FOUNDING FATHER OF PAKISTAN

BORNEO BULLETIN, 22nd December 1998

           Pakistan's creation fifty-one years ago on 14 August 1947 is an extra-ordinary phenomenon in history. The unique struggle for the creation of a homeland for 76 millions Muslims living in the South Asian subcontinent required no less a personality than Mohammed Ali Jinnah, later hailed as Quaid-i-Azam (Great Leader).

In the words of Stanley Wolpert, author of the book Jinnah of Pakistan: "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. Mohammed Ali Jinnah did all the three".

 Jinnah's indomitable will and skillful leadership consolidated the political will of the Muslims of the subcontinent, which resulted in the creation of the fifth largest country in the world. The South Asian poet-philosopher Allama Mohammed Iqbal's dream of a separate homeland for Muslims living in the subcontinent was realised by Jinnah within a decade of the latter joining the Muslim League.

Jinnah was born in Karachi on 25th December 1876.  He was sent to Sindh Madressa and later to Karachi's Christian Mission High School. In January 1893, Jinnah left for England and on 25 April 1893 petitioned Lincoln's Inn. He passed the examination in May 1893. The very next month he embarked on his legal studies at Lincoln's. On 11 May 1896, he was admitted to the Bar of Court. He was now entitled to join the Bar of any Court in British India.

 By 1900, Jinnah's professional promise was held in high esteem. Although Jinnah proved himself fair and fearless as a judge, he found the Bench a much less attractive professional prospect than the Bar. In 1901, he declined the offer of permanent place on the Bench at the respectable starting salary of 1,500 rupees a month, saying that he would soon be able to earn that much money in a single day.

Jinnah's story of unique achievement was so inextricable product of his genius as a barrister, perhaps the greatest native advocate in British Indian history, that he was genuinely regarded as the shrewdest barrister in the entire British empire.

Jinnah first entered into politics as the Indian National Congress' "Ambassador of Hindu-Muslim Unity" but he ended up forty years later as a staunch advocate of a separate Muslim State. He rapidly ascended the heights of law and politics in the subcontinent. These achievements were not ordinary especially in the presence of similarly qualified barristers and politicians like Gandhi and Jawahar Lal Nehru.

In the 1920s, he was somewhat superseded by the rise of Gandhi's leadership and the movement of India in a more revolutionary direction under Nehru. But Jinnah remained the pivotal figure in the turbulent decades that followed as India struggled for independence from British rule, amid growing Hindu-Muslim antagonism. He emerged outstandingly from the political surface through his political achievements one after the other.  He fought his case for the creation of Pakistan with brilliant advocacy and singular tenacity.

The movement among the Muslim population of the subcontinent that culminated in the creation of Pakistan stemmed from the historical fact that, for more than six centuries before the effective domination of the British in India, Muslims had ruled India under the Mughals. When the British replaced the Muslims, the tradition of rule prevented the Muslims from adapting themselves to the new situation as readily as the Hindus.

The political and economic downfall of the Muslims that started soon after Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb's death reached its culmination in the 19th century. The Muslims now found themselves deprived of all power and authority. The period of extreme Muslim depression was between 1833 and 1864. Islam, after six hundred years in power, found itself reduced to a position which was altogether intolerable. The failure of the 1857 uprising against the British dashed the Muslim hopes of a restoration of their authority in the subcontinent.

For the Muslims the situation was truly desperate. The man who saw this most clearly was Syed Ahmed, the founder of the Aligarh Movement. It was the first step towards the integration of Muslims in the subcontinent. While the Hindus were pressing for constitutional reform through the Indian National Congress, the Muslims sought various guarantees to safeguard their minority position and finally founded their own political organization, the All-India Muslim League, at Dacca in 1906.

The gradual clarification of the British intention to grant self-government to India along the lines of British parliamentary democracy aroused Muslim apprehensions regarding ultimate political subjection to the Hindu majority. In 1907 when the question of political reforms became urgent and inevitable, and the Minto-Morley scheme was on the anvil, the British government decided to introduce separate electorates for the Muslims. This secured for the Muslims a certain amount of protection. The Minto-Morley reforms were followed by the Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms in 1917. This led to further confusion and frustration.

In a series of All Parties Conferences and Unity Conferences attempts were made to draft an agreed Constitution for the subcontinent, but without success. It was in this atmosphere that Allama Iqbal was called upon to preside at the annual session of the Muslim League held in Allahabad in 1930. It was in this meeting that Iqbal said:

"I therefore demand the formation of a consolidated Muslim State in the best interest of India and Islam. For India it means security and peace resulting from an internal balance of power; for Islam an opportunity to rid itself of the stamp that Arabian imperialism was forced to give it, to mobilize its law, its education, its culture, and to bring them into closer contact with its own original spirit and with the spirit of modern times".

Iqbal saw in Pakistan the only solution of the political, social and economic ills of the Muslims living in the subcontinent. He also chose the man who alone could achieve it and further more persuaded Jinnah to work for it. Originally Jinnah had been a supporter of Indian nationalism. But he soon became convinced that a separate Muslim state in the subcontinent was the only way of safeguarding Muslim interests and the Muslim way of life. He carried on a nationwide campaign to warn his coreligionists of the perils of their position, and he converted the Muslim League into a powerful instrument for unifying the Muslims into a nation.

           

British policy, supported by the weight of the Hindu nationalist movement, laboured hard to avoid disrupting the economic and political unity built up during British rule. None of the suggested alternatives to the separation of Pakistan commended themselves to Jinnah, whose leadership of the bulk of the community was unchallenged. Without his cooperation -- of which the price was Pakistan -- Indian independence was impracticable. His courage and implacable determination triumphed in the end. On March 22-23, 1940, in Lahore, the Muslim League adopted a resolution to form a separate Muslim state under his leadership.

At this point, Jinnah emerged as the leader of a renascent Muslim nation. Events began to move fast. The Indian National Congress first tenaciously opposed the Pakistan idea. But it captured the imagination of the Muslims. Pitted against Jinnah were men of the stature of Gandhi and Jawahar Lal Nehru. And the British government seemed to be intent on maintaining the political unity of the subcontinent. But Jinnah led his movement with such skill and tenacity that ultimately both Congress and the British government had no option but to agree to the partitioning of India. Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan had made possible the creation of the first state born in the name of religion, Islam, within seven years of the adoption of the Pakistan Resolution in 1940.