Role of Allama Iqbal in Ideology of Pakistan
Role of Allama Iqbal in Ideology of Pakistan: Allama Iqbal gave the philosophical exposition of Muslim community of South Asia. Analyzing the nature of the multi-religious society of the subcontinent he said:
: “Experience … shows that the various cast units and religious units in India have shown no inclination to sink their respective individualities in a larger whole. Each group is intensely jealous of the collective existence.”
Allama Iqbal played a very important role in Ideology of Pakistan believed that that “religion is a power of utmost importance in the life of individuals as well as of states” and that “Islam is itself Destiny and will not suffer a destiny.” He was of the view that the religious ideal of Islam “is organically related to the social order which it has created. The rejection of the one will eventually involve the rejection of the other. ” Discussing the pivotal role played by Islam in the development of the Muslim Society in South Asia in his Address delivered at Twenty-first Session of the All India Muslim League held at Allahabad on December 29-30, 1930 Iqbal said:
It cannot be denied that Islam, regarded as an ethical ideal plus a certain kind of polity by which expression I mean a social structure regulated by a legal system and animated by a specific ethical ideal-has been the chief formative factor in the life history of the Muslims of India. It has furnished those basic emotions and loyalties which gradually unify scattered individuals and groups, and finally transform them into a well-defined people, possessing a moral consciousness of their own. Indeed, it is no exaggeration to say that India is perhaps the only country in the world where Islam, as a people building force, has worked at its best. What I mean to say is that Muslim society, with its remarkable homogeneity and inner unity, has grown to be what it is, under the pressure of the laws and institutions associated with the culture of Islam.
Iqbal considered India “Asia in miniature” and “a continent of human groups belonging to different races, speaking different languages. and professing different religions.” He was of the opinion that “the principle of European democracy cannot be applied to India without recognizing the fact of communal groups. ” Rejecting the idea of common nationhood, for India he observed: “The vision of a common nationhood for India is a beautiful ideal, and has a poetic appeal, but looking at the present conditions and the unconscious trends of the two communities it appears incapable of fulfillment:.” He claimed that the Muslims of India were a separate nation. He argued
We are 70 million, and far more homogeneous than any other people in India. Indeed, the Muslims of India are the only Indian people who can fitly be described as a nation in the modern sense of the word:
On December 19, 1930, Iqbal issued an appeal to the leading Muslim figures of North Western Frontier Province, Baluchistan, Sind and the Punjab. In this appeal he candidly pointed out that “God in His infinite wisdom, knowledge and omniscience, had not kept Muslim majorities in these provinces without any propose, and the purpose was gradually revealing itself to all those who were endowed with reason and intelligence. Therefore, the time had come for the Muslim leaders to realize the will of God by working collectively to safeguard the rights of the Muslims. “
Iqbal considered the life of Islam as a “cultural force” in India very largely dependent on “its centralization in a specific territory. “29 He put forward his solution of the Indian problem in his Address. He declared:
I would like to see the Punjab, the North-West Frontier Province, Sind and Baluchistan amalgamated into a single State. Self-government within the British Empire, or without the British Empire, the formation of North-West Indian Muslim State appears to me the final destiny of the Muslims, at least of North – West India.
Iqbal vehemently opposed the proposed Indian federation under the Act of 1935. He said, “I would never advise the Muslims of India to a system…which virtually negatives the principle of true federation or fails to recognize them as a distinct political entity”. He argued: “Why should not the Muslims of North – West India and Bengal be considered as nation entitled to self-determination just as other nations in India and outside India are?”: In his opinion the only way to solve the Indian problem was “a redistribution of the country on the basis of racial, religious and linguistic affinities. “32 He considered a separate federation of Muslim provinces as “the only course” to “save Muslims from the domination of the non-Muslim.”
Next to the preservation of cultural identity was the economic problem faced by the Muslims of India. Iqbal thought that the economic problem could be solved only “if Islamic Law is properly understood and applied”34 and that “the enforcement and development of the Shariat of Islam is impossible in this country (India) without a free Muslim State or States. ” He considered state and Islam inseparable and one incomplete without the other. In his lecture on “The Spirit of Muslim Culture” he said:
The essence of Tauhid as a working idea is equality, solidarity and freedom. The state from the Islamic standpoint, is an endeavor to transform these ideal principles into space-time forces, as aspiration to realize them in a definite human organization.
Iqbal gave great importance to the Muslims of India and visualized a significant role for them in future. Addressing the Annual Session of the All India Muslim League at Allahabad he said that “the Muslims of India constitute a far more valuable asset to Islam than all the countries of Muslim Asia put together”. He told them that they have “a duty towards Asia, especially Muslim Asia.” In 1938 he wrote to Jinnah: “Whole future of Islam as a moral and a political force in Asia rests very largely on a complete organization of Indian Muslims. “
Iqbal the ideologue found in Jinnah the man of action. He wrote to him: “You are the only Muslim in India today whom the community has the right to look up for safe guidance.” Jinnah considered Iqbal “sage philosopher” and “national poet of Islam. ” He regarded his views on the political future of India “unambiguous” and “absolutely in consonance” with his own views, which finally led him to “the same conclusions.” Jinnah admitted that Iqbal’s views “found expression in due course in the united will of Muslim India as adumbrate cu in Lahore Resolution of All India Muslim League, popularly known as the Pakistan Resolution.” According to M.H. Syed, Jinnah’s secretary and biographer, after passing of the Lahore Resolution Jinnah, who by that time had become to be known as Quaid-i-Azam, said to him, “Iqbal is no more amongst us, but had” he been alive, he would have been happy to know that we did exactly what he wanted us to do.”
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