Lecture 03

HUM111
PAKISTAN STUDIES

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 HUM 111
PAKISTAN STUDIES
Lecture 03
Historical Background of Pakistan
(Causes/ failure of the war of
Independence 1857, its impact on
Hindu MuslimDr.Unity)
Sohail Ahmad

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Historical
Movement
• Basis of historical movement for creation of
Pakistan may be said to begin with the
outbreak of the War of Independence in
1857.
• The War of Independence opened on 10th
May 1857 in Meerut, a remote and small city
of the United Province of the subcontinent.
• Though unsuccessful, It brought many
changes, particularly in the political
strategies of three parties:
 British
 Hindus
 Muslims 3
Causes of the Revolt in
1857
• Economic.
• Administrative.
• Political
• Religious
• Social
• Military

 Immediate Cause

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Economic Causes
• Before the East India Company ‘s(EIC) rule,
India’s agriculture Industry and trade was
flourishing.
• The British tried to exploit India for their
economic gains and fulfill demands of their
industrial revolution.
• Indian exports to Britain i.e. cotton, tea, spices
ended up in India as finished goods or were
further exported to other countries.
• After gaining right to collect revenue in Bengal
in 1765, the EIC used the money raised
through revenue in Bengal for fighting wars in
other parts of India
• The Policies of EIC badly affected Zamindars, 5
Administrative
Causes
• Inefficient and Insufficient Administrative
machinery.
• Annexation of Indian States as part of their
expansionist policies under the Doctrine of
Lapse.
• All high posts; civil or military were given to
Europeans rather than locals
• Unjust and exploitative revenue policies.

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Political Causes

• British expansionist policies.

• Order of Lord Canning to the Mughal Empror
to leave Red Fort Delhi and stay at Qutab
Minar .
• Lord Canning order that after the demise of
Bahadur Shah Zafar the Mughal rule will
come to an end and all the property of the
Mughal ruler will be snatched away

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Social/ Religious
Causes
• Support to Christian Missionaries after 1813
was extended. They were not allowed to
come to India before that year.
• The Religious Disability Act announced many
incentives for those Indians who would
convert to Christianity .
• Reforms in Hindu customs were made by law
however, they were considered as distortion
of the teaching of Hinduism
• It was widely believed after 1813 that the
actual mandate of EIC was to convert
Indians especially Hindus to Christianity.
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Military Causes
• Great disparity in the salaries between Indian
and European soldiers.
• Sepoys were sent to distant-over seas- parts of
the Empire, but were not given extra salaries.
• Indian sepoys were treated with contempt by
their English officers.
• Indian sepoys were refused promotion in
services as like their English counterparts. Out
of such discontent the Indian sepoys led to
mutiny.
• General Service Enlistment Act 1856 by Lord
Canning for the soldiers from Bengal to be
recruited and posted whereever the Empire
needed them, was greatly resented by the 9
Immediate Cause

• Enfield rifles were introduced in the military.

• The bullets of these rifles were covered by
papers with grease like substance. The
sepoys were to cut the cover with teeth
before using it.
• Rumor spread that the grease substance is
made up of the fat of pigs and cows.
• Both Muslims and Hindu sepoys refused to
cut the cover. They protested against the
introduction of this new munition and were
arrested. It ultimately ignited the fire of
mutiny all over India
• The Mutiny was suppressed and the British 10

government officially took over the rule of

Causes of Failure of the Revolt 1/2

• Lack of definite aim by the Indians.

• Every group and faction fought for personal
reasons without a central Indian command.
• Some had problem with job insecurity, some
had problem with high taxes, while others
were concerned with preserving their rule in
their states etc.
• Lack of Unity.
• The revolt was not pre-decided. It could not
start at one time in the whole of India
therefore, EIC effectively crushed it.

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Causes of Failure of the Revolt 2/2

• Lack of public support: Educated groups

(mainly converts to Christianity), many
traders, and lots of peasants did not
participate in it because they were
blossoming in the rule of EIC.
• Lack of national spirit. Lacknow, Jhansi and
Bihar just revolted to safeguard their rulers’
narrow interests rather than safeguarding
the larger interest of India
• No efficient war tactics: The Mughal ruler
and other local rulers had quite weak armies
which had no match for the English officers
and their war tactics. 12

• The efficient English officials were able to

Nature of the War of
Independence
 It was not religious.
 It was more economic and socio-cultural.
 It was blamed by Hindus to be the act of
Muslims alone as religious conspiracy against
the British.

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Urdu-Hindi Controversy
[1/10]
 Advent of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan
• Language is a fundamental means of social-cultural
interaction.
• It may lead to disintegration in societies with cultural
diversities.

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Urdu-Hindi Controversy
[2/10]
• The Urdu language was born in India.
• India was considered to be a golden sparrow in terms of
its fertile land and man power. That is why lots of invaders
came to occupy it for different purposes.
• It so happened that when these different people from
different regions of the world came to India, they brought
with them, among other things, their language as well.
• People like Arabs, Persians and Turks, etc. when mingled
with the native people, they exchanged many words of
their languages and thus with this mingling, a new
language emerged which was termed Urdu, meaning the
“language of the troops”.
• Since it was formed by the invaders of the Muslim world
and emerged during the rule of the Mughals in India, it
was termed as the language of the Muslims and that is
why initially it was called “Musalmani”. 15
Urdu-Hindi Controversy
[3/10]
• However, there were not only Muslims that spoke or
used Urdu but all the communities in India joined
hands for the promulgation and development of that new
language.
• It was not only used as an everyday language but a large
number of literary works appeared in Urdu in all the
regions of the sub-continent primarily Deccan, Lucknow,
Maisur, Delhi etc.
• Thus, almost the whole of India contributed to the
flourishing of Urdu.
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• In 1837, Persian was replaced by Urdu as the court
Urdu-Hindi Controversy
[4/10]
• With the fall of the Mughal Empire, Hindus, however,
started looking at Urdu as the language of the invaders.
• The British on the other hand, in their disregard for
Muslims adopted the same attitude.
• Thus, both intentionally started their efforts in order to get
rid of the language of the Muslims.
• In this regard names of Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Raja
Shiv Parshad, Lakshman Singh, Haresh Chandra and
Binkam Chatterji, etc., among many others are well
known.
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Urdu-Hindi Controversy
[5/10]
• The first effort was made at the start of the nineteenth
century when a new language was formed with the name
Hindi in which words of pure Arabic, Persian and Turkish
were removed and replaced by Sanskrit words.
• In that regard in 1809, a Hindu wrote a novel in that very
Hindi with the title “Prem Sagar” but since it was not a
full fledged effort, soon that language went into oblivion.
• However, after the War of Independence 1857 when the
British Crown’s wrath fell upon the Muslims, the Hindus
considered it to be a ripe moment to get rid of Urdu and
replace it with their own language – Hindi. 18
Urdu-Hindi Controversy
[6/10]
• The combined organized effort started in the second half of the
nineteenth century. In 1867, the Hindus of Banaras presented a
request to their government regarding the replacement of Urdu
with Hindi and its Persian script with that of Devnagri script.
• Sir Syed Ahmed Khan at that demand remarked that when
even the language of a nation is not safe at the hands of other
nations in a region, it would be unwise to continue living with
them.
• Sir Syed, who was in fact a great advocate of Hindu-Muslim unity
prior to that incident, started focusing on the cause of Muslims
alone.
• His Scientific Society Gazette presented articles on the
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Urdu-Hindi Controversy
[7/10]
• The anti-Urdu process continued when, in 1871, the
Governor of Bengal, G. Cambell, banned Urdu in the
province at all levels, courts, administration and even
schools.
• This boosted the Hindus in other regions like NWFP,
Punjab, Behar, Sindh, Oudh, etc. to counter Urdu there.
• Meetings were held of the Hindus in which thousands of
them signed memorials supporting the cause of
elimination of Urdu.

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Urdu-Hindi Controversy
[8/10]
• The circumstances became even more hard for the
Muslims and their language when Anthony MacDonnel
became the governor of UP in 1900. He was a pro-Hindu
and thus anti-Muslim.
• He dismissed Urdu as the official language of UP, which
was in fact considered to be the home of Urdu language.
• Issued orders and declared Hindi the official language of
the province.
• Sir Syed’s successors at Aligarh, mainly Nawab Mohsin-
ul-Mulk, the Secretary of the Aligarh Trust, took action
against MacDonnel’s act. 21
Urdu-Hindi Controversy
[9/10]
• He also founded Urdu Defense Association and it was
decided that the association would take actions against
the doings of the governor.
• The result of this Muslim response was that Urdu too-
along with Hindi- was declared the official language of the
province.
• But Mohsin-ul-Mulk was not satisfied with this outcome
and continued his struggle.
• When UP got rid of MacDonnel, he founded another
association called Anjuman-e-Tarraqi-e-Urdu to counter
all future attempts of the Hindus and the English against
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Urdu-Hindi Controversy
[10/10]
• This love and passion for Urdu by the Muslims of India
inclined the founders of Pakistan to adopt it as the
national language of the new born country. They believed
that it was a sign of the Muslim unity, the representation
of Muslims as an independent nation, among millions of
people of India.

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Formation of Indian National
Congress
• Indian National Congress was founded on December 28, 1885.
• Womesh Chunder Bonnerjee was selected as the leader of
the congress.

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Muslims and the Congress

• Objectives of congress
• The fusion into one national whole of all the different, and
till now discordant (‫بے ُسرا‬,‫)بے آہنگ‬, elements that constitute the
population of India.
• The gradual regeneration of Indians along all lines,
mental, moral, social and political.
• The consolidation of the union between England and
India, by securing the modification of such of its condition
as may be unjust or injurious to the latter country.

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A theory about Creation of
Congress
• Congress was founded by an Englishman A.O. Hume, a
retired government official. The blessings of Lord Dufferin,
the Governor-General of India was there.
• When Hume took the scheme to the Governor-General,
the latter amended it and gave his blessing on the
condition that:
 “His name in this connection with the scheme of the
congress should not be divulged so long as he
remained in the country and his condition was
faithfully maintained and none but the men consulted
by Mr. Hume knew any thing about the matter.” 26
Sir Syed About the
Congress
• He asked the Muslims not to join congress.
• The advice was followed by a vast majority of people.
• He was of the opinion that if he was told that even the
Viceroy, the Secretary of State and the whole House of
Commons had openly supported Congress, he would still
remain firmly opposed to it.
 “It is my deliberate belief that should the resolution of
the native congress be carried into effect, it would be
impossible for the British Government to preserve
peace, or control in any degree the violence and civil
wars which would ensue.” 27
Contemporary Muslim
Press in India about
Congress
• It was full of criticism of the congress.
• Mohammadan Observer, The Victoria Paper, The
Muslim Herald, the Rafiq-i-Hind and Imperial Paper
spoke with one voice against the congress.

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Muslims Organizations
and Institutions about
Congress
• Central National Muhammadan Association,
Muhammadan Literary Society of Bengal, the
Anjuman-i-Islam of Madras, the Dindigal Anjuman
and the Muhammadan Central Association of the
Punjab asked the Muslims of Indian not to join congress
as they thought it would never serve the interests of the
Muslims of India.

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Partition of Bengal

• In 1905, the provinces of Bengal and Assam were

reconstituted so as to form two provinces of manageable
size.
• Bengal: ~42 million Hindus and ~9 million Muslims
• East Bengal: ~18 million Muslims and ~12 million
Hindus
• The scheme was sent to London in February, 1905. The
Province of East Bengal and Assam officially came into
being on 16 October, 1905.

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Hindu Reaction

• The whole plan was nothing but readjustment of

administrative boundaries. However, the Hindus resented
it.
• The partition resulted in the creation of Muslim majority
province.
• It was distasteful to the Hindus.
• Hindus regarded the partition as an attempt to strangle
nationalism in Bengal, where it was more developed than
elsewhere.
• Agitation against the partition included mass meetings,
rural unrest, and a “swadeshi” (native) movement 31to
Muslim Reaction

• Seven days after the partition, on 22 October 1905, a

large Muslim meeting at Dacca appreciated the boon
conferred on the people by the change.
• Two days later, another huge gathering of Muslims offered
thanks to the God for the partition and declared that
under the new scheme,
 “…the Muslims would be spared many oppressions
which they hitherto had to endure from the Hindus.”,
the Hindu agitation against the partition was
condemned.
~ Manchester Guardian, 23 and 27 October, 1905
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Annulment of the Partition
of Bengal
• In 1911, East and West Bengal were reunited.
• The aim was to combine appeasement of Bengali
sentiment with administrative convenience.
• This end was achieved for a time but the Bengali Muslims,
having benefitted from partition, were angry and
disappointed.
• This resentment remained throughout the rest of the
British period.
• The final division of Bengal was done at the partitioning of
the subcontinent in 1947, which divided Bengal into India
in the West and East Pakistan (later Bangladesh) in the
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