The National Standard became the official flag of Pakistan in the first meeting of Pakistan’s Constituent Assembly on 11 August 1947. It was a straight adaptation of the flag and election symbol of All India Muslim League (inspired by the Delhi Sultanate and Ottoman Empire) with an additional white stripe. Pakistan Green, a distinctively darker shade represents the Muslim majority while the white strip represents non-Muslims. The crescent and star represent light and progress.
The addition of a white strip reiterated the role of Non-Muslims in Pakistan Movement. All India Muslim League that emerged from an exclusive Muhammadan Education Conference in 1906, ultimately became an inclusive movement for egalitarianism. Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s speech of 11 August 1947 coincided with the adoption of the flag and convening of the first session of the Constituent Assembly.
It was an emphatic explanation with substance- never meant to be symbolic. Bigots have made this speech symbolic to religious minorities.
Jinnah first emphasised legislation towards brotherhood, inclusiveness and pluralism within the flag. The second was governance to spread the light and progress. The third arose out of the sufferings of Muslims as minorities in United India with a reiteration that discrimination Muslims suffered in India will not be repeated by them as a majority.
Jinnah challenged India to produce a better political system than he envisaged for Pakistan. The last part related to freedom of worship and practice within the construct of a Muslim majority Pakistani Nation. Jinnah recognised the role of non-Muslims in Pakistan Movement and also assigned them responsibilities for future. He maintained regular contact with Christian, Hindu and Parsee leaders. He tipped Samuel Martin Burke to lead Pakistan’s foreign office, Sir Zafar Ullah to be the foreign minister, Joghendra Nath Mandal the law minister, Frank D’Souza to head railways and Chandu Lal and Gibbons to be deputy speakers. This was the pluralistic vision of a Pakistan Jinnah was poised to lead but never did. His life was cut short on a road gasping for breath.
The participation of non-Muslims was distinct on 23-24 March 1940. In the legislative elections of 1945, Christians of the Punjab voted their lot for Pakistan giving the League its single vote majority. In East Bengal, Joghendra Nath Mandal led the charge for low caste Hindus. Leaders such as S P Singha, Mandal, Joshua Fazal Din, Chandu Lal and Gibbons remained Quaid-i-Azam’s most trusted allies. During the partition, the Christians and Parsees set up the biggest relief camps and field hospitals for migrants. After the exodus of Hindus, Karachi was held together by Parsees and Christians. Later they played their role in setting up railways, Pakistan’s armed forces and developing Karachi into a metropolis. They also set up Pakistan’s modern health and education system.
The migrations of 1947 were a tale of hardship, horror and bloodshed. It was an inclusive journey of diverse groups across religious and ethnic divides. Very few would know that these caravans also comprised Christians from as far away as South India. Many Christians from all across India and Goa chose to hang around and claim Pakistan as their home. These were educated and skilled people who played a major role in developing Pakistan.
Quaid-i-Azam promised an ‘inclusive country’ within a Muslim majority; a modern nation-state where people from all walks, ethnicities and beliefs were equal citizens. But as events proved, this was undone.
Patriotism and nationalism became an ‘exclusive’ domain for few including those who once jeered at Quaid-e-Azam. They later stood in front ranks to protect the Ideology, created in late 50s and early 60s. Calls for devolution were construed as sub nationalism and separatism. Traitors became a term to define dissent and men such as Maulvi Fazal ul Haq (the architect of Muslim Separatism), Faiz and Mian Ifthikhar, (architects of the Kashmir resistance), were dubbed as traitors. A mutilated old man on reaching Lahore on a train laden with dead bodies inquired, “Has Pakistan come?” When told it had, he closed his eyes and died. However, they left one ghetto, to create another.
The question still begs an answer, “Has Pakistan come?” On March 23, 1956, Pakistan adopted its first constitution transforming itself from a Dominion under the British Empire to Islamic Republic of Pakistan. It displaced the League’s Creed of Lahore Resolution with the Objective Resolution. The Day was celebrated as Republic Day till a dictator changed it to Pakistan Day.
Why has the Objective Resolution become a holy cow and why has League’s Creed been resigned to dustbins of history. Educated elites would evade discussing or answering.
For Pakistan, it is neither a nation nor nationalism that has been the contention. Most damage, including the partition of Pakistan in 1971, is a result of inventive nationalism led by the right and military regimes. My father, Lal Din Sharaf, a young firebrand revolutionary poet, attended the gathering at Minto Park Lahore on March 23-24, 1940. He noted these words in his diary, “Pakistan is a nation and now must have defined boundaries”. According to him, Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah said it. The truth could not be further away. Pakistan as a nation came into existence much before the geography of a state was defined. The nation that began to evolve after 1940 was an inclusive construct. However, inventive nationalism with its false and grandiose notions of exclusivity eclipsed the nation. A post-creation ideology could not hold the country together. 1971 is a case in point.
In a talk show last night a known Muslim scholar cautioned non-Muslims of Pakistan to compromise within the construct of a Muslim Nation so as to enjoy residual equality. Being a participant in the show I was left aghast but at least he was honest. The same cannot be said of ruling elites? Despite being educated in Christian institutions, they have never shown the vigour and character to stand up against discriminatory laws against religious minorities. Rather, they are the biggest bigots who have further ostracised minorities through the 18th amendment while Pakistan, like ‘Jinnah on a roadside’, continues to gasp for fresh air and murmur, “Has Pakistan come?”
Written in consultation with Dr. M S Shafiq an Internationally recognised water management expert and Engineer Inam Ur Rehman a Hydrologist from Canada.