11-25-2006, 02:36 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Muslim League Demand For Exchange Of Population
Aug 2006Â
In response to the 23 March 1940 resolution of Muslim League for the creation of Pakistan, a number of questions were raised. One of the most important was; no matter where the line of demarcation was drawn, there would be Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs on either side in a minority. They would overnight become aliens and foreigners in their own homes. Mohammed Ali Jinnah initially evaded this question, but later began to promise protection to the minorities. However, there was no question of Hindus and Sikhs obtaining citizenship or equal status with the nationals of Pakistan. If they could, why divide India was his question? Not satisfied himself with his own logic, he suggested an exchange of population of population as the realistic solution.
But wise and educated he was, it is fair to believe that he was familiar with the European experience where, at the beginning of the 20th century, some two and a half million people had undertaken transfer of residence across national frontiers. Muslim Bulgarians were resettled in Turkey and many Turks were transferred to Bulgaria in pursuance of the Turko-Bulgarian Convention of 1913. This was also done officially under the Treaty of Lausanne signed on 30 January 1923 between Turkey and Greece.
Professor M. Mujeeb, Vice-Chancellor of Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi had an interesting experience. In his words, quoted from his book Islamic Influence on Indian Society, Meenakshi Prakashan, Meerut, 1972:
At a party given during the U.N. General Assembly Session in 1949 I had the pleasure of being placed next to the Turkish representative. He looked at my name card, saw that I was a Muslim and at once asked, are there still any Muslims in India? The impression then created does not yet seem to have been removed and it is believed that the sub-continent had been divided between Muslims and Hindus, with all Muslims on the one side and all Hindus on the other.
Jinnah must surely have been aware of the philosophical mainspring of Pakistan. even since British captured power and the consequent displacement of Muslim rule, there was widespread feeling that a Darul-Islam in India had been replaced by a Dar-ul-Harb or a land of struggle. There is a principle as old as Islam that a jehad has to be fought for acquiring a Dar-ul-Islam. On the other hand, when there is no hope of achieving it, a Dar-ul-Harb cannot be tolerated indefinitely. The solution for the Muslims then was hijrat or migration to a land of Islam. Incidentally, devout faithfuls believe that they were fighting a jehad against the British right through the 19th century. A hijrat was also undertaken by several hundred thousand Muslims who migrated to Afghanistan in 1920 on their realization that the British would not allow the Sultan to continue on the throne of Turkey and thus remaining the Khalifa for all Sunnis. Nearly 20,000 Indian Muslims succeeded in enterning and settling in Afghanistan.
For the Muslim leaders therefore the idea of a population transfer was neither novel nor surprising. Even prophet Muhammad had undertaken hijrat from Mecca to Madina while founding Islam. No wonder then that Khan Iftikhar Hussain of Mamdot had said that the exchange of population offered a very practical solution for the problem of the Muslims reported by Dawn, 3 December 1946. Pir Illahi Bux, the Sindhi leader, had said that he welcomed an exchange of population for the safety of the minorities, as it would put an end to all communal disturbances as reported by Dawn, on 4 December 1946. So also felt Raja Ghazanfar Ali who later became Pakistan's envoy to New Delhi. Dawn of 19 December 1946, reported his having asked for the alteration of the population map of India. Sir Ivan Jenkins, the Governor of Punjab, had then obseved that by asking for an exchange of population, the Muslim League was planning to forcibly drive away Hindus from Punjab.
It was important in these statements that the League objective was to undertake ethnic cleansing soon after partition. That this was not mere conjecture was proved by the fact that almost all Hindus were driven out from west Pakistan in a matter of two to three years. Evidently, the League leadership had fears that ethnic cleansing on their side would invite a similar action in Hindustan, causing untold miseries to their Muslim brethren. In any case, the Dar-ul-Islam that they were pursuing was for all Muslims of the subcontinent. Why should those, who happened to be in Hindustan, be condemned to live indefinitely in a hopeless Dar-ul-Harb?
These were no stray threats either by Mamdot or the Pir. Jinnah, while addressing a press conference at Karachi on 25 November 1946, said that the authorities both central and provincial, should immediately take up the question of exchange of population, as reported by Dawn, on 26 November, 1946. Sir Feroze Khan Noon, who later rose to be Prime Minister had earlier on 8 April 1946, threatened to re-enact the murderous orgies of Chengez Khan and Halaqu Khan if non-Muslims took up an obstrustive attitude against population exchange. Ismail Chundrigar, who also eventually rose to be Prime Minister of Pakistan, had said that the British had no right to hand over Muslims to a subject people over whom they had ruled for 500 years. Mohammad Ismail, a leader from Madras had declared that the Muslims of India were in the midst of a jihad. Shaukat Hayat Khan, son of the Prime Minister of Punjab, Sir Sikander Hayat Khan, had threatened, while the British were still in India, of a rehearsal of what the Muslims would do to the Hindus eventually. The point that came through clearly was that transfer of population was an integral part of the demand for Pakistan.
Besides the exchange of population, Qaid-e-Azam Jinnah had also suggested the "Theory of Reciprocal Hostages." that is, if some Hindus are still left behind in Pakistan and Muslims in Hindustan, after 1947, they will be treated as reciprocol hostages by the respective governments. This, according to Qaid, would ensure fair treatment of minorities in Pakistan and Hindustan. He had outlined this scheme to the Cabinet Mission which visited India in 1946. Beverly Nichols, a British Journalist, who had visited India at this time and flater wrote a book entitled Verdict on India based on his interviews with Indian leaders including Jinnah, also makes a mention of this proposal. Since, Pakistan ethnically had cleansed the Hindu/sikh population during 1947-48, Hindustan had every right to push out Muslims to Pakistan. Therefore, Muslims have no locus standi to stay on in India any longer after the creation of Pakistan and also the fact that Hindus and Sikhs have been driven out of that country. Every book written by Muslim scholars in Pakistan on the division of India has strongly emphasized the role of Muslims of United Provinces in the creation of Pakistan. Simultaneously, it is also brought out that none of the Muslim majority provinces wished for the division of India. The two-nation theory was the creation of Aligarh Muslim University which eventually led to the vivisectionof India. The Muslims of Uttar Pradesh were most active in the demand for Pakistan. Ironically, it is theseMuslims who did not leave for their Darul Islam. The government of India should, therefore, see to it that Aligarh Muslim University, the cradle of Muslim separatism, is abolished without any further delay.
http://www.janasangh.com/jsart.aspx?stid=140<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Aug 2006Â
In response to the 23 March 1940 resolution of Muslim League for the creation of Pakistan, a number of questions were raised. One of the most important was; no matter where the line of demarcation was drawn, there would be Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs on either side in a minority. They would overnight become aliens and foreigners in their own homes. Mohammed Ali Jinnah initially evaded this question, but later began to promise protection to the minorities. However, there was no question of Hindus and Sikhs obtaining citizenship or equal status with the nationals of Pakistan. If they could, why divide India was his question? Not satisfied himself with his own logic, he suggested an exchange of population of population as the realistic solution.
But wise and educated he was, it is fair to believe that he was familiar with the European experience where, at the beginning of the 20th century, some two and a half million people had undertaken transfer of residence across national frontiers. Muslim Bulgarians were resettled in Turkey and many Turks were transferred to Bulgaria in pursuance of the Turko-Bulgarian Convention of 1913. This was also done officially under the Treaty of Lausanne signed on 30 January 1923 between Turkey and Greece.
Professor M. Mujeeb, Vice-Chancellor of Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi had an interesting experience. In his words, quoted from his book Islamic Influence on Indian Society, Meenakshi Prakashan, Meerut, 1972:
At a party given during the U.N. General Assembly Session in 1949 I had the pleasure of being placed next to the Turkish representative. He looked at my name card, saw that I was a Muslim and at once asked, are there still any Muslims in India? The impression then created does not yet seem to have been removed and it is believed that the sub-continent had been divided between Muslims and Hindus, with all Muslims on the one side and all Hindus on the other.
Jinnah must surely have been aware of the philosophical mainspring of Pakistan. even since British captured power and the consequent displacement of Muslim rule, there was widespread feeling that a Darul-Islam in India had been replaced by a Dar-ul-Harb or a land of struggle. There is a principle as old as Islam that a jehad has to be fought for acquiring a Dar-ul-Islam. On the other hand, when there is no hope of achieving it, a Dar-ul-Harb cannot be tolerated indefinitely. The solution for the Muslims then was hijrat or migration to a land of Islam. Incidentally, devout faithfuls believe that they were fighting a jehad against the British right through the 19th century. A hijrat was also undertaken by several hundred thousand Muslims who migrated to Afghanistan in 1920 on their realization that the British would not allow the Sultan to continue on the throne of Turkey and thus remaining the Khalifa for all Sunnis. Nearly 20,000 Indian Muslims succeeded in enterning and settling in Afghanistan.
For the Muslim leaders therefore the idea of a population transfer was neither novel nor surprising. Even prophet Muhammad had undertaken hijrat from Mecca to Madina while founding Islam. No wonder then that Khan Iftikhar Hussain of Mamdot had said that the exchange of population offered a very practical solution for the problem of the Muslims reported by Dawn, 3 December 1946. Pir Illahi Bux, the Sindhi leader, had said that he welcomed an exchange of population for the safety of the minorities, as it would put an end to all communal disturbances as reported by Dawn, on 4 December 1946. So also felt Raja Ghazanfar Ali who later became Pakistan's envoy to New Delhi. Dawn of 19 December 1946, reported his having asked for the alteration of the population map of India. Sir Ivan Jenkins, the Governor of Punjab, had then obseved that by asking for an exchange of population, the Muslim League was planning to forcibly drive away Hindus from Punjab.
It was important in these statements that the League objective was to undertake ethnic cleansing soon after partition. That this was not mere conjecture was proved by the fact that almost all Hindus were driven out from west Pakistan in a matter of two to three years. Evidently, the League leadership had fears that ethnic cleansing on their side would invite a similar action in Hindustan, causing untold miseries to their Muslim brethren. In any case, the Dar-ul-Islam that they were pursuing was for all Muslims of the subcontinent. Why should those, who happened to be in Hindustan, be condemned to live indefinitely in a hopeless Dar-ul-Harb?
These were no stray threats either by Mamdot or the Pir. Jinnah, while addressing a press conference at Karachi on 25 November 1946, said that the authorities both central and provincial, should immediately take up the question of exchange of population, as reported by Dawn, on 26 November, 1946. Sir Feroze Khan Noon, who later rose to be Prime Minister had earlier on 8 April 1946, threatened to re-enact the murderous orgies of Chengez Khan and Halaqu Khan if non-Muslims took up an obstrustive attitude against population exchange. Ismail Chundrigar, who also eventually rose to be Prime Minister of Pakistan, had said that the British had no right to hand over Muslims to a subject people over whom they had ruled for 500 years. Mohammad Ismail, a leader from Madras had declared that the Muslims of India were in the midst of a jihad. Shaukat Hayat Khan, son of the Prime Minister of Punjab, Sir Sikander Hayat Khan, had threatened, while the British were still in India, of a rehearsal of what the Muslims would do to the Hindus eventually. The point that came through clearly was that transfer of population was an integral part of the demand for Pakistan.
Besides the exchange of population, Qaid-e-Azam Jinnah had also suggested the "Theory of Reciprocal Hostages." that is, if some Hindus are still left behind in Pakistan and Muslims in Hindustan, after 1947, they will be treated as reciprocol hostages by the respective governments. This, according to Qaid, would ensure fair treatment of minorities in Pakistan and Hindustan. He had outlined this scheme to the Cabinet Mission which visited India in 1946. Beverly Nichols, a British Journalist, who had visited India at this time and flater wrote a book entitled Verdict on India based on his interviews with Indian leaders including Jinnah, also makes a mention of this proposal. Since, Pakistan ethnically had cleansed the Hindu/sikh population during 1947-48, Hindustan had every right to push out Muslims to Pakistan. Therefore, Muslims have no locus standi to stay on in India any longer after the creation of Pakistan and also the fact that Hindus and Sikhs have been driven out of that country. Every book written by Muslim scholars in Pakistan on the division of India has strongly emphasized the role of Muslims of United Provinces in the creation of Pakistan. Simultaneously, it is also brought out that none of the Muslim majority provinces wished for the division of India. The two-nation theory was the creation of Aligarh Muslim University which eventually led to the vivisectionof India. The Muslims of Uttar Pradesh were most active in the demand for Pakistan. Ironically, it is theseMuslims who did not leave for their Darul Islam. The government of India should, therefore, see to it that Aligarh Muslim University, the cradle of Muslim separatism, is abolished without any further delay.
http://www.janasangh.com/jsart.aspx?stid=140<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->