Gentle Readers of this Forum,
Jinnah's Secular Status is touted just as that of a highly experienced - i.e. of long standing- stripper in a cheap bar.
Here is a Link to part of the Article by the then Chair Person of Government College University, Lahore Dr. Tahir Kamran :
http://forums.bharat-rakshak.com/viewto ... 4#p1802164
It is an old Article in the News International of 08-05-2005 and it cannot be accessed. I have posted the Article on the Sunni Terrorist Fragments of Unstable Pakistan - 1 Feb 2015 - Page. As such I am posting the Full Article without any "embelishment" :
http://www.jang.com.pk/thenews/may2005- ... /dia.htm#2
IDEOLOGY IN CHANGING TIMES – DR. TAHIR KAMRAN
Discovering a secular image for Pakistan from the sayings and speeches of Jinnah alone is fated to be a lost cause
Marxist-liberal academics and intellectuals apart, the Hindu as the 'Other' seems to be the solitary epistemic fact providing Pakistani identity its raison d'etre. The textbooks of History and Pakistan Studies exemplify that methodology to the hilt. Hindus are projected as inveterate enemies of Muslims, cunning and conspiratorial and not at all trustworthy. Now that people at the helm want to mark a new beginning in Pakistan's relationship with India, they have to contend with deeply embedded animosity in the hearts and souls of common Pakistanis whose anti-India mindset has a perspective spanning over no less than four decades. To dispel all the misgivings and ill will inculcated through media and textbooks is likely to take a lifetime. The political will and the consistent effort required for building up the confidence requisite for an amicable relationship would undoubtedly be an acid test for Pakistani leadership.
Also
On the intellectual plain, the question of ideology appears the trickiest of all whereby the South Asian Muslims were distinguished from the rest of the communities of subcontinent on the basis of religion. Among all those communities, Hindus had been especially demonized and completely 'othered' specifically by the Muslim leadership espousing the creation of a separate state. Most of the time, the liberal-Marxist intelligentsia refers to Muhammad Ali Jinnah's speech that he made on 11 August 1947 to the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan in which one statement is profusely mentioned to prove the secular vision of Jinnah for Pakistan. That statement merits to be quoted here;
"You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other place of worship in this State of Pakistan . You may belong to any religion or caste or creed... that has nothing to do with the business of the State... We are starting with this fundamental principle that we are all citizens and equal citizens of one state... in course of time Hindus would cease to be Hindus and Muslims would cease to be Muslims, not in the religious sense, because that is the personal faith of each individual, but in the political sense as citizens of the State."
Finally
However, a disinterested glance at the other speeches and statements of Jinnah confirms the above quoted lines to be an aberration rather than norm as it has been projected. A passing reference has been made by Chaudhry Khaleeq-uz-Zaman in 'Pathway to Pakistan' stating that the statement was issued to appease Indian rulers so that the safety and well being of those Muslims could be ensured who, due to various reasons, preferred to stay back in India. Shahid Javid Burki, too, unleashes trenchant criticism on the inanity of that statement in his ' Pakistan : A Nation in the Making'. His contention holds water particularly when he questions the legitimacy of Jinnah's articulation emphasising a single nationhood immediately after massacres and pogroms killing at least hundreds of thousands if not millions.
One tends to concur more with Mubarak Ali who disregards the speech in question as totally out of tune with the rationale of Pakistan movement. He rightly contends that one can find out all sorts of statements and speeches. If Presidential address to the Constituent Assembly resonates a secular vision for the state, many other speeches stressed religious ideology as the cornerstone for future planning and policy formulations. Jinnah's address at the annual meeting of the Muslim League in March 1940 can be quoted as an example;
"The problem in India is not one of an inter-communal character but manifestly of an international one, and it must be treated as such.... They (Islam and Hinduism) are not religions in the strict sense of the word, but are, in fact different and distinct social orders, and it is a dream that Hindus and Muslims can ever evolve a common nationality... The Hindus and Muslims belong to two different religious philosophies, social customs, literature. They neither inter- marry nor interdine together, and, indeed civilizations which are based mainly on conflicting ideas and conceptions."
Numerous references to Islam as a major factor in shaping the Indian Muslims' personality and destiny will be found in Jinnah's observations both before and after Pakistan 's establishment. While addressing the Punjab Muslim Students Federation on March 18, 1944, he called Islam 'our bedrock and sheet anchor' and asked the Communist Party to leave the Muslims alone for Islam was their "guide and a complete code of life".
It can safely be argued then that discovering a secular image for Pakistan from the sayings and the speeches of Jinnah is fated to be a lost cause. Hence, one cannot help agree with Bipan Chandra and Mubarak Ali's contention. The improving state of relations with India demands Pakistani intelligentsia to re-construct the vision for the future Pakistan which calls for greater mutuality between India and Pakistan on one hand and a greater respect for cultural as well as ethnic and regional plurality of the country on the other. Undue concerns of the centrist forces should be dispensed with, earlier the better. The future vision of Pakistan must be that of a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural state and society.
(The writer teaches History at G C University Lahore ) : E-Mail Address is
tahirkamran_gcu@yahoo.com
Dr Kamran was a visiting Professor at Wolfson College, Cambridge, and has now returned to Lahore
I deeply regret that we have Battalions of Indian Opinion Makers lauding Jinnah’s Constitutional. Democratic and Secular Status - Believe me far be it from Jinnah any such intention
(added now) of being either Constitutional, Democratic or even Secular. He was a Suited, Booted, Kunth Langoted Whisky Guzzling Porcine Products Eating Foaming at the Mouth Mullah of the World’s Only Religion of Peace in the Land of the Pure and the Home of the Terrorist.
Cheers
They see my assertion of potency as being aimed at them.
. But don't expect that to miraculously cure anything with regard to Pakistan. It is like, when you are overweight, you won't shed the weight on the first day you start your diet.
or is it just routine ? can anyone eloborate.
