Wilfred Cantwell Smith was a Canadian scholar who devoted his career to Islamic studies and was professor at McGill University, Montreal. The centre of this issue (of Jana Sangh Today) is a little volume which contains his observations on Pakistan up to three years after Partition.

Pakistan was not merely a homeland for Indian Muslims but also a result of Islam seeking a State. Smith has pointed out that Hijri calendar, 1 A.H. which commenced when Islam achieved political sovereignty in Madinah, does not commemorate either the birth of the Prophet or the visions he saw. Unlike the Christian calendar which celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ.

In other words, the State is the political arm of Islam. No other faith or religion shares a comparable concept. It is therefore not important to look for the characteristic of an Islamic State. It is more appropriate to know the political aspirations of Islam which the State should embody. Which means that no devout Muslim can feel fully fulfilled in a non-Islamic State.

This is the seed of Muslim separatism. Remember Bangladesh was a part of Pakistan. Notwithstanding, we have many Muslims in Hindustan, many of whom must feel suffocated if not also unfulfilled. Their craving would not be merely political as that of Slovenia which separated from Yugoslavia or Slovakia which seceded from Czechoslovakia. The Muslim yearning would be primarily a matter of faith and religion. Hence co-existence between Muslims and others perpetually is difficult.

Beware! those who deify the unity and integrity of Hindustan!!