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Pakistan,
officially Islamic Republic of Pakistan, republic
in southern Asia, at 23.30º to 36.45º north
latitude, and 61º to 75.31º east longitude,
bounded on the north and north-west by
Afghanistan, on the north-east by China, on the
east and south-east by India, on the south by the
Arabian Sea, and on the west by Iran. The area of
Pakistan is 796,095 sq. km (307,374 sq. mi). The
time zone of Pakistan is GMT+5. The capital of
Pakistan is Islamabad; the largest city of the
country is Karachi.
GMT+5
EARLY
CIVILIZATION
The history of the area which is now in Pakistan
starts from about 3500 BC. Early settlements in
the Balochistan region date from about 3500 BC.
Many settlers had migrated eastward from
Balochistan to the Indus River valley, where
several urban civilisations arose, such as the
Harappan. The Indus Valley Civilisation ended
abruptly about 1500 BC. During the 2nd millennium
BC, Aryan-speaking peoples migrated into the
region. Buddhist writings of the 6th and 5th
centuries BC mention the state of Gandhara in the
Indus River valley. In 327 BC Alexander the Great
entered Gandhara seeking to conquer the
extremities of the Achaemenian Empire of Persia.
Pakistan
was subsequently part of the Mauryan empire during
the 3rd century and part of the 2nd century BC and
later, in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD, part of
the Kushan (Kusana) kingdom. The Guptas ruled over
northern India, including the Indus River valley,
during a period in which Hindu culture
crystallised (320-540).
ISLAM
IN SUB-CONTINENT
The
Umayyad caliph in Damascus sent an expedition to
Bloachistan and Sindh in 711 led by Muhammad Bin
Qasim. The expedition went as far north as Multan
but was not able to retain that region and was not
successful in expanding Islamic rule to other part
of India. Almost three centuries later, the Turks
and Afghans spearheaded the Islamic conquest in
India through the traditional invasion routes the
northwest. Mahmood Ghazni (979-1030) led a series
of raids against Rajput kingdoms and rich Hindu
temples and established a base in the Punjab for
future incursions.
During
the last quarter of the twelfth century, Muhammad
of Ghor invaded the Indo-Gangetic Plain,
conquering in succession Ghazni, Multan, Sindh,
Lahore and Delhi. His successors established the
first dynasty of Delhi Sultanate in 1906. The
territory under control of the Muslim ruler in
Delhi expanded rapidly. By mid-century, Bengal and
much of central India were under Delhi Sultanate.
Several Turko-Afghan dynasties ruled from Delhi:
the Mamluk (1211-90), the Khalji (1290-1320), the
Tughlaq (1320-1413), the Sayyid (1415-51) and the
Lodhi (1451-1526). As Muslim extended their rule
into southern India, only Hindu kingdom of
Vijayanagar remained immune, until it too fell in
1565. There were also kingdoms of Delhi in Deccan,
Gujrat, Malwa, and Bengal.
The
sultan of Delhi enjoyed cordial, if superficial,
relations with Muslim rulers in the Near East but
owed no allegiance. The sultan based their laws on
the Quran and Sunnah and permitted non-Muslim
subjects to practice their religion.
THE
MUGHAL PERIOD
India
in sixteenth century presented a fragmented
picture of ruler, both Muslim and Hindu, who
lacked concern for their subjects and who fail to
create a common body of laws and institution.
Claiming
descent from both Chinggis Khan and Timur, Babar
combined strength and courage with a love of
beauty, and military. Babar concentrated on going
control of northwest India. He did so in 1526 by
defeating the last Lodhi sultan on the field of
Panipat, a town just northwest of Delhi. Babar
then turned to the tasks of persuading his Central
Asian followers to stay on in India and of
overcoming other contenders for power, mainly the
Rajputs and Afghans. He succeeded in both tasks
but died shortly thereafter in 1530. The Mughal
Empire was one of the largest centralized states
in pre-modern history and was the precursor to the
British Indian Empire.
Mughal
officials permitted the new carriers of India's
considerable export trade to establish trading
posts (factories) in India. The Dutch East India
Company concentrated mainly on the spice trade
from present-day Indonesia. Britain's East India
Company also set up factories.
During
the wars of the eighteenth century, the factories
served not only as collection and transshipment
points for trade but also increasingly as
fortified centers of refuge for both foreigners
and Indians. British factories gradually began to
apply British law to disputes arising within
jurisdiction. The posts also began to grow in area
and population. Armed company servants were
effective protectors of trade. As rival contenders
for power called for armed assistance and as
individual European adventurers found permanent
homes in India, British and French companies found
themselves more and more involved in local
politics in the south and in Bengal. Plots and
counterplots climaxed when British East India
Company forces, led by Robert Clive, decisively
defeated the largest but divided forces of Nawab
Siraj-ud-Dawlah at Plassey in Bengal in 1757.
COMPANY
RULE
It was not until middle of the nineteenth century
that almost all of the territory that constituted
Pakistan and India came under the rule of British
East India Company. The patterns of territorial
acquisition and rule as applied by company in
Sindh and Punjab and manner of governance became
the basis for direct British rule in the British
Indian Empire and indirect rule in the princely
states under paramountcy of the crown.
Although
the British had earlier ruled in the factory
areas, the beginning of British rule is often
dated from the Battle of Plassey. Clive's victory
was consolidated in 1764 at the Battle of Buxar
(in Bihar), where the emperor, Shah Alam II, was
defeated. As a result, Shah Alam was coerced to
appoint the company to diwan (collector of
revenue) for the area of Bengal, Bihar, and Qrisaa
(this pretense of Mughal control was abandoned in
1827). The company thus became he supreme, but not
the titular, power in much of Ganges Valley, and
company agents continued to trade highly favorable
to them.
The
area controlled by company expanded during first
three decades of nineteenth century by two
methods. The first was the use of subsidiary
agreements between the British and the local
rulers, under which control of foreign affairs,
defense and communication was transferred from the
ruler to the company and the ruler were allowed to
rule as they wished (up to a limit) on other
matters. This development created what came to be
called Native State, or Princely India, that is,
the world of the Mahahraja and his Muslim
counterpart, the nawab. The second method
was outright military conquest or direct
annexation of territories; it was these area that
were properly called British India. Most of
northern India was annexed by British.
At
the start of nineteenth century, most of
present-day Pakistan was under independent rulers.
Sindh was ruled by Muslim Talpur mirs
(chiefs) in three small states that were annexed
by the British in 1843. In the Punjab, the decline
of the Mughal Empire allowed the rise of the
Sikhs, first as a military force and later as a
political administration in Lahore. The kingdom of
Lahore was at its most powerful expansive during
rule of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, when Sikh control
was extended beyond Peshawar, and Kashmir was
added to his domains in 1819. After the death of
Ranjit Singh, the company fought two wars against
Sikh. (in 1839 and in 1849) and succeeded to
occupy the Punjab and present-day North West
Frontier Province. Kashmir was transferred by sale
in the Treaty of Amritsar in 1850 to the Dogrra
Dynasty, which ruled the area under British
paramountcy until 1947.
The
company also fought war to conquer Afghanistan in
1838, which was assisted by Sikh allies. Although
they partially succeeded but they left Afghanistan
in January, 1842 with one of the worst disasters
in British military history, as a column of more
than 16,000 (about one-third soldiers, the rest
camp followers) was annihilated by Afghan
tribesmen as they struggled through the snowbound
passes on their way back to India. They made no
attempt to reoccupy Afghanistan.
THE
BRITISH EMPIRES
He
uprising of 1875-58 became the great divide in
nineteenth-century South Asian history.
Understated by British historians as the Indian
Mutiny or Sepoy Rebellion and referred to with
some exaggeration by later Indian nationalists as
the First War of Independence, the uprising
nevertheless heralded the formal end of the Mughal
Empire and marked the end of company rule in India
as well. In general, the uprising was a reaction
to British expansionism and the outcome to the
policies of modernisation and annexation of
Governor General Lord Dalhousie (1848-56),
especially in Oudh (Avadh, now part of the Indian
state of Uter Praesh) in 1956. The immediate spark
for mutiny by the sepoys (Indian soldiers employed
by East India Company) was the introduction of the
new Enfield rifle, which had cartridge allegedly
greased with cow or pig fat, the tips of which had
to be bitten off before loading their weapons.
Both Muslim and Hindu soldiers were outraged at
this offence to their religious scruples and
refused to comply. British officers responded by
dismissing regiment after regiment from the Bengal
Army for refusing to load their weapons.
The
uprising of 1857-58 heralded the formal end of the
Mughal Empire and marked as well as the end of
company rule in India. The British Parliament
passed the Government of India Act of 1858, which
transferred authority to the British Crow,
represented in India by governor general, who
thereafter also had the title of viceroy. Queen
Victoria was proclaimed empress of India in 1877.
He
Victorian model of administration in British India
became the standard reference point for law,
order, and probity in Pakistan. At the apex of the
administration stood the governor general held
supreme legislative and executive powers and was
responsible directly to the secretary of state for
India, a member of the British cabinet.
The
British Rule was socially and politically
conservative, but it brought profound economic
change to the sub-continent.
THE
FORWARD POLICY
British policy toward the tribal people on the
Northwest frontier vacillated between caution and
adventuresome during the latter half of the
nineteenth century. Some viceroys opposed
extending direct administration or defence beyond
the Indus River. Other favoured a more assertive
posture, or "forward policy". The
latter's view prevailed, partly because Russian
advance in Central Asia gave their arguments
credence. In 1874 Sir Robert Sandeman was sent to
improve British relations with the Baloch tribes
and the Khan of Kalat. In 1876 Sandeman concluded
a treaty with Khan of Kalat that brought his
territories - including Kharan, Makran, and Las
Bela - under British suzerainty. The second
Anglo-Afghan war was fought in 878-80, sparked by
the Afghan amir's refusal to accept a British
diplomatic mission to Kabal. In May 1879, a treaty
was signed by Afghans and Britain which forced
Afghanistan to accept Britain's control of its
foreign affairs and to cede the British various
frontier areas, including the district Pishin,
Sibi, Harnai, and Thal Chotiali.
THE
SEEDS OF MUSLIM NATIONALISM
Although
the Seed of Muslim Nationalism was sowed in the
land of Sub-continent since 711 AD when first
Indian had become a Muslim. But, one response to
British rule came to be known as Deoband Movement,
which was led by the ulama, who were expanding
Islamic education. The ulama also sought to reform
the teaching of Islamic law and to promote its
application in a Muslim society. They promoted
publications in Urdu, establish fund raising
drives, and undertook modern organisational work
on an all-India basis. While most Deobandis
eventually were to support the Indian National
Congress and a united India, a group that favoured
the creation of Pakistan later emerged as the core
of the Jamiat-ul-Ulama-I-Islam party.
Another
response was led by Sir
Syed Ahmad Khan (1817-98) and was called
Aligarh Movement after the Muhammadan
Anglo-Oriental College (now Aligarh University),
which was founded in 1875 at Aligarh in
north-central India. Sir Syed considered access to
British education as the best means of social
mobility for the sons of the Muslim gentry under
colonial rule.
Meanwhile,
the beginnings of the Indian nationalist movement
were to be discerned in the increasing tendency to
form all-India associations representing various
interests. English-speaking Indians, predominantly
middle-class but from different parts of the
country, were discovering the efficacy of
associations and public meetings in propagating
their views to a winder audience and in winning
the attention of the British government. In 1885
the Indian National Congress was founded to
formulate proposals and demands to present to the
British.
Congress
worked and helped the Indian-British Rule, but it
refused to do so after World War I, The idea of
the territorial integrity of India and opposition
to any sectarian division of India, however,
always remained sacrosanct to Congress.
Sir
Syed remained aloof when Congress was founded and
he advised his followers not to join it, because
he thought the organisation would be dominated by
Hindus and would inevitably become antigovernment.
It has been argued that Sir Syed's fear of Hindu
domination sowed the seeds for the "Two
Nations Theory" later espoused by the
All-India Muslim League, founded in 1906 and led
to its demand for a separate state for the Muslims
of India - reinforcing his view that the British
were only guarantors of the rights of the Muslims.
Sir Syed argued that education and non-politics
was the key to Muslim advancement. Graduates of
Aligarh generally made their careers initially in
administration, non-politics, and thus were
greatly affected by introduction of representative
institutions at the provincial level by the India
Council Act 1892.
All
India Muslim League had been founded in Dhaka to
promote loyalty to the British and to protect and
advance the political rights of the Muslims of
India and respectfully represents their needs and
aspirations to the Government. It was also stated
that there was no intention to affect the rights
to affect the rights of other religious groups.
Earlier that same year, a group of Muslims - the
Simla Delegation - led by Aga
Khan III, met viceroy and put forward the
concept of "separate electorates."
BEGINNING
OF SELF GOVERNMENT
The
Government of India Act of 1909 - also know as the
Morley-Minto Reforms - gave Indians limited role
in the central and provincial legislatures, known
as legislative councils.
For
Muslims it was important both to gain a place in
all-India politics and to retain their Muslim
identity, objectives that required varying
responses according to the circumstances, as the
example of Muhammad
Ali Jinnah illustrates. Jinnah, who was born
in 1876, studied law in England and began his
carrier as an enthusiastic liberal in Congress.
But in 1913, he joined the Muslim League, which
had been shocked by the 1911 annulment of the
partition of Bengal into co-operating with
Congress to make demands on the British. Jinnah
continued his membership with Congress until 1919.
During dual membership period, he was described by
leading Congress spokesperson as the
"Ambassador of Hind-Muslim Unity".
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THE
TWO NATIONS THEORY
Events
in the late 1920s and 1930s led Muslims to begin
to think that their destiny might be in a separate
state, a concept that developed into the demand
for partition. Motilal Nehru convinced an
"all-party" conference in 1929 to
suggest changes that would lead to independence
when British took up the report of Simon
Commission. The majority of delegates demands the
end of the system of separate electorates. Jinnah,
in turn, put forward fifteen points that would
satisfy Muslim interests - in particular, the
retention of separate electorates or the creation
of "safeguards" to prevent a
Hindu-controlled legislature. Jinnah's proposals
were rejected, and from then on co-operation
between Hindus and Muslims in the independence
movement was rare.
In
his presidential address to the Muslim League
session at Allahabad in 1930, the leading modern
Muslim philosopher in South Asia, Sir
Muhammad Iqbal (1877-1938), described India as
Asia in miniature, in which a unitary form of
government was inconceivable and religious
community rather than territory was the basis for
identification. To him, communalism in the highest
sense was the key to formation of a harmonious
whole in India. Therefore, he demanded the
establishment of a confederation India to include
a Muslim state consisting of Punjab, N.W.F.P,
Sindh, and Balochistan. In subsequent speeches and
writings, Iqbal reiterated the claims of Muslims
to be considered a nation "based on unity of
language, race, history, religion, and identity of
economic interests".
Iqbal
gave no name to his projected state. That was done
by a group of students at Cambridge in Britain who
issued a pamphlet in 1933 entitled Now
or Never (by Ch.
Rehmat Ali). They opposed the idea
of federation, denied that India was a single
country, and demanded partition into regions, the
Northwest receiving national status as a "Pakistan".
They explained the terms
follows: "Pakistan…is…composed of letters
taken from the names of our homelands: that is
Punjab, Afghani, [N.W.F.P.], Kashmir, Sindh,
Tukharistan, Afghanistan, and Bloachistan. It
means the land of the Paks,
the spiritually pure and clean."
In
1934, Jinnah returned to the leadership of the
Muslim League after a period of residence in
London, but found it divided and without a sense
of mission. He set about restoring a sense of
purpose to Muslims, and he emphasised the Two
Nations Theory.
The
1937-40 period was critical in the growth of the
Two Nations Theory. Under the 1935 Government of
India Act, elections to the provincial legislative
assemblies were held in 1937. Congress gained
majorities in seven of the eleven provinces.
Congress took a strictly legalistic stand on the
formation of provincial ministries and refused to
form coalition government with the Muslim League,
even in the United Provinces, which had
substantial Muslim minority, provinces such as
Punjab and the N.W.F.P. The conduct of Congress
governments in Muslim-minority provinces
permanently alienated the Muslim League.
By
the late 1930s, Jinnah was convinced of the need
for a unifying issue among Muslims, and Pakistan
was the obvious answer. At its annual session in
Lahore on March 23, 1940, the Muslim League
resolved that the areas of Muslim Majority in
North-western and Eastern India should be grouped
together to constitute independence plan without
this provision was unacceptable to Muslims.
Federation was rejected. The Lahore Resolution
(forward by Sher-e-Bengal
Mr. A. K. Fazal-e-Haq) was often
referred to as the "Pakistan
Resolution"; however, the word Pakistan did
not appear in it.
An
interesting aspect of the Pakistan movement was
that it received its greatest support from area in
which Muslims were a minority. In those areas, the
main issue was finding an alternative to replacing
British rule with Congress, that is, Hindu Rule.
TOWARD
PARTITION
Congress
predictable opposed all proposals for partition
and advocated a united India with a strong centre
and a fully responsible parliament. To many,
notable to Jawaharlal Nehru, the idea of a
sovereign state based on a common religion seemed
a historical anachronism and a denial of
democracy. From 1940 on, reconciliation between
Congress and the Muslim League became increasingly
difficult, if not impossible.
During
World War II, the Muslim League and Congress
adopted different attitudes toward British
priorities were driven by the expediencies of
defence, and war was declared abruptly without any
prior consultation with Indian politicians.
Congress ministries in the provinces resigned in
protest. As a consequence, Congress, with most of
its leaders in jail opposition of the Rule, lost
its political leverage over the co-operation,
gaining time to consolidate. The British
appreciated the loyalty and valour of the British
India Army, many of whose members were Punjabi
Muslims. The Muslims League's success could be
gauged from its sweep of 90 percent of the Muslim
seats in the 1946 elections, compared with only
4.5 percent in the 1937 elections. The 1946
election was, in effect, a plebiscite among
Muslims on Pakistan. In London it became clear
that there were three parties in any discussion on
the future if India: the British, Congress and the
Muslim League.
Spurred
by Japanese advance in Asia and forceful
persuasion from Washington, British prime minister
Winston Churchill's coalition war government in
1942 had dispatched Sir Stafford Cripps to India
with a proposal for settlement. He plan provided
for dominion status after the war for and Indian
union if British Indian provinces and princely
states wishing to accede to, a separate dominion
for those who did not, and firm defence link
between Britain and an Indian union. Cripps
himself was sympathetic to Indian nationalism.
However, his mission failed, and Gandhi described
it as "a post-dated cheque on a crashing
bank."
In
August 1942, Gandhi launched the "Quit
India Movement" against the British.
Jinnah condemned the movement. The government
retaliated by arresting about 60,000 individuals
and outlawing Congress. Communal riots increased.
Talks between Jinnah and Gandhi in 1944 proved as
futile as negations between Gandhi and the
viceroy.
New
elections to provincial and central legislatures
were ordered, and a three-man team came to India
from Britain to discuss plans for self-government.
The cabinet Mission Plan, proposed by Cripps,
represented Britain’s last, desperate attempt to
transfer the power it retained over India to a
single union. The mission put forward a three-tier
federal form of government in which the central
government would be limited to power over defence,
foreign relations, currency and communication;
significant over powers would be delegated to the
provinces. The plan also prescribed the zones that
would be created: north-west Bengal and Assam
would be joined to form a zone with a slight
Muslim majority; in north-west, Punjab, Sindh,
N.W.F.P., and Bloachistan would be joined for a
clear Muslim majority; and the remainder of the
country would be third zone , with a clear Hindu
majority. The approximation of the boundaries of a
new Pakistan was clear from the delineation of the
zones. The mission also suggested the right of
veto on legislation by communities that saw their
interests adversely affected. Finally, the mission
proposed that an interim government be established
immediately and that new elections be held.
Congress
and the Muslim League emerged from the 1946
elections as the two dominant parties, although
the Muslim League again was unable to capture a
majority of the Muslim seats in the N.W.F.P. At
first, both parties seemed to accept Cabinet
Mission Plan, despite many reservations, but the
subsequent behaviour of the leaders soon led to
bitterness and mistrust. Nehru effectively quashed
any prospect of the plan’s success when he
announced that Congress would not be
"fettered" by agreements with the
British, thereby making it clear that Congress
would be its majority in the newly created
Constituent Assembly to write a constitution that
conformed to its ideas. The formation of an
interim government was also controversial. Jinnah
demanded equality between the Muslim League and
Congress, a proposal rejected by the viceroy. The
Muslim League boycotted the interim government,
and each party disputed the right of the other
appoint Muslim ministers, a prerogative Jinnah
claimed belonged solely to the Muslim League.
When
the viceroy proceeded to form an interim
government without the Muslim League, Jinnah
called for demonstrations, or "Direct
Action", on August 16, 1946. Communal rioting
broke out on an unprecedented scale, especially in
Bengal and Bihar. The massacre of Muslims in
Calcutta brought Gandhi to the scene, where he
worked with the Muslim League provincial chief
minister, Hussain Shaheed Suhrawardy. Gandhi’s
and Suharwardy’s efforts clamed fears in Bengal,
but rioting quickly spread elsewhere and continued
well into 19476. Jinnah permitted the Muslim
League to inter the interim government in an
effort to stem further communal violence.
Disagreements among the ministers paralysed the
government, already haunted by the spectre of
civil war.
In
February 1947, Lord Mountbatten was appointed
viceroy with specific instructions to arrange for
a transfer of bower by June 1948. Mountbatten
assessed the situation and became convinced that
Congress was willing to accept partition as the
price for independence, that Jinnah would accept a
smaller Pakistan than one he demanded (that is,
all of Punjab and Bengal), and Sikhs would learn
to accept a division of Punjab. Mountbatten was
convinced by the rising temperature of too distant
and persuaded most Indian leaders that immediate
acceptance of his plan was imperative.
On
June 3, 1947, British prime minister Clement
Attlee introduced a bill in the House of Commons
called for the Independence and Partition of
India. On July 14, the House of Commons passed the
India Independence Act, by which two independent
dominions were created on the sub-continent; the
princely states were left to accede to either. The
partition plan stated that contiguous
Muslim-majority districts in Punjab and Bengal
would go to Pakistan, provided that the
legislatures of the two provinces agreed that the
provinces should be partitioned- they did.
Sindh’s legislature and Balochistan’s jirga
(council of tribal leaders) agreed to join
Pakistan. A plebiscite was held in Sylhet District
of Assam, and as a result, part of the district
was transferred to Pakistan. A plebiscite was also
held in N.W.F.P. Despite a boycott by Congress,
the province was deemed to have chosen Pakistan.
The princely states, however, presented a more
difficult problem. All but three of the more than
500 states quickly acceded to Pakistan or India
under guidelines established with the aid of
Mountbatten. The states made their decision after
giving consideration to the geographic location of
their respective area and to their religious
majority. Two states hesitated but were quickly
absorbed into India: Hyderabad, the most populated
of the princely states, whose Muslim ruler desired
independence; Junagadh, a small state with a
Muslim prince that tried to accede to Pakistan
despite’s majority Hindu population. The
accession of the third state, Jammu and Kashmir,
also could not be resolved peacefully, and its
indeterminate status has poisoned relations
between Pakistan and India ever since.
Throughout
the summer of 1947, as communal violence mounted,
preparations for partition proceeded in Delhi.
Assets were divided, boundary commission were set
up to demarcate frontiers, and British troops were
evacuated. The military was restructured into two
forces. Law and order broke down in different
parts of the country. Civil servants were given
choice of joining either country; British officers
could retire with compensation if not invited to
stay on. Jinnah and Nehru tried unsuccessfully to
quell the passions of communal fury that neither
fully understood. On August 14, 1947, Pakistan and
India achieved independence. Jinnah became the
first governor general of Dominion of Pakistan.
Thus,
Pakistan came into being a the chapter of the
history of Pakistan Movement closed.
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