Two-nation theory

The two-nation theory (Urdu: دوقومی نظریہ‎ — Dō-qaumī naẓariyaa, Devanagari: दो-क़ौमी नज़रिया, Hindi: द्वि-राष्ट्र सिद्धान्त - Dvi-rashtra siddhanta, Bengali: দ্বিজাতি তত্ত্ব — Dijati totto, Punjabi: ਦੋ ਕੌਮ ਸਿਧਾਂਤ (Gurmukhi), دو قومی سدھانت (Shahmukhi)) is the ideology that the primary identity and unifying denominator of Muslims in the Indian subcontinent is their religion, rather than their language or ethnicity, and therefore Indian Hindus and Muslims are two distinct nations, regardless of ethnic or other commonalities. The two-nation theory was a founding principle of the Pakistan Movement (i.e. the ideology of Pakistan as a Muslim nation-state in South Asia), and the partition of India in 1947.

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