Reading 1

Ideology of Pakistan and Its Evolutionary Process

Instructor: Bushra Umer

Definition of Ideology: Ideology is a set of beliefs, values and ideas of a group or a nation.
These common beliefs or ideas of any society evolve over the years and have deep roots in that
specific group or society. Ideology sets rules and principles for future socio- economic and
political developments and provides people a certain direction to achieve their desired goals and
targets.

However, for the Muslims ideology is the ideology of Islam which deals with each and every
domain of their lives. Islam gives the rules and principles of about the socio economic life of
human beings along with the political life of a country.

Ideology of Pakistan: There is no difference between the ideology of Islam and ideology of
Pakistan, these are simply the synonyms of each other. Ideology of Pakistan is built on the
concepts of Islam. The ideology of Pakistan took shape through an evolutionary process.

Historical Overview of Muslim rule in Subcontinent:

The region which was called as subcontinent before 1947 included India, Pakistan and
Bangladesh. It had the very first contact with the Muslims through the Arab traders when Islam
came in Arab and a number of people embraced Islam. The Arabs used to trade with east which
was India and also with the west which was Europe because they enjoyed the central position
between two parts of the world.

The Arab traders had monopolized the trade in East because India was predominately Hindu at
that time and in Hindu traditions the sea voyage was considered a curse which they thought
could bring bad luck to them. Therefore they did not have their navy and they didn’t used to have
trade through sea.

So, due to the interactions with Arab traders some people became Muslims in the coastal areas of
Malabar but they were very limited in number.
The real first wave of Islam came to this region through Muhammad Bin Qasim’s attack on
Sindh in 712 AD and he captured the area up to Multan and set up the first Muslim Government
in subcontinent. After him Mahmood Ghaznavi launched 17 attacks and captured the whole
Punjab and today’s KPK. So the region where Pakistan is located today went under the Islamic
rule. Right from that time till war of independence 1857 Muslims ruled over India for more than
one millennium (1000years). Among these we had Ghauries, Tughlaks, Khiljis, Duranies and
Lodhies etc. However the most famous were the Mughals, who ruled over India for about three
centuries.

We have some very famous names among the Mughal rulers like King Akbar, Jhangeer, Shah
Jahan and Aurangzeb Alamgir etc. During the reign of Mughals West got the first contact with
this region. The Dutch, French and Portuguese remained in this region before the arrival of
British East India Company but they were not successful in fixing their footsteps.

The British East India Company came to this region as a trading company but after sometime
they tried to capture this region and include in the British Empire. So in 1757 they defeated the
Nawab of Bengal whose name was Siraj u Dola and in the time of about hundred years till 1857
they captured the whole of India and India went under the British rule.

The last Mughal king Bahadur Shah Zafar was exiled to Rangoon and 24 Mughal princes were
shot dead by the army in Dehli. So in this way the Muslim dynasty got collapsed.

Evolution of Ideology of Separate Identity

After war of independence the evolution of ideology of Pakistan started and it took shape in real
sense. As before British rule the Muslims had ruled over this region for more than 1000 years.
Despite the fact that they were in minority but due to their war strategy and good administrative
skills they were able to rule this region for such a long time.

When the British rule started the relationship between the British and the Muslims was very
hostile. The Muslims considered the British their enemy as they snatched power from them while
the British also felt afraid of the Muslims because they had the fear that Muslims might start war
to recapture their rule, hence they made every effort to suppress Muslims. The British banned the
Arabic and Persian languages which were the official languages if India at that time. They
introduced English along with the local languages e.g Bengali and Gujrati etc. Of course it was
huge setback for the Muslims as they trained and skilled in Persian and Arabic languages and did
not know how to read and write English. Thus they were fired from their jobs.

This was the time when Muslims of the subcontinent started promoting the idea of a separate
nation and a separate state as now they felt and realized that their religion, language, identity and
culture all were jeopardized.