| HISTORY IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER
Pakistan emerged on the world map
on August 14,1947. It has its roots into the remote past. Its
establishment was the culmination of the struggle by Muslims of the
South-Asian subcontinent for a separate homeland of their own and its
foundation was laid when Muhammad bin Qasim subdued Sindh in 711 A.D. as a
reprisal against sea pirates that had taken refuge in Raja Dahir's
kingdom.
The advent of Islam further
strengthened the historical individuality in the areas now constituting
Pakistan and further beyond its boundaries. Stone Age Some of the earliest
relics of Stone Age man in the subcontinent are found in the Soan Valley
of the Potohar region near Rawalpindi, with a probable antiquity of about
500,000 years. No human skeleton of such antiquity has yet been discovered
in the area, but the crude stone implements recovered from the terraces of
the Soan carry the saga of human toil and labor in this part of the world
to the inter-glacial period. These Stone Age men fashioned their
implements in a sufficiently homogenous way to justify their grouping in
terms of a culture called the Soan Culture. About 3000 B.C, amidst the
rugged wind-swept valleys and foothills of Balochistan, small village
communities developed and began to take the first hesitant steps towards
civilization. Here, one finds a more continuous story of human activity,
though still in the Stone Age.
These pre-historic men
established their settlements, both as herdsmen and as farmers, in the
valleys or on the outskirts of the plains with their cattle and cultivated
barley and other crops. Red and buffer Cultures Careful excavations of the
pre-historic mounds in these areas and the classification of their
contents, layer by layer, have grouped them into two main categories of
Red Ware Culture and Buff Ware Culture. The former is popularly known as
the Zhob Culture of North Balochistan, while the latter comprises the
Quetta, Amri Nal and Kulli Cultures of Sindh and South Balochistan. Some
Amri Nal villages or towns had stone walls and bastions for defence
purposes and their houses had stone foundations. At Nal, an extensive
cemetery of this culture consists of about 100 graves. An important
feature of this composite culture is that at Amri and certain other sites,
it has been found below the very distinctive Indus Valley Culture. On the
other hand, the steatite seals of Nal and the copper implements and
certain types of pot decoration suggest a partial overlap between the two.
It probably represents one of the local societies which constituted the
environment for the growth of the Indus Valley Civilization.
The pre-historic site of Kot Diji
in the Sindh province has provided information of high significance for
the reconstruction of a connected story which pushes back the origin of
this civilization by 300 to 500 years, from about 2500 B.C.. to at least
2800 B.C. Evidence of a new cultural elements of pre-Harappan era has been
traced here. Pre-Harappan Civilization When the primitive village
communities in the Balochistan area were still struggling against a
difficult highland environment, a highly cultured people were trying to
assert themselves at Kot Diji, one of the most developed urban
civilizations of the ancient world which flourished between the years 2500
and 1500 B.C. in the Indus Valley sites of Moenjodaro and Harappa. These
Indus Valley people possessed a high standard of art and craftsmanship and
a well developed system of quasi pictographic writing, which despite
continuing efforts still remains undeciphered. The imposing ruins of the
beautifully planned Moenjodaro and Harappa towns present clear evidence of
the unity of a people having the same mode of life and using the same kind
of tools. Indeed, the brick buildings of the common people, the public
baths, the roads and covered drainage system suggest the picture of a
happy and contented people. Aryan Civilization In or about 1500 B.C., the
Aryans descended upon the Punjab and settled in the Sapta Sindhu, which
signifies the Indus plain. They developed a pastoral society that grew
into the Rigvedic Civilization. The Rigveda is replete with hymns of
praise for this region, which they describe as "God fashioned". It is also
clear that so long as the Sapta Sindhu remained the core of the Aryan
Civilization, it remained free from the caste system. The caste
institution and the ritual of complex sacrifices took shape in the
Gangetic Valley. There can be no doubt that the Indus Civilization
contributed much to the development of the Aryan civilization. Gandhara
Culture The discovery of the Gandhara grave culture in Dir and Swat will
go a long way in throwing light on the period of Pakistan's cultural
history between the end of the Indus Culture in 1500 B.C. and the
beginning of the historic period under the Achaemenians in the sixth
century B.C. Hindu mythology and Sanskrit literary traditions seem to
attribute the destruction of the Indus civilization to the Aryans, but
what really happened, remains a mystery. The Gandhara grave culture has
opened up two periods in the cultural heritage of Pakistan: one of the
Bronze Age and the other of the Iron Age. It is so named because it
presents a peculiar pattern of living in hilly zones of the Gandhara
region as evidenced in the graves. This culture is different from the
Indus Culture and has little relations with the village culture of
Balochistan. Stratigraphy as well as the artifacts discovered from this
area suggest that the Aryans moved into this part of the world between
1,500 and 600 B.C. In the sixth century B.C., Buddha began his teachings,
which later on spread throughout the northern part of the South-Asian
subcontinent. It was towards the end of this century, too, that Darius I
of Iran organized Sindh and Punjab as the twentieth satrapy of his empire.
There are remarkable similarities
between the organizations of that great empire and the Mauryan empire of
the third century B.C., while Kautilya's Arthshastra also shows a strong
Persian influence, Alexander of Macedonia after defeating Darius III in
330 B.C. had also marched through the South-Asian subcontinent up to the
river Beas, but Greek influence on the region appears to have been limited
to contributing a little to the establishment of the Mauryan empire. The
great empire that Asoka, the grandson of Chandragupta Maurya, built in the
subcontinent included only that part of the Indus basin which is now known
as the northern Punjab. The rest of the areas astride the Indus were not
subjugated by him. These areas, which now form a substantial part of
Pakistan, were virtually independent from the time of the Guptas in the
fourth century A.D. until the rise of the Delhi Sultanate in the
thirteenth century. Gandhara Art Gandhara Art, one of the most prized
possessions of Pakistan, flourished for a period of 500 years (from the
first to the fifth century A.D.) in the present valley of Peshawar and the
adjacent hilly regions of Swat, Buner and Bajaur. This art represents a
separate phase of the cultural renaissance of the region. It was the
product of a blending of Indian, Buddhist and Greco-Roman sculpture.
Gandhara Art in its early stages received the patronage of Kanishka, the
great Kushan ruler, during whose reign the Silk Route ran through Peshawar
and the Indus Valley, bringing great prosperity to the whole area. Advent
of Islam The first followers of prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him), to
set foot on the soil of the South-Asian subcontinent, were traders from
the coast land of Arabia and the Persian Gulf, soon after the dawn of
Islam in the early seventh century A.D.
DAWN OF
ISLAM
The first permanent Muslim
foothold in the subcontinent was achieved with Muhammad bin Qasim's
conquest of Sindh in 711 A.D. An autonomous Muslim state linked with the
Umayyed, and later, the Abbassid Caliphate was established with
jurisdiction extending over southern and central parts of present
Pakistan. Quite a few new cities were established and Arabic was
introduced as the official language. At the time of Mahmud of Ghazna's
invasion, Muslim rule still existed, though in a weakened form, in Multan
and some other regions. The Ghaznavids (976-1148) and their successors,
the Ghaurids (1148-1206), were Central Asian by origin and they ruled
their territories, which covered mostly the regions of present Pakistan,
from capitals outside India. It was in the early thirteenth century that
the foundations of the Muslim rule in India were laid with extended
boundaries and Delhi as the capital. From 1206 to 1526 A.D., five
different dynasties held sway. Then followed the period of Mughal
ascendancy (1526-1707) and their rule continued, though nominally, till
1857. From the time of the Ghaznavids, Persian more or less replaced
Arabic as the official language. The economic, political and religious
institutions developed by the Muslims bore their unique impression. The
law of the State was based on Shariah and in principle the rulers were
bound to enforce it. Any long period of laxity was generally followed by
reinforcement of these laws under public pressure. The impact of Islam on
the South-Asian subcontinent was deep and far-reaching. Islam introduced
not only a new religion, but a new civilization, a new way of life and new
set of values. Islamic traditions of art and literature, of culture and
refinement, of social and welfare institution, were established by Muslim
rulers throughout the subcontinent. A new language, Urdu, derived mainly
from Arabic and Persian vocabulary and adopting indigenous words and
idioms, came to be spoken and written by the Muslims and it gained
currency among the rest of the Indian population.
URDU IS THE NATIONAL LANGUAGE OF
PAKISTAN
Apart from religion, Urdu also
enabled the Muslim community during the period of its ascendancy to
preserve its separate identity in the subcontinent.
Muslim Identity -- The question
of Muslim identity, however assumed seriousness during the decline of
Muslim power in South Asia. The first person to realize its acuteness was
the scholar theologian, Shah Waliullah (1703-62). He laid the foundation
of Islamic renaissance in the subcontinent and became a source of
inspiration for almost all the subsequent social and religious reform
movements of the nineteenth, and twentieth centuries. His immediate
successors, inspired by his teachings, tried to establish a modest Islamic
state in the north-west of India and they, under the leadership of Sayyed
Ahmad Shaheed Barelvi (1786-1831), persevered in this direction. British
Expansionism and Muslim Resistance Meanwhile, starting with the East India
Company, the British had emerged as the dominant force in South Asia.
Their rise to power was gradual extending over a period of nearly one
hundred years. They replaced the Shariah by what they termed as the
Anglo-Muhammadan law whereas Urdu was replaced by English as the official
language. These and other developments had great social, economic and
political impact especially on the Muslims of South Asia. The uprising of
1857, termed as the Indian Mutiny by the British and the War of
Independence by the Muslims, was a desperate attempt to reverse the
adverse course of events. Religious Institutions The failure of the 1857
War of Independence had disastrous consequences for the Muslims as the
British placed all the responsibility for this event on them. Determined
to stop such a recurrence in future, the British followed deliberately a
repressive policy against the Muslims. Properties and estates of those
even remotely associated with the freedom fighters were confiscated and
conscious efforts were made to close all avenues of honest living for
them. The Muslim response to this situation also aggravated their plight.
Their religious leaders, who had been quite active, withdrew from the
mainstream of the community life and devoted themselves exclusively to
imparting religious education. Although the religious academies especially
those of Deoband, Farangi Mahal and Rai Bareilly, established by the
Ulema, did help the Muslims to preserve their identity, the training
provided in these institutions hardly equipped them for the new
challenges. Educational Reform The Muslims kept themselves aloof from
western education as well as government service. But, their compatriots,
the Hindus, did not do so and accepted the new rulers without reservation.
They acquired western education, imbibed the new culture and captured
positions hitherto filled in by the Muslims. If this situation had
prolonged, it would have done the Muslims an irreparable damage. The man
to realise the impending peril was Sir Syed Ahmad Khan (1817-1889), a
witness to the tragic events of 1857. He exerted his utmost to harmonize
British Muslim relations. His assessment was that the Muslims' safety lay
in the acquisition of western education and knowledge. He took several
positive steps to achieve this objective. He founded a college at Aligarh
to impart education on western lines. Of equal importance was the
Anglo-Muhammadan Educational Conference, which he sponsored in 1886, to
provide an intellectual forum to the Muslims for the dissemination of
views in support of western education and social reform. Similar were the
objectives of the Muhammadan Literary Society, founded by Nawab Adbul
Latif (1828-93), active in Bengal, Sir Syed Ahmad Khan's efforts
transformed into a movement, known as the Aligarh Movement, and it left
its imprint on the Muslims of every part of the South-Asian subcontinent.
Under its inspiration, societies were founded throughout the subcontinent
which established educational institutions for imparting education to the
Muslims.
Sir Syed Ahmad Khan was averse to
the idea of participation by the Muslims in any organized political
activity which, he feared, might revive British hostility towards them. He
also disliked Hindu Muslim collaboration in any joint venture. His
disillusionment in this regard stemmed basically from the Urdu Hindi
controversy of the late 1860s when the Hindu enthusiasts vehemently
championed the cause of Hindi to replace Urdu. He, therefore, opposed the
Indian National Congress when it was founded in 1885 and advised the
Muslims to abstain from its activities. His contemporary and a great
scholar of Islam, Syed Ameer Ali (1849-1928), shared his views about the
Congress, but, he was not opposed to Muslims organizing themselves
politically. In fact, he organised the first significant political body of
the Muslims, the Central National Muhammadan Association. Although, its
membership was limited, it had more than 50 branches in different parts of
the subcontinent and it accomplished some solid work for the educational
and political advancement of the Muslims. But, its activities waned
towards the end of the nineteenth century. The Muslim League At the dawn
of the twentieth century, a number of factors convinced the Muslims of the
need to have an effective political organization. Therefore, in October
1906, a deputation comprising 35 Muslim leaders met the Viceroy of the
British at Simla and demanded separate electorates. Three months later,
the All-India Muslim League was founded by Nawab Salimullah Khan at Dhaka,
mainly with the objective of safeguarding the political rights and
interests of the Muslims. The British conceded separate electorates in the
Government of India Act of 1909 which confirmed the Muslim League's
position as an All-India party. Attempt for Hindu Muslim Unity The visible
trend of the two major communities progressing in opposite directions
caused deep concern to leaders of All-India stature. They struggled to
bring the Congress and the Muslim League on one platform. Quaid-i-Azam
Muhammad Ali Jinnah (1876-1948) was the leading figure among them. After
the annulment of the partition of Bengal and the European Powers'
aggressive designs against the Ottoman Empire and North Africa, the
Muslims were receptive to the idea of collaboration with the Hindus
against the British rulers.
The Congress Muslim League
rapprochement was achieved at the Lucknow sessions of the two parties in
1916 and a joint scheme of reforms was adopted. In the Lucknow Pact. as
the scheme was commonly referred to, the Congress accepted the principle
of separate electorates, and the Muslims, in return for `weightage' to the
Muslims of the Muslim minority provinces, agreed to surrender their thin
majorities in the Punjab and Bengal. The post Lucknow Pact period
witnessed Hindu Muslim amity and the two parties came to hold their annual
sessions in the same city and passed resolutions of identical contents.
KHILAFAT MOVEMENT
The Hindu Muslim unity reached
its climax during the Khilafat and the Non-cooperation Movements. The
Muslims of soothsayer, under the leadership of the Ali Brothers, Maulana
Muhammad Ali and Maulana Shaukat Ali, launched the historic Khilafat
Movement after the First World War to protect the Ottoman Empire from
dismemberment. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948) linked the issue of
Swaraj (self-government) with the Khilafat issue to associate the Hindus
with the Movement. the ensuing Movement was the first countrywide popular
movement.
Although the Movement failed in
its objectives, it had a far-reaching impact on the Muslims of South Asia.
After a long time, they took united action on a purely Islamic issue which
momentarily forged solidarity among them. It also produced a class of
Muslim leaders experienced in organizing and mobilizing the public. This
experience was of immense value to the Muslims later during the Pakistan
Movement The collapse of the Khilafat Movement was followed by a period of
bitter Hindu Muslim antagonism. The Hindus organized two highly anti
Muslim movements, the Shudhi and the Sangathan. The former movement was
designed to convert Muslims to Hinduism and the latter was meant to create
solidarity among the Hindus in the event of communal conflict. In
retaliation, the Muslims sponsored the Tabligh and Tanzim organizations to
counter the impact of the Shudhi and the Sangathan. In the 1920s, the
frequency of communal riots was unprecedented. Several Hindu-Muslim unity
conferences were held to remove the causes of conflict, but, it seemed
nothing could mitigate the intensity of communalism. Muslim Demand
Safeguards In the light of this situation, the Muslims revised their
constitutional demands. They now wanted preservation of their numerical
majorities in the Punjab and Bengal, separation of Sindh from Bombay,
constitution of Balochistan as a separate province and introduction of
constitutional reforms in the North-West Frontier Province. It was partly
to press these demands that one section of the All-India Muslim League
cooperated with the Statutory commission sent by the British Government
under the chairmanship of Sir John Simon in 1927.
SIMON
COMMISSION
The other section of the League,
which boycotted the Simon Commission for its all-White character,
cooperated with the Nehru Committee, appointed by the All-Parties
Conference, to draft a constitution for India. The Nehru Report had an
extremely anti-Muslim bias and the Congress leadership's refusal to amend
it disillusioned even the moderate Muslims. Allama Muhammad Iqbal Several
leaders and thinkers, having insight into the Hindu-Muslim question
proposed separation of Muslim India. However, the most lucid exposition of
the inner feeling of the Muslim community was given by Allama Muhammad
Iqbal(1877-1938) in his Presidential Address at the All-India Muslim
League Session at Allahabad in 1930. He suggested that for the healthy
development of Islam in South-Asia, it was essential to have a separate
Muslim state at least in the Muslim majority regions of the north-west.
Later on, in his correspondence with Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, he
included the Muslim majority areas in the north-east also in his proposed
Muslim state. Three years after his Allahabad Address, a group of Muslim
students at Cambridge, headed by Chaudhry Rehmat Ali, issued a pamphlet,
Now or Never, in which drawing letters from the names of the Muslim
majority regions, they gave the nomenclature of "Pakistan" to the proposed
State. Very few even among the Muslim welcomed the idea at the time. It
was to take a decade for the Muslims to embrace the demand for a separate
Muslim state. Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah Meanwhile, three Round
Table Conferences were convened in London during 1930-32, to resolve the
Indian constitutional problem. The Hindu and Muslim leaders, who were
invited to these conferences, could not draw up an agreed formula and the
British Government had to announce a `Communal Award' which was
incorporated in the Government of India Act of 1935. Before the elections
under this Act, the All-India Muslim League, which had remained dormant
for some time, was reorganized by Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who
had returned to India in 1934,after an absence of nearly five years in
England. The Muslim League could not win a majority of Muslim seats since
it had not yet been effectively reorganized. However, it had the
satisfaction that the performance of the Indian National Congress in the
Muslim constituencies was bad. After the elections, the attitude of the
Congress leadership was arrogant and domineering. The classic example was
its refusal to form a coalition government with the Muslim League in the
United Provinces. Instead, it asked the League leaders to dissolve their
parliamentary arty in the Provincial Assembly and join the Congress.
Another important Congress move after the 1937 elections was its Muslim
mass contact movement to persuade the Muslims to join the Congress and not
the Muslim League. One of its leaders, Jawaharlal Nehru, even declared
that there were only two forces in India, the British and the Congress.
All this did not go unchallenged.
Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah
countered that there was a third force in South-Asia constituting the
Muslims. The All-India Muslim League, under his gifted leadership,
gradually and skillfully started organising the Muslims on one platform.
Towards a Separate Muslim Homeland The 1930s witnessed awareness among the
Muslims of their separate identity and their anxiety to preserve it within
separate territorial boundaries. An important element that brought this
simmering Muslim nationalism in the open was the character of the Congress
rule in the Muslim minority provinces during 1937-39. The Congress
policies in these provinces hurt Muslim susceptibilities. There were
calculated aims to obliterate the Muslims as a separate cultural unit. The
Muslims now stopped thinking in terms of seeking safeguards and began to
consider seriously the demand for a separate Muslim state. During 1937-39,
several Muslim leaders and thinkers, inspired by Allama Iqbal's ideas,
presented elaborate schemes for partitioning the subcontinent according to
two-nation theory. Pakistan Resolution The All-India Muslim League soon
took these schemes into consideration and finally, on March 23, 1940, the
All-India Muslim League, in a resolution, at its historic Lahore Session,
demanded a separate homeland for the Muslims in the Muslim majority
regions of the subcontinent. The resolution was commonly referred to as
the Pakistan Resolution. The Pakistan demand had a great appeal for the
Muslims of every persuasion. It revived memories of their past greatness
and promised future glory. They, therefore, responded to this demand
immediately. Cripps Mission The British Government recognized the
genuineness of the Pakistan demand indirectly in the proposals for the
transfer of power after the Second World War which Sir Stafford Cripps
brought to India in 1942. Both the Congress and the All-India Muslim
League rejected these proposals for different reasons. The principles of
secession of Muslim India as a separate Dominion was however, conceded in
these proposals. After this failure, a prominent Congress leader, C.
Rajgopalacharia, suggested a formula for a separate Muslim state in the
Working Committee of the Indian National Congress, which was rejected at
the time, but later on, in 1944, formed the basis of the Jinnah-Gandhi
talks. Demand for Pakistan
PAKISTAN MOVEMENT
The Pakistan demand became
popular during the Second World War Every section of the Muslim
community-men , women,students,Ulema and businessmen-were organized under
the banner of the All-India Muslim League. Branches of the party were
opened even in the remote corners of the subcontinent. Literature in the
form of pamphlets, books, magazines and newspapers was produced to explain
the Pakistan demand and distributed widely. The support gained by the
All-India Muslim League and its demand for Pakistan was tested after the
failure of the Simla Conference, convened by the Viceroy, Lord Wavell, in
1945. Elections were called to determine the respective strength of the
political parties. The All-India Muslim League election campaign was based
on the Pakistan demand. The Muslim community responded to this call in an
unprecedented way. Numerous Muslim parties were formed making united
parliamentary board at the behest of the Congress to oppose the Muslim
League. But the All-India Muslim League swept all the thirty seats in the
Central Legislature and in the provincial elections also, its victory was
outstanding. After the elections, on April 8-9,1946, the All-India Muslim
League called a convention of the newly-elected League members in the
Central and Provincial Legislatures at Delhi. This convention, which
constituted virtually a representative assembly of the Muslims of South
Asia, on a motion by the Chief Minister of Bengal, Hussain Shaheed
Suhrawardy, reiterated the Pakistan demand in clearer terms. Cabinet Plan
In early 1946, the British Government sent a Cabinet Mission to the
subcontinent to resolve the constitutional deadlock. The Mission conducted
negotiations with various political parties, but failed to evolve an
agreed formula. Finally, the Cabinet Mission announced its own Plan, which
among other provisions, envisaged three federal groupings,two of them
comprising the Muslim majority provinces, linked at the Centre in a loose
federation with three subjects. The Muslim League accepted the plan, as a
strategic move, expecting to achieve its objective in not-too-distant a
future. The All-India Congress also agreed to the Plan, but, soon
realising its implications, the Congress leaders began to interpret it in
a way not visualized by the authorise of the Plan. This provided the
All-India Muslim League an excuse to withdraw its acceptance of the Plan
and the party observed August 16, as a `Direct Action Day' to show Muslim
solidarity in support of the Pakistan demand. Partition Scheme In October
1946, an Interim Government was formed. The Muslim League sent its
representative under the leadership of its General Secretary, Mr. Liaquat
Ali Khan, with the aim to fight for the party objective from within the
Interim Government. After a short time, the situation inside the Interim
Government and outside convinced the Congress leadership to accept
Pakistan as the only solution of the communal problem. The British
Government, after its last attempt to save the Cabinet Mission Plan in
December 1946, also moved towards a scheme for the partition of India. The
last British Viceroy, Lord Louis Mountbatten, came with a clear mandate to
draft a plan for the transfer of power.
After holding talks with
political leaders and parties, he prepared a Partition Plan for the
transfer of power, which, after approval of the British Government, was
announced on June 3,1947. Emergence of Pakistan Both the Congress and the
Muslim League accepted the Plan. Two largest Muslim majority provinces,
Bengal and Punjab, were partitioned. The Assemblies of West Punjab, East
Bengal and Sindh and in Balochistan, the Quetta Municipality, and the
Shahi Jirga voted for Pakistan. Referenda were held in the North-West
Frontier Province and the District of Sylhet in Assam, which resulted in
an overwhelming vote for Pakistan. As a result, on August 14,1947, the new
state of Pakistan came into existence.
|