Constructing Pakistan - pg. 89

The construction of British hegemony depended upon the failure of its universalist drive in accommodating native differences. It is this aspect of the hegemony that the Muslim elite in the post-rebellion world attempted to highlight. In this process, then, the elite trade-off the popular interest in order to obtain material advantages from the British. This aspect of the Anglo-Muslim relationship is important for my inquiry. The Muslim elite, as I have suggested earlier, having witnessed the post-rebellion deteriorating conditions of Muslims, must therefore, attempt to negotiate a new contract with the British. This new contract must ensure special political and economic advantages for the Muslims in exchange for their loyalty to their British rulers. This loyalty, of course, must be won by the British through a system of rewards, which makes it imperative on the part of the British to create a hegemonic relationship with the Muslims. Hence, they must write the rebellion out of the immediate history and replace it with a promise of loyalty. Their approach to the British power is, therefore, not a capitulation but a complex web of the politics of survival. The Muslim elite must, therefore, write the rebellion out of their history, or at least push it to the edge, and foreground their loyalty in order for Muslims to be included in the British system of power.