N OT many today would have heard of Burke Sahib who was an administrator, judge, ambassador, professor and historian of distinction. But the Quaid-i-Azam, Nawabzada Liaquat Ali Khan and other people of the generation that moulded Pakistan knew him well. Burke Sahib has not only chronicled history but is also part of it, having outlived the British Raj by over six decades.
He was born in the Punjab village of Martinpur — not far from Nankana Sahib — on July 3, 1906 when Victoria’s son Edward VII was the King Emperor, and only a year earlier Curzon had relinquished the viceroyalty of India.

Burke Sahib’s father, Janab Khairuddin, was the first graduate that the village produced. He became a headmaster and wrote Urdu verses using the nom de plume Burq (lightning) — hence the surname Burke.

The young Samuel Martin (his grandfather Chaudhry Allah Ditta had become a Christian) had a brilliant academic career. He passed his matriculation in the first division and secured a government scholarship.

At Lahore’s Government College he started with science subjects since he wished to pursue medicine. However, long hours in labs left him little time for his beloved cricket and so he switched to History, Philosophy, Persian and Urdu. He took a BA (Hons) with a first class first. This was followed by an MA (History); also a first class first.

He sat the Indian Civil Service competitive examination and was selected for a two year training period in England where he received a thorough grounding in administration and law. On returning to India he rose through the ranks of the whites-dominated higher bureaucracy. His book A Life of Fulfilment provides an interesting account of his experiences as a non-white ‘Burra Sahib’ in British India. Apart from being district head he was also a session judge.

With the creation of Pakistan he joined the new country’s fledgling foreign ministry and was later appointed envoy to no less than 11 different countries. He was honoured with the Sitara-i-Pakistan.

From 1961 to 1975 he was a professor of South Asian Studies at the University of Minnesota and founded the Burke Library in St. Paul, Minnesota. In 1983 the United Nations Institute for Training and Research invited him to serve on its international panel.

However, it is as a writer and historian that future generations will remember him most. His books, which include Pakistan’s Foreign Policy: A historical analysis; Mainsprings of Indian and Pakistani Foreign Policy; Akbar: The Greatest Mughal; Bahadur Shah: The Last Mughal Emperor of India; The British Raj in India: A historical review; and Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah: His personality and his politics, are monuments to rigorous scholarship, uncluttered thinking and crafted prose.

As a trained historian Burke eschews rhetorical flourishes or flights of fancy. Not for him the style of Macaulay which, though quotable and poetic, often sacrifices truth for a memorable epigram. Burke’s agenda is historical narrative and a careful analysis of it; he is not in the business of writing history as a genre of literary expression.

Nevertheless, in his classic account of Akbar’s reign he quotes profusely from the historians of the period who penned in florid, full-blown Persian. He leaves it to these writers, many given to flattering the emperor, to provide extravagant expression. Burke endeavours to sift the wheat from the chaff as he investigates one of the most remarkable rulers of all times.

Akbar could neither read nor write but possessed astounding knowledge and immense wisdom, and his memory was phenomenal. So open-minded was he that some orthodox Muslims suspected him of heresy while many of his Hindu subjects regarded him as an avatar. Burke’s book is dedicated to ‘the peoples of South Asia whom Akbar so much wanted to live in peace and amity’.

The biography of the last Mughal has all the ingredients of a Shakespearean tragedy: the poet-king, aged and infirm, was convicted by a court that had no right to sit in judgement on him. He was exiled to Burma, now Myanmar, and his remains lie there.

Unfortunately, the governments of India and Pakistan have failed to agree on any course of action with regard to commemorating Bahadur Shah Zafar’s memory in a proper and fitting manner.

The book on Pakistan’s founding father is by far the best of its kind. It examines the influences that affected Mr Jinnah’s most crucial decisions. A protégé of the liberalsecularist Gopal Krishna Gokhale, he nevertheless broke with the Indian National Congress and strove for the creation of Pakistan.

Yet even after Pakistan became a reality Jinnah desired all communities to live in harmony with each other. Burke notes that ‘It was not only the plight of the Muslim refugees who had arrived from India that grieved the Quaid-i-Azam deeply. The sad conditions of the Hindus in Pakistan hurt him no less.’ Burke’s magnum opus is a wide ranging review of the British Raj. He and his collaborator Salim Al-Din Quraishi have produced a work of the highest order in which the vast panorama is graphically described.

Starting with the arrival of the early European traders in India and the consequent British conquest, the reader is taken right up to Victoria’s time and then the events of the two world wars. The rise of Indian nationalism and the demand for a separate Muslim state are considered, analysed and assessed in a thoroughly balanced and scientific manner. The major players in the development of the drama are fleshed out and portrayed with remarkable honesty and precision.

The book was researched and written when the authors were based in Britain. They were not beholden to research grants or political pressures from the subcontinent. In simple terms, they were free and independent. Burke and Quraishi were answerable only to the call of intellectual honesty. That is why it is essential reading for any one interested in the subject.

I can quote page after page from it but will reproduce only a few lines here: ‘Before we indulge in throwing stones at British imperialism, let us face the task of looking at our own shortcomings, for it is we South Asians who helped the British to conquer our land and rule over it.’ Readers are reminded of Nehru’s statement to the Indian parliament in 1950: ‘The Industrial Revolution in England was helped tremendously by the original loot from India. Nevertheless, if the British people went ahead, it was due to their great genius… and 100 fine qualities. We do not talk about those qualities; but we talk of the fact that because of our weaknesses they came and conquered India, controlled India and profited by their stay in India. Then we blame them for it while the blame is ours for our failures, stupidity, factions and disruptions in our country.’ Apart from a varied and successful career, Burke Sahib has had a very happy home life. His wife Louise was English who adjusted to her husband’s family with amazing ease. He dedicated A Life of Fulfilment to her.

Now over 100 years old, Burke Sahib is in a private nursing home in England. His daughter Noel who lives nearby visits him regularly. On some days he is lively and remembers old friends and contemporaries who have long gone to their Maker.

This star of Pakistan has lived a full life, a life refulgent with honour and fulfilment.
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regards,
Noman !