Before Pakistan got independence, Quaid-e-Azam had made it a point to grant as much autonomy to the provinces in the new country as exercised by states in the USA, Canada or Australia. He believed that a federal form of government with considerable decentralization would add to the nationhood in the novel state. His ideals, however, began to change once he succeeded in his objective of securing a separate state for the muslims of India. He backtracked from his promises to the provinces, antoganizing the other half of the state - the East Pakistan - partly because of the fear arising from the Indian intentions of disintegrating the new state. Even before India was divided, Congress leaders had been contemplating that Pakistan would ultimately reunite with the former, and Quaid, though reluctantly, was urged to take that proposition at face value. He was afraid that India, the would-be arch-rival, might exploit particular ethnic communities in a state where there was greater provincial autonomy. In the same vein, when he was on a nine-day trip in the eastern part of the country in 1948, he had tried to persuade the people there to think of themselves as muslims first and then as Bengalis. Nonetheless, his urging borne no fruit and was contradictory to the popular aspirations of the whole Bengali population, which led to the unwavering tensions between the East and West Pakistan, culminating into the separation in 1971.
Thus it may be said that owing to the concerns about Indian nefarious desire for reunification, the state leader was forced to say: Provincialism is a poison. Now that Pakistan is enough capable of withholding any aggression emanating from the other side of the border, the state should divert its focus on confering the true autonomy on provinces.
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ReplyDeleteAbsolute autonomy was not at all desired at that time , both by India as well as Pakistan. As a new formed nation in the backdrop of power tussle between great powers, autonomy would have resulted in disintegration.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, sir. But we are in a different time now. Unless we govern through decentralization, the state will continue facing the troubles.
DeleteAgree that more decentralisation should be a big yes;but, we also need to see what happened to US federal system when they faced pandemic
DeleteRight.It is also believed by some scholars that the lahore resolution which forsaw the creation of independent units in Muslim majority aread,was conceived differently by both the jinnah leadership and the Bengali muslim leaders.Jinnah thought of a United pakistan ,whereas the Bengalis imagined two independent muslim regions ,and proposed the name of country as United States of pakistan.Resultantly,jinnah had to persuade bengalis to prioritise United pakistan identity over aspiration of a separate Eastern homeland.Moreover, he had to turn down their demands of declaring Bengali an official languague.
ReplyDeleteI second you on this. Jinnah always believed in the decentralization. However, it was later on, when he became concerned about potential Indian aggression and interference, that he retracted his promises.
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