REHMANI ASHFAQ
mediamanfrompk@gmail.com
The two phrases are synonymous. This is fundamental human
right.. Historically such awareness in the writings f philosophers though
dawned with Socrates it took firm roots with the beginning of age of
enlightenment in Western Europe and the evolving of bourgeois revolution..
Human mind continues to gather information through five senses. The human ego
or id forces man to point out inequalities. In Muslim history the prime example
is of an Arab beduine who boldly questioned Omner as to how come that he was wearing
two sheets of cloth and the Caliph Omer gave the satisfactory reply.
Allama Iqbal said "fitrat mojhay pai ba pai
nawa per majboor karti hai" That is the nature continuously impels the
poet to express. Expression is the necessity of a thinking person. In Muslim
history the greatest challenger to absolutism, despotism, tyranny and
unilateralism was Imam Husain. After his great example we find Imam Jafar
Sadiq and Imam Abu Hanifa who laid down their lives for the sake of freedom and
freedom of expression. Then there emerged the mutazalite movement which upheld
the banner of freedom. But unfortunately the Muslim societies were engulfed by
Feudalism. Which ruthlessly gripped Muslim societies till 1914? A new age
of freedom dawned with the demolition of feudalism in 17th century in Great
Britain and emergence of bourgeois thought. The absolute monarch Charles the
1st was beheaded in 1648. Feudalism was overthrown in France in 1789 as a
result of French Revolution. In Muslim societies only powerful voice of
dissent, freedom and freedom of expression was raised by. a Muslin Sufi and
poet and writer Mansur Hallaj He said "anal haq" {I am the
truth}. Allama Iqbal has interpreted it as democratic right of an individual.
Mansur Hallaj lived in Baghdad. He was executed in 922 the
orders of Abbasid CALIPH Al Muqtadar. Had such philosophers prevailed
Arab Spring would have emerged long ago.
Our forefathers in the sub-continent were lucky enough
that the British introduced Western Education system in India. The Mughal
education dars-e-Nizami as well as the Hindu vedic education were reactionary
in approach. They corroborated. The feudal mind set. WHILE It is trut that if
Ahmad Shah Abdali had not come to India to help the Mughal emperor Shah Alam
Sani on the invitation of Muslim religious scholar Shah Wali Ullah and defeated
Marhattas in the III BATTLE OF pan PAT the Muslims of India would have become
Hindu slaves since that year, but it is also true that the great scholar of
Delhi did not know that danger to the future of India and to the Muslims
of India was the British.. In the 18th century and up-to 1857 Muslim Elan was
Feudal. The endeavors of Shah Wali Ullah and those of Bahadur Shah Zafar and
his allied forces was restoration of Monarchy in India. The education system
behind their thought was narrow and confined to the needs of feudal courts.
Shah wali Ullah did not include subjects of modern history of Europe and
England, Political Science, Economics and modern philosophy. The names of Lane
Pole, Kant and Newton. Adam Smith, Malthus and Rousseau, and Voltaire were
alien to Delhi Ulema. They were not aware of the famous quotation of Rousseau
"Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains" Rousseau and
Voltaire’s thought was the basis of the modern State which came into being as a
result of French Revolution.
Whereas the most powerful tool of the freedom
movement against the British was the modern consciousness attained by the
Indian leaders, Hindus as well as Muslims, as a result of deep study of
English Literature, modern Newspapers and modern history, current affairs and
international affairs, economics and Political Science. The content of the
modern subjects was revolutionary. While Mullahs were enemies of modernity, the
British educational institutions produced great names of Indian freedom
movement. Newspapers were made the vehicles of revolutionary ideas. While
British were against the press freedom for obvious reasons the feudal and
clergy were against the establishment of modern schools and colleges where
English was taught because the graduates passing out of these institutions
challenged the socio-political suffocation clamped by reactionary forces.
Luckily Muslim Bengal and Central and Northern India saw the emergence of men
like Syed Amir Ali,Sir Syed Ahmad Khan Maulana Muhammad Ali Jahar, Allama Sir
Muhammad Iqbal, Maulana Zafar Ali Khan and above all Quaid-e-Azam
Muhammad Ali Jinnah.
To cut the long story short, the achievement of Pakistan
was the result of struggle for freedom that is for Political rights and
economic opportunities which were wrested from the exploitation of Hindu
bourgeoisie and British imperialism. To achieve these goals the Quaid-e-Azam
made full use of his power of oratory and legal skill. Freedom of speech is not
granted it is snatch.
Unfortunately the freedom of speech was snatched by the
establishment after the coming into being of Pakistan. First victim of the
establishment was the Quaid-e-Azam himself His 11th August, 1947 speech was not
allowed to be printed so much so that this prophetic speech for writing of
which the Quaid had spent many hours was not printed in, the paper daily Dawn,
founded by him. Against this discriminatory policy the editor Altaf Hussain had
to complaib to the Prime Minister Liaqat Ali Khan.
