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The 'Two-Nation Theory' was the basis for the Partition of India in 1947. It stated that Muslims and Hindus were two separate nations by every definition, and therefore Muslims should have an autonomous homeland in the Muslim majority areas of British India for the safeguard of their political, cultural, and social rights, within or without a United India.

Contents

History

Support

Criticism

Statements and sayings

References

History

The ideology of Pakistan took shape through an evolutionary process, based on historical experience. Muslim Modernist and reformer Sir Syed Ahmad Khan began (1817-1898) the period of South Asian Muslim self-awakening and identity; Poet Philosopher Allama Muhammad Iqbal (1877-1938), (the ''poet of East''), provided the philosophical explanation; and Barrister Muhammad Ali Jinnah (1876-1948) translated it into the political reality of a nation state. The All-India Muslim League, in attempting to represent Indian Muslims, felt that the Muslims of the subcontinent were a distinct and separate nation from the Hindus. At first they demanded separate electorates, but when they came to the conclusion that Muslims would not be safe in a Hindu-dominated India, they began to demand a separate state. The League demanded self-determination for Muslim-majority areas in the form of a sovereign state promising minorities equal rights and safeguards in these Muslim majority areas. However, after partition, a significant minority, almost 1/3rd of the Muslims, remained in the Hindu-majority India. However, almost all the Hindus and Sikhs chose to leave the Muslim-majority Pakistan and migrate to India,^{[1] [2] [3][4]}
The evidence cited for the differences dates to the beginning of the eleventh century, when the scholar Al-Biruni (973-1048) observed that Hindus and Muslims differed in all matters and habits. Allama Iqbal's presidential address to the Muslim League on 29 December 1930 is seen as the first introduction of the two-nation theory in support of what would ultimately become Pakistan. Ten years later, the erstwhile ambassador of Hindu Muslim unity Jinnah made a speech in Lahore on 22 March, 1940 which was very similar to Al-Biruni's thesis in theme and tone. Jinnah stated that Hindus and Muslims belonged to two different religious philosophies, with different social customs and literature, with no intermarriage and based on conflicting ideas and concepts. Their outlook on life and of life was different and despite 1,000 years of history, the relations between the Hindus and Muslims could not attain the level of cordiality. The only difference between the writing of Al-Biruni and the speech of Jinnah was that Al-Biruni made calculated predictions, while Jinnah had history behind him to support his argument.

Support

Some right wing Hindu leaders such as Vinayak Damodar Savarkar endorsed the Two-Nation Theory. However, Savarkar, the leader of the Hindu Mahasabha, believed that the new nation state of Pakistan should be formed somewhere in the Middle East as opposed to being in the lands in which Vedic religion was founded and in which Hinduism thrived until the Islamic invasion.

Criticism

Critics of this theory, some in Pakistan, point to the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971, as an example that a homogeneous Muslim majority may not always guarantee unity or security and that this concept was buried in the succession of East Pakistan now Bangladesh.^[5] Irfan Husain, in his editorial in the Dawn observes that it has now become an "impossible and exceedingly boring task of defending a defunct theory."^[6] However Shaukat Qadir, a retired Pakistani Brigadier believes that the theory could only be disproved with the reunification of East Pakistan, and India.^[7]
According to Riencourt 1983, the theory was a creation of a few Muslim intellectuals.^[8]
Recently, the Government of Pakistan decided to revise history textbooks with a new interpretation of the Two-Nation theory, giving a moderate and less biased interpretation of the theory.^[9] An editorial in Pakistani daily Dawn remarked that this "honest" attempt was "long overdue" and that after "1971, when Bangladesh was born, the two-nation theory receded into the background as it lost its rationale."^[10]

Statements and sayings

In Quaid-i-Azam's Presidential Address delivered at Lahore, on March 22-23, 1940, he explained:
Allama Iqbal's statement explaining the attitude of Muslim delegates to the Round-Table Conference issued in December, 1933 was a rejoinder to Jawahar Lal Nehru's statement. Nehru had said that the attitude of the Muslim delegation was based on "reactionarism." Iqbal concluded his rejoinder with:

References

1. http://www.adherents.com/largecom/com_hindu.html
2. ''Muslim League Attack on Sikhs and Hindus in the Punjab 1947'' by S. Gurbachan Singh Talib - Chapter 1
3. ''Religious cleansing of the Hindus'' by Dr. Koenraad Elst
4. Panel 33 ''European Association for South Asian Studies''
5. Two Nation Theory
6.
A discourse of the deaf By Irfan Husain 4 November, 2000 Dawn
7. India and Partition
8.
India and Pakistan in the Shadow of Afghanistan, Amaury de Riencourt, Foreign Affairs, Winter 1982/83
9. Two-Nation theory says Pak to be less biased ''Pakistani media praises government for its move towards tolerance'' December 10, 2006 Asia Media, Times of India
10. Revising the textbooks December 09, 2006 Dawn (newspaper)