Thread by @oolabmys

IN MAY 1950, PAKISTAN’S law minister, Jogendar Nath #Mandal, confidentially told an Indian reporter that most Hindus in the new country’s eastern wing felt they had no place in #Pakistan and were determined to leave. “I have asked them to wait for a few weeks more and (1/16)

that I too am prepared to accompany them to India,” he said, the only #Hindu member of Pakistan’s federal cabinet. “It is only a matter of time before the last Hindu reaches #India from East Bengal.” He lamented that “every #Muslim feels that there should be no Hindus (2/16)

left inside Pakistan,” and pointed out that after driving out the Hindus, Pakistan will not be able to live in peace with India.
#Mandal had been appointed to Pakistan’s first cabinet in 1947 by the country’s founder, Muhammad Ali #Jinnah, who, through the appointment, (3/16)

sought to signal Pakistan’s commitment to religious pluralism. Pakistan was not even three years old when its law minister voiced the fear that extremist Muslims would not allow religious diversity. Eventually, Mandal left Pakistan and moved to India, around the same (4/16)

time that many prominent Muslims who had initially stayed behind in India chose to move to Pakistan. Over time, Mandal’s dire prediction about Pakistan’s religious minorities proved correct. The proportion of non-Muslims in Pakistan dwindled in subsequent years, and (5/16)

with that, Pakistan moved further toward being an exclusivist Muslim state.
ON OCTOBER 11, 1947, less than two months after Partition, Ahmed Said Khan, the nawab of #Chhatari, wrote with alarm to his friend #Liaquat Ali Khan, prime minister of Pakistan, “in the interest (6/16)

of Muslims of the minority provinces.” The nawab was a prominent Muslim from #Uttar Pradesh (then known as United Provinces), had held senior positions in politics and government, and had also been part of the Muslim League. His letter to Liaquat, who was also from a (7/16)

Muslim-minority province, was meant to warn against declaring “an Islamic government” in Pakistan, as it might create difficulties for the large number of Muslims who stayed on in India.
#Nawab Chhatari was moved to write to Liaquat after reading a statement by the (8/16)

premier of Pakistan’s Sindh Province, Ayub Khuhro, declaring his government as Islamic. “If they are going to form theocratic governments in Pakistan there will be every justification for Hindus to form a Hindu Raj in the rest of India,” observed the nawab. He requested (9/16)

that either Liaquat or Jinnah announce clearly “that formation of Governments in Pakistan will be on a secular basis and not on a religious basis.” Nawab Chhatari also asked for a declaration about the protection and rights of minorities in Pakistan; and an expression (10/16)

of disappointment and regret at what happened in #Western and #Eastern #Punjab with an assurance of protection and fair treatment to those who had left their homes and property if they come back to Western Punjab; so that on the basis of reciprocity Muslims in minority (11/16)

provinces may hope to receive the same protection. While pronouncements about the protection of minorities in Pakistan were made by both Jinnah and Liaquat, as well as other Pakistani officials, Nawab Chhatari’s other proposals were not even seriously considered. (12/16)

Opening the possibility of return to non-Muslims who had left Pakistan would have eroded the numerical consolidation that had resulted from the unfortunate Partition riots. Moreover, Liaquat was unwilling to offer unequivocal assurances about Pakistan being a secular (13/16)

state, because that could benefit secular allies of the Congress at the expense of the Muslim League.
The fact of the matter is that Pakistan was not a territorial nation in the traditional sense. Its leaders had to explain its raison d’être, and most found it (14/16)

convenient to do so in religious terms. Once Liaquat Ali Khan was assassinated in October 1951, even the hope of successfully balancing the demands of modernity with calls for an Islamic state diminished. The country was plunged into a power struggle pitting regional (15/16)

politicians against either bureaucrats or generals, with each side invoking religion to enhance its standing and credibility. (16/16)