US-SOUTH ASIAN RELATIONS,

Transcription

1 US-SOUTH ASIAN RELATIONS,

2 Also by IJtikhar H. Malik Africa in our Times Pakistan: Peop1e and P1aces Pakistanis in South-East Michigan Sikandar Hayat Khan: A Po1itica1 Biography US-South Asian Relations,

3 US--SOUTH ASIAN RELATIONS, American Attitudes towards the Pakistan Movement Iftikhar H. Malik Senior Fellow St Antony's College, Oxford Palgrave Macmillan

4 ISBN ISBN (ebook) DOI / Iftikhar H. Malik 1991 Softcover reprint of the hardcover I st edition 1991 All rights reserved. For information, write: Seholarly and Referenee Division, St. Martin's Press, Ine., 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y First published in the United States of America in 1991 ISBN 978'0-312'04892'1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Malik, Iftikhar Haider, US-South Asian relations, : Ameriean attitudes toward the Pakistan movement / Iftikhar H. Malik. p. em. Includes bibliographieal referenees. ISBN 978'0-312'04892'1 I. South Asia-Foreign relations-united States. 2. United States-Foreign relations-south Asia. 3. United States-Foreign relations United States-Foreign relations-194:r I. Tide. 11. Tide: United States-South Asian relations, DS341.3.U6M '09' <ie elp

5 To my grandparents who are no more

6 Contents Preface 1 The Pakistan Movement: A Prologue 2 The Second W orld War and the Britain-USA-Subcontinent Axis 3 America Encounters the Subcontinent: Bilateralism and Tripolar Diplomacy 4 From Pearl Harbor to the Cripps Mission 5 Missions at the Crossroads 6 Congress 'Revolt' and American Concern 7 William Phillips' Sojourn in the Subcontinent 8 Checkmated Bilateralism: Efforts Towards an Apolitical Relationship 9 End of the Raj - End of an Era? 10 The US Congress and the Subcontinent 11 The American Press and the Pakistan Movement 12 Epilogue or Prologue? Notes Bibliography Index IX VB

7 Preface The independenee of the South Asian subeontinent and the emergenee of the United States as a global power eoincided in the late-1940s. The traditional Ameriean geo-political isolation whieh had las ted for many deeades - with some brief exeeptions - was now replaeed by an ever-inereasing involvement in world affairs. At the beginning of this very decisive deeade, the Indian Muslims ehalked out a politieal ereed under the leadership of Mohammad Ali Jinnah (187fr-1948). The AII-India Muslim League (AIML) gradually matured into the Pakistan movement as the seeond largest mass-based politieal party after the Indian National Congress (INC) whieh, to many eontemporary Muslims, was a predominantly Hindu organisation within the subeontinent. Due to the Ameriean entry into the Seeond World War, the subeontinent assumed a more geo-strategie importanee for the Allies, while the declaration of the Atlantie Charter led the South Asian nationalists to look eagerly to the United States government for a more assertive stanee on their behalf vis-a-vis the British government. Sir Winston Churehill firmly excluded India from within the purview of the Charter whereas the Roosevelt administration, without pushing too far, favoured an early amieable resolution of the Indian politieal stalemate. The British resisted every Ameriean initiative undertaken by em issaries like Colonel Louis Johnson and Ambassador William Phillips. Even the Ameriean interest in expanding their eommercial and diplomatie ties with India generally provoked a severe reaetion from the British government. Excluding the urban-based seleet elites - aeademieians, journalists, missionaries or the South Asian expatriates - most Amerieans usually remained uneoneerned about the Indian question. There was a serious information gap on that part of the world in the wh oie of North Ameriea, though in the 1940s the Ameriean media gave inereased eoverage to the subeontinent. Given the meagre and seattered nature of the Muslim eommunity in the United States, there was insufficient feedbaek on the idea of 'Pakistan'. On the other hand, the INC sueeessfully monopolised Ameriean sympathies for Indian independenee. lx

8 x PreJace The State Department, shunning its routine correspondence with its representatives in the subcontinent, became slightly more active in , when it began to support the cabinet mission plan for a single federal India. Subsequently, however, Pakistan was accepted as a sovereign Muslim state. The limited and partisan information on the subcontinent, further handicapped by the Gandhi-Gunga Din syndrome, caused an enigmatic attitude toward Pakistan. Jinnah (calied the Quaid-i-Azam by his followers) was frequently discussed in the American press but conscious efforts to find another Gandhi in hirn confused the American media. The necessary result: Jinnah, to them, looked more like 'us' (Americans) and less like 'them' (Indians). Similarly, the United States Congress never went out of its way to discuss or take adefinite stance on South Asia - and the few solitary voices such as Emmanuel Celler of Brooklyn were pro INC. Nevertheless, the American factor encouraged the South Asians throughout their political struggle. The decade before independence seems to be the threshold in the US-South Asian bilateral contacts that began in 1784, with the arrival of the first American ship, Uni ted States, at Calcutta. US-South Asia Relations, : A Historical Perspective, (Islamabad 1987) takes into account the commercial, diplomatie, political, intellectual, migrational, religious and media aspects of that bilateralism. The present study is an effort to study in depth the personalities, events, and institutions at the time when the Indian Muslims were pursuing their struggle for Pakistan - a country that was to enjoy a doser relationship with the USA in the subsequent decades. It is almost impossible to acknowledge the assistance and contributions of all the individuals and institutions in the preparation of this book. Colleagues at the Quaid-i-Azam University, Columbia University, Michigan State, UC Berkeley and St Antony's College, Oxford, have been a great source of inspiration. My gratitude is especially due to Victor Howard, Leo Rose, Rafique Afzal, Surjeet Dulai, Tappan Raychaudhuri, Gowher Rizvi, Rosemary Thorp, Noman Sattar, Aquil Nadeem and Rosemary Stewart. I am thankful to T. M. Farmiloe of Macmillan for his persistent interest in my effort; and to Judy Mabro for her painstaking editorial assistance. Last but not

9 Preface Xl least, I owe my gratitude to my wife, Nighat, and our children, Farooq and Sidra, for their patience and moral support. Iftikhar H. Malik. Oxford, 23 March 1990.