Two Nation theory – the foresight of Jinnah.
By: Maheen Maqsood Khan
Two Nation theory was the concept used to emphasize the separate state for Muslims in sub-continent. From looking into history, it clearly shows that after the advent of Islam in sub-continent, Muslim nationalism was evolved as Islam and Hinduism could not be engaged together. The Bhakti movement, Deen- e-ilahi and other similar movement which tried to absorb Islam into Hinduism became the source factors for Muslims scholars to preserve the pure Islamic character. After the British occupation of sub-continent, the domination by Hindu, backwardness of Muslim and threat for their survival and clash between Hindu and Muslim served as the demand for Two Nation theory. The theory shows Muslims as a Nation with different culture, heritage, values and civilization. The Congress wanted the country to remain united as a secular state with equality for followers of all religion. But two nation theory resulted in the partition of British India and emergence of two nations Pakistan and India in 1947.
After several decades, Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) was passed in Indian parliament which resulted the massive protest in all over the country in December 2019. The bill was passed to settle down the minorities who came across to India from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan but these minorities does not include Muslims.
The approval of the anti-Muslim and anti-Islam citizenship law proved beyond doubt that the RSS agenda of Hindutva has been enforced in India, the sole objective of which is to eliminate and evict Muslims from India. It clearly depicts the foresight of Jinnah when he stated, ‘When you [the Congress] talk of democracy, you are thoroughly dishonest. ‘When you talk of democracy you mean Hindu raj, to dominate over the Muslims, a totally different nation, different in culture, different in everything. You yourself are working for Hindu nationalism and Hindu raj. Current situation of India, especially the Delhi riots proved that the steps taken by Jinnah and Two Nation theory was essentially accurate.
It seems that RSS had adopted that two nation state theory for the Hindu Raj in India despite having Hindu government and claiming themselves the biggest democracy and secular state of South Asia. BJP government under the leadership of Narendra Modi is closely working with the Hindu fundamentalists RSS to transform India into complete Hindu Rastra (a Hindu State). This shows that they are trying to dismantle the secular India based on Hindutva that believes that entire Indian subcontinent is the homeland of only Hindus. The sub-continent include countries other than present India.
Since 2014, under the BJP government, several movements have started to oppose the Muslim community. Anti-slaughter cow movement has led to several incidents of killing of Muslims for slaughtering cows. The Babri mosque incident led to the further demolish of mosques in Delhi by Hindu Mobs. The political support encouraged the Indian mobs to commit more crimes against Muslims. The “ghar wapisi” (return Home) movement led my RSS to convert Muslims to Hindu is on rise in India. It clearly depicts the image of Hindutva that other than Hindu, there is no place for any other religion in today’s India. These current behaviour of Hindu mobs shows their future plan for the fundamentalist Hindu Raj. But the issue in demand is what will they do after assassination of Muslims which is 14% of the total population of India? If they will continue their fascism movement, then who is going to be their next target? If we can throw back in history then after Muslims, the next target of this fascism will be Sikh community of India. As Sikh community had suffered severe massacred from Hindu fanatics in the past. This madness will continue until only Hindus remained in India. The process of eliminating the minorities from the country will creating their own ruins. As there are no privilege of equal rights for the other communities in Hindutva, it gives full authority to Hindu mobs for killing others.
The freedom given to fanatics in India is leading towards loss of purity or integrity. This will only arise insurgency in different parts of the country. If these activities of Indian government will not be stopped, then it will lead to not only internal conflicts in India but also border conflicts with Pakistan will arise. The RSS policies are not only risk for secular India but also a great threat for the peace of South Asia. Being a nuclear power and having conflict with Pakistan (another nuclear power) it will lead toward destruction and dangerous consequences for both nations. It became necessary for Indian government to address their internal issues seriously to prevent these conflict from escalating beyond the border.
