Behind Pakistan's Islamic Ideology - 10

Mubashir Inayet wrote:

This is got to be the sick joke of the century. However,l as Br. Irfan correctly points out, there are still people alive who sacrificed their all for Pakistan. So let us not go there....Who is being hoodwinked by who is so obvious here.

Mubashir
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Faiz wrote:

I think there are a lot of people still alive and well who actually participated in the formation of the "Mamlukat-e- khadad" and I think they will fight you tooth and nail to defend their struggle and reject your claim. I was not born then, so I can't bear witness to anything. But what
you are saying, reading, and believing is NOT what the MAJORITY believes. In fact you may be one of very few people in your camp.

Irfan
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Dear Friends,

This may also help


Jinnah: Making a myth by Mubarak Ali

http://www.sacw.net/i_aii/MakingJinnah_a_myth.html

Quaid-I-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah had all peculiarities and characteristics in his personality to make a myth of himself. He was reticent, reserved, kept his personal matter in secrecy, behaved coolly and arrogantly and not friendly with anybody. Perhaps he wanted to create a halo of awe and fear around him. Sri Prakash, the first Indian High Commissioner, in his book '
Pakistan: Birth and early years' narrates about a reception which was given by the Governor General of Pakistan, just after the independence to the diplomats .It was also attended by the party leaders and bureaucrats. According to his version, Mr.Jinnah was sitting at a distance alone on a sofa and called one by one to those whom he wanted to talk. He exchanged notes with each one of them just for 5 minutes. To the High Commissioner, he appeared a lonely man, averse to people. His serious and somber expression made all those who interacted him uneasy in his company.

This attitude gave the impression that he was the end all and all in every matter. The Muslim League and its leaders were just rubber stamps. His image of being a sole spokesman of his party and people created a number of myths. For example, one myth about his serious illness which is narrated by Larry Collins and Dominique Lappierre in their book" Freedom at Midnight" fascinates everybody and they are compelled to take it seriously. The version of their story is:

"if Louis Mountbatten, Jawahrlal Nehru or Mahatma Gandhi had been aware in April 1947 of one extraordinary secret, the division threatening India might have been avoided. The secret was sealed onto the gray surface piece of a film, a film that could have upset the Indian political equation and would almost certainly have changed the course of Asian history. Yet, so precious was the secret that that film harbored that even the British C.I.D., one of the most effective investigative agencies in the world, was ignorant of its existence."

These were the X rays of Jinnah diagnosed as a T.B. patient. The authors, after creating a suspense, further write that: "The damage was so extensive that the man whose lungs were on the film had barely two or three years to live. Sealed in an unmarked envelope, those X rays were locked in the office safe of Dr.J.A.L.Patel, a Bombay physician."

On the basis of the story, Jinnah emerged as the one on whom depended the whole movement of Pakistan. The story further becomes interesting when a Hindu doctor kept the secret at the cost of Indian unity. His political inclinations were more important than his professional integrity.

In 1997, on the occasion of the 5oth celebration of India-Pakistan independence, Patrick French published a book"Liberty or Death'. He, after his own investigation, refutes the whole story narrated by Collins and lappierre .According to him: "The idea that Jinnah's poor state of health as a closely guarded secret is absurd: it was referred to in the press at that time, and it is obvious from photographs taken in the mid 1940s that Jinnah was unwell. Moreover, the reduction of the Muslim league's wide popular backing to the whim of one man's 'rigid and inflexible' attitude is indicative of the way that Pakistan history has been traduced. A second problem with Collins and Lappierre's story is that it is not correct. Jinnah did not go to Bombay in May or June 1946, since he was busy in negotiating with Cripps in Simla and New Delhi. Nor did he have a doctor by the name J.A.I.PatelSAlthough it is possible that Jinnah had tuberculosis in 1946, there is no evidence among his archive papers to support the theory."

However, Jinnah himself on many occasions expressed that he was the sole creator of Pakistan. In one of his famous sayings he said that he and his typewriter made Pakistan. The statement disregarded the efforts of his colleagues and the leader of Muslim League in matter of politics. It is also a denial of people's participation in the struggle for the separate homeland. There are evidence that he did not like the leaders of Muslim League.To him all of them were mediocre and incapable to lead the nation. Perhaps, that was the reason that Jinnah, knowing his fatal illness, accepted 'the moth eaten and truncated Pakistan'. The later history of Pakistan confirms Jinnah's assessment about the Muslim League's leaders who miserably failed to solve the problems of a nascent nation. The failure of these leaders has transformed Jinnah's image as a superman. He overshadowed every body. The nation also paid respect to its Great Leader in naming universities, colleges, airports, roads, hospitals, and institutions of different kinds with the result that a citizen of Pakistan feels his presence every where in the country wherever he goes. Moreover, his image as a Great Quaid is presented in the textbooks to mould the mind of the young generation encouraging him to follow in his footsteps. Scholars are writing continuously on different aspect of his life. Recently, a film is screened to counter the film Gandhi in which Attenborough distorts the image of Jinnah These efforts made him holy and sacred. Any criticism to his person is regarded a treason. He has become a paragon of virtues, beyond all weaknesses of a humanbeing.

There is such a reverence and high regard for him that mere association with him catapults a person from a humble position to the rank of freedom fighter. There are a number of people who claim to have shaken hands with him (though he avoided to shake hands with people), seen him, talked to him, or merely attended his public meeting. The rulers of Pakistan, realizing the effects of his association, create myths of their links with him. Z.A.Bhutto claimed that as a student he wrote him a letter (it is not known whether he replied to that letter or not), Zia's sycophant bureaucrats discovered a diary of Jinnah (that was the time when Hitler's diaries were discovered and later on proved false) which disappeared along with him. Nawaz Sharif, assuming to follow his footsteps, called himself as 'Quaid-I-sani (The second leader). One such similar example is found in the history of France when Napoleon iii made an attempt to revive the image of Napoleon I in order to legitimize his authority. Marx jokingly comments in ' The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte,' that "Hegel remarks somewhere that all facts and personages of great importance in world history occur, as it were, twice. He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second as farce." Nawaz Sharif's self- given title proves it.

Jinnah has become such a symbol of wisdom in the Pakistani society that people visualize Pakistan with his reference. His vision, his agenda, his dream and his ideals, all.remained unaccomplished because he died soon after the independence. It is commonly believed that had he lived some more years, history of Pakistan would have been different. There are few nations who rely so heavily on one individual. No doubt, Jinnah was a great leader of his people. He was a man of integrity and honesty, but to make him an idol and not allow anybody to emerge out of his shadow is pathetic. Every generation has its own dreams and vision which it wants to accomplish without interference. Not imitation but freedom is required to build a new world. Therefore, attempt should not be made to repeat but to make a new history. People should be liberated from the shadow and allow them to flourish in a free atmosphere. Great leaders should be respected but not worshiped.