Very nice. But please don't get sentimental. Let us discuss it out. In fact we are ignorant of our history. By the way you will agree that our past history is the same. Muslims were the rulers of India since centuries. I hope you will agree that the king at Delhi was always a Muslim before the intrusion of British imperialists (at least last many centuries). In such a case what do you think Muslims had the golden opportunity to take back their power and start ruling once British leaves India... Why they opted for a separate country comprising of geographical contiguous units demarcated with necessary territorial readjustments so that the areas in which the Muslims are numerically in majority should form Pakistan. It is a long story but I will quote the Presidential Address delivered at the fifth annual session of the All-India Muslim Students' Federation, Nagpur on 26 December 1941, in which Quaid-e-Azam said, "What is the Hindu Mahasabha doing? Its ambition is to militarize and industrialize the Hindus, urge the Hindus to join the Army, the Navy, the Air Force and support the war.
Militarize what? Industrialize what? the Hindu nation? I ask Mr. Savarkar and Field-Marshal Moonje: Do you think that everyone in this country is a fool? Do you think you can fool the British? Why this sort of talk and why this lip-loyalty of co-operation with an ulterior motive of filling the ranks of the Army, the Navy and the Air Force by Hindus? And then what will they do? The answer is clear, then they say, 'Pakistan will evaporate into the air, and the British will go back to London town and settle down there,' Don't you think that these gentlemen who talk like this should be locked up somewhere? My young friends, the Hindu Mahasabha is dreaming.
Dreaming of what? They do not make any secret of it. Why is it that they are against Pakistan? Why? Our proposal of Pakistan is not inimical to them if they honestly and dispassionately examine it. The Muslim says: Give me those parts of India where we are in a majority and where I have got my homeland. Let me live there under my own rule and I undertake to protect the non Muslim minority. You live in the Hindu India proper and you can protect the Muslim minority.
You have three-fourths. But they do not want three-fourths; they want the whole. How are they going to get the whole? What is Mr. Savarkar's scheme? His scheme is that when he gets 75 per cent of the Hindus in the Army, in the Navy and the Air Force and in the administration-and by that time I think Field-Marshal Moonje will see to it that every Hindu eats meat-he will then see that Hindu Raj is established! What is to happen to those Muslims who are in the north-west and north-east? What will happen to those frontiers? It is this.
The frontiers will be occupied by the Hindu garrison just as the British garrison is occupying the north-west. Instead of the British it will be Hindu garrison, entirely composed of Hindus, who will see and make it their business to see that the Muslims in those parts are not allowed to raise their heads. They will establish a central government and that central government will have supreme control over the entire subcontinent."
I wish the British Imperialist were thrown out from India on the very beginning of their intrusion but they were able to sow the seeds of mistrust and suspicion between communities. Under the democratic norms, there will always be a strong centre with limited powers to the provinces or states. Under such conditions many communities have feeling of aloofness even though they have representation in the assemblies and other bodies.
Jinnah's entire argument is nonsensical. He used it to good effect to inflame passions, but in a country where 35-40% of the population was Muslim, how would it have been able to "fill the army up with Hindus"? Even in today's Indian Army, the highest number of soldiers in proportion to their percentage of India's population are the Sikhs, not Hindus! Sikhs form 2% of the population, yet Sikhs make up 10-15% of jawans and 20% of the officers of the InA.
So Jinnah has already been empirically proven wrong on the first count. Let's look at the 2nd. He asserts:
"The Muslim says: Give me those parts of India where we are in a majority and where I have got my homeland. Let me live there under my own rule and I undertake to protect the non Muslim minority. You live in the Hindu India proper and you can protect the Muslim minority."
At the time of Partition, Pakistan's Hindu population was close to 20%. Even without considering East Pakistan, it was almost 12%. Today it is less than 2%. On the other hand, Indian Muslims have thrived, from 11% or so at partition to over 14% today.
That is the 2nd empirical disproving of Jinnah's hypothesis.
Third, the whole of the "Muslims as a separate nation" theory was sunk in the Bay of Bengal in 1971 when the Bengalis opted to secede from Pakistan. Some Pakis may again claim that 1971 was entirely due to Indian perfidy. Fine, then why did Bangladesh not opt to become East Pakistan again after Mujibur Rehman was assassinated? Because Bengalis don't believe in the "Muslims being a separate nation" theory, because that "theory" is hogwash. It is merely the result of a power hungry politician going to any length to preserve his hold on power.
Jinnah says:
"You have three-fourths. But they do not want three-fourths; they want the whole. How are they going to get the whole? What is Mr. Savarkar's scheme?"
His entire speech is based on bashing a right wing Hindu radical who has no support within India. He was creating a bogeyman which could be used to scare Muslims into accepting him as their saviour and leader. By far the party with the biggest support at the time, nationwide, was the Congress. And I challenge you to show me any speech by any Congress top leader about "filling Hindus" in any institution. Jinnah's argument is like the Paki army claiming an existential existential threat to Pakistan from some little known terrorist hiding in Wazaristan to justify a coup. It is like a Muslim leader in America claiming a threat from some far right pastor in Texas and deciding he want to partition America because of it.
From the above, Jinnah's claims have been empirically proven to be false. The Indian Army is not filled with Hindus. Pakistan also did not protect its minorities as Jinnah promised. Will you Pakistanis now promise to dissolve your failed state and stop hating India?
