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Brief Life Sketch of Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah
Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali
Jinnah Urdu: محمد علی جناح (December 25, 1876 – September 11, 1948),
a 20th century politician and statesman, is generally regarded as the father
of the state of Pakistan. He served as leader of the The Muslim League and
served as Pakistan's first
Governor-General. He is officially known in Pakistan as Quaid-e-Azam (Urdu: قائد اعظم — "Great Leader") and
Baba-e-Qaum (بابا قوم) ("Father of the Nation"). His
birthday is a national holiday in Pakistan. Jinnah rose to prominence in the Indian National Congress expounding ideas
of Hindu-Muslim unity and helping shape the 1916 Lucknow Pact with the Muslim
League; he also became a key leader in the All India Home Rule League. He
proposed a fourteen-point constitutional reform plan to safeguard the
political rights of Muslims in a self-governing India. His proposals failed
amid the League's disunity, driving a disillusioned Jinnah to live in London
for many years. Several Muslim leaders persuaded Jinnah to return in 1934 and
re-organise the Muslim League. Jinnah embraced the goal of creating a
separate state for Muslims as per the Lahore Resolution. The League won most
Muslim seats in the elections of 1946, and Jinnah launched the Direct Action
campaign movement to achieve independence of Pakistan. The strong reaction of
Congress supporters resulted in communal violence across South Asia. The
failure of the Congress-League coalition to govern the country prompted both
parties and the British to agree to independence of Pakistan and India. As
the Governor-General of Pakistan, Jinnah led efforts to rehabilitate millions
of refugees, and to frame national policies on foreign affairs, security and
economic development.
Jinnah was born
Mahomedali Jinnahbhaiin, some believe, Wazir Mansion, Karachi District, of
lower Sindh. However, this is disputed as old textbooks mention Jhirk as his
place of birth. Sindh had earlier been conquered by the British and was
subsequently grouped with other conquered territories for administrative
reasons to form the Bombay Presidency of British India. Although his earliest
school records state that he was born on October 20, 1875, Sarojini Naidu,
the author of Jinnah's first biography, gives the date as ”December 25,
1876”. The latter date is now officially accepted as his birthday. He was not
an observing Muslim, dressed throughout his life in European-style clothes,
and spoke in English more than his mother tongue, Gujarati or his adopted
tongue, Sindhi. Jinnah was the eldest of seven children born to Mithibai and
Jinnahbhai Poonja. His father, Jinnahbhai (1857–1901), was a prosperous
Gujarati merchant who had moved to Sindh from Kathiawar, Gujarat before
Jinnah's birth. His grandfather was Poonja Gokuldas Meghji, a Bhatia from
Paneli village in Gondal state in Kathiawar. Some sources speculated that
Jinnah's ancestors were Hindu Rajputs that converted to Islam. Jinnah's
family belonged to the Ismaili Khoja branch of Shi'a Islam, though Jinnah
later converted to Twelver Shi'a Islam. The first born Jinnah was soon joined
by six siblings, brothers Ahmad Ali, Bunde Ali, and Rahmat Ali, and sisters
Maryam, Fatima and Shireen. Their mother tongue was Gujarati, however, in
time they also came to speak Kutchi, Sindhi and English The proper muslim
names of Mr. Jinnah and his siblings, unlike those of his father and
grandfather, are the consequence of the family's immigration to the muslim
state of Sindh. The young Jinnah, a restless student, studied at several
schools: at the Sindh-Madrasa-tul-Islam in Karachi; briefly at the Gokal Das
Tej Primary School in Mumbai; and finally at the Christian Missionary Society
High School in Karachi, where, at age sixteen, he passed the matriculation
examination of the University of Bombay. The same year, 1892, Jinnah was
offered an apprenticeship at the London office of Graham's Shipping and Trading
Company, a business that had extensive dealings with Jinnahbhai Poonja's firm
in Karachi. However, before he left for England, at his mother's urging he
married his distant cousin, Emibai Jinnah, who was two years his junior. The
marriage was not to last long as Emibai died a few months later. During his
sojourn in England, his mother too would pass away. In London, Jinnah soon
left the apprenticeship to study law instead, by joining Lincoln's Inn. The
welcome board of the Lincoln's Inn had the names of the world's all time top
ten magistrates. This list was led by the name of Muhammad, which was the
sole reason of Jinnah's joining of Lincoln's Inn. He In three years, at age
19, he became the youngest Indian to be called to the bar in England. Around
this time, Jinnah also became interested in politics. An admirer of the
Indian political leaders Dadabhai Naoroji and Sir Pherozeshah Mehta, he
worked, with other Indian students, on the former's successful campaign for a
seat in the British Parliament. Although, by now, Jinnah had developed
largely constitutionalist views on Indian self-government, he nevertheless
condemned both the arrogance of British officials in India and the
discrimination practised by them against Indians. Jinnah House in Mumbai,
India.During the final period of his stay in England, Jinnah came under
considerable pressure when his father's business was ruined. Settling in
Mumbai, he became a successful lawyer—gaining particular fame for his skilled
handling of the "Caucus Case". Jinnah built a house in Malabar
Hill, later known as Jinnah House. His reputation as a skilled lawyer
prompted Indian leader Bal Gangadhar Tilak to hire him as defence counsel for
his sedition trial in 1905. Jinnah argued that it was not sedition for an
Indian to demand freedom and self-government in his own country, but Tilak
received a rigorous term of imprisonment test.
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Founding Pakistan
A letter by Jinnah to
Winston ChurchillIn the 1946 elections for the Constituent Assembly of India,
the Congress won most of the elected seats, while the League won a large
majority of Muslim electorate seats. The 1946 British Cabinet Mission to
India released a plan on May 16, calling for a united Indian state comprising
considerably autonomous provinces, and called for "groups" of provinces
formed on the basis of religion. A second plan released on June 16, called
for the separation of South Asia along religious lines, with princely states
to choose between accession to the dominion of their choice or independence.
The Congress, fearing India's fragmentation, criticised the May 16 proposal
and rejected the June 16 plan. Jinnah gave the League's assent to both plans,
knowing that power would go only to the party that had supported a plan.
After much debate and against Gandhi's advice that both plans were divisive,
the Congress accepted the May 16 plan while condemning the grouping
principle.[citation needed] Jinnah decried this acceptance as
"dishonesty", accused the British negotiators of
"treachery",[25] and withdrew the League's approval of both plans.
The League boycotted the assembly, leaving the Congress in charge of the
government but denying it legitimacy in the eyes of many Muslims. Jinnah
issued a call for all Muslims to launch "Direct Action" on August
16 to "achieve Pakistan".[26] Strikes and protests were planned,
but violence broke out all over South Asia, especially in Calcutta and the
district of Noakhali in Bengal, and more than 7,000 people were killed in
Bihar. Although viceroy Lord Wavell asserted that there was "no satisfactory
evidence to that effect",[27] League politicians were blamed by the
Congress and the media for orchestrating the violence.[28] Interim Government
portfolios were announced on October 25, 1946.[29] Muslim Leaguers were sworn
in on October 26, 1946.[30] The League entered the interim government, but
Jinnah refrained from accepting office for himself. This was credited as a
major victory for Jinnah, as the League entered government having rejected
both plans, and was allowed to appoint an equal number of ministers despite
being the minority party. The coalition was unable to work, resulting in a
rising feeling within the Congress that independence of Pakistan was the only
way of avoiding political chaos and possible civil war. The Congress agreed
to the division of Punjab and Bengal along religious lines in late 1946. The
new viceroy Lord Mountbatten and Indian civil servant V. P. Menon proposed a
plan that would create a Muslim dominion in West Punjab, East Bengal,
Baluchistan and Sindh. After heated and emotional debate, the Congress
approved the plan.[31] The North-West Frontier Province voted to join
Pakistan in a referendum in July 1947. Jinnah asserted in a speech in Lahore
on October 30, 1947 that the League had accepted independence of Pakistan
because "the consequences of any other alternative would have been too
disastrous to imagine."
Jinnah's views on statehood
A controversy has raged
in Pakistan about whether Jinnah wanted Pakistan to be a secular state or an
Islamic state. His views as expressed in his policy speech on 11th August
1947 said: There is no other solution. Now what shall we do? Now, if we want
to make this great State of Pakistan happy and prosperous, we should wholly
and solely concentrate on the well-being of the people, and especially of the
masses and the poor. If you will work in co-operation, forgetting the past,
burying the hatchet, you are bound to succeed. If you change your past and
work together in a spirit that everyone of you, no matter to what community
he belongs, no matter what relations he had with you in the past, no matter
what is his colour, caste or creed, is first, second and last a citizen of
this State with equal rights, privileges, and obligations, there will be no
end to the progress you will make. I cannot emphasize it too much. We should
begin to work in that spirit and in course of time all these angularities of
the majority and minority communities, the Hindu community and the Muslim
community, because even as regards Muslims you have Pathans, Punjabis, Shias,
Sunnis and so on, and among the Hindus you have Brahmins, Vashnavas, Khatris,
also Bengalis, Madrasis and so on, will vanish. Indeed if you ask me, this
has been the biggest hindrance in the way of India to attain the freedom and
independence and but for this we would have been free people long long ago.
No power can hold another nation, and specially a nation of 400 million souls
in subjection; nobody could have conquered you, and even if it had happened,
nobody could have continued its hold on you for any length of time, but for
this. Therefore, we must learn a lesson from this. You are free; you are free
to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other
place or worship in this State of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or
caste or creed that has nothing to do with the business of the State. As you
know, history shows that in England, conditions, some time ago, were much
worse than those prevailing in India today. The Roman Catholics and the
Protestants persecuted each other. Even now there are some States in
existence where there are discriminations made and bars imposed against a
particular class. Thank God, we are not starting in those days. We are
starting in the days where there is no discrimination, no distinction between
one community and another, no discrimination between one caste or creed and
another. We are starting with this fundamental principle that we are all
citizens and equal citizens of one State. The people of England in course of
time had to face the realities of the situation and had to discharge the
responsibilities and burdens placed upon them by the government of their
country and they went through that fire step by step. Today, you might say
with justice that Roman Catholics and Protestants do not exist; what exists
now is that every man is a citizen, an equal citizen of Great Britain and
they are all members of the Nation. Now I think we should keep that in front
of us as our ideal and you will find that in course of time Hindus would
cease to be Hindus and Muslims would cease to be Muslims, not in the
religious sense, because that is the personal faith of each individual, but
in the political sense as citizens of the State. Jinnah, 11th August 1947 -
presiding over the constituent assembly. While this was a clear indication
that Jinnah wanted a secular state, he did on occasion refer to Islam and
Islamic principles. Pakistan not only means freedom and independce but the
Muslim Ideology which has to be preserved, which has come to us as a precious
gift and treasure and which, we hope other will share with us[dubious –
discuss] Message to Frontier Muslim Students Federation June 18, 1945.
Furthermore he also pointed out on various occasions that the counties
constitution and its financial setup must be based on Islamic principles. The
constitution of Pakistan has yet to be framed by the Pakistan Constituent
Assembly. I do not know what the ultimate shape of this constitution is going
to be, but I am sure that it will be of a democratic type, embodying the essential
principle of Islam. Today, they are as applicable in actual life as they were
1,300 years ago. Islam and its idealism have taught us democracy. It has
taught equality of man, justice and fairplay to everybody. We are the
inheritors of these glorious traditions and are fully alive to our
responsibilities and obligations as framers of the future constitution of
Pakistan. In any case Pakistan is not going to be a theocratic State to be
ruled by priests with a divine mission. We have many non-Muslims --Hindus,
Christians, and Parsis --but they are all Pakistanis. They will enjoy the
same rights and privileges as any other citizens and will play their rightful
part in the affairs of Pakistan. Broadcast talk to the people of the United
States of America on Pakistan recorded February, 1948. It has been argued by
many people that in this speech Jinnah wanted to point out that Pakistan
would be a secular state as mostly people think that an Islamic state is a
theocratic state, this perception is however wrong and is miss interpreted,
the reason is because a true Islamic state is not a theocratic state ,as
rightly stated by Jinnah in his speech. Because in a theocratic state the
civil leader is believed to have a direct personal connection with god, which
is contrary to the principles of an Islamic state. On the opening ceremony of
the state bank of Pakistan Jinnah pointed out that the financial setup of the
state should be based on Islamic economic system. We must work our destiny in
our own way and present to the world an economic system based on true Islamic
concept of equality of manhood and social justice. We will thereby be
fulfilling our mission as Muslims and giving to humanity the message of peace
which alone can save it and secure the welfare, happiness and prosperity of
mankind. Speech at the opening ceremony of State Bank of Pakistan, Karachi
July 1, 1948 [edit]
Governor-General
Jinnah with Gandhi,
1944.Along with Liaquat Ali Khan and Abdur Rab Nishtar, Muhammad Ali Jinnah
represented the League in the Division Council to appropriately divide public
assets between India and Pakistan.[32] The assembly members from the
provinces that would comprise Pakistan formed the new state's constituent
assembly, and the Military of British India was divided between Muslim and
non-Muslim units and officers. Indian leaders were angered at Jinnah's
courting the princes of Jodhpur, Bhopal and Indore to accede to Pakistan -
these princely states were not geographically aligned with Pakistan, and each
had a Hindu-majority population.[33] Jinnah became the first Governor-General
of Pakistan and president of its constituent assembly. Inaugurating the
assembly on August 11, 1947, Jinnah spoke of an inclusive and pluralist
democracy promising equal rights for all citizens regardless of religion,
caste or creed. This address is a cause of much debate in Pakistan as, on its
basis, many claim that Jinnah wanted a secular state while supporters of
Islamic Pakistan assert that this speech is being taken out of context when
compared to other speeches by him. On October 11, 1947, in an address to
Civil, Naval, Military and Air Force Officers of Pakistan Government,
Karachi, he said: We should have a State in which we could live and breathe
as free men and which we could develop according to our own lights and
culture and where principles of Islamic social justice could find free
play.[34] On February 21, 1948, in an address to the officers and men of the
5th Heavy Ack Ack and 6th Light Ack Ack Regiments in Malir, Karachi, he said:
You have to stand guard over the development and maintenance of Islamic
democracy, Islamic social justice and the equality of manhood in your own
native soil. With faith, discipline and selfless devotion to duty, there is
nothing worthwhile that you cannot achieve.[35] Jinnah in his final days.The
office of Governor-General was ceremonial, but Jinnah also assumed the lead
of government. The first months of Pakistan's independence were absorbed in
ending the intense violence that had arisen in the wake of acrimony between
Hindus and Muslims. Jinnah agreed with Indian leaders to organise a swift and
secure exchange of populations in the Punjab and Bengal. He visited the
border regions with Indian leaders to calm people and encourage peace, and
organised large-scale refugee camps. Despite these efforts, estimates on the
death toll vary from around two hundred thousand, to over a million
people.[citation needed] The estimated number of refugees in both countries
exceeds 15 million.[36] The then capital city of Karachi saw an explosive
increase in its population owing to the large encampments of refugees. Jinnah
was personally affected and depressed by the intense violence of the
period.[citation needed] Jinnah authorised force to achieve the annexation of
the princely state of Kalat and suppress the insurgency in Baluchistan. He
controversially accepted the accession of Junagadh—a Hindu-majority state
with a Muslim ruler located in the Saurashtra peninsula, some 400 kilometres
(250 mi) southeast of Pakistan—but this was annulled by Indian intervention.
It is unclear if Jinnah planned or knew of the tribal invasion from Pakistan
into the kingdom of Jammu and Kashmir in October 1947, but he did send his
private secretary Khurshid Ahmed to observe developments in Kashmir. When informed
of Kashmir's accession to India, Jinnah deemed the accession illegitimate and
ordered the Pakistani army to enter Kashmir.[37] However, Gen. Auchinleck,
the supreme commander of all British officers informed Jinnah that while
India had the right to send troops to Kashmir, which had acceded to it,
Pakistan did not. If Jinnah persisted, Auchinleck would remove all British
officers from both sides. As Pakistan had a greater proportion of Britons
holding senior command, Jinnah cancelled his order, but protested to the
United Nations to intercede.[37] Owing to his role in the state's creation,
Jinnah was the most popular and influential politician. He played a pivotal
role in protecting the rights of minorities,[citation needed] establishing
colleges, military institutions and Pakistan's financial policy.[38] In his
first visit to East Pakistan, under the advice of local party leaders, Jinnah
stressed that Urdu alone should be the national language; a policy that was
strongly opposed by the Bengali people of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).
This opposition grew after he controversially described Bengali as the
language of Hindus.[39][40] He also worked for an agreement with India
settling disputes regarding the division of assets.
Death
Tomb of M.A. Jinnah The
funeral of Jinnah in 1948.Through the 1940s, Jinnah suffered from
tuberculosis; only his sister and a few others close to him were aware of his
condition. In 1948, Jinnah's health began to falter, hindered further by the
heavy workload that had fallen upon him following Pakistan's independence
from British Rule. Attempting to recuperate, he spent many months at his
official retreat in Ziarat, but died on September 11, 1948 (just over a year
after independence) from a combination of tuberculosis and lung cancer. His
funeral was followed by the construction of a massive
mausoleum—Mazar-e-Quaid—in Karachi to honour him; official and military
ceremonies are hosted there on special occasions. Funeral prayers were led by
Allamah Shabbir Ahmad Usmani for the general public, mostly Sunni, at
Jinnah's request. Jinnah did have a private Namaz-e-Janaza at Kharadar which
was attended by close relatives and people from the Shia community.[41] Dina
Wadia remained in India after independence, before ultimately settling in New
York City. Jinnah's grandson, Nusli Wadia, is a prominent industrialist
residing in Mumbai. In the 1963–1964 elections, Jinnah's sister Fatima
Jinnah, known as Madar-e-Millat ("Mother of the Nation"), became
the presidential candidate of a coalition of political parties that opposed
the rule of President Ayub Khan, but lost the election. The Jinnah House in
Malabar Hill, Bombay, is in the possession of the Government of India but the
issue of its ownership has been disputed by the Government of Pakistan.[42]
Jinnah had personally requested Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to
preserve the house and that one day he could return to Mumbai. There are
proposals for the house be offered to the Government of Pakistan to establish
a consulate in the city, as a goodwill gesture, but Dina Wadia has also laid
claim to the property.
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