The All India Muslim League held its session in Lahore on 23 March 1940, in which the famous Lahore Resolution, since then called the 'Pakistan Resolution' was adopted. The resolution read as under: RESOLVED that it is the considered view of this session of the All India Muslim League that no Constitutional Plan would be workable in this country or acceptable to Muslims, unless it is designed on the following basic principle, namely, the geographically contiguous units are demarcated into regions which should be so constituted, with such territorial readjustments as may be necessary, that the areas in which the Muslims are numerically in a majority as in the North Western and Eastern Zones of India, should be grouped to constitute 'independent states', in which the constituent units shall be autonomous and sovereign. It has always been taken for granted mistakenly that the Musalmaans are a minority. The Musalmaans are not a minority. The Musalmaans are a nation by any definition. What the military Government of India for 150 years has failed to achieve cannot be realized by the imposition of Central Federal Government except by means of armed force. The problem in India is not of an inter-communal character but manifestly of an international one and it must be treated as such. The Hindus and Muslims belong to two different civilizations which are based mainly on conflicting ideas and conceptions. To yoke together two such nations under a single state, one as a numerical minority and the other as a majority, must lead to growing discontent and final destruction of any fabric that may be so built up for the government of such a state. History repeats itself is an old adage. Another way of putting the same wisdom would be that history is the obverse of vision. Yet a third expression could be that history is a back swing for a stroke played into the future. Choose whichever axiom you like. But do realize that we must learn from past experience. Be it the Pakistan Resolution printed alongside, be it the 1906 address presented to Viceroy Minto, reproduced on the next page, or be it the memorandum presented to prime minister Manmohan Singh, highlighted on page 5, a common vein runs through them all. That the Muslims, the children of Allah the Merciful, and all members of the ummah are a distinct people and therefore not prepared to integrate themselves with the rest of the nation. Do not think that they are just another minority like Christians or Parsees who happily coexist with all their countrymen. The Christians do not have a separate political party in India. They have never considered themselves to be a separate nation. They do not claim that religion is above the nation. They do not claim that their God, the father of Lord Jesus, is the only god. For the Muslims, there is no God other than Allah. Those who do not accept Allah are kafirs and who should be converted to Islam or exterminated. Jehad is the instrument of such eradication. For a Muslim to flourish as a momin or a faithful, he needs to live in a darul Islam. If for any reason, he has no hope of converting the country of his residence into a land of Islam, he should undertake a hijrat or emigration to another homeland. Those Muslims who did not migrate to Pakistan cherish the hope of converting Hindustan into an Islamistan. Those of them who do not cherish this hope, are not quite true to Allah and should be treated as apostates. This is a message of the Holy Quran. It is for you to register the message. If you do not, you risk the future of your civilisation. |
