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Jaswant Singh by his book, Jinnah - India, Partition, Independence has become kind of a folk hero in Pakistan and a darling of the secularattii in India. No doubt, with this book, he has secured his financial future, if he needed one, as one report from Pakistan says ‘they will be ordering the book by the millions.'
One of the main thrusts of his book is that Jinnah was not the "demon" he is made out to be in India and that he was a secular Indian nationalist and did not really want Pakistan. The demand for Pakistan was just a strategy to seek more concessions and safeguards for the Muslims in united India. Partition could have been avoided had Nehru and Patel agreed for a federal decentralized India instead of a centralized one. He casts Nehru and Patel as the villains for conceding partition.
Whether partition was a good thing or bad and should one be demonized or idolized for it depends on what side you are. Let us also for the moment forget about Jinnah's secular and Indian nationalist credentials as these are hardly his legacies. Jinnah's legacy is the State of Pakistan. In this article let us focus on what caused partition? Who was the real author of Two Nation theory - Hindus and Muslims are two separate nations.
After his return from England, Jinnah worked ceaselessly and zealously for the creation of Pakistan. An accomplished lawyer that he was, he eloquently and very convincingly spelled out why was partition necessary in his famous Presidential address to Muslim League Convention at Lahore in March 1940 and in many other speeches, interviews and writings. He said there never was any common ground between the Muslims and the Hindus or desire on the part of Muslims to live as equal with Hindus whom they had ruled for centuries. Hinduism and Islam are two different and distinct social orders. It is only a dream that the two can ever evolve a common nationality. "The hero of one is the foe of the other. There is nothing that binds them together." Enumerating all the differences between the two, he went on to say that "to yoke two such nations under a single State must lead to growing discontent and final destruction of any fabric that may be so built up for the government of such a state." (India's Partition - Process, Strategy and Mobilization, edited By Mushirul Hasan, Delhi, 1998, pp.56)
Jinnah stressed there was never one India and Hindus and Muslims had never lived as one unit. History is testimony that last twelve hundred years have failed to achieve unity and during the ages "India was always divided into Hindu India and Muslim India. ... The present artificial unity of India dates back only to British conquest and is maintained by the British bayonet" -- he went on to say.
Last update : 06-09-2009 02:23
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