Chapter 24
The Disinherited Ones
IT is a historical fact that Muslim League’s movement was the
strongest where Muslim was in minority. The provision elections of
1937 established this beyond any doubt. On the other hand, of the
four provinces where Muslims constituted a majority, far from
obtaining any representative role, the Muslim league wasn’t able to
get a single member elected in two of them, namely in Sindh and
NWFP. In the Punjab, out of 84 Muslim members elected only one
belonged to Muslim League.
In all these Muslim majority provinces, however, the control anyhow
was in the hands of the Muslims; the foremost leaders there were
also Muslim-Sir Sikander Hayat Khan in Punjab, Maulvi Fazlul Haq in
Bengal, Khan Bahadur Elahi Bakhsh Soomro in Sind, and Sir Sahibzada
Abdul Qayyum in NWFP. Thus protection of Muslim rights in these
provinces was no issue; it was an issue only in the provinces where
non-Muslims were preponderant. It was also here, as we have just
noted, that the Muslim League had its greatest appeal, and it was
from here that the entire Muslim League leadership was thrown up for
the parliament, for the provinces, and generally for the national
level politics.
It ought to be coolly, not emotionally, considered how well the
Muslim League’s later successes helped in all eviating the hardship
and deprivations of these minority Muslims provinces. Muslim
League’s successes came in the form of the partition of India and
creation of Pakistan. It is natural there fore to ask how well these
Muslims who had provided almost the entire support and strength for
the Muslim League benefited from its eventual achievement.
The areas that were asked to be made into Pakistan had been in the
hands of the Muslims anyway. The only difference was in the
nomenclature-they were not then known as “Pakistan”. For practical
purposes, then, the Muslim League’s two-nation theory was irrelevant
to them. If it had any maternal relevance it was for the
down-trodden Muslims of Bombay, Madras, Delhi, U.P., Bihar, C.P. and
Orissa. How were they benefited in the event? The suffering Muslims
belonged to Bombay and Luck now, but Pakistan was made in Lahore and
Peshawar; they lived in Bihar and Orissa, Pakistan went to Dhaka.
It is not just for the minority Muslims, who had to keep living
where they were, to ask the question, but it is for those in
Pakistan also to demand of the Muslim League leaders as to what good
the prescription they had devised for the freedom and prosperity of
Muslims has done to those five crores (50 Million) who were left
behind in India.
It is also a fact that at the creation of Pakistan the whole of the
subcontinent was engulfed in communal fire. Local populations set to
cutting one another’s throats. When the surviving riot-ravaged
refugees used to reach the other side, their condition would become
so much more oil on the burning fire. There was hardly a corner of
the land where communal lunacy was not rampant. The hatred and
hostility between Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs had broken all barriers
of morality, even basic humanity. They didn’t even spare each
other’s women.
Amidst such circumstances, consider the mental and psychological
condition of the helpless Muslims compelled to live along whit the
Hindus and Sikhs in the aftermath of communal insanity. Add to it
the fact that all those who were the leaders of the Muslims
transferred themselves en mass to Pakistan, leaving the most devoted
party of their following bathing blood and burning in fire. The
Muslim government servants, whether in the civil or the military
service, from whom the Muslim population could have hoped for succor
or at least moral support in their dire straits, they too abandoned
ship as it were, and transferred themselves to the safety of
Pakistan.
Did it ever bother the conscience of the Muslims League leaders that
these poor mass of Muslims who had, at their bidding, given
donations, taken out processions, pressed demands, raised slogans
and earned the enmity of their friends and neighbours, these people
they had in the final outcome left at the mercy of the enemy? Where
were the elected leaders at whose behest they had made all the
sacrifices? It is a question these leaders have no answer for.
Apart from the political leaders and government officers, the Muslim
industrialists, traders and other entrepreneurs also migrated to
Pakistan and thus the small Muslims left behind in India found that
economic opportunities had also suddenly shrunk for them. The small
business and employment that the traders and factory owners used to
provide them with became non-existent.
The Indian Muslims were thus left without a shred of religious,
political or economic security. The entire prevailing atmosphere was
hostile to them. The country was in the grip of fanaticism. Although
hundreds of thousands had migrated to Pakistan, there were still
five crore (50 Million) Muslims left in bondage to the Hindus,
sacrificed to the politics of the Muslim League. They were now at
the mercy of their enemy, with almost none of their former leaders
remaining there to speak up for them.
Almost the only person who stay behind, who declared that he was not
prepared to leave his Muslim brethren in that condition and that he
would want to live and die beside them was Nawab Ismail Khan of
Lucknow. All the rest saw safety- and prosperity – in travelling,
family and all, to the comfort of Pakistan, and leaving in flames
the land of their ancestors, their friends and brothers, their
Political companions, their faithful servants.
Many of the Muslims left behind were also later compelled by the
savagery of non-Muslims to keep trekking to Pakistan in bedraggled
caravans, physically and mentally mauled and devastated.
It was obvious, however, that the whole Muslim population in India
could not transfer itself to Pakistan even if they could no longer
live in the burning inferno and saw the only hope for their life and
honour in distant Pakistan. What happened to the ruined mass of
people who did seek their sanctuary here is an other story. Those
who were rich and resourceful had it made for them: they were soon
taking possession of the non-Muslims properties, their bungalows,
shops and factories. For the others who had lost their all, who
arrived bathed in blood and scorched by flames, Pakistan proved a
very different entity.
From the point of view of the Muslims in India, it must look that a
political problem was unnecessarily turned into a religious one.
Thanks to the Muslim League, the political battle was set on a
communal course. If the course adopted were really a political one
and had Muslim League’s been a political movement, then with the
partition the whole issue should have stood resolved. The congress
was asking for India’s independence. It got it. The British had
left. The slavery had ended. The Muslim League was demanding
Pakistan. It too got that. So that should have been the end of it.
But what actually happened was, because the Muslim League had given
religious colour to a political issue, it left the Muslims who
remained in India the legacy of a permanent problem. The communalist
Hindu was forced to take note that India had been divided on the
basis of religion, but crores (Million) of Muslims had still been
left in the divided India. For those Hindus, then, the solution of
the problem remained incomplete. Which is why the communalism there
still refuses to cool off? The Muslims there were in a way made
worse off: earlier they were at the mercy of the non-Muslim
majority; now they have to contend with the latter’s anger and
hostility.
The conclusion must be that as the representative of the Muslims of
India’s non-Muslim majority provinces, the Muslim League could not
correctly diagnose their affliction.
When the diagnosis is wrong, the cure cannot be right. The Muslim
League politics should have helped improved the condition of those
Muslim. In fact it worsened it, to the point that they are now
permanently locked in the state of dependence, deprivation and
inequality.
IT is a historical fact that Muslim League’s movement was the
strongest where Muslim was in minority. The provision elections of
1937 established this beyond any doubt. On the other hand, of the
four provinces where Muslims constituted a majority, far from
obtaining any representative role, the Muslim league wasn’t able to
get a single member elected in two of them, namely in Sindh and
NWFP. In the Punjab, out of 84 Muslim members elected only one
belonged to Muslim League.
In all these Muslim majority provinces, however, the control anyhow
was in the hands of the Muslims; the foremost leaders there were
also Muslim-Sir Sikander Hayat Khan in Punjab, Maulvi Fazlul Haq in
Bengal, Khan Bahadur Elahi Bakhsh Soomro in Sind, and Sir Sahibzada
Abdul Qayyum in NWFP. Thus protection of Muslim rights in these
provinces was no issue; it was an issue only in the provinces where
non-Muslims were preponderant. It was also here, as we have just
noted, that the Muslim League had its greatest appeal, and it was
from here that the entire Muslim League leadership was thrown up for
the parliament, for the provinces, and generally for the national
level politics.
It ought to be coolly, not emotionally, considered how well the
Muslim League’s later successes helped in all eviating the hardship
and deprivations of these minority Muslims provinces. Muslim
League’s successes came in the form of the partition of India and
creation of Pakistan. It is natural there fore to ask how well these
Muslims who had provided almost the entire support and strength for
the Muslim League benefited from its eventual achievement.
The areas that were asked to be made into Pakistan had been in the
hands of the Muslims anyway. The only difference was in the
nomenclature-they were not then known as “Pakistan”. For practical
purposes, then, the Muslim League’s two-nation theory was irrelevant
to them. If it had any maternal relevance it was for the
down-trodden Muslims of Bombay, Madras, Delhi, U.P., Bihar, C.P. and
Orissa. How were they benefited in the event? The suffering Muslims
belonged to Bombay and Luck now, but Pakistan was made in Lahore and
Peshawar; they lived in Bihar and Orissa, Pakistan went to Dhaka.
It is not just for the minority Muslims, who had to keep living
where they were, to ask the question, but it is for those in
Pakistan also to demand of the Muslim League leaders as to what good
the prescription they had devised for the freedom and prosperity of
Muslims has done to those five crores (50 Million) who were left
behind in India.
It is also a fact that at the creation of Pakistan the whole of the
subcontinent was engulfed in communal fire. Local populations set to
cutting one another’s throats. When the surviving riot-ravaged
refugees used to reach the other side, their condition would become
so much more oil on the burning fire. There was hardly a corner of
the land where communal lunacy was not rampant. The hatred and
hostility between Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs had broken all barriers
of morality, even basic humanity. They didn’t even spare each
other’s women.
Amidst such circumstances, consider the mental and psychological
condition of the helpless Muslims compelled to live along whit the
Hindus and Sikhs in the aftermath of communal insanity. Add to it
the fact that all those who were the leaders of the Muslims
transferred themselves en mass to Pakistan, leaving the most devoted
party of their following bathing blood and burning in fire. The
Muslim government servants, whether in the civil or the military
service, from whom the Muslim population could have hoped for succor
or at least moral support in their dire straits, they too abandoned
ship as it were, and transferred themselves to the safety of
Pakistan.
Did it ever bother the conscience of the Muslims League leaders that
these poor mass of Muslims who had, at their bidding, given
donations, taken out processions, pressed demands, raised slogans
and earned the enmity of their friends and neighbours, these people
they had in the final outcome left at the mercy of the enemy? Where
were the elected leaders at whose behest they had made all the
sacrifices? It is a question these leaders have no answer for.
Apart from the political leaders and government officers, the Muslim
industrialists, traders and other entrepreneurs also migrated to
Pakistan and thus the small Muslims left behind in India found that
economic opportunities had also suddenly shrunk for them. The small
business and employment that the traders and factory owners used to
provide them with became non-existent.
The Indian Muslims were thus left without a shred of religious,
political or economic security. The entire prevailing atmosphere was
hostile to them. The country was in the grip of fanaticism. Although
hundreds of thousands had migrated to Pakistan, there were still
five crore (50 Million) Muslims left in bondage to the Hindus,
sacrificed to the politics of the Muslim League. They were now at
the mercy of their enemy, with almost none of their former leaders
remaining there to speak up for them.
Almost the only person who stay behind, who declared that he was not
prepared to leave his Muslim brethren in that condition and that he
would want to live and die beside them was Nawab Ismail Khan of
Lucknow. All the rest saw safety- and prosperity – in travelling,
family and all, to the comfort of Pakistan, and leaving in flames
the land of their ancestors, their friends and brothers, their
Political companions, their faithful servants.
Many of the Muslims left behind were also later compelled by the
savagery of non-Muslims to keep trekking to Pakistan in bedraggled
caravans, physically and mentally mauled and devastated.
It was obvious, however, that the whole Muslim population in India
could not transfer itself to Pakistan even if they could no longer
live in the burning inferno and saw the only hope for their life and
honour in distant Pakistan. What happened to the ruined mass of
people who did seek their sanctuary here is an other story. Those
who were rich and resourceful had it made for them: they were soon
taking possession of the non-Muslims properties, their bungalows,
shops and factories. For the others who had lost their all, who
arrived bathed in blood and scorched by flames, Pakistan proved a
very different entity.
From the point of view of the Muslims in India, it must look that a
political problem was unnecessarily turned into a religious one.
Thanks to the Muslim League, the political battle was set on a
communal course. If the course adopted were really a political one
and had Muslim League’s been a political movement, then with the
partition the whole issue should have stood resolved. The congress
was asking for India’s independence. It got it. The British had
left. The slavery had ended. The Muslim League was demanding
Pakistan. It too got that. So that should have been the end of it.
But what actually happened was, because the Muslim League had given
religious colour to a political issue, it left the Muslims who
remained in India the legacy of a permanent problem. The communalist
Hindu was forced to take note that India had been divided on the
basis of religion, but crores (Million) of Muslims had still been
left in the divided India. For those Hindus, then, the solution of
the problem remained incomplete. Which is why the communalism there
still refuses to cool off? The Muslims there were in a way made
worse off: earlier they were at the mercy of the non-Muslim
majority; now they have to contend with the latter’s anger and
hostility.
The conclusion must be that as the representative of the Muslims of
India’s non-Muslim majority provinces, the Muslim League could not
correctly diagnose their affliction.
When the diagnosis is wrong, the cure cannot be right. The Muslim
League politics should have helped improved the condition of those
Muslim. In fact it worsened it, to the point that they are now
permanently locked in the state of dependence, deprivation and
inequality.
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