Mohammad Ali Jinnah the Great Enigma

MOHAMMAD ALI JINNAH THE GREAT ENIGMA Sheshrao Chavan Reproduced by Sani Hussain Panhwar MOHAMMAD ALI JINNAH THE GREAT ENIGMA 2 FOREWORD The author of this book Mr. Sheshrao Chavan had met me only once. He had come to see me with my old friend Mr. Prakash Almeida. That was a long meeting in which we discussed many issues including politics. In the very next visit Mr. Chavan handed over a typed manuscript of his book, “Mohammad Ali Jinnah: The Great Enigma” and requested me to write a Foreword to the book. I am not a politician, nor am I a historian. Of course I have had always keen interest in politics and so I had followed the events that culminated in the partition of India rather intimately. Perhaps through our discussion Mr. Chavan got the impression that being a vintage man of 90, which I am, and who spent the first 20 years of his life in Sindh, which I did, I might be the just right person to write Foreword to his book, which I do not think I am! Nevertheless I agreed to Mr. Chavan’s request mainly because the subject is very dear to me. My Recllections of Jinnah: I had the opportunity to see Mr. Jinnah twice during the early years of my career as ENT Surgeon, a couple of years before independence. The first time I saw him was when I was in London for my FRCS examination. A public meeting was held at the famous Prince Albert Hall to be addressed by Jinnah and Liaqat Ali. I attended that meeting out of curiosity. About 1500 Indians mostly Muslims, had gathered. As soon as Mr. Jinnah referred to Pakistan in his speech, one young man, a student like me, got up and started shouting that there would be no division of India! Expectedly the young man was heckled by the crowd, which was already charged with jingoism. I later learnt that the young man was none other than Dr. Rafiq Zakaria, the great Islamic scholar, who passed away recently. In the heart of my heart, I felt proud of the young man who had displayed exemplary courage to speak up what he believed even at the risk of attracting mob fury. MOHAMMAD ALI JINNAH THE GREAT ENIGMA 3 The next time I saw Mr. Jinnah was when I was called to examine him for his minor ENT complaint at ‘Bombay House,’ (Tata House) where he was a regular visitor. Jinnah himself wanted to be examined only by an ENT Specialist, who had FRCS degree from England, and I fitted his requirement aptly. Mr. Jinnah was very polite to me during the meeting where besides us, Dr. Jal Patel, Tata’s In-house doctor was also present. I was proud to have examined such a highly distinguished person like Jinnah, who had by then already reached the status of a cult figure. Thereafter there was no occasion for me to see Mr. Jinnah. However, I followed almost all major events concerning Jinnah and Pakistan. Needless to say, mere name of the book was enough to goad me to read the entire manuscript not once, but thrice! The purpose of writing this book is to explore, once again, answer to questions that have haunted our mind for years like: Who divided India? Was Jinnah alone responsible for Partition? Whether the Congress party and its leaders like Gandhiji and Jawaharlal Nehru too were responsible in some measure? Finally as the name of the book suggests, it is an attempt by the author to unravel the enigma called Jinnah. Mr. Sheshrao Chavan, without any emotional attachment and without any prejudice and completely unbiased brought out the facts after going through several books relating to the subject, archival material and authentic references. He has narrated the facts and left it to the reader to form his own opinion. When any such books are written, mostly a person is already known about his views and he tries to justify the facts in his favour or against them. I think, Chavan is an exceptional person. This is the best part of his character and qualities. He has followed Rajtarangini of Kalhana. This book should serve as a beacon to students and research scholars on how a subject as intense and intricate as Jinnah’s life should be treated, researched and presented. MOHAMMAD ALI JINNAH THE GREAT ENIGMA 4 Having read about the political life of Jinnah by various authors including Dr. Rafiq Zakaria, I have formed certain impressions about Jinnah in my memory based on my own assessment and those of others. Die-hard Nationalist: There is no doubt that Jinnah who returned from England in 1896 to practice law in Bombay was a perfect nationalist and an ardent votary of Hindu-Muslim unity and rightly thought that religion was a personal matter of an individual. He first attended the 20 th Session of the Congress held in Bombay in the year 1904. The first person who captivated his mind then was Gopal Krishna Gokhale, a Brahmin and Founder of the Servants of India Society. Gokhale was one of the most prominent leaders during 19 th century, and was mentor to both Gandhi and Jinnah. So impressed was Jinnah with Gokhale’s personality that he actually wanted to become a “Muslim Gokhale.” Gokhale had described Jinnah as the best “Ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity.” Till Gokhale’s demise in 1915, Jinnah and Gokhale remained greatest admirers of each other. Sarojini Naidu was another great admirer of Jinnah. In her biography of Jinnah, she has showered high praise on Jinnah for his intense patriotism Jinnah’s Defence of Lokmanya Tilak: One of the tallest nationalists of the independence struggle, Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak had chosen Jinnah to defend him in the Court of Law, when he was charged with seditious writing in his newspaper ‘Kesari.’ Tilak lost the case and was sentenced to six years of imprisonment. Every body felt that the punishment awarded to Tilak by an Indian Judge, Justice Davar was rather harsh. An appeal was filed and Jinnah again appeared for Tilak. This time Tilak was exonerated by the Court. Tilak was an orthodox Brahmin and a great patriot. Engaging the services of Jinnah by Tilak itself was a tribute to Jinnah’s legal acumen and patriotism, especially since there were several legal luminaries practicing in the Bombay High Court then. MOHAMMAD ALI JINNAH THE GREAT ENIGMA 5 After Justice Davar sentenced Tilak to six years of rigorous imprisonment, the British Government conferred Knighthood on Davar. The Bar Association of Bombay High Court wanted to give him dinner. When the circular informing the event went to Jinnah, he wrote a very strong remark that the Bar should feel ashamed to want to give a dinner to a judge who had obtained knighthood by doing what the Government wanted, and by sending a great patriot to jail with a savage sentence. When Justice Davar called Jinnah to his chamber to know the reason for the latter writing such strong words against the Judge, Jinnah told him that what he had written was truth and that he could not suppress the strong feeling about the manner in which the Judge had handled Tilak’s case. This shows the very high regard Jinnah had for Tilak. Jinnah Hall: Jinnah was such a staunch nationalist that people of Bombay collected 65,000 rupees by way of contributions and built the ‘Jinnah Hall,’ at Lamington Road in Girgaum area of Bombay to commemorate their triumph under Jinnah, who led a popular movement to oppose the public reception that was to be accorded to Lord Wellington when his tenure as Governor of Bombay came to an end in 1918. A majority of those who contributed to the fund were Hindus. Why Jinnah distanced himself from the Congress: Many incidents were responsible for creating a hiatus between Jinnah and the Congress. But three of them could be termed as ‘turning points’ that changed his attitude towards the Congress. 1. The Khilafat Movement: The word Khilafat draws its origin from ‘Caliph.’ Before discussing the Khilafat movement and its objectives, we need to understand the origin of the word itself. Caliph is the term or title for the Islamic leader of the Ummah, or community of Islam. It is an Anglicised version of the Arabic word Khalifah, which means “successor” or “representative.” Caliphs were often so referred to as leaders of the Muslims. After the first MOHAMMAD ALI JINNAH THE GREAT ENIGMA 6 four Sunni Caliphs, the title was claimed by the Umayyads, the Abbasids, and the Ottomans, as well as by others, competing lineages in Spain, North Africa, and Egypt. The Turkish Ottoman Caliphate (Empire) had existed for over six centuries. At the height of its power in the 16 th and 17 th centuries, its territory included the Middle East, parts of North Africa, and much of South-Eastern Europe. During these two centuries, the Ottoman Empire was among the world’s most powerful political entities. It was the only non-European power to seriously challenge the rising power of the West between the 15 th and 20 th centuries, to such an extent that it became an integral part of European balance of power politics. The defeat of Turkey in the First World War caused apprehensions in India over the Khalifa’s custodianship of the Holy places of Islam. The Khilafat Movement was launched in India by Ali brothers – Muhammad Ali and Shaukat Ali, - Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Dr. M.A. Ansari, and Hasrat Mohani in 1919 as a movement to protect the Turkish Khalifa and save his (Ottoman) Caliphate from dismemberment by Great Britain and other European powers.

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