Pakistan emerged on

T he world map on August 14,1947. It has its roots into the remote past.
Its establishment lwas the culmination of the struggle by Muslims of the
South-Asian subcontinent for a separate homeland of their own and its
foundation was laid when Mohammad bin Qasim subdued Sindh in 711 A.D. as a
reprisal against sea pirates that had taken refuge in Raja Dahir's
kingdom.

The advent of Islam further strengthened the historical
individuality in the areas now constituting Pakistan and further beyond
its boundaries. Stone Age Some of the earliest relics of Stone Age man in
the subcontinent are found in the Soan Valley of the Potohar region near
Rawalpindi, with a probable antiquity of about 500,000 years. No human
skeleton of such antiquity has yet been discovered in the area, but the
crude stone implements recovered from the terraces of the Soan carry the
saga of human toil and labor in this part of the world to the
inter-glacial period. These Stone Age men fashioned their implements in a
sufficiently homogenous way to justify their grouping in terms of a
culture called the Soan Culture. About 3000 B.C, amidst the rugged
wind-swept valleys and foothills of Balochistan, small village communities
developed and began to take the first hesitant steps towards civilization.
Here, one finds a more continuous story of human activity, though still in
the Stone Age.

These pre-historic men established their settlements, both
as herdsmen and as farmers, in the valleys or on the outskirts of the
plains with their cattle and cultivated barley and other crops. Red and
buffer Cultures Careful excavations of the pre-historic mounds in these
areas and the classification of their contents, layer by layer, have
grouped them into two main categories of Red Ware Culture and Buff Ware
Culture. The former is popularly known as the Zhob Culture of North
Balochistan, while the latter comprises the Quetta, Amri Nal and Kulli
Cultures of Sindh and South Balochistan. Some Amri Nal villages or towns
had stone walls and bastions for defence purposes and their houses had
stone foundations. At Nal, an extensive cemetery of this culture consists
of about 100 graves. An important feature of this composite culture is
that at Amri and certain other sites, it has been found below the very
distinctive Indus Valley Culture. On the other hand, the steatite seals of
Nal and the copper implements and certain types of pot decoration suggest
a partial overlap between the two. It probably represents one of the local
societies which constituted the environment for the growth of the Indus
Valley Civilization.

The pre-historic site of Kot Diji in the Sindh province has
provided information of high significance for the reconstruction of a
connected story which pushes back the origin of this civilization by 300
to 500 years, from about 2500 B.C.. to at least 2800 B.C. Evidence of a
new cultural elements of pre-Harappan era has been traced here.
Pre-Harappan Civilization When the primitive village communities in the
Balochistan area were still struggling against a difficult highland
environment, a highly cultured people were trying to assert themselves at
Kot Diji, one of the most developed urban civilizations of the ancient
world which flourished between the years 2500 and 1500 B.C. in the Indus
Valley sites of Moenjodaro and Harappa. These Indus Valley people
possessed a high standard of art and craftsmanship and a well developed
system of quasi pictographic writing, which despite continuing efforts
still remains undeciphered. The imposing ruins of the beautifully planned
Moenjodaro and Harappa towns present clear evidence of the unity of a
people having the same mode of life and using the same kind of tools.
Indeed, the brick buildings of the common people, the public baths, the
roads and covered drainage system suggest the picture of a happy and
contented people. Aryan Civilization In or about 1500 B.C., the Aryans
descended upon the Punjab and settled in the Sapta Sindhu, which signifies
the Indus plain. They developed a pastoral society that grew into the
Rigvedic Civilization. The Rigveda is replete with hymns of praise for
this region, which they describe as "God fashioned". It is also clear that
so long as the Sapta Sindhu remained the core of the Aryan Civilization,
it remained free from the caste system. The caste institution and the
ritual of complex sacrifices took shape in the Gangetic Valley. There can
be no doubt that the Indus Civilization contributed much to the
development of the Aryan civilization. Gandhara Culture The discovery of
the Gandhara grave culture in Dir and Swat will go a long way in throwing
light on the period of Pakistan's cultural history between the end of the
Indus Culture in 1500 B.C. and the beginning of the historic period under
the Achaemenians in the sixth century B.C. Hindu mythology and Sanskrit
literary traditions seem to attribute the destruction of the Indus
civilization to the Aryans, but what really happened, remains a mystery.
The Gandhara grave culture has opened up two periods in the cultural
heritage of Pakistan: one of the Bronze Age and the other of the Iron Age.
It is so named because it presents a peculiar pattern of living in hilly
zones of the Gandhara region as evidenced in the graves. This culture is
different from the Indus Culture and has little relations with the village
culture of Balochistan. Stratigraphy as well as the artifacts discovered
from this area suggest that the Aryans moved into this part of the world
between 1,500 and 600 B.C. In the sixth century B.C., Buddha began his
teachings, which later on spread throughout the northern part of the
South-Asian subcontinent. It was towards the end of this century, too,
that Darius I of Iran organized Sindh and Punjab as the twentieth satrapy
of his empire.

There are remarkable similarities between the organizations
of that great empire and the Mauryan empire of the third century B.C.,
while Kautilya's Arthshastra also shows a strong Persian influence,
Alexander of Macedonia after defeating Darius III in 330 B.C. had also
marched through the South-Asian subcontinent up to the river Beas, but
Greek influence on the region appears to have been limited to contributing
a little to the establishment of the Mauryan empire. The great empire that
Asoka, the grandson of Chandragupta Maurya, built in the subcontinent
included only that part of the Indus basin which is now known as the
northern Punjab. The rest of the areas astride the Indus were not
subjugated by him. These areas, which now form a substantial part of
Pakistan, were virtually independent from the time of the Guptas in the
fourth century A.D. until the rise of the Delhi Sultanate in the
thirteenth century. Gandhara Art Gandhara Art, one of the most prized
possessions of Pakistan, flourished for a period of 500 years (from the
first to the fifth century A.D.) in the present valley of Peshawar and the
adjacent hilly regions of Swat, Buner and Bajaur. This art represents a
separate phase of the cultural renaissance of the region. It was the
product of a blending of Indian, Buddhist and Greco-Roman sculpture.
Gandhara Art in its early stages received the patronage of Kanishka, the
great Kushan ruler, during whose reign the Silk Route ran through Peshawar
and the Indus Valley, bringing great prosperity to the whole area. Advent
of Islam The first followers of prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him), to
set foot on the soil of the South-Asian subcontinent, were traders from
the coast land of Arabia and the Persian Gulf, soon after the dawn of
Islam in the early seventh century A.D.

Dawn of Islam

The first permanent Muslim
foothold in the subcontinent was achieved with Mohammad bin Qasim's
conquest of Sindh in 711 A.D. An autonomous Muslim state linked with the
Umayyed, and later, the Abbassid Caliphate was established with
jurisdiction extending over southern and central parts of present
Pakistan. Quite a few new cities were established and Arabic was
introduced as the official language. At the time of Mahmud of Ghazna's
invasion, Muslim rule still existed, though in a weakened form, in Multan
and some other regions. The Ghaznavids (976-1148) and their successors,
the Ghaurids (1148-1206), were Central Asian by origin and they ruled
their territories, which covered mostly the regions of present Pakistan,
from capitals outside India. It was in the early thirteenth century that
the foundations of the Muslim rule in India were laid with extended
boundaries and Delhi as the capital. From 1206 to 1526 A.D., five
different dynasties held sway. Then followed the period of Mughal
ascendancy (1526-1707) and their rule continued, though nominally, till
1857.

Pakistan History -

From the time of the Ghaznavids, Persian
more or less replaced Arabic as the official language. The economic,
political and religious institutions developed by the Muslims bore their
unique impression. The law of the State was based on Shariah and in
principle the rulers were bound to enforce it. Any long period of laxity
was generally followed by reinforcement of these laws under public
pressure. The impact of Islam on the South-Asian subcontinent was deep and
far-reaching. Islam introduced not only a new religion, but a new
civilization, a new way of life and new set of values. Islamic traditions
of art and literature, of culture and refinement, of social and welfare
institution, were established by Muslim rulers throughout the
subcontinent. A new language, Urdu, derived mainly from Arabic and Persian
vocabulary and adopting indigenous words and idioms, came to be spoken and
written by the Muslims and it gained currency among the rest of the Indian
population.

National-language-of-pakistan

Urdu is the
National Language of Pakistan. Apart from religion, Urdu also enabled
the Muslim community during the period of its ascendancy to preserve its
separate identity in the subcontinent.

Official-Language-of-Pakistan

Muslim Identity -- The question of Muslim identity, however
assumed seriousness during the decline of Muslim power in South Asia. The
first person to realize its acuteness was the scholar theologian, Shah
Waliullah (1703-62). He laid the foundation of Islamic renaissance in the
subcontinent and became a source of inspiration for almost all the
subsequent social and religious reform movements of the nineteenth, and
twentieth centuries. His immediate successors, inspired by his teachings,
tried to establish a modest Islamic state in the north-west of India and
they, under the leadership of Sayyed Ahmad Shaheed Barelvi (1786-1831),
persevered in this direction. British Expansionism and Muslim Resistance
Meanwhile, starting with the East India Company, the British had emerged
as the dominant force in South Asia. Their rise to power was gradual
extending over a period of nearly one hundred years. They replaced the
Shariah by what they termed as the Anglo-Muhammadan law whereas Urdu was
replaced by English as the official language. These and other developments
had great social, economic and political impact especially on the Muslims
of South Asia. The uprising of 1857, termed as the Indian Mutiny by the
British and the War of Independence by the Muslims, was a desperate
attempt to reverse the adverse course of events. Religious Institutions
The failure of the 1857 War of Independence had disastrous consequences
for the Muslims as the British placed all the responsibility for this
event on them. Determined to stop such a recurrence in future, the British
followed deliberately a repressive policy against the Muslims. Properties
and estates of those even remotely associated with the freedom fighters
were confiscated and conscious efforts were made to close all avenues of
honest living for them. The Muslim response to this situation also
aggravated their plight. Their religious leaders, who had been quite
active, withdrew from the mainstream of the community life and devoted
themselves exclusively to imparting religious education. Although the
religious academies especially those of Deoband, Farangi Mahal and Rai
Bareilly, established by the Ulema, did help the Muslims to preserve their
identity, the training provided in these institutions hardly equipped them
for the new challenges. Educational Reform The Muslims kept themselves
aloof from western education as well as government service. But, their
compatriots, the Hindus, did not do so and accepted the new rulers without
reservation. They acquired western education, imbibed the new culture and
captured positions hitherto filled in by the Muslims. If this situation
had prolonged, it would have done the Muslims an irreparable damage. The
man to realise the impending peril was Sir Syed Ahmad Khan (1817-1889), a
witness to the tragic events of 1857. He exerted his utmost to harmonize
British Muslim relations. His assessment was that the Muslims' safety lay
in the acquisition of western education and knowledge. He took several
positive steps to achieve this objective. He founded a college at Aligarh
to impart education on western lines. Of equal importance was the
Anglo-Muhammadan Educational Conference, which he sponsored in 1886, to
provide an intellectual forum to the Muslims for the dissemination of
views in support of western education and social reform. Similar were the
objectives of the Muhammadan Literary Society, founded by Nawab Adbul
Latif (1828-93), active in Bengal, Sir Syed Ahmad Khan's efforts
transformed into a movement, known as the Aligarh Movement, and it left
its imprint on the Muslims of every part of the South-Asian subcontinent.
Under its inspiration, societies were founded throughout the subcontinent
which established educational institutions for imparting education to the
Muslims.

Sir Syed Ahmad Khan was averse to the idea of participation
by the Muslims in any organized political activity which, he feared, might
revive British hostility towards them. He also disliked Hindu Muslim
collaboration in any joint venture. His disillusionment in this regard
stemmed basically from the Urdu Hindi controversy of the late 1860s when
the Hindu enthusiasts vehemently championed the cause of Hindi to replace
Urdu. He, therefore, opposed the Indian National Congress when it was
founded in 1885 and advised the Muslims to abstain from its activities.
His contemporary and a great scholar of Islam, Syed Ameer Ali (1849-1928),
shared his views about the Congress, but, he was not opposed to Muslims
organizing themselves politically. In fact, he organised the first
significant political body of the Muslims, the Central National Muhammadan
Association. Although, its membership was limited, it had more than 50
branches in different parts of the subcontinent and it accomplished some
solid work for the educational and political advancement of the Muslims.
But, its activities waned towards the end of the nineteenth century. The
Muslim League At the dawn of the twentieth century, a number of factors
convinced the Muslims of the need to have an effective political
organization. Therefore, in October 1906, a deputation comprising 35
Muslim leaders met the Viceroy of the British at Simla and demanded
separate electorates. Three months later, the All-India Muslim League was
founded by Nawab Salimullah Khan at Dhaka, mainly with the objective of
safeguarding the political rights and interests of the Muslims. The
British conceded separate electorates in the Government of India Act of
1909 which confirmed the Muslim League's position as an All-India party.
Attempt for Hindu Muslim Unity The visible trend of the two major
communities progressing in opposite directions caused deep concern to
leaders of All-India stature. They struggled to bring the Congress and the
Muslim League on one platform. Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah
(1876-1948) was the leading figure among them. After the annulment of the
partition of Bengal and the European Powers' aggressive designs against
the Ottoman Empire and North Africa, the Muslims were receptive to the
idea of collaboration with the Hindus against the British rulers.
The Congress Muslim League rapprochement was achieved at
the Lucknow sessions of the two parties in 1916 and a joint scheme of
reforms was adopted. In the Lucknow Pact. as the scheme was commonly
referred to, the Congress accepted the principle of separate electorates,
and the Muslims, in return for `weightage' to the Muslims of the Muslim
minority provinces, agreed to surrender their thin majorities in the
Punjab and Bengal. The post Lucknow Pact period witnessed Hindu Muslim
amity and the two parties came to hold their annual sessions in the same
city and passed resolutions of identical contents.

Khilafat Movement

The
Hindu Muslim unity reached its climax during the Khilafat and the
Non-cooperation Movements. The Muslims of soothsayer, under the leadership
of the Ali Brothers, Maulana Mohammad Ali and Maulana Shaukat Ali,
launched the historic Khilafat Movement after the First World War to
protect the Ottoman Empire from dismemberment. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
(1869-1948) linked the issue of Swaraj (self-government) with the Khilafat
issue to associate the Hindus with the Movement. the ensuing Movement was
the first countrywide popular movement.

Although the Movement failed in its objectives, it had a
far-reaching impact on the Muslims of South Asia. After a long time, they
took united action on a purely Islamic issue which momentarily forged
solidarity among them. It also produced a class of Muslim leaders
experienced in organizing and mobilizing the public. This experience was
of immense value to the Muslims later during the Pakistan Movement The
collapse of the Khilafat Movement was followed by a period of bitter Hindu
Muslim antagonism. The Hindus organized two highly anti Muslim movements,
the Shudhi and the Sangathan. The former movement was designed to convert
Muslims to Hindusim and the latter was meant to create solidarity among
the Hindus in the event of communal conflict. In retaliation, the Muslims
sponsored the Tabligh and Tanzim organizations to counter the impact of
the Shudhi and the Sangathan. In the 1920s, the frequency of communal
riots was unprecedented. Several Hindu-Muslim unity conferences were held
to remove the causes of conflict, but, it seemed nothing could mitigate
the intensity of communalism. Muslim Demand Safeguards In the light of
this situation, the Muslims revised their constitutional demands. They now
wanted preservation of their numerical majorities in the Punjab and
Bengal, separation of Sindh from Bombay, constitution of Balochistan as a
separate province and introduction of constitutional reforms in the
North-West Frontier Province. It was partly to press these demands that
one section of the All-India Muslim League cooperated with the Statutory
commission sent by the British Government under the chairmanship of Sir
John Simon in 1927.

Simon Commission
theSimon Commission Simon Commission for its all-White
character, cooperated with the Nehru Committee, appointed by the
All-Parties Confernece, to draft a constitution for India. The Nehru
Report had an extremely anti-Muslim bias and the Congress leadership's
refusal to amend it disillusioned even the moderate Muslims. Allama
Muhammad Iqbal Several leaders and thinkers, having insight into the
Hindu-Muslim question proposed separation of Muslim India. However, the
most lucid exposition of the inner feeling of the Muslim community was
given by Allama Muhammad Iqbal(1877-1938) in his Presidential Address at
the All-India Muslim League Session at Allahabad in 1930. He suggested
that for the healhy development of Islam in South-Asia, it was essential
to have a separate Muslim state at least in the Muslim majority regions of
the north-west. Later on, in his correspondence with Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad
Ali Jinnah, he included the Muslim majority areas in the north-east also
in his proposed Muslim state. Three years after his Allahabad Address, a
group of Muslim students at Cambridge, headed by Chaudhry Rehmat Ali,
issued a pamphlet, Now or Never, in which drawing letters from the names
of the Muslim majority regions, they gave the nomenclature of "Pakistan"
to the proposed State. Very few even among the Muslim welcomed the idea at
the time. It was to take a decade for the Muslims to embrace the demand
for a separate Muslim state. Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah Meanwhile,
three Round Table Conferences were convened in London during 1930-32, to
resolve the Indian constitutional problem. The Hindu and Muslim leaders,
who were invited to these conferences, could not draw up an agreed formula
and the British Government had to announce a `Communal Award' which was
incorporated in the Government of India Act of 1935. Before the elections
under this Act, the All-India Muslim League, which had remained dormant
for some time, was reorganized by Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, who
had returned to India in 1934,after an absence of nearly five years in
England. The Muslim League could not win a majority of Muslim seats since
it had not yet been effectively reorganized. However, it had the
satisfaction that the performance of the Indian National Congress in the
Muslim constituencies was bad. After the elections, the attitude of the
Congress leadership was arrogant and domineering. The classic example was
its refusal to form a coalition government with the Muslim League in the
United Provinces. Instead, it asked the League leaders to dissolve their
parliamentary arty in the Provincial Assembly and join the Congress.
Another important Congress move after the 1937 elections was its Muslim
mass contact movement to persuade the Muslims to join the congres and not
the Muslim League. One of its leaders, Jawaharlal Nehru, even declared
that there were only two forces in India, the British and the Congress.
All this did not go unchallenged.
Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah countered that there was a
third force in South-Asia constituting the Muslims. The All-India Muslim
League, under his gifted leadership, gradully and skilfully started
organising the Muslims on one platform. Towards a Separate Muslim Homeland
The 1930s witnessed awareness among the Muslims of their separate identity
and their anxiety to preserve it within separate territorial boundaries.
An important element that brought this simmering Muslim nationalism in the
open was the character of the Congress rule in the Muslim minority
rpovinces during 1937-39. The Congress policies in these provinces hurt
Muslim susceptibilities. There were calculated aims to obliterate the
Muslims as a separate cultural unit. The Muslims now stopped thinking in
terms of seeking safeguards and began to consider seriously the demand for
a separate Muslim state. During 1937-39, several Muslim leaders and
thinkers, inspired by Allama Iqbal's ideas, presented elaborate schemes
for partitioning the subcontinent according to two-nation theory. Pakistan
Resoluation The All-India Muslim League soon took these schemes into
consideration and finally, on March 23, 1940, the All-India Muslim League,
in a resolution, at its historic Lahore Session, demanded a separate
homeland for the Muslims in the Muslim majority regions of the
subcontinent. The resolution was commonly referred to as the Pakistan
Resolution. The Pakistan demand had a great appeal for the Muslims of
every persuasion. It revived memories of their past greatness and promised
future glory. They, therefore, responded to this demand immediately.
Cripps Mission The British Government recognized the genuineness of the
Pakistan demand indirectly in the proposals for the transfer of power
after the Second World War which Sir Stafford Cripps brought to India in
1942. Both the Congress and the All-India Muslim League rejected these
proposals for different reasons. The principles of secession of Muslim
India as a separate Dominion was however, conceded in these proposals.
After this failure, a prominent Congress leader, C. Rajgopalacharia,
suggested a formula for a separate Muslim state in the Working Committee
of the Indian National Congress, which was rejected at the time, but later
on, in 1944, formed the basis of the Jinnah-Gandhi talks.

Demand for Pakistan

The Pakistan demand became
popular during the Second World War Every section of the Muslim
community-men , women,students,Ulema and businessmen-were organized under
the banner of the All-India Muslim League. Branches of the party were
opened even in the remote corners of the subcontinent. Literature in the
form of pamphlets, books, magazines and newspapers was produced to expalin
the Pakistan demand and distributed widely. The support gained by the
All-India Muslim League and its demand for Pakistan was tested after the
failure of the Simla Conference, convened by the Viceroy, Lord Wavell, in
1945. Elections were called to determine the respective strength of the
political parties. The All-India Muslim League election campaign was based
on the Pakistan demand. The Muslim community responded to this call in an
unprecedented way. Numerous Muslim parties were formed making united
parliamentary board at the behest of the Congress to oppose the Muslim
League. But the All-India Muslim League swept all the thirty seats in the
Central Legislature and in the provincial elections also, its victory was
outstanding. After the elections, on April 8-9,1946, the All-India Muslim
League called a convention of the newly-elected League members in the
Central and Provincial Legislatures at Delhi. This convention, which
constituted virtually a representative assembly of the Muslims of South
Asia, on a motion by the Chief Minister of Bengal, Hussain Shaheed
Suhrawardy, reiterated the Pakistan demand in clearer terms. Cabinet Plan
In early 1946, the British Government sent a Cabinet Mission to the
subcontinent to resolve the constitutional deadlock. The Mission conducted
negotiations with various political parties, but fialed to evolve an
agreed formula. Finally, the Cabinet Mission announced its own Plan, which
among other provisions, envisaged three federal groupings,two of them
comprising the Muslim majority provinces, linked at the Centre in a loose
federation with three subjects. The Muslim League accepted the plan, as a
strategic move, expecting to achieve its objective in not-too-distant a
future. The All-India Congress also agreed to the Plan, but, soon
realising its implications, the Congress leaders began to interpret it in
a way not visualized by the authoris of the Plan. This provided the
All-India Muslim League an excuse to withdraw its acceptance of the Plan
and the party observed August 16, as a `Direct Action Day' to show Muslim
solidarity in support of the Pakistan demand. Partition Scheme In October
1946, an Interim Government was formed. The Muslim League sent its
representative under the leadership of its General Secretary, Mr. Liaquat
Ali Khan, with the aim to fight for the party objective from within the
Interim Government. After a short time, the situation inside the Interim
Government and outside convinced the Congress leadership to accept
Pakistan as the only solution of the communal problem. The British
Government, after its last attempt to save the Cabinet Mission Plan in
December 1946, also moved towards a scheme for the partition of India. The
last British Viceroy, Lord Louis Mountbatten, came with a clear mandate to
draft a plan for the transfer of power.
After holding talks with political leaders and parties, he
prepared a Partition Plan for the transfer of power, which, after approval
of the British Government, was announced on June 3,1947. Emergence of
Pakistan Both the Congress and the Muslim League accepted the Plan. Two
largest Muslim majority provinces, Bengal and Punjab, were partitioned.
The Assemblies of West Punjab, East Bengal and Sindh and in Balochistan,
the Quetta Municipality, and the Shahi Jirga voted for Pakistan. Referenda
were held in the North-West Frontier Province and the District of Sylhet
in Assam, which resulted in an overwhelming vote for Pakistan. As a
result, on August 14,1947, the new state of Pakistan came into existence.