The nostalgia of Iqbal
In the first part of this article published last week, it was submitted that while referring to the Golden Age of Islam, Iqbal favoured the mystics and religious guides over the rational thinkers and scientists. It will be opined now that Iqbal was nostalgic for the Muslim past and in doing that, he lost touch with reality. Iqbal desired the Muslims to merge in one large nation that stretched over the continuous block from the Atlantic shores of Africa, through the Arab and Persian heartlands, to the eastern fringes of the Turkistan. In his dreamy scheme for Ummah he, in one of his verses, saw one nation along the geographical line from the banks of Nile to the soil of Kashghar. This was in suppression of historical, ethnic, sectarian, cultural and linguistic realities. While the verse is allegorical and heart warming, the concept harks backs to the Abbasid times when this was the extent of the Caliphate. This axis leaves the status of Indian Muslims as vague and excludes the Muslim ...