The name “Pakistan” is derived from two Persian and Urdu words: “Pāk,” meaning “pure,” and “stan,” meaning “land of.” The name was coined by Choudhary Rahmat Ali, a Pakistani nationalist, in a pamphlet he published in 1933. The pamphlet was titled “Now or Never: Are We to Live or Perish Forever?” In it, Rahmat Ali outlined his vision for a separate Muslim state in the Indian subcontinent.
The name “Pakistan” was meant to represent the idea of a pure and separate Muslim homeland. The word “Pakistan” was also intended to represent the regions of British India where Muslims were in the majority, which included Punjab, North-West Frontier Province (now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), Kashmir, Sindh, and Baluchistan.
This concept of a separate Muslim state eventually evolved into the demand for Pakistan’s creation, which was achieved in 1947 when India was partitioned into two independent states, India and Pakistan, at the end of British colonial rule. Pakistan was established as a separate nation for Muslims, with West Pakistan (present-day Pakistan) and East Pakistan (present-day Bangladesh) initially forming one country until the latter gained its independence in 1971.
