Review

Reviewed Work(s): Modern Muslim India and the Birth of Pakistan by S. M. Ikram
Review by: Masood Ghaznavi
Source: Middle East Journal, Vol. 22, No. 2 (Spring, 1968), p. 223
Published by: Middle East Institute
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/4324274
Accessed: 11-07-2019 05:57 UTC

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 BOOK REVIEWS 223

not provide the magic

Pakistan toat Cambridge,
in the early 1930's create Eng- a
of small countries overnight.
land, by the Indian Muslim students there may,
if more evidence is produced, transfer the ex-
<> FERYDOON FIRoozI is an assistant professor of
clusive credit for this honor from Chaudhari
economics at Northeastern Illinois State College
Rahmat Ali to someone else. However it is re-
in Chicago, Ill.
grettable that so far no worthwhile information
has been conveyed to the readers about the life
and activities of Chaudhari Rahmat Ali in this
PAKISTAN or any other book of this nature. After all the
man, who so far is universally credited with
MODERN MUSLIM INDIA AND THE BmTH OF
coining the name of Pakistan and is definitely
PAKISTAN, by Dr. S. M. Ikram. Lahore:
the first to put it in the printed form in the
Shaikh Muhammad Ashraf, 1965. 350 pages.
now well known leaflet entitled Now or Never
Rs. 20.
that he and his three co-workers issued in Cam-
Reviewed by Masood Ghaznavi bridge in 1933, deserves more than a footnote
or a passing reference in the books dealing
This book is a revised and considerably
with the birth of Pakistan. If it is correct that
enlarged version of Makers of Pakistan and
following his death a few years ago Chaudhari
Modern Muslim India published in 1950. The
Rahmat Ali's papers were destroyed by the
author, at that time, used the pseudonym of
Master of Emmanuel College, Cambridge (p.
A. H. Albiruni. Besides significant additions
184, f.n. 2), it is most unfortunate. However,
to the chapters of the earlier edition, the author
many of the late Chaudhari's contemporaries,
had added five new chapters to the present
including the author, must be in a position to
volume and on the basis of that he has justified
gather a lot more information about him than
a new title for the book.
we have received until now. This may be a
Writing on the politics and culture of Mus-
small gap, but it must be filled in the interest
lims in India is a complex job. Among the few
of the historiography of Pakistan.
who have done this job well is Dr. Ikram, as is
The author's reference to the events of 1857
evidenced by his marvelous trilogy on the in-
in India as the War of Independence (p. ix)
tellectual and social history of the Muslims in
is rather imprecise and historically weak.
India written in Urdu, Ab-i-Kawthar, Mawj-i-
The long chapter on Muhammad Ali Jinnah
Kawthar and Rud-i-Kawthar. It is his grasp of
is not merely a biographical sketch of the man,
the earlier history of Muslims in India which
but a good summary of the tumultuous events
gives him a command of the post-1857 period
in the subcontinent particularly after 1940. Dis-
-the subject of the book under review. The
cussion of such questions as when Jinnah really
approach of the book is primarily biographical
decided in favor of a separate state (1946!),
but the material is so arranged that the book
why the Muslim league did not offer the gov-
makes good reading as a general history of
ernor generalship to Lord Mountbatten, or who
the Muslims in India from 1857 to around
was to blame for the communal riots in the
1950. The chapters on the lives and historical
Punjab is stimulating and makes the chapter
significance of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan (1817-
worthwhile reading.
98), Shibli (1857-1914), Maulana Abul Ka-
The additional material has indeed added to
lam Azad (1888-1958), Maulana Muhammad
the quality and usefulness of the book and it is
Ali (1878-1931) and Sir Muhammad Iqbal
highly recommended for an understanding of
(1877-1938) are the best and most balanced
the developments concerning Muslims of the
accounts of these historic personalities that the
Indo-Pakistan subcontinent in the past century.
reviewer has seen anywhere.
An account (pp. 181-84), though contro-
& MASOOD GHAZNAVI is associate professor of his-
versial at this stage, of the people and circum- tory at Rosemont College, Rosemont, Pennsyl-
stances surrounding the coining of the name of vania.

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