A life sketch of Jinnah

What truly made Mohammad Ali Jinnah stand out from his contemporaries, was that he never worked for selfish gains. His struggle for Pakistan was in no way an attempt for glory or fame. He hid his deteriorating health condition from everyone as he knew that it would be taken advantage of by those opposing the Pakistan Movement. When he had been offered Knighthood for his services in the British Parliament, he refused by saying that he preferred to be known simply as “Mr Jinnah”. History has rarely produced such an example of selflessness and high moral standing. It is for this very reason that he is known as the beloved Quaid of the Pakistani nation.

There are various ways to describe this magnanimous figure in the tale of Pakistan’s independence, but these lines by John Biggs-Davison, a Conservative Member of Parliament of UK, “Although without Gandhi, Hindustan would still have gained independence and without Lenin and Mao, Russia and China would still have endured Communist revolution, without Jinnah, there would have been no Pakistan in 1947,” say it all. This statement has many profound implications, even today. After Jinnah, there hasn’t been a single national leader who worked selflessly for the nation. The vision set forth by this great man may have been used to garner political support but has sadly not been brought to fruition.

There is no doubt to the fact that Jinnah held a massive appeal for the Muslims of the sub-continent. He was a man just like them but had lived and learned the ways of the British colonists’ minds, as well as understood the psyche of the Hindu majority of the sub-continent. While Jinnah was neither a practicing Muslim nor Urdu was his mother tongue yet, his commitment to the Muslim cause was undeniable. Jinnah knew that the British would eventually leave after the end of the Great War, and the Hindu majority, which for centuries had lived under Muslim and then British rule would leap at this chance to establish a Hindu-dominant state. He had championed Hindu-Muslim unity for decades but had realised that it just could not be achieved.

From the very beginning, Jinnah was a formidable personality. He was fierce and unapologetic in his convictions. He spoke eloquently and dressed with an impeccable sense of style. Born to an Ismaili Khoja family in Karachi, Mohammad Ali Jinnah showed signs from a very early age that he was not intimidated by authority and was not easily manipulated. He was the son of a businessman, Jinnah Bhai Poonja, and his wife Mithibai. At the age of six young Mohammad Ali Jinnah was enrolled in the Sindh Madrassatul Islam. His father envisioned that his son would join him in his business and was keen for him to excel at Mathematics. Jinnah proved otherwise and despised Mathematics, showing a deep interest in reading poetry and horse riding. One of his father’s close business associates, Sir Frederick Leigh Croft recognised his tremendous potential and offered him an apprenticeship at his London Office. This was a dream come true for any young teenage boy, and Jinnah leaped at the opportunity. His mother, however, was heartbroken over the thought of sending her favourite son so far away. Before his departure, she asked him to marry his cousin Emibai in the hope that he would soon return. Sadly both his wife and mother passed away shortly after he departed from India.

While in England, young Jinnah found his interest swaying towards Law. Though disappointed on his decision, yet his father gave him his blessing, and Jinnah enrolled at Lincoln’s Inn to study Law. One of the reasons Jinnah said that he chose Lincoln’s Inn was that it mentioned the name of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) as one of the greatest lawgivers in the world. While pursuing his education, Jinnah would also make frequent visits to the British House of Commons to observe first-hand, the workings of the British Government. In 1896 Jinnah became the youngest lawyer ever to be accepted to the Bar. In August of the same year, Mohammad Ali Jinnah moved to Bombay and established his own very successful law practice.

Back in India, yet again Jinnah felt his interest swaying, this time towards politics. He had been particularly inspired by the presence of Dadabhai Naoroji, the first Indian to be elected to the British House of Commons. In 1906, Jinnah joined the Indian National Congress and championed the cause of Indian liberation while promoting Hindu-Muslim unity. In 1912 he joined the All India Muslim League, which advocated the cause of the Indian Muslims. It was due to his efforts that in 1916 the Lucknow Pact was signed between the Indian National Congress and the Muslim League.

In the middle of Jinnah’s flourishing political career, he met a beautiful seventeen-year-old Parsi girl named Rattanbai or “Ratti”. She belonged to a prosperous family and was famously known as the “Rose of Bombay”. Jinnah at the time was well in his forties, and the girl’s parents were vehemently against the match. But as soon as Ratti turned eighteen, she converted to Islam, and the two were married. In 1919, she gave birth to Jinnah’s first and only child Dina. Sadly their relationship became quite strained due to his busy schedule, and the two later separated. In 1929, at the young age of twenty-nine, Ratti Jinnah became ill and passed away. Despite their long separation and his wife’s subsequent death, Mr Jinnah never remarried.

Between the years 1930 to 1934, Mr Jinnah returned to London on a self-imposed exile. The reason behind this exile is not clear, but Mr Jinnah had become increasingly disenchanted with the way the political situation in India was progressing. During his stay in England, he took part in the first two Round-Table Conferences aimed at resolving the issues in India, but for the most part, he remained aloof from the happenings in the Sub- Continent. His health was also beginning to deteriorate. He had severe respiratory ailments that would gradually develop into tuberculosis. Consequently, Mr Jinnah was joined by his sister Fatima Jinnah in London.

In 1934, Jinnah returned to India. His decision was greatly influenced by his close friends and advisors Liaquat Ali Khan and Allama Muhammad Iqbal. He had also come closer to the reality that Hindu- Muslim unity was not an achievable goal. In 1939, World War II broke out, and the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain entered into the War without consulting the Indian political leadership. With all guns blazing, Muhammad Ali Jinnah proposed the creation of a separate Muslim state at his address in Lahore on 23rd March 1940. Prompted by Iqbal’s vision of a separate homeland for the Muslims of the sub-continent, as well as with a deeper understanding of the Two-Nation Theory, Mr Jinnah declared that there was no other way forward. From that day onwards all his efforts were directed towards this goal. Mr Jinnah continued to garner support for the Muslim League in all Muslim majority provinces. In 1946, the Muslim League gathered 75% of the Muslim vote. This was a defining moment for Jinnah and his aides. He persistently gathered support for Pakistan in the Muslim majority provinces. Ultimately his efforts paid off with the creation of Pakistan on August 14, 1947.

Subsequently, Jinnah became the first Governor-General of Pakistan. He knew that the fledgling state had a long way to go with very little resources. But he exemplified that if one has a clear vision and the right intentions, no dream is unattainable. Sadly Mr Jinnah did not remain alive much longer to oversee the progress of the newly formed Pakistan. He was advised by his doctors to move to a drier climate, thus he stayed for a while in Quetta and Ziarat in an attempt to regain his health. In his last days, he weighed merely 32 kilograms. Ultimately when the time came, he was moved back to Karachi, where he passed away on September 11, 1948.

What truly made Mohammad Ali Jinnah stand out from his contemporaries, was that he never worked for selfish gains. His struggle for Pakistan was in no way an attempt for glory or fame. He hid his deteriorating health condition from everyone as he knew that it would be taken advantage of by those opposing the Pakistan Movement. When he had been offered Knighthood for his services in the British Parliament, he refused by saying that he preferred to be known simply as “Mr Jinnah”. History has rarely produced such an example of selflessness and high moral standing. It is for this very reason that he is known as the beloved Quaid of the Pakistani nation.

In the words of biographer Stanley Wolpert, “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. Mohammad Ali Jinnah did all three.” (Prof. Stanley Wolpert, Jinnah of Pakistan (1984).

— The writer is a Business & International Relations graduate, teacher. She can be reached at sana.abid90@gmail.com