Adil Najam
This picture is carried today by both Dawn and Daily Times. Dawn’s title is “Still Heroes” and the caption reads: “Bronze statues of Quaid-i-Azam, Sir Syed Ahmed Khan and Allama Iqbal put on display at the Science and Technology Expo-2007 being held at National Memorial Museum in Shakarparian in Islamabad.”
A visit to the Museum is on the top of my ‘To Do’ list when I return to Islamabad end of the month. I hope they are still there.
My first thought on looking at the picture was to note how both Jinnah and Iqbal are wearing suits here (this penchant of ours – me included – to dress up these guys in the garbs of our desires has been has been quite a remarkable historical see-saw!). My second thought was to wonder what the folks at Lal Masjid and Jamia Hafsa might have to say – or do – about this. I hope there is significant security against vandalism here.
But even more than that, I wonder what these three men are sitting there thinking about what is happening today in the country they helped conceive. Late at night when the museum is closed and the statues come alive and walk about, what is it that they sit together and talk about?
Oh, and by the way, its Sulman, not Sulaiman. Just a friendly reminder.
Fyi: there was no such thing as the Ehrar League …
There was Majlis-e-ahrar … Which was a fanatical Islamist party …
And yes … All Islamist parties opposed Jinnah and Pakistan primarily because Jinnah refused to let them hijack the Pakistan movement …
In the end the Muslim masses … A whopping 87 percent of the electorate … Voted for Jinnah in 1946 elections and rejected Ahrar and other assorted Islamist freaks who hated Jinnah …
Isn’t this what democracy is …?
Hamdani Sahib,
My grandfather, dictator of ehrar party under Syed AtaUllah Shah Bukhari wrote extensively about how Jinnah’s efforts to form pakistan by dividing india were disliked by him and others in ehrar as well as khaksar party. I disagree with him, strongly, and I do think Jinnah did a noble job, one that was much needed and one for which we can never be greatful enough to jinnah. Still, the reality remains, Jinnah was considered by many, a divider, a separatist not after forming Pakistan but as soon as he left congress and began to root for the cause of a separate nation for muslims.
My very first comment was a sattire, if you missed it and I think I have said it enough here. I’ll recommend that before guessing what the limitations are on my horizons, please reinstate to yourself the fact that I was making fun of what a fundamentalist (who are getting more popular everyday in my beloved land, thanks to the undying support from the perverted public who for hiding its corrogated inner sides takes the crutches of rooting for sharia enforcement without even knowing what sharia is) would say. I meant no harm.
Dear sulman,
That’s an old theory discredited after the declassification of transfer documents … I hope you are aware that Jinnah tried to keep India united for 30 odd years before he supposedly resorted to separatism …
Jinnah had accepted the Cabinet Mission Plan in 1946 and it was Jawaharlal Nehru and Gandhi who rejected that plan making partition of India inevitable …
Dr ambedkar, Indian constitution’s principal author called Jinnah incorruptible and unpurchaseable … As for what caused partition you might want to consider books by Seervai, ayesha jalal and Patrick French and you will see that you are completely out of line with your accusations …
Even Azad admits that in the end it was Nehru twisting Mountbatten’s arm for partition and Jinnah was made into a scapegoat …
Jinnah’s idea of Pakistan was an autonomous unit within a United India till the very end … The rest was simply a bargaining counter …
Btw ironic isn’t it that the so called “divider” was till age 63 atleast known as the best Ambassador of Hindu Muslim Unity ? How then he suddenly change … The conventional explanations are too shallow and without logic and you need to broaden your horizon …
Mahi,
Read H m seervai’s “partition of india legend and reality”
H M seervai was a great Indian jurist … Fyi…
When you’ve read you’ll know why not just Pakistanis but all reasonable people ought to question Gandhi’s actions.