In a few years we have made the Muslims of India, who were only a crowd, into a nation. They were a scattered mass, disorganized and apathetic. The Muslim League has electrified them from their stupor and knit them together. We have gone through a process of nationalization and now we have one flag, one platform and one voice.
Thus declared Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah while inaugurating the third annual session of the Balochistan Muslim League early in 1943. From ‘the best ambassador of Hindu— Muslim Unity’ as he was then called, to the Quaid-i-Azam preaching one voice, one flag, and one ideal— Pakistan—is a far cry. Starting with an ambition to be a Muslim Gokhale and ending by being the unquestioned leader of India’s eighty million Muslims and leading them in their crusade for a separate homeland makes fascinating study. From his early years, Mohammad Ali Jinnah showed an interest in the life and conditions around him. The small world around him was the object of his interest and public events were the books he studied. It was expected that he would take over the mantle of his father and continue with his business traditions. But Jinnah had a hidden ambition. In 1892, at the age of sixteen, he left for England primarily with the objective of opening and establishing commercial connections in London.
After his efforts at business proved abortive due to the difficulties his father began to experience in Karachi, Jinnah induced and prevailed upon his father to allow him to stay on and study for the Bar. He enrolled at Lincoln’s Inn in London, and began reading for the Bar. He spent most of his spare time at the library of the British Museum reading and studying the lives of great men. During the Round Table Conference in London, he confided in his nephew, Akbar Peerbhoy, that he found the study of the lives of great philosophical and religious thinkers to be a very useful exercise. Fortunately for himself and India, the contacts he made at that time were of the healthiest character and played an important part in the formative process which was to mould him into Jinnah the statesman. In this Dadabhai Naoroji the grand old man of India played a leading part. It was under him that Jinnah received his first lessons in politics and public life. This training and the contacts that he nude were not lost on him in later life.
Jinnah was called to the Bar in 1896 at the age of twenty-one and in the same year he returned to India. On arrival in India, Jinnah not only had to face financial difficulties but also litigation. Undaunted, he faced his opponents and in conducting and winning his own case, he registered his first triumph in the practice of the law. He found Karachi too small a field for his legal activities and in 1897 he left for Bombay to set up practice at the High Court.
The first three years were times of severe hardship and trials. But buoyant patience and determination to succeed soon bore fruit. Through the kind offices of an old friend he was granted permission to read in the chambers of Mr Macpherson, the then acting Advocate General of Bombay. This was the starting point which set him on the road to success. Occasional briefs now began to trickle in, the obscure young lawyer soon proved his mettle, and started to lay the foundation of his notable legal success and fame which later resounded throughout the country. Great lawyers and men many years his senior acknowledged him a master in the art of advocacy. He is reported to have had that uncanny ability of making the most complex facts simple and obvious and he could be ferociously aggressive
or almost boyishly persuasive as the occasion demanded. Besides, he possessed a remarkably clear head and that most uncommon of qualities—a fund of common sense.
Those who saw him in action, including Jinnah’s nephew Akbar Peerbhoy, maintained that Jinnah always chose the path of honour and integrity. Although the Hindu members of the Bombay Bar disliked and disagreed with his political convictions, they all applauded him for upholding and maintaining the highest traditions of the Bar. He kept aloof from the heat and the dust of the matter-of-fact world with its intrigues and squabbles. Squalour and corruption left him untouched. He was gifted with a unique and characteristic style of speaking which he carried with him into every sphere of life. He had the triple assets of a magnetic presence, an impressive delivery, and a voice which, while lacking in volume had an arresting timbre. With his unusual powers of persuasion, luminous exposition, searching argument, and sound judgement he earned for himself an enviable reputation as a great debater.
In the autumn of 1910 he made his debut in practical Indian politics when he was elected by the Muslims of the Bombay Presidency as their representative to the Supreme Legislative Council. In this role he earned the gratitude of progressive India in supporting liberal measures involving the larger national welfare. Piloting the intricate Wakf Validating Bill successfully through the Council was one of the outstanding performances that stand to his credit.
Jinnah formally enrolled as a member of the All-India Muslim League in 1913 just before he left England. In keeping with his high sense of honour, he made it condition precedent that loyalty to the Muslim League and Muslim interest would in no way and at no time imply disloyalty to the larger national cause to which his life was dedicated.
In spite of his past experiences and his failure to achieve unity between the Hindus and Muslims, Jinnah once again set about his task with hope and determination. Due to his cogent exposition and persuasive powers, the Muslim delegation once again renewed the offer of joint electorates throughout India. The attitude of Jinnah at the Round Table Conference was perfectly honourable and completely national. His position was described by the Manchester Guardian in the following manner:
Mr Jinnah’s position at the Round Table Conference was unique. The Hindus thought he was a Muslim communalist, the Muslims took him to be a pro-Hindu, the princes deemed him to be too democratic, the Britishers considered him an extreme Nationalist with the result that he was a leader without a following.
At the conclusion of the Second Round Table Conference in London, Jinnah informed his friends and associates about his future plans. He was despondent and depressed, as he felt that his life’s work had failed to bear fruit and he remarked, ‘Heaven help India!’ So great was his disappointment and so hopeless the situation that he decided to settle down in London and practice at the Privy Council. He was deaf to all appeals and entreaties to return to India.
Years rolled by and in their trail came the Government of India Act and Provincial Autonomy. Jinnah, with his usual foresight and vision, realized that both t e Muslims and the Hindus were at the threshold of a critical period. It has been narrated by Akbar Peerbhoy, who was on the scene at the time, that the Muslims were groping in the dark for a leader to guide them in their difficult and perilous
path. The material was there, but it needed leadership. Muslims sensed the danger of being reduced to everlasting serfdom as a minority with no vestige of power. A few innocuous safeguards were not what they wanted. A few seats in some legislatures were not what they aspired to. Protection of their language and religion was not what they sought. All these they had in ample measure under the British. It was not change of masters they were contemplating.
The spirit of revolt was smouldering and only a spark was needed to ignite it. Jinnah supplied that spark and united the Muslims of India into a nation of eighty million with one voice, one flag, and one ideal. Once a rabble, this nation was now alive to the danger and aware of its destiny. From now on began the new phase of Jinnah’s leadership. Jinnah, the leader of the intelligentsia, became the leader of the people. His most ardent admirers were astonished by the ability, confidence, and strength with which he took leadership of a people noted for its apathy and indifference.
In 1940, amidst unparalleled scenes of enthusiasm and jubilation, the Pakistan Resolution was passed at the Lahore Session of the Muslim League. Separate and independent homelands for the Muslims became the cherished ideal and Pakistan was given a concrete shape. Presiding on that historic occasion Jinnah said:
Muslims are a nation according to any definition of a nation, and they must have their homelands, their territory, and their state. We wish to live in peace and harmony with our neighbours as a free and independent people. We wish our people to develop to the fullest our spiritual, cultural, economic, social, and political life in a way that we think best and in consonance with our own ideals and according to the genius of our people. Honesty demands and the vital interests of millions of our people impose a sacred duty upon us to find an honourable and peaceful solution, which would be just and fair to all. But at the same time we cannot be moved or diverted from our purpose and objective by threats or intimidations. We must be prepared to face all difficulties and consequences, make all the sacrifices that may be required of us to achieve the goal we have set in front of us.
Success finally came with the creation of the new nation state of Pakistan. Historians would later acknowledge Jinnah’s unique unparalleled triple achievement of altering the course of history, changing the map of the world, and creating a nation state. Pakistanis generally tend to look at Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah from a national perspective. They are constantly shown pictures of Quaid-i-Azam in a grey sherwani and a cap. He is stated to have made important policy statements and laid down guidelines to control the destiny of the nation and its people. Some believe that he was a saviour sent down to liberate the Muslims from slavery under the British, and domination by the Hindus, and to lead them to the promised land. There are others who are inclined to believe that Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the ambitious lawyer turned politician merely fought one more legal case in the court of world opinion.
It is wholly unnecessary to go into the merits or demerits of the claim of either side. The former would like to keep Jinnah in a sherwani and cap as the founder of an Islamic nation which he personally called into being. The latter would like to project him as an impeccably dressed barrister, highly intelligent and articulate, a perfect master of strategy and the art of statecraft with a definite leaning towards
the disposition of a British aristocrat who dealt with the British and the Hindus on his own terms without getting into a political fray and won the most monumental case in the history of the Bar. The judgment was, Pakistan’.
Jinnah was a giant among the men of his times who were themselves outstanding leaders. Perception and priorities greatly differ between people. The world is re-assessing Jinnah’s contribution and stature as well as his ability and vision as a political leader and statesman. This will be a continuous process and Jinnah will be judged by the totality of his achievements against the background of the situation that he was placed in and the role that he was destined to play. He brought together, under one flag and on one platform, the disorganized and scattered Muslims, and made them realize that they were a nation. He made Pakistan his life’s mission. He carved out a state where none existed. He was born to lead. He created a Muslim homeland and brought a new nation on the map of the world.
It is by no means an easy task to understand Quaid i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the politician, the leader of the Muslims and the towering statesman. Beverley Nichols, in his famous book Verdict on India, describes Jinnah as, the most important man in Asia’ and called his meeting with Mr Jinnah as a dialogue with a giant’. He expressed the view that the one hundred million Muslims of India would do exactly as Mr Jinnah bid them as Jinnah had complete control and following of the Muslims of India. With regard to the British and the Hindu leaders, Beverley Nichol went on to state that Jinnah’s criticism of British policies, towards India in general and Muslims in particular, was clear and based on facts. It was not a hotchpotch of hatred and hallucination like that of some Indian politicians. It was a diagnosis. The difference between Jinnah and other Indian politicians was the difference between a surgeon and a witch doctor. Jinnah was a surgeon whom you could trust even though his verdict was harsh.
The completion of half a century of existence is as good a time as any to reflect on what our founding father achieved and the course of action that he expected us to follow. It is by seeking inspiration from the struggle, achievement, and vision of Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah that we can mould ourselves into a well-disciplined and organized nation and march forward with determination to achieve peace, progress and prosperity and hold our own with respect and dignity in the comity of nations.
We must ask ourselves whether we, as Pakistanis, have lived up to the hopes and aspirations of our founding father and whether there is any other person or aspect around whom or which we can attempt to bind ourselves into the fabric of the State of Pakistan which surely cannot survive without us in the same manner as we cannot survive in today’s world without the continued existence of Pakistan.
The author is President of The Jinnah Society, Managing Trustee of the Jinnah Foundation and Executive Trustee of Quaid-i-Azam Aligarh Education Trust
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