The nation marked the 74th death anniversary of Dr Allama
Muhammad Iqbal across the country on April 22.It was a national holiday in Pakistan
while here in India it went quite unnoticed.
In our national conscience, Sir Allama Muhammad Iqbal
occupies that controversial post of being the first person to have conceived
the idea of Pakistan
Nobody has ever bothered to go beyond this simple fact to
ascertain the reasons for this, and it is noteworthy that mostly we have only
read about the part where he supports the idea of a separate homeland for
Muslims.
The point of this post is not to glorify Sir Allama, but it
is merely to assert that things are never as simple as they are presented and
to understand the reasons behind the demand Iqbal so passionately made.
The fact is that Iqbal was in favour of a united India. He
even wrote a poem extolling the virtues of that geographical region, the
‘Tarana-e-Hind,’ better known today as ‘saray jahaan say acha Hindustan
hamara.’ (Our Hindustan is better than the rest of the world).
The official narrative has erased Iqbal’s advocacy of a
unified India and presents only his later ideas.
Even in 1927, when the Islamic Pakistan had truly arrived,
he had this to say:
“The talk of a united Pakistan is futile. In this country (Pakistan),
one community is always aiming at the destruction of the other community.”
Just hoping in times to come not just Pakistan but we Indians
also respect and understand this great philosopher, poet and true patriot.
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