As a new government takes the reins in Pakistan, it will initiate a “low-key, low-stakes” engagement with India after years of diplomatic coolness.
For this, Pakistan has to celebrate its National Day in New Delhi this year, after a four-year hiatus caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and deteriorating ties between the two countries.
Pakistan’s National Day is celebrated on March 23, the day it followed the Lahore Resolution in 1940 through the Muslim League. What is Lahore’s solution and why is its anniversary Pakistan’s National Day?How is this celebrated in New Delhi? We explain.
The Lahore Resolution, followed by the All-India Muslim League at its general consultation in Lahore on 22-24 March 1940, officially called for an independent state for the Muslims of India.
Although the solution doesn’t come with the word “Pakistan” anywhere, and some even if their text calls for one or two separate nations, Pakistan celebrates it as its national holiday.
In 1956, on the same day, the country officially followed its first Constitution, which transformed the Dominion of Pakistan into the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Between 1960 and 1968, Minar-e-Pakistan was built on the site where the solution followed. The text of the solution is inscribed at the foot of the tower.
The solution stated that “this consultation of the All-Indian Muslim League is of the opinion that no constitutional plan would be practicable in this country or suitable for Muslims unless it is conceived on the following fundamental principle, namely, that geographically contiguous ensembles should be demarcated in regions so constituted, with the territorial readjustments that may be necessary, that the spaces in which Muslims are numerically in the majority, such as in the north-western and eastern areas of India, be grouped together to constitute “independent states”, in which the constituent assemblies will be autonomous and sovereign.
It was this wording – “North-West and Eastern India” and “Independent States” – that led many leaders, especially Bengalis, to question whether the solution required two more states, East and West India. However, after its passage, the Muslim League and its more sensible leader, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, firmly maintained that the Lahore solution involved two countries, one for Hindus and one for Muslims.
The solution also demanded that “in other parts of India where Muslims are a minority, adequate, effective and binding pledges be made in the charter for them and other minorities on their religious, cultural, economic, political, administrative and other rights. “and interests, in consultation with them.
Until the early 1930s, many Muslims campaigned for greater representation and coverage of their rights within the Indian Union, and the separate electorate granted them in the Indian Government Act of 1935 a step in this direction. However, as the decade progressed, the voices calling for a complete break with India grew louder. The Lahore solution was the culmination of several years of this turmoil, which brought the Muslim League to a point from which it can never return.
The Muslim League consultation was held a few days after the Khaksar tragedy, when members of a Muslim organization called Khaksars, who were fighting for Indian independence, were shot dead by the British on March 19 in Lahore, killing many people.
The Lahore consultation was also marked by a historic speech by Jinnah, cementing his position as Pakistan’s eventual Quaid-E-azam. American historian Stanley Wolpert, in his 1984 book Jinnah of Pakistan, wrote: “Jinnah’s speech at Lahore brought down the final curtain on any prospect of an independent and united India. . . It would take the rest of the world at least seven years to figure out what he literally meant. Every word he had spoken. . . The ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity had completely remodeled into the wonderful leader of Pakistan. It only remained for his party first, then for his nascent nation, and in spite of everything for his British allies, to be content with the formula he had decided. »
Addressing a large crowd and speaking in English to take advantage of the foreign press present, Jinnah explained why he thought a separate state for Muslims was necessary. Mocking Mahatma Gandhi, he said, quoted through Wolpert: “And now this is what Mr. Gandhi said on March 20, 1940. I said, “To me, the Hindus, the Muslims, the Parsis, and the Harijans are all the same. I can’t be frivolous” – however, I think he’s frivolous – “I can’t be frivolous when I talk about Quaid-i-Azam Jinnah. The only difference is this: Brother Gandhi has three voices and I have one.
The Lahore solution was criticized by many Indian Muslims, such as Abul Kalam Azad and the Deoband ulema led by Husain Ahmad Madani, who advocated a united India.
Pakistan’s National Day is celebrated around March 23 at the Pakistan Embassy in New Delhi. It is attended by foreign and Indian diplomats. Typically, a minister or MOS is invited to attend the occasion as a lead guest.
On this occasion, the national anthems of the two countries are played, followed by speeches by the High Commissioner of Pakistan and the guest. This year, The Indian Express has learned that there are plans in the works to celebrate it on March 28.
with contributions from Shubhajit Roy