Prof. Imran Ismail Chohan
In the first decades of the 20th century, when South Asian Muslims were at a turning point of despair and subordination, Chaudhry Rehmat Ali was a solitary but deafening voice. His pamphlet, “The Aims and Objectives of the Pakistan National Movement”, originally published in 1933 and subsequently re-published in 1937 and 1942, was not a political pamphlet — it was a call to Muslim self-awareness and civilizational rebirth. Rehmat Ali started by outlining the mission of the Pakistan National Movement — to enlighten the peoples of South Asia against Indianism’s caste tyranny and foreign imperialism’s exploitation. He felt that the old Indian social system of centuries had made South Asia a jail in which equality and justice became the laughing stocks. To him, Indianism was not only a political conspiracy but an entrenched social and ethical system aimed at subjecting non-Indian peoples to domination. The Movement, in turn, wanted to free all down-trodden peoples — Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Dravidians, and so on — from this oppression. He labeled Indianism as a social despotism rather than a spiritual movement and regarded the Pakistan National Movement as the voice of humankind in South Asia. Rehmat Ali claimed that Islam represented equality, brotherhood, and justice — ideals that were against the exploitative and discriminatory institutions of Indianism. A second goal that he set for himself was the protection of weaker Asian nations against the Indianism and Western Imperialism barbarism. He addressed the Western powers as barbarians in modern attire, who drained the East materially, while Indianism, by means of oppression of caste, enslaved it socially and spiritually. The Pakistan National Movement thus envisioned liberating Asia from the twin yoke of imperial capitalism and Indian social monopoly. Rehmat Ali also explained that the Movement was intended to rebuild Asian civilization on the pillars of freedom, equality, and divine justice — pillars which Islam had stood since its inception. He likened the Movement to a call of awakening in the form of a trumpet that would bring back the moral and political freedom of the Asian nations. He made it clear that the struggle of the Movement was not against any one race but against systems of domination — against Imperialism, Capitalism, and Caste Tyranny. He dreamed of a future where all the free countries of South Asia would join hands to fight against those forces which had placed them in darkness for centuries. In his own words, this task was a war “against darkness and for the dawn of human liberty. The pamphlet also highlighted the solidarity of non-Indian nations — Muslims, Dravidians, Christians, and so on — in the name of justice and equality. Rehmat Ali dreamed of the emancipation of these nations as the revival of Asia’s moral and spiritual energy. He reiterated that the establishment of Pakistan was not just for Muslims but for the revival of humanity’s collective conscience in the East. Later on in the document, Rehmat Ali proclaimed that the Pakistan National Movement sought to supplant the Old Order of Indianism with a new one founded upon equality, fraternity, and belief in God. He also referred to Indianism’s hegemony as spiritual darkness that had tainted the very essence of the subcontinent. Pakistan, in his mind, was to be the beacon of freedom, a new civilization based upon divine justice and human dignity. He predicted that the success of this mission would usher in a new Asia, and one free from both foreign imperial bondage and domestic caste slavery. He invited the people of the region to rise as one, for the fight was not only political but moral and spiritual — a struggle for the soul of humanity. Chaudhry Rehmat Ali ended his vision with hope and belief — belief in God, in freedom, and in the future of the Muslim people. His words rang out like a call from God: “Faith be alive! Freedom be alive! Pakistan be alive!” Looking back, this pamphlet was far ahead of its time. It was not just a call for territorial separation but a complete ideological charter — a vision of justice, equality, and spiritual renewal. Chaudhry Rehmat Ali’s “The Aims and Objectives of the Pakistan National Movement” was, indeed, a brilliant idea — one that laid the intellectual foundation for Pakistan’s creation and the liberation of oppressed nations across Asia.