Allama Dr. Sir Muhammad Iqbal expresses Loyalty to British Rule of India even after proposing Muslim Autonomy in India
His Letter in ‘The Times’, London, in 1931 and his Speeches in London to British Members of Parliament in 1932
Compiled by Dr. Zahid Aziz
The Light & Islamic Review (US), May/June 2000 Issue (Vol. 77, No. 3, pp. 13–14)
Allama Dr. Sir Muhammad Iqbal’s speech to the conference of the Muslim League in December 1930 at Allahabad is regarded as a great landmark in Muslim history of the Indian subcontinent because it is considered to be the first time that the idea of the creation of a Muslim state was publicly proposed which later took the form of Pakistan. Read any history of Pakistan, elementary or advanced, and you will find Iqbal’s speech in 1930 described as the foundation stone towards the creation of Pakistan in 1947.
In view of this, it will come as a surprise to many, especially to critics of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad’s views on British rule of India, that even after this speech (to say nothing of before it) Iqbal expressed loyalty to British rule of India. Below we reproduce a letter he wrote to The Times newspaper of London when he was in London in 1931, which was published in The Times in its issue of October 12, 1931, on page 8. I first saw the text of this letter in the book Letters and Writings of Iqbal published by none other than the Iqbal Academy Pakistan from Lahore in 1967, reprinted in 1981 (pages 119–120). I then looked up that issue of The Times in a reference library to enable me to reproduce it from the original source, which I do below.
Text of Iqbal’s Letter to The Times:
Sir, — Writing in your issue of October 3 last, Dr. E. Thompson has torn the following passage from its context in my presidential address to the All-India Moslem League of last December, in order to serve as evidence of “Pan-Islamic plotting”:
“I would like to see the Punjab, North-West Frontier Province, Sind [Sindh], 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 Moslem [Muslim] State appears to me to be the final destiny of the Moslems, at least of North-West India.”
May I tell Dr. Thompson that in this passage I do not put forward a “demand” for a Moslem state outside the British Empire, but only a guess at the possible outcome in the dim future of the mighty forces now shaping the destiny of the Indian sub- continent. No Indian Moslem with any pretence to sanity contemplates a Moslem state or series of States in North-West India outside the British commonwealth of Nations as a plan of practical politics.
Although I would oppose the creation of another cockpit of communal strife in the Central Punjab, as suggested by some enthusiasts, I am all for a redistribution of India into provinces with effective majorities of one community or another on lines advocated both by the Nehru and the Simon Reports. Indeed, my suggestion regarding Moslem provinces merely carries forward this idea. A series of contented and well-organized Moslem provinces on the North-West Frontier of India would be the bulwark of India and of the British Empire against the hungry generations of the Asiatic highlands.
Yours faithfully, Muhammed Iqbal
St. James’s court, S.W.1, Oct. 10.
As can be seen, Iqbal is replying to what he regards as a misrepresentation of his speech by Dr. Edward Thompson, and says that the State or States envisaged by him would be the bulwark of the British Empire against invasion from central Asia.
Speeches in London in 1932:
The following year, 1932, Iqbal again visited London in connection with the Third Round Table Conference held between Indian leaders and the British government. At a reception in his honour on 24 November, attended by members of the British Parliament and diplomats from many countries, Iqbal made a short statement which ended with the words:
“Muslims have courage and have always shown loyalty and affection for Great Britain. I hope the Muslims’ legitimate claims and aspirations would be fully safeguarded in the final settlement.” (Letters and Writings of Iqbal, page 70)
A similar function was held on 15 December in a room in the Houses of Parliament (the building with the world-famous Big Ben clock tower) where foreign diplomats and members of the House of Lords and Commons were invited to meet Iqbal and other members of the Muslim delegation. Iqbal summarised the case for the Muslims of India, and ended his speech as follows:
“I, therefore, respectfully submit that the demands the Muslims of India have placed before you are worth your consideration, because a powerful India will solve forever the question that is most prominent in politics at the present time, the question of the cooperation of the East and West. India lies between the East and West, and if the Muslims are allowed an opportunity, with the co-operation of England, they can serve the people of Asia and of England.”
So, while he was negotiating the freedom of Muslims of India, Iqbal says that with the co-operation of England the Muslims would be serving the people of England. We ask the critics of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad: What impression does this statement of Iqbal convey? Is he not saying that the Muslims of India, if their demands are met, would be serving the British political interest in the world? Whatever explanation of his words may be given by our critics (who will immediately rush to Iqbal’s defence), a person can no doubt use this text to represent Iqbal as an agent of British imperialism.