The rulers are known to twist the history of their countries as per their convenience. Even in good old days of the British rule in India, the coloured history was told and taught. The tradition continues till date. A Pakistani historian Khursheed Kamal Aziz (1927-2009) in his book “The Murder of History: A critique of history textbooks used in Pakistan” writes: “Our rulers have been systematically distorting history to create a place for their claim and perpetuation of the same over political power.” Even other Pakistani historians who have studied abroad and have been teaching history in various western universities are busy pointing out that the history being taught in Pakistan is not factual and collectively express necessity to amend the textbooks.
In January 1933, a Cambridge student Rahamat Ali had coined the name Pakistan and he presented more than one designs. Both Muslim League and Quaid-i-Azam Jinnah had initially rejected the concept calling it “Crazy Scheme” and Rahamat Ali “an irresponsible person”. Rahmat reacted by calling Jinnah “Boozna or Boboona of Bombay” for which he had to pay heavy price after Pakistan was carved out in August 1947.
Dr. Mohammed Iqbal while delivering the Presidential address of the Muslim League convention at Allahabad in 1930 spoke about separating Muslim majority provinces within Indian Federation. That led to various nine schemes of Pakistan as under: (1) Rahmat Ali came out with a pamphlet “Now or Never” on 28 January 1933 proposing to carve out Muslim majority provinces of North West India. He added Assam and Bengal in his design of Pakistan in 1935. (2) In January 1939, the Muslim League assigned the responsibility of preparing the Pakistan design to Dr. Syed Abdul Latif of Hyderabad. (3) In his book “Confederacy of India” Mr.Punjabi presented 5-federation scheme. (4) A Kolkata Maulavi Sahib presented a Muslim State under “Pakistan Khilafat Scheme” from Afghanistan to Assam and Himalaya to Vindhyachal shifting Hindus from UP and Bihar.
(5) The Premier of Punjab Sir Sikander Hayat Khan outlined the Federation of seven Divisions in his book in 1935 without naming any as Pakistan. (6) Sir Firoz Khan Noon who was the member of the Executive Council of the Viceroy presented a scheme of five Dominions in support of Pakistan. (7) Two professors, Syed Zafarul Hassan and Mohammad Afzal Hussain Kadri of Aligarh Muslim University under the guidance of Rahamat Ali presented a scheme of Pakistan dividing India in 6 divisions. (8) Dr. B. R. Ambedkar published his book “Though on Pakistan” and presented his views on the Lahore Resolution of Muslim League. (9) Rahmat Ali presented his final Pakistan scheme in 1942 which consisted of 10 Muslim Pakistans. In his book “The Millat and Mission”, Rahmat recommends changing the name of India as “Dinia” and Muslim-Asia as “Pak-Asia”.
After the Partition, Sardar Patel had told the Constituent Assembly of India on 10 October 1949: “We decided that Partition could be agreed upon on the terms that the Punjab should be partitioned-they wanted the whole of it-that Bengal should be partitioned-they wanted Calcutta and the whole of it. Mr. Jinnah did not want a truncated Pakistan, but he had to swallow it. We said that these two provinces should be partitioned. I made a further condition that in two months' time power should be transferred and an Act should be passed by Parliament in that time, if it was guaranteed that the British Government would not interfere with the question of the Indian States.” With East Pakistan turning Bangaladesh, at least two Pakistans became reality and even more divisions are expected.
Next Column: Distorted Indian History by Hired Writers
(The writer is a Socio-political Historian. E-mail: [email protected] )
Photo-lines:
1. Choudhary Rahmat Ali, a student of Cambridge University coined the word Pakistan
