Foundations of Pakistani nationalism: The life and times of Allama Iqbal

摘要

The British largely blamed the Indian Muslims for the 1857 Sepoy revolt because they were like the traditional rulers of India. Moreover the Muslims, unlike the Hindus, adopted more slowly to western educational norms, placing themselves at a disadvantage in the British Empire. At the time of Iqbal's birth, Muslims were at a low ebb, but the policy of Muslim-British rapprochement fostered by the Muslim educational reformer Sayyid Ahmad Khan had created the first stirrings of a separate identity. The beginning of the 20th century saw a steady rise in the development of Muslim nationalism, though often it was in response to either Hindu nationalism or the extra-territorial nature of the Muslim community. Iqbal began his mature life as a nationalist poet but generated his own devotion to Islam and after obtaining an European education.;After examining the influence of European nationalism on Iqbal's thought and elaborating upon the reasons for his rejection of Western nationalism, the study determines Iqbal's major role in developing a separatist ideology which Jinnah, Pakistan's national leader, could draw upon to achieve independence. The study further indicates that Jinnah became a convert to the separation of Pakistan from India, not on ideological grounds, but because the All-India Congress leaders overestimated their own political strength. Iqbal, the ideologue of the Muslim state, and Jinnah, the architect of Pakistan, are shown to be intellectually different; Iqbal, the prophet, poet and idealist was a committed separatist, while Jinnah, the lawyer and hard-headed realist became a late and reluctant convert to the idea of a separate nationalist identity.;The study contributes to the literature on the development of nationalism and its role in the emergence of a Muslim state. It shows that the disillusionment and humiliation experienced by Muslims under British rule led to a sense of separateness among Indian Muslims which in turn, laid the foundations of Pakistani nationalism.