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Dr. Mehdi Hasan
Every time the democratic process is obstructed in Pakistan, the forces of obscurantism promptly appear on the scene to add to the confusion and uncertainty. The conflict between liberal values, modernity and democratisation of the society and the outdated ideology preached by clerics in the name of orthodox religious philosophy is more than 150 years old.
After the initial success of the British East India Company in the subcontinent, the clergy, instead of concentrating on reshaping and modernising their ideological stand, talked of the revival of the Muslim glory. And their interpretation of the past glory was the revival of Muslim monarchy. The portraits of Muslim invaders from Central Asia who ruled India for more than 900 years are displaced in our Prime Minister House. The religious might did not realise that the era of emperors and monarchs had ended and democracy was on the horizon.
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They vehemently opposed and obstructed all efforts of such Muslim leaders who tried to persuade the Muslim masses to acquire modern knowledge and reform their outdated ways of life. The short-sighted and uneducated clergymen, unaware of modern knowledge, also obstructed and opposed all efforts of the Muslim leadership for the constitutional and democratic rights of the depressed and deprived Muslim masses.
When Sayyed Ahmad Khan and Syed Amir Ali were struggling to prepare the Muslim masses for their due share in democratic governance, these elements were busy debating frivolous religious issues. However, whenever they opposed democratic and constitutional politics, the general public rejected them.
After being rejected by the Muslims of the Subcontinent during the independence movement, these elements regrouped themselves in independent Pakistan. They soon revived their activities to distract the people and the rulers from the democratic path, necessary to introduce a democratic culture and constitutional rule to make the newly independent Pakistan a strong, liberal, progressive and democratic state.
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After the death of Quaid e Azam in 1948, these elements outmaneuvered the political opportunists who had dominated the scene and captured power through the back door.
The Quaid’s vision for a democratic, liberal and progressive Pakistan, that he had announced in clear terms on August 11, 1947, in his address to the first constitutional assembly, was set aside. Even his speech was censored and was asked by Chaudhri Muhammad Ali in press advice, not to be published, because according to him it was against Two Nation Theory. The hold of the forces of obscurantism on the affairs of the state can easily be realised from the fact that the August 11 speech of the Quaid should have been a part of the constitution, was not only censored but is also missing, full text, from all history books. It was the first major defeat of the liberal, democratic and progressive forces in the country.
The Quaid had said, ” I cannot emphasise it too much. We should begin to work in that spirit and in course of time all those angularities of majority and minority communities …. The Hindu community and the Muslim community…. because as regards Muslims you have Pathans, Punjabis, Shias, Sunnis and so on, and among the Hindus you have Brahmins, Vashnavas, khatris and so on will vanish…. we must learn a lesson from it.. the past.. you are free, free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or any other places 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.
“Now I think we should keep that in front of us as our ideal and you will find that in course of time Hindus would cease to be Hindus and Muslims 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.”
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There cannot be any clearer indication that the founder of the State of Pakistan wanted the newly independent country to be a liberal and secular democracy. A secular state is not a Godless state. It is one in which the state does not owe allegiance to any particular religion and thus no particular religion has an unfair advantage or denies privileges to others. Exactly the same ideals were set forth by the Quaid e Azam.
Unfortunately because of political opportunism, and lack of proper leadership the Quaid’s Pakistan has been turned into Zia ul Haq’s Pakistan. The siege of the religious might that had started after the death of the Quaid continues in the state of Pakistan that would be turned into “Riasat e Madina,” by a former playboy.
