146 d omestic politics- Nehru, who promised to secure formal cabinet approval shortly after
the fi rst Lok Sabha (the lower house of India’s parliament) elections, could
not do so largely because of Azad, who felt that normalization would
harm India’s position on Kashmir with the Arabs and would also antago-
nize domestic Muslim opinion.^21
Nehru was quick to recognize the importance of the Palestine issue
and felt that the future of Palestine was the most critical question that
would aff ect the postwar Middle East. By articulating a strong stand on
such an important development, he sought to establish India’s imprint on
the world stage. He hoped to achieve this by sending highly capable diplo-
mats who could ably articulate the Indian position. At the same time, the
choice of Asaf Ali, Abdur Rahman, and Maulana Azad for critical posi-
tions pertaining to the Middle East could not have been accidental. They
were selected not just because they could articulate India’s position. They
were chosen primarily because, being Muslims, they could understand
the problem better. As explicitly highlighted by the selection of Abdur
Rahman, religious faith became the primary criteria for their selection.
By giving responsible positions to Muslim personalities, Nehru was seek-
ing to brandish the secular credentials of the Congress Party and repudi-
ate the Muslim League’s claims that only the latter could be considered
the authentic spokesperson of the Muslims of British India.^22
By choosing only Muslim personalities for matters relating to Israel,
Nehru institutionalized the Islamic infl uence on his Middle East policy.
This approach meant the nonavailability of alternative perceptions regard-
ing Jewish history and their claims to Palestine. As a result, the divine
rights of Jews to the land of their ancestors were questioned without any
Indian ever challenging the Jazirat al- Arab being eternally under Islamic
control and sovereignty. The nonappreciation of the Jewish claims to Pales-
tine was partly facilitated and institutionalized by Nehru’s reliance on Mus-
lim personalities to express and explain India’s stance regarding Palestine.
Far greater evidence is available on Azad’s role.
The Azad Factor
Among individual statesmen, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad is the
most important for a discussion on the absence of the normalization of
ties with Israel. Azad had strong connections with the Arab world. He was
born in Mecca; his mother was the niece of Sheikh Muhammed Zahir