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February 21, 2003
Nothing but the Truth
An autobiographer is constantly under the temptation to twist the facts of his life to conform to the image he wants to project of himself.
Mr. Mehdi Ali Siddiqi, whose autobiography is under review in this column, is certainly a rare writer who has dedicated his life to the pursuit of truth. You cannot avoid gaining this impression after going through closely his attention-arresting book “Bila kam ve kast” (Truth Without Tamper).
Apart from being a basically honest person, he had to, as a judge for over 35 years, keep sifting facts from fables. He commenced writing the autobiography when he was almost 90 years of age, located with his daughter in New York, and totally conditioned and committed to the pursuit of truth. He is now 95, still alert and in control of his mental faculties. The book was composed totally from memory and one has to marvel at this feat.
The book is in two parts. The first deals with the first 40 years of his life spent in Hyderabad State in South India. The remainder is virtually an eyewitness account of the political history of Pakistan with a sprinkling of some personal events and episodes. The book is not a research work but an excellent source material on the last three decades of the Muslim rule in Hyderabad and the first five decades of a new Muslim state on the world map.
After completing his education at Aligarh University, Mr. Siddiqi returned to Hyderabad and joined the judicial branch of the State’s elite service. He describes in detail the separation of the judiciary from the executive in the State’s administrative structure and how well it served the aims of justice. Hyderabad was the first state where this separation took place in the early 1920s. Total justice was thus ensured to all and sundry. Many of the evils attending the political digressions in Pakistan are traceable to the administrative subservience of the judiciary to the executive.
The author describes the exemplary amity between the Hindus and Muslims of the State. He points out the virtual absence of communal riots there and the emergence of a composite Hyderabadi culture. Sarojani Naidu too had correctly pointed this out when she said that Hindu-Muslim unity outside of Hyderabad is a myth. The author mentions in this context the differing attributes of Brahmanic and Dravadian cultures.
He is critical of the role of Mr. Gandhi as a half religious, half political leader which created a rift in the ranks of the National Congress. His religious tilt caused disillusionment among several Indian leaders including Dr. B.R. Ambedkar and Mr. Jaikar. His support to the Khilafat Movement was based not on sincerity but on his aim to project himself as a champion of Muslim causes too.
The author’s migration to Pakistan following the fall of Hyderabad, his struggles to find a reasonable livelihood in Pakistan, the help of his Hyderabadi relations and his Aligarh class fellows and friends, occupy a few chapters of the book. His account gives an insight into the crucial role the Aligarh movement had played in the formation and running of Pakistan.
Mr. Mehdi Ali, though not a member of Jamaat-I-Islami, often found himself closer to the political precepts of Maulana Maudoodi. He could certainly be called an “Islam Pasand”. He has therefore viewed the dismissal of the government of Nazimuddin and the Assembly as a move of the progressive sector of the army and bureaucracy. In this context he mentions three prominent persons: Mr. Bogra, the new Prime Minister, was my first ambassador; I found him to be a highly intelligent person and not in line with the thinking of Mr. Ghulam Muhammad. In a press conference in Ottawa, on an official visit, he repeated the words of the British lawyer representing Tamizuddin Khan, Speaker of the Assembly that the “Governor-General was a symbol of a symbol”.
The author has then mentioned Ghulam Ahmad Parvez as the man whose views dominated the official thinking. I knew Mr, Parvez. He did hold the views described by the author but he was no more than a middle rung officer in the government. His following was negligible. I have read several of his books. In personal meetings, I found him to be a cunning person.
Another person mentioned by the author is Prof. Ahmad Ali. He was my immediate boss in 1959-60. He is acknowledged as a distinguished writer both in English and Urdu but his recent translation of the Qur’an stands out merely because of the maintenance of the cadence even in English translation. Prof. Ahmad Ali had no place at all in the power politics of the country. More attention could have been paid to the role of the man in uniform in the power politics of the country even in those early years. Messrs. Parvez, Ahmad Ali, Maulana Maudoodi, Mufti Mahmood enjoyed but a nuisance value. Islamic Research Council, Islamic Advisory bodies were all red herrings.
The most significant portion of the book comprises the chapters dealing with Mr. Bhutto. I generally share the views of Mr. Siddiqi on Mr. Bhutto. He holds him mainly responsible for the break-up of the country. He mentions the Polish resolution in the Security Council that could have saved the integrity of the country had Bhutto not torn it to pieces. This view is now generally held among the right-wing thinkers and writers of Pakistan. Many more foreign and local elements were involved in the dismemberment of the country.
As a man of Islamic convictions, Mr. Siddiqi goes to the extent of saying, “I have seen the retribution of the break-up of an Islamic state… Mr. Bhutto and his two sons, Mr. Mujeeb and his two sons, Mrs. Indra Gandhi and her two sons have all suffered unnatural deaths.” It is also a conviction of the author that Bangladesh and Pakistan, being both Islamic states, will one day join hands again.
Mr. Bhutto’s greatest achievement, maintains the author, was the unanimously approved 1973 Constitution. His declaration of the Ahmadis as non-Muslims was a great disservice to the nation. I agree with this view too. Efforts ought to have been made by our religious leaders to keep convincing them to return to the mainstream instead of discarding them altogether. It was no doubt a wrong and harmful decision. Bhutto’s worst decision was to nationalize key industries. That almost destroyed the industrial base of the country.
The chapters on Bhutto are really worth reading. To those interested in reading more on Bhutto, I would recommend Salman Taseer’s “Bhutto- a Political Biography”, and Stanley Wolpert’s “Zulfi Bhutto of Pakistan.”
Mr. Siddiqi is all praise for Gen. Zia. I had the occasion of meeting him a few times but I wan’t impressed by his intellectual caliber or by his sincerity to the nation. Having the benefit of hindsight, even his ardent admirers have started questioning his foreign policy postures which prevailed over all internal issues. A good thing he is said to have done quietly for his family is to leave behind a highly ambitious, though ill-equipped, billionaire son.
Mr. Siddiqi’s autobiography deserves to be read to learn about the nobility, honesty, hard work and depth of knowledge of a middle class member of a generation which is now almost extinct.
The book has been published by the Department of Publications and Translations, University of Karachi. (arifhussaini@hotmail.com)
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