IJASOS- International E-journal of Advances in Social Sciences

Abstract

Creation of a country is not an ordinary situation. But creation of Pakistan is an exception in the world history. This is one of the most debated topics in the subcontinent's socioeconomic, literature, art and political realm. Scores of researchers have investigated this extraordinary historical development in a diversity of perspectives and paradigms. Variety of exogenous and endogenous factors and a range of variables that acted, reacted and interacted among each other are evaluated. Following are the few of the contradicting and contesting narratives that are often used to explain and conclude the division of British India. 1) WWII led to exceptional circumstances that drove British to divide subcontinent. 2) Hindus created Pakistan like Lala Lajpat Rai had proposed the partition in 1920s to keep Hindustan a peaceful land for Hindus. 3)

The unscrupulous attitude of Hindu leadership and the atrocities of the Congress Ministries paved the way of partition. 4) Allama Iqbal’s dreams and Ch. Rehmat Ali’s “Now or Never” motivated the Muslims of the subcontinent to parting their ways. 5) Pakistan was a creation of the British mind. 6) Pakistan was the result of strenuous efforts of Muhammad Ali Jinnah.

These different scholarships are neither absolute truths, nor an utter deception, but a language of political discourse. This paper will adopt a postmodernist approach to re-search and appraise the above stated hypothesis. This is a qualitative and descriptive research and secondary data is used to carry out this project. Subsequent questions are used in this paper: 1. To explore and investigate both the domestic and international circumstances that led to the creation of Pakistan. 2. To evaluate the role of leadership in dividing British India. 3. To investigate the ideological standings of different actors of the subcontinent

Time period and variables: 1935 to 1947 is the time slot selected to evaluate the above stated questions. Based on these questions three variables, i) Events ii) Leadership and iii) Ideology are chosen to carry out this project;

All these variables, events, leadership and ideology were intertwined and contributed in the creation of Pakistan. There was no one point formula that can be made responsible for the division of India. Different factors bestowed for this unique incident in the history. Of course the pressure of marginality and absorption played as a fear factor among the Muslims. But, it goes without saying that Hindus and Muslims were different from each other and the British styled political system fanned these differences and drifted them towards opposite directions. Their cultural, linguistic dissimilarities were stirred up. The same concepts emerged on the political horizon of British India with totally different meanings, like freedom, self-rule, representation, and justice. A long series of events happened both at the national and international level, cultivated a peculiar environment that was nurtured by the leaders of British India and further shaped by the ideology of the participants, eventually divided British India into two sovereign states India and Pakistan.

Keywords: Pakistan, freedom, leadership, ideology, WW-ll, communalism, imperialism, colonization