No one can deny the importance of a day that has the name of a country attached to it. Pakistan Day (or Pakistan Resolution Day or Republic Day as it is alternatively called), celebrated on 23rd March every year, is the day on which the concept for the creation of Pakistan was formally endorsed and approved by All India Muslim League, in 1940.

In the years that followed, the agenda became progressively the guiding light for each and every struggle of the Muslims for a separate homeland. It eventually led to the independence of our country in 1947.

There are many concepts that you may have come across in your textbooks, such as “Two-Nation Theory” or “British rule” or “Independence struggle”.

While they all are inter-linked, the fact is that it never was a simple matter of independence from British rule. Our Muslim leaders had to convince the British that there were Hindus, Muslims and minorities in British India. The two nations of Hindus and Muslims could not be merged into a single country, particularly when there were provinces like Punjab, Sindh, NWFP, Balochistan, Kashmir and East Bengal where there were an overwhelming Muslim majority.

In case both the Muslims and Hindus were left to live in a single country, then the Muslims would be oppressed, killed and denied their basic rights by the Hindu majority.

The situation that has been later witnessed in India held Kashmir, over the years, bears evidence to the political foresight of our great leaders being correct. For this reason, our leaders like Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, Allama Muhammad Iqbal, Chaudhry Rehmat Ali and Muhammad Ali Jinnah are considered great visionaries as they foresaw that Muslims would be an oppressed class under Hindu rule in any scheme of undivided India. And, for the same reason, the date of the formal adoption of their concept of the Two-Nations Theory is celebrated as a monumental day of our national history.

The first person to put forward the idea of a separate homeland for Muslims was Allama Iqbal (in his Allahabad address in 1930 during a session of Muslim League). However, he did not include East Bengal and Kashmir in his concept of the separate homeland. It was Chaudhary Rehmat Ali who first coined the term Pakistan in a pamphlet written by him in 1933.

In his coined term of Pakistan, translated as ‘land of the pure’, P stood for Punjab, A for Afghania (North Western Province), K for Kashmir, S for Sindh and TAN for Balochistan.

Subsequent to Chaudhry Rehmat Ali’s idea of Pakistan, there was still work to be done regarding the widespread adoption of this idea by all the Muslims of the subcontinent. There were quite a few political parties in the subcontinent enjoying Muslim support in each of the provinces of India.

The oppressive Congress rule after the 1937 Indian elections was an eye-opener for all the Muslims of the subcontinent. They became convinced that in the absence of a separate country for them, the Hindus would dominate and oppress the Muslims. This brought them together in their demand for a separate homeland for Muslims.

The Second World War started in 1939 and it became clear (according to the circumstances that prevailed) that the British would have to grant full freedom to the Indians sooner or later. The Muslims of the subcontinent realised that they needed to take a united stand quickly if they were to escape the clutches of an oppressive Hindu rule in a potential scheme of undivided India.

To achieve this aim, Muslim leaders from all the provinces of Muslim majority, organised and attended the general session of All-India Muslim League in Lahore, on March 22-24, 1940. And in that session, they moved for a formal Muslim scheme of the partition of India for the creation of a separate Muslim homeland.

The eventual resolution which was passed by the meeting/session stated:

“…That geographically contiguous units are demarcated into regions which should be 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 (British) India should be grouped to constitute ‘independent states’ in which the constituent units should be autonomous and sovereign. “

As stated earlier, this resolution acted as the strong foundation on which the great structure of our country was created. For this reason, great respect is shown towards this day and it is celebrated annually throughout the country as a public holiday. The Armed Forces of Pakistan also hold a military parade to celebrate the event.

The importance of this day further increased when, on March 23, 1956, it was decided by the government to convert the Dominion of Pakistan to Islamic Republic of Pakistan. As a result, Pakistan became the first country to become an Islamic republic.

A monument called “Minar-i-Pakistan” was built in 1960 at the site where the Pakistan Resolution was announced and passed (Minto Park, Lahore). It is a minaret reaching up to a height of 70 metres.

The great thing about the monument is that it signifies the birth of a collective vision and dream of the millions of Muslims of the subcontinent. It was a dream that translated into a glorious reality and it is because of that dream that we are enjoying the fruits of freedom.

Published in Dawn, Young World, March 24th, 2018