02-14-2008, 04:32 AM
To synopsise the Muslim empires in India prospered when it allowed Hindus to remain dhimmis, rather than pushing them in to rebellion. The Mughals were secure as long as they allowed the Rajputs to be their junior partners, etc, etc.
Permitting Hindu dhimmitude not only allowed the Muslim elite to exercise power over Hindus, it gave them a large and vital buffer against the orthodox mullahs who might have cramped their not-entirely-Islamic lifestyle.
Pakistan started out as the Muslim elite's fear of the destruction of Hindu dhimmitude, *not* a desire for Islamic purity, even though thats where its ended.
I dont believe Jinnah's speech was PR - I believe he wanted to preserve that traditional status quo, non-Muslim dhimmitude in the new Pakistan. That was what the wealth, power and freedom of the Muslim elite was ultimately built on. And that meant giving Hindus and others that minimum space to practice their religion.
Jinnah was incredibly bitter over the partition of Punjab and Bengal (the mutterings about a 'moth-eaten Pakistan') - he wanted the whole of both states, along with their non-Muslim populations.
I dont think Jinnah really understood how his dependence on Islamist ideology in the run-up to the creation of Pakistan, and the unforgiving demands of the modern nation-state would make his preferred vision impossible.
Basically there was no way back to the past, however much he may have wanted it. The Muslim League was the wrong lead vehicle for something like that.
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Let me try to refute what Johann said about Jinnah wanting to keep a lot of kafirs in pakistan
*The Rahmat Ali Chaudhury document openly called for getting rid of non-muslims
*Jinnah in 1946-47 openly called for population exchange
*Jinnah made his secular speech in Aug 11, 1946
*Upto Aug15 1947, only 1 mil out of the 6 mil non-muslims in west pakistan had crossed over. The remaining 4 mil crossed over after Aug 15
*The ethnic cleansing of Sindhi hindus commenced in Jan 1948, AFTER the punjab violence had died down
*The Radcliffe line left W.Pakistan with 23% kafirs and east pakistan with 28% kafirs. These kafirs if left alone could have led to the evolution of pakistan a-la-Malaysia. Just leaving the remaining kafirs alone would have allowed the muslim elite to neutralise the bearded mullahs</b>