Eloquent Incoherence

The 1947 partition of India is one of the most fiercely debated subjects amongst expatriate South Asian Muslims. The stated purpose behind the creation of Pakistan was to ensure the preservation of the South Asian Muslim community as a distinct nation with its own norms and culture. An unfortunate (and ironic) side effect of this was that the overwhelming majority of landmarks, institutions, and historic centers of Islamic Civilization in the Subcontinent ended up on the wrong side of the border. The capital of the Mughal Empire, the most prominent of the Muslim dynasties through which Islam came to influence every aspect of Indian culture and history, was at Delhi. Three of the most influential movements within contemporary Sunni Islam–The Barelvi Movement, the Deobandi Movement, and the Tablighi Jamaat–originated in or near modern-day Uttar Pradesh. Lucknow, also in Uttar Pradesh, was the Subcontinent’s most prominent center of Islamic learning and culture where the Urdu language was born and from which some of the world’s most eminent Muslim scholars and poets hailed. Hyderabad, built by the Qutb Shahi Sultanate, was a similarly vibrant center of Muslim culture. The Dargah at Ajmer, home to the mausoleum of Sufi saint Khawaja Moinuddin Chishti, is among the most visited religious sites in the Subcontinent by Muslims and non-Muslims alike. Aligarh Muslim University, the first institution of higher learning set up during the British Raj, still stands at Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh. The first mosque in the Subcontinent (which was also one of the first mosques outside of Arabia) is located at Kodungallur in modern-day Kerala and was built in the late seventh century by the Prophet’s (SAW) companion Malik ibn Dinar. And who can forget the Taj Mahal, built at Agra by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan.

Though the regions that came to form Pakistan have their share of Muslim landmarks and historic centers of civilization, few of them rival the aforementioned sites and institutions in terms of historic significance. The creation of Pakistan has yet to usher in the Islamic renaissance that Iqbal and others had hoped would give rise to modern centers of Islamic civilization; to the extent that the Pakistan movement was an attempt to re-create the golden age of the Mughal Empire, it has so far been unsuccessful. Though a 150 million-strong Muslim community remains in India, their status as a largely underprivileged minority comprising no more than 15% of the population limits the extent to which Islamic Civilization can continue to thrive in India. And the intermittent tide of Hindu nationalism is an ever-present threat to the remaining vestiges of Islam’s cultural legacy in the Subcontinent (Remember Ayodhya and Gujarat?).

I do not mean to imply that I believe the creation of Pakistan was a mistake. There were other factors at stake, and the issue is not a black-and-white one. But the exodus of Muslims from India effectively orphaned much of the cultural heritage of Islam in the Subcontinent, and unwittingly aided the cause of those Indians who see Islam as a “foreign” influence worthy of eradication. The result has been an effect not unlike the loss of Andalusia 500 years ago. The difference is that South Asian Muslims voluntarily abandoned part of their heritage in search of a dominance they have yet to achieve.