Daily Times

Why and how was Pakistan created? This interesting yet shocking query is a pivotal question that is still raised by many circles, and needs to be addressed. It is a huge misperception that the creation of Pakistan was the sole result of the Pakistan Movement, since Pakistan Movement was a part and parcel of the Pakistan’s War of Independence that continued for90 years without any armistice, or even a temporary ceasefire.

It was a multi-front war that was fought and unfalteringly won by the All India Muslim League under the leadership of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah. The Muslims of the subcontinent won this multi-front war against the wicked British Crown, which was flanked by Hindus, Sikhs, Congressional Muslims and conspirators and collaborators within the ranks of Muslims of the British India.

It is a clear historical misunderstanding – or perhaps the inability and lack of interest that prevailed in Pakistan’s historical discourse – that we as a nation could not translate and disseminate the importance and connotations of the 1857 War of Independence.

In the popular discourse, the 1857 War or ‘The Sepoy Mutiny’ begun, and was crushed by the British: that ultimately put an end to the symbolic 300-year Mughal Rule in India.In fact, the 1857 War brought innumerable hardships and sufferings for the Indian Muslims.

The war also drew new lines between Hindus and Muslims, since the cunning Hindu mind was quick enough – or perhaps persuasive enough – to convince the British that Muslims were their primary enemies and responsible for the outbreak of war.

In this way, due to the Crown’s hypocrisy and double standards, British John Locke’s famous notion of ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’ was snatched away from Muslims.

The Muslim way of life and their religion – Islam in particular – was now targeted and being victimized in a revengeful manner, to fake and fade the very identity of the former rulers of India: the Muslims. The Muslims of India were left with no choice but to contemplate about their separate homeland.

It is the duplicity of great powers, or perhaps the inability of Pakistan’s historical discourse, that when the American ‘Sons of Liberty’ took up arms against the British Crown in the Thirteen American Colonies and ultimately defeated the Brits in 1783 with the help of France; their entire struggle was named as the ‘American War of Independence’ or ‘American Revolution’.

But when the Muslims of India started a war in 1857 in a more or less similar manner to the Americans, to liberate themselves from the devilish clutches of the British Empire, the Muslim struggle was named as a ‘mutiny’.

No law in the world prohibits a man from striving and struggling for freedom and liberty; the 1857 War of Independence was a de-jure attempt by the Muslims of India for freedom and liberty

We as a nation have still not been able to exonerate and vindicate ourselves from the false, deceitful, misleading and two-faced British charges. No law in the world prohibits a man from striving and struggling for freedom and liberty, while it is a historical fact that 1857 War of Independence was purely a de-jure attempt by the Muslims of India.

War has always been decisive in shaping the international system regardless of its intensity, level, and nature of the belligerents.

The creation of Pakistan is a product of this universal phenomenon. Consequently, the 1857 War of Independence was beginning of the long and hard struggle made by the Muslims of India that culminated in 1947. However, we as a nation need to do a lot in an attempting to inform the whole world about the war that the Muslims of British India endured and fought successfully.

It was quite unfortunate that Adolf Hitler did not capture the troops from British Expeditionary Force at Dunkirk during the last days of May 1940, and again he could not initiate Operation Sea Lion – the proposed amphibious invasion of England. Otherwise, Pakistan would have achieved its independence long before August 14, 1947, and would have avoided narrow-minded people like Cyril Radcliffe who deliberately deprived Pakistan of many Muslim majority cities.

Radcliffe is responsible for the horrific butchery of millions of Muslims by the Hindus and Sikhs. Unfortunately, there are some sceptical people in Pakistan who still ask for the reason behind the creation of Pakistan, and wonder why Pakistan was created in the first place.

These ungrateful people – who are in fact cowards and traitors within our own ranks – must bother to look at the fates of Kashmiri Muslims and oppressed Palestinians, and then perhaps they would realize the significance behind the very creation of Pakistan.

The writer can be reached at mmab11@gmail.com

Published in Daily Times, August 29^th 2017.