The 25th day of December bears great significance. It is a day of blessings as birthday of our holy prophet Essa Rohallah (Alhe-e-Salam) falls on the very day. The birthday of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali, the founder of Pakistan, also falls on the same day.
On this auspicious day where one likes to share feeling of love and good wishes with Muslims and Christian on the occasion of Christmas and Quaid’s birthday, there is a feeling of grief and sorrow over the separation of our Eastern wing which occurred in the same month some 38 years back. The separation reminds address of Quaid-e-Azam as Governor General of Pakistan to the people of East Pakistan in 1948, in which he forewarned curse of provincialism and made a humble request to give up provincialism but all of us put a deaf ear to his appeal. Since we are passing for the same critical time once again, one feels that on the birthday of Quaid-e-Azam it would be more appropriate to highlight portions of the speech he delivered at Decca that dealt with the menace of provincialism. It is important for us to learn from our past mistakes and unless we do not act now on the instructions of our great Quaid, we may put the whole nation’s unity at stake. Quaid-e-Azam said, “Let me warn you in the clearest terms of the dangers that still face Pakistan and your province in particular, as I have done already. Having failed to prevent the establishment of Pakistan, thwarted and frustrated by failure, the enemies of Pakistan have now turned their attention to disrupting the state by creating a split amongst the Muslims of Pakistan. These attempts have taken the shape principally of encouraging provincialism.” He said, “As long as you do not throw off this poison from your body politic, you will never be able to weld yourselves, mould yourselves, galvanize yourselves into a real true nation. What you want is not to talk about Bengalis, Punjabis, Sindhis, Baluchis, Pathans and so on. They are, of course, units; but I ask you, have you forgotten the lesson that was taught to us 1300 years ago? If I may point out, you are all outsiders here. Who were the original inhabitants of Bengal?- not those who are now living. So what is the use of saying "We are Bengalis, or Sindhis, or Pathans, or Punjabis"? No, we are Muslims, Islam had taught us this. Here I think you will agree with me that whatever else you may be and whatever you are, you are Muslims. You belong to a nation now. He said, “You have now carved out a territory, a vast territory, it is all yours. It does not belong to a Punjabi or a Sindhi, or a Pathan or a Bengali, it is yours. You have got your central government where the several units are represented. Therefore, if you want to build up yourselves into a nation, for God's sake give up this provincialism. Provincialism has been one of the curses, and so is sectionalism, Shia, Sunni, etc. Now I ask you to get rid of this provincialism because as long as you allow this poison to remain in the body politic of Pakistan, believe me, you will never be a strong nation, and you will never be able to achieve what I wish you could achieve. Please do not think that I do not appreciate the position. Very often it becomes a vicious circle. When you speak to a Bengali he says "Yes, you are right, but the Punjabi is so arrogant"; when you speak to the Punjabi or a non-Bengali he says "Yes, but these people do not want us here, they want to get us out." Now this is a vicious circle, and I do not think anybody can solve this Chinese puzzle.” He said, “The question is, who is going to be the more sensible of the two; and whoever is going to be the more sensible, more practical, more statesmanlike will be rendering the greatest service to Pakistan. So you make up your mind, and from today put an end to this sectionalism.” “About national language, he said, About language I have already said, this is in order to create disruption among the Musalmans. Your Prime Minister has rightIy pointed this out in a recent statement, and I am glad that his government have decided to put down firmly any attempt to disturb the peace of this province by political saboteurs or their agents. Whether Bengali should be the official language of this province is a matter for the elected representatives of the people of this province to decide. I have no doubt that this question should be decided solely in accordance with the wishes of the inhabitants of this province at the appropriate time. Let me tell you in clearest language that there is no truth that your normal life is to be touched or disturbed, so far as your Bengali language is concerned. But ultimately it is for you, the people of this province, to decide what should be the language of your province. Quaid-e-Azam added “But let me make it clear to you that the state language of Pakistan is going to be Urdu and no other language. Anyone who tries to mislead you is merely the enemy of Pakistan. Without one state language, no nation can remain tied up solidly together and function. Look at the history of other countries. Therefore, so far as the state language is concerned, Pakistan's language should be Urdu; but, as I have said, it will come in time.” He warned “I tell you once again, do not fall into the trap of those who are the enemies of Pakistan. Unfortunately you have fifth-columnists. I am sorry to say that they are Muslims, who are financed by outsiders.” If we critically examine the speech of Quaid-e-Azam, which he addressed at Decca, one would reach to the conclusion that provincialism is the greatest curse that has already deprived us from our eastern wing in the shape of Bangladesh. We must keep the words of our great Quaid in mind when striving for provincial autonomy. We need to question ourselves, are we loyal to our nation in making such demands. To save our country, we need to spread Quaid’s message to every corner of our country that provincialism is curse and that we should be watchful of fifth-columnists in our files who are Muslims and financed by outsiders.
On this auspicious day where one likes to share feeling of love and good wishes with Muslims and Christian on the occasion of Christmas and Quaid’s birthday, there is a feeling of grief and sorrow over the separation of our Eastern wing which occurred in the same month some 38 years back. The separation reminds address of Quaid-e-Azam as Governor General of Pakistan to the people of East Pakistan in 1948, in which he forewarned curse of provincialism and made a humble request to give up provincialism but all of us put a deaf ear to his appeal. Since we are passing for the same critical time once again, one feels that on the birthday of Quaid-e-Azam it would be more appropriate to highlight portions of the speech he delivered at Decca that dealt with the menace of provincialism. It is important for us to learn from our past mistakes and unless we do not act now on the instructions of our great Quaid, we may put the whole nation’s unity at stake. Quaid-e-Azam said, “Let me warn you in the clearest terms of the dangers that still face Pakistan and your province in particular, as I have done already. Having failed to prevent the establishment of Pakistan, thwarted and frustrated by failure, the enemies of Pakistan have now turned their attention to disrupting the state by creating a split amongst the Muslims of Pakistan. These attempts have taken the shape principally of encouraging provincialism.” He said, “As long as you do not throw off this poison from your body politic, you will never be able to weld yourselves, mould yourselves, galvanize yourselves into a real true nation. What you want is not to talk about Bengalis, Punjabis, Sindhis, Baluchis, Pathans and so on. They are, of course, units; but I ask you, have you forgotten the lesson that was taught to us 1300 years ago? If I may point out, you are all outsiders here. Who were the original inhabitants of Bengal?- not those who are now living. So what is the use of saying "We are Bengalis, or Sindhis, or Pathans, or Punjabis"? No, we are Muslims, Islam had taught us this. Here I think you will agree with me that whatever else you may be and whatever you are, you are Muslims. You belong to a nation now. He said, “You have now carved out a territory, a vast territory, it is all yours. It does not belong to a Punjabi or a Sindhi, or a Pathan or a Bengali, it is yours. You have got your central government where the several units are represented. Therefore, if you want to build up yourselves into a nation, for God's sake give up this provincialism. Provincialism has been one of the curses, and so is sectionalism, Shia, Sunni, etc. Now I ask you to get rid of this provincialism because as long as you allow this poison to remain in the body politic of Pakistan, believe me, you will never be a strong nation, and you will never be able to achieve what I wish you could achieve. Please do not think that I do not appreciate the position. Very often it becomes a vicious circle. When you speak to a Bengali he says "Yes, you are right, but the Punjabi is so arrogant"; when you speak to the Punjabi or a non-Bengali he says "Yes, but these people do not want us here, they want to get us out." Now this is a vicious circle, and I do not think anybody can solve this Chinese puzzle.” He said, “The question is, who is going to be the more sensible of the two; and whoever is going to be the more sensible, more practical, more statesmanlike will be rendering the greatest service to Pakistan. So you make up your mind, and from today put an end to this sectionalism.” “About national language, he said, About language I have already said, this is in order to create disruption among the Musalmans. Your Prime Minister has rightIy pointed this out in a recent statement, and I am glad that his government have decided to put down firmly any attempt to disturb the peace of this province by political saboteurs or their agents. Whether Bengali should be the official language of this province is a matter for the elected representatives of the people of this province to decide. I have no doubt that this question should be decided solely in accordance with the wishes of the inhabitants of this province at the appropriate time. Let me tell you in clearest language that there is no truth that your normal life is to be touched or disturbed, so far as your Bengali language is concerned. But ultimately it is for you, the people of this province, to decide what should be the language of your province. Quaid-e-Azam added “But let me make it clear to you that the state language of Pakistan is going to be Urdu and no other language. Anyone who tries to mislead you is merely the enemy of Pakistan. Without one state language, no nation can remain tied up solidly together and function. Look at the history of other countries. Therefore, so far as the state language is concerned, Pakistan's language should be Urdu; but, as I have said, it will come in time.” He warned “I tell you once again, do not fall into the trap of those who are the enemies of Pakistan. Unfortunately you have fifth-columnists. I am sorry to say that they are Muslims, who are financed by outsiders.” If we critically examine the speech of Quaid-e-Azam, which he addressed at Decca, one would reach to the conclusion that provincialism is the greatest curse that has already deprived us from our eastern wing in the shape of Bangladesh. We must keep the words of our great Quaid in mind when striving for provincial autonomy. We need to question ourselves, are we loyal to our nation in making such demands. To save our country, we need to spread Quaid’s message to every corner of our country that provincialism is curse and that we should be watchful of fifth-columnists in our files who are Muslims and financed by outsiders.
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