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 British Rule and Muslim
League |
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The British ruled the Indian subcontinent
for nearly 200 years-from 1756 to 1947. After the Indian Mutiny of 1857, the
British government abolished the powers of the British East India Company, which
had ruled the sub-continent on behalf of the British Crown,
and took on direct powers of governance. Political reforms
were initiated, allowing the formation
of political parties. The Indian National Congress, representing
the overwhelming majority of Hindus, was created in 1885. The Muslim League
was formed in 1906 to represent and protect the position
of the Muslim minority. When the British
introduced constitutional reforms in 1909, the Muslims
demanded and acquired separate electoral rolls. This
guaranteed Muslims representation in the provincial as well as national
legislatures until the dawn of independence in 1947.The idea of a separate Muslim
state in south Asia was raised in 1930 by the poet and philosopher Sir Muhammad
Iqbal. |
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He suggested that the
north-western provinces of British India and the native state of Jammu and
Kashmir should be joined into such a state. The name "Pakistan", which came
to be used to describe this grouping, is thought to have originated as a
compound abbreviation made up of letters of the names of the provinces involved,
as follows: Punjab, Afghania (North West Frontier Province), Kashmir, Indus-Sindh,
and Baluchistan. An alternative
explanation says the name means "Land of the Pure". By the end of the 1930s,
Muhammad Ali Jinnah, leader of the Muslim League and considered the founding
father of Pakistan, had also decided that the only way to preserve Indian
Muslims from Hindu domination was to establish a separate Muslim state. |
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Creation of Pakistan |
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In 1940 the Muslim League formally
endorsed the partitioning of British India and
the |
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creation of Pakistan
as a separate Muslim state. During pre-independence
talks in 1946, therefore, the British government
found that the stand of the Muslim League on
separation and that of the Congress on
the territorial unity of India were irreconcilable.
The British then decided on partition
and on August 15, 1947, transferred power
dividedly to India and Pakistan. The latter, however, came into existence
in two parts: West Pakistan, as Pakistan stands today, and East Pakistan,
now known as Bangladesh. The two were separated by 1,600 km (1,000 mi) of
Indian territory. |
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Problems
of Partition |
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The division of the subcontinent
caused tremendous dislocations of populations. |
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Some 6 million Hindus and Sikhs
moved from Pakistan into India, and about 8 million Muslims migrated from India
to Pakistan. |
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The demographic shift was accompanied by considerable inter-ethnic
violence, including massacres, that
reinforced bitterness between the two countries. This bitterness
was further intensified by disputes over the accession
of the former native states of India to
either country. Nearly all of these 562 widely scattered
polities had joined either India or Pakistan; the princes of Hyderabad,
Junagadh, and Kashmir, however, had chosen to join neither country. On August
15, 1947, these three states became technically independent, but when the
Muslim ruler of Junagadh, with its predominantly Hindu population, joined
Pakistan a month later, India annexed his territory.
Hyderabad's Muslim prince, ruling over a mostly
Hindu population, tried to postpone any decision indefinitely, but in September
1948 India also settled that issue by pre-emptive annexation. The Hindu
ruler of Jammu and Kashmir, whose subjects were 85 per cent Muslim, decided
to join India. Pakistan, however, questioned his right to do so, and a war
broke out between India and Pakistan. Although the UN subsequently resolved
that a plebiscite be held under UN auspices to determine the future of Kashmir,
India continued to occupy about two thirds of the state and refused to hold
a plebiscite. This deadlock, which still persists, has intensified suspicion
and antagonism between the two countries. |
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Pre-Republican
Era |
The first independent government
of Pakistan was headed by Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan. Muhammad Ali
Jinnah was Governor-General until his death in 1948. From 1947 to 1951 the
country functioned under unstable conditions. The government endeavored
to create a new national capital to replace Karachi, organize the bureaucracy
and the armed forces, resettle refugees, and contend with provincial politicians
who often defied its authority. Failing to offer any programmed of economic
and social reform, however, it did not capture the popular imagination.
In
his foreign policy Liaquat established friendly relations with the United
States, when he visited President Harry S. Truman in 1950. Liaquat's United
States visit injected bitterness into Pakistan's elations with the Union
of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) because Liaquat had previously accepted
an invitation from Moscow that never materialized in a visit. The United
States gave no |
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substantial aid to Pakistan until
three years later, but the USSR, Pakistan's close neighbor, had been alienated.
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After Liaquat was assassinated
in 1951, Khawaja Nazimuddin, an East Pakistani who had been Governor-General
since Jinnah's death, became Prime Minister. Unable to prevent the erosion
of the Muslim League's popularity in East Pakistan, however, he was forced
to yield to another East Pakistani, Muhammad Ali Bogra, in 1953.
When the Muslim League was routed in East Pakistani elections
in 1954, the Governor-General dissolved the constituent assembly as no longer
representative. The new assembly that met in 1955 was no longer dominated
by the Muslim League. Muhammad Ali Bogra was then replaced by Chaudhuri
Muhammad Ali, a West Pakistani. At the same time, Iskander Mirza became
the Governor-General of the country. The new constituent assembly enacted
a bill, which became effective in October 1955, integrating the four West
Pakistani provinces into one political and administrative unit.
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The assembly also produced a new
constitution, which was adopted on March 2, 1956. It declared Pakistan an Islamic
republic. Mirza was elected Provisional President. |
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Cabinet
Shifts |
The new constitution notwithstanding,
political instability continued because no stable majority
party emerged in the National Assembly. Prime Minister Ali
remained in office only until September 1956, when he was
succeeded by Hussein Shaheed Suhrawardy, leader
of the Awami League of East Pakistan. His tenure
lasted for slightly more than a year. When
President Mirza discovered that Suhrawardy was planning an alliance
between East and West Pakistani political forces by supporting the presidential
aspirations of Firoz Khan Noon, leader of the
Republican Party, he forced the prime minister to resign. The succeeding
coalition government, headed by Ismail Ibrahim Chundrigar, lasted only
two months before it was replaced by a Republican Party
Cabinet under Noon. President Mirza, however, found that his
influence among the Republicans was diminishing
and that the new prime minister had come to an understanding with Suhrawardy.
Against such a coalition Mirza had no chance of being re-elected president.
He proclaimed martial law on October 7, 1958, dismissed Noon's government, and
dissolved the national assembly.
The president
was supported by General Muhammad Ayub Khan, Commander-in-Chief of the armed
forces, who was named chief martial-law administrator. Twenty days later
Ayub forced the president to resign and assumed the presidency himself. |
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Source: PakAzadi
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