Abstract
Historical literature is full of descriptions concerning the life, thoughts and
actions of main Muslim central leadership of India, like the role of Quaid-i-Azam
in the creation of Pakistan. However enough literature on the topic, which can be
easily accessed, especially in English, has not come to light on the efforts made by
the political leadership of smaller provinces comprising today’s Pakistan during
the Pakistan Movement. To fill the existing gap in historical literature this paper
attempts to throw light on the contribution of Sindh provincial leadership. There
are number of factors which have prompted the present author to focus on the
province of Sindh and its provincial leadership. Firstly, the province of Sindh
enjoys the prominence for being the first amongst all the Muslim-majority
provinces of undivided India to have supported the creation of Pakistan. The Sind
Provincial Muslim League had passed a resolution on 10 October, 1938, urging
the right of political self-government for the two largest religious groups of India,
Muslims and Hindus, even before the passage of the Lahore Resolution for
Pakistan in 1940. Secondly, the Sindh Legislative Assembly followed suit and
passed a resolution in support of Pakistan in March 1943. Thirdly, it was the first
Muslim-majority province whose members of the Legislature opted to join
Pakistan on 26 June 1947. Fourthly, despite personal jealousies, tribal conflicts,
thrust for power, the political leadership in Sindh helped Jinnah to achieve
Pakistan. But few leaders of Sindh not only left the Muslim League, denied the
two nation theory and ended up with the idea of Sindhu Desh (Independent Sindh
vis a vis Pakistan).While investigating other dimensions of the Pakistan Movement
and the role of Sindhi leaders this paper will also analyze the inconsistency of
some of the Sindhi leaders regarding their position and ideologies. The underlying
hypothesis of the paper is that G. M. Syed and few others adopted pragmatic
approach towards politics and therefore clashed with those who had ideological
foundations. However, two-nation theory on basis of Islam was the driving force
which won the case for Pakistan in every Province of India including Sindh but the
other approaches had serious implications on the future history of Pakistan.
Fatima Riffat, Muhammad Iqbal Chawla, Adnan Tariq. (2016) A History of Sindh from a Regional Perspective: Sindh and Making of Pakistan, Journal of the Research Society of Pakistan, Volume 53, Issue 1.
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