Pakistan Declaration

Covering letter

The declaration was circulated with a covering letter signed by Rahmat Ali alone, dated 28 January 1933, and addressed from 3 Humberstone Road. It read as follows:

3, Humberstone Road,
Cambridge, England.
28 January 1933

Dear Sir or Madam,

I am enclosing herewith an appeal on behalf of the thirty million Muslims of PAKISTAN, who live in the five Northern Units of India—Punjab, North-West Frontier (Afghan) Province, Kashmir, Sind, and Baluchistan. It embodies their demand for the recognition of their national status, as distinct from the other inhabitants of India, by the grant to Pakistan of a separate Federal Constitution on religious, social and historical grounds.

I shall be pleased if you will kindly acquaint me with your valuable opinion on the proposed solution of the great Hindu-Muslim problem. I trust that, vitally interested as you are in a just and permanent solution of that complex problem, the objects outlined in the appeal wiIl meet with your fullest approval and active support.

Yours truly, Rahmat Ali (Choudhary). (Founder, Pakistan National Movement)

Now or Never; Are We to Live or Perish Forever?

The pamphlet started with this famous sentence:

At this solemn hour in the history of India, when British and Indian statesmen are laying the foundations of a Federal Constitution for that land, we address this appeal to you, in the name of our common heritage, on behalf of our thirty million Muslim brethren who live in PAKSTAN—by which we mean the five Northern units of India, Viz: Punjab, North-West Frontier Province (Afghan Province), Kashmir, Sind and Baluchistan.

The pamphlet asked that "the five Northern units of India"—Punjab, North-West Frontier Province (Afghan Province), Kashmir, Sindh and Baluchistan (or Pakstan) become a state independent of the proposed Indian Federation.

Professor K.K.Aziz writes that "Rahmat Ali alone drafted this declaration. The word Pakstan was used for the first time in this pamphlet. To make it "representative", he looked for people who would sign it along with him. This difficult search among the firm grip of 'Indianism' on the young intellectual at English universities took him more than a month to find three young men in London who offered to support and sign it."

After the publication of the pamphlet, the Hindu Press vehemently criticized it, and the word 'Pakstan' used in it. Thus this word became a heated topic of debate. With the addition of an "i" to improve the pronunciation, the name of Pakistan grew in popularity and led to the commencement of the Pakistan Movement, and consequently the creation of Pakistan as an independent state in 1947.

The author

The author of this famous pamphlet was Chaudhary Rahmat Ali (16 November 1897 – 3 February 1951), a Muslim nationalist from Punjab, who was one of the earliest proponents of the creation of the state of Pakistan. He is credited with creating the name "Pakistan" for a separate Muslim homeland from British India. He propagated the Scheme of Pakistan with a missionary zeal since its inception in 1933. He also later founded the Pakistan National Movement to propagate his ideas. Being a political thinker and an idealist, wanted more than for accepting a smaller Pakistan in 1947 and save every Indian Muslim from the so-called "Hindu domination".

After the creation of Pakistan he returned to Pakistan in April 1948, planning to stay in the country, but he was ordered by the then Prime Minister Liaqat Ali Khan to leave the country. His belongings were confiscated, and he left empty-handed for England in October 1948.

He died on 3 February 1951 and was buried on 20 February at Newmarket Road Cemetery, Cambridge, UK. As there was no nearby family to take responsibility for his burial, Emmanuel College's Master, Edward Welbourne, who had been Rahmat Ali's Tutor, himself arranged the burial in Cambridge on 20 February 1951.