Remembering 11 August 1947:

Jinnah and Nehru:

Mohammad Ali Jinnah and Jawaharlal Nehru were two competitors made of same cloth. They were both ruthless and kept personal ambition above everything else including human lives. Their speeches always meant nothing. No commitment for anything but flowery phrases and colourful dreams.

Partition of India:

Partition of India on the basis of religion of the population had a precedent. Turkey did it earlier and there was complete exchange of population. Greeks left Turkey and Muslims living in Greece were brought into Turkey.

In 1947 the formal partition of India had to take place in August but from many months earlier killing of Non-muslims started and about a million migrated from (proposed) Pakistan to India. On the other hand  except Punjab, the law and order was better in India and very little migration to Pakistan took place but more and more Muslims were gearing up to migrate to Pakistan. In this background Mohammad Ali Jinnah delivered a speech on Radio.

Jinnah talks secularism:

This is the extract of Jinnah’s speech delivered on 11 August 1947:

“On both sides, in Hindustan and Pakistan, there are sections of people who may not agree with it, who may not like it; but in my judgement there was no other solution, and I am sure future history will record its verdict in favour of it. And what is more, it will be proved by actual experience as we go on that that was the only solution of India’s constitutional problem. Any idea of a united India could never have worked, and in my judgement it would have led us to terrific disaster. Maybe that view is correct; maybe it is not; that remains to be seen. All the same, in this division it was impossible to avoid the question of minorities being in one Dominion or the other. Now that was unavoidable. There is no other solution. Now what shall we do? Now, if we want to make this great State of Pakistan happy and prosperous, we should wholly and solely concentrate on the well-being of the people, and especially of the masses and the poor. If you will work in co-operation, forgetting the past, burying the hatchet, you are bound to succeed. If you change your past and work together in a spirit that every one of you, no matter to what community he belongs, no matter what relations he had with you in the past, no matter what is his colour, caste, or creed, is first, second, and last a citizen of this State with equal rights, privileges, and obligations, there will be no end to the progress you will make.

[[7]] I cannot emphasize it too much. We should begin to work in that spirit, and in course of time all these angularities of the majority and minority communities, the Hindu community and the Muslim community — because even as regards Muslims you have Pathans, Punjabis, Shias, Sunnis and so on, and among the Hindus you have Brahmins, Vashnavas, Khatris, also Bengalees, Madrasis and so on — will vanish. Indeed if you ask me, this has been the biggest hindrance in the way of India to attain the freedom and independence, and but for this we would have been free people long long ago. No power can hold another nation, and specially a nation of 400 million souls, in subjection; nobody could have conquered you, and even if it had happened, nobody could have continued its hold on you for any length of time, but for this. Therefore, we must learn a lesson from this. You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other place or worship in this State of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed — that has nothing to do with the business of the State. As you know, history shows that in England conditions, some time ago, were much worse than those prevailing in India today. The Roman Catholics and the Protestants persecuted each other. Even now there are some States in existence where there are discriminations made and bars imposed against a particular class. Thank God, we are not starting in those days. We are starting in the days where there is no discrimination, no distinction between one community and another, no discrimination between one caste or creed and another. We are starting with this fundamental principle: that we are all citizens, and equal citizens, of one State.

[Source: http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00islamlinks/txt_jinnah_assembly_1947.html ]

Speech stopped migration:

The result of speech was that Muslims stopped migrating to Pakistan. They wanted to go to Islamic Pakistan. The above speech talks of a secular Pakistan and therefore had no attraction. It stopped possible migration of 5 million Muslims in India.

Ipse dixit or research:

The above opinion may be dismissed  as my ipse dixit but it is a scholarly opinion of Professor Dr. Ishtiak Ahmed. He has authored many books. His lateet book which is under publication deals with this subject. Here is a conversation with him:

https://youtu.be/TY2N6LWwc9M