K. Fazlul Haq was the proposer of the Pakistan Resolution.
This explanation is not valid. What actually happened, the Lahore Resolution of 23rd March was splashed on the front pages of all the Indian newspapers the next day. It also received fair coverage in the foreign Press. The Press in India at the time was almost wholly Hindu-owned and Hindu-dominated.
Their reaction was hostile and volatile - so was the reaction of Hindu leaders of All India National Congress and other Hindu bodies.
Dr Rajendar Parshad called it viva section of India. Mahatma Gandhi called it a sin. He said, "partition of India on my dead body".
Some Indian newspapers in their comments stated, it appears the Muslims of India do not want to live with us.
They consider us Napak - Impure. They want to live in a pureland, a Pakland. They want Pakistan. Pakistan is a literal translation of Pakland, a pureland. As time went by more and more of Hindu Press and Hindu leaders started calling the demand for partition the a demand for Pakistan.
The name Pakistan started to gain currency. At this point, the Quaid-i-Azam, in one of his speeches said, "I am grateful to the Hindu Press and Hindu leadership for giving us a name for our State. Yes, it will be called Pakistan".
From that day onwards the air was resounding with slogans of Pakistan Zindabad - Pakistan Paindabad - Ley Ke Rahen gay Pakistan, Ban ke Reh ga Pakistan.
STATE VS STATES: The text of the Lahore Resolution as proposed on 23rd March 1940 uses the words "Independent States". States in plural. It then goes on to say, "In which the constituent units shall be autonomous and sovereign".
Clearly, there is an anomaly in the wording. This was first pointed out by Dr B.R. Amedkar, a highly respected constitutionalist of India. In a federation, confederation or republic the constituent units are not sovereign. If they are sovereign they cannot be called constituent units - constituting what?
We now have two independent and sovereign states, Pakistan and Bangladesh but they cannot be termed constituent units.
We cannot put total reliance only on the word, "States" and ignore the presence of words "constituent units" which indicate a link-up through a Central Sovereign Authority.
The quantum of autonomy for the federating units was not defined in the Lahore Resolution.
From 1940 to 1947 to 1971 there was no demand from East or West Pakistan to say an injustice was done to them when 'S' was dropped from the word States at the All India Muslim League Legislators convention of 1946.
Much later, even Sheikh Mujibur-Rehman and his Six-Point programme did not call for two independent and sovereign states.
TWO-NATION THEORY: A question is sometime asked, what happened to the two-Nation theory. What made the Quaid-i-Azam say three days before the Pakistan flag was hoisted, "Muslims will cease to be Muslims, Hindus will cease to be Hindus as State citizens".
Nationhood and homeland go together. A nation needs a home, independent and sovereign. Until 1947 the people of India did not have an independent and sovereign home. We were under the British rule.
In this context the Muslims of India collectively could call themselves a separate nation of hundred million Musalmans with their own distinctive culture and civilisation.
Having established our claim to nationhood, the next logical step was to demand an independent and sovereign home.
We could not ask for dozens of Pakistan in every corner of India which had pockets of Muslim majority so the demand for an independent and sovereign home was restricted to contiguous Muslim majority areas which were located in North West and North Eastern zones of India.
On 14th August 1947 two independent and sovereign homelands appeared on the map of the Indian sub-continent - India and Pakistan.
In consequence two nations emerged, the Indian Nation and Pakistani Nation - not a Hindu Nation and a Muslim Nation.
All people living in India, including the Muslims, became Indians, Likewise all people living in Pakistan, including the Hindus, became Pakistanis. It was to this reality the Quaid-i-Azam referred in his address of 11th August 1947. If the Muslims of India continued to call themselves a separate nation, they will need a sovereign home.
Where in India can this homeland be established? So, on 14th August 1947 the Two-Nation Theory took a turn and twist by changing its complexion.
ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF PAKISTAN: We call us Islamic Republic of Pakistan without realising you cannot become an Islamic State by just putting a prefix.
There are fifty-four Muslim majority independent states, only three of them, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran call themselves Islamic states. Islam is an all-embracing faith, a complete philosophy, a code of life, a state concept, a social order and a culture. It should not be twisted for political or material gains. In Pakistan Islam has been used as an industry.
Time has come for the silent majority to stand up and say, loud and clear, "this will not do".
(The writer is former Vice-President, Aligarh Muslim University Union)