Muslim Separatism In India: A Brief Survey, 1858-1947 by Abdul Hamid

292 Pages·2020·13.99 MB·English

MUSLIM
SEPARATISM
IN INDIA
A Brief Survey
1858 -1947
ABDUL HAMID
XFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
MUSLIM SEPARATISM IN INCJA
In token of affection and gratitude, this
little book is dedicated to my uncle, Sheikh
Nur Mohammad, whose influence became the
starting point of this study.
MUSLIM SEPARATISM
IN INDIA
A BRIEF SURVEY
1858—1947
ABDUL HAMID
Published under Ike auspices of the
Social Sciences Research Centre, University of the Panjab
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
1967
Abdul Hamid, 1967
Printed by Syed Mahmud Shah at Mahmud Printing Press,
Gulbcrg Industrial Colony, LAHORE
FOREWORD
History is to a nation what memory is to an individual. It helps to
conserve the fruitful elements of the Past for the benefit of the Future.
Life is a continuous process and the direction of its movement is con¬
ditioned by experience and foresight—by its failures and successes as
well as by its aspirations. Whether therefore the historical process has a
cyclical character, as some believe, or it involves the unfolding of ever-
fresh possibilities on the human plane, its full significance can only be
appreciated in the context of its spatio-temporal record. It follows as a
corollary that the utility of history would depend on the extent to
which it embodies an objective approach to facts and events.
The creation of Pakistan, founded, as it is, on an ideological rather
than a geographical or racial basis, is a unique event in world history.
Its roots lie deep in the socio-political soil of the Indian sub-continent.
Patient research is needed to unearth the sources from which these
roots have derived their life-sustenance during the past centuries. Books
written by Western or Indian authors on the genesis of the Partition of
India are, by and large, oriented either by occidental prejudices or by
an ostrich-like refusal to see the minorities’ problem that existed in an
acute form in this land of linguistic, racial and cultural diversities. The
myth has been sedulously fostered by propagandists of the majority
community that Muslim separatism in India owed its inspiration to the
time-aged formula of Divide et Impera of alien rulers. This is at best an
over-simplification of a complex situation in which narrow Hindu
exclusivism in the socio-economic sphere and thinly-veiled militant
Hindu expansionism in the political field, played no insignificant part.
Competent Muslim historians have been strangely indifferent to the
necessity of providing the necessary corrective to this distorted picture,
though historiography has been the special metier of Muslim litterateurs
in the past. We must, therefore, be grateful to Professor Abdul Hamid
who has made a well-documented attempt in this book to present an
objective account of the cold and hot war that ended in what was describ¬
ed in Congress circles as the vivisection of the cow-mother. I feel that
the treatment of the subject could have been fuller and more detailed
if more original source material had been available to the author. So
far as it goes, however, it is a vivid and authentic story that he has
presented. We must regard it as an earnest of a more exhaustive study
from his piquant pen at some later date. Meanwhile he must be given
the credit for having blazed the trail for other travellers to follow.
65 Gulberg. Lahore S.A. RAHMAN
V
102570
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author acknowledges his indebtedness
to the Asia Foundation for assistance received
and to Mr Curtis Farrar for the interest that
he took in the completion of this volume.
CONTENTS
FOREWORD v
INTRODUCTION ix
CHAPTER I SAYYID AHMAD KHAN AND HIS AGE 1
1 The Mutiny 1
2 The rulers and the ruled 2
3 The Muslims and the State 7
4 A visit to Britain 10
5 The new education for Muslims 11
6 A more rational understanding of religion 16
7 A new political creed 24
8 Sayyid Ahmad Khan and the Indian National Congress 30
9 An Indian nation? 32
10 Summary and conclusions 41
CHAPTER II THE PARTITION OF BENGAL: BEFORE
AND AFTER 43
1 The new problem 43
2 The partition of Bengal 48
3 The Hindu attitude towards partition 53
4 Swadeshi and terrorism 55
5 The provinces of Eastern Bengal and Assam 63
6 New policies 65
7 The Simla deputation 73
8 The All-India Muslim League 77
9 Muslims and the reforms of 1909 79
CHAPTER III THE YEARS OF TRANSITION 85
1 A stormy period 85
2 The annulment of partition 86
3 The Muslim University Movement 93
4 The Cawnpore mosque 96
5 Turkey in travail 98
6 The new orientation in Muslim politics 102
CHAPTER IV THE WAR AND AFTER 107
1 The war breaks out 107
2 The Indian Muslims, Turkey and the war 108
3 The revolutionary movement and the
revolutionaries • 111
4 The Meccan revolt 119
5 The revival of political life 120
6 Towards a new constitution 121
7 The Rowlatt Bills 126
8 Martial Law in the Punjab 131
9 The Khilafal question 133
10 The Khilafat deputation 136
vii
11 The Non-Cooperation movement 141
12 The Hindu-Muslim alliance 143
13 The Khilafat and Hijrat movements 147
14 Retrospect 149
CHAPTER V POLITICAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL
ISSUES 154
1 Strife renewed 154
2 The Moplah rebellion 158
3 Personalities and politics 163
4 A turning point 187
5 Muslim demands 188
6 The Nehru Report 196
7 The Round Table Conferences 203
CHAPTER VI THE LAST PHASE 215
1 The Act of 1935 215
2 The Congress in power 215
3 World War II 224
4 The Pakistan Resolution 225
5 Constitutional schemes 228
6 ‘Quit India’ disturbances 232
7 Transfer of power 234
NOTES 246
APPENDIXES 257
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY 261
INDEX 263
viii
INTRODUCTION
The scope of this book—The Hindus and the British
radicals—‘Democracy’ in the Orient—■Sayyid Ahmad Khan.
1
This is by no means an ambitious book but it is the first attempt, so
far as the author is aware, to present Pakistan as a product of the forces
that followed the British occupation of India. (The writing of the text
was completed in 1959.) It traces the stages of the movement that
led to the Partition of the sub-continent and does not pretend to be a
history of India. It is only one facet of a complex subject, its main
purpose being to fill some vital gaps in current books on modern Indian
history and to make the subject more intelligible than it is to the ordi¬
nary reader today. It brings to light some aspects of recent Indian
history which are often suppressed or ignored. It is usual to dismiss the
subject of Muslim separatism by a simple formula: that Britain’s rule in
India was a system of heartless exploitation; that she created, magnified,
widened and emphasised India’s internal differences to her own ad¬
vantage; that she maintained her supremacy over the sub-continent by
a deceitful game of divide and rule; that the Muslims sided with the
British and were rewarded with protection and indulgence; that the
Hindus were persecuted for struggling to free themselves from foreign
oppression, that the demand for a Muslim homeland in the sub-continent
came from vested interests and had nothing whatever to do with the
welfare of the common man. This over-simplification of the problem
has acquired some status by sheer repetition. This book attempts to show
that Pakistan owes its existence to a variety of different factors, the
most important of these being the Muslim urge for freedom.
Our narrative begins with the year 1858 which marked the failure of
a mass uprising against the British in India. The rulers of India char¬
acterized the outbreak as an act of treachery against themselves and
called it the ‘Mutiny’. It continued to be so described throughout British
rule. We have adopted the customary appellation without contesting
its claim to be called the ‘War of Independence’ by which name it has
now come to be known in India and Pakistan. With the end of the
Mutiny, the last vestige of Muslim political supremacy was removed
and the Muslim community sank into torpor and degradation. The
British blamed the Muslims for instigating the Mutiny and followed a
vindictive policy towards them, subjecting them to indiscriminate
seizures, confiscations and executions. Dr Hunter, a member of the
Civil Service, whose official duties brought him into close touch with the
population of Bengal, painted a grim picture of the pitiable plight of the
Muslims of this region in 1872: ‘A hundred and seventy years ago,’
he said, ‘it was impossible for a well-born Musalman to become poor;
at present it is almost impossible for him to continue rich . . . there is no
Government office in which a Muslim could hope for any post above
the rank of porter, messenger, filler of inkpots and a mender of pens.’
IX