Jamaat-e-Islami and the Creation of Pakistan

Jamaat-e-Islami was founded in Lahore on 26 August 1941, during one of the most decisive periods in the history of the Indian subcontinent. British colonial rule was approaching its final phase, Hindu majoritarian politics was becoming increasingly assertive, and the Muslims of India were searching for a secure political future in which their religion, culture, law and collective identity could survive.

Jamaat-e-Islami, as an organisation, did not become part of the All-India Muslim League or formally participate in the Pakistan Movement. This historical distinction should be stated clearly. Jamaat was established as an ideological and reformist movement whose objective extended beyond the creation of a Muslim-majority territory. The same was highlighted by Qauid e Azam when he was met with Jamaat’s first General Secretary, soon after the creation of Jamaat-e-Islami [Refer to Evolution of Pakistan by Sharif Uddin Pirzada]. It sought the establishment of a society and state in which Islam would guide personal conduct, public institutions, legislation, economics and political authority.

At the same time, the idea of a homeland where Muslims could live according to Islamic principles was deeply relevant to the wider Muslim thought of the subcontinent. Muslims did not struggle merely for a change of borders. Their demand for a separate homeland arose from the conviction that they were a distinct community, possessing their own religious beliefs, civilisational identity, social values and conception of law.

Before the establishment of Jamaat, Syed Maududi had produced a powerful intellectual critique of composite Indian nationalism. Through writings such as Mas’ala-e-Qaumiyat, he challenged the claim that Hindus and Muslims could be reduced to a single political nation merely because they inhabited the same territory. He explained that Islam creates a moral and ideological community whose collective life cannot remain permanently subordinate to a civilisation built upon different foundations.

This argument strengthened the intellectual case for Muslim nationhood. Syed Maududi differed with important aspects of Muslim League politics and warned that a state created in the name of Muslims could lose its purpose if it adopted secular nationalism after independence. His disagreement was therefore not with the need for Muslim political freedom, but with the danger that a Muslim homeland might be separated from the Islamic mission that justified it.

Several individuals who later became members and leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami had themselves participated in the struggle for a Muslim homeland or supported the political awakening that led to Pakistan. After Partition, they brought that experience into Jamaat’s organised effort to shape the new country in accordance with Islam.

Jamaat’s formation in 1941 also contributed by preparing an organised body of workers grounded in Qur’anic understanding, personal discipline, da‘wah, shura and public responsibility. While political parties focused upon negotiations, elections and constitutional arrangements, Jamaat concentrated upon producing men and women capable of serving an Islamic society.

The final months before Partition revealed the practical character of this training. During the violence of 1947, Dar-ul-Islam at Pathankot became a centre of protection for endangered Muslims. Thousands of refugees were sheltered and evacuated. Maulana Maududi remained at the settlement until its vulnerable residents had been moved to safety and personally participated in its defence.

After migrating to Lahore, Jamaat workers immediately became involved in refugee rehabilitation. They helped organise camps, sanitation, medical assistance, food distribution and the burial of those who had died during migration. The organisation entered Pakistan not by seeking political privilege, but by serving a wounded and displaced population.

Jamaat-e-Islami’s role in Pakistan’s creation should therefore be understood in three dimensions. First, Syed Maududi’s writings strengthened the intellectual rejection of composite nationalism and articulated the distinct ideological character of Muslim nationhood. Second, Jamaat developed an organised movement dedicated to the Islamic purpose that a Muslim homeland was expected to fulfil. Third, during and after Partition, its workers served refugees and helped stabilise the society of the newly created state.

Jamaat does not rewrite history by claiming organisational ownership of the Pakistan Movement. It does, however, affirm that the demand for a Muslim homeland and the struggle for Islamic collective life were inseparable currents within the Muslim consciousness of the subcontinent. Pakistan was created so that Muslims could live with freedom, dignity and fidelity to Islam. Jamaat’s historic mission has been to ensure that this purpose is neither forgotten nor reduced to ceremonial language.