By S Irfan Habib
October 25,
2020
I can say
with some confidence that this book on Mohammad Ali Jinnah is one of the most
important books to have come out in the recent past. Ishtiaq Ahmed is known for
his extensive work on Partition history but Jinnah: His Successes, Failures and
Role in History is a bold attempt to look at Jinnah’s profile afresh and it
raises some uncomfortable questions. It’s a daunting book, running into over
800 pages, yet a very engaging one.
Jinnah
announcing the creation of Pakistan over All India Radio in June 1947. (Photo:
Wikimedia Commons)
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The book is
pertinent for both Pakistan and India, particularly in the times we are living
in. In India, especially, many of us often bend over backwards to comprehend
our present and do that to justify our present political actions and needs. We
tend to read history very expediently, many of us telescope our present into
the past and imagine an India which conforms to the present political, social
and cultural concerns. In the process, historical facts are the first casualty,
which are obscenely twisted and vandalised.
It has been
said by many scholars and even laypersons that the Indian National Congress
shoulders a lot of responsibility for the tragedy of the Partition. It could
have handled Jinnah and the Muslim League better to avoid the gruesome violence
and division of India. Ahmed reiterates through facts that Jinnah and the
League were committed to the two-nation theory and the British actively
collaborated to keep them strong against the composite nationalism espoused by
the Congress.
Jinnah
had frequent differences of opinion with Mahatma Gandhi. (Photo: Wikimedia
Commons)
------
He talks
about Jinnah’s secular phase when he was known as the ambassador of
Hindu-Muslim unity. However, during the ’20s, particularly after the arrival of
Gandhi from South Africa in 1915, his politics began to change. Jinnah left the
Congress party in 1920; even the Lucknow pact of 1916, of which he was the main
architect, was behind him. The author describes, in great detail, the ego
problems Jinnah had with Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Maulana Azad. There are
many pertinent quotes in the book to show how condescending Jinnah was towards
all three leaders, while they remained always measured and civil in their
exchanges with him.
Ahmed
stresses the point that “Jinnah’s principal adversaries wrote prolifically,
Gandhi and Nehru in English and Abul Kalam Azad in Urdu. Jinnah never wrote a
book, not even an extended article”. They engaged with him in detail on the
issue of nationalism and identity while Jinnah’s responses were mostly
polemical and “in the typical form of the briefs lawyers prepare to argue their
case”.
Jinnah:
His Successes, Failures and Role in History written by Ishtiaq Ahmed
------
The book
also questions the popular belief in Pakistan and India that Jinnah was not
treated well by the Congress leadership and Nehru was in a hurry to be the
prime minister. In India, particularly, this narrative is peddled ad nauseum
these days to run down Nehru, even if it exonerates Jinnah, to some extent, for
the Partition tragedy. However, Ahmed stresses with facts that Mohammad Ali
Jinnah “set forth the two-nation theory dichotomising Hindus and Muslims as two
discrete, hostile nations. Muslim nationalism became the hallmark of his
separatist politics, and he resorted to all sorts of populist arguments and political
manoeuvres to win the case for Pakistan in the face of stiff opposition from a
host of opponents, among whom the most inveterate opponent was the Indian
National Congress, while the final arbiter over the future of India was the
British.”
The author questions
the narrative that Jinnah was really the sole spokesperson for all Muslims, as
he relentlessly claimed through the 1930s and ’40s. There were many popular
Muslim leaders within the Congress and there were several Muslim organisations,
with a wide support base, which never stood with the League and Jinnah’s
divisive politics. Maulana Azad did not fight a lone battle against the Muslim
League, as Jinnah wanted the British and the Muslims to believe. He was hated
and derided as a show boy of the Congress party to show that most other Muslim
leaders were with the idea of Pakistan, which is actually a fallacy.
Ishtiaq Ahmed is a Swedish
political scientist and author of Pakistani descent.
-----
A very
large number of Muslims remained united against the two-nation rhetoric but the
League, with the open patronage of the British, continued to pursue its
divisive agenda. Ahmed underlines repeatedly, through documentary sources, that
the nexus between Jinnah and the British was like an umbilical cord — there was
no way it could be detached.
The book is
neatly based on four stages of Jinnah’s political career: first as an Indian
nationalist, then as a Muslim communitarian, next as a Muslim nationalist, and,
finally, as the founder of Pakistan. Of the fourth stage, when Jinnah succeeded
in dividing India and establishing Pakistan, realising his lifelong ambition to
be the supreme leader, the author says that he had no clear or consistent
policies to offer. As there was no single core argument around which to conduct
his politics, the fear of the perceived Congress-Hindu-India conspiracy against
him and Pakistan remained the constant referent.
This
foundational malaise continues to ail Pakistan and its leadership, which suits
the political concerns of many political groups in India as well. Ishtiaq Ahmed
has succeeded to a great extent in making us understand the enigmatic Mohammad
Ali Jinnah. It should be read by all Pakistanis and Indians to understand their
present better.
----
S Irfan Habib is a historian and former Maulana Azad Chair at the National University
of Educational Planning and Administration, New Delhi
Original Headline: The Jinnah Question
Source: The Indian Express
URL: https://newageislam.com/books-documents/ishtiaq-ahmed-jinnah-opportunity-india/d/123281
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