Some people think Allama Iqbal was the real founder of Pakistan. They claim that in his address at Allahabad in 1930, Iqbal presented the concept of separate county or sovereign state.
But That’s not true. Iqbal talked about ‘Autonomous states.’
Between 1857 and 1929, over 64 people presented more than 80 schemes regarding autonomy of provinces and division of India. Iqbal’s scheme was just one of many schemes.
In 1933, Chaudhry Rehmat Ali conceptualized ‘Pakistan’. He wanted north western areas and some parts of Afghanistan to form an empire of Muslims outside of India, by the name of ‘Pakistan Commonwealth of Nations’.
Rehmat Ali propagated this scheme to a great length through his pamphlets.
Jinnah rejected this scheme in 1934 when some came to him to make him accept it.
Also in 1934, Iqbal rejected this scheme in his letter to Edward Thompson. In 1937, he changed his mind and wrote letters to Jinnah and told him what kind of Pakistan he really wants. At this point Iqbal just had an opinion about Pakistan’s nature and he wasn’t the founder of its concept. Remarkably, Jinnah didn’t reply to Iqbal’s letter.
Next year, since Iqbal was famous in Punjab, he asked Muslims of Punjab to accept Jinnah as their leader. Iqbal died same year.
Jinnah however, once again rejected Pakistan scheme in 1938 during All India Muslim League’s annual session.
Opportunists in Muslim India. Everyone had his own vision for India. Openly supporting one group’s vision would’ve meant losing support of another. So, Jinnah remained silent about definition of ‘Independent states’ till 1946.
Soon after Lahore Resolution, congress media started its propaganda and claimed that Muslim league was demanding Pakistan and wanted to divide India. At first, Jinnah protested against the word ‘Pakistan’ being associated with him, since his demands were a bit different. But later he decided to use this word for political gains due to word’s popularity among the masses. But Jinnah’s Pakistan was different than Rehmat Ali’s one. He merely called Muslim India, Pakistan, and Hindu India, Hindustan, and saw both as part of some Indian federation or confederation.
This was the reason why Rehmat Ali remained bitter about Jinnah, as he felt betrayed. Jinnah also gave a political statement that Iqbal was his mentor, to get even more support from Punjab.
Iqbal and Jinnah both were their own men and stayed that way. Iqbal opposed secularism unlike Jinnah. On other hand, Iqbal wanted some modified version of Islamic laws in Pakistan. Jinnah however opposed that too. The very reason there is no mention of religious laws in Lahore Resolution or any other official document crafted by Muslims League during the presence of Jinnah himself.