The Pakistan Movement: A Prologue

Abstract

While the administrative and legal uniformity of British India appeared to be an impressive achievement, the increasing communal, religious, cultural and political diversities together with new educational and politico-economic prospects were producing a curious situation. In the post-1857 decades South Asian Muslims suffered from alienation and a deep sense of loss as the British held them mainly responsible for the outbreak of the revolt. The lack of manoeuvrability, with no real leadership and an almost complete absence of channels and opportunities available to the wider community, left them in a state of chaos.¹ The early traditions of revivalism and resistance would need many more decades and intellects to regenerate a dynamic sense of self-preservation. Sir Syed Ahmed Khan and Syed Ameer Ali tried to reconcile the Muslims to the new realities by stressing ‘adjustment’ to rather than ‘rejection’ of western ideas and institutions.² But it was not until a generation after them and ‘the founding fathers’ of the Indian National Congress (INC) that a new leaf was turned which enabled the All-India Muslim League (AIML) to emerge in Dacca in 1906.³