Politicians from Pakistan

"[There is] ‘an open conspiracy with the Muslim League to bathe the province in blood’... ‘he (the Governor) wanted to hand over power to the Muslim League, whose followers have been indulging in the murder of innocent men, women and children.’ .... “if the Governor wants he can stop all lawlessness in the Frontier in two days, but how can he when he himself is guiding the violent and communal League movement?”"

"Pathans! Your house has fallen into ruin. Arise and rebuild it and remember to what race you belong."

"Whenever I had an opportunity to address the people in different parts of our province, I told them clearly that indeed, I was of the opinion that India should not be divided because today in India we have witnessed the result. Thousands and thousands of young and old, children, men, and women were massacred and ruined. But now that the division is an accomplished fact, the dispute is over. " I delivered many speeches against the division of India, but the question is: has anybody listened to me? You may hold any opinion about me, but I am not a man of destruction but of construction. If you study my life, you will find that I devoted it to the welfare of our country. We have proclaimed that if the Government of Pakistan would work for our people and our country the Khudai Khidmatgars would be with them. I repeat that I am not for the destruction of Pakistan. In destruction lies no good. "Neither Hindus nor Muslims, nor the Frontier, not Punjab, Bengal or Sindh stands to gain from it. There is advantage only in construction. I want to tell you categorically I will not support anybody in destruction. If any constructive programme is before you, if you want to do something constructive for our people, not in theory, but in practice, I declare before this House that I and my people are at your service... (February 1948)"

"My religion is truth, love and service to God and humanity. Every religion that has come into the world has brought the message of love and brotherhood. Those who are indifferent to the welfare of their fellowmen, whose hearts are empty of love, they do not know the meaning of religion."

"There is nothing surprising in a Muslim or a Pathan like me subscribing to the creed of nonviolence. It is not a new creed. It was followed fourteen hundred years ago by the Prophet all the time he was in Mecca."

"“It is my inmost conviction,” Badshah Khan said, “that Islam is amal, yakeen, muhabat” – selfless service, faith, and love."

"Only a dead nation remembers its heroes when they die. Real nations respect them when they are alive."

"In 1958, Ghaffar Khan wrote that he had been killed ’by those people for whom he had forsaken his own people’."

"I have one great desire."

"Better be poisoned in one's own blood then to be poisoned in one's principle."

"It seems to me that in spite of his close contact with Gandhi, Badshah Khan failed to understand the wisdom of his great leader. When Gandhi thought of the problems of the Hindus he could not do so without also thinking of the interests of the Muslims; when he thought of the problems of India, he could not forget those of the world. With Badshah Khan it is the other way round. When he thinks of the Hindus, he cannot forget that he is a Muslim - a Khudai Khidmatgar, no doubt, but a Muslim nonetheless; when he thinks of the Muslims, he cannot forget that he is a Pathan."

"Unfortunately, Muslim society in India has not yet produced its own Gandhi. Indeed, it will not be able to do so till the ground is prepared by a generation of men who subject the religion and culture of the Muslims to ruthless scrutiny in the light of modern values. Badshah Khan is a great and good Muslim, and also a follower of Gandhi. But he is no Gandhi himself. Therein lies the cause of his failure."

"[Unbelievers] “have, however, absolutely no right to seize the reins of power in any part of God’s earth nor to direct the collective affairs of human beings according to their own misconceived doctrines. For if they are given such an opportunity, corruption and mischief will ensue. In such a situation the believers would be under an obligation to do their utmost to dislodge them from political power and to make them live in subservience to the Islamic way of life.”"

"It is made clear that one need not guard one’s private parts from two kinds of women – one’s wives and slave-girls."

"Islam is a revolutionary ideology and programme which seeks to alter the social order of the whole world and rebuild it in conformity with its own tenets and ideals."

"[Muslims (of the right-thinking kind) constitute a Revolutionary Party whose objective] is to expend all the powers of body and soul, your life and goods in the fi ght against the evil forces of the world, not that having annihilated them you should step into their shoes, but in order that evil and con- tumacy should be wiped out and God’s law should be enforced in the world."

"In the jihad in the way of Allah, active combat is not always the role on the battlefield, nor can everyone fight in the front line. Just for one single battle preparations have often to be made for decades on end and the plans deeply laid, and while only some thousands fight in the front line there are behind them millions engaged in various tasks which, though small themselves, contribute directly to the supreme effort."

"Islam wishes to destroy all states and governments anywhere on the face of the earth which are opposed to the ideology and programme of Islam regardless of the country or the Nation which rules it. The purpose of Islam is to set up a state on the basis of its own ideology and programme, regardless of which nation assumes the role of the standard-bearer of Islam or the rule of which nation is undermined in the process of the establishment of an ideological Islamic State. Islam requires the earth—not just a portion, but the whole planet .... because the entire mankind should benefit from the ideology and welfare programme [of Islam] … Towards this end, Islam wishes to press into service all forces which can bring about a revolution and a composite term for the use of all these forces is ‘Jihad’. .... the objective of the Islamic ‘ Jihād’ is to eliminate the rule of an un-Islamic system and establish in its stead an Islamic system of state rule."

"Finally, no less a figure than Sayyid Abu ’l-‘Alā’ Mawdūdī, one of the major thinkers behind modern Islamist ideology, said that in an Islamic state as envisioned by him, “no one can regard any field of his affairs as personal and private. Considered from this aspect, the Islamic state bears a kind of resemblance to the Fascist and Communist states.”"

"“God has prohibited the unrestricted intermingling of the sexes and has prescribed purdah [a word of Persian origin meaning the religious and social practice of female seclusion]” recognizing “man’s guardianship of woman,” for Muslims must guard against “that satanic flood of female liberty and licence which threatens to destroy human civilization in the West.”"

"The reforms which Islam wants to bring about cannot be carried out merely by sermons. Political power is essential for their achievement."

"(The) materials for the constitution of an Islamic state are to be found in four principle sources, the Koran, the Sunna of the Prophet, the conventions and practices of the Four Rightly Guided Caliphs, and in the rulings of the great jurists of the Islamic tradition."

"The power to rule over the earth has been promised to the whole community of believers; it has not been stated that any particular person or class among them will be raised to that position. From this it follows that all believers are repositories of the Caliphate."

"[The Islamic State] cannot…restrict the scope of its activities….It seeks to mould every aspect of life and activity in consonance with its moral norms and programme of social reform. In such a state no one can regard any field of his affairs as personal and private. Considered from this aspect the Islamic state bears a kind of resemblance to the Fascist and Communist states."

"Jihad Fee-Sabilillah," or "Jihad in the way of God," a 1939 essay by Sayyid Abu A'la Mawdudi, argues that the pursuit of political power-rather than what he called "a hotchpotch of beliefs, prayers and rituals"-was integral to the practice of the Islam.14 "Islam," he insisted, "is a revolutionary ideology which seeks to alter the social order of the entire world and rebuild it in conformity with its own tenets and ideals." It was therefore imperative for Muslims to "seize the authority of state, for an evil system takes root and flourishes under the patronage of an evil government and a pious cultural order can never be established until the authority of government is wrested from the wicked." Indeed, Mawdudi insisted that the word "Muslims" referred not to a religious community but to a politically-bound "international revolutionary party." "The party of the Muslims," Mawdudi concluded, "will inevitably extend the invitation to citizens of other countries to embrace the faith which holds out the promise of true salvation and genuine welfare. At the same time, if the Muslim Party commands enough resources, it will eliminate un-lslamic governments and establish the power of Islamic government in their place." He concluded: "Hence it is imperative, for reasons both of the general welfare of humanity and for its own self-defence, that the Muslim Party should not be content just with establishing the Islamic system of government in one territory, but should extend its sway as far as possible all around." It is worth noting, parenthetically, that these ideas resonated in the works of Islamist movement elsewhere. Muslim Brotherhood ideologue Said Qutb's work drew extensively on Mawdudi; indeed, he liberally acknowledged the debt. Palestinian jihadist Abdullah Azzam, al-Qaeda leader Osama bin-Laden's ideological mentor and co-founder of arguably the largest terror group in the world, Lashkar-e-Taiba. In this view, "jihad is incumbent on the Islamic state," he stated, "to send out a group of mujahideen to their neighboring infidel state. They should present Islam to the leader and his nation. If they refuse to accept Islam, jizyah (a tax) will be imposed upon them and they will become subjects of the Islamic state. If they refuse this second option, the third course of action is jihad to bring the infidel state under Islamic domination."

"Human relations are so integrated that no state can have complete freedom of action under its principles unless the same principles are not in force in a neighbouring country. Therefore, a, ‘Muslim Party’ will not be content with the establishment of Islam in just one area alone –both for its own safety and for general reform. It should try and expand in all directions. On one hand it will spread its ideology; on the other it will invite people of all nations to accept its creed, for salvation lies only therein. If this Islamic state has power and resources it will fight and destroy non-Islamic governments and establish Islamic states in their place."

"It [Jamaat-e-Islami] is not a missionary organisation or a body of preachers or evangelists, but an organisation of God’s troopers."

"[Islam] leaves no room of human legislation in an Islamic state, because herein all legislative functions vest in God and the only function left for Muslims lies in their observance of the God-made law."

"It must now be obvious that the objective of the Islamic jihad is to eliminate the rule of an un-Islamic system, and establish in its place an Islamic system of state rule. Islam does not intend to confine his rule to a single state or a hand full of countries. The aim of Islam is to bring about a universal revolution. Although in the initial stages, it is incumbent upon members of the party of Islam to carry out a revolution in the state system of the countries to which they belong; their ultimate objective is none other than world revolution."

"German Nazism could not have succeeded in establishing itself except as a result of the theoretical contributions of Fichte, Goethe and Nietzsche, coupled with the ingenious and mighty leadership of Hitler and his comrades."

"Islam is not a ‘religion’ in the sense this term is commonly understood. It is a system encompassing all fields of living. Islam means politics, economics, legisla­tion, science, humanism, health, psychology and sociol­ogy. It is a system which makes no discrimination on the basis of race, color, language or other external categories. Its appeal is to all mankind. It wants to reach the heart of every human being."

"The Qur'an is not a book of abstract theories and cold ideas, which one can grasp while seated in a cozy armchair. Nor is it merely a religious book like other religious books, whose meanings can be grasped in seminaries and oratories. On the contrary, it is a Book which contains a message, an invitation, which generates a movement. The moment it began to be sent down, it impelled a quiet and pious man to abandon his life of solitude and confront the world that was living in rebellion against Allah. It inspired him to raise his voice against falsehood, and pitted him in a grim struggle against the lords of disbelief, evil and iniquity. One after the other, from every home, it drew every pure and noble soul, and gathered them under the banner of truth. In every part of the country, it made all the mischievous and the corrupt to rise and wage war against the bearers of the truth."

"“the simple fact is that according to Islam, non-Muslims have been granted the freedom to stay outside the Islamic fold and to cling to their false, man-made, ways if they so wish.” ...“There is no compulsion in religion.” ...(unbelievers) “have, however, absolutely no right to seize the reins of power in any part of God’s earth nor to direct the collective affairs of human beings according to their own misconceived doctrines. For if they are given such an opportunity, corruption and mischief will ensue. In such a situation the believers would be under an obligation to do their utmost to dislodge them from political power and to make them live in subservience to the Islamic way of life”"

"In our domain we neither allow any Muslim to change his religion nor allow any other religion to propagate its faith."

"The real place of women is the house and she has been exempted from outdoor duties…She has however been allowed to go out of the house to fulfil her genuine needs, but whilst going out she must observe complete modesty. Neither should she wear glamorous clothes and attract attention, nor should she cherish the desire to display the charms of the face and the hand, nor should she walk in a manner which may attract attention of others. Moreover she should not speak to them without necessity, and if she has to speak she should not speak in a sweet and soft voice."

"In the 1960s, military dictators used religion as a rallying cry against India, feeding further intolerance against Hindus and appeasing Islamists. Social and cultural life continued unperturbed, but some now brandished Pakistan as a citadel of Islam. The architect of that citadel would be Abu A’la al-Mawdudi, the man who had inspired Qutb in Egypt and Khomeini in Iran. Mawdudi had not always been a religious fundamentalist. Born in 1903 in British India, he was a journalist, a poet, and newspaper editor whose intellectual, mystical, theological journey made him the twentieth century’s greatest revivalist Islamic thinker. He transformed from a young man in a suit with a round face and a mustache to a preacher with a traditional karakul (curly lambskin) hat and a beard. Mawdudi dabbled in Marxism and Western philosophy, and was inspired to become a writer by a poet friend. He admired Mahatma Gandhi and was even briefly an Indian nationalist. But like his contemporary Egypt’s Hassan al-Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, Mawdudi was dismayed by the fall of the Ottoman Empire in 1924 and the secularism of the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. Mawdudi’s ideas about Islam and Muslim identity reflected his own existential questioning and evolved at a time of deep flux for Muslims in India. In a landscape littered with the vestiges of a collapsed Muslim power, the Mughal Empire, Muslims were caught between the uncertainty caused by a departing colonial power and growing Hindu nationalism. Mawdudi believed that the rise of the Western concept of nationalism among Muslims had led to the downfall of the Ottomans, allowing European powers to enter the region. He believed the answer lay not in more nationalism, or in a new country for Muslims, but in reviving Islam and implementing true Islamic rule."

"By 1941, in Lahore, he had founded Jamaat-e Islami, the vanguard of the Islamic revolution of his dreams. His followers would deny he had ever written such heathen verses. Mawdudi had opposed the creation of Pakistan. But once it came into existence, he worked relentlessly to turn it into his utopian Islamic state. From philosopher and ideologue, he became a strategist, a politician with a program. The Jamaat organized a highly structured network of activists to spread the message, pushing to institutionalize Islamic values at every level of society and public life, including politics. According to Mawdudi, no ruler, no system had ever been truly Islamic, because Muslims had become estranged from the true precepts of their religion, and governments that did not strictly apply the shari’a, Islamic law, were apostates. The jahiliyya, the pre-Islam age of ignorance, therefore continued, and Mawdudi’s response was the hukm, sovereign rule, of God over earth through the rule of shari’a. In its Arabic root declination, the word hukm led to the word and concept of hakimiyya: an Islamic state that was the result of the Islamization of society and state through education, the Islamization of private and public life, a totalitarian model in which God’s law was supreme and elected officials governed only under the guidance of clerics."

"These were the ideas that would later be attributed to the Egyptian thinker Qutb, but they were unmistakably Mawdudi’s. He was the missing link between Banna’s vague vision for an Islamic society and Qutb’s urgent political manifesto, Milestones. Novel and radical in their day, Mawdudi’s ideas are at the root of modern-day political Islam, radical Salafism, and jihadism. He inspired his contemporaries and the generations since, both Shia and Sunni. His profound influence on Pakistani politics is the bridge that connects the mujahedeen of Afghanistan in the 1980s to the jihadists of the Middle East. Decades later, when Western authors and journalists went looking for the clues that led to 9/11, they would settle on Qutb as the source of much of the evil, providing only a partial understanding of what had happened and why. Mawdudi’s key influence would be mostly forgotten, including his connections with revolutionary Iran. Mawdudi’s work had begun to appear in Iran, translated into Persian, in the early 1960s. The Pakistani scholar and Khomeini met in 1963 in Mecca, where Mawdudi delivered a lecture about the duties of Muslim youth that impressed Khomeini. The two men talked for a half hour at their hotel with a translator. Khomeini explained his campaign against the shah. This was the year of protests against the White Revolution, and Khomeini would soon be exiled to Iraq. Mawdudi did not believe in a revolution for Pakistan; he preached for the Islamization of society as the natural path to an Islamic state. But the majority of Pakistanis were indifferent to his message. He was also unpopular with the country’s leaders. Mawdudi was jailed four times, only narrowly escaping a death sentence thanks to the intervention of Saudi Arabia in 1953. During the elections of 1970, the Jamaat won only four of the three hundred seats in the National Assembly. But in Zia’s Pakistan, Mawdudi was suddenly useful. The pious general sought his advice, and the scholar’s views were now published on the front page of newspapers"

"What is beyond dispute is that Mawdūdī did inspire many people who wanted to establish an Islamic state and at least some of these people may have wanted to expedite the process through violent revolution. His journal Tarjumān al-Qur’ān lays out arguments for the Islamic state and its blueprint in almost every issue. Indeed, he initiated his efforts to create such a state in Pakistan from the very beginning as one of his interviews broadcasted from Radio Pakistan on 18 May 1948 bears witness.... Mawdūdī is often credited with being one of the intellectual fathers of Islamist militancy which is much in evidence nowadays in the form of violent attacks on civilian targets, suicide attacks, and so on. Yet by his own actions and writings he does not advocate the use of force in the way militant thinkers do. Mawdūdī might have inspired them in certain of their doctrines, but he did not personally choose to legitimise violence by non-state actors either against one’s own rulers or against non-Muslims in general... . In short, though Mawdūdī’s method is not outwardly revolutionary his conclusions are. And, since political power is his main concern, the establishment of an Islamic state, and jihad, carry great significance in his works."

"As we can see, Mawdūdī’s major hermeneutical device is his ideological imperative, i.e. that Islam must be politically dominant since God wants the world to be ruled according to the laws of Islam. It is the only system of being and doing which ensures the sovereignty of God hence no other form of rule can be tolerated.... But when and how ideas on the philosophical plane influence people to such a degree that they are ready to die and kill for them? This we may not know for certain but we do know that they do, and Mawdūdī and Quṭb were powerful influences upon radical Islamist thought in the contemporary era irrespective of the differences between them and their actual meanings."

"The South Asian activist Abul A‘la Mawdudi has been very influential in twentieth-century Islamist circles. Although he was at best sporadically educated in the traditional religious sciences, his influence derives not from any exceptional reputation as a religious scholar, but rather from his forceful, charismatic personality and his uncanny ability to articulate in an emotive Islamic idiom the sociopolitical concerns of his co-religionists in a colonial context."

"In the end, we should probably describe Mawdūdī as a fundamentalist, though a rather open- minded and well- mannered one where the scholarly tradition is concerned."

"Take the case of those Muslims who opposed Jinnah and his communalist demand for partition. While Aligarh was a hotbed of Pakistani agitation, the Deoband school advocated the gradual Islamization of the entire united India. The godfather of modern Islamic fundamentalism, Maulana Maudoodi, was one of the staunchest opponents of Partition. He claimed that the Muslims had a right to rule all of India."

"Among the scions of the Deoband school we find Maulana Maudoodi, the chief ideologue of modern fundamentalism. He opposed the Pakistan scheme and demanded the Islamization of all of British India. After independence, he settled in Pakistan and agitated for the full Islamization of the (still too British) polity. Shortly before his death in 1979, his demands were largely met when general Zia launched his Islamization policy."

"It was in Hyderabad that Mawdūdī fully developed his views on the corruption of Islam “by centuries of incorporation of local customs and mores that had obscured that faith’s veritable teachings,” writes University of San Diego assistant professor of political science Seyyed Vali Reza Nasr. “Salvation of Muslim culture and the preservation of its power lay in the restitution of Islamic institutions and practices after they had been cleansed of the cultural influences that had sapped Muslims of their power.”"

"“Mawdudi’s revivalist position was radical communalism as it articulated Muslim interests and sought to protect their rights, and demanded the severance of all cultural and hence social and political ties with Hindus in the interests of purifying Islam.”"

"He argued that the Islamic state was an ideological one, and the preservation of its ideological purity was therefore the condition sine qua non for its survival and development. Extended rights for minorities would undermine the Islamic state as they would diffuse its ideological vigilance. Therefore limiting their rights to those of zimmis in Islamic law was a matter of national security and self-preservation."

"Mawdūdī also clearly did not accord women a sociopolitical role equal to men. Fearing that greater interaction of the sexes would lead to immorality and undo the Islamic State, he “comes close to characterizing women as an insidious force whose activities ought to be regulated and restricted before they could wreak havoc.”"

"Introductory books on Mawdūdī rarely refer to his views on jihād. These views are uncompromising, unapologetic, and very disturbing in their implications. Mawdūdī begins his short treatise, Jihād in Islam, with a definition of religion and a definition of nation: But the truth is that Islam is not the name of a “Religion”, nor is “Muslim” the title of a “Nation.” In reality Islam is a revolutionary ideology and programme which seeks to alter the social order of the whole world and rebuild it in conformity with its own tenets and ideals. “Muslim” is the title of that International Revolutionary Party organized by Islam to carry into effect its revolutionary programme. And “Jihād” refers to that revolutionary struggle and utmost exertion which the Islamic Party brings into play to achieve this objective."

"Mawdūdī declares: Islam has no vested interest in promoting the cause of this or that Nation. The hegemony of this or that State on the face of this earth is irrelevant to Islam. The sole interest of Islam is the welfare of mankind. Islam has its own particular ideological standpoint and practical programme to carry out reforms for the welfare of mankind. Islam wishes to destroy all states and governments anywhere on the face of the earth which are opposed to the ideology and programme of Islam regardless of the country or the Nation which rules it. The purpose of Islam is to set up a state on the basis of its own ideology and programme, regardless of which nation assumes the role of the standard-bearer of Islam or the rule of which nation is undermined in the process of the establishment of an ideological Islamic State. Islam requires the earth—not just a portion, but the whole planet—not because the sovereignty over the earth should be wrested from one nation or several nations and vested in one particular nation, but because the entire mankind should benefit from the ideology and welfare programme or what would be truer to say from “Islam” which is the programme of well-being for all humanity. Towards this end, Islam wishes to press into service all forces which can bring about a revolution and a composite term for the use of all these forces is “Jihād.” The message could not be clearer: Islam must conquer the globe, and the purpose of jihād is totalitarian—it demands the engagement of all Muslims until Earth is ruled according to the precepts of Islam. All other ideologies, as systems where man-made laws rule, are enemies. Mawdūdī wishes to replace them with God-made laws: the Shari‘a."

"At the end of his long and cantankerous life the maulana had gone against all his high principles. He had gone to a Boston hospital to look for health; he had at the very end entrusted himself to the skill and science of the civilization he had tried to shield his followers from. He had sought, as someone said to me (not all Pakistanis are fundamentalists), to reap where he had not wanted his people to sow. Of the maulana it might be said that he had gone to his well-deserved place in heaven by way of Boston; and that he went at least part of the way by ."

"The patron saint of the Islamic fundamentalists in Pakistan was Maulana Maudoodi. He opposed the idea of a separate Indian Muslim state because he felt that the Muslims were not pure enough for such a state. He felt that God should be the lawgiver; and, offering ecstasy of this sort rather than a practical programme, he became the focus of millenarian passion. He campaigned for Islamic laws without stating what those laws should be."

"The most important of the fundamentalist groups was the Jamaat-i-Islami, the Assembly of Islam. It had been founded by a religious teacher and zealot, Maulana Maudoodi. Before partition he had objected to the idea of Pakistan, for strange reasons. The poet Iqbal, presenting the case for a separate Indian Muslim state in 1930, had said that such a state would rid Indian Islam of the “stamp which Arab imperialism was forced to give it.” Maudoodi’s ambitions were just the opposite. He thought that an Indian Muslim state would be too limiting, would suggest that Islam had done its work in India. Maudoodi wanted Islam to convert and cover all India, and to cover the world. Iqbal had said that an important reason for the creation of Pakistan was that Islam had worked better in India than in other places as “a people-building force.” Maudoodi didn’t think so. He didn’t think the Muslims of the subcontinent and their political leaders were good enough, as Muslims, for something as precious as an all-Muslim state. They were not pure enough in their belief; they were too tainted by the Indian past. Maudoodi had died in 1979. But the attitude of the Jamaat was still that the people of Pakistan and their rulers were not good enough. If Iqbal’s Muslim state had had its calamities, it wasn’t the fault of Islam; it was only the fault of the people who called themselves Muslim. In the fundamentalist way of thinking this kind of failure automatically condemned itself as the failure of a false or half-hearted Islam. And the Jamaat could always say—its cause ever fresh—that Islam had never really been tried since the early days, and that it was time to try it now. The Jamaat would show the way."

"As the scholar Seyyed Vali Reza Nasr observed, Mawdudi's position was "closely tied to questions of communal politics and its impact on identity formation, to questions of power in pluralistic societies, and to nationalism." His worldview, Nasr notes, was "informed by the acute despair that gripped the community [Muslim]" in the early decades of the twentieth century. Mawdudi saw the Hindu revivalism of the Arya Samaj as an existential threat to Muslims, "a proof of the inherent animosity of Hindus towards Islam." Mawdudi would die in 1979, a relatively marginal figure in Pakistan's politics and all but unknown outside Islamist circles in his homeland of India. However, inside a decade Mawdudi's ideas would give birth to a cult of the bomb-led, improbably, by a man with only one hand, a rudimentary knowledge of bomb-making acquired from making fireworks, and no organizational resources behind him."

"The Afghans have stood firm in the face of all odds and pressures and have indeed made the greatest of sacrifices. They have sacrificed a million and a half people. They are no longer afraid of death. The truth is that when death seems far away then fear of it is magnified, but this fear disappears for those who see it close to them. For the Afghans, death is no longer something to be avoided!"

"To this convention you must re-state as clearly and as strongly as possible, the political objective of Indian Muslims as a distinct political unit in the country. It is absolutely necessary to tell the world both inside and outside India that the economic problem is not the only problem in the country. From the Muslim point of view the cultural problem is of much greater consequence to most Indian Muslims. At any rate it is not less important than the economic problem."

"The immediacy of mystic experience simply means that we know God just as we know other objects. God is not a mathematical entity or a system of concepts mutually related to one another and having no reference to experience."

"Ends and purposes, whether they exist as conscious or subconscious tendencies, form the warp and woof of our conscious experience."

""Muhammad of Arabia ascended the highest Heaven and returned. I swear by God that if I had reached that point, I should never have returned.” These are the words of a great Muslim saint, ‘Abd al-Quddūs of Gangoh. In the whole range of Sufi literature it will be probably difficult to find words which, in a single sentence, disclose such an acute perception of the psychological difference between the prophetic and the mystic types of consciousness. The mystic does not wish to return from the repose of “unitary experience”; and even when he does return, as he must, his return does not mean much for mankind at large."

"It cannot be denied that Islam, regarded as an ethical ideal plus a certain kind of polity – by which expression I mean a social structure regulated by a legal system and animated by a specific ethical ideal – has been the chief formative factor in the life-history of the Muslims of India. It has furnished those basic emotions and loyalties which gradually unify scattered individuals and groups, and finally transform them into a well-defined people, possessing a moral consciousness of their own."

"The principle that each group is entitled to its free development on its own lines is not inspired by any feeling of narrow communalism. There are communalisms and communalisms. A community which is inspired by feelings of ill-will towards other communities is low and ignoble. I entertain the highest respect for the customs, laws, religious and social institutions of other communities. Nay, it is my duty, according to the teaching of the Quran, even to defend their places of worship, if need be. Yet I love the communal group which is the source of my life and behaviour; and which has formed me what I am by giving me its religion, its literature, its thought, its culture, and thereby recreating its whole past as a living operative factor, in my present consciousness. Even the authors of the recognise the value of this higher aspect of communalism."

""I would like to see the Punjab, North-West Frontier Province, Sind and Baluchistan amalgamated into a single State. Self-government within the British Empire, or without the British Empire, the formation of a consolidated North-West Indian Muslim State appears to me to be the final destiny of the Muslims, at least of North-West India."

"I have already indicated to you the meaning of the word religion, as applied to Islam. The truth is that Islam is not a Church. It is a State conceived as a contractual organism long before Rousseau ever thought of such a thing, and animated by an ethical ideal which regards man not as an earth-rooted creature, defined by this or that portion of the earth, but as a spiritual being understood in terms of a social mechanism, and possessing rights and duties as a living factor in that mechanism."

"Muslims are we, the country is ours, China and Arabia is ours, India is ours. Under the shadow of swords we have grown up. The crescent scabbard is our national emblem."

"[T]he tyranny of imperialism struts abroad, covering its face under the masks of Democracy, Nationalism, Communism, Fascism and heaven knows what else besides. Under these masks, in every corner of the earth, the spirit of freedom and the dignity of man are being trampled underfoot in a way to which not even the darkest period of human history presents a parallel. The so-called statesmen to whom government and leadership of men was entrusted have proved demons of bloodshed, tyranny and oppression. ... After subjugating and establishing their dominion over weaker peoples, they have robbed them of their possessions, of their religions, their morals, of their cultural traditions and their literatures."

"My forefathers were Brahmins. They spent their lives in search of God. I am spending my life in search of Man."

"Democracy is a system where people are counted but not weighed."

"Human intellect is natures attempt at self criticism."

"Nations are born in the hearts of poets; they prosper and die in the hands of politicians."

"Every land which belongs to God is our land."

"Heart – “It is absolutely certain that God does exist.” Head – “But, my dear boy! Existence is one of my categories, and you have no right to use it.” Heart – “So much the better, my Aristotle!”"

"Shah Alamgir, that high and mighty king, Pride and renown of Gurgan Timur’s line, In whom Islam attained a loftier fame And wider honour graced the Prophet’s Law, He the last arrow to our quiver left In the affray of Faith with Unbelief ; When that the impious seed of heresy, By Akbar nourished, sprang and sprouted fresh In Dara’s soul, the candle of the heart Was dimmed in every breast, no more secure Against corruption our Community Continued ; then God chose from India That humble-minded warrior, Alamgir, Religion to revive, faith to renew. The lightning of his sword set all ablaze The harvest of impiety ; faith’s torch Once more its radiance o’er our counsels shed."

"Overflowing with the wine of Truth is the cup of India All philosophers of the Western world have acknowledged India It is the result of the elegant thinking of Indians That higher than the sky is the position of India This country has had many people of angelic disposition On whose account world renowned is the name of India India is proud of the existence of Rama Spiritual people consider him prelate of India This alone is the miracle of this light of righteousness That brighter than world’s morning is the evening of India He was expert in sword craft, was unique in bravery Was matchless in piety and in the enthusiasm of love."

"Our India is the best of all countries in the world."

"China and Arabia are ours, India is ours, Muslims we are, the whole world is ours..."

"O water of the river Ganges, thou rememberst the day When our torrent flooded thy valleys..."

"[Iqbal elaborated that nationalism came into conflict with Islam] only when it begins to play the role of a political concept and claims to be a principle of human solidarity demanding that Islam should recede to the background of a mere private opinion and cease to be a living factor in the national life. ... In majority countries, Islam accomodates nationalism, for there Islam and nationalism are practically identical, in minority countries it is justified in seeking self-determination as a cultural unit."

"The history of the preceding Muslim dynasties had taught Aurangzeb that the strength of Islam did not depend ... so much on the goodwill of the people of this land as on the strength of the ruling race."

"Why must I forever lose, forever forgo profit that is my due, Sunk in the gloom of evenings past, no plans for the morrow pursue. Why must I all attentive be to the nightingale's lament? Friend, am I as dumb as a flower? Must I remain silent? My theme makes me bold, makes my tongue more eloquent. Dust be in my mouth, against Allah I make complaint."

"Would we have played with our lives for nothing but worldly gain? If our people had run after earth's goods and gold, Need they have smashed idols, and not idols sold?"

"You tell us who were they who pulled down the gates of Khyber? Who were they that reduced the city that was the pride of Caesar? Fake gods that men had made, who did break and shatter? Who routed infidel armies and destroyed them with bloody slaughter? Who put out and made cold the 'sacred' flame in Iran? Who retold the story of the one God, Yazdan?"

"And even the Angels could not tell what was that voice so strange, Whose secret seemed to lie beyond Celestial wisdom’s range."

"Let the lament of this lonely bulbul pierce the hearts of all, Arouse the hearts of the sleeping, with this my clarion call. Transfused with fresh blood, a new compact of faith we'll sign. Let our hearts thirst again for a sip of the vintage wine. What if the pitcher be Persian, from Hejaz is the wine I serve. What if the song be Indian, it is Hejazi in its verve."

"This is not a letter on Pakistan. If it were, I could have written a small book entitled "Glimpses of Pakistan's history". Time does not permit it. The nation is gripped in her worst crisis, standing in the middle of the road between survival and disintegration. Since the birth of Pakistan, crisis has followed crisis in rapid escalation. Millions of lives were sacrificed to create this country. Pakistan is said to be the dream of Mohammad Iqbal and the creation of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the Quaid-e-Azam. Was anything wrong with the dream or with the one who made the dream come true? Opinions have differed and continue to differ. The next few years will most probably decide the issue, perhaps once and for all, and not without bloodshed. This process is not inevitable but the present policies of the ruling junta are driving this country towards a sad inevitability"

"Iqbal is one of the eminent personalities in the history of Islam. His is such a profound and sublime personality that it cannot be described and measured by only one Dimension of his life. Iqbal was a scholar and a philosopher, but at the same time other dimensions of his life are also so bright that if we consider him to be just a philosopher and a scholar, we feel that we have belittled him. Undoubtedly Iqbal is a great poet and is reckoned among the greatest. Those who know Urdu very well and have written about Iqbal’s Urdu poetry maintain that Iqbal's Urdu poems are among the best in Urdu. Of course this may not be a great tribute to him as the poetic Tradition of Urdu is not so rich. But it cannot be disputed that his Urdu poetry made a great impact on large numbers of people, on Hindus and Muslims equally, living in the Subcontinent during the early decades of the twentieth century, and motivated them to participate in the struggle (for freedom) that was reaching its climax."

"Iqbal is buried in the grounds of the Shah Jehan Mosque in Lahore; and soldiers watch his tomb. Rhetoric or sentimentality like that is invariably worrying; it hides things. And the tomb, with its Mogul motifs, would be a kind of artistic sacrilege if, just across the way, the great Mogul fort of Lahore (the emperor’s window there recorded in some of the finest Mogul pictures) wasn’t falling into dust; if, in that same city of Lahore, the Mogul Shalimar Gardens and the tombs of the emperor Jehangir and his consort were not in absolute decay; if, going back four centuries, the delicately colored tiled towers of the thirteenth-century tombs of Uch in Bahawalpur, one of the finest Islamic things in the subcontinent, were not half washed away; if, going back further still, the land just around the Buddhist city of Taxila, known to Alexander the Great, and with once fabulous remains, wasn’t being literally quarried; if Pakistan, still pursuing imperialist Islamic fantasies, hadn’t been responsible for the final looting of the Buddhist treasures of Afghanistan. In its short life Iqbal’s religious state, still half serf, still profoundly uneducated, mangling history in its schoolbooks as well, undoing the polity it was meant to serve, had shown itself dedicated only to the idea of the cultural desert here, with glory—of every kind—elsewhere."

"AND yet it was strange, the Arab tilt of Pakistan: the little boy in Arab clothes, the Pakistan Steel project given the name of the Arab conqueror. The poet Iqbal, putting forward his plan for an Indian Muslim state in 1930, had said that the Islam of India was special, “a people-building force … at its best.” “I therefore demand the formation of a consolidated Muslim state in the best interests of India and Islam,” Iqbal had said. “For India, it means security and peace …; for Islam, an opportunity to rid itself of the stamp that Arabian imperialism was forced to give it.” But the world had changed since 1930; Arabia had some say in the world again. Pakistan had changed since 1947. Seeking more than Iqbal’s Muslim polity now, seeking in failure an impossibly pure faith, it called up its Arabian origins, mystical but at the same time real. At Banbhore, a remote outpost of the earliest Arab empires, you walked on human bones."

"We would fight against terrorism and win at any cost."

"You live life once, you live it by your principles and you live it courageously- that’s what it's about."

"“I felt sure that none of Islam’s once powerful moral imperatives existed within him, but he was a Muslim because he doubted the Holocaust, hated America and Israel, thought Hindus were weak and cowardly (despite marrying a Hindu journalist Tavleen Singh), and because the glories of the Islamic past excited him. The faith decayed within him, ceased to be dynamic, ceased to provide moral guidance, became nothing but a deep, unreachable historical and political identity,” wrote Aatish."

"The masses had already confused the meanings of Tasawwuf and it was believed that Sufis are those miserable failures in the world, who escape reality and pass their time as recluses in dark corners of oratories or mosques and that, they are incapable of self-sustenance and cannot courageously face the rigors of practical life. But this concept is not correct. The real Tasawwuf was taught by the Holy Prophet-SAW himself to his students, the Companions."

"According to the Quran, Companions were the exemplary Muslims."

"The news about Ghazwah-tal Hind taking place in the sub-continent has been given by the Holy Prophet‑saws and has reached his Ummah through his blessed statements. I had starting speaking, during the decade of the 90’s, about its taking place in the sub-continent. At that time people were sceptical about it happening and felt strange even talking about it. However, now the situation is becoming clearer by the day and even the common man has started to understand that this conflict is bound to take place. Its time is known only to Allah‑swt, but its occurrence is most certain, because it is a Divine Decision, about which we have been informed by the Holy Prophet‑saws. He is the most Truthful of the truthful, and it is our trust in him that is known as Iman (Faith)."

"There are two very attractive facts about Ghazwah-tal Hind. The first is that, a Muslim, who participates in it with Iman and sincerity, to support the Truth and to subdue falsehood, will be declared as free from Jahannam by Allah‑swt. If he is killed in it, he will be included in the most chosen of the Shuhada and if he lives, he will receive the certificate of freedom from Jahannam. Secondly; Although it will be a very intense and protracted war, it will end in victory for Islam and the Muslims. Pakistan will no longer remain a small Muslim country but the entire al-Hind will turn into an Islamic state. The Renaissance of Islam will commence here and Truth will prevail over the entire world."

"We wish that Allah‑swt accepts us for Ghazwah-tal Hind, but it is only in Allah’s Knowledge how we will participate in it. We should be sure that our intention is so pure that even if we pass away from this world before the Ghazwah, still Allah‑swt will, Insha Allah, include us in the ranks of its Mujahideen on the Day of Judgement in the Field of Resurrection! So, examine your beliefs, your deeds, and your conduct, and prove yourself to be a full time servant of the Holy Prophet‑saws. All blessings, all goodness awaits the person who fulfils his covenant of loyalty to the Holy Prophet‑saws."

"You feel afraid of small, insignificant rulers and obey them; shouldn’t you fear and obey the Sole, Absolute Ruler? He has taken no son for Himself. The Jews say, ‘Uzair-as is the son of Allah’; the Christians claim, ‘Jesus is the son of Allah.’ But He says: ‘I have no son.’ He is the Absolute, the Single; there can be none like Him. A son necessarily belongs to the genre and species of his father. The son of a human being would be a human, the young of an elephant would be an elephant and that of a bird would essentially be a bird, inheriting the attributes of its father. If God had a son, he would have been another god. But, He neither has any son, nor any partner in His sovereignty; He is the Absolute Ruler, no one can interfere with His rule. It is He Who has created everything."

"We wrongly consider the Shaikh as someone who can remove our distress, take our worries away and fulfil our needs. We forget that those personalities who are granted such offices have to undergo more worldly trials than us commoners; they face more diseases and encounter greater difficulties than others. This is the Sunnah of the holy Prophet-saws who said, “I had to face more troubles than any other Prophet.”"

"Do not be swept away by new slogans and leaders who had a doubtful past. Do not fritter away your time and energy in encouraging or participating in mushroom parties an organizations."

"Highest character and integrity must be developed and all personal ambitions must be erased for the common good of the Nation."

"Woman occupies an exceedingly important place in the world. In view of her capabilities, the nature has assigned vast duties to her. If you failed in them, you will not only harm your individual-self but also severely hurt your collective life."

"No nation can ever hope to obtain full intellectual stature or eminence without first releasing, the mental processes, of its people from the yoke of a foreign language as the medium of thought and expression."

"Great achievements require gigantic efforts, without which our progress sound to be slow."

"If you are rightly and well, I am confident that you will remove every obstacle from your way, and with courage and determination and imperishable belief in yourself you will be able to show to the world that Pakistan is a force which can not be treated lightly."

"Art is much more than a hobby or a pastime. It has an eternal message from the past to the future. Every true artist should try to make efforts to convey this message both to his nation and to the humanity at large."

"Islam spread like a magic wand to all those parts of the world wherever early Muslims went, not only because of the high principles that it postulated, but also because of the rigid practice of these principles in normal daily life by its followers."

"Constitution is one of the first essentials on which our future and progress are based."

"The 16th day of August of that year was observed in Calcutta as 'The Direct Action Day' by the Muslim League. It resulted, as you know, in a holocaust. Hindus demanded my resignation from the League Ministry. My life was in peril. I began to receive threatening letters almost every day. But I remained steadfast to my policy. Moreover, I issued an appeal through our journal 'Jagaran' to the Scheduled Caste people to keep themselves aloof from the bloody feud between the Congress and the Muslim League even at the risk of my life. I cannot but gratefully acknowledge the fact that I was saved from the wrath of infuriated Hindu mobs by my Caste Hindu neighbours."

"The Calcutta carnage was followed by the 'Noakhali Riot' in October 1946. There, Hindus including Scheduled Castes were killed and hundreds were converted to Islam. Hindu women were raped and abducted. Members of my community also suffered loss of life and property. Immediately after these happenings, I visited Tipperah and Feni and saw some riot-affected areas. The terrible sufferings of Hindus overwhelmed me with grief, but still I continued the policy of co-operation with the Muslim League."

"I further apprehended that Pakistan might turn to be one of the most backward and undeveloped countries of the South East Asia."

"There was then no question of dividing he people on the basis of religion into full-fledged Muslim citizens and zimmies being under the perpetual custody of the Islamic State and its Muslims citizens."

"My outspokenness, vigilance and sincere efforts to safeguard the interests of the minorities of Pakistan, in general, and of the Scheduled Caste, in particular, were considered a matter on annoyance to the East Bengal Govt. and few League leaders. Undaunted, I took my firm stand to safeguard the interests of the minorities of Pakistan."

"To my utter regret it is to be stated that after partition, particularly after the death of Qaid-e-Azam, the Scheduled Castes have not received a fair deal in any matter. You will recollect that from time to time I brought the grievances of the Scheduled Castes to your notice. I explained to you on several occasions the nature of inefficient administration in East Bengal. I made serious charges against the police administration. I brought to your notice incidents of barbarous atrocities perpetrated by the police on frivolous grounds. I did not hesitate to bring to your notice the anti-Hindu policy pursued by the East Bengal Government especially the police administration and a section of Muslim League leaders."

"11. The first incident that shocked me took place at a village called Digharkul near Gopalganj where on the false complaint of a Muslim brutal atrocities were committed on the local Namahsudras. The fact was that a Muslim who was going in a boat attempted to throw his net to catch fish. A Namahsudra who was already there for the same purpose opposed the throwing of the net in his front. This was followed by some altercation and the Muslim got annoyed and went to the nearby Muslim village and made a false complaint that he and a woman in his boat had been assaulted by the Namahsudras. At that time, the S.D.O. of Gopalganj was passing in a boat through the canal, who without making any enquiry accepted the complaint as true and sent armed police to the spot to punish the Namahsudras. The armed police came and the local Muslims also joined them. They not only raided some houses of the Namahsudras but mercilessly beat both men and women, destroyed their properties and took away valuables. The merciless beating of a pregnant women resulted in abortion on the spot. This brutal action on the part of the local authority created panic over a large area."

"12. The second incidence of police oppression took place in early part of 1949 under P.S. Gournadi in the district of Barisal. Here a quarrel took place between two groups of members of a Union Board. One group which was in the good books of the police conspired against the opponents on the plea of their being Communists. On the information of a threat of attack on the Police Station, the O.C., Gournadi requisitioned armed forces from the headquarters. The Police, helped by the armed forces, then raided a large number of houses in the area, took away valuable properties, even from the house of absentee-owners who were never in politics, far less in the Communist Party. A large number of persons over a wide area were arrested. Teachers and students of many High English Schools were Communist suspects and unnecessarily harassed. This area being very near to my native village, I was informed of the incident. I wrote to the District Magistrate and the S.P. for an enquiry. A section of the local people also prayed for an enquiry by the S.D.O. But no enquiry was held. Even my letters to the District authorities were not acknowledged. I then brought this matter to the notice of the highest Authority in Pakistan, including yourself but to no avail."

"13. The atrocities perpetrated by the police and the military on the innocent Hindus, especially the Scheduled Castes of Habibgarh in the District of Sylhet deserve description. Innocent men and women were brutally tortured, some women ravished, their houses raided and properties looted by the police and the local Muslims. Military pickets were posted in the area. The military not only oppressed these people and took away stuff forcibly from Hindu houses, but also forced Hindus to send their women-folk at night to the camp to satisfy the carnal desires of the military. This fact also I brought to your notice. You assured me of a report on the matter, but unfortunately no report was forthcoming."

"14. Then occurred the incident at the Nachole in the District of Rajshahi where in the name of suppression of Communists not only the police but also the local Muslims in collaboration with the police oppressed the Hindus and looted their properties. The Santhals then crossed the border and came over to West Bengal. They narrated the stories of atrocities wantonly committed by the Muslims and the police."

"15. An instance of callous and cold-blooded brutality is furnished by the incident that took place on December 20, 1949 in Kalshira under P.S. Mollarhat in the District of Khulna. What happened was that late at night four constables raided the house of one Joydev Brahma in village Kalshira in search of some alleged Communists. At the scent of the police, half a dozen of young men, some of whom might have been Communists, escaped from the house. The police constable entered into the house and assaulted the wife of Joydev Brahma whose cry attracted her husband and a few companions who escaped from the house. They became desperate, re-entered the house, found 4 constables with one gun only. That perhaps might have encouraged the young men who struck a blow on an armed constable who died on the spot. The young men then attacked another constable when the other two ran away and raised alarm which attracted some neighbouring people who came to their rescue. As the incident took place before sunrise when it was dark, the assailants fled with the dead body before the villagers could come."

"The S.P. of Khulna with a contingent of military and armed police appeared on the scene in the afternoon of the following day. In the meantime, the assailants fled and the intelligent neighbours also fled away. But the bulk of the villagers remained in their houses as they were absolutely innocent and failed to realise the consequence of the happening. Subsequently, the S.P., the military and armed police began to beat mercilessly the innocents of the entire village, encouraged the neighbouring Muslims to take away their properties. A number of persons were killed and men and women were forcibly converted. House-hold deities were broken and places of worship desecrated and destroyed. Several women were raped by the police, military and local Muslims. Thus a veritable hell was let loose not only in the village of Kalshira which is 1-1/2 miles in length with a large population, but also in a number of neighbouring Namahsudra villages."

"16. I visited Kalshira and one or two neighbouring villages on the 28th February 1950. The S.P., Khulna and some of the prominent League leaders of the district were with me. When I came to the village Kalshira, I found the place desolate and in ruins. I was told in the presence of S.P. that there were 350 homesteads in this village, of these, only three had been spared and the rest had been demolished. Country boats and heads of cattle belonging to the Namasudras had been all taken away. I reported these facts to the Chief Minister, Chief Secretary and Inspector of General of Police of East Bengal and to you."

"18. It must be noted that stories of a few incidents of communal disturbance that took place in West Bengal as a sort of repercussion of the incidents at Kalshira were published in exaggerated form in he East Bengal press. In the second week of February 1950 when the Budget Session of the East Bengal Assembly commenced, the Congress Members sought permission to move two adjournment motions to discuss the situation created at Kalshira and Nachole. But the motions were disallowed. The Congress members walked out of the Assembly in protest. This action of the Hindu members of the Assembly annoyed and enraged not only the Ministers but also the Muslim leaders and officials of the Province. This was perhaps one of the principal reasons for Dacca and East Bengal riots in February 1950."

"19. It is significant that on February 10, 1950 at about 10 o'clock in the morning a woman was painted with red to show that her breast was cut off in Calcutta riot, and was taken round the East Bengal Secretariat at Dacca. Immediately the Government servants of the Secretariat stuck work and came out in procession raising slogans of revenge against the Hindus. The procession began to swell as it passed over a distance of more than a mile. It ended in a meeting at Victoria Park at about 12 o'clock in the noon where violent speeches against the Hindus were delivered by several speakers, including officials. The fun of the whole show was that while the employees of the Secretariat went out of procession, the Chief Secretary of the East Bengal Government was holding a conference with his West Bengal counterpart in the same building to find out ways and means to stop communal disturbances in the two Bengals."

"20. The riot started at about 1 p.m. simultaneously all over the city. Arson, looting of Hindu shops and houses and killing of Hindus, wherever they were found, commenced in full swing in all parts of the city. I got evidence even from the Muslims that arson and looting were committed even in the presence of high police officials. Jewellery shops belonging to the Hindus were looted in the presence of police officers. They not only did not attempt to stop loot, but also helped the looters with advice and direction. Unfortunately for me, I reached Dacca at 5 o'clock in the afternoon on the same day, in February10, 1950. To my utter dismay, I had occasion to see and know things from close quarters. What I saw and learnt from firsthand information was simply staggering and heart-rending."

"21. The reasons for the Dacca riot were mainly five: (i) To punish the Hindus for the daring action of their representatives in the Assembly in their expression of protest by walking out of the Assembly when two adjournment motions on Kalshira and Nachole affairs were disallowed."

"22. During my nine days' stay at Dacca, I visited most of the riot-affected areas of the city and suburbs. I visited Mirpur also under P.S. Tejgaon. The news of the killing of hundreds of innocent Hindus in trains, on railway lines between Dacca and Narayanganj, and Dacca and Chittagong gave me the rudest shock."

"On the second day of Dacca riot, I met the Chief Minister of East Bengal and requested him to issue immediate instructions to the District authorities to take all precautionary measures to prevent spreading of the riot in district towns and rural areas. On the 20th February 1950, I reached Barisal town and was astounded to know of the happenings in Barisal. In the District town, a number of Hindu houses were burnt and a large number of Hindus killed. I visited almost all riot-affected areas in the District. I was simply puzzled to find the havoc wrought by the Muslim rioters even at places like Kasipur, Madhabpasha and Lakutia which were within a radius of six miles from the District town and were connected with motorable roads. At the Madhabpasha Zamindar's house, about 200 people were killed and 40 injured. A place, called Muladi, witnessed a dreadful hell. At Muladi Bandar alone, the number killed would total more than three hundred, as was reported to me by the local Muslims including some officers."

"I visited Muladi village also, where I found skeletons of dead bodies at some places. I found dogs and vultures eating corpses on he river-side. I got the information there that after the whole-scale killing of all adult males, all the young girls were distributed among the ringleaders of the miscreants."

"At a place called Kaibartakhali under P.S. Rajapur, 63 persons were killed. Hindu houses within a stone's throw distance from the said thana office were looted, burnt and inmates killed. All Hindu shops of Babuganj Bazar were looted and then burnt and a large number of Hindus were killed. From detailed information received, the conservative estimate of casualties was placed at 2,500 killed in the District of Barisal alone. Total casualties of Dacca and East Bengal riot were estimated to be in the neighbourhood of 10,000 killed."

"The lamentation of women and children who had lost their all including near and dear ones melted my heart. I only asked myself "What was coming to Pakistan in the name of Islam.""

"23. The large scale exodus of Hindus from Bengal commenced in the latter part of March. It appeared that within a short time all the Hindus would migrate to India. A war cry was raised in India. The situation became extremely critical. A national calamity appeared to be inevitable. The apprehended disaster, however, was avoided by the Delhi Agreement of April 8. With a view to reviving the already lost morale of the panicky Hindus, I undertook an extensive tour of East Bengal. I visited a number of places of the districts of Dacca, Barisal, Faridpur, Khulna and Jessore. I addressed dozens of largely attended meetings and asked the Hindus to take courage and not to leave their ancestral hearths and homes. I had this expectation that the East Bengal Govt. and Muslim League leaders would implement the terms of the Delhi Agreement. But with the lapse of time, I began to realise that neither the East Bengal Govt. nor the Muslim League leaders were really earnest in the matter of implementation of the Delhi Agreement. The East Bengal Govt. was not only ready to set up a machinery as envisaged in the Delhi Agreement, but also was not willing to take effective steps for the purpose. A number of Hindus who returned to native village immediately after the Delhi Agreement were not given possession of their homes and lands which were occupied in the meantime by the Muslims."

"24. My suspicion about the intention of League leaders was confirmed when I read editorial comments by Moulana Akram Khan, the President of the Provincial Muslim League in the "Baisak" issue of a monthly journal called 'Mohammadi'. In commenting on the first radio-broadcast of Dr.A.M.Malik, Minister for Minority Affairs of Pakistan, from Dacca Radio Station, wherein he said, "Even Prophet Mohammed had given religious freedom to the Jews in Arabia", Moulana Akram Khan said, "Dr.Malik would have done well had he not made any reference in his speech to the Jews of Arabia. It is true that the Jews in Arabia had been given religious freedom by Prophet Mohammed; but it was the first chapter of the history. The last chapter contains the definite direction of prophet Mohammed which runs as follows:- "Drive away all the Jews out of Arabia". Even despite this editorial comment of a person who held a very high position in the political, social and spiritual life of the Muslim community, I entertained some expectation that the Nurul Amin Ministry might not be so insincere. But that expectation of mine was totally shattered when Mr.Nurul Amin selected D.N.Barari as a Minister to represent the minorities in terms of the Delhi Agreement which clearly states that to restore confidence in the minds of the minorities one of their representatives will be taken in the Ministry of East Bengal and West Bengal Govt."

"Without any fear of contradiction I can say that this action of Mr.Nurul Amin in selecting Barari as a Minister in terms of the Delhi Agreement is conclusive proof that the East Bengal Govt. was neither serious nor sincere in its professions about the terms of the Delhi Agreement whose main purpose is to create such conditions as would enable the Hindus to continue to live in East Bengal with a sense of security to their life, property, honour and religion."

"27. I would like to reiterate in this connection my firm conviction that East Bengal Govt. is still following the well-planned policy of squeezing Hindus out of the Province. in my discussion with you on more than one occasion, I gave expression to this view of mine. I must say that this policy of driving out Hindus from Pakistan has succeeded completely in West Pakistan and is nearing completion in East Pakistan too. The appointment of D.N.Barari as a Minister and the East Bengal Government's unceremonious objection to my recommendation in this regard strictly conform to name of what they call an Islamic State. Pakistan has not given the Hindus entire satisfaction and a full sense of security. They now want to get rid of the Hindu intelligentsia so that the political, economic and social life of Pakistan may not in any way be influenced by them."

"It is not difficult to understand what the motive is behind this kind of evasive tactics in regard to such a vital matter on the part of Pakistan's rulers."

"29. Coming now to the present condition and the future of Hindus in East Bengal as a result of the Delhi Agreement, I should say that the present condition is not only unsatisfactory but absolutely hopeless and that the future completely dark and dismal. Confidence of Hindus in East Bengal has not been restored in the least. The Agreement is treated as a mere scrap of paper alike by the East Bengal Government and the Muslim League. That a pretty large number of Hindus migrants, mostly Scheduled Caste cultivators are returning to East Bengal is no indication that confidence has been restored. It only indicates that their stay and rehabilitation in West Bengal, or elsewhere in the Indian Union have not been possible. The sufferings of refugee life are compelling them to go back to their homes. Besides, many of them are going back to bring movable articles and settle or dispose of immovable properties. That no serious communal disturbance has recently taken place in East Bengal is not to be attributed to the Delhi Agreement. It could not simply continue even if there were no Agreement or Pact."

"30. It must be admitted that the Delhi Pact was not an end in itself. It was intended that such conditions would be created as might effectively help resolve so many disputes and conflict existing between India and Pakistan. But during this period of six months after the Agreement, no dispute or conflict has really been resolved. On the contrary, communal propaganda and anti-India propaganda by Pakistan both at home and abroad are continuing in full swing. The observance of Kashmir Day by the Muslim League all over Pakistan is an eloquent proof of communal anti-India propaganda by Pakistan. The recent speech of the Governor of Punjab (Pak) saying that Pakistan needed a strong Army for the security of Indian Muslims has betrayed the real attitude of Pakistan towards India. It will only increase the tension between the two countries."

"31. What is today the condition in East Bengal? About fifty lakhs of Hindus have left since the partition of the country. Apart from the East Bengal riot of last February, the reasons for such a large scale exodus of Hindus are many. The boycott by the Muslims of Hindu lawyers, medical practitioners, shop-keepers, traders and merchants has compelled Hindus to migrate to West Bengal in search of their means of livelihood. Wholesale requisition of Hindu houses even without following due process of law in many and non-payment of any rent whatsoever to the owners have compelled them to seek for Indian shelter. Payments of rent to Hindu landlords was stopped long before. Besides, the Ansars against whom I received complaints all over are a standing menace to the safety and security of Hindus. Inference in matters of education and methods adopted by the Education Authority for Islamisation frightened the teaching staff of Secondary Schools and Colleges out of their old familiar moorings. They have left East Bengal. As a result, most of the educational institutions have been closed."

"I have received information that sometime ago the Educational Authority issued circular in Secondary Schools enjoining compulsory participation of teachers and students of all communities in recitation from the Holy Koran before the school work commenced. Another circular requires Headmasters of schools to name the different blocks of the premises after 12 distinguished Muslims, such as, Jinnah, Iqbal, Liaquat Ali, Nazimuddin, etc."

"Only very recently in an educational conference held at Dacca, the President disclosed that out of 1,500 High English Schools in East Bengal, only 500 were working. Owing to the migration of Medical Practitioners there is hardly any means of proper treatment of patients. Almost all the priests who used to worship the household deities at Hindu houses have left. Important places of worship have been abandoned. The result is that the Hindus of East Bengal have got now hardly any means to follow religious pursuits and performance of social ceremonies like marriage where the services of a priest are essential. Artisans who made images of gods and goddesses have also left. Hindu Presidents of Union Boards have been replaced by Muslims by coercive measures with the active help and connivance of the police and Circle Officers. Hindu Headmasters and Secretaries of Schools have been replaced by Muslims. The Life of the few Hindu Govt. servants has been made extremely miserable as many of them have either been superseded by junior Muslims or dismissed without sufficient or any cause. Only very recently a Hindu Public Prosecutor of Chittagong was arbitrarily removed from service as has been made clear in a statement made by Srijukta Nellie Sengupta against whom at least no change of anti-Muslim bias prejudice or malice can be leveled."

"32. Commission of thefts and dacoities even with murder is going on as before. Thana offices seldom record half the complaints made by the Hindus. That the abduction and rape of Hindu girls have been reduced to a certain extent is due only to the fact that there is no Caste Hindu girl between the ages of 12 and 30 living in East Bengal at present. The few depressed class girls who live in rural areas with their parents are not even spared by Muslim goondas. I have received information about a number of incidents of rape of Scheduled Caste Girls by Muslims. Full payment is seldom made by Muslims buyers for the price of jute and other agricultural commodities sold by Hindus in market places. As a matter of fact, there is no operation of law, justice or fair-play in Pakistan, so far as Hindus are concerned."

"33. Leaving aside the question of East Pakistan, let me now refer to West Pakistan, especially Sind. The West Punjab had after partition about a lakh of Scheduled Castes people. It may be noted that a large number of them were converted to Islam. Only 4 out of a dozen Scheduled Castes girls abducted by Muslims have yet been recovered in spite of repeated petitions to the Authority. Names of those girls with names of their abductors were supplied to the government. The last reply recently given by the Officer-in-Charge of recovery of abducted girls said that "his function was to recover Hindu girls and 'Achhuts' (Scheduled Castes) were not Hindus". The condition of the small number of Hindus that are still living in Sind and Karachi, the capital of Pakistan, is simply deplorable."

"I have got a list of 363 Hindu temples and gurdwaras of Karachi and Sind (which is by no means an exhaustive list) which are still in possession of Muslims. Some of the temples have been converted into cobbler's shops, slaughter houses and hotels. None of the Hindus has got back. Possession of their landed properties were taken away from them without any notice and distributed amongst refugees and local Muslims. I personally know that 200 to 300 Hindus were declared non-evacuees by the Custodian a pretty long time ago. But up till now properties have no been restored to any one of them. Even the possession of Karachi Pinjirapole[ii][2] has not been restored to the trustees, although it was declared non-evacuee property sometime ago."

"In Karachi I had received petitions from many unfortunate fathers and husbands of abducted Hindu girls, mostly Scheduled Castes. I drew the attention of the 2nd Provisional Government to this fact. There was little or no effect. To my extreme regret I received information that a large number of Scheduled Castes who are still living in Sind have been forcibly converted to Islam."

"34. Now this being in brief the overall picture of Pakistan so far as the Hindus are concerned, I shall not be unjustified in stating that Hindus of Pakistan have to all intents and purposes been rendered "Stateless" in their own houses. They have no other fault than that they profess the Hindu religion."

"Declarations are being repeatedly made by Muslim League leaders that Pakistan is and shall be an Islamic State. Islam is being offered as the sovereign remedy for all earthly evils. In the matchless dialectics of capitalism and socialism you present the exhilarating democratic synthesis of Islamic equality and fraternity. In that grand setting of the Shariat Muslims alone are rulers while Hindus and other minorities are zimmies who are entitled to protection at price, and you know more than anybody else Mr.Prime Minister, what that price is."

"After anxious and prolonged struggle I have come to the conclusion that Pakistan is no place for Hindus to live in and that their future is darkened by the ominous shadow of conversion or liquidation. The bulk of the upper class Hindus and politically conscious scheduled castes have left East Bengal. Those Hindus who will continue to stay accursed in Pakistan will, I am afraid, by gradual stages and in a planned manner be either converted to Islam or completely exterminated."

"It is really amazing that a man of your education, culture and experience should be an exponent of a doctrine fraught with so great a danger to humanity and subversive of all principles of equality and good sense. I may tell you and your fellow workers that Hindus will allow themselves, whatever the treat or temptation, to be treated as Zimmies in the land of their birth. Today they may, as indeed many of them have already done, abandon their hearths and homes in sorrow but in panic. Tomorrow they strive for their rightful place in the economy of life. Who knows what is in the womb of the future ?"

"When I am convinced that my continuance in office in the Pakistan Central Government is not of any help to Hindus I should not with a clear conscience, create the false impression in the minds of the Hindus of Pakistan and peoples abroad that Hindus can live there with honour and with a sense of security in respect of their life, property and religion."

"About the East Bengal Muslims general, the less said the better. They were promised of autonomous and sovereign units of the independent State. What have they got instead ? East Bengal has been transformed into a colony of the western belt of Pakistan, although it contained a population which is larger than that of all the units of Pakistan put together. It is a pale ineffective adjunct of Karachi doing the latter's bidding and carrying out its orders. East Bengal Muslims in their enthusiasm wanted bread and they have by the mysterious working of the Islamic State and the Shariat got stone instead from the arid deserts of Sind and the Punjab."

"You know that I was not willing to make a statement containing untruths and half truths, which were worse that untruths."

"You are of course at liberty to dispense with that office or dispose of it in such a manner as may suit adequately and effectively the objectives of your Islamic State."

"Dhananjay Keer reports on this episode and on Dr. Ambedkar's reaction: "Jogendranath Mandal... who had asked the ‘Scheduled Castes in Pakistan to look upon Jinnah as their saviour and had even asked them to wear a badge blatantly suggestive of Islamic associations, was now rudely shaken from his dream... ‘Ambedkar was terribly upset, and he issued a statement denouncing the Pakistani government. He complained that the Scheduled Castes were not allowed to come to Hindustan and that they were being forcibly converted to Islam. He further said that in the Hyderabad state too, they were being forcibly converted to Islam in order to increase the strength of the Muslim population in the Hyderabad state. He therefore advised his people: ‘I would like:to tell the Schedule Castes who happen today to be impounded inside Pakistan to come over to India by such means as may be available to them. ‘The second thing I want to say is that it would be fatal for the Scheduled Castes, whether in Pakistan or in Hyderabad, to put their faith in Muslims or the Muslim League. It has become a habit with the Scheduled Castes to look upon the Muslims as their friends simply because they dislike the Hindus. This is a mistaken view.’ ‘Ambedkar further asked the Scheduled Castes in Pakistan and Hyderabad. not to succumb to conversion to Islam as an easy way of escape; and to all those who were forcibly converted to Islam he pledged his word that he would see that they were received back into the fold... Whatever the oppression and tyranny that the Hindus practised on them, he asserted, it should not warp their vision and swerve them from their duty. He warned the Scheduled Castes in Hyderabad not to side with the Nizam and bring disgrace upon the community by siding with one who was the enemy of India.""

"I will never support any legislation that is against the tenets of Islam,.. Pakistan is an Islamic country, and no such law can be passed here even if it costs me my ministry or my seat [in Parliament]."

"Beheading is the only punishment for those who mock Prophet Muhammad."

"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."

"India, constituted as it is at the present moment, is not the name of one single country; nor the home of one single nation. It is, in fact, the designation of a State created for the first time in history, by the British. It includes peoples who have never previously formed part of India at any period in its history; but who have, on the other hand, from the dawn of history till the advent of the British, possessed and retained distinct nationalities of their own. In the five Northern Provinces of India, out of a total population of about forty millions, we, the Muslims, contribute about 30 millions. Our religion, culture, history, tradition, economic system, laws of inheritance, succession and marriage are basically and fundamentally different from those of the people living in the rest of India. The ideals which move our thirty million brethren-in-faith living in these provinces to make the highest sacrifices are fundamentally different from those which inspire the Hindus. These differences are not confined to the broad basic principles - far from it. They extend to the minutest details of our lives. We do not inter-dine; we do not inter-marry. Our national customs, calendars, even our diet and dress are different. It is preposterous to compare, as some superficial observers do, the differences between Muslims and Hindus with those between Roman Catholics and Protestants. Both the Catholics and Protestants are part and parcel of one religious system - Christianity; while the Hindus and Muslims are the followers of two essentially and fundamentally different religious systems. Religion in the case of Muslims and Hindus is not a matter of private opinion as it is in the case of Christians; but on the other hand constitutes a Civic Church which lays down a code of conduct to be observed by their adherents from birth to death. If we, the Muslims of , with our distinct marks of nationality, are deluded into the proposed Indian Federation by friends or foes, we are reduced to a minority of one to four. It is this which sounds the death-knell of the Muslim nation in India for ever. To realise the full magnitude of this impending catastrophe, let us remind you that we thirty millions constitute about one-tenth of whole Muslim world. The total area of the five units comprising PAKSTAN, which are our homelands, is four times that of Italy, three times that of Germany and twice that of France; and our population seven times that of the Commonwealth of Australia, four times that of the Dominion of Canada, twice that of Spain, and equal to France and Italy considered individually. These are facts - hard facts and realities - which we challenge anybody to contradict. It is on the basis of these facts that we make bold to assert without the least fear of contradiction that we, Muslims of PAKSTAN, do possess a separate and distinct nationality from the rest of India, where the Hindu nation lives and has every right to live. We, therefore, deserve and must demand the recognition of a separate national status by the grant of a separate Federal Constitution from the rest of India."

"THE “Seven Commandments of Destiny” enunciated by Choudhary Rehmat Ali in“ The Millat and the Mission” (1942) are as follows: (1D) Avoid Minorityism, which means that_we must not leave our minorities in Hindu lands, even if the British and the Hindus offer them the so-called ‘constitutional safeguards. For no safeguards can be a substitute for nation- hood which is their birthright. Nor must we keep Hindu or Sikh minorities in our own lands, even if they themselves were willing to remain with or without any special safeguards. For they will never be of us. Indeed, while in ordinary times they will retard our national reconstruction, in times of crisis they will betray us and bring about our re-destruction. (2) Avow Nationalism. We must assert and demand the recognition of the distinct national status of out minorities in the Hindu majority regions ‘of Dinia and its dependencies, and reciprocally offer to give similar status to the Hindu and Sikh minorities in Pakistan, Bangistan and Osmanistan. (3) Acquire proportional territory to create Siddiqistan, Farugistan, Haideristan, Muinistan, Moplistan, Sufistan and Nasaristan. "Now in the orbit of Pakasia we form about one-fourth of the total population, and, according.to the laws of nature and nations, are entitled to about one-fourth of its area. ‘We must, therefore, press our claims to the proportional areas in all such regions of the Continent and do so without delay. (4) Consolidate the individual nations. It is dangerous to leave dispersed ‘our minorities in the Hindu-majority regions of Dinia and in Ceylon, we must unify and consolidate then as nations in the countries that will comprise the Proportional areas acquired under the previous commandment. (5) Co-ordinate the nations under the Pak Commonwealth of Nations. To us the Pakistanians, union is not only a source of strength but also a sacred duty. (6) Convert the sub-continent of India into the continent of Dinia. We must write fnis to the most deceptive fiction in the world that India is the sphere of Indianism. (7) Organize the continent of Dinia and its dependencies into the orbit ‘of Pakasia. This is the last commandment and is meant to consolidate the results of the previous commandments. Pakasia connotes that part of Asia wherein our Pak culture is actually or potentially, predominant, and geographically it includes the Continent of Dinia."

"‘What is the fundamental truth about minorities……… remember that, in the past ‘Minorityism’ has ever proved itself a major enemy of the Millat; that at present it is sabotaging us religiously, culturally, and politically even in our national lands; and that in the future, it would destroy us throughout the Continent of Dinia and its dependencies, Hence the Commandment (one of the seven commandments laid down in the pamphlet “The Millat and its Mission”), Avoid ‘Minorityism’, which means that we must not leave our minorities in Hindu lands, even if the British and the Hindus offer them the so-called constitutional safeguards. For no safeguards can be substituted for the nationhood which is their birthright. Nor must we keep Hindu and/or Sikh minorities in our lands, even if they themselves were willing to remain with or without any special safeguards. For they will never be of us. Indeed, while in ordinary times they will retard our national reconstruction, in times of crisis they will betray us and bring about our redestruction."

"“(a) To leave our minorities in Hindu lands is:- (1) To leave under Hindu hegemony 35 million Muslims who form no less than 1/3 of the whole Millat, which in her struggle for freedom has no allies in the continent. (2) To deny their resources to the cause of the Millat at a time when she needs the maximum contribution of every one of her sons and daughters. (3) To devote their lives and labour to the cause of the Hindu Jati. I hope people who argue that an equal number of (35 millions) Hindu and Sikh minorities in Pakistan, Bangistan and Osmanistan will be working for the Millat overlook the fact that the work of one can never compensate for that of the other………” “(b) To keep Hindus and/or Sikh minorities in our lands is: “(1) To keep in Muslim lands 35 million Hindus and Sikhs who form no more than 1/8 of the total strength of the force opposing the Millat in the Continent of Dinia. (2) To condemn to permanent servitude our 35 million brethren living in Hindu Dinia, i.e., outside Pakistan, Bangistan and Osmanistan. The reason is that unless and until we accept this commandment we cannot liberate them from the domination of ‘Indianism’. (5) To forget even the unforgettable lesson taught to us by the disappearance of our own Pak Empire and of the Turkish Empire, namely that one of the major causes of their decline, defeat and downfall was the treachery and treason of their religious, racial and political minorities.”"

"Rehmat Ali, whatever else he might be, has been quite fertile in the devising of catching, though somewhat megalomaniac names. Besides Pakistan, he has been responsible for the concept of India as Dinia, a cleverly suggestive anagram. Dinia would be the continent which, if not at the moment the home of an Islamic State, was such in immediate conception, waiting to be converted and subordinated to Islam through the proselytising and conquering zeal of its sons. Bengal and Assam, conceived as a joint Muslim-majority area by a logic partial to Muslim reasoning, was rechristened by Rehmat Ali Bang-i-Islam or Bangistan, redolent of the Feudal Moghal name of Bengal, Bangush, which has been offensive to the Hindu, suffering for centuries under the hell of the Muslim. The Muslim Homelands parcelled out of Bihar, the U. P. and Rajputana (the Ajmer area, where is the shrine of the great Muslim Saint, Khawaja Muinuddin Chisti) were to be called respectively Faruquistan, Haideristan and Muinistan. Hyderabad, ruled over by a Muslim Prince, with its 86% Hindu population, was to be called Osmanistan, after the name of the present Nizam; and the Moplah tracts of Malabar were named Moplistan. There would, besides, be areas known as Safistan and Nasaristan. On the map of India (or Dinia) as drawn by Rehmat Ali, non-Muslim areas make unimpressive, miserable patches, interspersed on all sides with Muslim states, born out of conflict with Hindu India, and pursuing a set policy of converting, conquering and amalgamating this Hindu India into themselves.... Thus, in a thorough and relentless way Rehmat Ali has pleaded for the total elimination of minorities from Pakistan."

"...Rehmat Ali, whose pamphlets provided the germ of the Pakistan idea, and the Muslim League Plans and such bodies as the Muslim National Guards, which were subsidiary to it. Rehmat Ali had the dream of reviving the old Muslim glory. His ultimate vision was of a Muslim India or Dinia, over which Islam must rule in its traditional manner. The areas carved out for Muslims in the midst of Hindu India mentioned above, were called by Rehmat Ali. ‘footholds’. Footholds from which presumably the Muslims were to plan expansion into the heart of the neighbouring non-Muslim areas, and to link up with one another, for tightening up their stranglehold in these non-Muslim areas. Jinnah’s own abortive proposals for a ‘corridor’ to link up Eastern and Western Pakistan was somewhat of this nature. Have an area running all over Northern India, cutting India into two-and plan for the rest from this advantageous position."

"Mr. H. S. Suhrawardy, Premier of Bengal at that time, spoke words still more ominous and pregnant with a sinister significance the full force of which was not realized by the country perhaps at the time. “We await the clarion call of the Qaid-i-Azam (Muhammad Ali Jinnah).”"

"The statements publicly made by the top-ranking Muslim League leaders reveal the temper and intentions of these leaders and the organization whose policy and programme they had framed. On September 9, 1946 only two weeks after the Calcutta Carnage, after the attack on Sir Shafaat Ahmed Khan, and the situation akin to Civil War which was developing inside the country, Mr. H. S. Sahrawardy, Premier of Bengal, said: “Muslim India means business.”"

"On CM Suhrawardy’s Direct Action speech, writes Yasmin Khan, ‘if he did not explicitly incite violence, certainly gave the crowds the impression that they could act with impunity, that neither the police nor the military would be called out and that the ministry would turn a blind eye to any action that they unleashed in the city.’"

"Mr Suhrawardy at its head, and in bum the Qaid i Azam saw a most efficient instrument for executing his design. Suave of appearance and urbane in his manners he was a clever politician. He accepted Mr Jinnah as his leader because in this course he saw a splendid opportunity for furthering his own interests. Ho possessed the necessary skill for provoking a controversy and then turning the situation to his own advantage He was capable of starting a large scale and gruesome massacre im Calcutta and then afterwards associating himself with Mahatma Gandhis peace mission He was seen to interfere m the working of tho police m the Control Room but, when charged with procrastination and criminal neglect, he pleaded that the Commussioner of Police had declined to carry out Ins orders for restoring peace and sought shelter behind the wording of section 9 of the Police Act which entrusted “the exclusive direction and control” of the Police Force to the Commissioner of Police As head of the Government m Bengal he refused to issue petrol coupons to the Muslim League lorries but as a Muslim Leaguer he issued supplementary petrol coupons for hundreds of gallons to the Ministers individually and to himself. This petrol was later used to transport Muslim rioters on Direct Action Day. He was capable of issuing a statement to the Associated Press of India on the evening of August 16 that conditions were unproving when things had been going from bad to worse throughout the city When questioned on this point later he denied that he had issued such a statement. On August 23 speaking on the radio be urged the people of Bengal to live in peace and brotherly affection and within half an hour sent out a special message to the correspondents of the foreign Press which wholly contradicted his radio broadcast. It was probably on Ins advice that Calcutta was selected for starting a large-scale assault upon the non Muslims."

"To add to the embarrassment of the Police Chiefs, Mr. Suhrawardy arrived in the Control Room and established himself there for the space of several hours. He received messages, gave verbal directions, issued written instructions or orders, scribbled on scraps of paper, talked to the Police Heads, overrode the decisions made by them, received visitors, discussed the political events with them and generally interrupted the vital business of those in charge of the Control Room. He ordered that special protection should be given to all mosques and that police pickets should be posted at each one of them; but nothing was to be done to safeguard the inmates, sanctity or property of any Hindu shrine."

"“All was well till two days before this loot and arson when a young man came from the Punjab and made highly inflammatory speeches. He also held Conferences with the Muslim League leaders. He asked the people that if nothing else, they could at least set fire to houses of Hindus and loot their property. Soon after this speech by this young man from the Punjab young boys, supported by local Muslim League workers, began to set fire to shops.”"

"“The latest reports (19.4.47) describe the situation in Dera Ismail Khan Tehsil as still serious. In Tank town, 1,500 refugees have been removed to Police Stations and other places of safety in the town. “Some houses and shops in Tank are still burning and reports have come in of further trouble from the outlying villages of the district. “Cases of forcible conversion are reported from several villages, including Kalagor, Dhalla, Rodi Khel and Mandra. Twenty-four casualties are reported from these villages and a number of persons have been kidnapped..."

"We have come here to tell you that if you can carry on the fight with the same determination and discipline as had been displayed during the past three days, not only will you have achieved victory in the Punjab, but you will also have reached nearer to your goal of Pakistan."

"“Pakistan was made in the name of Islam and building another Hindu temple in the capital is against the soul of Islam” ..."We are with the rights of minorities but the existing temples should be repaired."

"Pakistan can only be achieved through shedding blood of ourselves, and if need be, and if opportunity arose, by shedding blood of others. Muslims are no believers in Ahimsa."

"Sardar Abdul Rab Nishtar was reported to have said that Pakistan could only be achieved by shedding blood and, if opportunity arose, the blood of non-Muslims must be shed, for “ Muslims are no believers in ahimsa'"

"“The Punjab Muslims do not believe in non-violence and should not, therefore, be given cause for grievance because once the Muslim lion is infuriated it would become difficult to subdue him.”"

"“I tell you this much that if we find that we have to fight Great Britain for placing us under one Central Hindu Raj, then the havoc which Muslims will play will put to shame what Jenghez and Halaku Khan did.”"

"“The Congress should understand that unless they make friends with us and accede to our demands there will he no peace in India.”"

"Soon Modi will be banned from travelling any country of the world for his crimes against humanity."

". “Yes he has been arrested for raising his voice agst PM Modi for his illegal acts in Kashmir by scraping the sp status of Kashmir. He raised his voice in favour of oppressed Kashmiris. Note it Mr Chidambaram is going to be ur next PM. He is capable politician.”"

"In 2011, I was raped by the former interior minister Rehman Malik. That's right, I'll say it again. I was raped by the then interior minister Rehman Malik.... . "I thought it [was] a meeting about my visa but I was given flowers/a drugged drink.""

"Jihad is a duty in Islam. ... Those who avoid jihad are not Muslims."

"If anyone looks askance at Pakistan, those eyes will be gouged out. Then neither grass will grow, nor birds chirp, or bells ring in temples, because Pakistan is that fortress of Mussalmans which Muslims across the world look up to."

"Do not forget also that lslamic society actually in existence is that in which the religious head is an ignorant Mullah, the spiritual head an immoral Pir, the political guide a power-intoxicated feudal landlord . ... their cry of 'Islam is in Danger' became a cloak for dark deeds and reactionary moves, complacency and tyranny. Such is the extent to which mockery can be made of Islam in these days of capitalist subterfuge and commercialized politics."

"I am still hoping that it (Pakistan's economic growth rate) could be five per cent. It could be between 4.5 per cent to five per cent during the current fiscal year ending on June 30 (2022)."

"We ask you (China) to relocate your industry to Pakistan as our Special Economic Zones are now ready. If you bring your industry here, it will be a win-win situation for both countries."

"A six-thousand year-old Pashtun, a thousand-year-old Muslim and a twenty-seven year-old Pakistani."

"Every third year of his life in jail."

"Coinciding with this development, Scott Perry, a Republican member of the US Congress, has written a letter to President Joe Biden, demanding that the US administration should “reject any democratic credentials” presented by Khan in view of his background as a “bona fide terrorist sympathizer working to undermine” American interests in the region and the “security of our Indian allies”. In a January 27 letter, Perry wrote that Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s nomination of Khan “can only be described as a breathtaking lack of judgement at best, and a demonstration of Islamabad’s unmitigated contempt for the United States at worst”. Perry contended that Khan has “praised both terrorists and foreign terrorist organizations – including Hizbul Mujahideen – in stark and unsettling terms” and “encouraged young men to emulate jihadists like Burhan Wani, a former commander of Hizbul Mujahideen who dedicated his life to a holy war against India”. He further wrote that Khan “lashed out” at the US in 2017 for designating the leader of Hizbul Mujahideen for sanctions, and willingly appeared alongside Harkat-ul-Mujahideen founder Fazlur Rehman Khalil, a specially designated global terrorist, in 2019. Perry referred to the US treasury department’s assertion that Khalil had a close relationship with al-Qaeda and its slain founder, Osama bin Laden. Perry also accused Khan of supporting the “Helping Hand for Relief and Development”, a group that has a partnership with the Lashkar-e-Taiba, which was responsible for killing 166 people during the 2008 Mumbai attacks. “A litany of examples accompanies Mr Khan’s perverse attachment to Islamic terrorism, which makes it exceedingly obvious that Pakistan has embraced its identity as a super terrorist state,” Perry wrote. “While I am encouraged that the State Department has reportedly put a pause on approving Masood Khan as the new Ambassador from Pakistan, a pause is not enough. I urge you to reject any diplomatic credentials presented to you by Masood Khan and reject any effort by the Government of Pakistan to install this jihadist as Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United States,” he added…."

"If any relation has to be kept between Muslims and Kafirs (like Hindus), it is akin to the relation of a man with a latrine (toilet). It may be a necessary evil, but it should be seen as such. Because, Rasool Allah (i.e., Mohammed) has already made judgement on who is to enter heaven, and who is to enter hell; and that while Muslims will enter heaven, Hindus will enter hell."

"“Hindus will be wiped out in a Pakistani nuclear attack. Pakistan will also be destroyed but 58 Muslim countries will remain:” Pakistani politician Ahmad Raza Kasuri. A similar sentiment has been shared by ‘liberal’ Pakistani commentator Hassan Nisar."

"If I were to make any frank statement , I would be misunderstood. Minority leaders fear that if they were to appear in the role of complainants , they may well find themselves in the role of culprits."

""Green land of East Pakistan will be painted red", wrote Farman Ali in his diary. When asked about this, Farman Ali told me this was not true. Yes, he did write it in the diary, but the context was different. In those days, Kazi Zafar in one his speeches had said that he would cover the green of East Pakistan with the red flag of socialism. Farman Ali had scribbled that in his diary. Is this in any way believable? I leave it for the reader to decide."

"The Hamudur Rahman Commission also investigated this allegation. But everyone has acquitted Farman, and that was just the natural thing to do because if Farman is proved responsible, then it means admitting that the atrocities actually happened."

"List of intellectual to be murdered : after liberation these pages from Rao Farman Ali's diary was found in Banga Bhaban. Farman Ali himself had writen the list."

"On the other hand, Hasan Zahir, a Pakistani civil servant at that time,writes about Operation Searchlight in his book The Separation of East Pakistan : "Major General Farman Ali was the executor of Dhaka part of 'Searchlight'. He succeeded in 'shock action' by concentrated and indiscriminate firing on the target areas". But Farman, while describing the night of March 25, has cloaked the truth like the other Pakistani Generals. His version of the story may satisfy the conscience of Pakistanis, but not ours."

"But Niazi [Amir Abdullah Khan Niazi] has reserved his fiercest wrath for Rao Farman Ali. The latter, he says, was not only an opportunist conspirator, but was also an embezzler of money. Farman asked him to send him back to Pakistan, because "Mukti Bahini would kill him for his alleged massacre of the Bangalis and intellectuals on the night of 15/16th December. It was a pathetic sight to see him pale and almost on the verge of break-down". But Niazi assured him that he would give his life to save Farman Ali from the clutches of the Muktibahini, and he kept his word."

"This is how Farman Ali narrates his tale. He had perfectly understood the reality, but he has avoided them skilfully. So ultimately the book becomes a mish-mash of exaggerations, half-truths and truths. But he has concocted the whole story so cleverly that it may seem believable to some readers. This is a good strategy for him, but disastrous for history or for the future. But even after all the scrutiny, there are some information in the book which are valuable for chronicling the history of 1971."

"Farman Ali has also advocated for the genocide in this way,"When a civil war is raging, both sides are transformed into beasts. The words civil war have not been used by many of his fellow Generals. He also writes that the Pakistani Army failed to act like a national force. He gives an excuse for this failure: "Some of its members exceeded their authority and killed a number of civil and police officials without proper trial. The Army was not able to control Biharis in taking revenge when badly affected areas were liberated by Army"."

"Rao Farman Ali then devotes a whole chapter to the alleged plots by India. The Generals have all seemed to agree that India had been conspiring to break apart Pakistan since 1947, and even our Liberation War was also the result of Indian conspiracies. Pakistani Generals have never managed see past this illusion."

"Tajuddin Ahmed's place in history has been excluded from most Bangladeshi treatments. He was the Awami Leaguer who led the government in exile from Mujibagar, established near Calcutta. Tajuddin Ahmed and Mujib disagreed over the creation of Baksal, a one-party state. He was forced to resign his post as minister in the government in 1974."

"Tajuddin Alimed was one of the most important actors leading to the creation of Bangladesh. He was the acting prime minister in the government in exile, while the war was raging in his country and Sheikh Mujib was in prison in the western wing. Tajuddin's strained relationship with Mujib was brought about in part, by intrigues orchestrated by General Khandaker Mushtaq Ahmed, whose name, as Mascarenhas wrote, has become synonymous with treachery"."

"Of all the actors in the Bangladeshi drama, Tajuddin's determination to be true to the vision of the liberation movement is unparalleled. Yet, he is ignored in history. Tajuddin's ideas for a pluralistic democratic Bangladesh were betrayed by his friend and mentor Sheikh Mujib. He was politically sidelined in the early years, as his country crashed headfirst in to constitutional chaos."

"Tajuddin was murdered by the order of a scheming colleague Khandaker Mushtaq Ahmed, who had made himself president after Mujib's assassination. The murder of Tajuddin was preplanned. Khandaker Mushtaq then promulgated the original Indemnity Ordinance to exonerate those who had killed Mujib. Indemnity was also given to the military men who had stormed the jail that night in November 1975, and murdered Tajuddin along with three other prominent Awami League leaders. The Indemnity Ordinance was institutionalized into the constitution by General Zia. All these things have not made it into the textbooks."

"Tajuddin Ahmed was one of the main players in the war of Liberation. He was also the most honest of many of those players. In 1998, he was posthumously awarded the long overdue respect denied to him. This "rehabilitation" at was accorded to him when the Awami League was in power, has certainly been withdrawn by the BNP. Army personnel brutally murdered him to ensure that no civilians capable of leading the nation remained alive. The military wanted to keep the power. It was therefore essential to murder all democratic statesmen."

"We shall carry on our campaign against this "Zulm" (cruelty)."

"It requires worth fully to appreciate a man of worth."

"There is only one person that can be "more than a father", it is your dear mother, whose love for her offspring is unbounded by heaven and earth."

"Time never returns once lost."

"All of you please avoid smoking, drinking habits as venomous things. By keeping away from them you will be happy and healthy."

"In the Jail, there is a Government supplied radio, and I hear music and news occasionally. My time, however, passes in my pastime; I live by myself, alone."

"I hope you must be enjoying to receive a letter from me. I may tell you that I enjoy to receive your letter ten times more. In prison life, a letter from dear ones is a great luxury."

"I have done nothing but my duty, and which I shall be doing so long as there is life in me."

"Everyone has to follow the road (to death)!"

"East Bengal and West Bengal share the same culture, the same history, and the same heritage. We cannot be kept apart."

"I have reached the final stage of my life. I have no more desires. If I can begin the work of removing this false wall between the two Bengals, I will consider myself blessed."

"Those who have divided our golden country into two parts - they are the enemies of the country."

"Sir, during the dark days or nights of the Great Killing, I watched events from the ‘point of view of a member of the Opposition. The news that came to me trickling down from various sources was unfavourable to the Ministers in power. I was very deeply impressed with the fact that during the whole of these disturbances the machinery of Government had completely broken down in this city. Sit, I pondered deeply over the situation, and if I have risen to say a few words on these motions I wish to tell my comrades in the Assembly what | feel very strongly and which T think ought to be raised before the people of Bengal, if Bengal is to be saved at all from utter extermination. There have been Hindu-Muslim quarrels in the past all over India. In many of these quarrels, when cases had been started, I had the privilege of defending the Muslim accused almost all over the country. But, Sir, 1 have never in the whole course of my life seen anything like the purcly fiendish fury with which both Hindus and Muslims have murdered not merely men or women but even small children. 1 do not know to satisfy what impulse—human or devilish—which seems to have possessed the Bengalees for those fateful days and nights that my countrymen indulged."

"Sir, 1 will not take much time of the House, but 1 will refer to a few instances which have been an eye-opener to me. have felt that the greatest disturbances did not rise in a moment out of the moon but seem to be the result of a well-planned action —may be on one side of nay be on both sides. To not know—God alone knows. “The future alone will disclose what is the truth ."

"Sir, on Friday morning 1 received telephone messages from various parts of the city from both Hindus and Muslims that troubles had broken out. I thought it was one of those unfortunate affairs which have shown to the world that although the Bengalees or Indians generally are amongst the most intellectual races of the world, they do not know the virtue of toleration. But, then the situation worsened gradually. I advised those who were telephoning to me, to seek police protection. It was then I came to know that the police were being appealed to and in some cases the police said that they had received no orders. Wonder of wonders! What are the police here for, what are they being paid for, if they do not know that whenever there is a’ disturbance of the public peace and tranquillity, their first duty is to jump into the situation, if necessary, and to defend public peace and tranquillity with their lives ?"

"It seemed …that some modern Nadir Shah had come upon Calcutta and had given up the city to rapine, plunder and pillage. Sir, each time I tried to get in touch with police officers, I was told that I was to contact the Control Room."

"Police officer would not listen, the Control Office would not control, the Government Houses would not listen, Sir, in these circumstances the Great Killing went on and it is undisputed that this would never have happened if the police and the military had taken strong measures on Friday, the 16th, when the trouble began. It would have been nipped in the bud that very day, and, therefore, the conclusion is inevitable that although the police may not be responsible for the origin of disturbances, they are directly responsible for the great loss of human life, and if an impartial enquiry is held and these officers can be spotted, my opinion is that they deserve to be hanged, drawn and quartered publicly, on charges of murder and abetment of murder…’"

"At least now the world know, why he did, what he did #Gaza_Genicide"

"My new appointment will create some protests and resentment by many Islamic extremists. But my struggle will continue, despite the difficulties and threats that I have received. My only aim is to defend fundamental rights, religious freedom and the life of Christians and other religious minorities. I am prepared for any sacrifice for this mission, which I carry out with the spirit of a servant of God. I thank all those who have prayed for me and supported me. I am receiving many messages of support from Pakistan and around the world."

"Pakistan is not the final goal of the Muslims. We want more. Pakistan is only the jumping off ground. The time is not far distant when the Muslim countries will have to stand in line with Pakistan and then only the jumping ground will have reached its fruition."

"Pakistan is the birthright of the Muslims."

"Honor killing is the worst form of example of brutality and bestiality in Pakistani society. The killing of a child by the mother or father is the desecration of the sacred bond of motherhood and parenting."

"Just as Medina had provided a base for the eventual victory of Islam in Arabia, Pakistan would pave the way for the triumphal return of Islam as the ruling power over the entire subcontinent. The whole of Hindustan would thus be turned into Pakistan just as the Prophet himself had turned all of Arabia into Pakistan."

"We are on the threshold of an era of science and technology. In our encounter with the new age it is the responsibility of the teachers, standing at the confrontation of past with the present, to help evolve a perspective for the future."

"Art is not a plaything, nor an ornamantal activity but an expression of life—it gives glimpse of life."

"It was 1950. I was then studying Journalism in London and was attached to the "Daily Telegraph” I was scanning the news of the morning. Suddenly I found the “copy" containing the list of successful candidates who had passed their Bar-at-Law Examination Mustafa’s name was there. I rang him up at his residence and congratulated him on his success At six in the evening Mustafa came to my flat with lots of eatables and to express his gratitude to me for letting him know his results piping-hot from the newspaper office. Such was the man who is no more in the land of the living."

"It was Brig. Saheb Dad who was President of the East Pakistan Sports Federation during Martial Law period when Kabir of Mohammedan Sporting Club and a Pakistani International football player was placed under suspension for some reason or other. Mohamedan Sporting Club was to play one of its vital League's match and Kabir's services was needed badly. It was Mustafa Bhai who came forward to the rescue of the club. It was learnt on the eve of the match day that Brig Saheb Dad was having his dinner at a friend's i residence. Mustafa Bhai, as a real lover of sports, did not hesitate to go and waited there outside the house for quite a long time till Brig Saheb Dad came out to leave for his residence. Mustafa Bhai approached him with Kabir's mercy petition and requested him to allow Kabir to play on the following day. To be very frank Brig Saheb Dad felt embarrassed seeing a person of such stature waiting for him outside a house at the dark of night and for such a small matter. He immediately assured that the suspension will be lifted. Kabir played on the following day. These may be small matters but they show one's sincere love and feelings towards sports, and sportsmen."

"I have so much affection for Mustafa, Pakistan and Kashmir were always on his lips"