LAHORE: Pakistan’s founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah, whose true character
had become lost through the chapters of history, has re-emerged in a
new light in the pages of a recent book – “Jinnah, India-Partition
Independence” – written by a senior Bhartia Janta Party (BJP) leader
anf former foreign minister of India, Jaswant Singh, thus reviving an
old controversy in both India and Pakistan over Jinnah’s role in the
partition of the Indian sub-continent.
In his book, Jaswant Singh, the former foreign minister of India, had
challenged the widely-held belief in India that it was Mohammad Ali
Jinnah’s insistence on a separate homeland for Muslims that forced the
breakup of India and the mayhem that accompanied it. While there is
mixed reaction over Jaswant’s claim in Pakistan, there are many who
believe that the brewing controversy over Jinnah’s political
disposition is not new and had actually surfaced after his death as
the Pakistani leadership had failed to develop a consensus on the
basis of his views and made selective use of his ideas in the creation
of Pakistan to suit their current political needs.
Pakistani leading English daily The News has stated in its editorial
titled “A new look at Jinnah” that Singh’s stance seem ironic given
that his own party and its mother organization, the RSS, have for the
past six or so decades painted Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah as
India’s greatest villain. “These parties and indeed much of mainstream
India and the rest of the Indian political spectrum, have always
blamed Jinnah for the country’s Partition and this has been shown in
negative light because Partition in India has been, more or less, seen
as something that divided a single whole”.
While stating that Jinnah has been unfairly demonised by Indians for
his role in Partition, the editorial maintains that any fresh look at
history and the characters which played a part in its making should
always be welcomed. “This is perhaps especially true in the case of
Jinnah who has been elevated to the status of a kind of saint in
Pakistan. A pragmatic analysis of his role and his personality becomes
difficult. At the same time, leaders through the years have been
selective in choosing which fragments of Jinnah’s legacy to put before
people. Many western historians have cast Jinnah as a dour, rather
unappealing figure, a distinct contrast to the more charismatic Nehru.
Jinnah’s death, so tragically early in the life of Pakistan, has also
made it difficult to draw up an accurate picture of a man who fought
tirelessly to carve out the territory of Pakistan from the Indian
whole”, the editorial added.
Another Pakistani English newspaper Daily Times has stated in its
editorial titled “Let’s agree on Jinnah’s role” that both Allama Iqbal
and Mohammad Jinnah wanted a confederal or federal arrangement in
which the Muslims could attain a measure of autonomy and freedom from
Hindu majoritarianism. The Cabinet Mission Plan which promised this
arrangement as late as 1946 was scuttled, not by Jinnah, but by
Nehru”. The editorial maintains that Pakistan’s myth of Indian
opposition to the existence of Pakistan is based on the frequently
expressed Indian view that Partition was wrong and that it was brought
about entirely by Jinnah and British machinations. Where the great
Parsi Indian judge HM Seervai had failed to remove the bilateral myths
of partition with his book Partition of India (1994), Singh might
succeed. If that happens, both Pakistan and India will have to
“rationalise” their view of Jinnah”.
The editorial concludes by stating that: “In Pakistan, the
conservative right and the liberal intellectuals are hopelessly
divided on the person of Jinnah. But both tend to stand together when
it comes to what they think is Indian prejudice against the great man.
Now that Jaswant Singh has set the record straight in India, it may be
easier for Pakistan to frame Jinnah in a more realistic national
reference. The identity of the state of Pakistan has been consciously
moulded over the years in relation to India as the enemy state despite
the fact that Jinnah was never an enemy of India”.
amir.mir1969@gmail.com