Quaid-e-Azam

The Architect of Pakistan

An Historical Contest.

After the defeat of War of 1857:

• Decline after the 1857 Uprising• Sir Syed and his colleagues’ efforts for revival• Removal of misunderstanding between the Muslims and the British• Educational movement or acquisition of modern knowledge and English• Hindi-Urdu Controversy was the issue that unearthed the hatred and enmity of Hindu community towards the Muslims.

Formation of the Congress was a method to incorporate the Muslims in Hinduism. It popularized the agitational politics that Muslims could not afford because they were still recovering the past gaps.

Hindu Revivalist movements mostly targeted the Muslims that accelerated the pace of widening the gulf between the two nations.

In this backdrop The All India Muslim League was founded in 1906

Introduction

Mr. Muhammad Ali Jinnah was not the leader of Pakistan only. In fact he was the leader of the Muslim Ummah of the South Asian subcontinent, which was called India in pre-partition days.

The idea of Pakistan created a spirit which liberated the minds of Indian Muslims from the bar of space and time. Muslim League was not just a political party but it became a “ Common Cause” and a “Movement”.

It was like a journey of soul searching for self Identity by the Muslims of Subcontinent where they could realize and actualize the environment of self-fulfilment and development.

In his biography of titled "Jinnah of Pakistan", the American historian, Stanley Wolpert, makes the following observation that:

“Few individuals significantly alter the course of history. Fewer still modify the map of the world. Hardly anyone can be credited with creating a nation-state. Muhammad Ali Jinnah did all three

His own development

During his student years in England, Jinnah came under the spell of 19th-century British liberalism, like many other future Indian independence leaders. This education included exposure to the idea of the democratic nation and progressive politics. He admired William Gladstone and John Morley, British Liberal statesmen.

Contd.

Quaid-I-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s personality marked unique features. He was a man of high principles and great probity. He was an able advocate, a leading lawyer, a profound parliamentarian, a super statesman, a dynamic mass leader, and above all, one of the great nation builders in modern times.

Historians of the Quaid have focused for the most part, on his historic struggle under his self-motivated leadership in the forties that culminated in the great national separate sovereign state. However, the earlier part of his life is significant nonetheless; it prepared him meticulously for the stunning final act of whirling the course of history of the South Asian subcontinent.

Contd.

From his first appearance in Indian polities in 1904, membership of Indian National Congress in 1906, he supported national causes, such as Compulsory primary education, freedom of association, of expression, and of the press, curbing of executive power from Bureaucracy to Democracy, recruitment of Indians in Civil Services as well as in the army.

His brilliant advocacy of such All-India causes, made him acceptable to all sections of the people, never made him unconscious of his basic and fundamental duty to his own community. He spared no efforts to advance the interests of Indian Muslims from the platform of the Indian National Congress and other representative bodies.

It was because of him that the heart of Muslim India, always passionately faithful to its own spiritual and moral traditions became suddenly and vividly aware also of its own inheritance politically and its own responsibility in shaping the national future for freedom.

Contd.

Motivated by a deep sense of history, Jinnah concluded early in his life that the British would one day depart from India and leave the management of the country to the native population.

He was convinced that of the need to bridge deep and abiding differences between the major religious and cultural communities, especially the Hindus and Muslims. So, between 1906 and 1920, he gave the best years of his life to forging relations between Hindus and Muslims and between the Congress and the Muslim League in the struggle for getting self-rule for India from the British Government.

Jinnah without abandoning his membership in the Congress joined the All India Muslim League in October 1913 in a display of Muslim Solidarity, but his instincts were aimed at identifying moderates in both parties who, like himself, wished to neutralize the extremist

Contd.

In the words of Aysha Jalal, “In 1940 the All-India Muslim League orchestrated the demand for independent Muslim states in India. Seven years later Pakistan was created amidst a communal holocaust of unprecedented proportions. Concentrating on the All-India Muslim League and its leader, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, The Sole Spokesman assesses the role of religious communalism and provincialism in shaping the movement for Pakistan”.

Genesis

On March 22, 1940 in his presidential address to the All-India Muslim League Lahore session, the founder of Pakistan M A Jinnah made it plain that:

“The Hindus and the Muslims belong to two different religious philosophies, social customs, and literature. They neither intermarry, nor interdine together, and indeed they belong to two different civilizations which are based mainly on conflicting ideas and conceptions. He further said ,Musalmans are a nation according to any definition of a nation, and they must have their homeland, their territory and their State “

Contd.

He fought heroically for a Muslim resurgence in the subcontinent and most decisively swayed the battle against the British imperial power as well as the Hindu congress. As for his personality and position as a leader of the Muslims of India is concerned, Beverley Nichols, an English journalist, commented in his famous book “Verdict on India” that:

“Mr. Jinnah is in a position of unique strategic importance. He can sway the battle his way or that as he chooses. His 100 million Muslims will march to the left, to the right, to the front, to the rear at his bidding and at nobody else’s…that is the point”.

Contd.

Jimail-uddin Ahmed’ quoted in his book “Creation of Pakistan” that even Lord Mountbatten for all his animosity towards Pakistan and Quaid-e-Azam made him admit that:

“If it could be said that any single man held the future of India in the palm of his hand in 1947, that man was Muhammad Ali Jinnah. To all interests and purposes Jinnah was the Muslim League and if the dream of Pakistan ___the separate Muslim state__ever did come true, it would be Jinnah who brought it to life and fashioned it.”

Founding Pakistan

He had fought his political battles with the British on their own ground.

From the Morley-Minto and Montague Chelmsford Reforms, through the Roundtable Conferences, the Statutory Commission, the Government of India Act until the dawn of independence, he had waged a ceaseless struggle for a voluntary transfer of power to a representative government.

For him it was not an utopian idea but a historical necessity inherent in the inner contradictions of a heterogeneous society, which no amount of logical subtlety of the Hindu mind could make homogenous. This led to the creation of Pakistan.

The Times acknowledging his role as the architect of Pakistan commented: "Few statesmen have shaped events to their policy more surely than Mr. Jinnah." He was a strategist and a tactician; he planned and made his political moves with utmost care, deliberation and astuteness. But his moves were always tampered with a sense of dignity, fair play, `justice and lofty ideals.”

Contd.

On his death USA’s president Truman paid him homage in these words "He was the originator of the phenomenon that became Pakistan, architect of the state and Father of world's largest Muslim nation. Mr. Jinnah was the recipient of a devotion and loyalty seldom accorded to any man."

The last chief justice of India Lord Patrick Spencer opined: "There is no man or woman living who imputes anything against his honor or honesty. He was the most upright person, I know.

The far sightedness of Jinnah’s views makes them relevant to the issues faced by Pakistan, even, today. So, Pakistan can perhaps simply follow the advice of its Founder, Jinnah, truly a great leader of this world, to shine among the brightest of all nations.

Pakistan’s Vision

The independent state of Pakistan, created on August 14, 1947, represented the outcome of a campaign on the part of the Indian Muslim community for a Muslim homeland which had been triggered by the British decision to consider transferring power to the people of India.

Whilst giving an interview to American press representatives in July 1942, when asked by one of the journalists whether the Muslims were a nation or not, Jinnah replied:

“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 codes, customs and calendar, history and traditions, aptitudes and ambitions, in short, we have our own distinctive outlook on life and of life. By all cannons of international law we are a nation”.

Contd.

Quaid-e- Azam and Ideology of Pakistan On March 22, 1940 in his presidential address to

the All-India Muslim League Lahore session, M A Jinnah made it plain that “The Hindus and the Muslims belong to two different religious philosophies, social customs, and literature. They neither intermarry, nor interdine together, and indeed they belong to two different civilizations which are based mainly on conflicting ideas and conceptions. He further said ,Musalmans are a nation according to any definition of a nation, and they must have their homeland, their territory and their State “

Contd.

On the basis of his speeches and slogan, he was interpreted differently by different people. The liberal tried to prove Quaid-e-Azam as a secular leader , where as by others the Two Nation Theory has been taken as his love for theocracy. In a broadcast talk to the people of the United States

of America in Feb. 1948, he said: “in any case Pakistan is not going to be a theocratic

state to be ruled by priest with a divine mission. We have many non-Muslims, Hindus, Christian and Parsis but they are all Pakistanis. They will enjoy the same rights and privileges as any other citizen and play their rightful part in the affairs of Pakistan”.

Contd.

In a speech on the address with Parsee community on 3rd February 1948 and said:“Pakistan which symbolizes the aspiration of a Nation that found itself in minority in the Indian sub-continent can not be mindful of the minorities with in its own borders”.

Contd.

From his speeches it transpires also that economic factor was dominating factor for him. On September 26, 1947 on accession on the Foundation stone of the buildings of the valika textile Mills Ltd. He said:

” If Pakistan is to play its proper role in the world to which its size, manpower and resources entitle it, it must develop industrial potential side by side with its agriculture and give its economy and industrial bias. By industrializing our state we shall decrease our dependence on the outside world for necessity of life. We will give more employment in our people and we will also increase the resource of the state.

Contd.

Quid-e-Azam tried to carve Pakistan on the basis of strong economic and social equality basis. His many speeches made it clear that he wanted to treat all the community as equal citizen of future state.

It is well depicted in a speech of March 27, 1947 in the Memon Chambers; he said that

“ I assure you that I have respect for the great Hindu community and all that it stands for. They have their faith, their philosophy , their great culture, so have the Muslims but two are different”.

LEGACY

Jinnah died at the Governor-General’s House in Karachi on 11 September 1948, just over a year after Pakistan’s independence.

When the then Viceroy of India, Lord Louis Mountbatten, learned of Jinnah’s ailment he said ‘had they known that Jinnah was about to die, they’d have postponed India’s independence by a few months as he was being inflexible on Pakistan’.

Pakistanis view Jinnah as their revered founding father, an architect of the state and a man that was dedicated to safeguarding Muslim interests during the dying days of the British Raj.

History may judge him but it is almost impossible to doubt that there is any figure that had more influence and role in the creation of Pakistan than Jinnah.

Conclusion

For Jinnah creating of Pakistan was means not end in itself. Quaid envisaged a welfare and prosperous Pakistan and a welfare state for masses.

Unfortunately. We have deviated from that vision because we did not follow his principles of Unity, Faith and Discipline. This nation has faced all sorts of challenges before and after independence. It can still tackle any challenge with its devotion and dedication.

We should learn self reliance as this would liberate us from dependence on others. If we can get freedom without any external help, why can’t we achieve progress and prosperity without the same?

The Quaid has taught us hard work. We all know that when his sister asked him reason for working late at night, he replied “if I don’t work hard how I would become a successful man”.

If we don’t work hard with dedication, if we don’t make sacrifices, how can we become a great and successful nation? Our great Quaid sacrificed his comfort, his health and finally his life for us.

He dedicated each moment of his life to the cause of Pakistan. It is our duty and obligation to follow his vision to make Pakistan truly the state that he wanted it to be, make it a welfare state, a strong state that commands respect among other states in the world.

Reference

Noor Fatima, Religio-Economic Quest for Pakistan: All Indian Muslim League Perspective. National Institute of Historical Research.

Aysha Jalal. The Sole SpokesmanJinnah, the Muslim League and the Demand for Pakistan.

Stanley Wolpert, Jinnah of Pakistan.