APROPOS of your staff report from Lahore (May 19) covering Dr David Gilmartin's lecture on the creation of Pakistan, delivered under the auspices of Punjab University. Of course, the indefatigable, sincere and most eminent ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity could never have wished for the division of India. But equally so with his keen sense of justice and fair play, he would also not have countenanced a sacrifice of Muslim economic and political rights at the altar of an overwhelmingly, if anything, hostile Hindu electoral strength.
Even a cursory glance at the positions and postures adopted by the Indian National Congress and the Pakistan Muslim League, over the 50 or so years of politics in pre-partition India, should be enough to judge the Hindu-Muslim juxtaposition then obtaining.
The significant milestones in this tortuous, meandering history for serious study are the division and restitution of the province of Bengal (1905), the Minto-Morley reforms (1909), the painstakingly fair and equitable pact negotiated by Mr Jinnah with the Congress president, Mr Majumdar, known as the Lucknow Pact (1916/17), the Montague-Chelmsford reforms (1920), the Nehru Report (1927), the three Round Table Conferences (1930-32), the Joint Select Committee of parliament meetings (1933), the Cripps proposals (1942), the Quit India Movement of Mr Gandhi (1942) and, finally, the Cabinet Mission Plan (1946).
At all these junctures the chicanery of the Indian National Congress to acquire a stranglehold over the legitimate aspirations of the Muslims was more than evident.
In this whole saga the classic drama was played by Mr Jawahar Lal Nehru in scuttling the most promising of all proposals ever put forward for an independent unified India the Cabinet Mission Plan.
I shall let its story be told by no less a venerable person than Sir Muhammad Zafrulla Khan, a distinguished figure in Indian politics, the first foreign minister of Pakistan and later the president of the International Court of Justice. He writes in his memoirs (Servant of God) thus
“In the summer of 1946, Prime Minister Attlee had sent a Cabinet Mission composed of Lord Pethick-Lawrence, Secretary of State for India, Sir Stafford Cripps and Mr A.V. Alexander to India to work out, in consultation with Indian leaders, a plan for the independence of India.
“The Mission worked hard and unsparingly and produced a plan which, to the surprise and relief of everyone, was agreed to by both the Congress and the Muslim League. But the relief was short-lived.
“As soon as Mr M.A. Jinnah, by a remarkable feat of statesmanship, announced the Muslim League's acceptance of the Cabinet Mission Plan, Mr Nehru, who had just succeeded Maulana Abul Kalam Azad as the president of the Congress, and also intensely disliked the Plan, announced his interpretation of certain clauses of the Plan, which was completely subversive of the meaning and spirit of the Plan. Mr. M.A.Jinnah thereupon repudiated the Plan in disgust.
“Lord Wavell, the Governor-General, sent for Mr Gandhi and Mr Nehru and tried to persuade them to agree to work the Plan according to its true purpose and intent, but to no avail.
“Finally, Mr Attlee, the Prime Minister, invited Mr Jinnah and Mr Nehru to London in a last-minute attempt to salvage the Cabinet Mission Plan, but could not overcome Mr Nehru's intransigence.”
Where does the thought that Mr Jinnah put forward the demand of Pakistan to unite the disunited Muslim community of India come from only intrigues me!
M.J.AS'AD
Karachi
