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US historian on creation of Pakistan
LAHORE,
May 18: North Carolina State University’s Prof Dr David Gilmartin
has said the creation of Pakistan may not have been necessary if
Muslims were having unity among themselves in the undivided India.
“Because of disunity among Muslims, Muhammad Ali Jinnah had
presented a demand for a separate country as a unifying symbol.” A
renowned historian and eminent scholar, Dr Gilmartin was delivering
a lecture on “The Creation of Pakistan: Role of Quaid-i-Azam
Muhammad Ali Jinnah” as a part of lecture series organised by the
Pakistan Study Centre (PSC), Punjab University, in collaboration
with the Department of History, on Monday.
He said the symbolism of Muslim unity was achieved through emphasis
on the morality of Islam by transcending the selfish interests of
biradary, caste or locality.
In the 1945-46 elections, the higher moral ideals were put forward
by the Muslim League leadership to win the battle for Pakistan. Dr
Gilmartin emphasized that Jinnah’s leadership was tremendously
important in the creation of Pakistan and had been much analyzed and
debated by South Asian scholars.
However, he pointed out controversy generated by Ayesha Jalal’s
seminal work, The Sole Spokesman, where Prof Jalal put forwarded the
thesis that Jinnah at the very last looked for a United India and
proposed Pakistan only as a bargaining counter.
The professor believed that it was a misreading of Jalal’s book. He
also said that the book raised the main issue of the divisions
amongst the Muslims of India, which structured the whole dynamics of
the Muslim League politics.
PSC director Prof Dr Massarrat Abid said Jinnah was upright and
straight forward politician, who hated hypocrisy.
She said Jinnah was known for his qualities such as
incorruptibility, unpurchasbility, deep commitment; he was a leader
with great vision, a great strategist, a negotiator of the highest
order, a statesman of durability and a leader with charisma. PhD
students enthusiastically participated in the question-answer
session.
The second lecture of the series will be delivered by Prof Robert
Nichols from Richard Stockton College, New Jersey, USA, on Pushtun
Migration at the PSC on Tuesday (today) at 11.30am. Earlier,
Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Mujahid Kamran inaugurated the series of
special lectures.
Dawn Staff Report:Tuesday, 19 May, 2009
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