The Pakistan movement and competing ideologies 1

This chapter discusses the relationship between the ‘foundational’ political values of Islam and its impact on the Muslims residing in the British Raj, eventually culminating in the Pakistan movement. By doing so, it reveals how a dialectical relationship between the ‘foundational’ and ‘contextual’ led to the eventual formation of the Pakistan movement and a quest for a separate homeland for Muslims residing in the British Empire in South Asia. ² To be clear, in 1947 the British Empire was partitioned; it was not ‘India’ per se, as is commonly and inaccurately believed. The territory that became Pakistan was, by and large, culturally, linguistically and racially different to that which became India. Herein, as well, resides an inherent source of disagreement based on these very interpretations. It is here, then, that the source of political instability arises, which Malik classifies as a clash of ideologies. ³ Actually, Malik uses the term ‘ideology’ as signifying the ‘enduring conflict between the traditionalists and modernists characterized by mutual negation and denigration rather than dialogue’. ⁴ This chapter then examines that mutual negation and ideological tussle – a tussle between the ‘foundational’ and the ‘contextual’, with its origins in diverse understandings of the sacred and the secular.