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Newspaper 6b - The Convergence and Divergence of Views of Iqbal PDF
Newspaper 6b - The Convergence and Divergence of Views of Iqbal PDF
Newspaper 6b - The Convergence and Divergence of Views of Iqbal PDF
1938
Iqbal couldn’t have found approval in the Pakistan of today, much like Jinnah.
ALLAMA Muhammad lqbal and Quaid i Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah are undoubtedly the two most important and
influential leaders of the 20th century Muslim India. Their mutual relationship, as such, is a subject of substantial
significance. Quite in contrast to what official historiography portrays, the two cannot be stereotyped as one and
the same. An objective insight would suggest that they had their respective positions, and points of convergence
and divergence, on issues of significance.
They, for sure, had a relationship of great respect for each other. Jinnah called lqbal the “sage philosopher” and
the “national poet of Islam”, and Iqbal, in a letter to Jinnah, said: “Your genius will discover some way out of our
present difficulties”. The divergence of views related to their perceptions of the Muslim community’s interests in
India; lqbal seems to be focused on the north western region as the base for the expression of Muslim power,
while Jinnah seems to have an all India strategy.
The correspondence between the two is little in terms of volume, but speaks volumes about their reliance on each
other, particularly in the context of the Punjab, and also on their respective thrusts. Iqbal wrote to Jinnah 13
letters between May 1936 and November 1937. These were published after lqbal’s death with a foreword by Jinnah.
Unfortunately, the replies sent by Jinnah are not available anymore as the trustees of lqbal’s estate, much to
Jinnah’s disappointment, could not trace them. Introducing Iqbal’s letters, Jinnah wrote that lqbal’s “views were
substantially in consonance with my own”.
The immediate context of the letters is the politics of the Punjab. Following the 1935 Act, elections had to be held
in the province. The Unionist Party had already been in power. League contested the elections but lost. Jinnah got
into an agreement with Punjab’s premier, Sir Sikandar Hayat, as a result of which League accepted to reduce its
role in the Punjab, while the Unionists accepted Jinnah as the representative of the Muslim-majority province in
negotiations with the government for the realisation of the central part of the constitution on which Indian
organisations had yet to agree.
Jinnah wishes to accord a role to Iqbal in making the League effective. Iqbal takes great interest in the task. He
emphasises the need to make the League a mass organisation and also speaks forcefully for addressing the
economic problems. However, Iqbal also thinks that Muslim cultural protection and expression had priority over
economic considerations. Despite his reservations about the Communal Award, he accepted it for it recognised
the separate political existence of the Muslims.
a portrait of Allama Iqbal during a visit to his home in Lahore in the 1960s. | Photos: The Allama Iqbal Collection.
Iqbal also thought that the redistribution of the country should be done in a manner that may consolidate
Muslim-majority areas. Earlier in his 1930 Allahabad address, he had denounced the Lucknow Pact, which, to
him, “originated in a false view of Indian nationalism and deprived the Muslims of India of chances of acquiring
any political power in India”. None else but Jinnah was the architect of the Pact which had brought to him the
title of the ‘Ambassador of Hindu Muslim unity’. Iqbal criticised the Pact because it gave weightage to non
Muslims in the Punjab and Bengal in return for getting in the Hindu-majority provinces weightage for the
Muslims.
Iqbal thought that this compromise hindered the realisation of Muslim power in their majority provinces. Now in
his correspondence, he goes to the extent of saying that “the Muslims of north west India and Bengal ought at
present to ignore Muslim-minority provinces”. This he thought would be in the interest of the Muslim-majority
provinces. One does not actually know what precise replies Jinnah gave to him, but it seems that at least at that
stage Jinnah continued with his all India strategy for the resolution of the communal issue and making a
convincing case for the Muslims of India.
Reproduced below is a selection of lqbal’s letters, generally beginning with “My dear Mr. Jinnah” and ending with
“Yours sincerely, Muhammad lqbal”:
There is some talk of an understanding between Punjab Parliamentary Board and the Unionist Party. I should like
you to let me know what you think of such a compromise and to suggest conditions for the same. I read in the
papers that you have brought about a compromise between the Bengal Proja Party. I should like to know the
terms and the conditions.
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 to subsistence is secured to everybody. But the enforcement and
development of the Shariat 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 which as a matter of fact has been going on for some time in the shape of Hindu Muslim riots.
It is clear to my mind that if Hinduism accepts social democracy, it must cease to be Hinduism. For Islam the
acceptance of social democracy in some suitable form and consistent with the legal principles of Islam is not a
revolution but a return to the original purity of Islam. The modern problems therefore are more easy to solve for
the Muslims than for the Hindus. But in order to make it possible for Muslim India to solve the problem, it is
necessary to redistribute the country and to provide one or more Muslim States with absolute majorities. Don’t
you think that the time for such a demand has already arrived? Perhaps this is the best reply you can give to the
atheistic socialism of Jawaharlal Nehru.
You are the only Muslim in India today to whom the community has right to look up for safe guidance through the
storm which is coming to north west India, and perhaps to the whole of India. I tell you that we are actually living
in a state of civil war which, but for the police and military, would become universal in no time.
I have carefully studied the whole situation and believe that the real cause of these events is neither religious nor
economic. It is purely political, i.e., the desires of the Sikhs and Hindus to intimidate Muslims even in the
Muslim-majority provinces. And the new constitution is such that even in the Muslim-majority provinces, the
Muslims are made entirely dependent on non Muslims.
The only thing that the Communal Award grants to Muslims is the recognition of their political existence in India.
In these circumstances it is obvious that the only way to a peaceful India is a redistribution of the country on the
lines of racial, linguistic affinities.
Personally I think that the Muslims of north west and Bengal ought at present to ignore Muslim-minority
provinces. This is the best course to adopt in the interest of both Muslim-majority provinces. It would therefore
be better to hold the coming session of the League in the Punjab, and not in a Muslim-minority province.
OCTOBER 7, 1937
I suggest that the League may state or re state its policy relating to the Communal Award in the shape of a
suitable resolution. In the Punjab and I hear also in Sind attempts are being made by misguided Muslims
themselves to alter it in the interests of the Hindus. Such men fondly believe that by pleasing the Hindus they
will be able to retain their power.
NOVEMBER 1, 1937
For the present I request you to kindly send me as early as possible a copy of the agreement which was signed by
Sir Sikandar and which I am told is in your possession. I further want to ask you whether you agreed to the
Provincial Parliamentary Board being controlled by the Unionist Party. Sir Sikandar tells me that you agreed to
this and therefore he claims that Unionist Party must have majority in the Board. This as far as I know does not
appear in the Jinnah-Sikandar agreement.
Correspondence has been excerpted from Letters of lqbal, edited and compiled by B.A. Dar, and published by Lahore-based
Iqbal Academy Pakistan, 1978.
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