A century has passed but there are still ambiguities about Pakistan and Pakistan Movement. It was also heard from the language of a historian ‘Mubarak’ that the country called Pakistan was created but without any effort because the British had put this country in the cradle of Muslims. The poison of this impure propaganda does not end here, but also poisons the leaders of Tehreek-e-Pakistan and the founders of Pakistan.
It should have happened that our education system would have scattered the threads of this propaganda and the youth coming out of our educational institutions would not have any doubts about their country and nation, but this could not happen. Some of it was the weakness of the education system and some of that propaganda, the magic of which speaks loudly even today.
What was the source of this propaganda? There were many such people in our society even at the time of the establishment of Pakistan and there are still today who do not believe in Pakistan. Some of them are purely Congress minded, some were under the influence of Jamiat Ulama of India and some were Left intellectuals. The tragedy of the leftists was that at the time of partition of India, they put their weight in the cause of Pakistan, but after the establishment of Pakistan, due to various reasons, their wisdom and love flowed to the other side.
The source of this type of negative propaganda has also been the narrow-minded nationalists who do not care about the existence of Pakistan and are constantly engaged in propaganda about its movement and history. Another reason for this has been the official historians who wrote ‘history’ under the auspices of the rulers, which could not be proven true to the test of facts. The result was that today the term “Study Pakistan” has become a subject of derision.
Even more painful are the social media warriors who spread lies and slander about Pakistan’s movement and history under a fixed propaganda. One of the worst examples of this happened when someone in India desecrated a statue of Gandhiji. It was said that the people of India have paid the debt of their mistake, when will the people of Pakistan accomplish this ‘achievement’? How to deal with this painful situation? Some of our historians and painstaking writers have worked in this regard, but as much as the problem is, it has not been done on such a large scale. Recently, the first volume of the latest book of eminent scholar and pioneer of ideological journalism in Pakistan, Makhdoomi Altaf Hassan Qureshi, ‘Maine Ain Bante Dekha’ has been published. This book fulfills this need.
Why did the Muslims of the Muslim subcontinent feel the need for a new country leaving the whole of India? Qureshi’s book starts from here. With full data and solid documentary references, he explains the condition of the Muslims of the subcontinent after the War of Independence of 1857. He has written with reference to Sir William Hunter’s book ‘The Indian Musalmans’ that due to the patronage of the British rulers, the doors of economic development had been opened for the Hindus and in the Muslim majority province of Bengal, 681 high positions were held by Hindus while only 92 jobs went to Muslims.
Why the Muslims were targeted by the British rulers was due to the reform and resistance movements of the Muslims who declared India as Dar al Harb to save their religion and took the path of armed conflict for freedom which ended in failure. If the Muslims were to act wisely, even if they had taken a right path, the Hindus would have been resistant to it. In modern India this work was done by Gandhiji who started the movement of Hindi language to replace Indian (Urdu) language. In this regard, his battle with Urdu Baba Maulvi Abdul Haq is memorable in history.
Before proceeding further, it seems appropriate to describe the background of the Congress. The founder of this congregation was an Englishman named Lord Hume. This is not a secret, but no one reveals why he established this party. Qureshi wrote that he belonged to the British Civil Service and felt that due to the oppressive rule of the British, they might soon face another war of independence like 1857.
In view of this apprehension, he established the Congress so that the lava of the local population would be released gradually and the lava would not erupt all at once. This same Congress later became the claimant of all India representation and started trampling the rights of all other minorities including Muslims.
Qureshi Sahib has written that it was this incident that formed the basis of the Act or Constitution of 1935. This constitution was against the interest of Muslims. Qureshi says that the creation of this constitution meant that the Muslim intellectuals had set the map for the future. Accepted as a compulsion. Nevertheless, the Muslims continued their political and ideological journey which ultimately culminated in the creation of Pakistan.
At least three editions of this book should be produced. One for primary school children, second for students of secondary and higher secondary schools, and the third i.e. the revised edition for students of higher education institutions. This book is not only indispensable for every student but also very important for ordinary Pakistanis especially journalists so that they know what are the foundations of Pakistan and what is the reality of propaganda against Pakistan. As this book will come up to the present constitution of Pakistan, Qureshi named it ‘Maine Aain Bante Dekha’ but at least this name is not suitable for the book under review. It should be called Asasiyat Pakistan or Aasiyat Pakistan.
It is actually a series of books of which this book is the first volume. This is the same kind of book as Shaykh Mohammad Ikram’s books in the field of theoretical history of the Muslim subcontinent are Aab Kausar, Moj Kausar and Rud Kausar. In my opinion, the titles of this series should also be like that. Professor Dr. Amanullah is the co-author of this book. Dr Sahib is a distinguished scholar and educationist who has added to the importance of the book by matching Qureshi Sahib’s memoirs with historical evidence.
