THE DIALECTICS BETWEEN DIVERSITY AND UNITARIANISM IN PAKISTAN

Abstract

To seek unity amid diversity has been the eternal problem of India. The British succeeded in establishing a strong political centre to rule India formally for a century. The legacy of the British for central and south India enabled India to move forward to evolve a democratic polity. Pakistan inheriting a different governance strategy failed to shape the political process into a democratic order. This paper attempts to explain why Pakistan and India emerging from the single Indian political entity and having experienced the same British colonial rule followed different political and federal trajectories. It is argued that a separate Muslim identity was projected from 1857 starting with Syed Ahmed Khan and when Pakistan did emerge in 1947, it had the additional task of nurturing its new identity. Furthermore the part of India comprising Pakistan carried different British antecedents and experience of governance compared to the part that now emerged as the new State of India. Finally, the two countries started with different leading classes, feudal in Pakistan, bourgeoisie in India.