Quaid-e-Azam, M.A.Jinnah: A Man for All Seasons
By Asim • Dec 25th, 2008 • Category: Politics, Worth A Second Look • 9 CommentsTo achieve your own dreams it takes a lifetime but to achieve the dream of millions, it’s a feat only a few can perform in the history of mankind. And Jinnah was one of them. And to achieve that one has to rise above the fear and display courage. The ability and skills which he manifested in the process of creation of Pakistan and the fight he carried in all quarters, with reason and logic to bring the dream of a lifetime for millions of souls was unsurpassable. We will always remain in debt to this man and those millions of sacrifices.
There has been a lot written about him; there is a lot that has been said of him. From Larry Collins, Dominique Lapierre to Stanley Walport- all agreed on one thing: this man, this Jinnah, this leader and founder of Pakistan had resolve of a man unbreakable even by the might of the mightiest, the British Empire, the connivance and huge presence of Hindu pressure and by all who thought that to create Pakistan was something beyond comprehension and reason. But he stood his ground against all who promised, tempted, and applied pressure from all directions and yet they could not move him, not even an inch. He was to give all, right to their end of days the question how he single handedly carried this responsibility and what were those elements that made him unique in all sense; as a leader, as a tactician, as one of the finest implementer of law, as a symbol of governance and system which we all forgot, the very citizens and leaders of Pakistan after his death.
In all his numerous speeches given in whatever little time he had, it paved way for all to see and to learn and to practice how Pakistan should develop its economic policies, foreign policies, protect rights of its minorities, based on justice and fairness, a society modeled on the principles of Islam, where all will be able to contribute to its success and progression. And we all forgot within months of his departure.
It is still time for Pakistan and Pakistanis to wake up from its slumber and to invoke the spirit of its founder to bring back this country to its feet. All the challenges we see around us, all the opposition we face amongst ourselves and from outside can be dealt with if we could only understand the persona of Jinnah and his life and understand the mechanics in creation of a country that became second largest Muslim country in 20th century. A presence, a home for all where fairness and justice will exist. But alas, this was not to happen as we forgot our very own sacrifices, our very own people and our very own founder Jinnah.
Instead of following him and his vision; we followed our instincts based on greed and promotion of values against all what he created and practiced; against all what the vision of Iqbal and his philosophy stood for; against all what Chaudhry Rahmat Ali envisioned. We forgot Jinnah and all those very people that stood by him against opposition the world had never seen. These people exist in all of us. Never a day that goes past, when we do not come across the saying and quotations from any of these, but we have turned all this into a big ceremony. We have turned Jinnah into just a mere symbol. A place where he rests now needs no salutes, no visitor’s book, no swarming crowd to take pictures. It is his words; it is his life that needs to be lived in all of us. We have betrayed him in last 61 years. It is still time to appreciate and to revive that spirit in Pakistan and in all of us, and to forget these differences that we have created. We must become more understanding and tolerant of each other and work together. It is this challenge that is the need of the time and our responsibility.
Remember a young boy, seventeen years of age, arriving at Southampton. Remember a person who learnt the ways of life in those dreary months of winter. Remember that person who once walked near river Thames, immersed in his own thoughts questioning himself what change means and how it will be brought. Even Jinnah had no idea at that time but he learnt to reason well in a language that was once remote and alien, he learnt that understanding Law will take him far but he never imagined that one day he will fight for something and in a way no one had done it before. One day he will fight for the hopes of millions, for cause greater than anything he had imagined, or any of us in years to come. Imagine how it feels to be part of that change and history and the destiny, to make a separate homeland for all of us, to carry those aspirations in years to come through thick and thin. Little did he know that he will one day stand with Gandhi, Nehru, Patel, Mountbatten and the whole British Empire- all the opposing forces. But he fought well with all his mind and his words and actions to turn this dream into reality- a reality which no one could ever understand and accept to this day. It is upon us now as individuals and as a society and as leaders of this nation to understand the cause and all what it took.
It is this man Mohammed Ali Jinnah who became in the process our Quaid-e-Azam, our leader and founder of Pakistan. It is this man we owe our responsibility to as free citizens of Pakistan. It is this man Jinnah, his words and his vision we owe our alliances to. It is this man we owe our debt resulting from his endeavor to turn this dream of a separate homeland for millions of Muslims. It is this man, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, Quaid-e-Azam, a man for all seasons we owe our lives to and to Pakistan.
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Hi Asim,
Read his independence day speech of 1947 and see how your nation has followed his ideals especially about religious minorities.
We also had Gandhi but we followed Nehru’s vision and i spite of best efforts of somany leaders following him, his secular democracy is defenitley holding.
“Chaudhry Rahmat Ali envisioned”
Don’t forget Chaudhry Rahmat Ali put more scold o9n Quid-e-Azam then all of Congress and Mullahs put together. Eventually he had to be deported to England where he spent rest of his life. Another portion of history not taught to us.
Memories of Gul Hasan who was Quaid-e-Azam’s DC at the time; http://www.aajkal.com.pk/news/2008/12/25/edition_n1.jpg
Johann, I think that India should remove that veil of secularism now behind which it has been hiding so far. India is a Hindu country and not a secular country. Just go through events in recent years.
Jinnah was man of his words. He did what he said. He was one of the greatest leader of Indo-Pakistan region. May Allah bless his soul.
“Johann, I think that India should remove that veil of secularism now behind which it has been hiding so far. India is a Hindu country and not a secular country. Just go through events in recent years.”
Same can be said of your claim that Islam is a religion of peace. As we see events in Pakistan that does not appear to be correct.
What I mean is that considering what is happening ion Pakistan it is hard to assert that Islam is a religion of peace.
I fail to understand Pakistanis’ claim that Muhammad Ali Jinnah is their founder and leader alone. Jinnah is part of the undivided India’s pantheon of heroes.
History does not begin from 1947 when India and Pakistan were split into two. Jinnah and Mohandas Gandhi were among the leading hundreds of Muslim and Hindu leaders who worked shoulder to shoulder to free the undivided India from the humiliating and exploitative colonial rule.
Interestingly, both came from Gujarat and spoke the same language.
While Pakistanis swear by Jinnah’s name, he has been effectively consigned to the dustbin of history. The Indians, too, have consigned Gandhi to a similar bin.
Both were giants among the pygmies that have flourished in India and Pakistan. It is a shameful and criminal act that Pakistani and Indian leaders display these two leaders’ photographs in their offices and build memorials/institutions in their names, but do exactly the opposite of what these two great visionaries and souls wanted their countries to be.
I will not give a lecture but quote from the Wikipedia to set some records straight:
“Jinnah’s problems with the Congress began with the ascent of Mohandas Gandhi in 1918, who espoused non-violent civil disobedience and Hindu values as the best means to obtain Swaraj (independence, or self-rule) for all South Asians.
“Jinnah differed, saying that only constitutional struggle could lead to independence. Unlike most Congress leaders, Gandhi did not wear western-style clothes, did his best to use an Indian language instead of English, and was deeply (Hindu) religious. Gandhi’s Hindu style of leadership gained great popularity with the Indian people. Jinnah criticised Gandhi’s support of the Khilafat Movement, which he saw as an endorsement of religious zealotry.
“By 1920, Jinnah resigned from the Congress, with prophetic warning that Gandhi’s method of mass struggle would lead to divisions between Hindus and Muslims and within the two communities. Becoming president of the Muslim League, Jinnah was drawn into a conflict between a pro-Congress faction and a pro-British faction. In 1927, Jinnah entered negotiations with Muslim and Hindu leaders on the issue of a future constitution, during the struggle against the all-British Simon Commission.
“The League wanted separate electorates while the Nehru Report favoured joint electorates. Jinnah personally opposed separate electorates, but then drafted compromises and put forth demands that he thought would satisfy both.”
This clearly shows that Jinnah wanted Hindus and Muslims to live in peace as they had done for centuries, and not exploited by politicians and religious zealots. He was an intellectual of a high order and a highly cosmopolitan man, far removed from the feudal way of thinking. He was admired by a majority of Congress leaders for his forthright behaviour.
Gandhi also believed in Hindu-Muslim brotherhood and earned the enmity of Hindu extremists, who ultimately killed him when he sought fair monetary deal for Pakistan after the partition of the country in 1947. (Jinnah’s forecast?)
What was Jinnah’s vision of Pakistan? “Jinnah envisioned a secular state for Pakistan, a theme he repeatedly touched upon in his speeches. Nevertheless, this aspect of his ideology never materialised, possibly due to his death during the months immediately following Pakistan’s achievement of independence.
“Speaking to Constituent Assembly of Pakistan (Karachi August 11, 1947), he (Jinnah) said: ‘If we want to make this great State of Pakistan happy and prosperous we should wholly and solely concentrate on the well-being of the people, and especially of the masses and the poor…
“You are free - you are free - to go to your temples or mosques or any other place of worship in this state of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion, caste or creed that has nothing to do with the business of the state… in due course of time Hindus will cease to be Hindus and Muslims will cease to Muslims - not in a religious sense for that is the personal faith of an individual - but in a political sense as citizens of one state’.”
Among a majority of “thinking” people, whether in urban or far-flung rural areas in Pakistan and India, Jinnah and Gandhi remain iconic figures of the 20th century who contributed a great deal to give us freedom and honour.
It does not really matter what the brainwashed extremists on both sides of the border have to shout from the rooftops. Unfortunately, the myopic leaders now seem hell bent to throw us at the mercy of neo-colonial powers.
To read more from Wikipedia please visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_Ali_Jinnah
And about Gandhi here… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahatma_Gandhi
The fact is Jinnah wasnt a wee bit religious & he wasnt a Sunni.. he was Shia & never practised his religion. Another point is that Jinnah divided India, which was ridiculous cos Indian Muslims are pretty happy whereas Pakistan has created problems within Pak & in India as well. So Jinnah was a villian not a hero.
Jinnah House in Mumbai was Jinnah’s India residence. This is where he met his wife - young Parsi girl Ruttenbai who he married after she turned 18. Jinnah was 41. All is fair in love. This house has a log of gistoric significance to Pakistan and India.