23rd March 1940: What Our Youth Must Know About?

The Pakistani youth of today seem to be simply ignorant of the historical background of the creation of Pakistan. The reason is mostly to do with detest of theirs for Pakistan Studies while at schools. Based on my interaction with many of them, it is my considered opinion that there is a weakness and void out there amongst our youth vis- -vis history of Pakistan.

On this historic day of 23rd March 'also known as Pakistan Day' I therefore thought to write something for educating my youth on the significance of this day.

The youth of today must know that Pakistan owes her creation to four erstwhile outstanding Muslim leaders, namely: Sir Syed Ahmad Khan (1817-98), Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar (1878-1931), Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah (1876-1948), and Allama Muhammad Iqbal (1877-1938). These leaders provided intellectual and political leadership to Indian Muslims during about ninety years (1858-1947) of the British imperial rule on the Sub-continent.

It is important for them to also know that in the beginning all of these aforementioned leaders were thorough-bred nationalists at one time or another. By being nationalist means they were the proponents of a united India. Now it should not come as a surprise for our young men and women to learn that over the passage of time our leaders got disillusioned with this concept of one united India. The reasons were many. It could have been either because of Hindu ethnocentrism in the late 19th century or Congress`s championing of unitary Hindu nationalism in the 1920s and 1930s.

Now let us focus our discussion exclusively on our great leader and founder of Pakistan 'Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah'. It is very important for the youths to understand the elements of the crest and the troughs in the political leanings and ideologies of Quaid-e-Azam over his long career from 1904 thru 1948. It is interesting to note here that for some seventeen years (1904-1920), he was pro-Congress, pleading the Congress cause and envisioning a truly nationalist destiny for India.

And, still for another sixteen years (1921-37), though he was practically out of Congress as he had joined All India Muslim League in 1920, he was still working for a nationalist destiny. During this period, he was still striving for a Hindu-Muslim settlement and he was still collaborating with the Congress and its leadership for the same. It is also very well known that in pursuit of his mission of Hindu-Muslim unity, he had devised several constitutional formulae, but all to no avail. It is also pertinent to mention here that till early 1937, Quaid-e-Azam was still in his "nationalist" self; preaching his credo eloquently and trying miserably to unite Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs. For this he was widely known as the ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity.

Quaid-e-Azam turned a dream into a reality

ON March 23, 1940, the Muslims of the sub-continent resolved to create a separate homeland, Pakistan. The decision was neither taken in haste nor precipitated by a sudden, dramatic turn of events.

Hindus and Muslims had lived in India for centuries but had remained two distinctly different cultural entities presenting marked dissimilarities that neither time nor assimilation could erase; they were like two streams running a parallel course. So manifest and so profound were the differences that the London Times, commenting on the Government of India Act of 1935, had to ungrudgingly concede: “Undoubtedly the difference between the Hindus and Muslims is not of religion in the strict sense of the word but also of laws and culture, that they may be said indeed to represent two entirely distinct and separate civilizations.”

This incontrovertible realization found a more convincing elucidation in the words of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah: “Notwithstanding thousand years of close contact, nationalities which are as divergent today as ever, cannot at any time be expected to transform themselves into one nation merely by mean of subjecting them to a democratic constitution and holding them forcibly together by unnatural and artificial methods of British Parliamentary Statutes.”

The background of Pakistan Resolution is such that in 1937, provincial autonomy was introduced in the sub-continent under the Government of India Act, 1935. The elections of 1937 provided the Congress with a majority in six provinces, where Congress governments were formed. This led to the political, social, economic and cultural suppression of the Muslims in the Congress ruled provinces.

The Congress contemptuously rejected the Muslim League’s offer of forming coalition ministries. The Muslims were subjected not only to physical attacks but injustice and discriminatory treatment as regards civil liberties, economic measures and employment and educational opportunities. The Congress Ministries introduced the Wardha scheme of education, the object of which was to “de- Muslimize” the Muslim youth and children.

Ian Stephens, former editor of the newspaper “Statesman” and an eyewitness to the working of the Congress Ministries, says: "The effect of this simultaneously on many Muslim minds was of a lightning flash.

‘The Quaid’ of the young nation

Quaid-e-Azam with a group of Quetta students

Quaid-e-Azam’s care, consideration and counselling for children, especially for youth, knew no bounds. There is one enlightening story after another how he advised, counselled, groomed and rejuvenated the young nation during Pakistan Movement and for the future.

Once, in April, 1945, the Quaid visited a school in Qalat, Balochistan, with his host, Khan of Qalat. As a little boy shook hands with him, the Quaid pointed towards the Khan of Qalat and asked this boy as to he was. The boy replied, “Our king”. Next Quaid-e-Azam inquired with the little boy about himself and asked whether the boy knew him. The boy answered, “you are our king’s guest”. Finally, the Quaid asked the boy to introduce himself. The boy said,” I am a Baloch”. At this point, the Quaid gestured towards the Khan of Qalat and earnestly requested him to tell children that they were first Muslims and later the rest of the identities.

Among Muslim League’s monumental problems at the threshold of independence was scarcity of resources as the young nation was all set to embark on the road to development. It was at a Muslim League crucial meeting at the Sindh Government House Karachi, attended by Ghulam Hussain Hiddayat, Chief Minister of Sindh and Shaheed Soharwardi, that the Quaid advised the young nation to practice austerity, economise resources and believe in the magical principle of self-help, self-reliance and self-actualisation.

The importance Quaid-e-Azam attached to the youth and the inspiration he provided them need no introduction. When, in 1941, Raja Ghazanfar Ali, the Quaid’s close aide and admirer and Sir Sikandar Hayyat, chief minister of Punjab, desired to meet the Quaid, who was then attending the annual congregation of Muslim Students’ Federation in Lahore, the Quaid politely refused to give them appointments and requested them to check for his schedule with the office-bearers of the MSF who were coordinating all his appointments during this period.

Faiz on the Quaid-e-Azam

As we write the Muslims of India and Pakistan are celebrating the birthday of the Quaid-i-Azam. As the man who has propelled, guided and controlled the national policies of nearly hundred million human souls, the man who has been responsible for the birth of a major State and the liberation of a major nation from economic and political bondage, the Quaid-i-Azam has already passed into history. With the establishment of Pakistan the mandate entrusted to him by his people may be considered to have been fulfilled and his historical role as the architect of our national State may be said to have reached its glorious consummation. The attainment of this objective demanded a steadiness of vision, fixity of purpose, an amount of unflagging devotion and courage that are rarely found among a people, broken and debased by enslavement and exploitation. The history of nations however is continuum like time, and the culmination of one struggle merely means the commencement of another. The mission of our national leaders, therefore, is far from complete and the national objective we have formally attained still awaits its material content. The future of Indian Muslims who have done as much and suffered far more for Pakistan than we the Muslims of Pakistan have, is still uncertain, and the State of Pakistan has still to require the constitutional flesh and bone. Both these problems are of as great an importance to us as the achievement of Pakistan itself and their satisfactory solution will require an equal amount of vision, determination and courage. There are already many among us, men of small minds and smaller vision, who think that the future of our brothers beyond the border need not enter our national calculations and now that we have got Pakistan, the future of non-Pakistanis is none of our business. The happenings in East Pakistan have utterly negated our thesis and proved that our kinsmen in the neighboring Dominion are very much our business that we have got to take them into calculation while formulating our national policies. We have got to ensure that these policies do not in any way adversely affect the national existence of our co-religionists in the other land, through injudiciousness or lack of imagination. Similarly we have to ensure that both the constitutional structure and the governmental practice of the Pakistani State conform to the ideals that we put before ourselves when we embarked on our national struggle. We have not yet had a glimpse of the Pakistan of our dreams, for we are still besieged by all the ills that have plagued us in the past and the common man has yet to taste the contentment, physical and spiritual, of a free and prosperous existence. The helmsmen of the nation, therefore, of whom the Quaid-i-Azam is the greatest and the most indefatigable, have far from reached the end of their labours and the future of the nation depends as much on their sagacity today as it has dependent on their industry and devotion in the past.

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Faiz Sahib’s editorial of the Pakistan Times dated Dec 27, 1947. The original title was: HOMAGE

Quaid-e-Azam, Islam, and Pakistan!!

It is said that truth is stranger than fiction. Quaid-e-Azam’s life is a case in point.

Quaid-e-Azam and Fatima Jinnah

What kind of reaction would be expected from an “educated” Pakistani, if one were to ask him or her: Do you think Quaid-e-Azam was inspired by the Quran or the Prophet (PBUH) in his struggle for Pakistan? The most likely reaction will be: Quran and Quaid-e-Azam? – Are you serious? And our Prophet (PBUH) and Quaid-e-Azam? – Are you kidding? Quaid-e-Azam was more like a British and a product of their culture. How could he be inspired by the Quran or the Prophet (PBUH)? Yes, he fought for Pakistan. But his motives were political and economic, not Islamic. He wanted to improve the economic condition of Muslims who were dominated by the Hindus. He was not a good Muslim himself but he used Islam very effectively as a slogan to make a case for a separate homeland for Muslims. He proved to be a great leader. And to accomplish his goals he employed his highly skilled legal mind as a weapon in his fight with the Hindus and the British, which earned him a place in history. He had nothing to do with Islam as such. He wanted Pakistan to be a secular state, not an Islamic state.

Believe it or not, these will be the kinds of reaction one would normally get in the streets, mosques, government and business offices in Pakistan.

But why did Quaid-e-Azam still insist on having Pakistan even though Gandhi offered him the leadership of undivided India? If Islam was not an issue in his mind and if he wanted Pakistan to be a secular state, then couldn’t he have used the enormous power as the leader of the largest secular state in the world to his advantage rather than settle for a moth-eaten tiny secular state for Muslims? That would have earned him: the respect of Hindus, the blessing of Gandhi, and high accolades of the British; plus it would have given him unimaginable world popularity. Any other leader seeking fame, fortune, glory, and power would have been only too happy to accept Gandhi’s offer. However, Quiad-e-Azam didn’t. Why did Quid-e-Azam not accept Gandhi’s offer? The answer requires a deeper understanding (than the above “street” responses) of the real motive and the spirit behind Quaid-e-Azam’s struggle for Pakistan.

At Quaid’s service

At Quaid’s Service is a biographical account written on the life of M. Rafi Butt. It deals primarily with the life and times of the young entrepreneur. The 1930’s and 1940’s were dominated by the conflict and aftermath of World War II. Thus, most of the focus of that era had been war-centric, and very few texts provided a prospective view on the culture of the Pakistanis, who gave birth to this country and their struggle against insurmountable odds to survive. Even fewer texts provide an insight into the dealings and preparations for the nation of Pakistan to become a state, along with all stately machinations and responsibilities, and virtually no text exists of the Quaid’s laborious ‘behind the scene’ plans to physically realise that successful, progressive Muslim homeland he saw in his visions.

The book tells Pakistan’s tale from a very different perspective. It is the story of a young Punjabi entrepreneur, who demonstrated economic genius on numerous occasions and had garnered great success in a culture where the odds were stacked almost relentlessly against the Muslims.

Born in 1909, in Lahore, Rafi’s father died while he was still at the young tender age of 16. He had to take over his father’s surgical instruments and supplies business, and soon developed it into an empire within a decade. Rafi went on to establish the Central Exchange Bank in Lahore, in 1936, and expanded it into other cities of the undivided India as well. He travelled extensively to the US and Europe in order to discover the latest innovations in the industry, and kept Jinnah informed on any economic and industrial revelations that could aid the future of Pakistan after its establishment.

It also provides a vivid and unique account of Lahore in the 1930’s and 1940’s, along with the names, places and independent accounts of the happening of the Muslim elites at the time of the Pakistan Movement. The Quaid was a messiah to the masses, but to the elites he was still a politician. Since Rafi was a high flyer in the Indian society, he had an insider view of the way the elites saw the Quaid and Pakistan.

At the same time, it narrates a story of how Jinnah inspired the youth of all segments of the Muslim society, and promised them that if they would follow him they will inherit a homeland with freedom, security and opportunity.

Congo’s Children With Pakistan’s Founder

Pakistani Blue Helmets In The African Nation

KINSHASA, Congo—I am serving with the UN mission in Democratic Republic of Congo. The contribution of Pakistani civilians and military in this country under the UN has earned a lot of respect for Pakistan. I have attached a recent photograph of JINNAH PUBLIC SCHOOL here in Bukavu which is the capital city of South Kivu Province. The school is named after the leader of the Pakistan Independence Movement, Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah.

The school was established by Pakistan Army officers and soldiers as a gift to the people of Congo.

Pakistani Blue Helmets in Congo are earning respect and honor for Pakistan through service to humanity.

The effort is acknowledged by the people of this war-torn country in Central Africa.
The school is more commonly known here as the Jinnah School.

The students here sing the Pakistani national anthem every year during their annual function at Jinnah School. When I saw this scene for the first time, I had tears in my eyes.

Quiz: How well do you know the Quaid-e-Azam?

What was the birth name of the Quaid-i-Azam? Where and when was he born?

Mahomedali Jinnahbhai was the birth name of the first child born to Mithibai and Jinnahbhai Poonja. The date was December 25, 1876, the place Wazir Mansion in Karachi. Later, Mohammad Ali Jinnah changed his spelling when he went to England for higher studies.

Where was the Quaid-i-Azam educated in his early years?

Mohammad Ali Jinnah was educated at the Sindh Madrasatul Islam in Karachi, briefly at the Gokal Das Tej Primary School in Bombay; and finally at the Christian Missionary Society High School in Karachi.

Which profession did the Quaid-i-Azam choose before entering politics?

Jinnah was a lawyer by profession who won many cases due to his brilliance in law. He is by far the most successful lawyer to have become a head of state. According to those who saw him in action, few lawyers commanded a more attractive audience than he. In fact, an angry Justice Martin once addressed him during a case as ‘Mr Jinnah, you are not addressing a third-class magistrate!’

‘There isn’t a third counsel before your Lordship,’ came the astute reply.

Why is the cap worn by the Quaid-i-Azam now known as Jinnah Cap? When did he first wear it?

Jinnah was a man of excellent taste. The styled suits he wore before 1937 were stitched in London and suited him to perfection. However, he sported a sherwani and a Qaraquli cap in 1937 during a session of All-India Muslim League in Lucknow which was meant to signify his commitment to Allama Mohammad Iqbal’s dream of a separate nation for Indian Muslims. The Qaraquli cap is now known as Jinnah Cap.

What were the favourite sports of the Quaid-i-Azam?

Billiards and cricket. In one of his famous pictures that have now become iconic, he is shown playing billiards. Before the creation of Pakistan, he was also a member of the Orient Club in India where he used to play chess and billiards.

What other interests did the Quaid-i-Azam have apart from politics?

During his first trip to London, Jinnah developed a special interest in acting. He acted in some Shakespearean plays during his stay and at one time even seriously considered taking up acting as a profession. However, he was destined for more as we all came to know.

There is a road in Turkey named after the Quaid-i-Azam. True or false?

True. One of the longest streets of Ankara, the capital of Turkey, is named Cinnah Caddesi after him. In the Turkish language, “Jinnah” is spelled “Cinnah”.


Source: Dawn News

In memoriam: Jinnah — the man that he was

Quaid-e-Azam viewing the parade at RPAF Risalpur - 1948

Privileged to be the first A.D.C. to the Quaid-i-Azam for the first seven months, I cherish the memories of many unforgettable moments of being in his service: The flight from Palam (Delhi) airport to Karachi on August 07, 1947; feelings of achievement and pride on setting the first step on Pakistani soil; the state drive on August 14; historic Royal Proclamation formalising the birth of Pakistan; hauling down of the Union Jack that flew for over a hundred years on top of official buildings and unfurling of the Pakistan flag for the first time in its place on the Sindh Assembly building on August 14. These are some of the cherished moments of my life.

When I went to take leave of Quaid-i-Azam before I left for Risalpur to serve the Air Force I took with me one of his photographs to be autographed by him as a memento. He looked at it and went to his private study and came back with his prized photograph, dressed in a three-piece suit and standing in front of the marble fireplace in the living room of his Malabar Hill residence in Bombay. This photograph was taken by the photographer of Life and Time magazines in 1945 and was their copyright. Quaid-i-Azam liked the photograph.

The government approached the magazines for permission for the photograph to be adopted as the official photograph. The magazines refused permission and sent six complimentary copies. Quaid-i-Azam brought one of those copies for me. When he was about to ink his autograph I ventured to suggest that he may kindly autograph it on his suit leg where it would be more prominent. He looked at me with his penetrating eyes as if saying, “You fool, I do not want to spoil the crease of my trousers” and without saying anything, autographed it on the carpet that he was standing on.

The Quaid on the Role of Women in Society

Quaid-e-Azam with lady workers in Bombay

Muslim women of the Indian subcontinent observed strict purdah or seclusion well into the twentieth century. They spent their lives confined to the four wall of their homes. Reformers had advocated their education and a better treatment, but no one had asked for emancipation Nazir Ahmed had persuasively argued in his novel in favour of educating Muslim Women, but within their homes. Altaf Hussain Hali had used the powerful vehicle of his poetry to criticize the treatment meted out to women. Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, the most important Muslim reformer of the 19th century, had argued the Muslim women’s education must wait till the Muslim men had been given modern education.

It was not till the launching of the movement of Anjuman-e-Khuddam-e Ka ‘abah in 1913, that Muslim women began to get involved in any kind of public activity, although it seems to have been restricted to raising funds. It was the Khilafat movement and the imprisonment of the Ali brothers in 1917, which brought their mother, Bi Amman, out. She addressed large gatherings from behind purdah, which she continued to observe. However, Bi Amman and her daughter-in-law Amjadi Begum’s contribution, significant though it was, did not bring out Muslim women in any substantial numbers.

It was the Quaid-i-Azam who broke away from the accepted and traditional view of the role of Muslim women in society, and brought about a radical transformation in it. The Quaid was responding to a change that was sweeping the world, and had gained momentum in the post-First World War period. The Suffragette momentum in the post-First World War period. The Suffragette movement and the women’s struggle for emancipation, was an important element of the social and political changes taking place in the west. In the Indian sub-continent its expression could be seen in the sudden outburst of women’s magazine that began to published from different parts of India, in the decade before the outbreak of Great War.

The Quaid and the Making of Pakistan

How critical was Quaid-i-Azam’s role in the making of Pakistan? Surprisingly though, it was most succinctly and brilliantly summed up in rather unsuspecting quarters – in H.V. Hodson (d. 2000)’s The Great Divide (1969), perhaps the most authoritative British account of the imperial retreat from the subcontinent. He says:

Of all the personalities in the last act of the great drama of India’s rebirth to independence, Mohammad Ali Jinnah is at once the most enigmatic and the most important. One can imagine any of the other principal actors…. Replaced by a substitute in the same role – a different representative of this or that interest or community, even a different Viceroy – without thereby implying any radical change in the denouncement. But it is barely conceivable that events would have taken the same course, that the last struggle would have been a struggle of three, not two, well-balanced adversaries, and that a new nation State of Pakistan would have been created, but for the personality and leadership of one man, Mr. Jinnah. The irresistible demand for Indian independence, and the British will to relinquish power in India soon after the end of the Second World War, were the result of influences that had been at work long before the present story of a single decade begins; the protagonists on this side or that of the imperial relationship were tools of historical forces which they did not create and could not control… Whereas the irresistible demand for Pakistan, and the solidarity of the Indian Muslims behind the demand, were creations of that decade alone, ad supremely the creations of one man.

Of relevance here is how Alfred Broachard evaluated the role of Kemal Ataturk (1881-1938) in the making of the modern Turkey:

Without Napoleon, without de Gaulle, there would still be a France.
Without Washington, there would certainly be the United States.
Without Lenin, it is certain that there would be the Soviet Union; but
without Ataturk, it is certain that there would have been no Turkey.

Turkey had, of course, had a territorial, political, cultural and ethnic existence in history for over five centuries before Ataturk transformed it into modern Turkey in 1923. In contract, Pakistan fell even below the category of middle nineteenth-century “Italy” which the Austrian Chancellor, Matternich (1809-48), had most disparagingly characterized as a mere a “geographical expression”. Pakistan was not even such an expression barely fifteen years before its emergence. There was a “nation” called Turkey for several centuries, but there was none called Pakistan before 1947. Hence if Ataturk’s presence in the early 1920s was critical to have making of modern Turkey, how much more critical should have been Jinnah’s presence in the 1940s in the emergence of Pakistan, especially since she was bereft of any historical prototype hand parentage? Hence Leonard Mosley and a host of other contemporary observers and historians (including Penderal Moon, Ian Stephens, John Terraine, Margaret Bourke-White, Frank Moraes, and D.F. Karaka) rate Jinnah as being the critical variable in its emergence to a point that they characterize Pakistan as a “one-man achievement”.

Quaid-e-Azam and Democracy

• Democracy is in the blood of Muslamans who look upon complete equality of man. I give you an example. Very often when I go to a mosque, my chauffeur stands side by side with me. Muslamans believe in fraternity, equality and liberty. (Speech at Kingsway Hall, London. 14.12.1946) 

• There are no people in the world who are more democratic even in their religion than the Muslamans. (All India Muslim League Session, Lucknow, 1916)

• It is my belief that our salvation lies in following the golden rules of conduct set for us by our great law giver the Prophet of Islam (Peace Be Upon Him). Let us lay the foundation of our democracy on the basis of the truly Islamic ideals and principles. Our Almighty has taught us that our decisions in the affairs of the state shall be guided by discussions and consultations. (Sibi, 14.02.1948)

Quaid-e-Azam's speech before the Constituent Assembly in the context of Two Nation Theory

The Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah during his first address to the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan on 11th August, 1947 said:

“We are all citizens and equal citizens of one state….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.”1

Those who do not have full grasp of the Two-Nation Theory are often misled by the phrase used by the Quaid when he said, “Hindus would cease to be Hindus and Muslims would cease to be Muslims.” They wrongly infer from these words that the Quaid’s vision of Pakistan was that of a secular state in which religion would have no role to play. In this way they mistakenly by wish to hoodwink the people that with the creation of Pakistan the Quaid had given up his affiliation with the Ideology of Islam which he so vehemently asserted before the creation of Pakistan. This mistaken view has already witnessed dangerous interpretations. Therefore, it is not surprising when people of much high caliber as Mr. Justice Mohammad Munir, the former Chief Justice of Pakistan, in his book from Jinnah to Zia while referring to the said speech of the Quaid has observed:

“The pattern of Government which the Quaid-i-Azam had in mind was a secular democratic government.”2

The pre-political phase of the Two-Nation Theory should not be confused with its post-political era. Evidentially, before the creation of an Islamic State, the Muslims and the non-Muslims are two different and distinct nations. The Muslims, in every respect, are a nation, irrespective and independent of geographical boundaries and racial or linguistic bonds. Their religion governs them in every walk of life. In their socio-economic solidarity they have not to be dependent on the state legislation. State legislation is just transcendence of the comprehensive and complete code of life laid down by the Holy Quran and the Holy Sunnah of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (Sall Allah ho alaihe wa sallam).

Islam provides intellectual foundation for the institutional organization of mankind; whereas territorial nationalism based on geographic, linguistic and racial affinities lead to spiritual paralysis and material superiorities of colour, language, territory, tribe and heritage. Territorial nationalism makes impossible the universal brotherhood of mankind. The motto of Muslim Nationhood in the expression of the Unity of God (Taied-e-Ilahi) in thought and action in accordance with the Will of God. Despite everything else the word country (watan) as a term of Geography is not contrary to Islam. Love of Motherland is a natural sentiment. But when the word country is used as a concept of Political Science, it comes into conflict with Islam, for Islam is itself a comprehensive principle of institutional organization.

Our National Purpose

"What we must look for is, first, religious and moral principles; secondly gentlemanly conduct; thirdly intellectual ability.” Thomas Arnold


The national resilience of the Pakistani people is to be judged by the degree of their consciousness and commitment to guard their values, traditions and honour called the ‘national purpose’, or the raison d’être, as the French call it. National purpose is sacrosanct and sublime. Quaid-i-Azam first of all preferred to affirm his own faith, belief and commitment to the cause of Pakistan.


On October 22, 1939, while addressing All-India Muslim Council, he said:
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“I have seen enough in my life, experienced the pleasures of wealth, fame and life of repose and comfort. Now I have one single ambition, to see Muslims gaining freedom and rise to the pinnacle of glory. It is my very ultimate wish that when I die, my conscience and my Allah may testify that, Jinnah never betrayed Islam and that he relentlessly struggled for the freedom of Muslims, to forge institutional discipline among them and strengthen their resolve. I do not wish to get acclamation or reward from you. I only nourish the desire that, my heart, my faith and my conscience, all bear testimony till my death that Jinnah, ‘you contributed your share for the resistance against Islam and my Allah proclaim that “Jinnah you were a born Muslim, lived as such and died, quite steadfastly, holding the banner of Islam against the evil forces.”

Socio-Economic Objectives as Visualised by Quaid-e-Azam

By Mahmud Ali

 Prior to launching of the Pakistan Movement in the South Asian Subcontinent, the economic conditions of the Muslims, in general, were precarious. For this both the British and the Hindu Bania had joined hands after the fall of Mughal Rule in India. Muslim League objective, therefore, was aimed at economic emancipation of the Muslims, both from the British Imperial exploitation as well as from the Hindu money lenders.

The idea behind a separate Muslim state was that, in such a state it would be possible for the incoming people’s government, to adopt and implement an economic system, based on the principles of Islamic Shariat, which prevent concentration of wealth into few hands, and thus ensure equitable distribution of the resources to the generality of the people, thereby paving the way for affluence and eradication of poverty and exploitation of man by man.

Unfortunately the continuation of the impact of the Pakistan Movement came to a dead stop after the sad demise of the father of the nation, Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, who had assimilated the idea into himself and projected it to the extent of founding a Muslim state which would provide the ground for the ultimate realization of the noble objective.

But the question remains, why it had been so? The answer is not far to seek: The elements of exploitation including the outgoing imperial blood-suckers, became super-active finding the field bereft with the power of resistance. The power of dynamic leadership was gone, and the masses, bereft of it, became totally powerless.

Here, we are reminded of the past, through centuries, as to how the elements of exploitation spread their world-wide tentacles of exploitation, blood-sucking of the people all over the globe, including the land which comprises PAKISTAN.

Quaid-e-Azam and the Sikhs

Quaid-e-Azam with Master Tara Singh & Khizar Hayat Tiwana

Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah (1876-1948) was undoubtedly a fascinating, striking and remarkable personality. Possessed of excellent qualities of pen and mind, he played a significant role in changing the course of history and destinies of men in South Asia. A born leader of men, an experienced politician, a dynamic parliamentarian and a far-sighted statesman, he valiantly fought against the British imperialism and Hindu chauvinism in India and single-handedly won the battle of Pakistan.

More strikingly, the Quaid was not only a great defender of the cause of Pakistan, he equally struggled to safeguard the interest of all minority communities in India, irrespective of race, religion and colour. A moderate leader, he stood for a just and honourable treatment of them. Belonging himself to a minority nation, the Indian Muslims, he well understood the minority peoples. At the same time, he fully realized the dominating behaviour and mentality of majority people, the Hindus. A far-sighted politician, he did comprehend the future designs of Hindu majority raj in India. Anyway, the Quaid always remained anxious about the future of minorities in undivided India. “To live and let live” was the basic principle of his political philosophy. To support the cause of any community was an article of faith with him. He often sympathized the grievances of scheduled castes and frequently advocated the cause of Sikhs.

Jinnah & Hindu - Muslim Unity

The founding of Pakistan by Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah so greatly dominates his political life and career that his other roles are bound to be ignored. One important role which Jinnah played in the politics of India was for the achievement of unity between the Hindus and Muslims by bringing about some understanding between the Indian National Congress and the All India Muslim League. In fact, for more than two decades Jinnah was known more for this role than for any other. It will be recalled that Gopal Krishna Gokhale expressed the view that Jinnah “has true stuff in him and that freedom from all sectarian prejudice which will make him the best ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity.”1 Mrs. Sarojini Naidu, who compiled Jinnah’s speeches and writings in 1918 gave the volume the sub-title An Ambassador of Unity and wrote that Jinnah stood “approved and confirmed by his countrymen not merely as an ambassador, but as an embodied symbol of Hindu-Muslim unity.”2 Similarly, Jawahar Lal Nehru, who strongly differed from Jinnah on several political issues, wrote in 1936 that Jinnah had been “largely responsible in the past for bringing the Moslem League nearer to the Congress.”3 The fact is that Jinnah continued to work for unity between the Hindus and Muslims until he was convinced early in 1940 that the Hindu leaders were not at all prepared for any kind of understanding. The purpose of this paper is to discuss this aspect of Jinnah’s political life.

The Evolution of the Quaid-e-Azam - A Personal Observation

The reputation of the Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah as the champion of Muslim rights, as the protagonist of the Two Nation Theory and as the Founding Father of Pakistan is so secure that I feel we may be in some danger of forgetting the long road which he had to travel before he could emerge as the Leader of the greatest Muslim mass-movement of our time. In saying this I do not refer only to the slow process of uniting sections or the Muslim community, deeply divided as they were in aims and outlook, in pursuit of a common objective, but also the struggle which went on in his own mind as hard facts compelled him to discard certain of the ideas which had inspired him to attain the first rank among Leaders of the All India Nationalist movement. This mental revolution, if I may use the term, was painful enough to drive him into temporary political exile, from which he only emerged when he had adjusted his thinking to meet the needs of a new situation. Experience had taught him, as it had taught the famous Florentine statesman, the deadly danger of mistaking things as they are for things as we would like them to be.

As a young contemporary of Muhammad Ali Jinnah – he was only thirteen years of age when I was born – I was privileged to follow his career in some details, and, indeed, to come into close contact with him at some of the turning points by which that career was marked. While it was still at school I began to see Mr. Jinnah’s name in print. I gathered that when he was only sixteen years old, his Father, a shrewd Khoja businessman of Karachi, had sent him to England to read for the Bar examinations; that when in England, he had come under the influence of that Grand Old Man of the Indian Nationalist Movement, Dadabhai Naoroji, then President of the Indian Society in London, and one of the founding members of the Indian National Congress. The young Jinnah became an enthusiastic convert to Congress ideas; and when, as a newly qualified Barrister, a decline in the family fortunes obliged him to seek wider opportunities than his native city of Karachi could offer, he migrated to Bombay, he found himself in a society which was already among the most flourishing seedbeds of these ideas in the India of the day. Jinnah was, it seemed, particularly attracted by the personality and outlook of Gopal Krishna Gokhale, who, on his part was delighted to find in Jinnah a man after his own heart. He wrote to him: “He has the true stuff in him; and that freedom from all sectarian prejudice which will make him the best ambassador of Hindu Muslim unity”. By 1996 Jinnah was not only building up a lucrative practice at the Bombay Bar; he was marked as a rising political figure. In that same year he acted as Secretary to Dadabhai Naoroji at the Calcutta meeting of the Indian National Congress when the ideal of self-government for India was formally adopted as a Congress objective.

Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah and Fundamental Human Rights

By Sharifuddin Pirzada

Quaid-e-Azam always believed in and stood for human rights. In pre-Partition period he championed the cause of liberty, freedom of speech and association and other rights. In the Eighteenth Annual Session of the Muslim League held at Delhi in December 1926, Quaid-e-Azam proposed a resolution demanding that the Government of India Act 1919 should be revised and that without delay a Royal Commission be appointed to formulate a scheme so as to place Indian Constitution on a sound and permanent basis with provisions to establish full responsible Government in India.The resolution further demanded that any scheme of the future of Constitution of India should secure and guarantee, among others, the following basic and fundamental principles.

"Full religious liberty i.e. liberty of belief, worship, observances, propaganda, association and education shall be guaranteed to all communities."

In the famous Fourteen Points formulated by the Quaid-e-Azam on March 28, 1929, point No.7 embodied the provisions relating to liberty, association, education, belief and other fundamental rights and it was demanded that such rights should be guaranteed to all the communities.

Dear Mr. Jinnah

Dear Mr. Jinnah,

I don’t think I ever got down to thanking you for your efforts in helping form Pakistan. I was born thirty-six years after you and a team of dedicated, patriotic and self-less leaders inspired the Muslims of India to separate themselves in pursuit of an independent nation. Hundreds of thousands of people lost their lives so that future generations like mine can live in a sovereign state. Thank you.

Things now aren’t as great as you visioned them to be though.

The religion you made the basis for separation is now divided within itself. It’s being abused, sabotaged and exploited by everyone who has the capability to do so. Islam meant peace. Now, it’s being cited as the root of everything otherwise.

The poor, helpless people whose rights you fought for aren’t poor or helpless anymore. They have become poor-er and more helpless.

You remember the overly rich and greedy people of your time? They still roam dauntlessly, sucking the blood of the common man and giving him nothing in return but grief, sickness and death.

There is no faith. There is no unity. There is no discipline.