Saquib Salim

The Partition of India in 1947 and the creation of Pakistan (which was further bifurcated to create Bangladesh) have been largely projected by historians as a Muslim demand. The British Government applied the ‘Divide and Rule’ policy to control India through their agents from different communities. From the late 1930s, they projected Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s Muslim League as the sole representative of the Indian Muslims.

Under the influence of Western media and scholars, Indian historians also fall into the trap as even today many Indians believe that the Muslim League represented the Indian Muslims.

When the demand for Pakistan was raised in 1940, there were more than two dozen Muslim political outfits in India. The Muslim League did not represent a majority of Muslims. It represented the views of a few rich and elite Muslims because only they could vote before August 1947. Political outfits representing less affluent Muslims had a large support base but their supporters could not vote. Momin Conference, Majlis-i-Ahrar, and Jamiat-e-Ulema were a few such organizations.

Scholars tend to forget that several Muslim leaders like Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan who were opposed to the creation of Pakistan had no option but to live in the new country. Khan fought against the partition and later opposed Pakistan and was awarded Bharat Ratna in 1987. He became a Pakistani citizen because of unnatural boundaries drawn by the British but remained a votary of ‘Unified India.'

This essay is an attempt to provide a brief introduction to a few Muslim nationalists who fought against the partition and creation of Pakistan.

Faqir of Ipi: Mirza Ali Khan, popularly known as Faqir of Ipi, was an Islamic leader from Waziristan (now in Pakistan) who raised an army of more than 10,000 soldiers to fight the British Army during the Second World War (WWII). He was closely associated with Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and was involved in the plan to liberate India by armed campaign. Faqir never accepted the partition of India and considered Pakistan as a mask of British imperialism.

After 1947, he and Khan Abdul Ghaffar opened a front against Pakistan. In the wake of the invasion of Kashmir by Pakistan in October 1947, he asked Jawahar Lal Nehru to open a war front against Pakistan by helping his militias in Waziristan.

Mahatma Gandhi with Khwaja Abdul Hamied

Sayyid Sibghatullah Shah Al-Rashidi, popularly known as Pir of Pagaro, was a religious leader from Sindh with a huge following in Sindh, Punjab, Bengal, Rajasthan, and U.P. He was also an associate of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and raised an army of ghazis to fight the British during WWII. Netaji presented a plan to the Axis Powers in which Pir of Pagaro and Faqir of Ipi were to be armed to liberate India. The Axis Powers did not work on the plan and regretted it later. A fierce opponent of Jinnah and his divisive politics, Pir preached for Hindu-Muslim unity. In the event of the Manzigah riots, he ordered his militant ghazis to secure the properties of Hindus in the Muslim-dominated areas.

He used to say, “Only when Hindus and Muslims are combined would 'peace be achieved and satanic deeds stopped': Indians had to be 'nationally minded' and regard India as a country which belonged to all its inhabitants.” He was hanged by the British on 20 March 1943.

Khwaja Abdul Hamied: The founder of one of the earliest pharmaceutical companies CIPLA in India, an eminent scientist and a revolutionary, K. A. Hamied was a die-hard nationalist who denounced the communal politics of Jinnah till his last. In 1937, he fought the election against the Muslim League from a constituency where Jinnah lived. A disturbed Jinnah told him, “Young man, why are you contesting the election? No one knows you in Bombay and who will vote for you?" He asked him to withdraw from the contest.

Hamied replied, "If no one votes for me, I would be defeated, why then was he anxious and asked me to withdraw”.

Jinnah personally canvassed for his candidate while Dr. Zakir Husain, another ‘outsider’, campaigned for Hamied. Hamied defeated the Muslim League candidate.

When Congress accepted the partition of India, Hamied wrote to Mahatma Gandhi “Irrespective of the fact whether Mr. Jinnah or the Muslim League agrees to it or not, we could have forced the issue on the British Cabinet to accept that plan leaving it to ourselves to see whether the Muslim League agrees to it or not. If they do not, then the only alternative is a civil war. We should not be afraid of such a situation. History proves that this kind of civil war, at the time when power is given to the people of a country, is inevitable.”

He met Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel to convince him that Congress should either take up arms to prevent the partition or at least hold a plebiscite on this question. He believed that in a plebiscite on Pakistan, the Muslim League would not win.

Allama Mashriqi Inayatullah Khan

Allama Mashriqi Inayatullah Khan, popularly known as Allama Mashriqi, was an armed revolutionary who raised a large army of Khaksars to fight the British Empire during WWII. His militia had a presence in India, Afghanistan, and other countries. He believed that India was one country where people professing diverse religions lived. Not only did he publicly oppose Jinnah but also ordered his militia to kill him. Khaksars tried to kill Jinnah several times during the meeting where Jinnah was declaring the acceptance of the partition of India.

Allah Bux Somroo: Allah Bux Somroo was one of the tallest leaders in Sindh who held the position of Prime Minister. After the Muslim League passed the resolution of Pakistan in March 1940, he convened an Azad Muslim Conference in Delhi a month later. It was a massive gathering where delegates from every Muslim party except the Muslim League and Khaksar (Khaksar was also opposed to Jinnah and tried to assassinate him) participated and opposed the Muslim League's demand of Pakistan.

Jamiat-i-Ulema, Majlis-i-Ahrar, the All India Momin Conference, the All India Shia Political Conference, Khudai Khidmatgars, the Bengal Praja Krishak Party, Anjuman-i-Watan Baluchistan, the All India Muslim Majlis, and Jamiat Ahl-i-Hadis, were few of the important organizations part of Azad Muslim Conference while several independents, Congressmen, and Communists also joined the chorus. As the president of the Conference, Somroo declared, “Whatever our faiths, we must live together in our country in an atmosphere of perfect amity and our relations should be the relations of several brothers of a joint family, the various members of which are free to profess the faith they like without any let or hindrance and all of whom enjoy equal benefits of their joint property.”

The Conference took up the work to propagate nationalism and secularism among the Indian Muslims and frustrated the designs of Jinnah. As a result, Somroo was killed by assassins on 14 May 1943 for opposing the partition.

Maulana Hussain Ahmed Madni: Maulana Hussain Ahmed Madni was an Islamic scholar from Darul Uloom, Deoband (Uttar Pradesh) who served four years of imprisonment in Malta during the First World War for plotting against the British Empire. On return to India, he dedicated his life to the freedom struggle and Hindu-Muslim unity. When Jinnah put forward the demand for Pakistan, Madni and his organization Jamiat-i-Ulema vigorously campaigned against the Muslim League. He wrote a famous pamphlet against the two-nation theory and stressed that India was a nation with diverse religions

Allah Bax Somroo

He wrote, “Muslims have joined hands with the Hindus since the day they adopted India as their country, and as for myself I have made a political and social alliance with the Hindus since I saw the light of the day as I was born and brought up in this very country.”

Rezaul Karim was a freedom fighter from Bengal and an exponent of Hindu-Muslim unity. He wrote several books and articles to propagate that the Muslims and Hindus are one nation. When the salutation Vande Mataram was branded as communal, Karim wrote that it was a nationalist poem and tried to convince the Muslims that there was nothing wrong with singing it. Muslim League adopted the resolution for the creation of Pakistan as its goal in 1940. 

Karim wrote a book Pakisthan Re-examined to counter the arguments in support of Pakistan. He wrote, “Strange to say that all those persons who have always supported British imperialism in India, have become now the advocates of the Pakistan movement. But those Muslims who always supported the freedom movement of the country are almost to a man stoutly against this movement.”

Karim also said, “Our position in India is just the same as it is with the Hindus of the land. We belong to India, and we are one nation with the people of the land.” 

Abdul Qayyum Ansari of the All India Momin Conference was a mass leader from Bihar who led a movement against the partition. Most of his followers were Pasmanda and did not have voting rights.

Kalim Aziz was a famous Urdu poet whose family was killed in the partition riots. he stayed in India and devoted his whole life to campaigning against communal politics. 

Maulana Abul Kalam Azad asked Muslims not to migrate to Pakistan and instead opposed its creation. Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan could never accept that his house was in Pakistan; he remained committed to India.

Saifuddin Kitchlew, Asaf Ali, Rafi Ahmad Kidwai, and other politicians tried to oppose the partition and worked towards communal harmony. Colonel Shah Nawaz Khan of Azad Hind Fauj migrated from Pakistan to India as he was opposed to the idea of a nation based on religious identity.  

ALSO READ: Wg Cdr MA Afraz dug out 26,000 stories of martyrs to commemorate their valour

Historians need to reevaluate the understanding that the Muslim League was representing the sentiments of Indian Muslims as a whole. Rather, it only represented those who never opposed the British Empire and wanted to remain a subject of the crown.