Whose Iqbal — Ours or Theirs?

iqbal baRRa apdaishak hay munn baatouN maiN monh laita hay

guftaar ka ghaazi bun tou gaya, kirdar ka ghaazi bun na sakha

Indeed Iqbal belongs to the world. And it is
not unusual for him to be remembered in India as
well. But one question:

Did Iqbal`s vision play a major role in the creation of Pakistan or not?

Ras

Apparantly, it seems to be a well researched article but when it comes down to Iqbal being the main visionary behind the conception of Pakistan, the writer has ignored and downplayed the most open the most obvious and well documented 1930 Presidential Speech. Keep in mind that the word Pakistan came into being in 1934, four years later. Here is what Iqbal said in his speech-

``Personally, I would go further... I would like to see the Punjab, the North-West Frontier Province, Sind and Baluchistan amalgamated into a single state. Self-government within the British Empire, or without the British Empire, the formation of a consolidated North-West Indian Muslim state appears to me to be the final destiny of the Muslims, at least of North-West India. [This region has been under muslim control for more than a millennium, refer to Muslims in the Indian Subcontinent - I, 617-1290 CE]. The proposal was put forward before the Nehru Committee. They rejected it on the ground that, if carried into effect, it would give a very unwieldy state. This is true in so far as the area is concerned in point of population, the state contemplated by the proposal would be much smaller than some of the present Indian provinces. The exclusion of Ambala division, and perhaps of some districts where non-Muslims predominate, will make it less extensive and more Muslim in population... so that the exclusion suggested will enable this consolidated state to give a more effective protection to non-Muslim minorities within its area.

The idea need not alarm the Hindus or the British, India is the greatest Muslim country in the world. The life of Islam as cultural force in this living country very largely depends on its centralization in a specified territory... Possessing full opportunity of development within the body-politic of India, the North-West Indian Muslims will prove the best defenders of India against a foreign invasion, be that invasion one of the ideas or of the bayonets... The Muslim demand....is actuated by a genuine desire for free development, which is practically impossible under the type of unitary government contemplated by the nationalist Hindu politicians with a view to securing permanent communal dominance in the whole of India.

Nor should the Hindus fear that the creation of autonomous Muslim states will mean the introduction of a kind of religious rule in such states... I, therefore, demand the formation of a consolidated Muslim State in the best interests of India and Islam. For India, it means security and peace resulting from an internal balance of power; for Islam, an opportunity to rid itself of the stamp that Arabian imperialism was forced to give it, to mobilize its laws, its education, its culture, and to bring them into closer contact with its own original spirit and with the spirit of modern times.

Masjid tou bana di Pal bhar maine

Imaan ke haarat wallon ne

Maan Apna purana Paapi Thha

Baarson maine Namaazi Ban Na Saka

Just yesterday I was stunned to learn that Josh Malihabadi was also a ``Pakistani`` poet...this seemed so odd...as odd as the fact that Faiz Ahmed Faiz too is said to have been a ``Pakistani`` poet...

I grew up hearing all these names in my very ``Hindu`` neighborhood, and nobody ever even once informed me that these were ``Pakistani`` poets! Faiz was a revered family favorite, and Malihabad is a sort of home for me....So I always carried the image of Josh as my very apna poet...

All this had me lost for a few moments...till I realized that may be these would be another group of blessings we will share...another bunch of elements that will help us overcome our mutual fears.

P.S. Ghalib was an Indian? Thank you, thank you, Lord, Hallelujah...There is some joy still left in life.

good piece

Allama Iqbal is our National Poet, and a Poet for India.. he is also the poet of the East, though I personally find his message inferior to both Tagore and Faiz Ahmed Faiz, in my opinion no 1 and no 2 in their message of Humanism.

Iqbal also is the originator of the idea of Pakistan.

http://salam.muslimsonline.com/

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Good document on who played what role in creation of Pakistan in Ayesha Jalal `s book .My neighbour & professor of History at Tuft Univ.

http://www.tufts.edu/

mazhab nahin sikhata

aapus mein bair rakhna

hindi hai hum

watan hai

hindostan hamara

i`m not sure whose he was but iqbal was an outstanding poet, though schimmel writes that he thought of his art as being only incidental to his worldview.

in rafiq zakaria`s book on iqbal, dr z speaks of how pramod mahajan said emotionally at a function that ``even iqbal, author of saare jahan se... betrayed his nation.``

sadly, in india iqbal is remembered, if at all, as one of the authors of pakistan and not of shikwa or javidnama.

indeed, the rss quotes extensively from shikwa to show iqbal and subcontinental muslims as warmongering invaders.

- kubwatey bazooey muslim ney kiya kaam tera;

- kalma padhte they hum chaon mein talwaron ki;

- kaat kar rakh diye kuffar ke lashkar kisney etc etc.

i hope in pakistan he is known for more than his political views. did he not speak against the contamination of islam with spiritualism and its attendant fatalism, and against sufis, pirs, fakirs and babas?

how much focus is there in pakistan on any of this when iqbal is mentioned? would be interesting to know.

also request somebody to translate nusrat`s introduction to shikwa:

phir huaa shor ki

ek aur sukhanwar aaya

gulshan-e-nazm ka farkhanda

sunobar aaya

fakhr punjab ka aur

hind ka zevar aaya

main bhi hairan huaa

key kaunsa dilburr aaya

dekhta kya hoon

key hain phool dahen sey jhadtey

aa gaye hazrat-e-iqbal bhi girtey padtey

aakay iqbal ney ek shikwa sunaya subko

naqsh dhoondar tha dil sey dikhaya subko

kissa-e-dard sunatey hi rulaya subko

yes, i know it`s all wrong with bad spelling/wrong pronunciation etc but it`s a beautiful song and would like to know what it means.

aakar patel

Zafar,

Thanks for the article. It is interesting that we share Iqbal with Pakistan and Rabindranath Tagore with Bangladesh.

Zafar:

Thanks for the article (what is it with the name Zafar -- it lends a certain amount of erudition to the interactor -- the other Zafar on Chowk is an example). On a recent visit to India, an uncle of mine insisted that I read Iqbal`s `Shikwa (Complaint (to God)` and `Jawab-e-Shikwa`. I now have a copy, and intend to read it (Oxford India Publications, in Hindi, Urdu and English, translation by Khushwant Singh). According to him, this ranks amongst Iqbal`s finest work. Someone else suggested that Iqbal`s other compositions, e.g. `Saare Jahan Se Achcha, Yeh Hindustan Hamara, Bulbule Hain Iski...` are fairly ordinary, have mass (pop) appeal but are not the stuff that makes for a Nobel Prize.

Anyone sing these songs in their school assembly with their throats choking up - only to realize later in life - that Mr. Iqbal came up with the idea for Pakistan ?

(from Sare Jahan se Aacha, Hindustan hamara)

``Majhab nahin sikhata

aapas mein bair karna

Hindi hein ham,

Hindi hein ham

Hindi hein ham,

watan hai hindustan hamara``

``Chisti ne jis jamin par

paigaam-e-haq sunaya,

Nanak ne jis chaman mein

vehdat ka geet gaya

... dum-di-diddly (can`t remember)

mera watan wahi hai

mera watan wahi hai

mera watan wahi hai``

Ref 12-heads-without-an-ounce-of-logic-AAmir #: 8

[IMHO ,Patel Nehru can claim more responsibility for the creation of Pakistan than some abstract idea that Allama might have philosophised well 10 yrs before the mechanics & machinery of Muslinm League agenda & manifesto took shape.]

Nehru and Patel did not demand the creation of Pakistan to expel Muslims from India. No matter what crap you are taught in your madrassahs, the fact is that Jinnah and the Muslim League demanded Pakistan and, wearying of the interminable demands of Jinnah, Nehru, Patel, and Mountbatten decided that Jinnah can have his Pakistan so that they wouldn`t have to deal with his crap for the rest of their lives. 50% control for a population that numbered 30% is undemocratic, no matter how you spin it. That was Jinnah`s demand for staying in India. So Jinnah`s vision for India is now implemented in Pakistan where less than 1% of the population controls the other 99%.

We in India thank Jinnah for creating Pakistan and we can see clearly what happens when a minority rules. You Pakistanis were of course afraid of majority rule so you have got exactly what you wanted.

Why it is important to label a dead poet as ours or theirs except for the same win-lose strategy so ingraained at nationalistic level constant bickering and altercation?

As a poet, he belonged to Persian and Urdu languaes. As a philosopher, he was an Islamic philosopher rather than Eastern or Western philosopher. As a Muslim, he was much close to Barelvi sect than anyother and staunchly anti-Ahmedi as his correspondence to pir of Golra and few other mullahs suggest.

Had he lived beyond 1947, he would have stayed in Lahore but not as a major political leader because of his conservative Islamic tilt during later years. As a politician, he was unwinable in Lahore or Sialkot because he did not cultivate followings in any particular constituency. His best shot in Pakistan would have been appointment to Supreme Court laeding, perhaps faster to Chief Justice position of Supreme Court or Shariah Court.

There is no chance of him opting for living in Delhi or Bombay following partition, had he lived.

The idea of communism + god = Islam was not his original. He was merely agreeing to another convert to Islam, Maulana Obaid Ullah Sindhi who went much further with this idea and even met Lenin to discuss it.