Pakistan and the case of two-nations theory

In: The Jerusalem quarterly, Heft 38, S. 107-124

Abstract

The meaning of the dilemma of the Muslims in Pakistan and the nature of the "original sin" whose "consequences of consequences" has been more than three decades of tumultous, fratricidal, and tragic story of Pakistan are the focus of this essay. It is argued that the two-nations theory was essentially the creation and propagation of a myth, that the Muslims of India constituted a separate and distinct nation, and therefore needed a separate homeland of their own, and that Islam as an ideology united all Muslims into one nation despite the differences of language, ethnicity, region, culture etc. (DÜI-Hns)