TC Jul-Aug 2022 Issue

TRADE CHRONICLE Jul - Aug - 2022
Profundity of Pakistan Movement
By Dr. Hasan Askari Rizvi
Pakistan celebrates its
Independence Day on
August 14. This date
has more significance this
year because Pakistan
has completed 75 years
of its independence.
Its history of 75 years
represents successes as well
as disappointments.
Pakistan began its career as an
independent state under extremely
difficult conditions. New federal
government and a new provincial
government were established in
Karachi and Dhaka, respectively.
The three provincial governments
of Sindh, the then NWFP (now KP)
and Punjab were linked with the
new federal government in Karachi.
The same was the situation of
Balochistan. Communal riots and
unplanned migrations created difficult
administrative and human problems
for the new state. The economy
suffered from serious dislocation and
disruption. Almost all parts of Pakistan
were adversely affected by the two-way
human migrations.
It was not surprising that many
political observers in Great Britain
and India thought that Pakistan would
collapse under the weight of its initial
problems.
Pakistan defied
the “doomsday”
predictions
about its future. It
tackled the initial problems
and focused on turning
the new state into a
sustainable political and
economic entity. By 1954-
55, Pakistan had become
a viable state. Pakistan
further strengthened its
credentials as an independent
and sovereign state in the
subsequent years, although the quality
of performance often faltered and
its leadership found it problematic
to adequately cope with external
security challenges and internal
political, economic and administrative
obligations.
There were many disappointments
during the last seventy-five years. We
could not create viable participatory
political order that assigned priority to
human development and welfare. The
dream of a better and secure future for
the people could not become a reality
and the slogans of constitutionalism,
the rule of law and socio-economic
justice for all citizens irrespective of
ethnicity, region, religion and gender
did not fully materialize.
While celebrating the Independence
Day this year we need to pay attention
to three major issues. First, we
must pay tribute to the leaders who
articulated the idea of a separate
11
homeland and then turned it into
a reality. We should also remember
the people who lost their lives in the
communal riots and in the attacks
on their convoys moving from India
to Pakistan by railway trains, bullock
carts and on foot. Second, there is a
need to revisit the circumstances and
factors that led the All India Muslim
League to seek a separate homeland
for the Muslims of British India. Third,
we need to make a dispassionate
analysis of why we faltered in creating a
flourishing democracy and a just social
and economic order. Why poverty and
underdevelopment continue to haunt
us?
These three issues can link the postindependence
generations with
the realities of the independence
struggle and the violence and the
refugee problem of 1947 to give them
a better understanding of why and
how the new state was created. This
understanding will enable us to judge
our successes and disappointments
in the post-independence period and
how to overcome our shortcomings.
In this article we are focusing on the
second issue which will also address
the first issue of paying tribute to the
makers of Pakistan.
The establishment of Pakistan can
be appreciated by focusing on four
inter-related aspects of the freedom
struggle. These four aspects are the
distinct socio-cultural identity of the
Muslims that distinguished them
from other communities in British
India; the establishment of the
modern state system in India by the
British government and its impact on
different communities in India; the
Muslim political experience in British
India; and the demand for a separate
homeland.
The Muslims in British India were the
descendants of the Arab traders or the
migrants from Afghanistan, Central
Asia, Iran or they were local converts.
Their social disposition was rooted
in the civilizational, historical and
cultural heritage of Islam and their
intellectual inspiration came from
the teachings and principles of Islam.
Their nostalgia of the glory was based
on the period of the Muslim rule in
India. Over time, they became different
from the Muslims of Central Asia and
the Middle East. Similarly, they turned
different from local Hindu population
as well. This brought in existence an