Iqbal’s concept of pan-Islamism

BY the very nature of his avocation, a poet is obliged to mirror the prevailing milieu, the people’s hopes and fears, their ambitions and aspirations, their travails and dilemmas. This obligation makes him sensitive to his environment, to the diverse currents of thought and ideas around him and those affecting society he lives in. Iqbal was, of course, both a thinker and a poet, but since he chose to convey his thoughts through the medium of poetry, he would, naturally, be assessed and appreciated as a poet.

Being alive to the diverse currents of thought abroad, it is not too surprising that Iqbal, during his poetic career, spanning some four decades, had imbibed a great many ideas — ideas which were setting the pace for a wide spectrum of philosophic, social and political life.

This explains why at one time or another he commended or denounced nationalism; he had propagated pan-Islamism and world Muslim unity; he criticized the West for its materialism, for its cut-throat competition and for its values while applauding the East for its humanity and spiritualism and its concern for the soul; he condemned capitalism while preaching “a kind of vague socialism”.

But what is remarkable is that despite this contradiction, he was finally able to resolve the intrinsic conflict between nationalism — the prime basis of twentieth century politics — and inter-state relationship; between pan-Islamism, the enthralling concept which the Muslims had aspired to actualize for centuries, and nationalism as a motive force for struggle for independence from alien colonial rule.

As for pan-Islamism, for some twenty-five years, he eloquently and passionately preached his by trying to synthesize it with an improvised concept of Muslim nationalism.

On the one hand, Iqbal steadfastly stood for “the freedom of ijtihad with a view to rebuild the law of Shari’at in the light of modern thought and experience”, and had even attempted to reinterpret the doctrines of Islam in the light of the twentieth century requirements. On the other hand, he also defended the orthodox position and the conservatism of Islam on some counts. Though “inescapably entangled in the net of Sufi thought”, he considered popular mysticism or “the kind of mysticism which blinked actualities, enervated the people and kept them steeped in all kinds of superstitions” as one of the primary causes of Muslim decline and downfall.

Even so, there was yet one underlying theme in his thought and action throughout his active life. This theme held together his thoughts and ideas, diverse though they were: the rehabilitation of the Muslims in the contemporary world. Indeed, it was this goal that had led him to develop the passion for Islam, goading him to work and yearn for an Islamic resurgence in the twentieth century. His espousal of this higher ideal indicated beyond doubt his explicit recognition of the fact that Muslim regeneration could be accomplished but within an Islamic framework, and it could be accomplished only through an Islamic resurgence.

From then on, he began perceiving the current Muslim dilemmas and travails in a new perspective, even considering them as the harbinger of a new dawn. For instance, consider his comment on the defeat and desolation of the Ottomans in the First World War: What does it matter — if a thousand calamities befell the Ottomans? After all, out of the destruction of a hundred thousand stars does the dawn emerge!

In any case, it was his devotion to the cause of Muslim regeneration that led him to adopt various political philosophies at various stages in his life. Without attempting to identify the numerous currents and cross-currents, one may still pinpoint three important bench-marks, each representing a distinct phase and philosophy but not merging into one another. For reasons of clarity, these may be termed as the nationalistic, pan-Islamic and Muslim-nationalism phases.

It is common knowledge that Iqbal had entered the corridor of fame as a nationalist poet. In this phase, he was profoundly influenced by the spirit of nationalism abroad, and gave eloquent expression to feelings of patriotism. He sang of India, its rivers, its mountains, its countryside as well as its glorious past and its cultural heritage.

But this phase came to an abrupt end after Iqbal’s visit to Europe (1905-08). For now, his grounding in western philosophy, his initiation into modern western thought and his close contact with life in Europe seemed to have acted as a catalyst, enabling him to perceive things in a wider perspective and in more precise terms.

From the vantage point of a European base, Iqbal could easily see that the onward march of nationalism had bred racialism in several Muslim countries. It had disfigured the Islamic concept of ummah, enfeebling the Muslim world and, in consequence, laying it all the more open to western designs and exploitation. What, then, was the remedy? To Iqbal, it lay in Muslims holding together within the fold of pan-Islam.

To his utter dismay, Iqbal found that not only had the Muslim peoples, become a convenient target of western designs but that mundane Islam itself had also reached its nadir. Hence, his chastisement of Muslims for becoming race-conscious and race-oriented, his exhortation for the building up of a single millat or ummah, and his clarion call for forging unity among Muslims from the banks of the Nile to the frontiers of Kashgar for the defence of Baitul Haram.

Iqbal was a keen and insightful observer of Muslim affairs. Hence, over a period of time, he realized the harsh fact that his panacea of pan-Islam in its idealistic and classical form was not propitious or relevant to the contemporary Muslim societies of the 1920s. For one thing, several Muslim countries had opted for nationalism and for politics based on asabiyat — racial and/or linguistic unity. For another, they were seeking nationalist solutions to their problems. Indeed, nationalism had become a fact of life in almost all the Muslim countries.

Iqbal could not have possibly ignored all this — and much more. “True statesmanship”, he told his audience at the Allahabad (1930) Muslim League session, “cannot ignore facts, however unpleasant they may be. The only practical course is not to assume the existence of a state of things which does not exist, but to recognize facts as they are, and to exploit them to our greatest advantage”.

Hence it seems but logical that deeply concerned as Iqbal was to see the Muslim people remain firmly anchored in their pristine Islamic legacy and heritage, he tried to resolve the conflict between nationalism — the fact of life — and pan-Islamism — the ideal towards which he would like to see them strive. Thus, Iqbal, like Jamal al-Din al-Afghani (1839-96), arrived at the concept of “Islamic” — but, more accurately, Muslim — nationalism.

Islamic or Muslim nationalism is a via media between unadulterated pan-Islamism and unalloyed nationalism. A blend of these two competing ideologies, Muslim nationalism, while recognizing the multiplicity of nations within Islam, strives to promote the solidarity, identity of outlook and close cooperation between the various Muslim nations on the basis of their religious and cultural affinity.

The ideologue who had diagnosed the malaise of the Muslim world in his famous Reconstruction speeches, Iqbal came to the conclusion that “for the present every Muslim nation must sink into her own deeper self, temporarily focus her vision on herself alone, until all are strong and powerful to form a living family of republics. A true and living unity, according to the nationalist thinkers, is not so easy as to be achieved by a merely symbolical overlordship. It is truly manifested in a multiplicity of free independent units whose racial rivalries are adjusted and harmonized by the unifying bond of a common spiritual aspiration. It seems to me that Islam is neither Nationalism nor Imperialism but a League of Nations which recognizes artificial boundaries and racial distinctions for facility of reference only, and not for restricting the social horizon of its members”.

Extremely important was this paradigmatic shift from a universal, indivisible caliphate to a ‘multi-national neo-pan-Islamism’. It would enable Iqbal to advocate the amalgamation of the four provinces in north-western India ‘into a single state’, in his Allahabad address (1930), so that the Indian Muslims, though currently designated as a mere ‘minority’ in the larger subcontinental context, could still become, in good time, an integral part of the living family of Muslim republics.

The writer was founder-director of the Quaid-i-Azam Academy.

Flood of information

One of the intended consequences of the Internet is the flood of information available to anyone with access to the Web. One of the unintended consequences of the Internet is the flood of misinformation that gets out there too. And rumours. And myths. There’s no end. They’re like that arcade game where gophers pop up from one hole after another. Who can hit them all? And though humans have magnified their ability to make and transmit information, they’ve done nothing to improve their truth-seeking capacity.

As one result, you may have missed the recent news from the Journal of the National Cancer Institute that underarm deodorant does not cause cancer.

Scandal news spreads quickest, of course. Which grabs your attention first: a neighbor has an affair with a next-door widow or a colleague buys a new hat and makes her mortgage payments on time? See?

— The Los Angeles Times

Why reforms must continue

AS the leader of an opposition party, president-elect Lula of Brazil was consistent in his attack on President Cardoso’s efforts at fiscal reforms, demanding more spending regardless of affordability. Now when he has been elected by a vast majority of the population, he has struck a note of economic realism. He has warned that “there is no miraculous solution for such a huge social debt” and Brazil’s dire straits demand “austerity in the use of public money”.

Fortunately, none of the major political parties in Pakistan has made current economic policies an issue. But some economists, commentators and columnists, without adequate understanding of the country’s economic problems and the growth process, have been advocating some potentially dangerous but populist economic policies for the country. They feel that this period of transition in the governance of the country provides an opportunity for them to sell what in my view are some outdated but failed policy prescriptions. Although debates and discussion on alternative solutions and economic policies should be welcomed, we should remember the old adage: neem Hakeem khatra-i-jan, neem mullah khatra-i-iman and apply the same to these neem mahireen.

Let us first examine the track record of these commentators during the past three years. Three years ago these same pundits were predicting that the country was about to default and nobody was coming to rescue this government. When this proved wrong they were vocal in asserting that the agreed targets were not going to be achieved and the programme would soon derail. When the programme remained on track and the economy began to show signs of resuscitation, their explanation was this was all artificial: a result of infusion of financing from outside and unproductive purchases of foreign exchange from open market and will prove short-lived.

When the reserves began to accumulate even more rapidly, exchange rate became stable, remittances started rising, inflation remained muted, debt stock was reduced, there was a new round of shouting that all these gains were due to the windfall of September 11 and the real economy indicators were not moving. Over the last six months the real economy indicators such as exports and tax revenues have been showing a double-digit growth, large-scale manufacturing is up by five per cent; machinery imports have risen by 25 per cent; and non-oil, non-food imports have expanded by 11 per cent. Now the popular mantra is: what do these statistics mean when the common man is not witnessing any improvement in his life, poverty is on the rise and unemployment ranks are swelling.

While it is true that this criticism is largely true, it should be realized that when the economy was in the intensive care unit it had to be brought to a stable condition before it could start growing. All the intermediate steps outlined above that are pre-requisites for higher growth, poverty reduction and increased employment and will thus eventually benefit the common man are totally ignored.

The height of cynicism is that all the difficult exogenous shocks that the country had to go through during this period — an unending sequence of adverse geo-political and internal security shocks, a synchronized world recession and uninterrupted drought for three years — are dismissed as an excuse and a cover-up for the failure of government policy. The question then arises: with this kind of track record and logic should their new advocacy that the continuity of the present policies only implies one thing — pursuit of macroeconomic stabilization — be given any credence? They stand for the adoption of an alternative set of policies and discarding of the present one.

It is common sense that macroeconomic stability is the foundation on which the superstructure of economic growth is built. Nowhere in the world are macroeconomic stabilization policies pursued as an end in themselves. They are the means through which economies get revived from their ailing state and this is exactly what the three-year period has achieved. The new government can safely use this foundation to pursue prudent growth-generating policies but not fall into the trap of believing that the populist policies being advocated are required at this stage. Before examining the reasons for discarding populist policies, let us address the question: what is the link between macroeconomic stability and revival of growth?

Growth can take place either through new investment by the private and public sectors, better utilization of the existing capacity or improved productivity and efficiency of resource use. What has macroeconomic stability been able to achieve? It allows businessmen, investors and exporters to plan their decisions knowing that the prices of output and inputs will remain stable and not fluctuate widely. Their cost and income streams will be secure from the onslaught of currency depreciation and interest rate fluctuations. Domestic savers will no longer be tempted to transfer their holdings into foreign currencies as the latter no longer hold the charm as store of value.

Foreign investors will be certain that the value of their assets will not keep falling. They will also be confident that they can transfer their profits and remittances without any fear of nonavailability or inadequacy of foreign reserves. Domestic businesses will have the assurance that they can access credit at competitive rates as the banks have ample liquidity. The real purchasing power of consumers, particularly the poor, will remain intact and not get eroded by high and accelerating inflation rates. Higher public expenditures on infrastructure and social services can now be accommodated because of the fiscal space created by debt reprofiling, lower interest rates and appreciating exchange rate.

Good economic governance has plugged a lot of the leakages and wastages in the utilization of public resources but not all. This should give rise to improved efficiency of resource use and push the incremental capital output ratios back to their historical averages, creating higher output without the proportionate change in the level of inputs.

Thus the time is ripe for the new government to translate the pains incurred by society during the last three years of tough adjustment and austerity measures (which were absolutely essential to lay this foundation) into gains and take the credit for this turnaround.

The key populist policies which are being advocated for apparent benefits to the “common man” and for alleviating poverty in this country are:

(a) The government should pursue expansionary fiscal policy by increasing its public expenditure;

(b) The ever-increasing prices of petroleum products and utilities such as electricity and gas should either be frozen or reduced;

(c) Public sector organizations should be restrained from retrenching their employees and instead asked to hire new employees;

(d) Interest rates on national savings schemes such as Defence Certificates should not be cut any more and actually increased to their previous levels;

(e) The exchange rate should be allowed to appreciate without any intervention so as to reach a level of Rs 50 - 55 per dollar; and

(f) The export refinance rate should be reduced from the present level of eight per cent to two per cent to help the exporters and other forms of subsidies be provided to exporters and investors.

These policies, if implemented, will no doubt make the leaders and economic managers of the new government very popular in the short term but set the stage for the destruction of the economy in the medium to long term. Let me analyse each of the above six policy propositions and demonstrate the pernicious effects of each one of them.

If we expand the level of public expenditures beyond the current level, the objective of bringing down fiscal deficit over the next three years will never be achieved and we will have to go for higher fiscal deficit. This deficit can either be financed by external borrowing, internal borrowing or by printing money. Higher external borrowing will lead us once again to rely on the whims and fancies of the international financial institutions and to follow their conditionalities. This will move us further away from our stated goal that the on-going programme would be the last programme with the IMF and after 2004 we won’t approach them for financial assistance.

Higher domestic borrowing by the government will invariably result in an increase in the level of lending interest rates which have been brought down with considerable difficulty from 20 per cent to 11 per cent. Reversion to such high interest rates will render a number of our firms, enterprises and businesses bankrupt and defaulters as they will be unable to meet their higher debt servicing obligations. The banking system will also suffer as a large proportion of its loans turn into non-performing assets.

If we follow the easy money policy of printing currency, the country will be soon faced with double-digit inflation rates and there will be a hue and cry from all over the country over this escalation in general price level of essential commodities. The poor will be particularly hurt by high inflation as they don’t have assets such as dollar accounts, real estate or jewelry which can insulate them from the price hike. The only feasible way out of this problem is to reform the CBR and mobilize additional revenues by widening the tax net and curtailing the discretionary powers of the tax collectors.

Let us move to the next proposition of freezing or reducing the prices of petroleum products and other utilities. There is no doubt that this is an area of serious concern both for consumers as well as businesses in Pakistan. The middle class families in this country find it difficult to manage and balance their household budgets because of the rise in transport costs and utility bill payments. Similarly, the competitiveness of our industry is also under severe strain because of this cost escalation. No doubt, something has to be done to bring this situation under control.

The government has already poured in billions of rupees into the KESC for meeting their losses accumulated over last several years. This has been one of the reasons for larger than desirable fiscal deficit. The prescription of subsidizing utility prices and oil products is workable only in the short term and cannot be sustained over time because of inadequate resources. Reducing petroleum surcharges in the absence of equivalent additional taxation will only widen fiscal deficit or require further cuts in the already low level of development expenditure. The real need is for Wapda and the KESC to reduce their line losses, improve their recoveries and invest in the renewal and replacement of the distribution systems.

To be concluded

The writer is Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan.

Freedom of education

IT could have been worse. This is how a top legal luminary in Delhi reacted to the supreme court’s judgment on the minority educational institutions. The verdict was, indeed, close: 6-5. The line that the dissenting judges took was harsher and bleaker for the minorities, whether religious or linguistic.

The majority judgment has two parts: one is on the state- aided institutions and the other on the unaided. The aided ones — most minority institutions belong to this category — will be governed by the rules and regulations the state lays down for admission. But they will be “minimal.” The minority educational institutions will retain their character. But they will have to admit “a reasonable” number of non-minority students.

Although the state’s interference is minimal, the BJP-run governments can play mischief. Since there is no assured quota for students from the minorities, the state can drastically reduce their admission on the grounds of “merit.” Both prejudice and politics may come into play.

Economically strapped minorities have been dependent on reservation in admissions. It helps them overcome their educational backwardness and get admitted to technical, professional and other institutions. Aligarh Muslim University is one example. It has benefited the Muslims in terms of admission to medical and engineering institutions on comparatively low marks. One hopes that they will not be handicapped after the judgment. The central government can empower the university to admit Muslim students straightaway to medical and technical institutions instead of devising methods to do so.

However liberal the government, it is not insulated against politics. At a time when the saffron forces are chipping away at the rights of minorities in the name of doing away with “appeasement,” the pre-eminence of the state as regards the aided institutions can be more of a hassle. It can frame rules that may whittle down the character of minority institutions without making it obvious.

True, the new judgment modifies the supreme court’s earlier verdict (St Stephen’s College case). That judgment had given up to 50 per cent seats to students from the majority community in the aided minority institutions. Now there is no such obligation. But some other requirements depress the minorities. They would have liked to go back to the pre-St Stephen’s College criterion, which prevailed from 1950 to 1993.

Article 30 has been reinterpreted. It can be interpreted again after some years. The provision is still the bedrock of minority educational institutions’ rights. The article says, “They (minorities) have the right to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice.” It also tells the state not to discriminate against them while granting aid on the grounds that it is under the management of a minority. The right is absolute. There is no proviso to the Article. Unlike the fundamental rights guaranteed by Article 19, it is not subject to reasonable restrictions.

It is subsequent — and not prior — to Article 29, which says that no citizen can be denied admission to the aided institutions on the grounds of religion, race or language. There are valid reasons for a provision like Article 30.

After partition the minorities were worried, the Muslims particularly. They felt handicapped because most of the qualified among them had gone to Pakistan. How would the preponderant Hindu majority treat them? The worry of Christians was over the government’s interference in schools and colleges they efficiently ran.

The constitution framers were conscious of such dangers in a polity where the Hindus numbered more than 80 per cent. Therefore, the effort was how to ensure that the minorities could pursue their own culture. It was all the more important for a nation that had preferred secularism to a religion-based state.

Educational institutions topped the constitution framers’ agenda. The framers wanted to give the minorities confidence and a feeling of identity against the onslaught of conformism. A nation that had gone through the traumatic experience of division was bold enough to give the minorities educational institutions of their own.

In fact, the first task that engaged the attention of the constituent assembly, which met a few months before independence, was the adoption of the Objectives Resolution on the subject of fundamental rights, minorities, etc. Several sub-committees met to finalize assurances given to the minorities before independence. They adopted what was called the Right to Religious and Cultural Freedom. It was spelled out as: “All citizens are equally entitled to freedom of conscience and to the right to profess and practise religion.”

On education and culture, the constitution framers, who had suffered through years of freedom struggle, were clear. The society they had in view was pluralistic and hence required to give special attention to minorities. The draft was prepared accordingly. It came to be adopted later as Article 30. The draft said: “All minorities whether based on religion, community or language, shall be free in any unit (part of the country) to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice... The state will not, while providing state aid, discriminate against schools under the management of minorities rather based on religion, community or language.”

It is a pity that many madrassahs have misused Article 30. Now that the education imparted there is on the mend, the government would do well to leave them alone. The Muslim community itself should see to it that the madrassahs teach more science and humanities than religion.

The supreme court has left the unaided institutions alone. The danger in such a step is that higher education becomes a preserve of the elite. True, the capitation fee will go. But it will come back under some other name. Admission may become so expensive that ordinary persons will not be able to afford it. Money will come to play a bigger role than merit.

The judgment says that the procedure for admission should be “fair and transparent.” When the unaided institutions are allowed to lay down procedures of their own, as the supreme court has done, the dice is loaded against an ordinary person. The institutions will see to it that he does not rub shoulders with the sophisticated rich. The constitution, which has “socialism” in its preamble, cannot afford to be feudal in its educational policy.

The judgment once again underlines the necessity of brother judges on the constitutional benches sitting together to come to some unanimity. The chief justice himself wrote the main judgment. But four other judgments were written by different judges to give their interpretations. In handing down so many individual opinions, the court provides disturbing proof of its own confusion.

Incidentally, I have felt horrified over Karnataka chief minister S.M. Krishna’s defence of his nonchalant attitude towards the supreme court on the Cauvery water dispute. In a press interview, he has said that being a lawyer he was careful which words to use while facing the contempt notice. The question was about not releasing water to Tamil Nadu despite the supreme court’s orders to do so. He defied them till the rains came. He can say that he got away with the disobedience of the supreme court but he should not take credit for being “clever.” The court was too lenient with him.

The point Krishna has to consider is that if a chief minister does not respect the institutions — and the supreme court is one of them — why he should imagine that the public should. Maybe, he is reminding the nation that his leader, Mrs Indira Gandhi, made mincemeat of institutions during the emergency and that he too did not care for them. He is mistaken. She paid the price when she was ousted from power. Krishna is taking the credit too soon. He should wait for the outcome of the next election.

The writer is a freelance columnist based in New Delhi.