History of
Pakistan:
Muslim world is a vast and immense
mass of land sprawling from West Africa facing
the Atlantic to southern Philippines far in the
Pacific. Its northern limits touch the Volga in
Russia while southern frontiers run up to
Mozambique in South-East Africa on the Indian
Ocean. In China, in addition to Sinkiang,
Muslims are in substantial numbers in the
provinces bordering Burma and in the districts
around Peking. Total population of Muslims in
the world is estimated at one
billion.
In this book it is
proposed to deal with only a small segment of
this vast and varied world -- with the land and
people of the region called Pakistan. The
purpose is not to discuss each and every aspect
of their history nor to give a comprehensive
account of their activities. It is intended to
bring out only certain salient aspects which
have either escaped the notice of historians or
failed to receive sufficient emphasis from them.
This book will substantiate the historical truth
that the creation of an independent State of
Pakistan in the sub-continent in the middle of
the 20th century was not an oddity or a strange
phenomena, nor have the people inhabiting this
new political entity asserted their separate
status from India for the first
time.
Pakistan in different forms
and in different backgrounds has appeared many a
time in these very regions and endured longer
than other independent states of this
sub-continent, making enormous contribution to
civilization. The history of its people is full
of colour, thrill and excitement; of gallant
deeds and sublime performance. It has, perhaps,
witnessed more invasions than any other part of
the world, absorbed more racial strains than any
other region and more ideas have taken birth in
the bosom of this land than
elsewhere.
It was in these lands
that the Indus Valley Civilization, one of the
most brilliant in the annals of human history,
flourished with its main centres at Moenjo Daro
in Sind, Harappa in the Punjab, Kej in the
Baluch territory and Judeiro Daro in the Pathan
region. It was here that Buddhist culture
blossomed and reached its zenith under the
Kushans in the form of Gandhara civilization at
the twin cities of Peshawar and Taxila. It was
on this very soil that the Graeco-Bactrian
civilization had its best flowering and left the
indelible marks of finest Greek art in the
potwar plateau around Rawalpindi. The entire
Baluchistan is strewn with the remains of the
earliest products of man's activities. "Western
Pakistan is a region which has been
conspicuously important in the development of
civilization." (Pakistan and Western Asia, By
Prof. Norman Brown. Pakistan
Miscellany).
"In our present state
of knowledge, we may regard the period of the
Indus Valley culture as the first epoch in the
history of civilization in the Indo-Pakistan
sub-continent. The second epoch is again one in
which the north-west figures basically. This is
the period when the Aryan entered through the
passes of the north-west at a time assumed to be
about 1500- 1200 B.C. and possessed the culture
of the Rig Veda, which is the first and most
important book of the early Indo-Aryans and was
probably compiled by 1000 B.C."
(Ibid)
"Of the two river systems
that of the Indus, now mainly in Pakistan, had
the earliest civilization and gave its name to
India. The fertile plains of the Punjab watered
by the five great tributaries of the Indus had a
high culture over two thousand years before
Christ, which spread down the lower course of
the Indus as far as the sea." (The Wonder that
was India, By A.L. Bhasham.)
In
valour and patriotism the people of these lands
have been second to none. It was the people of
the Indus Valley that held back the Aryans for
decades; it was in the Punjab that the advance
of ferocious Mongols was halted for more than a
century. But for this defence the tender sapling
of Muslim state planted at Delhi in the early
13th century A.D. would have been trampled upon
and smothered out. Among more recent events the
stiff resistance that Napier encountered from
the Sindis and Baluchis is still fresh in our
minds. The revolt of the 'hurs' of Sind against
British rule in the 20th century is another
glorious mark in this series. Pathans' defiance
of the British rule and their perpetual struggle
in the cause of freedom is a story of only the
other day. Kashmiris have suffered silently but
never ceased their fight for freedom. The lands
of Pakistan are indeed drenched with the blood
of many a hero and saturated with the wisdom of
many a sage. And what is more exhilarating, it
was from these lands that Islam commenced its
journey in the sub-continent.
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