Friday, December 31, 2010

Rehmat Ali - the changing contours of Pakistan

Sikh reaction to the Muslim League's 1940 Lahore Resolution resulted in Chaudhry Rehmat Ali, the original author of Pakistan, revising considerably his scheme for sovereign Muslim states in India.

(Quoted from G.L. Gauba, Consequences of Pakistan, 1946)
 This is a map of the original Rehmat Ali scheme:

Chaudhry Rehmat Ali, in The Millat and its Mission (October 1942) laid out a different scheme (emphasis added):

...Muslims must assert, and demand the recognition of the distinct national status of their minorities in the Hindu Majority Regions and reciprocally offer to give similar status to the Hindu and Sikh minorities in Pakistan, Bangistan, and Osmanistan.

Undoubtedly, therefore, their salvation lies in 'Nationhood', which we must demand for our minorities in the Hindu Majority Regions of Dinia and its dependencies, and do that in the assurance that whatever the result it can do nothing but good to the Millat.

The reason is that, if the British and the Hindus accept our demand, it will liberate our 35 million brethren now caged in Hindustan (the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh), Bihar and Orissa, the Central Provinces, Bundhelkhand and Malwa, Rajistan, the Bombay Presidency and South India, Western Ceylon, and Eastern Ceylon; transform them into seven nations; free Pakistan, Bangistan, and Osmanistan from the dangers of 'Minorityism', and above all, ensure the spiritual purity, the fundamental mental unity, and the national homogeneity of the Millat.

It is true that, until 1940, there were colossal difficulties in the way of making such a demand for our minorities, but now they they have been removed by the Sikh claim to separate national status in Pakistan. So we must make the most creative use of this claim and, on the principle of proportional territory, offer to meet it—as meet it can be—in the area of the three Sikh states of Patiala, Nabha and Jind, on the absolute condition that our demand for similar status for our Minorities in the seven Hindu Majority Regions of Dinia and its dependencies (Siddiqistan, Faruqistan, Haideristan, Muinistan, Maplistan, Safiistan and Nasaristan) is met simultaneoulsy by the supporters of the Sikhs, i.e., the British and the Hindus who, by holding out the threat of the Sikh claim, have throughout the past 85 years {since 1857} tried to stifle our aspirations.

Need one add that this demand for seven states for our Minorities will constitute as historic an answer to the Sikh claim to separate nationhood in Pakistan as was 'Pakistan' in 1933 and 'Bangistan' and 'Osmanistan' in 1940 to the Hindu claim to the whole Continent of Dinia.

The redrawn map looked like this:

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