Who is jinnah

But, the Muslims presented a sad spectacle at that time. They were a mass of disgruntled and demoralized men and women, politically disorganized and destitute of a clear-cut political programme. Thus, the task that awaited Jinnah was anything but easy. The Muslim League was dormant: even its provincial organizations were, for the most part, ineffective and only nominally under the control of the central organization.

Nor did the central body have any coherent policy of its own till the Bombay session , which Jinnah organized. To make matters worse, the provincial scene presented a sort of a jigsaw puzzle: in the Punjab, Bengal, Sindh, the North West Frontier, Assam, Bihar and the United Provinces, various Muslim leaders had set up their own provincial parties to serve their personal ends.

Extremely frustrating as the situation was, the only consolation Jinnah had at this juncture was in Allama Iqbal , the poet-philosopher, who stood steadfast by him and helped to chart the course of Indian politics from behind the scene. Undismayed by this bleak situation, Jinnah devoted himself to the sole purpose of organizing the Muslims on one platform. He embarked upon country-wide tours. He pleaded with provincial Muslim leaders to sink their differences and make common cause with the League.

He exhorted the Muslim masses to organize themselves and join the League. He gave coherence and direction to Muslim sentiments on the Government of India Act, He advocated that the Federal Scheme should be scrapped as it was subversive of India's cherished goal of complete responsible Government, while the provincial scheme, which conceded provincial autonomy for the first time, should be worked for what it was worth, despite its certain objectionable features.

He also formulated a viable League manifesto for the election scheduled for early He was, it seemed, struggling against time to make Muslim India a power to be reckoned with. Despite all the manifold odds stacked against it, the Muslim League won some about 23 per cent seats out of a total of Muslim seats in the various legislatures. Though not very impressive in itself, the League's partial success assumed added significance in view of the fact that the League won the largest number of Muslim seats and that it was the only all-India party of the Muslims in the country.

Thus, the elections represented the first milestone on the long road to putting Muslim India on the map of the subcontinent. Congress in power with the year opened the most momentous decade in modern Indian history. In that year came into force the provincial part of the Government of India Act, , granting autonomy to Indians for the first time, in the provinces. The Congress, having become the dominant party in Indian politics, came to power in seven provinces exclusively, spurning the League's offer of cooperation, turning its back finally on the coalition idea and excluding Muslims as a political entity from the portals of power.

In that year, also, the Muslim League, under Jinnah's dynamic leadership, was reorganized de novo, transformed into a mass organization, and made the spokesman of Indian Muslims as never before. Above all, in that momentous year were initiated certain trends in Indian politics, the crystallization of which in subsequent years made the partition of the subcontinent inevitable.

The practical manifestation of the policy of the Congress which took office in July, , in seven out of eleven provinces, convinced Muslims that, in the Congress scheme of things, they could live only on sufferance of Hindus and as "second class" citizens.

The Congress provincial governments, it may be remembered, had embarked upon a policy and launched a programme in which Muslims felt that their religion, language and culture were not safe. This blatantly aggressive Congress policy was seized upon by Jinnah to awaken the Muslims to a new consciousness, organize them on all-India platform, and make them a power to be reckoned with. He also gave coherence, direction and articulation to their innermost, yet vague, urges and aspirations.

Above all, he filled them with his indomitable will, his own unflinching faith in their destiny. As a result of Jinnah's ceaseless efforts, the Muslims awakened from what Professor Baker calls their "unreflective silence" in which they had so complacently basked for long decades , and to "the spiritual essence of nationality" that had existed among them for a pretty long time.

Roused by the impact of successive Congress hammerings, the Muslims, as Ambedkar principal author of independent India's Constitution says, "searched their social consciousness in a desperate attempt to find coherent and meaningful articulation to their cherished yearnings. To their great relief, they discovered that their sentiments of nationality had flamed into nationalism".

In addition, not only had they developed" the will to live as a "nation", had also endowed them with a territory which they could occupy and make a State as well as a cultural home for the newly discovered nation. These two pre-requisites provided the Muslims with the intellectual justification for claiming a distinct nationalism apart from Indian or Hindu nationalism for themselves.

So that when, after their long pause, the Muslims gave expression to their innermost yearnings, these turned out to be in favour of a separate Muslim nationhood and of a separate Muslim state. By all canons of international law, we are a nation".

The formulation of the Muslim demand for Pakistan in had a tremendous impact on the nature and course of Indian politics. On the one hand, it shattered for ever the Hindu dreams of a pseudo-Indian, in fact, Hindu empire on British exit from India: on the other, it heralded an era of Islamic renaissance and creativity in which the Indian Muslims were to be active participants.

The Hindu reaction was quick, bitter, and malicious. Equally hostile were the British to the Muslim demand, their hostility having stemmed from their belief that the unity of India was their main achievement and their foremost contribution.

The irony was that both the Hindus and the British had not anticipated the astonishingly tremendous response that the Pakistan demand had elicited from the Muslim masses. Above all, they failed to realize how a hundred million people had suddenly become supremely conscious of their distinct nationhood and their high destiny.

In channeling the course of Muslim politics towards Pakistan, no less than in directing it towards its consummation in the establishment of Pakistan in , none played a more decisive role than did Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah. It was his powerful advocacy of the case of Pakistan and his remarkable strategy in the delicate negotiations that followed the formulation of the Pakistan demand, particularly in the post-war period, that made Pakistan inevitable.

While the British reaction to the Pakistan demand came in the form of the Cripps offer of April, , which conceded the principle of self-determination to provinces on a territorial basis, the Rajaji Formula called after the eminent Congress leader C. Rajagopalacharia, which became the basis of prolonged Jinnah-Gandhi talks in September, , represented the Congress alternative to Pakistan. The Cripps offer was rejected because it did not concede the Muslim demand the whole way, while the Rajaji Formula was found unacceptable since it offered a "moth-eaten, mutilated" Pakistan and the too appended with a plethora of pre-conditions which made its emergence in any shape remote, if not altogether impossible.

Cabinet Mission, the most delicate as well as the most tortuous negotiations, however, took place during , after the elections which showed that the country was sharply and somewhat evenly divided between two parties- the Congress and the League- and that the central issue in Indian politics was Pakistan. These negotiations began with the arrival, in March , of a three-member British Cabinet Mission.

The crucial task with which the Cabinet Mission was entrusted was that of devising in consultation with the various political parties, constitution-making machinery, and of setting up a popular interim government.

But, because the Congress-League gulf could not be bridged, despite the Mission's and the Viceroy's prolonged efforts, the Mission had to make its own proposals in May, Their wedding took place according to Shia Isna Ashri doctrine. The relations between Jinnah and Ruttie were smooth and pleasant. She decided to go abroad just for a change of climate and treatment. She sailed for Paris on April 10, with her mother.

On May 5, , Jinnah left for London. Ruttie remained under treatment for over a month in Paris. Ruttie returned to Bombay alone. She had fallen ill again. On 19th February , she became unconscious and remained so until the next day, the February 20, , which was her twenty-ninth birthday.

She breathed her last the same fateful day. When Ruttie died, Jinnah was in Delhi. On February 22, Jinnah reached Bombay. He broke down and wept like a child. She wrote to him in October while coming back from Paris to India. I only beseech you that our tragedy, which commenced with love, should also end with it. Jinnah barely sixteen sailed for London in the midst of winter. When he was saying goodbye to his mother her eyes were heavy with tears. He told her not to cry and said that he will return a great man from England and not only she and the family but the whole country will be proud of him.

This was the last time he saw his mother, for she, like his wife, died during his three and a half year stay in England. The youngest passenger on his own, was befriended by a kind Englishman who engaged in conversations with him and gave tips about life in England.

He also gave Jinnah his address in London and later invited to dine with his family as often as he could. His father had deposited enough money in his son's account to last him for the three years of the intended stay. Jinnah used that money wisely and was able to have a small amount left over at the end of his three and a half year tenure.

When he arrived in London he rented a modest room in a hotel. He lived in different places before he moved into the house of Mrs. Page-Drake as a houseguest at 35 Russell Road in Kensington. This house now displays a blue and white ceramic oval saying that the 'founder of Pakistan stayed here in Page- Drake, a widow, took an instant liking to the impeccably dressed well-mannered young man.

Her daughter however, had a more keen interest in the handsome Jinnah, who was of the same age of Jinnah. She hinted her intentions but did not get a favorable response. This was granted to him in April Though he found life in London dreary at first and was unable to accept the cold winters and gray skies, he soon adjusted to those surroundings, quite the opposite of what he was accustomed to in India.

After joining Lincoln's Inn in June , he developed further interest in politics. He thought the world of politics was 'glamorous' and often went to the House of Commons and marveled at the speeches he heard there. Although his father was furious when he learnt of Jinnah's change in plan regarding his career, there was little he could do to alter what his son had made his mind up for.

At that point in life Jinnah was totally alone in his decisions, with no moral support from his father or any help from Sir Frederick. He was left with his chosen course of action without a pillar of support to fall back upon.

It would not be the only time in his life when he would be isolated in a difficult position. But without hesitation he set off on his chosen task and managed to succeed. During his stay in London, Jinnah frequently visited the theatre.

He was mesmerized by the acting, especially those of the Shakespearean actors. His dream was to 'play the role of Romeo at the Old Vic. This was no passing phase in life, but an obsession which continued even in his later years. With a theatrical prop, his monocle, always in place in court, he performed like an actor on stage in front of the judge and jury. With dramatic interrogations and imperious asides, he was regarded as a born actor.

After being enrolled to the Bar he went with his friends to the Manager of a theatrical company who asked him to read out pieces of Shakespeare. On doing so, he was immediately offered a job. He was exultant and wrote to his parents about his newfound passion. He said, 'I wrote to them that law was a lingering profession where success was uncertain; a stage career was much better, and it gave me a good start, and that I would now be independent and not bother them with grants of money at all.

They were surprised, and they tried to persuade me, but my mind was made up. According to the terms of the contract I had signed with them, I was to have given them three months notice before I quitting. But you know, they were Englishmen, and so they said: "Well when you have no interest in the stage, why should we keep you, against your wishes? The signed contract is proof that how important the stage career was for Jinnah at that time, it was possibly his first love.

His father's letter had dissuaded him for the time being, disheartened and dejected, he had consented to his wish. But it was probably the last time he changed his mind after seriously devoting it to something. Jinnah left for England in January , landed at Southampton, catching the boat train to Victoria Station. Search term:. Read more. This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets CSS enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience.

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