Muhammad Ali Jinnah

Muhammad Ali Jinnah (26 December 1876 – 11 September 1948) was one of the founders of Pakistan. He is also called Baba-e-Qaum, which means "the father of the nation" in Urdu. After the independence of Pakistan, he became the first Governor-General of Pakistan. As a mark of respect, Pakistanis call him Quaid-e-Azam. Quaid-e-Azam is a phrase which, in the Urdu language, means "the great leader". The day of his birth is a national holiday.

Baba-e-Qaum Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah ‎
Jinnah in 1947
1st Governor-General of Pakistan
Monarch	George VI
Prime Minister	Liaquat Ali Khan
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Khawaja Nazimuddin
Speaker of the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan
Deputy	Maulvi Tamizuddin Khan
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Maulvi Tamizuddin Khan
President of the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan
Deputy	Liaquat Ali Khan
Preceded by	Office created
Succeeded by	Office abolished
Personal details
Born	Mahomedali Jinnahbhai (1876-12-25)25 December 1876 Karachi, Bombay Presidency, British Raj
Died	11 September 1948(1948-09-11) (aged 71) Karachi, Federal Capital Territory, Dominion of Pakistan (present-day Sindh, Dominion of Pakistan)
Resting place	Mazar-e-Quaid, Karachi
Nationality	British Indian (1876–1947) Pakistani (1947–1948)
Political party	Muslim League (1947–1948)
Other political affiliations	Indian National Congress (1906–1920) All-India Muslim League (1913–1947)
Spouse(s)	Emibai Jinnah ​ ​ (m. 1892; died 1893)​ Rattanbai Petit ​ ​ (m. 1918; died 1929)​
Relations	See Jinnah family
Children	Dina Wadia
Alma mater	The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn
Profession	Barrister Politician
Signature

Jinnah on an Iranian postage stamp

Early life of M.A jinnah

Muhammad Ali Jinnah was born on 25 December 1876 in Karachi into the Isma'ilism family of Poonja Jinnah. Jinnah. He was born in Karachi, City of Sindh. His father’s name was Jinnah Poonja (1857- 1901) and his mother’s name was Mithibai. Jinnah was the eldest of the seven children of Jinnah Poonja and Mithibai. His family had migrated to Sindh from the Kathiawar area of Gujarat, present-day India.

Jinnah’s birth name was Muhammad Ali Jinnah. He later changed it to the much simpler 'Muhammad Ali Jinnah' or M.A. At home, his family talked in Gujarati language, and the children also came to speak Kutchi and English. Except for Fatima, little is known of his siblings.

Early working years

In 1891 (when he was fifteen), Jinnah went to London and worked for a few years for a company. At around that time, his mother died.

In 1894, Jinnah quit his job to study law. He joined the course at Lincoln's Inn and graduated in 1896. While still in London, he also started to participate in politics. He greatly admired Indian political leaders Dadabhai Naoroji and Sir Pherozeshah Mehta. Gradually Jinnah was developing his own political outlook. He was thinking on the line that India should have a constitutional self-government.

Around this time, his father lost his business. This put Jinnah under great difficulty. In the meantime, he had started to practice as a lawyer in Mumbai. He also built a house in Mumbai’s Malabar Hill area. The house is now known as Jinnah House.

He became a successful lawyer. In 1908 he represented Bal Gangadhar Tilak, a famous leader of the Indian National Congress. Tilak was facing charges of sedition against the British Rule. Jinnah pleaded the case well, but Tilak was sent to prison. After that he lost hope.

Early years as a politician

Jinnah had already joined the Indian National Congress in 1906 when he started his politics. The Congress was the largest political organization in British India. Many members and leaders of the Indian National Congress favoured a limited self-government for the people of the Indian subcontinent. Jinnah also held the same view. At that time, his role model was Gopal Krishna Gokhale.

On 25 January 1910, Jinnah became a member on the Seventy two-member Imperial Legislative Council. He was an active member of the council. Like many other leaders of British India, Jinnah also supported Great Britain during World War I. The leaders had supported the Great Britain thinking that after the war, Great Britain would grant the people of the subcontinent political freedom.

At the beginning Jinnah had avoided joining the All India Muslim League, another political organization of British India. Muslims had formed the League in 1906. In 1913, Jinnah became a member of the Muslim League. In 1934, he became the president of the Muslim League. He helped in making an agreement between the Congress and the Muslim League (Lucknow Pact in 1916). The agreement tried to present a united front to the British for giving the people of the subcontinent self-government dominion status in the British Empire. This was similar to the dominion status which Canada, New Zealand and Australia had at that time.

In 1918, Jinnah married again. His second wife was Rattanbai Petit. She was twenty-four years younger than him. She was the daughter of Jinnah’s personal friend Sir Dinshaw Petit was a Parsi but rattanbai embraced Islam before marrying Jinnah and changed her name to Maryam. The couple resided in Bombay (now Mumbai) and frequently travelled to Europe. In 1919, his wife bore a daughter who was named Dina.

By 1918, Mohandas Gandhi had become one of the leaders of the Congress Party. Gandhi took a line of non-violent protest for gaining self-government for British India. Jinnah took a different line. He wanted constitutional struggle to gain the self-government for British India. Jinnah also opposed Gandhi’s support for the Khilafat movement. Gradually, many differences between them had arisen. In 1920, Jinnah left the Congress party. He became the president of the Muslim League. At this time, Jinnah brought out a program to reduce the differences between the Congress Party and the Muslim League. The program had fourteen points of action. Therefore, it became popularly known as Jinnah’s Fourteen Points. But the Congress party did not accept these.

During these years Jinnah’s personal life had suffered. His focus upon politics had led to tensions in Jinnah's marriage. The couple separated in 1927 and after a serious illness Rattanbai died.

Around that time, there was a conference of British Indian leaders with the government of Great Britain. It was held in London and is known as the Round Table Conference. Jinnah criticized the policy of Gandhi. The conference failed. Jinnah was also not happy with the Muslim League. He decided to quit politics. He again started to work as a lawyer in England. During all these years, his sister Fatima Jinnah took care of Jinnah’s affairs, both at home and outside. She also became a close adviser to him. She helped him in raising Jinnah’s daughter, Dina Wadia. The daughter married Neville Wadia, a Parsi who had converted to Christianity. Jinnah did not like this marriage.

Leader of the Muslim League

Many Muslim leaders of British India like Aga Khan III, Coudhary Rahmat Ali and Sir Muhammad Iqbal requested Jinnah to come back to the British Raj.

The leaders of the Muslim League wanted him to take charge of the Muslim League. Jinnah agreed to come back to India. In 1934, he left London and returned to British India to reorganize the Muslim league again. But he could not revive the stature of the party until after the elections of 1937 as the Muslim League won only a few seats. However, at this time, the League was helped by the powerful Premier of the Punjab, Sir Sikandar Hayat Khan. In October 1937, he agreed with Jinnah's Muslim League joining his strong government. This was called the Jinnah-Sikandar Pact.

His differences with the Congress Party continued to become bigger. In 1930, some Muslim leaders like Allama Iqbal had argued for a separate country for the Muslim people of India. At last he came to the conclusion that Hindus and Muslims cannot live in a single country. Jinnah also started to have the idea of a separate country for Muslims of India. Jinnah and the Muslim League started work to get such a separate country. They made a plan for this in 1940 called the Pakistan Resolution. This new country was to be named Pakistan.

In 1941, Jinnah founded a newspaper, named the Dawn. This newspaper published the views and political thinking of the Muslim League. During World War II, Jinnah supported the British, and opposed the Quit India movement of the Congress party. In 1944, Gandhi held 14 rounds of talks with Jinnah, but they could not come to any conclusion. By this time, the Muslim League had formed governments in some provinces, and had also entered the central government.

Founder of Pakistan

The Muslim League under Jinnah’s leadership accepted both the plans. But, on 16 August 1946, Jinnah also announced the Direct Action to achieve independence for Pakistan, a separate country of Muslims of the former British Raj.

Governor-General

Flag of Governor General of Pakistan. The country was still under the British monarch until 1958.

The British Indian Empire was partitioned into two countries, namely, India and Pakistan. Jinnah became the first Governor-General of Pakistan, his sister Fatimah Jinnah became the "Mother of the Nation". He also became the president of Pakistan’s constituent assembly. In an address to the constituent assembly on 11 August 1947, Jinnah told about the future of Pakistan as a secular state. He told this in the following words:

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.

Jinnah also took the direct charge of the government. After the partition, large scale violence between Muslims and the Hindus took place. Such violence was very serious in Punjab and Bengal. Jinnah toured the areas with Hindu leaders from British India to calm down the population. Many people died in the violence. The estimates of death vary from two hundred thousand deaths to over a million deaths. Jinnah was personally very sad at all these happenings.

Soon after the independence of India and Pakistan, armed conflict broke out in Kashmir. Kashmir’s king had agreed to become a part of India. but mostly Muslims of Kashmir did not like this. They started fighting in Kashmir. India had to send his troops to Kashmir, which had become a part of India. India raised the issue to the United Nations. The United Nations ordered the conflict to end and a Plebiscite. This problem still continues to have a bad effect on the India-Pakistan relationship.

Jinnah’s role in creation of Pakistan as a new nation was very important. This made him very popular among the people of Pakistan. In East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), people opposed Jinnah’s view that the language most commonly known as Urdu should be the sole federal language.

Death

Muhammad Ali had been suffering from tuberculosis since the early 1940s. Only his sister and very few other persons close to the family knew this. After the partition of India and creation of Pakistan, he had become the governor general of Pakistan. His work was increased, but his health was deteriorating. To regain his health, he spent many months at his official rest house. The rest house was located at a place named in Ziarat. Jinnah could not regain his health. He died on 11 September 1948 from tuberculosis.

Modern views on Jinnah

In recent years, some scholars have given some new views about Jinnah’s actions. Jinnah showed interest that some of the Hindu majority princely states should join Pakistan. These scholars argue that this view was against Jinnah’s declared view that Hindus and Muslims could not live together.

Some historians like H M Seervai and Ayesha Jalal say that Jinnah wanted a united South Asia. He demanded a separate state for Muslims as the Congress leaders were not willing to share power with the Muslim League.

Recently, Indian leaders belonging to the Bhartiya Janta Party, like Lal Krishna Advani and Jaswant Singh praised Jinnah. Jaswant Singh was expelled from the party because he had praised Jinnah in his book 'Jinnah- India, Partition and Independence'.

Commemoration

Nations and people have done many things in memory of Jinnah. In Pakistan he is called Quaid-e-Azam. His pictures appear on many Pakistani banknotes and coins. Karachi’s international airport is named after him. In 1998 a new university in Karachi was named the Mohammad Ali Jinnah University. Another university in Islamabad is named after Quaid-e-Azam university.

Many other places and institutions bear his name in Pakistan and elsewhere. For example, in Turkey, a very large street is named after him. In Iran, one of the highways of its capital city Tehran bears his name and in Mumbai Jinnah Hall, a public hall is named after him.

Many books, movies and TV programs tell about the life and work of Jinnah, including the biographical movie, Jinnah.

Famous quotes

• "With faith, discipline and selfless devotion to duty, there is nothing worthwhile that you cannot achieve."
• "Think 100 times before you take a decision, But once that decision is taken, stand by it as one man."
• "Failure is a word unknown to me."
• "No nation can rise to the height of glory unless your women are side by side with you."
• "Expect the best, Prepare for the worst."
• "No struggle can ever succeed without women participating side by side with men."
• "You have to stand guard over the development and maintenance of Islamic democracy, Islamic social justice and the equality of manhood in your own native soil."
• "Islam expect every Muslim to do this duty, and if we realise our responsibility time will come soon when we shall justify ourselves worthy of a glorious past."
• "That freedom can never be attained by a nation without suffering and sacrifice has been amply borne out by the recent tragic happenings in this subcontinent."
• "We are victims of evil customs. It is a crime against humanity that our women are shut up within the four walls of the houses as prisoners. There is no sanction anywhere for the deplorable condition in which our women have to live."
• "Pakistan not only means freedom and independence but the Muslim Ideology which has to be preserved, which has to come to us as a precious gift and treasure and which, we hope other will share with us."
• "Religion should not be allowed to come into politics...Religion is merely a choice between man and God".

Related pages

• History of Pakistan
• Hassan Ali Abdul Rahman a colleague and acquaintance of Muhammed Ali Jinnah in the Pakistan Independence Movement

Further reading

• "Busted: Myths About Quaid-e-Azam Jinnah". Yasser Latif Hamdani. Naya Duar. 14 August 2021.
• "Ataturk vs Jinnah". Khan, Umair (historian). Author of SECULAR MUSLIM: Jinnah, His Politics And Pakistan.

Other websites

• Jinnah Quotes (27 quotes) goodreads.com