Forging Faith and Freedom – Iqbal and Jinnah
AA Khalid has written this thoughtful article for PTH Pakistan has been unfortunate that two of its founding fathers Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Muhammad Iqbal died before the country were properly on its feet. Iqbal died years before he saw Pakistan come alive and Jinnah died in its infancy. Their deaths represent more than just their earthly demise; it represents the death of their ideas in the public sphere of Pakistan. Every nation has a series of figures and architects of the country that leaves behind an intellectual legacy about the type of ideas they wish to see flourish in their new nation. With Pakistan this has not happened, from the earliest days of its existence there has been a vacuum with the political and indeed religious discourse. What does Pakistan … Read entire article »
Daily Times: Nationalism: inclusive versus exclusive — III
Cross Post from Daily Times Published July 13, 2010 By Ishtiaq Ahmed Rather than hate India, we should learn from India. It has five times a greater population, far greater ethnic and linguistic variation and myriads of religious faiths and cults. It is not a democracy in the social sense but it is a sophisticated democracy in the political sense I have presented, mainly, the exclusive model of nationalism and state-nationalism that I have argued emerged in Pakistan, notwithstanding the very bold attempt of Jinnah to supplant it with inclusive nationalism. Exclusive nationalism — whether based on race or religion or some other cultural factor — discriminates, constitutionally, people who do not qualify as members of the community because they do not share the specific cultural ties that have been chosen to define the … Read entire article »
Filed under: Democracy, Identity, India, Islam, Islamabad, Islamism, Jinnah, Liberal Democratic Pakistan, minorities, Pakistan, Religion, secular Pakistan
Daily Times: Nationalism: inclusive versus exclusive — II —
By Ishtiaq Ahmed When the Hindu members of the Pakistan Constituent Assembly expressed their worries about ‘sovereignty over the entire universe belonging to God’, Liaquat Ali Khan assured them that a Muslim state should have no problem in having a non-Muslim as prime minister. However, this was not true Jinnah wanted to establish a Muslim-majority state, but not a Muslim-majoritarian state that would privilege Muslims over non-Muslims in their status and rights as citizens; hence he spoke of Pakistani nationalism and not Muslim nationalism when on August 11, 1947 he addressed the Pakistan Constituent Assembly: “You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other place or worship in this state of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion … Read entire article »
Filed under: Democracy, Egalitarian Pakistan, History, Identity, Islam, Islamism, Jinnah, Liberal Democratic Pakistan, minorities, Pak Tea House, Pakistan
Daily Times – Nationalism: inclusive versus exclusive — I
At PTH, we have argued for the partition as a nuanced set of events that were characterized by extreme mistrust between the two major political forces of that time. These major parties harboured deep distrust against each other. The Muslim League politics increasingly focused on the idea of Pakistan as a bargaining chip to win the rights for the sizeable Muslim majority within the United India. The British hurry to leave the United India, emergence of Muslim League as the sole spokesman for the Muslims, and Congress unwillingness to recognize the Muslim nation demands within the United India resulted in a bloody and messy partition. We still live with the scars of the partition that resulted in one of the largest uprooting and human migration of modern times. … Read entire article »
Filed under: culture, Democracy, Egalitarian Pakistan, History, Identity, Islam, Islamabad, Islamism, Jinnah, minorities, Pak Tea House, Pakistan, Religion, secular Pakistan
One Myth, Many Pakistans
Cross Post from The New York Times By ALI SETHI Published: June 11, 2010 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/13/opinion/13sethi.html?pagewanted=all FOR many Pakistanis, the deaths of more than 80 members of the Ahmadi religious sect in mosque attacks two weeks ago raised questions of the nation’s future. For me, it recalled a command from my schoolboy past: “Write a Note on the Two-Nation Theory.” It was a way of scoring easy points on the history exam, and of using new emotions and impressive-sounding words. I began my answer like this: The Two-Nation Theory is the Theory that holds that the Hindus and Muslims of the Indian Subcontinent are Two Distinct and Separate Nations. It is a Theory that is supported by Numerous Facts and Figures. During the War of Independence of 1857 the Muslim rulers of India were defeated by the … Read entire article »
Filed under: Army, Democracy, FATA, Identity, India, Islam, Islamabad, Jinnah, minorities, Pakistan, Religion, The New York Times, Writers
The Death of Jinnah, The New York Times Obituary
In this post, we take a trip down the memory lane. Below we are reproducing the obituary of Quaid Muhammad Ali Jinnah that was published in the New York Times on September 13, 1948. In a first glance, there is nothing in this obituary that we don’t know of today. The narrative may seem slightly odd for many among us who have gotten used to a fast paced narrative in the internet blog age. Yet, this narrative sheds light on Jinnah as the West saw him in the years immediately post partition of the Sub Continent. For starters, it seems that Jinnah’s death was quite an unexpected event for many observers at that time. The obituary speculates on a succession struggle for Jinnah, the brain and the heart of the “Moslem” League. Unfortunately, … Read entire article »
Filed under: Identity, Jinnah, Liberal Democratic Pakistan, Pakistan, Partition, south asia, USA
Our Internal Demons
By Adnan Syed It has been 30 years since Pakistan took the fateful steps of sponsoring the Jihad on a state level. The fight against the Russian aggression in Afghanistan was probably justified. It was a blatant attack on a sovereign nation by a teetering super power. However when Pakistan went on to label the fight as a state sponsored Jihad, flock of die hard Islamists started congregating in Pakistan to fight the godless communists. This was precisely the turning point in Pakistani history when all the internal confusion of Pakistan’s relationship with Islam translated into a thoughtless action by the state that still haunts us to this day. We can blame General Zia-ul-Haq or Jamaat-e-Islami, or our dreaded indescribable “establishment” for pointing out the path of state sponsored armed Jihad. General … Read entire article »
Filed under: Afghanistan, Al Qaeda, Army, Benazir Bhutto, Constitution, Democracy, FATA, Islamabad, Jinnah, Justice, Liberal Democratic Pakistan, Pakistan, psychology, Religion, secular Pakistan, state, strategy, Taliban, Terrorism
Pakistan’s Jinnah
By Ayesha Siddiqa Dawn, 19 Feb, 2010 Some time ago, I had a chance to read veteran columnist Ardeshir Cowasjee’s article ‘Bring back Jinnah’s Pakistan’ in which he talked about the founding father’s liberal vision for the country. Mr Cowasjee’s argument was that the state envisioned by Mohammad Ali Jinnah would have been governed by a different set of social norms than the one in place today. I would like to inform the respectable writer that while he is searching for Jinnah’s Pakistan, we might be threatened with the eventuality of losing Pakistan’s Jinnah. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Jinnah, Pakistan, Partition, Religion, secularism
Jennifer Musa
From Daily Telegraph UK, Published 18-Jan-2008 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1575879/Jennifer-Musa.html Irish nurse who became head of a tribe in Baluchistan and dedicated her life to its interests Jennifer Musa, who has died aged 90, was an Irishwoman of modest stock who took over from her husband as head of a tribe in the remote borderlands of Baluchistan; unveiled and uncompromising, she dedicated her life to the conservative Muslim tribesmen among whom she lived for 60 years until her death. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Afghanistan, baluchistan, Democracy, History, Jinnah, Pakistan, Partition, Politics, quetta, Taliban
Separate Religion From Politics
From Pakistan Observer Nosheen Saeed Hats off to Bangladesh’s Supreme Court! Banning politics on the basis of religion was a giant leap, which will no doubt make Bangladesh a modern, prosperous, secular, democratic country. Will Pakistan follow Bangladesh and end decades of exploitation in the name of religion? Will it take into account the fact that resistance offered by cross-sections of Pakistani society to extremists and the people’s resolve to fight the Taliban-led terrorists, showed clearly that the majority of the people, though religious, openly condemned being exploited on the basis of religion. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Activism, Jinnah, Pak Tea House, Pakistan, secularism
Rediscovering Jinnah
We have discussed partition of India far too many times on PTH but old habits die hard (Partition was the most frequently discussed topic in the real PakTeaHouse as well). This is another article on Jinnah published by Dawn, we are reproducing here for discussion. While Faruqui is on the money about Jinnah’s secularism, his over all analysis is as usual quite weak – which is nothing new for those of us who have followed his articles in Daily Times and Dawn. For example, Life Magazine’s coverage has been discussed on several occasions on this website. Similarly the words he uses – ethnicity, religion etc - are terms Faruqui is incapable of fully understanding. 1971 cannot be termed as a war between ethnicity and religion, as much as the failure of constitutional accomodation. Nationalism is the … Read entire article »
Filed under: India, Jinnah, Pak Tea House, Pakistan, Partition
Pakistan: A Failure of Intellectuals
BY AZHAR ASLAM AND SHERMEEN BANO (Cross-post from Vision21) Every Identity has a history and so does that of Pakistan. It is short but tumultuous, although some say it was born with the conversion or settlement of the first Muslim in India. In truly modern sense though India was only itself born, when British firmly established their rule from Afghanistan to Burma, by 1890s. In the process of doing this however, they sowed the seed of national consciousness in the minds of Indians. British influence moulded Indian nationalism by omissions and commissions. However it inevitably also laid the seed of communalism, as different regions and nationalities in the sub continental melting pot, woke up to the British rule and demanded their rights. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Democracy, Identity, India, Islamabad, Islamism, Jinnah, Justice, Literature, Partition, Philosophy, Politics, public policy, Religion, Rights, Writers
Pakistan Meant To Be A Secular State, Quaid-e-Azam Did Not Want An Islamic Republic, says Haji Adeel of ANP
By Yasser Latif Hamdani The big news making the headlines today is that Haji Adeel of ANP has spoken out against the Islamic character of the Pakistani state. Coming out of an official Christmas celebration, Haji Adeel said: 1. Pakistan was meant to be a secular state for all people of Pakistan. 2. Quaid-e-Azam Mahomed Ali Jinnah did not name Pakistan an Islamic Republic. Pakistan should become the Republic of Pakistan. 3. Quaid-e-Azam and Bacha Khan both believed in secularism. 4. Denying Non-Muslims of Pakistan … Read entire article »
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