My Preamble: The Author while discussing Islam’s image and reality in page 35 of the book refers to Lord Dufferin describing the Muslims of then India of 1888 as a nation of some 50 million .He then goes on to say that their nostalgic yearning of their glorious past was the reason for first to demand a special position politically in British India and then later on for seeking their own land, Pakistan.
Author’s Views: The author concludes that the Muslims held that they belong to a separate nation and demanded the same in in the 1940s because of the nostalgia of their past and not because Dufferin terming them as such.
Comments: The condensation and conclusion are factually not tenable. It was not the Muslim masses but the Muslim League and their leaders who claimed to be the sole spokesman of the Muslims of the entire sub continent and it was they who claimed a separate nation. The fact remains that, as late as in 1937, The Congress secured absolute majorities in Madras and Bombay, the United Provinces and the Central Provinces, Bihar and Orissa. In Assam it was the strongest party. In the predominantly Muslim Frontier Province, Congress candidates were elected in 15 of 36 seats reserved for Muslims. In Bengal it won 60 of 250. In the predominantly Muslim provinces only 4% voted for Jinnah and his League. Similar was the case in early forties. It is therefore illogical to say that the entire Muslim masses wanted a separate nation either at that time or later. The Bengal and NWF Provinces having majority Muslim population, for example were not supportive for a separate nation. In addition there was a sizable Muslim population in the Princely states who had no voice or voting rights. It is therefore wrong to conclude that the Muslims (by implication all Muslims for a lay reader) were spurred to demand special position and then their own land because of nostalgia of their glorious past.
On the other hand, it is the electoral verdict, which spurred Jinnah, who found no scope of capturing power in a democratic undivided India, to gun for a separate nation. Added to that was the British long-term strategy to have a buffer state in the Northwest to counter the influence of Russia. Long term strategic interest of the British dictated creation of a buffer state in any case, call it by any name, irrespective whether Muslim League wanted it or not. (Refer Appendix IX in the book, of May 1946.) But such thought process with the British especially after their reverses in Afghan wars, began much earlier. Jinnah and the League made their (British) task simpler and gave a holier-than-thou image of the British. The British could hide their ill design behind Jinnah’s claims.
Contrasting his own theory of “nostalgia of the past glory” as the reason for their demand for a separate nation , the author in page 39 says that by 1857, the Muslim population in the territories of the Provinces under East India Company became indifferent (unconcerned) to the Mughals. May be the author wants to convey that they were more concerned to serving the British at that time and later on their memories got revived and they became nostalgic to demand a separate nation in 1940s!
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