From NWFP to Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa

They say ignorance is bliss. Luckily I am not blessed. It amazes me to see how our politicians, even some of our intellectuals, are completely ignorant of the history of the subcontinent without which you cannot properly analyse incidents which keep occurring and sometimes takes a very ugly turn.

I will focus on the recent controversy over changing the name NWFP to Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, a 200-year-old controversy that began during the Mughal period. Northern India, minus Sindh and Balochistan, was one administrative unit stretching from Agra to Kabul but they could not take over the Khyber Pass on account of topography. So a demarcation, the Durand Line, was made to separate Afghanistan from British occupied areas and there was an agreement between the tribes and the British government to call it a federally administered area. Districts were created and their heads were given the title of ‘political agent’ instead of ‘deputy commissioner’.

I am sorry to say that the actual idea of Partition came from Mohan Malaviya and Gangadhar Tilak who wanted to get rid of the Muslims. In 1935, when the British government decided to give certain powers to the Indians, Congress won 90 per cent of the provincial seats. The Congress government then appointed their own people as political agents and the demand for Pakhtunistan kept getting stronger. In the meantime, the Second World War started and the Congress government’s made the mistake of resigning all the ministries and governments in all the provinces where they were ruling. In 1942 the Quit India Movement started and the entire leadership was arrested. This was a lucky break for the Muslim League to make inroads in the Pakistan field without any opposition. But for three years they just managed to touch the tip of the iceberg. Finally in 1946 the British decided to hold another election to see which party emerged stronger. Again, due to the conspiracies of British administrators, the Muslim League was unable to get a majority. According to observations of various historians, Congress agreed to the partition of India because they planned to keep NWFP as part of their territory. This would allow them to enter Kashmir, get to Afghanistan and make their way into Balochistan. This meant that Pakistan would be limited to Sindh and Punjab, which could never be an economically viable unit and they would go back begging to India.

But their plan failed. Not just the British but the Americans too were keen that the northern areas should never to go India. The northern area borders with China and Russia and they were convinced the Hindus would easily make a treaty with the Russians, something the Muslims would never do due to ideological differences. However, they also did not want Pakistan to be too strong in northern India and saw to it that the maharaja appointed two British officers as administrators who would ensure that Kashmir, excluding the northern areas, would go to India. The plan was a success.

Jawaharlal Nehru agreed to a referendum in NWFP as he was confident that Congress would win. But with efforts of the British government and their administration Pakistan won by just 0.46 per cent.

At the time of Partition Jinnah visited the area and diplomatically handled the situation. He met with Fata tribal chiefs and entered into a treaty with them, providing them all the facilities they had received during British rule. Thus Gandhi and Nehru’s strategy did not work.

Even after the death of Ghaffar Khan, the desire to form Pakhtunistan gained strength. There are two instances that prove Ghaffar Khan’s anti-Pakistan policies. One which I witnessed was his Independence Day speech on Indian television. He said that after independence they had been thrown to the wolves. The second time was during his last days when he said he wanted to be buried in Jalalabad, Afghanistan and not in an enslaved part of Pakistan.

One can well understand what Pakhtunkhwa stands for. We are actually hurting the soul of the father of the nation by giving the province this name. ([e-mail])

Published in the Express Tribune, June 17^th, 2010.