Pakistan’s Forgotten Founders: A Case Study Of Sikander Hyat-Khan

Abstract

Many nations have a short list of celebrated founders, while the contributions of many others are lost in history. An intriguing example of this narrowcasting of founders is Pakistan, where the dominant tendency has been to attribute the nation’s founding to just one man, the Quaid-i-Azam, Mohammad Ali Jinnah. The legacy of Jinnah, however, should not overshadow the contributions of his contemporaries, particularly those on the losing side of key debates or contested issues at the time. Applying lessons from research on lost founders of the USA to the case of Pakistan, this article reconceptualises what it means to be a founder. It considers why some people make the list and others do not, and then presents a case study underscoring why the words and example of one of Pakistan’s forgotten founders, Sikander Hyat-Khan, should be remembered today.

Keywords

Colonialism federation Mohammad Ali Jinnah Muslim League Pakistan Punjab Quaid-i-Azam Sikander Hyat-Khan Unionist Party

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