By Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur
The Objectives Resolution was aimed at creating a new ethos for the newly acquired citizens, an ethos or flavour, which would supersede the centuries-old ethos that permeated their lives and psyches
In the new state of Pakistan some were citizens by choice and some by default; the ethos of these default citizens was suspect in the eyes of the rulers, who sought to alter it to suit the new state. They, like bad chefs, thought if they added enough spices, the people would forget the original taste of the food.
The Objectives Resolution, passed on March 12, 1949, was specifically designed for reorganising the internal relations between the citizens and state and to give the country its ideological bearings. Not that attempts to annihilate the old ethos were not made straight away, as is proved by Jinnah’s insistence on Urdu as the national language, even for Bengalis, and Balochistan being overrun militarily, a clear message to all to conform or face the consequences.
The Objectives Resolution permanently distorted this country’s constitutional history and, more importantly, its elite’s psyche; it definitely was not an afterthought. Mr Izzud-Din Pal in Objectives Resolution: The Root of Religious Orthodoxy says it was authored by Dr Ishtiaq Hussain Qureshi and adds: “As Dr Qureshi himself observed, there was no pressure for this action; the Resolution was quickly prepared and passed ‘in a snap’ at a meeting of the Muslim League Party.” Mark, “there was no pressure for this action” and “passed ‘in a snap’”, establishes that it was a premeditated stratagem to permanently infuse religion into the state and citizens’ lives; to make informal orthodoxy the officially sanctioned orthodoxy — the cornerstone of all policies and actions.
The Objectives Resolution was aimed at creating a new ethos for the newly acquired citizens, an ethos or flavour, which would supersede the centuries-old ethos that permeated their lives and psyches. It was an attempt to superimpose religion over nationalism to create loyalty for the new state. It was a device for ‘ethos cleansing’, which is but a slightly milder form of ‘ethnic cleansing’. It was a coercive instrument with the benign face of Islam crafted for compelling opposition to change its ethos. ‘Ethos cleansing’ too employs force to modify the old ethos.
The Objectives Resolution and the state’s affinity for fanaticism has a historical background. Professor Ishtiaq Ahmed, Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Stockholm University, in a piece titled ‘The demand for Pakistan and Islam’ (Daily Times, June 8, 2010) says that the opportunity for Jinnah to make a breakthrough in the Muslim-majority provinces of northwestern India — Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, and Sindh — arrived in July 1945 when the British government announced provincial elections for February 1946. He says, “... the tactics that the Muslim League adopted during the long election campaign... (included) efforts to appeal to the bigotry of the electors. Pirs and maulvis have been enlisted in large numbers to tour the province and denounce all who oppose the League as infidels. Copies of the Holy Quran are carried around as an emblem peculiar to the Muslim League. Feroz [Khan Noon] and others openly preach that every vote given to the League is a vote cast in favour of the Holy Prophet (PBUH).”
“... The ML [Muslim League] orators are becoming increasingly fanatical in their speeches. Maulvis and pirs and students travel all round the province and preach that those who fail to vote for the League candidates will cease to be Muslims; their marriages will no longer be valid and they will be entirely excommunicated...”
It beggars belief that Jinnah was in the dark about the “appeal to the bigotry of the electors”. Apologists for Jinnah have projected his secularism but have tactfully glossed over other aspects; many spontaneous remarks contradict his secularism. He once stated: “I want the Muslims of the Frontier province clearly to understand that they are Muslims first and Pathans afterwards...” This has nothing to do with secularism.
The readers would wonder what necessitated these tactics. For one it was a part of Muslim Leaguers’ belief and ethos and, secondly, the 1937 elections demonstrated that without resorting to appeals to religion, they could not survive. Agha H Amin in his piece ‘Idea of Pakistan: Myth and Reality’ details the Muslim League’s rout in the 1937 elections: “All India Muslim League was literally routed in Muslim majority provinces of India, the League just getting only 321,772 Muslim votes out of a total Muslim vote of 7,319,445, a mere 4.4 percent. In Punjab the League won just two seats out of 84, in Bengal 39 out of 117, in NWFP none. Even in Muslim minority provinces, the Muslim League was not Muslims’ first choice except Bombay where it won 20 out of 29 seats.” Without the ‘Islam in danger’ slogan, it was curtains for the Muslim League; unfortunately it also became the state’s officially approved psychology and enduring policy after independence.
When a party and state connote and equate their institutions and actions as of Islam and Islamic, then inevitably society becomes hostage to those who loudly profess Islam. The state attempted to cleanse the Baloch, Bengali, Sindhi and Pashtun ethos with a heavy dose of fundamentalist Islam and invoked Islam for all unjust actions, but bit off more than they could chew and ended up giving license to the clergy and those who thrive on fanaticism to impose their very own brands of religion on society. This, in turn, has resulted in the Talibanisation of society, vicious sectarianism, inhuman and indiscriminate terrorism and persecution of minorities, not to mention human rights abuses, denial of rights to the Baloch, Sindhis and Pashtuns, and an ever-floundering economy.
Postscript: Chief Minister Raisani has recently issued a notification to make Arabic compulsory from class I to X for students in Balochistan. Another blatant attempt at ‘ethos cleansing’.
(To be continued)
Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur has an association with the Baloch rights movement going back to the early 1970s. He can be contacted at mmatalpur@gmail.com
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