politics

432 Pages·2017·4.23 MB·English

IQBAL

IN
POLITICS

HAFEEZ MALIK

Adopted from Zinda Rud
Biography of Allama Iqbal by
DR. JAVID IQBAL

IQBAL ACADEMY PAKISTAN
SANG-E-MEEL PUBLICATIONS
910.01 Hafeez Malik
Iqbal in Politics/Hafeez Malik- Lahore:
Sang-e-Meel Publications, 2009.
216 pp
1. Politics – Iqbaliyat. 1. Title.

2009
Published by
Director IAP/Niaz Ahmad
Iqbal Academy Pakistan/Sang-e-Meel Publications

ISBN : 10: 969-35-000-0
ISBN : 13: 978-969-35-000-0

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IQBAL

IN
POLITICS

JAVID IQBAL
HAFEEZ MALIK

IQBAL ACADEMY PAKISTAN
All Rights Reserved

Publisher:
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Director, Iqbal Academy Pakistan
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CONTENTS

Preface 5
Introduction 13
Chapter One
Participation in the Politics of the Punjab 37
Chapter Two
Politics of Electoral presentation and the
Bifurcation of the Muslim League 69
Chapter Three
Reconstruction of Islamic Thought and
Lecture Tour of South India 117
Chapter Four
Significance of Iqbal’s Lectures 153
Chapter Five
The Concept of Islamic State 181
Chapter Six
The Aftermath of the Allahabad Address of 1930 221
Chapter Seven
Preparations for the London Round
Table Conference 249
Chapter Eight
Parleys at the Round Table Conference Visits
to Rome, Egypt and Palestine 279
Chapter Nine
The Maelstrom of Indian Politics 311
Chapter Ten
Problems of joint Electorates, Xinkiang,
Palestine and Kashmir 355
Chapter Eleven
The Muslim League in the Punjab, and
Discourse of Nationalism 379
Chapter Twelve
Islamic Paradigms 409
Chapter Thirteen
The Last Days 419
PREFACE

I
qbal died in 1938 in the sanctity of his glory, and in the
full bloom of his international fame. Iqbal was a master
poet in Urdu and Persian, and a philosopher of repute, who
was universally acknowledged, and admired even in our
contemporary times. However, much less is known about
his political role, which was initiated in 1926, when he was
elected from a constituency of Muslim voters in Lahore to
the Legislative Council of the Punjab. In other words, his
participation in the electoral politics to the year of his death
spanned not quite twelve years. All of his contemporaries,
including Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Qaide-i
Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Liaquat Ali Khan, had
dedicated nearly all of their lives to the political struggles
of India under the British Raj.
(I)
Iqbal’s political leadership entailed a dual responsibility
– one of struggle for the independence of India, and the
other heavy responsibility to safeguard the Muslims’
political rights through negotiations with the Hindu
leadership, especially its vanguard in the All-India National
Congress, then dominated by the secular Hindu
nationalists. The latter believed that the joint electorate
employing one man, one vote formula should satisfy the
Muslims’ aspirations as it would integrate them into the
6 Iqbal in Politics
mainstream of Indian politics. In addition, this formula
ejected religion from the pantheon of politics, and made
Islam strictly a personal commitment. Secularism thus
became the national ideology of territorially united India.
To the Muslim nationalists, who functioned through the
All-India Muslim League, the Congress’ formula of one
man, one vote would lead to the Muslim society’s
domination by the caste Hindus, and their eventual
assimilation into the pervasive Hindu culture. This process,
they feared would completely assimilate the Muslims into
the Hindu society. Muslims constituted 24 percent of the
populations of India, while they were the significant
majority in the Northwest Frontier Province (92%), the
Punjab (57%), Sindh (71%), Balochistan (88%), and
Bengal (55%). Whether or not this social and political fear
was justified or was simply overblown is now a moot point.
To preserve the territorial unity of India good faith
negotiations between the Muslim leaders and the Congress
were urgently needed. The Congress leaders’ recitation of
the mantra that Hindu-Muslim cultures are the same, and
that you scratch a Muslim and underneath you would find a
Hindu, sounded to the Muslim leaders, including Iqbal, a
self-satisfying dogma designed to assimilate the Muslims
into the sea of Hindu population. The guarantee of
secularism was just not adequate and not even desirable.
The joint electorate vs. the separate electorate became a
fault line. One side stood with the Congress, and the other
side was occupied by the League. However, within the
ranks of the Muslim leaders political unity did not exist
during the 1920s and 1930s. The founder of Pakistan
Jinnah and the poet-philosopher Iqbal remained on opposite
sides of the barricade. Finally, Jinnah adopted Iqbal’s
ideological position in the 1940s, and in this shift paid a
tribute to Iqbal’s wisdom, while Iqbal retained a firm faith
in Jinnah’s leadership and his personal charisma.
Preface 7
(II)
Javid Iqbal, the son of the poet-philosopher, wrote a
comprehensive biography of his father in Urdu – Zinda Rud
(The Living Stream), which was published in 1979 in three
volumes. The third volume described Iqbal’s last twelve
years of his life, which were devoted primarily to domestic
and international politics. In domestic politics, as pointed
out, his role started with his election to the Punjab
Legislative Council (1926-1930). In 1929 Iqbal was invited
by the Muslim Association of Madras in South India to
deliver a series of lectures on Islamic philosophy. In 1930,
he delivered his historic address in Allahabad, which
eventually became the foundation of the Muslim League’s
resolution of Lahore in 1940, enunciating the establishment
of Muslim state(s) in India.
The British government designated Iqbal a member of
the delegation to the Second and Third Round Table
Conferences (1931, 1932) in London. These conferences
were designed to explore the avenues of constitutional
advancement for India toward eventual self-determination.
In 1932, Iqbal was elected the President of the Muslim
Conference and Chairman of the Kashmir Committee
(1931-1933). In 1933, King Nadir Shah invited him along
with Sir Ross Mas`ud and Mawlana Sulaiman Nadvi to
visit Afghanistan to make recommendations on
Afghanistan’s educational system. Iqbal’s interest in the
affairs of the Muslim world led him to visit Egypt and
Jerusalem, when he attended the Muslim World Congress
on the invitation of Mufti Amin al-Husseini of Palestine.
Iqbal also visited Spain and Italy, where he visited with
Mussolini, the ruler of Italy. In addition to these major
political milestones, Iqbal remained engaged in local affairs
of the Punjab and Kashmir.
Javid Iqbal’s biography of his father not only discussed
these big and small activities of his father, but also