Had he lived longer, Pakistan would have been a different country
MELBOURNE: Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s 68th death anniversary is commemorated today, on September 11. Jinnah, from being an Indian nationalist and a believer in Hindu-Muslim unity to being a Muslim nationalist, followed a journey full of ups and downs. Jinnah was a great legal mind. His early political inspirations were people like Gopal Krishna Gokhle. His departure from the Congress was primarily due to its agitation-focused centre-left street politics whereas Jinnah believed in peaceful political struggle within the sphere of law.
It was Jinnah who pressed the British to give the Indian people their legal rights and compelled colonials to treat locals fairly and equally. He resigned from the viceroy council after the British failed to honour their promise to grant freedom after World War I. Jinnah stood for Indian soldiers and Britain finally had to induct Indian officers into the British Indian Army in 1925. He distanced himself from the Pan-Islamist Khilafat Movement supported by Mahatma Gandhi and called upon people not to resort to violence. The movement ended in a disaster for Indian Muslims. Jinnah was flexible yet firm. The Muslim League, under him, propounded the Two-Nation Theory, which is based on Muslim nationalism within the Indian subcontinent. His acceptance of a grouping scheme after the 1946 elections is evidence of his flexibility and solution-finding nature whereas his refusal to accept Lord Louis Mountbatten as the first governor general of Pakistan is proof of his firmness on principles. His untimely demise when Pakistan was in the early stages of its existence, beyond doubt, was the biggest loss the country could face. Had he lived longer, Pakistan would have been a different country.
Malik Atif Mahmood Majoka
Published in The Express Tribune, September 11th, 2016.
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