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| The Hindu Phenomenon |
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THE CIVILIZATIONAL PERSPECTIVE |
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observations will almost certainly be quoted to show that I endorse
Muhammad Ali Jinnah's two-nation theory. There is nothing I can do
to avoid this risk. For my readers, however, I would emphasize not
only that I think in civilizational as distinct from national terms,
but also that, by my reckoning, Muslims in undivided India could
represent only a fragment of Islamic civilization and were,
therefore, incapable of becoming a people.
Jinnah could call Indian nationalism, as espoused by the Indian National Congress, Hindu nationalism on the ground that the Congress was a Hindu body, which it was, by virtue of its ethos if not by that of its ideology and composition, and pit Muslim nationalism against it. But he could not possibly overcome the obstinate fact that Islam, on the one hand, does not admit of nationalism and, on the other, does not help overcome local and even tribal loyalties. Thus, while Jinnah could bring Muslims together on an anti-Hindu platform and force the country's partition, he could not lay the foundations of a Pakistani nation. It is not surprising that Pakistan continues to define itself in anti-India and anti-Hindu terms. It could not possibly overcome its essentially transient character and disruptive role and it has not. The military muscle it has acquired, thanks to US bounty and Soviet stupidity, has inevitably increased its capacity for mischief but not its ability to define itself in terms of itself.
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| About The Civilizational Perspective | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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