What do sensible Pakistanis think about the two nation theory, partition and the need of having it? Shahid Hussain Raja , www.shahidhu...

What do sensible Pakistanis think about the two nation theory, partition and the need of having it?

Shahid Hussain Raja, www.shahidhussainraja.com

Basis of the partition of the British India in 1947 and the justification for the creation of Pakistan, the Two Nations Theory suggested that the Hindus and Muslims of India were two separate nations on the basis of their respective cultural markers particularly their religious beliefs and practices, and hence needed their own separate geographical spaces in which they could govern their lives according to their distinct sociocultural moorings and political bearings.

Indian Muslims in general and the leadership of the Indian Muslim League of the pre-partition Subcontinent in particular, have been blamed or eulogised, depending on which side of the fence you are, for crafting and popularising this Theory’. Historians, Hindus and Muslims alike, who are opposed to the creation of Pakistan, have been criticising the Muslim League for adopting a communal philosophy which not only partitioned the Subcontinent and disrupted the centuries-old Hindu-Muslim unity in the region but also divided the Indian Muslims.

They fail to understand that no theory springs out of thin air but is always the intellectualisation of objective ground realities. Similarly, Two Nations Theory was the theoretical construct of the objective conditions of the second half of the Indian socio-political scene. It was the cumulative result of the communalisation of Indian politics in which both the Hindu nationalists and Muslim revivalists took active part for advancing their respective socio-political agenda. In this connection the work done by Nabagopal Mitra, (1840–1894) an Indian playwright, poet and essayist, who was one of the founding fathers of the Hindu nationalism, needs special attention.

Advocating national unity based on Hindu religion to be the fundamental criterion of nationalism, Mitra maintained that "Hindu nationality .. embraces all of Hindu names and Hindu faiths throughout the length and breadth of Hindustan”. He described the Hindus of India as a nation that was better than the Muslims and the Christians and spent all his wealth establishing schools, gymnasiums and theatres to train Hindus to emerge as a nation.

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