Jinnah-False Prophet of Pakistan

Sanjeev Munshi

Mohammad Ali Jinnah (1876-1948) is often Called the founder of Pakistan. He was certainly responsible, more than most, for the division of India. However, the credit for creating the concept of a separate homeland for Muslims of the Indian subcontinent must be given to two persons-a) Sir Syed Ahmad Khan (1817-1898), the person responsible for setting up Aligarh Muslim University, which, later, in the words of alums, went on to become a fountainhead of communism and communalism in India and b) to Dr Mohd Iqbal (1877-1938). Much credit for creating mass awareness and intellectuality about Hindus and Muslims being two different and socially incompatible 'qualms' must go to Sir Syed Ahmad Khan.

The idea of a separate homeland for Muslims was first enunciated by Dr Mohammad Iqbal at Allahabad on December 29, 1930, during the 21st Annual Session of the Muslim League. Iqbal wanted Pakistan to become a 'land of the pure with Sharia laws at its heart. The name Pakistan was used for the first time by a student at Cambridge, Rehmat Ali, in 1933 in his pamphlet titled" Now or Never - Are We to Live or Perish Forever" Rehmat Ali identified himself as the Founder of the Pakistan Nation Movement.

Jinnah was the architect who turned Iqbal's dreams into reality. The founding father of Pakistan was a cigar-smoking anglophile down to his bootlaces, having received his legal training at the Lincoln's Inn England. For describing him, I would quote that master wordsmith, O' Henry - "In dress, habits, manners, provincialism, routine and narrowness he acquired that charming insolence, that irritating completeness, that sophisticated crassness, that overbalanced poise that makes the Manhattan gentleman so delightfully small in his greatness." (Defeat of the City).

Mohammad Ali Jinnah was the eldest of seven children of Jinnahbhai Poonja, a prosperous merchant (originally from Gondal, Gujarat), and his wife, Mithibai. They were Khoja Shias, followers of the Aga Khan and had converted from the Hindu religion only a couple of generations ago. Jinnah returned to India from London in 1896 and started his legal practice in Mumbai. He was greatly impressed by the personality and thinking of Gopal Krishna Gokhale, the veteran Maratha nationalist. During the early part of his political life, Jinnah aspired to become "al Muslim Gokhale." At that time, he was looking upon Muslim interests in the context of Indian nationalism, being associated with the Indian National Congress (1906-1920). A liberal constitutionalist and a firm believer in constitutional niceties, Jinnah probably got disillusioned with the agitational politics of Gandhi. Whether his disenchantment with Congress was only ideological or affected by jealousy against a fellow Gujarati whom he considered an upstart (Gandhi returned to India from South Africa in 1915 while Jinnah was already a part of Congress since 1906) remains a moot point. The seeds might have been sown at a reception in Gandhi's honour on January 12, 1915 Gandhi asked Jinnah, who was presiding, to speak in Gujarati, much to Jinnah's discomfort! Lifelong, he derisively used to call Gandhi a Baniya, a reference to his caste!

On October 30, 1920, Jinnah wrote a historic letter to Gandhi: "I thank you for your kind suggestion offering me to take my share in the new life that has opened up before the country. If by 'new life' you mean your methods and your programme, I am afraid I cannot accept them; for I am fully convinced that it must lead to disaster." Gandhi also started giving special attention to Jawahar Lal, a mediocre lawyer by Jinnah's standards! These factors probably led to his estrangement from Congress and his turn towards the Muslim League, where he got primacy. The leaders drifted apart not only politically but also in personal estrangement. After 1937, Jinnah's rhetoric became abusive. Gandhi did not spare comments of a personal nature, either.

While Mohd Iqbal, the poet, can be termed as the Ideologue of Pakistan, Jinnah was the architect! As per Iqbal, unlike Christianity, Islam came with "legal concepts'' with "civic significance," with its "religious ideals" considered inseparable from social order; therefore, the construction of a policy on national lines, if it means a displacement of the Islamic principle of solidarity, is simply unthinkable to a Muslim." In his letter of May 28, 1937, to Jinnah, Iqbal clearly enunciates: "After a long and careful study of Islamic Law, I conclude that if this system of Law is properly understood and applied, at last, the right to subsistence is secured to everybody. But the enforcement and development of the Sharia of Islam are impossible in this country without a free Muslim state or states." To get his Pakistan, Iqbal was prepared to ignore the existence of Muslims in Hindu-majority states. In his letter to Jinnah on June 21, 1937, He clearly writes," "Why should not the Muslims of North-West India and Bengal be considered as nations entitled to self-determination just as other nations in India and outside India are? Personally, I think that the Muslims of North- West India and Bengal ought to look at the present to ignore Muslim 'minority' provinces. This is the best course to adopt in the interests of both Muslim majority and minority provinces."

Contradiction Ideologue vs Architect of Partition

Jinnah turned the Muslim League's original brief "to protect Muslim interests where they were most vulnerable", namely in the Muslim minority provinces, on its head by advocating that the Muslim majority areas should be separated from the rest of India. Jinnah, no doubt, was a good lawyer and won the case for Pakistan by 1947, but, typically like a lawyer, he was indifferent to the consequences of his victory! Jinnah was full of ideological contradictions and quite capable of taking intellectual U-turns! He played the Muslim card more as a bargaining chip but was unsure whether he would get much out of it.

The contradictions between Iqbal's concept and Jinnah's actions came to the fore in Jinnah's address to Pakistan's Constituent Assembly on August 11, 1947 Jinnah declared," "You are free. You are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or any other place of worship in this state of Pakistan. You belong to religion, caste or creed that has nothing to do with the business of the state." In unequivocal terms, Jinnah defined his idea of Pakistan as a secular, liberal democracy, guaranteeing freedom of religion. However, this stand ran in the face of the State of Pakistan as conceived by Iqbal or Jinnah's own speeches in Lahore (1940), Delhi, Aligarh etc. When he was asked in Lahore (1940) about the type of Constitution Pakistan was likely to have, his reply was classic," That was framed 1400 years ago," referring to the Caliphates. However, Jinnah stayed true to the shortcut by Iqbal by sacrificing the interests of Muslims living in various parts of India to gain a foothold in Sind, West Punjab, NWFP and Bengal. His quest for power and authority got satiated with the formation of Pakistan on August 14, 1947! Incidentally, neither people in United Punjab nor Frontier Province (NWFP) had voted for Muslim League in the 1946 elections. In Punjab, under Khazir Hayat Tiwana, the Unionist Party came to power with support from Congress and Akali Dal. Tiwana resigned on March 2, 1947, protesting the decision to partition Punjab. In NWFP, Congress, with the support of Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan and his Khudai Khidmatgars, won 30 seats against 17 by Muslim League.

Recent books by two Pakistani thinkers, Yasir Latif Hamdani (Jinnah: A Life) and Dr Ishtiaq Ahmed (Jinnah: His Successes, Failures and Role in History), provide a complex and richer narrative about Jinnah. Whether Jinnah was genuinely committed to creating Pakistan or using it primarily as a bargaining tool may be debatable. Still, he certainly had yet to learn what Pakistan would look like once it was established. When this question was asked of Jinnah at Aligarh Muslim University, he got irritated, remarking," Let us first get there, then we shall see!"

Jinnah was a pork-eating- liquor-loving liberal constitutionalist who became uncomfortable with Congress's politics under Gandhi and the subtle Hindu flavour Gandhi was trying to give to the freedom struggle (Ram Rajya and other symbolisms). Given his secular lifestyle and scant knowledge of Islam (or any other religion, for that matter), he failed to understand that a state based on religion would inevitably be dominated ideologically by the most fundamentalist segments of society. He had never thought through this issue, possibly because he believed that the division of India was improbable in the final analysis. Hamdani mentions that on his deathbed, Jinnah told his doctor that he regretted dividing India and creating Pakistan. So convinced had he been of the futility of his own mission, he chose not to sell his property in Mumbai before moving to Karachi in 1947 because he thought he would use the house for his summer holidays!

As per Dr Ishtiaq Ahmed, Jinnah won the 1946 elections by promising different things about the future shape of Pakistan to different pressure groups within the Muslim community -Ahmedis, Bareilvies, Deobandis, Shias, Sunnis etc. Once he won the elections, he could not put out a plan to satisfy every faction. Jinnah never put his thoughts on paper in the form of a book or articles in newspapers. All we have are his speeches delivered at different fora from time to time - and the content would change with context! Nature did not give Jinnah time to give shape to the State of Pakistan - he died in September 1948, leaving the country to fend for itself in the hands of landlords of Sindh & Punjab and warlords of NWFP. Muslims of East Bengal soon realised that they were held in contempt by their fellow Muslims of West Pakistan. Hasan Nissar, the well-known Pakistani intellectual and media personality, has publicly admitted that during his time at Punjab University (the 1950s), Punjabi students would look down upon Bengali students in their hostels for their food habits, dress and overall There was nothing in common, culturally! Former senior bureaucrat Reodad Khan claims that in the 1971 East Bengal crisis, Gen Yahya Khan abhorred the idea of allowing the handsome Punjabis and Pathans to be killed for dark-skinned Bengalis!

So, Pakistan, born in strife, never went on to become a Nation as conceived by Iqbal. Jinnah refused to grant Bengali the status of National language, as demanded by the Bengali. intelligentsia. In two public events that he attended in Dhaka in 1948 on March 21 and March 24, he emphasised that Urdu and Urdu alone would be the language of Pakistan. His proclamation sent out a dangerous signal to the Bengali elite that had been the prime mover of the concept of Pakistan. Widespread protests started after Jinnah made this announcement. Importantly, supporters of Bengali opposed Urdu even before the creation of Pakistan; when delegates from Bengal rejected the idea of making Urdu the lingua franca of Muslim India in the 1937 Lucknow session of the Muslim League, they were assured by both Jinnah and his deputy, Liaquat Ali Khan that their interests would be protected as and when they attain separate nation for Muslims. This was yet another instance of Jinnah lacking clarity in his mind and taking a convenient U-turn. After Jinnah's announcement, unending protests against the imposition of Urdu became part of East Pakistan's life. Dhaka University campus was the bastion of pro-Bangla protestors. Like any other day, they peacefully protested on February 21, 1952. And then suddenly, Pakistani Rangers started firing on those young guys, killing many students and political activists. They were demanding equal status to their native tongue, Bangla. The massacre occurred near Dhaka Medical College and Ramna Park. Despite very tense moments, a makeshift monument was erected on February 23, 1952, by Dhaka university students and other educational institutions. In the words of Dr Syed Jaffar, Director of Pakistan Study Circle, this hard stance was a big mistake committed by a big leader and led to the ultimate disintegration of Pakistan in 1971. Contrast this with India, where Hindi and English have been given the status of Official Languages and a total of 22 languages as Scheduled Languages. Every state can have its own language for statecraft and judicial procedures.

AG Noorani, the well-known lawyer and political commentator, has, in his seminal work "Assessing Jinnah," made several startling observations. "It is not any "interest" alone which prevents self-education. So does Hubris. Jinnah, Gandhi and Nehru were men of colossal pride and vanity beyond the ordinary. Jinnah should have known that besides the inherent falsity of the poisonous concept, nationalism based on religion degenerates into violent sectarianism. Gandhi, acting as "the supreme leader", never seriously strove for conciliation in a plural society. Nehru denied the validity of the concept itself. Both spurned Jinnah. Jinnah ultimately painted himself into a comer from which he did not know how to escape. Like Nehru, Jinnah also shattered the established basis of discourse. Nehru did so on the minorities' rights, Jinnah on India's unity, Nehru in arrogant ignorance, Jinnah in arrogant reliance on his tactical skills. Nehru harmed secularism by denying the legitimacy of minority rights. Jinnah ruined it with the two-nation theory. Both men were secularists. Therein lies the tragedy."

Nature, too, never allowed Jinnah adequate time to give Pakistan a proper shape as a nation once it became a physical reality. Due to his anglicised personality, he had just contempt for the 'second rung' of Muslim League leadership, and he considered most of them unworthy of his attention. He had never developed or discussed the framework for the future of Pakistan as a political entity. After Jinnah's death (September 11, 1948), with no national leader holding the country together and with a threadbare state, a void opened up in Pakistan. In the absence of national identity, this void has been filled by civilian and military rulers who have advanced their competing visions of the state ever since. Religious groups and civilian and military governments have sought to repackage Jinnah as an Islamic leader to increase support and legitimacy amongst Pakistani society and match their anti-India rhetoric. Islamization and appeals to Islam are "a form of therapy to resolve a longstanding national crisis of identity."

As per Noorani, responsibility for the partition was not his (Jinnah's) exclusively; but his share was enormous. The Muslim League's Resolution of March 23, 1940, brought partition into the realm of the possible. The collapse of the Cabinet Mission's Plan of May 16 1946, for a united India dragged it into the abyss of inevitability. Indians and Pakistanis must come to terms with Jinnah's record in its entirety. He was of a heroic mould but fell prey to bitterness and the poison that bitterness breeds. Indians have demonised Jinnah.

On the other hand, Pakistanis wilfully shut their eyes to Jinnah's grave mistakes and canonise him. They overlook the damage inflicted by his actions and pronouncements on Pakistan itself, let alone the Muslims of the Indian subcontinent. He promised them a land of milk and honey - those who followed him now find that Utopia never existed in the first place! That reflects the enormity of Jinnah's failure as a false prophet!

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Courtesy:- Sanjeev Munshi and December 2022, Koshur Samachar