Father
of the Nation Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah's achievement
as the founder of Pakistan, dominates everything else he did in his long
and crowded public life spanning some
42
years. Yet, by any standard, his was an
eventful life, his personality multidimensional and his achievements in
other fields were many, if not equally great. Indeed, several were the
roles he had played with distinction: at one time or another, he was one
of the greatest legal luminaries India had produced during the first half
of the century, an `ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity, a great constitutionalist,
a distinguished parliamentarian, a top-notch politician, an indefatigable
freedom-fighter, a dynamic Muslim leader, a political strategist and, above
all one of the great nation-builders of modern times. What, however, makes
him so remarkable is the fact that while similar other leaders assumed
the leadership of traditionally well-defined nations and espoused their
cause, or led them to freedom, he created a nation out of an inchoate and
down-trodeen minority and established a cultural and national home for
it. And all that within a decase. For over three decades before the successful
culmination in 1947,
of the Muslim struggle for freedom in the South-Asian subcontinent, Jinnah
had provided political leadership to the Indian Muslims: initially as one
of the leaders, but later, since 1947, as the only prominent leader- the
Quaid-i-Azam. For over thirty years, he had guided their affairs; he had
given expression, coherence and direction to their ligitimate aspirations
and cherished dreams; he had formulated these into concerete demands; and,
above all, he had striven all the while to get them conceded by both the
ruling British and the numerous Hindus the dominant segment of India's
population. And for over thirty years he had fought, relentlessly and inexorably,
for the inherent rights of the Muslims for an honourable existence in the
subcontinent. Indeed, his life story constitutes, as it were, the story
of the rebirth of the Muslims of the subcontinent and their spectacular
rise to nationhood, phoenixlike.
Early
Life
Born on
December
25, 1876, in a prominent mercantile family
in Karachi and educated at the Sindh Madrassat-ul-Islam and the Christian
Mission School at his birth place,Jinnah joined the Lincoln's Inn in 1893
to become the youngest Indian to be called to the Bar, three years later.
Starting out in the legal profession withknothing to fall back upon except
his native ability and determination, young Jinnah rose to prominence and
became Bombay's most successful lawyer, as few did, within a few years.
Once he was firmly established in the legal profession, Jinnah formally
entered politics in 1905
from
the platform of the Indian National Congress. He went to England in that
year alongwith Gopal Krishna Gokhale (1866-1915),
as a member of a Congress delegation to plead the cause of Indian self-governemnt
during the British elections. A year later, he served as Secretary to Dadabhai
Noaroji (1825-1917),
the then Indian National Congress President, which was considered a great
honour for a budding politician. Here, at the Calcutta Congress session
(December
1906), he also made his first political
speech in support of the resolution on self-government.
Political
Career
Three years
later, in January 1910, Jinnah was elected to the newly-constituted Imperial
Legislative Council. All through his parliamentary career, which spanned
some four decades, he was probably the most powerful voice in the cause
of Indian freedom and Indian rights. Jinnah, who was also the first Indian
to pilot a private member's Bill through the Council, soon became a leader
of a group inside the legislature. Mr. Montagu (1879-1924),
Secretary of State for India, at the close of the First World War, considered
Jinnah "perfect mannered, impressive-looking, armed to the teeth with dialecties..."Jinnah,
he felt, "is a very clever man, and it is, of course, an outrage that such
a man should have no chance of running the affairs of his own country."
For about three
decades since his entry into politics in 1906, Jinnah passionately believed
in and assiduously worked for Hindu-Muslim unity. Gokhale, the foremost
Hindu leader before Gandhi, had once said of him, "He has the true stuff
in him and that freedom from all sectarian prejudice which will make him
the best ambassador of Hindu-Muslim Unity: And, to be sure, he did become
the architect of Hindu-Muslim Unity: he was responsible for the Congress-League
Pact of 1916, known popularly as Lucknow Pact- the only pact ever signed
between the two political organisations, the Congress and the All-India
Muslim League, representing, as they did, the two major communities in
the subcontinent."
The Congress-League
scheme embodied in this pact was to become the basis for the Montagu-Chemlsford
Reforms, also known as the Act of 1919.
In retrospect, the Lucknow Pact represented a milestone in the evolution
of Indian politics. For one thing, it conceded Muslims the right to separate
electorate, reservation of seats in the legislatures and weightage in representation
both at the Centre and the minority provinces. Thus, their retention was
ensured in the next phase of reforms. For another, it represented a tacit
recognition of the All-India Muslim League as the representative organisation
of the Muslims, thus strengthening the trend towards Muslim individuality
in Indian politics. And to Jinnah goes the credit for all this. Thus, by
1917,
Jinnah came to be recognised among both Hindus and Muslims as one of India's
most outstanding political leaders. Not only was he prominent in the Congress
and the Imperial Legislative Council, he was also the President of the
All-India Muslim and that of lthe Bombay Branch of the Home Rule League.
More important, because of his key-role in the Congress-League entente
at Lucknow, he was hailed as the ambassador, as well as the embodiment,
of Hindu-Muslim unity.
Constitutional
Struggle
In subsequent
years, however, he felt dismayed at the injection of violence into politics.
Since Jinnah stood for "ordered progress", moderation, gradualism and constitutionalism,
he felt that political terrorism was not the pathway to national liberation
but, the dark alley to disaster and destruction. Hence, the constitutionalist
Jinnah could not possibly, countenance Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi's novel
methods of Satyagrah (civil disobedience) and the triple boycott of government-aided
schools and colleges, courts and councils and British textiles. Earlier,
in October 1920,
when Gandhi, having been elected President of the Home Rule League, sought
to change its constitution as well as its nomenclature, Jinnah had resigned
from the Home Rule League, saying: "Your extreme programme has for the
moment struck the imagination mostly of the inexperienced youth and the
ignorant and the illiterate. All this means disorganisation and choas".
Jinnah did not believe that ends justified the means.
In the ever-growing
frustration among the masses caused by colonial rule, there was ample cause
for extremism. But, Gandhi's doctrine of non-cooperation, Jinnah felt,
even as Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941)
did also feel, was at best one of negation and despair: it might lead to
the building up of resentment, but nothing constructive. Hence, he opposed
tooth and nail the tactics adopted by Gandhi to exploit the Khilafat and
wrongful tactics in the Punjab in the early twenties. On the eve of its
adoption of the Gandhian programme, Jinnah warned the Nagpur Congress Session
(1920):
"you are making a declaration (of Swaraj within a year) and committing
the Indian National Congress to a programme, which you will not be able
to carry out". He felt that there was no short-cut to independence
and that Gandhi's extra-constitutional methods could only lead to political
terrorism, lawlessness and chaos, without bringing India nearer to the
threshold of freedom.
The future
course of events was not only to confirm Jinnah's worst fears, but also
to prove him right. Although Jinnah left the Congress soon thereafter,
he continued his efforts towards bringing about a Hindu-Muslim entente,
which he rightly considered "the most vital condition of Swaraj".
However, because of the deep distrust between the two communities as evidenced
by the country-wide communal riots, and because the Hindus failed to meet
the genuine demands of the Muslims, his efforts came to naught. One such
effort was the formulation of the Delhi Muslim Proposals in March,
1927.
In order to bridge Hindu-Muslim differences on the constitutional plan,
these proposals even waived the Muslim right to separate electorate, the
most basic Muslim demand since 1906,
which though recognised by the congress in the Lucknow Pact, had again
become a source of friction between the two communities. surprisingly though,
the Nehru Report (1928),
which represented the Congress-sponsored proposals for the future constitution
of India, negated the minimum Muslim demands embodied in the Delhi Muslim
Proposals.
In vain did
Jinnah argue at the National convention (1928):
"What we want is that Hindus and Mussalmans should march together until
our object is achieved...These two communities have got to be reconciled
and united and made to feel that their interests are common". The Convention's
blank refusal to accept Muslim demands represented the most devastating
setback to Jinnah's life-long efforts to bring about Hindu-Muslim unity,
it meant "the last straw" for the Muslims, and "the parting of
the ways" for him, as he confessed to a Parsee friend at that time.
Jinnah's disillusionment at the course of politics in the subcontinent
prompted him to migrate and settle down in London in the early thirties.
He was, however, to return to India in 1934,
at the pleadings of his co-religionists, and assume their leadership. But,
the Muslims presented a sad spectacle at that time. They were a mass of
disgruntled and demoralised men and women, politically disorganised and
destitute of a clear-cut political programme.
Muslim
League Reorganized
Thus, the
task that awaited Jinnah was anything but easy. The Muslim League was dormant:
primary branches it had none; even its provincial organizations were, for
the most part, ineffective and only nominally under the control of the
central organization. Nor did the central body have any coherent policy
of its own till the Bombay session (1936),
which Jinnah organized. To make matters worse, the provincial scene presented
a sort of a jigsaw puzzle: in the Punjab, Bengal, Sindh, the North West
Frontier, Assam, Bihar and the United Provinces, various Muslim leaders
had set up their own provincial parties to serve their personal ends. Extremely
frustrating as the situation was, the only consultation Jinnah had at this
juncture was in
Allama Iqbal
(1877-1938),
the poet-philosopher, who stood steadfast by him and helped to charter
the course of Indian politics from behind the scene.
Undismayed
by this bleak situation, Jinnah devoted himself with singleness of purpose
to organizing the Muslims on one platform. He embarked upon country-wide
tours. He pleaded with provincial Muslim leaders to sink their differences
and make common cause with the League. He exhorted the Muslim masses to
organize themselves and join the League. He gave coherence and direction
to Muslim sentiments on the Government of India Act,
1935.
He advocated that the Federal Scheme should be scrapped as it was subversive
of India's cherished goal of complete responsible Government, while the
provincial scheme, which conceded provincial autonomy for the first time,
should be worked for what it was worth, despite its certain objectionable
features. He also formulated a viable League manifesto for the election
scheduled for early 1937.
He was, it seemed, struggling against time to make Muslim India a power
to be reckoned with.
Despite all
the manifold odds stacked against it, the Muslim League won some 108 (about
23 per cent) seats out of a total of 485 Muslim seats in the various legislature.
Though not very impressive in itself, the League's partial success assumed
added significance in view of the fact that the League won the largest
number of Muslim seats and that it was the only all-India party of the
Muslims in the country. Thus, the elections represented the first milestone
on the long road to putting Muslim India on the map of the subcontinent.
Congress in Power With the year 1937
opened the most mementoes decade in modern Indian history. In that year
came into force the provincial part of the Government of India Act, 1935,
granting autonomy to Indians for the first time, in the provinces.
The Congress,
having become the dominant party in Indian politics, came to power in seven
provinces exclusively, spurning the League's offer of cooperation, turning
its back finally on the coalition idea and excluding Muslims as a political
entity from the portals of power. In that year, also, the Muslim League,
under Jinnah's dynamic leadership, was reorganized de novo, transformed
into a mass organization, and made the spokesman of Indian Muslims as never
before. Above all, in that momentous year were initiated certain trends
in Indian politics, the crystallization of which in subsequent years made
the partition of the subcontinent inevitable. The practical manifestation
of the policy of the Congress which took office in
July,
1937, in seven out of eleven provinces,
convinced Muslims that, in the Congress scheme of things, they could live
only on sufferance of Hindus and as "second class" citizens. The
Congress provincial governments, it may be remembered, had embarked upon
a policy and launched a PROGRAMME in which Muslims felt that their religion,
language and culture were not safe. This blatantly aggressive Congress
policy was seized upon by Jinnah to awaken the Muslims to a new consciousness,
organize them on all-India platform, and make them a power to be reckoned
with. He also gave coherence, direction and articulation to their innermost,
yet vague, urges and aspirations. Above all, the filled them with his
indomitable will, his own unflinching faith in their destiny.
The
New Awakening
As a result
of Jinnah's ceaseless efforts, the Muslims awakened from what Professor
Baker calls (their) "unreflective silence" (in which they had so
complacently basked for long decades), and to "the spiritual essence
of nationality" that had existed among them for a pretty long time.
Roused by the impact of successive Congress hammerings, the Muslims, as
Ambedkar (principal author of independent India's Constitution) says, "searched
their social consciousness in a desperate attempt to find coherent and
meaningful articulation to their cherished yearnings. To their great relief,
they discovered that their sentiments of nationality had flamed into nationalism".
In addition, not only had they developed" the will to live as a "nation",
had also endowed them with a territory which they could occupy and make
a State as well as a cultural home for the newly discovered nation. These
two pre-requisites, as laid down by Renan, provided the Muslims with the
intellectual justification for claiming a distinct nationalism (apart from
Indian or Hindu nationalism) for themselves. So that when, after their
long pause, the Muslims gave expression to their innermost yearnings, these
turned out to be in favor of a separate Muslim nationhood and of a separate
Muslim state.
Demand
for Pakistan
"We are
a nation", they claimed in the ever eloquent words of the Quaid-i-Azam-
"We are a nation with our own distinctive culture and civilization,
language and literature, art and architecture, names and nomenclature,
sense of values and proportion, legal laws and moral code, customs and
calendar, history and tradition, aptitudes and ambitions; in short, we
have our own distinctive outlook on life and of life. By all canons of
international law, we are a nation". The formulation of the Muslim demand
for Pakistan in 1940 had a tremendous impact on the nature and course of
Indian politics. On the one hand, it shattered for ever the Hindu dreams
of a pseudo-Indian, in fact, Hindu empire on British exit from India: on
the other, it heralded an era of Islamic renaissance and creativity in
which the Indian Muslims were to be active participants. The Hindu reaction
was quick, bitter, malicious.
Equally hostile
were the British to the Muslim demand, their hostility having stemmed from
their belief that the unity of India was their main achievement and their
foremost contribution. The irony was that both the Hindus and the British
had not anticipated the astonishingly tremendous response that the Pakistan
demand had elicited from the Muslim masses. Above all, they failed to realize
how a hundred million people had suddenly become supremely conscious of
their distinct nationhood and their high destiny. In channelling the course
of Muslim politics towards Pakistan, no less than in directing it towards
its consummation in the establishment of Pakistan in
1947,
non played a more decisive role than did Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah.
It was his powerful advocacy of the case of Pakistan and his remarkable
strategy in the delicate negotiations, that followed the formulation of
the Pakistan demand, particularly in the post-war period, that made Pakistan
inevitable.
Cripps
Scheme
While the
British reaction to the Pakistan demand came in the form of the Cripps
offer of April, 1942,
which conceded the principle of self-determination to provinces on a territorial
basis, the Rajaji Formula (called after the eminent Congress leader C.Rajagopalacharia,
which became the basis of prolonged Jinnah-Gandhi talks in
September,
1944), represented the Congress alternative
to Pakistan. The Cripps offer was rejected because it did not concede the
Muslim demand the whole way, while the Rajaji Formula was found unacceptable
since it offered a "moth-eaten, mutilated" Pakistan and the too appended
with a plethora of pre-conditions which made its emergence in any shape
remote, if not altogether impossible. Cabinet Mission The most delicate
as well as the most tortuous negotiations, however, took place during 1946-47,
after the elections which showed that the country was sharply and somewhat
evenly divided between two parties- the Congress and the League- and that
the central issue in Indian politics was Pakistan.
These negotiations
began with the arrival, in March 1946,
of a three-member British Cabinet Mission. The crucial task with which
the Cabinet Mission was entrusted was that of devising in consultation
with the various political parties, a constitution-making machinery, and
of setting up a popular interim government. But, because the Congress-League
gulf could not be bridged, despite the Mission's (and the Viceroy's) prolonged
efforts, the Mission had to make its own proposals in May, 1946. Known
as the Cabinet Mission Plan, these proposals stipulated a limited centre,
supreme only in foreign affairs, defense and communications and three autonomous
groups of provinces. Two of these groups were to have Muslim majorities
in the north-west and the north-east of the subcontinent, while the third
one, comprising the Indian mainland, was to have a Hindu majority. A consummate
statesman that he was, Jinnah saw his chance. He interpreted the clauses
relating to a limited centre and the grouping as "the foundation of Pakistan",
and induced the Muslim League Council to accept the Plan in June 1946;
and this he did much against the calculations of the Congress and to its
utter dismay.
Tragically
though, the League's acceptance was put down to its supposed weakness and
the Congress put up a posture of defiance, designed to swamp the League
into submitting to its dictates and its interpretations of the plan. Faced
thus, what alternative had Jinnah and the League but to rescind their earlier
acceptance, reiterate and reaffirm their original stance, and decide to
launch direct action (if need be) to wrest Pakistan. The way Jinnah maneuvered
to turn the tide of events at a time when all seemed lost indicated, above
all, his masterly grasp of the situation and his adeptness at making strategic
and tactical moves. Partition Plan By the close of 1946, the communal riots
had flared up to murderous heights, engulfing almost the entire subcontinent.
The two peoples, it seemed, were engaged in a fight to the finish. The
time for a peaceful transfer of power was fast running out. Realizing the
gravity of the situation. His Majesty's Government sent down to India a
new Viceroy- Lord Mountbatten. His protracted negotiations with the various
political leaders resulted in 3 June.(1947) Plan by which the British decided
to partition the subcontinent, and hand over power to two successor States
on 15 August, 1947. The plan was duly accepted by the three Indian parties
to the dispute- the Congress the League and the Akali Dal (representing
the Sikhs).
Leader
of a Free Nation
In recognition
of his singular contribution, Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah was nominated
by the Muslim League as the Governor-General of Pakistan, while the Congress
appointed Mountbatten as India's first Governor-General. Pakistan, it has
been truly said, was born in virtual chaos. Indeed, few nations in the
world have started on their career with less resources and in more treacherous
circumstances. The new nation did not inherit a central government, a capital,
an administrative core, or an organized defense force. Its social and administrative
resources were poor; there was little equipment and still less statistics.
The Punjab holocaust had left vast areas in a shambles with communications
disrupted. This, along with the en masse migration of the Hindu and Sikh
business and managerial classes, left the economy almost shattered.
The treasury
was empty, India having denied Pakistan the major share of its cash balances. On
top of all this, the still unorganized nation was called upon to feed some
eight million refugees who had fled the insecurities and barbarities of
the north Indian plains that long, hot summer. If all this was symptomatic
of Pakistan's administrative and economic weakness, the Indian annexation,
through military action in November 1947, of Junagadh (which had originally
acceded to Pakistan) and the Kashmir war over the State's accession
(October
1947-December 1948) exposed her military
weakness. In the circumstances, therefore, it was nothing short of a miracle
that Pakistan survived at all. That it survived and forged ahead was mainly
due to one man-Mohammad Ali Jinnah. The nation desperately needed in the
person of a charismatic leader at that critical juncture in the nation's
history, and he fulfilled that need profoundly. After all, he was more
than a mere Governor-General: he was the Quaid-i-Azam who had brought the
State into being.
In the ultimate
analysis, his very presence at the helm of affairs was responsible for
enabling the newly born nation to overcome the terrible crisis on the morrow
of its cataclysmic birth. He mustered up the immense prestige and the unquestioning
loyalty he commanded among the people to energize them, to raise their
morale, land directed the profound feelings of patriotism that the freedom
had generated, along constructive channels. Though tired and in poor health,
Jinnah yet carried the heaviest part of the burden in that first crucial
year. He laid down the policies of the new state, called attention to the
immediate problems confronting the nation and told the members of the Constituent
Assembly, the civil servants and the Armed Forces what to do and what the
nation expected of them. He saw to it that law and order was maintained
at all costs, despite the provocation that the large-scale riots in north
India had provided. He moved from Karachi to Lahore for a while and supervised
the immediate refugee problem in the Punjab. In a time of fierce excitement,
he remained sober, cool and steady. He advised his excited audience in Lahore
to concentrate on helping the refugees, to avoid retaliation, exercise
restraint and protect the minorities. He assured the minorities of a fair
deal, assuaged their inured sentiments, and gave them hope and comfort.
He toured the various provinces, attended to their particular problems
and instilled in the people a sense of belonging. He reversed the British
policy in the North-West Frontier and ordered the withdrawal of the troops
from the tribal territory of Waziristan, thereby making the Pathans feel
themselves an integral part of Pakistan's body-politics. He created a new
Ministry of States and Frontier Regions, and assumed responsibility for
ushering in a new era in Balochistan. He settled the controversial question
of the states of Karachi, secured the accession of States, especially of
Kalat which seemed problematical and carried on negotiations with Lord
Mountbatten for the settlement of the Kashmir Issue.
The
Quaid's last Message
It was, therefore,
with a sense of supreme satisfaction at the fulfillment of his mission that
Jinnah told the nation in his last message on 14 August, 1948: "The
foundations of your State have been laid and it is now for you to build
and build as quickly and as well as you can". In accomplishing the
task he had taken upon himself on the morrow of Pakistan's birth, Jinnah
had worked himself to death, but he had, to quote richard Symons, "contributed
more than any other man to Pakistan's survivial". He died on 11 September,
1948. How true was Lord Pethick Lawrence, the former Secretary of State
for India, when he said, "Gandhi died by the hands of an assassin; Jinnah
died by his devotion to Pakistan".
A man such
as Jinnah, who had fought for the inherent rights of his people all through
his life and who had taken up the somewhat unconventional and the largely
misinterpreted cause of Pakistan, was bound to generate violent opposition
and excite implacable hostility and was likely to be largely misunderstood.
But what is most remarkable about Jinnah is that he was the recipient of
some of the greatest tributes paid to any one in modern times, some of
them even from those who held a diametrically opposed viewpoint.
The Aga Khan
considered him "the greatest man he ever met", Beverley Nichols, the author
of `Verdict on India', called him "the most important man in Asia",
and Dr. Kailashnath Katju, the West Bengal Governor in
1948,
thought of him as "an outstanding figure of this century not only in India,
but in the whole world". While Abdul Rahman Azzam Pasha, Secretary General
of the Arab League, called him "one of the greatest leaders in the Muslim
world", the Grand Mufti of Palestine considered his death as a "great
loss" to the entire world of Islam. It was, however, given to Surat
Chandra Bose, leader of the Forward Bloc wing of the Indian National Congress,
to sum up succinctly his personal and political achievements. "Mr
Jinnah", he said on his death in 1948, "was great as a lawyer, once great
as a Congressman, great as a leader of Muslims, great as a world politician
and diplomat, and greatest of all as a man of action, By Mr. Jinnah's passing
away, the world has lost one of the greatest statesmen and Pakistan its
life-giver, philosopher and guide". Such was Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad
Ali Jinnah, the man and his mission, such the range of his accomplishments
and achievements.
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