Message to the Annual Session of the Punjab Muslim Students Federation Held at Rawalpindi on March 7 and 8, 1942: Quaid

Message to the Annual Session of the

Punjab Muslim Students Federation Held
at Rawalpindi on March 7 and 8, 1942
I assure you that my heart is with you and that I am doing my bit for the uplift of the Mussalmans and for the cause that is dear to us all. I hope that you will also continue to do the good Work that you all are doing.
I have no doubt that under the presidentship of Chaudhry Khaliquzzaman and with the presence of all the other leaders that will no doubt assemble there, your Annual Session will be a great success.
We have, to a great extent, to free our people from the most undesirable reactionary elements. We have in no small degree removed the unwholesome influence and fear of a certain section who used to pass off as Maulanas and Maulvis. We have made efforts to take our women with us in our struggle, and in many places that I visited they took enormous interest and participated in various functions and gatherings. We have to carry on and maintain the policy and the programme of the All-India Muslim League on a political plane.
Within five years we have succeeded in organizing Mussalmans all over India as they never were at any time during the last century and a half, They have now been galvanized atid awakened in a manner which has astounded and staggered our opponents. Mussalmans have shaken off torpor and shed their miserable state of despair and demoralization into which they were sunk so deep. They are beginning to realize that they are a
power. They possess the strength, the potentialities of which they have not yet realized, and if only they will take their affairs in their own hands and stand together united there is no power that can resist their will.
Apart from the political programme, the urgent and the immediate need for us is to take steps and put into effect the economic, social and educational programme which was laid down by the Resolution of the All-India Muslim League at Lucknow. It is the economic and social uplift and the education of the people that constitute the true foundation of a nation or a community. I would, therefore, urge most strenuously upon leaders of various provinces and the Provincial and the District Leagues that they should immediately take up various matters which will go to make a solid contribution towards the economic and social uplift of our people.
My appeal to the Mussalmans once again is: Don’t depend upon any body. You must depend upon your own inherent strength, and the Mussalmans have not yet realized what power and strength they possess if they were properly mobilized as one solid people. We have to go through a great deal of spade work and suffering. Our opponents will use all possible means of suppression. They may practise tyranny any may persecute us; but I am confident that we shall emerge out of that ordeal, purer, better and stronger than we have ever been..
I will now say a word to Muslim students and Muslim youth. Remember that you have to take the reins of what is being done today in your hands tomorrow. Have you, therefore, trained yourself, disciplined yourself and equipped yourself enough to shoulder the responsibilities that will fall on you? If not go ahead and do it today. This is the proper time, and I wish you every success.