PARTITION
Patrick French on Jinnah, the Founder of Pakistan
The truth about Mohammad Ali Jinnah is that his political ideology developed and matured in a gradual and complex way over fifty years, and that the founder of the homeland for Indian Muslims remained a secularist of sorts to the end. In Pakistan itself he has been an uncomfortable father of the nation, and it was not until 1993 the first volume of his papers was published. Yet his achievement, however flawed it may be, was phenomenal.
While a student in England, he enjoyed strolling around the streets of London, visiting the British Museum, and developed and interest in politics, going to the House of Commons to listen to the maiden speech by Britian's first Asian member of Parliament, Dadabhay Naoroji. Unlike Gandhi, who undertook a remarkably similar voyage into London life, (he) does not seem subsequently to have been troubled by shedding the outward trappings of his cultural heritage. Before long he had forsaken his Sindhi tunic and turban for smart hand-tailored suits, starched collars, two-tone shoes, spats and a monocle, apparently in emulation of Joseph Chamberlain. In later life he owned over three hundred exquisite suits, and was said never to wear the same silk tie twice to court.
Back in India success came quickly, one colleague remembering him as omnipotent as soon as he came into a courtroom, partially because people were afraid of his precise, powerful, aloof manner. He combed his jet-black hair, grew a tentative moustache, and was said to scrub his hands scrupulously throughout the day. Jinnah attended a meeting of the Indian National Congress, in Bombay in 1904 and was immediately marked out as a promising newcomer. Two years later he travelled to Congress session in Calcutta, acting as secretary to the ageing and respected Dadabhoy Naoroji. Before long he gained a reputation as an uncompromising but resolutely non-communal politician. He must have realised that if he were to succeed in Congress like Naoroji and Gokhale it would not be by virtue of his Muslim origins, but through a secular appeal.
In 1913 he decided to join the Muslim League, while insisting that such action did not "imply even the shadow of disloyalty to the larger national cause". As the Congress activist Motilal Nehru told his friends, “Unlike most Muslims (Jinnah is) as keen a nationalist as any of us. He is showing the community the way to Hindu-Muslim unity." Jinnah became well known in the years leading up to the First World War as a promoter of religious unity, insisting that Hindus and Muslims should battle together for and an end to colonial rule.
He remained a Congress stalwart, and in 1913 sailed' to Liverpool with Gokhale for an official meeting with Lord Islington, the Under-Secretary of State for India. On return, he put forward a sensible proposal that the India Office should be funded by the British exchequer, rather than from India. He was also adamant that Indians should be allowed to become officers in the Indian army. His political method was to campaign on small but important constitutional issues of this kind. The nations of revolutionary terrorism or a mass popular uprising was anathema to him.
The fatally antagonistic tenor of Gandhi-Jinnah relationship was set at their very first meeting. It took place in January 1915 at a garden party organised by the Gurjar Sabha (Gujarat Society) of Bombay to celebrate Gandhi's return from South Africa. Jinnah was the chairman of the Society, and in response to his speech of welcome, Gandhi said he was "glad to find a Mohamedan not only belonging to his own region's Sabha, but chairing it".
During the first World War (Jinnah) had begun wooing Ratanbai, or 'Ruttie', Petit, the young daughter of one of Bombay's richest Parsi merchants. They courted in Darjeeling although her father, Sir Dinshaw Petit, was adamantly opposed to the marriage. She had converted to Islam a few days before (marriage) and taken the name of Mariam. All links with her family were severed until her separation from Jinnah less than a decade later. Their first and only child, a daughter called Dina, was born on August 14, 1919.
At a dinner given by the Governor of Bombay, Lord Willingdon. ruttie wore a low-cut Parisian evening dress, and Lady Willingdon promptly ordered a servant to bring her a 'wrap' on the grounds that she might feel cold. Jinnah was so insulted that the couple left at once, and never saw the Willingdon again socially.
When a public leaving party was held for Willingdon by some eminent Bombay Parsis, Jinnah organised a disruptive boycott. Jinnah and his supporters were hustled out by the police, and he became rather to his surprise, a hero on the streets of Bombay. A memorial hall was built in his honour following spontaneous fund raising and named People's Jinnah Hall. This was the only time that Jinnah ever became physically involved in direct action to make a political point.
When Gandhi had first proposed the concept of Satyagraha, Jinnah was doubtful. He abhorred the nation of abandoning his elegant legal chambers and European clothes. Despite the similarity of their social origin, the two men offered diametrically opposed prototypes of leadership. Jinnah was a constitutionalist and a social elitist, who did not wish to soil his carefully scrubbed hands by consorting with the masses. As he told Gandhi, a non-cooperative strategy would in his view appeal only to the young, the ignorant and the illiterate. He was right of course, but it was precisely this spread of the freedom movement authorities on the back foot.
At Christmas 1920, with Gandhi's radical tactics in the ascendant, there was a meeting of Congress at Nagpur. Membership was rising fast, and a new type of activist was emerging. Not only was Gandhi generating huge excitement among Hindus, but he was also gaining Muslim support through his backing of the Khilafat movement. For the first time, a nationalist leader had successfully appealed to workers and peasants from both communities. A resolution at Nagpur endorsing Gandhi's strategy was greeted by deafening prolonged cheers and applause', and seconded by the once-deported Congress hero Lala. Lajpat Rai. Jinnah, resolute as ever in his opinions, opposed the mood of the meeting, determined to state that he believed such radicalism would be counterproductive. His feelings towards. Gandhi had never been warm, but the fanaticism with which Gandhi was now being hailed must have made thing worse.
Jinnah thought Gandhi's tactics were turning a political campaign into an essentially spiritual movement. As he stalked up to the platform he was howled down with cries of 'Shame, shame', and berated for referring to his opponent at 'Mr. Gandhi'. It is notable that there is no report of the Mahatma rebuking his disciples. So it was that the proponent of Hindu-Muslim unity and author of the Lucknow Pact was hounded from the Congress.
(Source: The Outlook, 6 September, 1997)
