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Allama Muhammad Iqbal - Prophet of
Pakistan
Poet, Philosopher & Prophet of
Pakistan
Excerpts from 1930 Presidential
Address, 25th Session of All India Muslim League,
December 29-30, 1930 at Allahabad - 17 Years before the
Birth of Pakistan
 "I lead no
party; I follow no leader.. I propose, not to guide
you in your decision, but to attempt the humbler task
of bringing clearly to your consciousness the main
principle which, in my opinion, should determine the
general character of these decisions. There are
communalism and communities. A community which is
inspired by a feeling of ill-will towards other
communities is low and ignoble. I entertain the
highest respect for the customs, laws, religious and
social institutions of other communities....The unity
of an Indian nation, therefore, must be sought, not
in the negation, but in the mutual harmony and
cooperation of the many...In view of India's infinite
variety in climates, races, languages, creeds and
social systems, the creation of autonomous states
based on the unity of language, race, history,
religion and identity of economic interests, is the
only possible way to secure a stable constitutional
structure in India... ... If these demands are not
agreed to, then a question of a very great and
far-reaching importance will arise for the community.
Then will arrive the moment for independent and
concerted political action by the Muslims of India.
If you are at all serious about your ideals and
aspirations, you must be ready for such action... In
the near future our community may be called upon to
adopt an independent line of action to cope with the
present crisis. And an independent line of political
action, in such a crisis, is possible only to a
determined people, possessing a will focalized by a
single purpose. ... Rise above sectional interests
and private ambitions....Pass from matter to spirit.
Matter is diversity; spirit is light, life and
unity....one lesson I have learnt from the history of
Muslims. "
[see also For Province, Read Nation - Pramatha
Chauduri, 1920]
... I lead no party; I follow no leader. I have given
the best part of my life to careful study of Islam, its
law and polity, its culture, its history and its
literature. This constant contact with the spirit of
Islam, as it unfolds itself in time, has, I think, given
me a kind of insight into the significance as a world
fact. It is in the light of this insight, whatever its
value, that while assuming that the Muslims of India are
determined to remain true to the spirit of Islam, I
propose, not to guide you in your decision, but to
attempt the humbler task of bringing clearly to your
consciousness the main principle which, in my opinion,
should determine the general character of these
decisions.
Islam and Nationalism
It cannot be denied that Islam, regarded as an ethical
ideal plus a certain kind of polity - by which expression
I mean a social structure regulated by a legal system and
animated by a specific ethical ideal - has been the chief
formative factor in the life-history of the Muslims of
India. It has furnished those basic emotions and
loyalties which gradually unify scattered individuals and
groups, and finally transform them into a well-defined
people, possessing a moral consciousness of their own.
Indeed it is not exaggeration to say that India is
perhaps the only country in the world where Islam, as a
people-building force, has worked at its best. In India,
as elsewhere, the structure of Islam as a society is
almost entirely due to the working of Islam as a culture
inspired by a specific ethical ideal. What I mean to say
is that Muslim society, with its remarkable homogeneity
and inner unity, has grown to be what it is, under the
pressure of the laws and institutions associated with the
culture of Islam...
Islam does not bifurcate the unity of man into an
irreconcilable duality of spirit and matter. In Islam,
God and the universe, spirit and matter, church and
state, are organic to each other. Man is not the citizen
of a profane world to be renounced in the interest of a
world of spirit situated elsewhere. To Islam matter is
spirit realizing itself in space and time...
... In the world of Islam, we have a universal polity
whose fundamentals are believed to have been revealed,
but whose structure, owing to our legists' want of
contact with the modern world, today stands in need of
renewed power by adjustments. I do not know what will be
the final fate of the national idea in the world of
Islam. Whether Islam will assimilate and transform it, as
it has before assimilated and transformed many ideas
expressive of a different spirit, or allow a radical
transformation of its own structure by the force of this
idea, is hard to predict... At the present moment, the
national idea is racializing the outlook of Muslims, and
this is materially counteracting the humanizing work of
Islam. And the growth of racial consciousness may mean
the growth of standards different and even opposed to the
standards of Islam.
... Do not think that the problem I am indicating is a
purely theoretical one. It is a very living and practical
problem calculated to affect the very fabric of Islam as
a system of life and conduct. On a proper solution of it
alone depends your future as a distinct cultural unit in
India. Never in our history has Islam had to stand a
greater trial than the one which confronts it today. It
is open to a people to modify, reinterpret or reject the
foundation principles of their social structure; but it
is absolutely necessary for them to see clearly what they
are doing before they undertake to try a fresh
experiment...
Unity Through Harmony of Differences
What, then, is the problem and its implications? Is
religion a private affair? Would you like to see Islam as
a moral and political ideal, meeting the same fate in the
world of Islam as Christianity has already met in Europe?
Is it possible to retain Islam as an ethical ideal and to
reject it as a polity, in favor of national polities in
which the religious attitude is not permitted to play any
part? This question becomes of special importance in
India where the Muslims happen to be a minority.
The religious ideal of Islam, therefore, is organically
related to the social order which it has created. The
rejection of the one will eventually involve the
rejection of the other. Therefore, the construction of a
polity on national lines, if it means a displacement of
the Islamic principle of solidarity; is simply
unthinkable to a Muslim. This is a matter which, at the
present moment, directly concerns the Muslims of
India.
"Man," says Renan, "is enslaved neither by his
race, nor by his religion, nor by the course of rivers,
nor by the direction of the mountain ranges. A great
aggregation of men, sane of mind and warm of heart,
creates a moral consciousness which is called a
nation." ...
Experience, however, shows that the various caste
units and religious units in India have shown no
inclination to sink their respective individualities in a
larger whole. Each group is intensely jealous of the
collective existence. The formation of the kind of moral
consciousness which constitutes the essence of a nation
in Renan's sense demands a price which the peoples of
India are not prepared to pay.
The unity of an Indian nation, therefore, must be sought,
not in the negation, but in the mutual harmony and
cooperation of the many… It is on the discovery of
Indian unity in this direction that the fate of India as
well as of Asia really depends. India is Asia in
miniature. Part of her people have cultural affinities
with nations of the East, and part with nations in the
middle and west of Asia. If an effective principle of
cooperation is discovered in India, it will bring peace
and mutual goodwill to this ancient land which has
suffered so long, more because of her situation in
historic space than because of any inherent incapacity of
her people. And it will at the same time solve the entire
political problem of Asia.
It is, however, painful to observe that our attempts to
discover such a principle of internal harmony have so far
failed. Why have they failed? Perhaps, we suspect each
other's intentions, and inwardly aim at dominating each
other. Perhaps, in the higher interests of mutual
cooperation, we cannot afford to part with the monopolies
which circumstances have placed in our hands, and conceal
our egoism under the cloak of a nationalism, outwardly
simulating a large-hearted patriotism, but inwardly as
narrow-minded as a caste or tribe. Perhaps, we are
unwilling to recognize that each group has a right to
free development according to its own cultural
traditions.
But whatever may be the causes of our failure, I still
feel hopeful. As far as I have been able to read the
Muslim mind, I have no hesitation in declaring that, if
the principle that the Indian Muslim is entitled to full
and free development on the lines of his own culture and
tradition in his own Indian homelands is recognized as
the basis of a permanent communal settlement, he will be
ready to stake his all for the freedom of India. The
principle is not inspired by any feeling of narrow
communalism.
There are communalism and communities. A community which
is inspired by a feeling of ill-will towards other
communities is low and ignoble. I entertain the highest
respect for the customs, laws, religious and social
institutions of other communities. Nay, it is my duty,
according to the teaching of the Qur'an, even to defend
their places of worship if need be. Yet I love the
communal group which is the source of my life and
behavior; and which has formed me what I am by giving me
its religion, its literature, its thought, its culture
and thereby recreating its whole past, as a living
operative factor, in my present consciousness. Even the
authors of the Nehru Report recognize the value of this
higher aspect of communalism. While discussing the
separation of Sind, they say, "... Without the fullest
cultural autonomy - and communalism in its better aspect
is culture - it will be difficult to create a harmonious
nation."
Muslim India within India
Communalism, is its higher aspect, then, is indispensable
to the formation of a harmonious whole in a country like
India. The units of Indian society are not territorial as
in European countries. India is a continent of human
groups belonging to different races, speaking different
languages, and professing different religions. Their
behavior is not at all determined by a common race
consciousness. Even the Hindus do not form a homogenous
group.
The principle of European democracy cannot be applied to
India without recognizing the fact of communal groups.
The Muslim demand for the creation of a Muslim India
within India is, therefore, perfectly justified. The
resolution of the All-Parties Muslim Conference at Delhi
is to my mind wholly inspired by this noble ideal of a
harmonious whole which, instead of stifling the
respective individualities of its component wholes,
affords them changes of fully working out the
possibilities that may be latent in them.
A Muslim State in the North-West
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. 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.
Federal Idea
In view of India's infinite variety in climates, races,
languages, creeds and social systems, the creation of
autonomous states based on the unity of language, race,
history, religion and identity of economic interests, is
the only possible way to secure a stable constitutional
structure in India. The conception of federation
underlying the Simon Report necessitates the abolition of
the Central Legislative Assembly and makes it an Assembly
of the Representatives of Federal States. It further
demands a redistribution of territory on the lines which
I have indicated...
Proper redistribution will make the question of joint and
separate electorates automatically disappear from the
constitutional controversy of India... The Hindu thinks
that separate electorates are contrary to the spirit of
true nationalism, because he understands the word
'nation' to mean a kind of universal amalgamation in
which no communal entity ought to retain its private
individuality. Such a state of things, however, does not
exist. Nor is it desirable that it should exist. India is
a land of racial and religious variety. Add to this the
general economic inferiority of the Muslims... In such a
country and in such circumstances, territorial
electorates cannot secure adequate representation of all
interests, and must inevitably lead to the creation of an
oligarchy. The Muslims of India can have no objection to
purely territorial electorates if provinces are
demarcated so as to secure comparatively homogeneous
communities, possessing linguistic, racial, cultural and
religious unity.
... The Muslims demand federation because it is
pre-eminently a solution of India's most difficult
problem, i.e. the communal problem. The Royal
Commissioner's view of federation....does not go beyond
providing means of escape from the situation which the
introduction of democracy in India has created for the
British, and wholly disregards the communal problem by
leaving it where it was.
... To my mind a unitary form of government is simply
unthinkable in a self-governing India. What is called
'residuary powers' must be left entirely to
self-governing states, the Central Federal State
exercising only those powers which are expressly vested
in it by the free consent of Federal States. I would
never advise the Muslims of India to agree to a system,
whether of British or of Indian origin, which virtually
negatives the principle of true federation, or fails to
recognize them as a distinct political entity.
... The [Simon] scheme appears to be aiming at a kind of
understanding between Hindu India and British Imperialism
- you perpetuate me in India, and in return, I give you a
Hindu oligarchy to keep all other Indian communities in
perpetual subjection. If, therefore, the British Indian
provinces are not transformed into really autonomous
states..., scheme of Indian federation will be
interpreted only as a dexterous move on the part of
British politicians to satisfy, without parting with any
real power, all parties concerned; Muslims with the word
'federation'; Hindus with a majority in the Center; and
British imperialists....with the substance of real
power.
... In view....of the participation of the Princes in the
Indian Federation, we must now see our demand for
representation in the British Indian Assembly in a new
light. The questions is not one of the Muslim share in a
British Indian Assembly, but one which relates to
representation of British Indian Muslims in an All India
Federal Assembly. Our demand for 33 per cent must now be
taken as a demand for the same proportion in the
All-India Federal Assembly, exclusive of the share
allotted to the Muslim states entering the
Federation.
... The discussion of the communal question in London has
demonstrated, more clearly than ever, the essential
disparity between the two great cultural units of India.
Yet the Prime Minister of England apparently refuses to
see that the problem of India is international. He is
reported to have said that "his government would find it
difficult to submit to parliament proposals for the
maintenance of separate electorates, since joint
electorates were much more in accordance with British
democratic sentiment." Obviously he does not see that the
model of British democracy can not be of any use in a
land of many nations; and that a system of separate
electorates is only a poor substitute for a territorial
solution of the problem...
To base a constitution on the concept of a homogeneous
India, or to apply to India principles dictated by
British democratic sentiments, is unwittingly to prepare
her for a civil war. As far as I can see, there will be
no peace in the country until the various peoples that
constitute India are given opportunities of free
self-development on modern lines, without abruptly
breaking with their past.
No Muslim politician should be sensitive to the taunt
embodied in that propaganda word 'communalism' -
expressly devised to exploit what the Prime Minister
calls British democratic sentiments, and to mislead
England into assuming a state of things that does not
really exist in India. Great interests are at stake. We
are seventy millions [according to 1921 records: 71
millions or 23.2% of India's population; 1931 records: 79
millions or 23.5% of population. Official records have
consistently underestimated Muslim population. It was
nearly thirty percent.], and far more homogeneous than
any other people in India. Indeed, the Muslims of India
are the only Indian people who can truly be described as
a nation in the modern sense of the word. The Hindus,
though ahead of us in almost all respects, have not yet
been able to achieve the kind of homogeneity which is
necessary for a nation, and which Islam has given you as
a free gift. No doubt they are anxious to become a
nation, but the process of becoming a nation is kind of
travail, and in the case of Hindu India, involves a
complete overhauling of her social structure. Nor should
the Muslim leaders and politicians allow themselves to be
carried away by the subtle but fallacious arguments that
Turkey and Persia and other Muslim countries are
progressing on national, i.e. territorial lines. The
Muslims of India are differently situated.
The countries of Islam outside India are practically
wholly Muslim in population. The minorities there belong,
in the language of the Qur'an, to the 'People of the
Book'. There are no social barriers between Muslims and
'the people of the Book'...
... If these demands are not agreed to, then a question
of a very great and far-reaching importance will arise
for the community. Then will arrive the moment for
independent and concerted political action by the Muslims
of India. If you are at all serious about your ideals and
aspirations, you must be ready for such action...
Let me tell you frankly that, at the present moment, the
Muslims of India are suffering from two evils. The first
is the want of personalities…The community has
failed to produce leaders. By leaders, I mean men who, by
divine gift or experience, possess a keen perception of
the spirit and destiny of Islam, along with an equally
keen perception of the trend of modern history. Such men
are really the driving forces of a people, but hey are
God's gift and cannot be made to order. The second evil
from which the Muslims of India are suffering is that the
community is fast losing what is called the herd
instinct. This makes it possible for individuals and
groups to start independent careers without contributing
to the general thought and activity of the community. We
are doing today in the domain of politics what we have
been doing for centuries in the domain of religion... But
diversity in political action, at a moment when concerted
action is needed in the best interests of the very life
of our people, may prove fatal... Leading Muslims of all
shades of opinion will have to meet together, not to pass
resolutions, but finally to decide the Muslim attitude
and to show the path to tangible achievement...
... The present crisis in the history of India demands
complete organization and unity of will and purpose in
the Muslim community, both in your own interest as a
community and in the interest of India as a whole... We
have a duty towards Asia, especially Muslim Asia. And
since seventy millions of Muslims in single country
constitute a far more valuable asset to Islam than all
the countries of Muslim Asia put together, we must look
at the Indian problem, not only from the Muslim point of
view, but also from the stand point of the Indian Muslim
as such. Our duty towards Asia and India cannot be
loyally performed without an organized will fixed on a
definite purpose. In your own interest, as a political
entity among other political entities of India, such an
equipment is an absolute necessity...
In the near future our community may be called upon to
adopt an independent line of action to cope with the
present crisis. And an independent line of political
action, in such a crisis, is possible only to a
determined people, possessing a will focalized by a
single purpose. ... Rise above sectional interests and
private ambitions....Pass from matter to spirit. Matter
is diversity; spirit is light, life and unity....one
lesson I have learnt from the history of Muslims.
At critical moments in their history, it is Islam that
has saved Muslims and not vice versa. If today you focus
your vision on Islam and seek inspiration from the ever
vitalizing idea embodied in it, you will be only
reassembling your scattered forces, regaining your lost
integrity, and thereby saving yourself from total
destruction...
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