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Muhammad Ali Jinnah

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Political People

             Muhammad Ali Jinnah
   December 25, 1876 – September 11, 1948
     Place of birth:    Karachi, Sindh
     Place of death:    Karachi, Pakistan
        Movement:       Pakistan movement
   Major organizations: Muslim League

   Muhammad Ali Jinnah ( Urdu: محمد على جناح) listen  ( December 25, 1876
   – September 11, 1948) was a Muslim politician and leader of the All
   India Muslim League who founded Pakistan and served as its first
   Governor-General. He is commonly known in Pakistan as Quaid-e-Azam
   (Urdu: قائد اعظم — "Great Leader") and Baba-e-Qaum (" Father of the
   Nation.") His birth and death anniversaries are national holidays in
   Pakistan.

   Jinnah rose to prominence in the Indian National Congress expounding
   Hindu-Muslim unity. Helping shape the 1916 Lucknow Pact between the
   Congress and the Muslim League, he was a key leader in the All India
   Home Rule League. Differences with Mahatma Gandhi led Jinnah to quit
   the Congress. He then took charge of the Muslim League and proposed a
   fourteen-point constitutional reform plan to safeguard the political
   rights of Muslims in a self-governing India. Disillusioned by the
   failure of his efforts and the League's disunity, Jinnah would live in
   London for many years.

   Several Muslim leaders persuaded Jinnah to return to India in 1934 and
   re-organise the League. Disillusioned by the failure to build
   coalitions with the Congress, Jinnah embraced the goal of creating a
   separate state for Muslims as in the Lahore Resolution. The League won
   most Muslim seats in the elections of 1946, and Jinnah launched the
   Direct Action campaign of strikes and protests to achieve "Pakistan",
   which degenerated into communal violence across India. The failure of
   the Congress-League coalition to govern the country prompted both
   parties and the British to agree to partition. As Governor-General of
   Pakistan, Jinnah led efforts to rehabilitate millions of refugees, and
   to frame national policies on foreign affairs, security and economic
   development.

Early life

   Jinnah in traditional dress.
   Enlarge
   Jinnah in traditional dress.

   Jinnah was born as Mahomedali Jinnahbhai in Wazir Mansion, Karachi,
   Sindh (now in Pakistan). The earliest records of his school register
   suggest he was born on October 20, 1875, but Sarojini Naidu, the author
   of Jinnah's first biography gives the date December 25, 1876. Jinnah
   was the eldest of seven children born to Jinnahbhai Poonja (1857–1901),
   a prosperous Gujarati merchant who had emigrated to Sindh from
   Kathiawar, Gujarat. Jinnahbhai Poonja and Mithibai had six other
   children—Ahmad Ali, Bunde Ali, Rahmat Ali, Maryam, Fatima and Shireen.
   His family belonged to the Khoja branch of Shi'a Islam. Jinnah had a
   turbulent time at several different schools, but finally found
   stability at the Christian Missionary Society High School in Karachi.
   At home, the family's mother tongue was Gujarati, but members of the
   household also became conversant in Kutchi, Sindhi and English.

   In 1887, Jinnah went to London to work for Graham's Shipping and
   Trading Company. He had been married to a distant relative named
   Emibai, who is believed to have been either 14 or 16 years old at the
   time of their marriage, but she died shortly after he moved to London.
   His mother died around this time as well. In 1894, Jinnah quit his job
   to study law at Lincoln's Inn and graduated in 1896. At about this
   time, Jinnah began to participate in politics. An admirer of Indian
   political leaders Dadabhai Naoroji and Sir Pherozeshah Mehta, Jinnah
   worked with other Indian students on Naoroji's campaign to win a seat
   in the British Parliament. While developing largely constitutionalist
   views on Indian self-government, Jinnah despised the arrogance of
   British officials and the discrimination against Indians.

   Jinnah came under considerable pressure when his father's business was
   ruined. Settling in Bombay, he became a successful lawyer—gaining
   particular fame for his skilled handling of the " Caucus Case". Jinnah
   built a house in Malabar Hill, later known as Jinnah House. He was not
   an observant Muslim and dressed throughout his life in European-style
   clothes, and spoke in English more than his mother tongue, Gujarati.
   His reputation as a skilled lawyer prompted Indian leader Bal Gangadhar
   Tilak to hire him as defence counsel for his sedition trial in 1905.
   Jinnah ably argued that it was not sedition for an Indian to demand
   freedom and self-government in his own country, but Tilak received a
   rigorous term of imprisonment.

Early political career

   Muhammad Ali Jinnah, as a young lawyer.
   Enlarge
   Muhammad Ali Jinnah, as a young lawyer.

   In 1896, Jinnah joined the Indian National Congress, which was the
   largest Indian political organization. Like most of the Congress at the
   time, Jinnah did not favour outright independence, considering British
   influences on education, law, culture and industry as beneficial to
   India. Moderate leader Gopal Krishna Gokhale became Jinnah's role
   model, with Jinnah proclaiming his ambition to become the "Muslim
   Gokhale". On January 25, 1910, Jinnah became a member on the
   sixty-member Imperial Legislative Council. The council had no real
   power or authority, and included a large number of un-elected pro-Raj
   loyalists and Europeans. Nevertheless, Jinnah was instrumental in the
   passing of the Child Marriages Restraint Act, the legitimization of the
   Muslim wakf—religious endowments—and was appointed to the Sandhurst
   committee, which helped establish the Indian Military Academy at Dehra
   Dun. During World War I, Jinnah joined other Indian moderates in
   supporting the British war effort, hoping that Indians would be
   rewarded with political freedoms.

   Jinnah had initially avoided joining the All India Muslim League,
   founded in 1906, regarding it as too communal. Eventually, he joined
   the league in 1913 and became the president at the 1916 session in
   Lucknow. Jinnah was the architect of the 1916 Lucknow Pact between the
   Congress and the League, bringing them together on most issues
   regarding self-government and presenting a united front to the British.
   Jinnah also played an important role in the founding of the All India
   Home Rule League in 1916. Along with political leaders Annie Besant and
   Tilak, Jinnah demanded " home rule" for India—the status of a
   self-governing dominion in the Empire similar to Canada, New Zealand
   and Australia. He headed the League's Bombay Presidency chapter. In
   1918, Jinnah married his second wife Rattanbai Petit ("Ruttie"),
   twenty-four years his junior, and the fashionable young daughter of his
   personal friend Sir Dinshaw Petit of an elite Parsi family of Mumbai.
   Unexpectedly there was great opposition to the marriage from
   Rattanbai's family and Parsi society, as well as orthodox Muslim
   leaders. Rattanbai defied her family and nominally converted to Islam,
   adopting (though never using) the name "Maryam"—resulting in a
   permanent estrangement from her family and Parsi society. The couple
   resided in Bombay, and frequently travelled across India and Europe.
   She bore Jinnah his only child, daughter Dina, in year 1919.

Fourteen points and "exile"

   A young Jinnah.
   Enlarge
   A young Jinnah.

   Jinnah's problems with the Congress began with the ascent of Mohandas
   Gandhi in 1918, who espoused non-violent civil disobedience as the best
   means to obtain Swaraj (independence, or self-rule) for all Indians.
   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 spiritual and religious. Gandhi's Indianised
   style of leadership gained great popularity with the Indian people.
   Jinnah criticised Gandhi's support of the Khilafat struggle, which he
   saw as an endorsement of religious zealotry. By 1920, Jinnah resigned
   from the Congress, 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. These became
   known as the 14 points of Mr. Jinnah. However, they were rejected by
   the Congress and other political parties.

   Jinnah's personal life and especially his marriage suffered during this
   period due to his political work. Although they worked to save their
   marriage by travelling together to Europe when he was appointed to the
   Sandhurst committee, the couple separated in 1927. Jinnah was deeply
   saddened when Rattanbai died in 1929, after a serious illness.

   At the Round Table Conferences in London, Jinnah criticised Gandhi, but
   was disillusioned by the breakdown of talks. Frustrated with the
   disunity of the Muslim League, he decided to quit politics and practise
   law in England. Jinnah would receive personal care and support through
   his later life from his sister Fatima, who lived and travelled with him
   and also became a close advisor. She helped raise his daughter, who was
   educated in England and India. Jinnah later became estranged from his
   daughter after she decided to marry Parsi-born Christian businessman,
   Neville Wadia—even though he had faced the same issues when he desired
   to marry Rattanbai in 1918. Jinnah continued to correspond cordially
   with his daughter, but their personal relationship was strained. Dina
   continued to live in India with her family.

Leader of the Muslim League

   Jinnah with his sister (left) and daughter Dina (right) in Bombay
   Enlarge
   Jinnah with his sister (left) and daughter Dina (right) in Bombay
   Jinnah with Subhash Chandra Bose.
   Enlarge
   Jinnah with Subhash Chandra Bose.

   Prominent Muslim leaders like the Aga Khan, Choudhary Rahmat Ali and
   Sir Muhammad Iqbal made efforts to convince Jinnah to return to India
   and take charge of a now-reunited Muslim League. In 1934 Jinnah
   returned and began to re-organise the party, being closely assisted by
   Liaquat Ali Khan, who would act as his right-hand man. In the 1937
   elections, the League emerged as a competent party, capturing a
   significant number of seats under the Muslim electorate, but lost in
   the Muslim-majority Punjab, Sindh and the Northwest Frontier Province.
   Jinnah offered an alliance with the Congress - both bodies would face
   the British together, but the Congress had to share power, accept
   separate electorates and the League as the representative of India's
   Muslims. The latter two terms were unacceptable to the Congress, which
   had its own national Muslim leaders and membership and adhered to
   secularism. Even as Jinnah held talks with Congress president Rajendra
   Prasad, Congress leaders suspected that Jinnah would use his position
   as a lever for exaggerated demands and obstruct government, and
   demanded that the League merge with the Congress. The talks failed, and
   while Jinnah declared the resignation of all Congressmen from
   provincial and central offices in 1938 as a "Day of Deliverance" from
   Hindu domination, some historians assert that he remained hopeful for
   an agreement.

   In a speech to the League in 1930, Sir Muhammad Iqbal mooted an
   independent state for Muslims in "northwest India." Choudhary Rahmat
   Ali published a pamphlet in 1933 advocating a state called "Pakistan".
   Following the failure to work with the Congress, Jinnah, who had
   embraced separate electorates and the exclusive right of the League to
   represent Muslims, was converted to the idea that Muslims needed a
   separate state to protect their rights. Jinnah came to believe that
   Muslims and Hindus were distinct nations, with unbridgeable
   differences—a view later known as the Two Nation Theory. Jinnah
   declared that a united India would lead to the marginalization of
   Muslims, and eventually civil war between Hindus and Muslims. This
   change of view may have occurred through his correspondence with Iqbal,
   who was close to Jinnah. In the session in Lahore in 1940, the Pakistan
   resolution was adopted as the main goal of the party. The resolution
   was rejected outright by the Congress, and criticised by many Muslim
   leaders like Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, Syed
   Ab'ul Ala Maududi and the Jamaat-e-Islami. On July 26, 1943, Jinnah was
   stabbed and wounded by a member of the extremist Khaksars in an
   attempted assassination.

   Jinnah founded Dawn in 1941—a major newspaper that helped him propagate
   the League's point of views. During the mission of British minister
   Stafford Cripps, Jinnah demanded parity between the number of Congress
   and League ministers, the League's exclusive right to appoint Muslims
   and a right for Muslim-majority provinces to secede, leading to the
   breakdown of talks. Jinnah supported the British effort in World War
   II, and opposed the Quit India movement. During this period, the League
   formed provincial governments and entered the central government. The
   League's influence increased in the Punjab after the death of Unionist
   leader Sikander Hyat Khan in 1942. Gandhi held talks fourteen times
   with Jinnah in Mumbai in 1944, about a united front—while talks failed,
   Gandhi's overtures to Jinnah increased the latter's standing with
   Muslims.

Founding Pakistan

   Jinnah delivering a political speech.
   Enlarge
   Jinnah delivering a political speech.

   In the 1946 elections for the Constituent Assembly of India, the
   Congress won most of the elected seats and Hindu electorate seats,
   while the League won control of a large majority of Muslim electorate
   seats. The 1946 British Cabinet Mission to India released a plan on
   16th May, calling for a united India comprised of considerably
   autonomous provinces, and called for "groups" of provinces formed on
   the basis of religion. A second plan released on June 16th, called for
   the partition of India along religious lines, with princely states to
   choose between accession to the dominion of their choice or
   independence. The Congress, fearing India's fragmentation, criticised
   the 16th May proposal and rejected the 16th June plan. Jinnah gave the
   League's assent to both plans, knowing that power would go only to the
   party that had supported a plan. After much debate and against Gandhi's
   advice that both plans were divisive, the Congress accepted the 16th
   May plan while condemning the grouping principle. Jinnah decried this
   acceptance as "dishonesty", accused the British negotiators of
   "treachery", and withdrew the League's approval of both plans. The
   League boycotted the assembly, leaving the Congress in charge of the
   government but denying it legitimacy in the eyes of many Muslims.

   Jinnah issued a call for all Muslims to launch " Direct Action" on
   August 16 to "achieve Pakistan". Strikes and protests were planned, but
   violence broke out all over India, especially in Calcutta and the
   district of Noakhali in Bengal, and more than 7,000 people were killed
   in Bihar. Although viceroy Lord Wavell asserted that there was "no
   satisfactory evidence to that effect", League politicians were blamed
   by the Congress and the media for orchestrating the violence. After a
   conference in December 1946 in London, the League entered the interim
   government, but Jinnah refrained from accepting office for himself.
   This was credited as a major victory for Jinnah, as the League entered
   government having rejected both plans, and was allowed to appoint an
   equal number of ministers despite being the minority party. The
   coalition was unable to work, resulting in a rising feeling within the
   Congress that partition was the only way of avoiding political chaos
   and possible civil war. The Congress agreed to the partition of Punjab
   and Bengal along religious lines in late 1946. The new viceroy Lord
   Mountbatten and Indian civil servant V. P. Menon proposed a plan that
   would create a Muslim dominion in West Punjab, East Bengal, Baluchistan
   and Sindh. After heated and emotional debate, the Congress approved the
   plan. The North-West Frontier Province voted to join Pakistan in a
   referendum in July 1947. Jinnah asserted in a speech in Lahore on
   October 30, 1947 that the League had accepted partition because "the
   consequences of any other alternative would have been too disastrous to
   imagine."

Governor-General

   Jinnah with the Mahatma, 1944.
   Enlarge
   Jinnah with the Mahatma, 1944.

   Along with Liaquat Ali Khan and Abdur Rab Nishtar, Muhammad Ali Jinnah
   represented the League in the Partition Council to appropriately divide
   public assets between India and Pakistan. The assembly members from the
   provinces that would comprise Pakistan formed the new state's
   constituent assembly, and the Military of British India was divided
   between Muslim and non-Muslim units and officers. Indian leaders were
   angered at Jinnah's courting the princes of Jodhpur, Bhopal and Indore
   to accede to Pakistan - these princely states were not geographically
   aligned with Pakistan, and each had a Hindu-majority population.

   Muhammad Ali Jinnah became the first Governor-General of Pakistan and
   president of its constituent assembly. Inaugurating the assembly on
   August 11, 1947, Jinnah put forward a vision for a secular state:

          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 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.

   The office of Governor-General was ceremonial, but Jinnah also assumed
   the lead of government. The first months of Pakistan's existence were
   absorbed in ending the intense violence that had arisen. In wake of
   acrimony between Hindus and Muslims, Jinnah agreed with Indian leaders
   to organise a swift and secure exchange of populations in the Punjab
   and Bengal. He visited the border regions with Indian leaders to calm
   people and encourage peace, and organised large-scale refugee camps.
   Despite these efforts, estimates on the death toll vary from around two
   hundred thousand, to over a million people. The estimated number of
   refugees in both countries exceeds 15 million. The capital city of
   Karachi saw an explosive increase in its population owing to the large
   encampments of refugees. Jinnah was personally affected and depressed
   by the intense violence of the period.
   An ailing Jinnah.
   Enlarge
   An ailing Jinnah.

   Jinnah authorised force to achieve the annexation of the princely state
   of Kalat and suppress the insurgency in Baluchistan. He controversially
   accepted the accession of Junagadh—a Hindu-majority state with a Muslim
   ruler located in the Saurashtra peninsula, some 400 kilometres (250 mi)
   southeast of Pakistan—but this was annulled by Indian intervention. It
   is unclear if Jinnah planned or knew of the tribal invasion from
   Pakistan into the kingdom of Jammu and Kashmir in October 1947, but he
   did send his private secretary Khurshid Ahmed to observe developments
   in Kashmir. When informed of Kashmir's accession to India, Jinnah
   deemed the accession illegitimate and ordered the Pakistani army to
   enter Kashmir. However, Gen. Auchinleck, the supreme commander of all
   British officers informed Jinnah that while India had the right to send
   troops to Kashmir, which had acceded to it, Pakistan did not. If Jinnah
   persisted, Auchinleck would remove all British officers from both
   sides. As Pakistan had a greater proportion of Britons holding senior
   command, Jinnah cancelled his order, but protested to the United
   Nations to intercede.

   Owing to his role in the state's creation, Jinnah was the most popular
   and influential politician. He played a pivotal role in protecting the
   rights of minorities, establishing colleges, military institutions and
   Pakistan's financial policy. In his first visit to East Pakistan,
   Jinnah stressed that Urdu alone should be the national language which
   was strongly opposed by the Bengali people of East Pakistan (now
   Bangladesh), for the reason that they traditionally spoke Bangla
   (Bengali). He also worked for an agreement with India settling disputes
   regarding the division of assets.

Death

   The funeral of Jinnah in 1948.
   Enlarge
   The funeral of Jinnah in 1948.

   Through the 1940s, Jinnah suffered from tuberculosis—only his sister
   and a few others close to Jinnah were aware of his condition. In 1948,
   Jinnah's health began to falter, hindered further by the heavy workload
   that had fallen upon him following Pakistan's creation. Attempting to
   recuperate, he spent many months at his official retreat in Ziarat, but
   died on September 11, 1948 from a combination of tuberculosis and lung
   cancer. His funeral was followed by the construction of a massive
   mausoleum— Mazar-e-Quaid—in Karachi to honour him; official and
   military ceremonies are hosted there on special occasions.

   Dina Wadia remained in India after partition, before ultimately
   settling in New York City. Jinnah's grandson, Nusli Wadia, is a
   prominent industrialist residing in Mumbai. In the 1963–1964 elections,
   Jinnah's sister Fatima Jinnah, known as Madar-e-Millat ("Mother of the
   Nation"), became the presidential candidate of a coalition of political
   parties that opposed the rule of President Ayub Khan, but lost the
   election. The Jinnah House in Malabar Hill, Mumbai is in the possession
   of the Government of India—its future is officially disputed. Jinnah
   had personally requested Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to
   preserve the house—he hoped for good relations between India and
   Pakistan, and that one day he could return to Mumbai. There are
   proposals for the house be offered to the Government of Pakistan to
   establish a consulate in the city, as a goodwill gesture, but Dina
   Wadia's family have laid claim to the property.

Criticism and legacy

   Muhammad Ali Jinnah.
   Enlarge
   Muhammad Ali Jinnah.

   Some critics allege that Jinnah's courting the princes of Hindu states
   and his gambit with Junagadh is proof of ill intentions towards India,
   as he was the proponent of the theory that Hindus and Muslims could not
   live together, yet being interested in Hindu-majority states. In his
   book Patel: A Life, Rajmohan Gandhi asserts that Jinnah sought to
   engage the question of Junagadh with an eye on Kashmir—he wanted India
   to ask for a plebiscite in Junagadh, knowing thus that the principle
   then would have to be applied to Kashmir, where the Muslim-majority
   would, he believed, vote for Pakistan.

   Some historians like H M Seervai and Ayesha Jalal assert that Jinnah
   never wanted partition—it was the outcome of the Congress leaders being
   unwilling to share power with the Muslim League. It is asserted that
   Jinnah only used the Pakistan demand as a method to mobilise support to
   obtain significant political rights for Muslims. Jinnah has gained the
   admiration of major Indian nationalist politicians like Atal Bihari
   Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani—the latter's comments praising Jinnah
   caused an uproar in his own Bharatiya Janata Party.

   In Pakistan, Jinnah is honoured with the official title Quaid-e-Azam,
   and he is depicted on all Pakistani rupee notes of denominations ten
   and higher, and is the namesake of many Pakistani public institutions.
   The former Quaid-e-Azam International Airport, now called the Jinnah
   International Airport, in Karachi is Pakistan's busiest. One of the
   largest streets in the Turkish capital Ankara — Cinnah Caddesi —is
   named after him. In Iran, one of the capital Tehran's most important
   new highways is also named after him, while the government released a
   stamp commemorating the centennial of Jinnah's birthday. The
   Mazar-e-Quaid, Jinnah's mausoleum, is among Karachi's most imposing
   buildings. In media, Jinnah was portrayed by British actors Richard
   Lintern (as the young Jinnah) and Christopher Lee (as the elder Jinnah)
   in the 1998 film " Jinnah". In Richard Attenborough's film Gandhi,
   Jinnah was portrayed by theatre-personality Alyque Padamsee. In the
   1986 televised mini-series Lord Mountbatten: the Last Viceroy, Jinnah
   was played by Polish actor Vladek Sheybal.

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