which under the circumstances has been exemplary, but rather to psychological reasons and external pressure. Indian leaders and a section of the Indian press have indulged freely in war-mongering talks against Pakistan. There has been persistently insidious propaganda by parties like the Hindu Mahasabha in favor of an exchange of population and disturbances in the Indian Dominion, in which Muslims have been persecuted, have not unnaturally given rise to fears in the mind of the minority community lest unpleasant repercussions should occur in East Bengal, even though such apprehensions have no foundation for they have been belied by actual facts. Over and above all these factors, the recent declaration by the Indian Dominion on Pakistan as a foreign country for customs and other purposes has involved the Hindu business community in serious economic difficulties and brought pressure to bear on many Hindu businessmen to remove their business to the Indian Dominion. I find that the Provincial Government have repeatedly given assurances and have at all times taken whatever steps were possible for the protection and well-being of the minority community and have done their best to dissuade them from leaving their ancestral homes in East Bengal for an unknown fate in the Indian Union.
I would like now to offer a word of advice to the people of this province. I notice a regrettable tendency on the part of a certain section of the people to regard their newlywon freedom, not as liberty with the great opportunities it opens up and the heavy responsibilities it imposes, but as license. It is true that, with the removal of foreign domination, the people are now the final arbiters of their destiny. They have perfect liberty to have by constitutional means any Government that they may choose. This cannot, however, mean that any group may now attempt by any unlawful methods to impose its will on the popularly elected Government of the day. The Government and its policy may be changed by the votes of the elected representatives of the Provincial Legislative Assembly. Not only that, but no Government worthy of the name can for a moment tolerate such gangsterism and mob rule from reckless and irresponsible people, but must deal with it firmly by all the means at its disposal. I am thinking particularly of the language controversy which has caused quite unnecessary excitement and trouble in certain quarters in this province and if not checked it might lead to serious consequences. What should be the official language of this province is for your representatives to decide.
But this language controversy is really only one aspect of a bigger problem-that of provincialism. I am sure you must realize that in a newly formed State like Pakistan, consisting moreover as it does of two widely separated parts, cohesion and solidarity amongst all its citizens, from whatever part they may come is essential for its progress, may for its very survival. Pakistan is the embodiment of the unity of the Muslim nation and so it must remain. That unity we, as true Muslims, must jealously guard and preserve. If we begin to think of ourselves as Bengalis, Punjabis, Sindhis etc, first and Muslims and Pakistan's only incidentally, then Pakistan is bound to disintegrate. Do not think that this is some abstruse proposition: our enemies are fully alive to its possibilities which I must warn you they are already busy exploiting. I would ask you plainly, when political agencies and organs of the Indian press, which fought tooth and nail to prevent the
