While the Round Table Conference was sitting in London with no rays of hope for communal solution, a most significant pronouncement of the position of Muslims vis-a-vis the political situation and the problems of the future constitution of India was made by Allama Iqbal in his famous Presidential Address at the Allahabad session of the All-India Muslim League on December 29, 1930, from Dawazda Manzil. It was imbued with a new spirit and vision, and was very different from the usual type of addresses delivered on such occasions. The poet-philosopher Allama Iqbal’s address was based on an analytical and scientific study of the problems in a philosophical style, wherein he propounded his own solution — one that was ultimately to guide the political thinking and activity of the Muslims of the subcontinent.
Development of culture and traditions
Discussing the much-abused word “communalism”, Allama Iqbal said: “I have no hesitation in declaring that, if the principle that the Indian Muslim is entitled to full and free development on the lines of his own culture and tradition in his own Indian homelands is recognized as the basis of a permanent communal settlement, he will be ready to stake his all for the freedom of India. The principles that each group is entitled to free development on its own lines is not inspirer by any feeling of narrow communalism. There are communalisms and communalisms: A community which is inspired by feelings of ill-will towards other communities is low and ignoble. I entertain the highest respect for the customs, laws, religious and social institutions of other communities. Nay, it is my duty, according to the teachings of the Holy Quran, even to defend their places of worship, if need be. Yet, I love the communal groups, that is the source of my life and behaviour; and which has formed me what I am, by giving me its religion, literature, thoughts, culture, and thereby recreating its whole past as a living operative factor in my present consciousness.”
Allama Iqbal then quoted from the Nehru Report to show that even the authors of that document recognized the inevitability of communalism. He believed that communalism, in its higher aspect, was indispensable to the formation of a harmonious whole in a country such as India. He, therefore, declared that, “units of Indian Society are not territorial as in European countries. India is a continent of human groups belonging to different races, speaking different languages and professing different religions. Their behaviour is not at all determined by a common race-consciousness. Even the Hindus do not form a homogeneous group. The principle of European democracy cannot be applied to India without recognizing the fact of communal group. The Muslim demand for the creation of a Muslim India is, therefore, perfectly justified.”
Allama Iqbal supported the proposals recommended by the All-Parties Muslim Conference held at Delhi in January 1929, but with the greatest urge for the preservation of Islamic culture and the amelioration of the Muslims’ economic position. He clearly defined the “Two-Nation Theory” by making the most remarkable North-West Frontier declaration: “I would like to see the Punjab, North-West Frontier Province, Sindh and Balochistan amalgamated into a single state. Self-government within the British or without the British Empire, the formation of a consolidated North-West Indian Muslim state appears to me to be the final destiny of the Muslims, at least of the North-West India.”
He made a passionate appeal to the Muslims to rise above self and to realize the value of a “unified will” and “collective action.” He, therefore, observed: “Rise above sectional interests and private ambitions and learn to determine the value of your individual and collective action, however, directed on material ends, in the light of the ideal which you are supposed to represent. Pass from matter to spirit. Matter is diversity; spirit, life and unity. One lesson I have learnt form the history of Muslims. At critical moments in their history, it is Islam that has saved Muslims and not vice versa. If today you focus your vision on Islam and seek inspiration from the ever-vitalizing idea embodied in it, you will be only reassembling your scattered forces, regaining your lost integrity, and thereby saving yourself from total destruction.”
In order to comprehend the Pakistan Movement and the political struggle of the Muslims, it is imperative to keep in mind the two factors that are of basic importance: the economic position of the Muslims and their status as a distinct and separate cultural entity. Who can forget that since Lord Clive took over the Diwani from the Emperor Shah Alam in 1765, the Muslims who were holding a majority of posts in the revenue and judicial departments and in the army lost their jobs rapidly. In the sphere of education also, the Muslims suffered immensely.
War of Independence
The War of Independence of 1857 deprived the Muslims of their position, honour and prestige, for the British thought that the Muslims were at the root of the trouble. They were looked at with great suspicion and the doors of their future employment in government offices were closed, and they were forced to humiliation and repressive treatment. The whole position of the Muslims was in a melting pot, but fortunately there arose a most dynamic leader and reformer, Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, who correctly diagnosed and felt the pulse of the nation and found a panacea for their ills by establishing the Muslim University at Aligarh in 1875, and by founding the Muslim Educational Conference and the Scientific Society, in order to raise the social and intellectual position of the Muslims.
Shariat of Islam
With all these backgrounds and currents and cross-currents of political events, Allama Iqbal was fully convinced that cultural entity and economic improvement of the Muslims was of paramount importance.
In a letter dated May 28, 1937, the poet pointed out the significance of this perplexing problem to Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah: “The problem of bread is becoming more and acute. The Muslim has begun to feel that he has been going down and down during the last 200 years. Ordinarily, he believes that his poverty is due to Hindu money-lending or capitalism. The perception that it is equally due to foreign rule has not yet fully come to him. But it is bound to come. The atheistic socialism of Jawaharlal is not likely to receive much response from the Muslims. The question therefore is: how is it possible to solve the problem of Muslim poverty? And the whole future of the League depends on the League’s activity to solve this question. If the League can give no such promises, I am sure the Muslim masses will remain indifferent to it as before.
“After a long and careful study of Islamic law, I have come to the conclusion that if this system of law is properly understood and applied, at least the right of subsistence is secured to everybody. But the enforcement of development of the Shariah of Islam is impossible in this country, without a free Muslim state or states. This has been my honest conviction for many years and I still believe this to be the only way to solve the problem of bread for Muslims, as well as to secure a peaceful India. If such a thing is impossible in India, the only other alternative is a civil war that, as a matter of fact, has been going on for sometime in the shape of Hindu-Muslim riots.... For Islam, the acceptance of social democracy in some suitable form and consistent with the legal principle of Islam is not a revolution, but a return to the original purity of Islam. The modern problems, therefore, are far more easy to solve for the Muslims than the Hindus. But as I have said above, in order to make it possible for Muslim India to solve these problems, it is necessary to redistribute the country and to provide one or more Muslim states with absolute majorities.”
Concept of Pakistan
Allama Iqbal’s scheme of redistribution of the country, his Two-Nation Theory and the concept of Pakistan caught the imagination of some of the British statesmen, though it was condemned by the Hindu leaders and the press. Unmindful of the coming reality that the poet-philosopher was the forerunner of the creation of Pakistan, Allama Iqbal himself, in his letter of June 21, 1937, observed: “Many British statesmen also realize this, and the Hindu-Muslim riots which are rapidly coming in the wake of this constitution are sure further to open their eyes to the real situation in the country. I remember Lord Lothian told me before I left England that my scheme was the only possible solution of the troubles of India, but it would take 25 years to come.”
Allama Iqbal’s interest in politics and the demand for a separate Muslim state was motivated by his inner commitment to his own ideals for the preservation of the cultural heritage and the amelioration of the economic position of the Muslims. Quaid-i-Azam himself became a co-thinker with the poet and in his foreword to Allama Iqbal’s letters, he has expressed Iqbal’s valuable contribution towards the establishment of Pakistan: “I think these letters are of very great historical importance, particularly those which explain his views in clear and unambiguous terms on the political future of Muslim India. His views were substantially in consonance with my own and had finally led me to the same conclusion as a result of careful examination and study of the constitutional problems facing India, and found expression in due course in the united will of Muslim India, as adumbrated in the Lahore Resolution of the All-India Muslim League, popularly known as the “Pakistan Resolution” passed on March 23, 1940.”
In brief, the spirit of Islamic democracy as envisaged by Allama Iqbal is:
1. Tauhid (Monotheism), the first and the most essential principle on which Islamic democracy is based. 2. Obedience to the law as given to mankind by the Holy Prophet (Peace be upon him).
3. Freedom, social justice, human rights, and brotherhood. 4. Tolerance.
Iqbal rights says: “Religious is a constant yearning for perfection. It begins in reverence and ends in love.”
