Pakistan, Democracy, Islam and Secularism: A Phantasmagoria of Conflicting Muslim Aspirations

Abstract

Pakistan's travails as an independent state have been marked by perennial con troversies about its ideological foundations. Was it envisaged as an Islamic state or a secular democracy or something else? This question has loomed large in discussions on Pakistan but no conclusive answer has yet been given. In a dra matic period of seven years, especially from the end of 1945 until Pakistan be came an independent state on 14 August 1947, the All-India Muslim League (ML) had mobilized Muslims of all sectarian, cultural orientation and ideological pref erences behind its campaign for a separate state for Muslims. Modernists, die hard clerics, Communists and others jumped on to the Pakistan bandwagon, each group believing that its aspirations will be realized in that state. However, once the state had been attained the conflicts and contradictions in the percep tions of the various groups became apparent. This paper argues that the roots of these controversies can be traced to the deliberate ambiguity with which the founder of Pakistan Mohammad Ali Jin nah, acclaimed as the Quaid-i-Azam (Great Leader) by his follower, surrounded his campaign for Pakistan. Pakistan emerged as a separate state on 14 August 1947 without the leaders having any clue about the principles on which its na tional identity, constitution or law would be based. As late as February 1947 at least the top leaders of the Muslim League (ML) did not have any clear idea about what sort of state Pakistan would be. A few months later on 14 August it had come into being as an independent and sovereign state in the Indian sub continent. This fact comes out patently in what the Governor of Punjab Sir Evan Jenkins wrote in his confidential fortnightly report to the Viceroy Field Marshall Sir Archibald Percival Wavell about his meeting with the Muslim League leader Khawaja Nazim-ud-Din on 18-19 February 1947: