Pakistan Declaration
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The "Pakistan Declaration''"'' (titled ''Now or Never'') was a 1933 pamphlet by
Rahmat Ali Chaudhry Rahmat Ali (; ur, ; 16 November 1897 – 3 February 1951) was a Pakistani nationalist who was one of the earliest proponents of the creation of the state of Pakistan. He is credited with creating the name "Pakistan" for a separate M ...
. It was presented to the delegates of the Third Round Table Conference on 28 January 1933, in which the term ''Pakstan'' (without the letter "i") was proposed for a separate homeland of Muslims in South Asia.


Content

written and published by
Choudhry Rahmat Ali Chaudhry Rahmat Ali (; ur, ; 16 November 1897 – 3 February 1951) was a Pakistani nationalist who was one of the earliest proponents of the creation of the state of Pakistan. He is credited with creating the name "Pakistan" for a separate M ...
, on 28 January 1933, in which the word Pakstan (without the letter "i") was used for the first time and was circulated to the delegates of the Third Round Table Conference in 1932. The pamphlet was created for circulation to the British and Indian delegates to the Third Round Table Conference in London in 1933. It was addressed with a covering letter dated 28 January 1933 signed by Ali alone, and addressed from 3 Humberstone Road. It states:
I am enclosing herewith an appeal on behalf of the thirty million Muslims of PAKSTAN, who live in the five Northern Units of India—Punjab, North-West Frontier (Afghan) Province, Kashmir, Sind, and Baluchistan. It embodies their demand for the recognition of their national status, as distinct from the other inhabitants of India, by the grant to Pakstan of a separate Federal Constitution on religious, social and historical grounds.
The pamphlet started with this famous sentence:
At this solemn hour in the history of India, when British and Indian statesmen are laying the foundations of a Federal Constitution for that land, we address this appeal to you, in the name of our common heritage, on behalf of our ''thirty million Muslim'' brethren who live in PAKSTAN—by which we mean the five Northern units of India, Viz: Punjab, North-West Frontier Province (Afghan Province), Kashmir, Sindh and Baluchistan.
The pamphlet asked that "the five Northern units of
India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
"— Punjab,
North-West Frontier Province The North-West Frontier Province (NWFP; ps, شمال لویدیځ سرحدي ولایت, ) was a Chief Commissioner's Province of British India, established on 9 November 1901 from the north-western districts of the Punjab Province. Followin ...
( Afghan Province), Kashmir, Sindh (then part of Bombay and Sind) and Baluchistan (or Pakstan) become a state independent of the proposed Indian Federation. Ali's pamphlet had a clear and succinct description of the Muslims of his proposed 'Pakstan' as a 'nation', which was derived from the
two-nation theory The two-nation theory is an ideology of religious nationalism that influenced the decolonisation of the British Raj in South Asia. According to this ideology, Indian Muslims and Indian Hindus are two separate nations, with their own customs, ...
of Muslim reformer
Syed Ahmed Khan Sir Syed Ahmad Khan KCSI (17 October 1817 – 27 March 1898; also Sayyid Ahmad Khan) was an Indian Muslim reformer, philosopher, and educationist in nineteenth-century British India. Though initially espousing Hindu-Muslim unity, he ...
Ali believed that the delegates of the first and second Round Table Conferences committed 'an inexcusable blunder and an incredible betrayal' by accepting the principle of an All-India Federation. He demanded that the national status of the 30 million Muslims of the northwestern units be recognized and a separate Federal Constitution be granted to them. Professor K. K. Aziz writes that "Rahmat Ali alone drafted this declaration. The word Pakstan was used for the first time in this pamphlet. To make it "representative", he looked for people who would sign it along with him. This difficult search among the firm grip of 'Indianism' on the young intellectual at English universities took him more than a month to find three young men in London who offered to support and sign it.


Reactions and aftermath

Following the publication of the pamphlet, the Hindu press vehemently criticized the idea, and specifically the word ''Pakstan'' used in it. By 1938, the name had received popularity throughout India and was subsequently added to the
Encyclopedia of Islam The ''Encyclopaedia of Islam'' (''EI'') is an encyclopaedia of the academic discipline of Islamic studies published by Brill. It is considered to be the standard reference work in the field of Islamic studies. The first edition was published i ...
. With the addition of an "i" to improve the pronunciation, the name of Pakistan grew in popularity and combined with the philosophy of
Muhammad Iqbal Sir Muhammad Iqbal ( ur, ; 9 November 187721 April 1938), was a South Asian Muslim writer, philosopher, Quote: "In Persian, ... he published six volumes of mainly long poems between 1915 and 1936, ... more or less complete works on philoso ...
, the
two nation theory The two-nation theory is an ideology of religious nationalism that influenced the decolonisation of the British Raj in South Asia. According to this ideology, Indian Muslims and Indian Hindus are two separate nations, with their own customs, ...
of
Syed Ahmad Khan Sir Syed Ahmad Khan KCSI (17 October 1817 – 27 March 1898; also Sayyid Ahmad Khan) was an Indian Muslim reformer, philosopher, and educationist in nineteenth-century British India. Though initially espousing Hindu-Muslim unity, he ...
and views of
Jinnah Muhammad Ali Jinnah (, ; born Mahomedali Jinnahbhai; 25 December 1876 – 11 September 1948) was a barrister, politician, and the founder of Pakistan. Jinnah served as the leader of the All-India Muslim League from 1913 until the ...
led to the commencement of the
Pakistan Movement The Pakistan Movement ( ur, , translit=Teḥrīk-e-Pākistān) was a political movement in the first half of the 20th century that aimed for the creation of Pakistan from the Muslim-majority areas of British India. It was connected to the pe ...
, and consequently the creation of
Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...
as an independent state in 1947.


Assessments and legacy

In later pamphlets, other than Pakistan, Ali also suggested the establishment of several other Muslim states within the subcontinent such as Bangistan and
Osmanistan Chaudhry Rahmat Ali (; ur, ; 16 November 1897 – 3 February 1951) was a Pakistani nationalist who was one of the earliest proponents of the creation of the state of Pakistan. He is credited with creating the name "Pakistan" for a separate M ...
. He suggested the former Muslim provinces of
Eastern Bengal and Assam Eastern Bengal and Assam was an administrative subdivision (province) of British India between 1905 and 1912. Headquartered in the city of Dacca, it covered territories in what are now Bangladesh, Northeast India and Northern West Bengal. Hist ...
in East India become Bangistan, an independent Muslim state for Bengali, Assamese and Bihari speaking Muslims. He also suggested the princely state of
Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part ...
become an Islamic monarchy called Osmanistan. After the
Muslim League Muslim League may refer to: Political parties Subcontinent ; British India *All-India Muslim League, Mohammed Ali Jinah, led the demand for the partition of India resulting in the creation of Pakistan. **Punjab Muslim League, a branch of the organ ...
's acceptance of the British partition plan on 3 June 1947, he issued a statement six days later called "The Great Betrayal" in asking for the rejection of the British plan and the acceptance of his Pakistan plan. He was unhappy over a smaller Pakistan than the one he had conceived in his 1933 pamphlet ''Now or Never''. He condemned Jinnah for accepting a smaller Pakistan, and is said to have called him "Quisling-e-Azam". In the end the British plan was accepted, and Ali's was rejected. Ali voiced his dissatisfaction with the creation of Pakistan ever since. Mian Abdul Haq, a contemporary of Ali at the University of Cambridge, stated that, after 1935, Ali's mental makeup changed resulting from a study of "major Nazi works, of which he knew many passages by heart".


Author

The author of this famous pamphlet was Choudhry Rahmat Ali (16 November 1897 – 3 February 1951), a
Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...
nationalist from
Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising ...
, who was one of the earliest proponents of the creation of the state of
Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...
. He is credited with creating the name "Pakistan" for a separate Muslim homeland from
Presidencies and provinces of British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...
. He had propagated the Scheme of Pakistan with a missionary zeal since its inception in 1933. He also later founded the
Pakistan National Movement The Pakistan National Movement was founded in 1933 by Choudhry Rahmat Ali who is also credited with creating the name "Pakistan", for a separate Muslim homeland in South Asia. After publishing the declaration Now or Never, he felt the need of put ...
to propagate his ideas. Being a political thinker and an idealist, wanted more than for accepting a smaller Pakistan in 1947 and save every Indian Muslim from the so-called "Hindu domination". After the
partition Partition may refer to: Computing Hardware * Disk partitioning, the division of a hard disk drive * Memory partition, a subdivision of a computer's memory, usually for use by a single job Software * Partition (database), the division of a ...
and creation of Pakistan in 1947, Ali returned to
Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city. ...
, planning to stay in the country, but he was expelled out of Pakistan by the then Prime Minister
Liaqat Ali Khan Liaquat Ali Khan ( ur, ; 1 October 1895 – 16 October 1951), also referred to in Pakistan as ''Quaid-e-Millat'' () or ''Shaheed-e-Millat'' ( ur, lit=Martyr of the Nation, label=none, ), was a Pakistani statesman, lawyer, political theoris ...
. His belongings were confiscated, and he left empty-handed for England in October 1948. Ali died on 3 February 1951 in Cambridge. According to Thelma Frost, he was "destitute, forlorn and lonely" at the time of his death. Fearing (correctly) that he may have died insolvent, the Master of
Emmanuel College, Cambridge Emmanuel College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1584 by Sir Walter Mildmay, Chancellor of the Exchequer to Elizabeth I. The site on which the college sits was once a priory for Dominican mon ...
, Edward Welbourne, instructed that the College would cover the funeral expenses. He was buried on 20 February at
Cambridge City Cemetery Cambridge City Cemetery is the main burial ground for the city of Cambridge in Cambridgeshire. It is to the north of the city, at the junction of Newmarket Road and Ditton Lane, near to Cambridge Airport. The cemetery held its first burial on 6 ...
in
Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
,
England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
. The funeral expenses and other medical expenses were repaid by the High Commissioner for Pakistan in November 1953, after what was described as a “protracted correspondence” between the London office and the relevant authorities in Pakistan.Emmanuel College Cambridge Archives


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External links

* {{Authority control Pakistan Movement Pamphlets Political terminology in Pakistan Government documents of Pakistan Pakistani philosophical literature 1933 non-fiction books 1933 in India 1930s in British India