The Quaid: A Brilliant Statesman

Pakistan, the beacon of hope for the Muslims of South Asia and beyond, was created under the leadership of Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah. He was not a traditional politician but a great leader, brilliant statesman and a master strategist, who fought the case for Pakistan so well that he did not only frustrate the designs of the British that wished to see the subcontinent united at one form or another till the last moment, but also made the brute Hindu majority believe that division of the subcontinent had saved it from some bigger catastrophe. He had united the Muslims of the subcontinent and waged struggle for a separate homeland for Muslims to rid them of brute majority’s exploitation and repression and also to enable them to lead their lives according to their faith and culture. This twin-objective is, in fact, is the ideology of Pakistan.

Our leaders should emulate Quaid-i-Azam who had united the people who were earlier divided on the basis of sects and ideologies. The Muslims of the subcontinent had reposed full confidence in him and accepted his concept and perception of the new state – Pakistan. Today, the myriad political and religious parties, intellectuals and pseudo-intellectuals have variegated views and perceptions, and there is ongoing debate for the last 62 years about the purpose and rationale behind the creation of Pakistan. Different schools of thought interpret Quaid-i-Azam’s speeches to serve their ends, but Quaid-i-Azam had envisioned Pakistan to be a modern progressive state, rooted in the eternal values of Islam, and at the same time responsive to the imperatives of constant change.

Is the dark, long night about to end?

“Few individuals significantly alter the course of history,” wrote Stanley Wolpert in the preface to his book on Mr Jinnah. “Fewer still modify the map of the world. Hardly anyone can be credited with creating a nation-state. Mohammad Ali Jinnah did all three.” By 1940, the mystical bond linking Jinnah and the people was so profound that nobody could challenge Jinnah’s leadership of the Muslims of India. He was their sole spokesman.

Beverly Nichols, who first met Mr Jinnah on December 18, 1943, called him a giant, the most important man in Asia. “India is likely to be the world’s greatest problem for some years to come, and Mr Jinnah is in a position of unique strategic importance. He can sway the battle this 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.” Without Jinnah, it is safe to say, there would have been no Pakistan. Rarely, in the history of human endeavour, have so many owed so much to one, single, solitary person.

Sir Patrick Spen’s comment on Quaid-e-Azam

Quaid-e-Azam wearing his famous monocle

 Sir Patrick Spen, the last Chief Justice, of undivided India, paid tribute to Quaid-e-Azam in the following words:

“There is no man or woman living who imputes anything against his honour or his honesty. He was the most upright person that I know, but throughout it all, he never, as far as I know, for one moment, attempted to deceive any body, as to what he was aiming at or as to the means he attempted to adopt to get it.”

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Impressions of Quaid-e-Azam

By Ian Stephens *

I am going to term the great man, whom we have come here to commemorate Mr. Jinnah, because that is what he was mostly known as, throughout the time I had glimpses of him. Glimpses, I say, I had not much more, certainly I do not claim I knew him at all well. However, on occasions I did see him and, on some, meet and talk with him; and this, too, which was lucky for me, over a span of about seventeen history-shaping years, unique in South Asian affairs, between 1931 and 1948. Furthermore, my memories of these occasions, or some of them, still seem vivid – which I hope means, as well, that they are largely true – a supporting practical reason for that being, of course, a fact realized I suppose by everyone here: that he was a very exceptional person, in body and mind.

My first sighting was brief, but remains perhaps the clearest. I was young and impressionable, in my twenties only; I had been in India little more than a year. But though I am now well into my seventies, and it happened so long ago, that brief incident still seems fresh.

The Statesman

"If Jinnah’s stay in London was the sowing time, the first decade in Bombay, after return from England, was the germination season, the next decade (1906-1916) marked the vintage stage; it could also be called a period of idealism, as Jinnah was a romanticist both in personal and political life. Jinnah came out of his shell, political limelight shone on him; he was budding as a lawyer and flowering as a political personality. A political child during the first decade of the century, Jinnah had become a political giant before Gandhi returned to India from South Africa."

Aziz Beg, Jinnah and his Times.

Jinnah’s fascination with the world of politics started from his early days in London. He was very impressed by Dadabhai, a Parsi from Bombay. Upon returning to India, Jinnah entered the world of politics as a Liberal nationalist and joined the Congress despite his father’s fury at his abandoning the family business. The 20th annual session of the Congress in December 1904, was the first attended by Jinnah in Bombay. It was presided over by Pherozshah Mehta of whom Jinnah was a great admirer. Mehta suggested that two of his chosen disciples be sent to London as Congress deputies to observe the political arena at that time. His choices for the job were M.A Jinnah and Gopal Krishna Gokhale whose wisdom and moderation the former also admired.

• Partition of Bengal (1905)

• The All India Muslim League

• The Realists and The Idealists

• The Lucknow Pact (1916)

• Act of 1919 (Montagu-Chlemsford Reforms)

• The Khilafat Movement (1919-1924)

• Jinnah's Differences with the Congress

• The Delhi-Muslim Proposals (1927)

• The Simon Commission (1927)

• Nehru Report (1928)

• Quaid-e-Azam's Fourteen Points (1929)

• Round Table Conferences (1930-33)

• Allama Iqbal's Presidential Address at Allahabad 1930

• London 1931