After the death of Aurangzeb Alamgir, the last great Mughul Emperor in 1707 A.D., the decline of the Muslim political power started. The defeat at the battle Plassey in 1757 followed by the defeat at the battle of Buxur in 1764 shattered the credibility of the Mughul supremacy completely.
With the decline of the Mughuls, the Muslim of the sub-continent gradually lost their administrative power, properties and moral pride.
According to Allama Iqbal "The year 1799 is extremely important in the history of the world of Islam. In this year fell Tippu, and his fall meant the extinguishment of Muslim hopes for political prestige in India. In the same year was the battle of Navarnoo which saw the destruction of the Turkish fleet.
Prophetic were the words of the author of the chronogram of Tippu's fall which visitors of Serangapatam find engraved on the wall of Tippu's mausoleum 'Gone is the glory of Ind, (Hind) as well as of Roum.' Thus in the year 1799 the political decay in Asia reached its climax.
"But just as out of the humiliation of Germany on the day of Jena arose the modern German nation, it may be said with equal truth that out of the political humiliation of Islam in the year 1799 arose Modern Islam and her problems."
In the times of crisis, nations somehow produce men to pull them through. Ability to do so is the evidence of the vitality of a nation.
Indeed a reformer of outstanding merit with a breath of vision, an insight into the true spirit of Islam and a thorough experience of the underlying principle of the Western culture, was the need of the day.
Iqbal fulfilled this role to a remarkable degree. He possessed all the qualities and performed this duty quite successfully.
Iqbal was opposed to blind imitation of the West, but he exhorted people to adopt its spirit of research and urge for harnessing the forces of nature.
Iqbal put his efforts to lead the Muslims back on the path of Islamic glory which in his opinion would link them with the time of the Holy Prophet and the pious Caliphs.
In fact Iqbal combined in his teachings the spirituality of the East and dynamism of the West and this to him was the real Islam.
Giving a brief account of the expansion of Islam Iqbal quotes Professor Arnold: "In the hours of its political degradation, Islam has achieved some of its most brilliant conquests. On two great historical occasions, infidel barbarians have set their foot or the neck of the followers of the Prophet, the Seljuk Turks in the eleventh century and the Mongols in the thirteenth century, and in each case the conquerors accepted the religion of the conquered."
Once in Indian history, the Great Mughul Emperor Akbar tried to knit together both the communities, Hindus and Muslims, into one mass of humanity living under one culture and declared "Din-i-llIahi" as the only solution of Hindu-Muslim unity. But Hazrat Mujaddid Alf-Sani, Sheikh Ahmed of Sarhand started a campaign against "Din-i-Illahi" and nullified the efforts of Akbar who wanted to introduce his irreligious and un-Islamic doctrine. At the time of decline of Muslim Power a great religious leader and political thinker who came to the rescue of the Muslims was Shah Waliullah.
He invited Ahmed Shah Abdali, the king of Afghanistan, to save the Muslims from total destruction. Thus Ahmed Shah Abdali defeated Marhattas at the third battle of Panipat in 1761 A.D. He established a school of thought which produced other great leaders onwards.
It was under their influence that Muslims, in general, joined the War of Independence in 1857 and carried out campaign to throw the Britishers out of India.
After the failure of the War of Independence the Muslims produced another great leader Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, who adopted a line of co-operation with the British rulers to save the Muslims from complete ruin at the hands of the alien Powers.
It was during the course of this struggle that Allama Iqbal envisaged a new line of thought. He being the great exponent of Muslim philosophy could very well understand the Hindu designs working under the professed banner of democracy.
In his presidential address of the Muslim League session held at Allahabad in December 1930, Dr Iqbal gave birth to the idea that India after the departure of the British should be divided into two States, Muslim India and Hindu India.
Muslim India a little later was to be called Pakistan. The idea caught the hearts and minds of Muslims and under the leadership of Quaid-i-Azam the creation of Pakistan was achieved.
Iqbal considered that the establishment of an Islamic State was indispensable to ward off Muslim backwardness which, he believed, stemmed from the absence of a comprehensive economic programme.
To Jinnah he accordingly wrote: "If the Islamic law is perfectly understood and applied, at least the right to subsistence is secured to everybody. But the enforcement and development of the Shariat is impossible in this country without a free Muslim State or States."
This, he believed, to be the only way to solve the problem of bread to Muslims as well as to secure a peaceful India: "If such a thing is impossible, the only alternative is a civil war which as a matter of fact has been going on for sometime in the form of Hindu-Muslim riots."
Although Dr Iqbal was a profound scholar of Western philosophies he was not overwhelmed by their thoughts. In fact, the more he studied their philosophies, the more he became aware of their shallowness and cautioned his readers that they should not be misled by the superficial glare of the Western thoughts.
In short, what Dr Iqbal wanted to say was that the numerous systems of government existing in those days were eg; the British parliamentary system, the American presidential democratic system, Socialism and Communism, all had desperately failed in solving the problems of the mankind.
Therefore, in his Islamic State, he wanted to see the abolition of all forms of exploitation in the society.
That nationalism, as propagated by the Indian National Congress, had a strong appeal to the Muslim mind in India, and a large number of Muslims had played a leading part in its struggle for freedom.
Yet Indian nationalism no doubt was dominated by Hindus and had a Hinduised look.
Iqbal had spelled out the idea of a Muslim State in no ambiguous terms. He had defined a nation and indicated its geographical home.
He emphasised that "the Muslim demand for the creation of a Muslim India within the Indian subcontinent is perfectly justified." It was only after affirming this idea of a separate State that Iqbal referred to a federal scheme for India, basing the formation of autonomous regions on "linguistic and economic community and religious unity."
While clarifying the nature of conflict between nationalism and Islam, Iqbal wrote to Jawaharlal Nehru: "Nationalism in the sense of love of one's country and even readiness to die for its honour is a part of the Muslim's faith; it comes into conflict with Islam only when it begins to play the role of a political concept and claims to be a principle of human solidarity demanding that Islam should recede to the background of a mere private opinion and cease to be a living factor in the national life."
Nehru while quoting the impressions of a Press correspondent had accused the Aga Khan, Dr Shafaat Ahmed Khan and Iqbal of telling a gathering of members of the House of Commons in London that it was impossible to govern India without the British.
"It is unfair," said Iqbal, "to cite the impressions of a Press correspondent instead of an authorised text of the speeches in such an argument. No Indian can believe for a moment that it is impossible to govern India, except by British agency."
In conclusion Iqbal then put a straight question to Nehru: "How is India's problem to be solved if the majority community will neither concede the minimum safeguards necessary for the protection of a minority of 80 million people nor accept the award of a third party: but continue to talk of a kind of nationalism which works out only to its own benefit?" Iqbal was sure that this position can admit of only two alternatives.
"Either the Indian majority community will have to accept for itself the permanent position of an agent of British imperialism in the East or the country will have to be redistributed on a basis of religious, historical and cultural affinities so as to do away with the question of electorates and the communal problem in its present form."
Iqbal did not see any contradiction in his long held view against territorial nationalism and his famous demand for a separate homeland for Indian Muslims. He felt both were complementary to each other.
"Nationalism in the sense of one's country and even readiness to die for its honour is a part of the Muslim's faith." Iqbal cited examples of the law of Islam for freedom of the 'People of the Book' stating that in countries where Muslims are in the majority, Islam accommodates nationalism; for there Islam and nationalism are practically identical; in minority countries it is justifiable to seeking self-determination as a cultural unit." In either ease he thought there was no inconsistency.
Having thus demolished the Congress case for a unified secular nationalism, Iqbal proceeded to inform Nehru that nationalism was a problem for Muslims only in those countries where they were in the minority (such as India): "In majority countries Islam accommodates nationalism for there Islam and nationalism are practically identical.
In other words, Islam was the main factor which set the Indian Muslims apart from the rest and made them into a nation. True, even at the height of their political supremacy in India, the Indian Muslims allowed themselves to be Indianised and influenced by their Hindu neighbours in several spheres. But they never made any compromise in their ideological orientation and stuck firmly to the anchor of their Islamic heritage.
They retained their own distinct individuality in the Indian body-politic and to this several European travellers in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries bore testimony.
Thus when Iqbal pleaded for the establishment of a separate Muslim State in India, he was not advocating the creation of yet another independent territorial unit in the sub-continent. What he emphasised in his address was that the life of Islam as a cultural force in India very largely depended on its centralisation in a specified territory.
The driving force behind the concept of Indian Muslim nationhood was, therefore, essentially ideological in character. It was not merely a question of establishing a State but of giving Islam a political and territorial expression.
The political ideology of separate homeland, as elaborated by Iqbal, was deeply rooted in the Islamic values contained in the Quranic teachings, and the traditions (Sunnah) of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH).
Iqbal further writes: "Islam does not recognise caste or race or colour. In fact Islam is the only outlook on life which has already solved the colour question, at least in the Muslim world, a question which modem European civilisation, with all its achievements in science and philosophy, has not been able to solve.
Pan-Islamism, thus interpreted, was taught by the Prophet and will live forever. In this sense Pan-Islamism is only Pan-Humanism. In this sense every Muslim is a Pan-Islamist and ought to be so."
He further said: "I, therefore, demand the formation of a consolidated Muslim State in the best interest of India and Islam. For India it means security and peace resulting from an internal balance of power, for Islam an opportunity to rid itself of the stamp that Arabian imperialism was forced to give it, to mobilise its laws, its education, its culture, and to bring them into closer contact with its own original spirit and with the spirit of modern times."
Iqbal's views were not acceptable to the Congress leaders who were not willing to concede a separate national status to the Indian Muslims.
Consequently, the All India Muslim League was described as a communal organisation.
Iqbal further explained: "And as far as I have been able to read the Muslim mind, I have no hesitation in declaring that if the principle that the Indian Muslim is entitled to full and free development on the lines of his own culture and tradition in his own Indian homelands, is recognised as the basis of a permanent communal settlement, he will be ready to stake his all for the freedom of India.
Iqbal not only visualised the destined geographical boundaries of the State of his dream, he also laid down broad guidelines for the future leaders of this State in the same presidential address. What he repeatedly emphasised was his wish that the establishment of this new State 'will intensify their [ie the Muslims'] sense of responsibility and deepen their patriotic feeling."
He further continued: "Nor should the Muslim leaders and politicians allow themselves to be carried away by the subtle but placid argument that Turkey and Iran and other Muslim countries are progressing on national, ie territorial lines. The Muslims of India are differently situated.
The countries of Islam outside India are practically wholly Muslim in population. The minorities there belong, in the language of the Quran, 'to the people of the Book'. There are no social barriers between Muslims and the 'people of the Book'.
Indeed the first practical step that Islam took towards the realisation of a final combination of humanity was to call upon peoples possessing practically the same ethical ideal to come forward and combine.
The Quran declares: 'O people of the Book! Come, let us join together on the word (Unity of God), that is common to us all.' The wars of Islam and Christianity, and later, European aggression in its various forms, could not allow the infinite meaning of this verse to work itself out in the world of Islam. Today it is being gradually realised in the countries of Islam in the shape of what is called Muslim nationalism."
Allama Iqbal wanted the areas where Muslims were in majority be given independence, in his presidential address made at the All India Muslim League Session at Allahabad in December 1930 he made a historical declaration and said: "I would like to see the Punjab, Northwest Frontier Province, Sindh and Balochistan amalgamated into a single State. Self-government within the British Empire or without the British Empire, the formation of a consolidated North-West Indian Muslim State appears to me to be the final destiny of the Muslims, at least of North-West India."
Iqbal visualised early the enforcement of Islamic Economic System as a solution to the economic problems of Muslims. An excerpt from his letter is given below in this context: "But the enforcement and development of the Shariat of Islam is impossible in this country without a free Muslim State or States.
This has been my honest conviction for many years and I still believe this to be the only way to solve the problem of bread for Muslims as well as to secure a peaceful India."
Allama Iqbal wanted the economic emancipation of the Muslims of the sub-continent as is testified from one of his speeches made at Lahore, wherein he said: "I am opposed to nationalism as it is understood in Europe, not because, if it is allowed to develop in India, it is likely to bring less material gain to Muslims. I am opposed to it because I see in it the germs of atheistic materialism which I look upon as the greatest danger to modern humanity."
Thus Iqbal's efforts for the establishment of an independent Muslim State materialised when Pakistan came into being on August 14, 1947 under the dynamic leadership of Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah.
(The writer is Director, Quaid-i-Azam Academy.)