14th August Independence Day: Evolution of Pakistani national identity

Business Recorder

11 hours ago

The establishment of Pakistan as an independent state on August 14, 1947 was an event of historical importance. It created a new national identity of PAKISTANI NATION, which did not physically exist before that date. It was the culmination of a long political struggle of the Muslims of British India to protect and advance their civilizational and cultural identity inspired by the principles and teachings of Islam, their political rights and interest in the context of the state system introduced by the British in India.
National Identity is one of the many identities that an individual has. These identities could be linguistic, ethnic, religious, political-ideological, regional or family/tribal. All these identities of human beings are not equally important. Further, their importance can vary over time. One identity, i.e., linguistic, may be a basis of political action at one time but it could lose its political relevance if circumstances and conditions. Out of all these human identities, the national identity is given a priority, although other identities continue to exist.
It was the Muslim identity or a sense of Muslim Community in British India which transformed into a Muslim national identity and served as the basis for the demand of a separate homeland of Pakistan.
This raises three fundamental questions to understand the establishment of Pakistan as an independent nation-state. First, what constituted distinct Muslim identity in British India? Second, how this sense of community turned into the notion of nationhood and it became a symbol of collective Muslim identity and an instrument of political mobilization. Third, what led the Muslims of British India to conclude that their political future could be secure in a separate HOMELAND of Pakistan?
The roots of distinct Muslim identity can be traced back to the advent of Islam in India. Its civilizational and cultural roots can be traced to the teachings, principles and history of Islam. It provided a theoretical and ideological foundation to Muslim identity. Other factors that contributed to this identity were the arrival of Muslims in India in three major waves: the Arab Muslim traders who arrived at western coastline of India and settled there; Muslim invasion led by Muhammad bin Qasim; and arrival of Muslims from Central Asia, Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey in the form of voluntary migrations and armed invasions. The Sufis and Saints came to India from these territories and most Sufi traditions can be traced back to Central Asia and Turkey. There is an overlap in art and architecture, food and dress between Indian Muslims and these regions in the north and northwest. The conversions to Islam, especially because of the teachings of the Sufis and Saints, also strengthened the Muslim community. As the migrants from the Arab world and Central Asia, Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey settled down in India, they became part of Indian society. However, despite living with the followers of other religious and cultural traditions, Muslims whose ancestors migrated to India or embraced Islam, maintained their distinct cultural and civilizational identity which distinguished them from other communities. They developed a sense of confidence as a community because of the long years of Muslim rule in India and their contribution to governance, history, art and architecture and cultural patterns of India.
The Muslim civilizational and cultural identity began to acquire political relevance in the post-1857 period when the British government embarked on setting up a new state system. The British introduced a new state system based on codified legal and constitutional arrangements, clearly defined role of different government functionaries, the setting up of civil services recruited gradually through open competitive system, establishment of a professional military and a western education system. They also gradually introduced the electoral process for setting up legislative bodies with limited powers.
The changed state system created a competition among different communities living in India, especially between the Muslims and the majority Hindu community, for access to the government jobs, elected legislative bodies, and the governance and political management arrangements. Two major political movements in the post-1857 period increased competition between the two major communities. These were the Hindi-Urdu Controversy (1865 onwards) when the Hindu leadership in Banaras initiated a movement for replacement of Urdu with Hindi written in Devanagari script. This movement impacted other areas, building pressures on Muslims. The other development was the revivalist and reformist Hindu religious and cultural movement in the last decade of the 19th Century, although the roots of these movements went back to the earlier period. These movements were often characterized by anti-Muslim attitudes.
These changes, within the framework of the new state governance system, increased the prominence of religious and cultural identities in the political sphere and contributed to its use as an instrument of political mobilization. The Muslim elite realized that they could not benefit from the opportunities created by the new state system because Muslims lacked modern education and they faced a disadvantage in the electoral process because of their smaller population.
The major concern of the Muslims of British India at the beginning of the 20th Century was how to protect and advance their socio-cultural and civilizational identity, rights and interests. This goal of the Muslim community in British India remained unchanged, but their strategies changed over time in view of their experience of interacting with other communities and British Indian government.
The major political strategies of the Muslims in British India included:
Acquisition of modern knowledge, learning of English language and avoidance of participation in active politics. Sir Syed Ahmed Khan and his colleagues launched a movement for modern western education based in Aligarh. The new educational institutions combined modern western knowledge with Islamic education. The Aligarh educational movement also helped to connect Muslims living in different parts of India, and it advised them not to join the Congress Party which was set up in 1885.
By the beginning of the 20th Century, Muslim elite had emerged that was either educated in the Aligarh based educational institutions or educated in England. They were more conscious of the need to protect the identity, rights and interests of the Muslims in British India. In October 1906, a delegation of 35 Muslim led by Sir Agha Khan lll called on the Viceroy in Simla and asked for separate electorate for Muslims to elect their representatives to the elected councils. The British government conceded this demand of SEPARATE ELECTORATE in 1909.
3.On December 30, 1906, the Muslim leaders established a political party – All India Muslim League – to articulate Muslims' rights and interests and take them up with the British government.
The Muslim League and Muslim leaders demanded constitutional safeguards and guarantees for the protection of their cultural and civilizational identity, rights and interests. The Lucknow Pact (1916) between the Muslim League and the Congress Party accepted constitutional guarantees for Muslim representation in the elected councils, cabinets and government jobs, weightage to religious minorities for representation in elected council. These guarantees were reiterated in Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah's Fourteen Points in his address to the Muslim leaders in 1929.
The Muslim League and the Muslim elite demanded a federal system with autonomy for provinces in British India. They hoped that this would enable them to rule Muslim-majority provinces.
When the above-mentioned demands did not materialize because of non-cooperative political disposition of the Congress Party, the Muslim leadership concluded that their political future as a distinct socio-cultural and civilizational identity would not be safe in an independent and untied India. They formally demanded a SEPARATE HOMELAND for them in March 1940, although the discussion on this idea started earlier.
The change in the political strategy of the Muslims was the product of their political interaction with the majority Hindu community and the British government in India. Though the Congress Party agreed to constitutional guarantees for the Muslims in the Lucknow Pact (1916) it rejected these guarantees in the Nehru Report (1928) which prepared recommendations for the new constitution. Jinnah attempted to seek amendments in the Nehru Report for accommodation of Muslim political concerns, but his efforts did not succeed. He gave a rejoinder to the Nehru Report and outlined Muslim demands in his famous speech in 1929, described as Jinnah's Fourteen Points. The political divergence between the two communities increased in the course of the Roundtable Conferences in London in 1930-32. Though Jinnah and other Muslim League leadership were disappointed by the disposition of the Congress Party, they still hoped that a federal system with constitutional guarantees for the protection and advancement of Muslim identity, rights and interests could be achieved.
What alienated the Muslim League leadership from constitutional guarantees and a federal system was their experience under the Congress Provincial Ministries in six provinces (1937-39). The provincial elections under the Government of India Act, 1935 were held in early 1937. The Congress Party formed government alone or in coalition in six provinces out of eleven. These provinces included Bombay, Madras, Central Province, United Province, Bihar and Orissa. Further, in the then NWFP, the Congress supported the KhudaiKhidmatgar government.
Muslims had a bitter political experience in the Congress Party ruled six provinces. There were numerous complaints of discrimination against Muslims in recruitment to government jobs and Hindu cultural traditions were enforced in these provinces under the rubric of Indian culture. The school education was inundated with Hindu traditions, imagery and culture in complete disregard to the sensitivities of Muslims and other religious minorities. The Muslim League published three reports that outlined the mistreatment of Muslims and imposition of Hindu historical and cultural norms on them in the Congress-ruled provinces. All this alienated the Muslim elite altogether who believed that the Congress provincial government policies were a sample of how they would be treated under the Congress rule after the exit of the British rulers. When the Congress ministries resigned in October-November 1939, the Muslim League welcomed the development. On December 22, 1939, Muslims observed the 'Day of Deliverance' to celebrate the exit of the Congress party's provincial ministers.
It was in 1938 that the Sindh Muslim League convention in Karachi, chaired by Quaid-i-Azam Jinnah, asked the All-India Muslim League to explore a new political option instead of a federal system for India. The speakers in the convention talked of the need of having a separate homeland.
The Muslim political elite's political learning from their political interaction with the Congress led them to change their political strategy from federalism to a separate homeland. They learnt from their political experience that they would be overwhelmed politically and culturally by living under the Congress Party rule in an independent India.
The Muslim League demand for a separate homeland was based on the argument that the Muslims of British India were a nation with their distinct cultural and civilizational identity shaped by the teachings and principles of Islam, and rights and interests. As a separate nation they needed a separate homeland in the regions where the Muslims constituted a numerical majority. Three sets of major developments shaped the Muslim struggle in the 1940s. First, the demand for a separate homeland was made in the annual session of the Muslim League, held at Lahore on March 22, 23 and 24, 1940. Second, the notion of a separate homeland was precisely defined in the next six years (1940-46) and the ambiguities in the March 1940 Pakistan Resolution were clarified. Third, the idea of a separate homeland was initiated by the Muslim League elite. They took this message to the common Muslims in the subsequent years and mobilized them in favor of a separate homeland of Pakistan. The results of the 1946 provincial elections showed that the demand for the establishment of Pakistan had become a popular Muslim demand which enjoyed the support of the Muslim populace.
It was the determination of the Muslim League leaders under the leadership of Quaid-i-Azam Jinnah and the widespread support of the Muslim populace in British India that turned the demand for the establishment of Pakistan into a reality.
It was on August 14, 1947, that the transfer of power ceremony for Pakistan was held at Karachi. Lord Louis Mountbatten, the last British Viceroy, represented the British government at the ceremony. However, Pakistan began to function as an independent nation-state on August 15, 1947, with the oath of Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah as the first Governor-General of Pakistan at 9AM in Karachi. This was followed by the oath of Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan and his cabinet, which was administered by Governor General Jinnah.
To conclude, we can argue that the cultural and civilizational identity of the Muslims in British India acquired salience over their other identities and its political relevance increased to such an extent that its status got elevated to the level of the national identity of Pakistan. The notion of a separate homeland of Pakistan was initially articulated by the Muslim League leadership but it became a political reality when the Muslim populace embraced it and demonstrated their support through the democratic process of the 1946 provincial elections.
The author is a Political Analyst who holds the PhD Degree from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA. His latest book entitled 'Pakistan: Political and Constitutional Engineering' published in 2024.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025