The former prime minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan, shared a picture yesterday on his Twitter handle showing his grandfather’s brother, Zaman khan & uncle Jahangir Khan sitting alongside Allama Iqbal & Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah in the historic 1930 round table conference.
The picture is going viral for obvious reasons but some things need to stand corrected. People are sharing the picture expeditiously but it seems like there’s some historic amiss. First off, Allama Iqbal & Quaid-e-Azam attended the second round table conference together which & was held in 1932. Allama Iqbal was not even invited to the first conference which went on from Nov 10th, 1930 to Jan 10th, 1931, because the head of the Unionist Party & chief minister of Punjab, sir Fazal Hussain, opposed it.
Secondly, it’s the same period when Allama Iqbal became the president of the Muslim League & gave his iconic Allahabad speech. It was given on 29th December 1930, the exact day when the first round table conference was held in England. It’s the same historic moment that the former Prime minister is referring to. Now the question remains intact, were former prime minister’s grandfather’s brother Zaman Khan & uncle Jahangir Khan really a part of the round table conference? Not to forget that only those members were allowed to attend which the British government would send invites.
Although the British government remained hell bound in making constitutional reforms but resulted in vain. From the boycott of the Simon Commission, Nehru’s reported to Quaid’s 14 points… everything was a part of the same series of events. Eventually, the British government invited every party’s representatives to find a common ground. In these three historic conferences, the first was held in 1930, the second in 1931 & the final in 1932.
A bona fide source tells us that the Indian government was represented by C P Ramaswami and Narendra Nath & more when the British government invited every representative to the second conference. Mahatma Gandhi represented congress alone. However, from Muslim league, Maulana shaukat Ali khan, Quaid-e-Azam, Sir Allama Iqbal, Maulana Zafar-ul-Allah Khan & more showed up.
Hindus (apart from congress) were represented by M R Jayakar, Narendra Nath, Bahadur Raja & more. Apart from these prominent political parties, other including the Justice party of India was represented by Raja of Bobbili, Bhasker Roy & more. Parsis were represented by Sir Homi Mody. Indian Christians had the privilege of being represented by Surinder Kumar Dutta & more.
Apart from that, women were represented by Begum Jahan Aara Shahnawaz, Rasha Bhai, and Sarojini Naidu. Even farmers, feudal & young student representatives too were invited.
No one else was invited apart from the above-mentioned people to this conference & neither was it some kind of political rally where anyone could show up. Coming back to the hot news, if Imran Khan’s ancestors attended the historic moment along with the greats, Allama Iqbal & Quaid-e- Azam, then he needs to provide some lid proof. A single picture cannot do justice to the history pages.
Although it is greatly possible too that the picture could’ve been taken at some random dinner thrown by the British Indians for the Indian members. It could be so because far fewer people are seen in the picture than those who attended.
Translated by Maria Altaf.
