you will always regret. After you leave the portals of your universities and colleges then you can play your part freely and help yourself and the State. Let me warn you in the clearest terms of the dangers that still face Pakistan and your province in particular as I have done already. Having failed to prevent the establishment of Pakistan, thwarted and frustrated by their failure, the enemies of Pakistan have now turned their attention to disrupt the State by creating a split amongst the Muslims of Pakistan. These attempts have taken the shape principally of encouraging provincialism.
As long as you do not throw off this poison in our body politic, you will never be able to weld yourself, mould yourself, galvanize yourself into a real true nation. What we want is not to talk about Bengali, Punjabi, Sindhi, Baluchi, Pathan and so on. They are of course units. But I ask you: have you forgotten the lesson that was taught to us thirteen hundred years ago? If I may point out, you are all outsiders here. Who were the original inhabitants of Bengal - not those who are now living? So what is the use of saying “we are Bengalis, or Sindhis, or Pathans, or Punjabis". Now we are Muslims.
Islam has taught us this, and I think you will agree with me that whatever else you may be and whatever you are, you are a Muslim. You belong to a Nation now; you have now carved out a territory, vast territory, it is all yours; it does not belong to a Punjabi or a Sindhi, or a Pathan, or a Bengali: it is yours. You have your Central Government where several units are represented. Therefore, if you want to build up yourself into a Nation, for God's sake give up this provincialism. Provincialism has been one of the curses; and so is sectionalism - Shia, Sunni, etc.
It was no concern of our predecessor Government; it was no concern of theirs to worry about it; they were here to carry on the administration, maintain law and order and to carryon their trade and exploit India as much as they could. But now we are in a different position altogether. Now I give you an example. Take America. When it threw off British rule and declared itself independent, how many nations were there? It had many races: Spaniards, French, Germans, Italians, English, Dutch and many more. Well, there they were. They had many difficulties. But mind you, their nations were actually in existence and they were great nations; whereas you had nothing. You have got Pakistan only now. But there a Frenchman could say 'I am a Frenchman and belong to a great nation', and so on. But what happened? They understood and they realized their difficulties because they had sense, and within a very short time they solved their problems and destroyed all this sectionalism and they were able to speak not as a German or a Frenchman or an Englishman or a Spaniard, but as Americans. They spoke in this spirit: I am an American' and 'we are Americans'. And so you should think, live and act in terms that your country is Pakistan and you are a Pakistani.
Now I ask you to get rid of this provincialism, because as long as you allow this poison to remain in the body politic of Pakistan, believe me, you will never be a strong nation, and you will never be able to achieve what I wish we could achieve. Please do not think that I do not appreciate the position. Very often it becomes a vicious circle. When you speak to a Bengali, he says: “Yes you are right but the Punjabi is so arrogant': when you speak to the Punjabi or non-Bengali, he says “Yes, but these people do not Want us
