McGill Journal of Political Studies 2014 April, 2014 | Page 64

hopes of regaining their past ruler status
but also of their national identity, as their
linkages with the political center were
severed4.” The establishment of British rule
and the subsequent rise of Hindu power in
the Indian subcontinent in the late 1800s
made Indian Muslims increasingly aware of
their status as a numerical minority, and also
of Islam’s declining political and cultural
power in the region5.” This sentiment then
provoked a sense of nationalism among
Indian Muslims: “In their view, Hindus
and Muslims were not merely followers
of different religions but members of two
different communities or nations. This belief
formed the crux of the so-called ‘two-nation
theory,’” in which an independent Muslim
homeland was needed to separate the
Muslims from ‘Hindu India6.’
The Pakistan movement “was aided
by the acceptance of the demand of the
Muslims as a religious minority7.” Muslim
nationalism began to grow in parts of the
colonial subcontinent where Muslims
made up the minority and faced social,
economic and political marginalization.
The All-India Muslim League was created
in 1906 to safeguard Muslim interests8, and
was the political party that was ultimately
responsible for the creation of Pakistan.
It comprised of an “elitist group of the
aristocratic Muslim families predominantly
from Muslim minority provinces of India
(Uttar Pradesh and Bombay),” and was
headed by Muhammad Ali Jinnah9. The
Pakistan movement did not gain momentum
Assaf Hussain, “Ethnicity, National Identity and
Praetorianism: The Case of Pakistan,” Asian Survey,
vol. 16, no. 10 (October, 1976): 22.
5
Aparna Pande, “Islam in the National Story of
Pakistan,” Current Trends in Islamic Ideology, vol. 12
(October, 2011): 37.
6
Ibid., 38.
7
Rasul Rais, “Identity Politics and Minorities in Pakistan,” South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, vol. 30,
no. 1 (April, 2007): 113.
8
Pande, “Islam in the National Story,” 32.
9
Adeel Khan, “Ethnicity, Islam and National Identity
in Pakistan.,” South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies,
vol. 22, no. 1 (1999): 69.
4

64 | McGill Journal of Political Studies 2014

until 1946, just a year before independence,
which is when it started gaining support
from the Muslims in Muslim majority
provinces such as Punjab, the North West
Frontier Province, Sindh, Balochistan
and Bengal, all of which would later come
together to form the country of Pakistan.
It is also important to note that the
demand for Pakistan was based on a secular
ideology. As Khan notes, the demand grew
out of an economic threat from the Hindu
majority, rather than one based on religious
differences10. Moreover, “the Pakistan
movement was not a movement of Islam but
of Muslims11.” Even before the formation
of Pakistan, the use and manipulation of
religious symbolism was a handy tool in
mobilizing the Muslim masses, and is a
practice that is still present today.
Due to the enormous cultural, ethnic,
and linguistic differences among the
Muslim populations living in the various
provinces of British India, the Muslim
League’s campaign strategy to win support
emphasized the idea of the Two-Nation
Theory: the separateness of the Muslim
and Hindu nations. After poor performance
in prior elections, the League began using
Islamic slogans and symbols to mobilize
electoral support for the 1946 elections12
and raise consciousness of a common
religious identity that would replace ethnic
identity. Following the creation of Pakistan
in 1947, “the political elites of Pakistan
believed that Islam had saved Muslims
from Hindu domination and given them
a national identity13.” As a result, Pakistan
consisted of a wide variety of ethnic and
linguistic groups and subgroups which had
very little in common apart from a shared
Ibid., 168.
Hamza Alavi, “Ethnicity, Muslim Society and the
Pakistan Ideology,” In Islamic Reassertion in Pakistan:
The Application of Islamic Laws in a Modern State, ed.
Anita M. Weiss (Syracuse University Press, 1986), 22.
12
Pande, “Islam in the National Story,” 39-40.
13
Hussain, “Ethnicity, National Identity and Praetorianism,” 923.
10
11

Muslim identity14.
Once Pakistan came into being, identity
based on faith lost its rallying power
because Muslims were not being relegated
due to their faith in the new homeland. In
a Muslim majority country characterized
by various ethnicities and languages, the
commonality of religion was not enough
to unite distinct ethno-linguistic identities
post-independence. The political leadership
tried to integrate these groups into a
national community by supplementing
Islam with coercive tactics whenever the
issue of ethnicity arose. The creation of
the Pakistani nation did not develop from
below from the societal roots or nationalist
movements, but rather was developed from
above; the State was created first, which
then generated the nation it desired15. The
political leaders expected too much of Islam
when they used it as the only integrative
determinant of national identity, and their
failure to properly integrate multi-ethnic
identities throu v