Vision of Another Independence

Fifty-seven years after the Partition of India, a new generation of Pakistanis and Indians is at the helm of affairs. This generation has not had the first hand experience of  what it  was like to live in undivided India under the British Raj; this generation has only a second-hand knowledge of that era culled from various sources. This inevitable passage of time has also produced numerous new local and global changes in the social, economic and geopolitical environment in which the people of India and Pakistan now live.  Had it not been for the simmering issue of Kashmir, this temporal distance from a shared past full of blood and violence could have brought the two countries closer in mutually beneficial ways and the very large sums they both used to produce and buy arms could have been diverted to basic developmental needs.

Three wars, constant tension at the borders and continuous animosity has cost both countries a whole generation and there is little reason to believe that the next generation would be able to resolve the basic issue in a manner acceptable to both populations. This, however, is merely one aspect of the post-independence era. Of much greater importance has to do with realizing the vision that had inspired the first generation to gain independence from the colonial masters who had ruled India directly for ninety years and indirectly for almost 150 years. Did the independence bring the fruits it promised? Or was it merely a change of rulers?

Of course, these questions have different meanings for Indians and Pakistanis because the two countries came into existence on two different foundational ideologies. Pakistan was carved out of a geographical region on the basis of Two Nation Theory which postulated that two distinct nations, which did not share basic beliefs, ideals and ways of life existed in India, and that it was impossible for these two people to remain locked within a single nation-state. India, on the other hand, did not really come into existence; it was merely the remainder which somehow had to adjust to its new geographical realities. It was the much larger, much older and, in many ways, much more stable polity, and over the last fifty-seven years, it has made remarkable progress in achieving further stability of its institutions.

Pakistan, on the other hand, has had to cope with challenges of a totally different kind and fifty-seven years later, it remains a volatile country, with wayward manners and deep traumas that continue to take their toll. The vision of Pakistan was primarily rooted in the religious experience of a people and it will not be wrong to say that without the overriding Islamic consciousness of Indian Muslims, there was no raison d’etre for Pakistan.

At the popular level, this was articulated in the slogan, Pakistan ka Matlab kaya? La ilaha ill’Allah (What is the meaning of Pakistan? There is no deity except Allah). This popular articulation was not empty rhetoric; it was gleaned from a highly refined articulation of the historical process that had produced a uniquely Islamic polity in the Indian Subcontinent. The most expressive, clear and resonant formulation of this process is to be found in the works of Muhammad Iqbal. Iqbal, however, is not the only spokesman of the vibrant currents that saved Indian Muslims from a fate similar to their brethren in al-Andalus. There were others, like Chaudhary Rahmat Ali, who had described the vision of Pakistan as a place where Islam’s ideals will be converted into reality.

No matter who articulated the vision of Pakistan and at what level, Islam was always the main foundation upon which this vision was based. Even the most secular-minded Muslims of that era were touched by this ethereal vision that brought to mind a promised land in its true religious sense—a land where the supreme law of Allah would make it possible for all to share the bounties of land.

The stark realities of contemporary Pakistan are so shattering that even a passionate recall of its founding vision may produce widespread cynicism. To speak of Islam as the foundational vision of a country where sectarian violence and ethnic strife are the most obvious defining features is, no doubt, liable to produce jarring notes, yet there is no escape from the fact that the sole raison d’etre of Pakistan was, is and will remain its religious foundation. This is so because there is no other feature which is differentiating enough for Pakistan to exist as a separate country from India.

Thus no matter how stark the present realities are, no matter how the contemporary ideological Babelism tries to confuse the foundational principle of Pakistan, the country and its people will eventually return to the same underlying spiritual basis for their existence as it  was defined at the time of its foundation.

Indeed, it can be said with objectivity and on the basis of solid facts that the synthesis of the various historical currents which brought Pakistan into existence was merely the first step of a much larger synthesis still taking place. Neither the Indian subcontinent, nor the lands further west exist in isolation; for centuries, Iran, India and the entire Central Asian region have existed in a state of mutual relationship that was only artificially severed by the Western colonizers and Russia for a short period of time. In this diverse region, apart from the non-Islamic civilizations based on Hinduism and its various branches, a vast synthesis of Islamic civilization has taken place over centuries, producing three major branches: the Persian, the Central Asian and the Indian.

In 1947, the Indian Muslim polity found a separate homeland. This first step was neither the beginning nor the end of the process, but because it was a very distinct step, it was mistaken as a final step. In fact, the creation of Pakistan only makes sense when viewed as a step in a much bigger process.

It is in the understanding of that much bigger process that Pakistan’s independence, continuous existence and its future will find meaning. This much larger process is bound to produce a commonwealth of Muslim people stretching from the steppes of Central Asia and extending to the Arab world through Iran. This is the true vision and ultimate destiny of a land so rich in human and material resources that no other continuous stretch of land can compare.

Samarqand and Bukharah did not inspire Iqbal’s poetic imagination for no reason; Neshapur, Hamadan and Shiraz are not evocative names for millions of Muslims of this region without reason; they are symbols embodying a deep historical significance and an immensely important future awaiting realization by people of Pakistan, Central Asia, and Iran who share certain commonalities in the deepest sanctoms of their beings.