Jinnah’s official date of birth is 25 December 1876 - Christmas Day! - and it is said that he was born in Karachi; other accounts give different information. His ancestors belonged to the Hindu trading caste of Lohanas. The Lohanas were spread over western India along the coastline. Sections of the Lohanas had converted to Islam and were to be found among Sunnis, as well as the Ithna Ashari, Ismaili Aga Khani and Bohri sects of Shiism. Jinnah’s family belonged to the Aga Khani-Ismaili sect. As a young lad, Jinnah showed no interest in education and was not keen to help his father in his business. Upon the advice of a British partner, his father managed to send his son to England to learn accountancy and help the family business. He had not completed his matriculation, or tenth-class examination, when he sailed for Britain. Jinnah was married before he left India.
From Jeena to Jinnah
Another version, not in the book, goes like this: He was named Mamedali Jeenabhai Poonja which he changed to Mohamed Ali Jinnah, the last name referring presumably to the sacred “winged” horse ridden by the Prophet PBUH appeared proper in vowel-less Urdu; but when he was asked to change it to Janah in English he didn’t agree. “Jeena” in his name referred to the founder of Jain religion, Mahavira, who was also called Jeena the Victor. Jinnah’s family belonged to the Lohana Muslims of Gujarat (India), once dominated by Jainism, and Loh referred to the younger son of Ram after whom Lahore was named in antiquity. The Lohana community claimed descent from Loh although some Lohanas in Karachi, avoiding Hindu association, thought the name referred to “iron”, their ancient profession as ironmongers.
Author Ahmed refers to Venkat Dhulipala’s exhaustive study, Creating a New Medina: State Power, Islam, and the Quest for Pakistan in Late Colonial North India: The processes which led to the idea of Pakistan being associated with the ideal Islamic state founded in the seventh century. Initially, while adopting confrontational positions vis-à-vis the Indian National Congress, Jinnah avoided taking recourse to Islamist ideas. However, during the by-elections which were held in the UP from March 1937 onwards, mainly because of the death of elected members, the ulema began to introduce Islamic terms and arguments to present their standpoints for and against the Congress and Muslim League.
The Islamic identity
In Pakistani discourses on the ideology of Pakistan, no other speech has been debated more than the “secular” one Jinnah made on 11 August 1947, three days before Pakistan celebrated its independence, addressing members of the Pakistan Constituent Assembly. It was a departure, a radical one indeed, from his adumbrations since 1940 of Pakistan as a Muslim democracy, with allusions to sharia, the Prophet (PBUH) and the Islamic state being mixed freely to appeal to broad sections of Muslim society as well as to forestall attacks from the Congress and the British. Doing so was logical. Because if the Muslims were a nation by virtue of their religion and thus entitled to a separate state, Jinnah had to project such a Pakistan in democratic and progressive imagery and parlance, even when he had given the ulema and other conservatives a free hand to indulge their aspirations to resuscitate the ideal of the Madina state.
Author Ahmed opines: “Jinnah was, till the late spring of 1948, very much in command as an all-powerful head of state; he was the virtual head of government as well. In such circumstances, to believe that his “secular” speech was suppressed against his will is preposterous—unless Jinnah himself was party to such treatment of his speech. More probable was that Jinnah and his advisers decided not to publicize it because it was meant primarily for the Indian government and leaders”.
Choosing Democracy, not ideology
That Jinnah was on the side of the West rather than the “revolution” of the Soviet Union is scrutinized: On 7 September 1947, Jinnah told cabinet ministers that “Pakistan is a democracy and communism does not flourish in the soil of Islam. It is clear therefore that our interests lie more with the two great democratic countries, namely the United Kingdom and the US, rather than with Russia”. Jinnah also alluded to the Great Game logic when he asserted: “The safety of the North Western Frontier is of world concern and not merely an internal matter of Pakistan alone”. He also asserted that the Russians were behind Afghanistan’s demand for Pakhtunistan. Ahmed adds: “Such tactics were meant to make the Americans appreciate Pakistan’s geostrategic importance in any strategy purporting to contain Soviet influence not only in South Asia but also in the Middle East and South East Asia. At that time Chinese communist influence was spreading fast in South East Asia, and East Pakistan connected with that region the Asian continent.”
Was Jinnah an “Islamist”? Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan was in Lahore organizing relief work in October 1947 when Jinnah also joined him. In a huge public meeting at Lahore, Jinnah again talked about the great suffering of people because of the Partition, but blamed it on the other side, saying that the Muslim League accepted the 3 June 1947 Partition Plan and remained sincere in its implementation. He told the crowd: “Take inspiration and guidance from the Holy Quran. The final victory will be ours. You have to develop the spirit of Mujahideen (soldiers of Islam). All I require of you now is that everyone be prepared to sacrifice all, if necessary, in building up Pakistan as a bulwark of Islam and as one of the greatest nations whose ideal is peace within and peace without. Not be afraid of death. Our religion teaches us to be always prepared for death. We should face it bravely to save the honour of Pakistan and Islam. There is no better salvation for a Muslim than the death of a martyr for a righteous cause. The tenet of Islam enjoin on every Musalman to give protection to neighbours and to the minorities regardless of caste and creed.”
The language blunder
Then comes the “language blunder”. In a public speech in Dacca, 21 March 1948, Jinnah took up the reasons why Pakistan was a matter of life and death for Muslims, and that Muslims, whether Bengali, Punjabi, Sindhi, Pakhtuns, Baloch or Urdu-speaking, Shia or Sunni, were one nation because of their common bond of Islam. He then took up the contentious language issue: “Let me tell you in the clearest language that there is no truth hat your normal language is going to be touched or disturbed as far as your Bengali language is concerned. But ultimately it is for you, the people of this Province, to decide what will be the language of your Province. But let me make it very clear to you that the State language of Pakistan is going to be Urdu and no other language. Anyone who tries to mislead you is really the enemy of Pakistan. Without one State language, no nation can remain tied up solidly together and function. Look at the history of other countries. Therefore, so far as the State Language is concerned, Pakistan’s language shall be Urdu. But as I have said, will come in time.”
(Note: Telling the East Pakistanis that they should lay aside their mother tongue was unforgivable. The great Bengali poet Tagore had bagged the Nobel Prize in 1913 and was finally to be the author of three national anthems in South Asia: India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.)
There is a “muffled” mention in Pakistan of Liaquat Ali Khan’s troubled relationship with Jinnah. It is supposed to have come to light in Ziarat where Jinnah was recuperating. Biographer Stanley Wolpert took note of it. After Liaquat departed after calling on Jinnah, Jinnah told his sister, “Do you know why he has come? He wants to know how serious my illness is, and how long I will last”. This remark is not to be found in her book however. Fatima Jinnah’s dislike for Liaquat and his wife, Raana, was proverbial and there are many stories about the two women quarrelling about who was the First Lady. Both claimed that coveted title. Jinnah was very curt with Liaquat on several occasions and reportedly even called him incompetent—which resulted in Liaquat offering his resignation. We learn that when Jinnah arrived by train at the Delhi railway station on 23 June, on his way to Simla, Liaquat wanted to travel with him in his carriage, but Jinnah point-blank told him that he could not.
An Islamic Jinnah?
Another very popular controversy is about Jinnah’s Islamic zeal. For example, Safdar Mahmood in his article Jinnah’s Vision of Pakistan quotes the following passage from a book: “Maulana Hasrat Mohani has revealed that once he wanted to discuss a problem of immediate nature with Jinnah and he went to see him early in the morning, knowing that he was an early riser. The guard at his house led him to the waiting room and told him to wait as Jinnah was expected any moment.
According Maulana, he waited for some time and then decided to enter the next room himself in order to find Jinnah. As he entered the adjacent room, he heard a sobbing voice. The Maulana got worried and quietly peeped through the curtain on the door. He was surprised to find Jinnah prostrated on the prayer-mat and weeping. He said that he hastened to return to the waiting room quietly. It is quite evident that a person who weeps while prostrating in prayer would be the one who is God-fearing and whose heart beats with a profound faith and is endowed with the blessing of the love for Allah”.
And not so Islamic?
But early biographer M.C. Chagla has another version. He mentioned the embarrassing ham sandwiches being brought in for lunch by his young wife Ruttie during an election meeting, which made Jinnah upbraid her for her “indiscretion”. But that was at an early stage of his life. However, Syed Munir Husain, who held several important positions in the Pakistan civil service, including that of the chief secretary of Baluchistan, reports the following incident from 1945 narrated to him by the Khan of Kalat:
“The Quaid-e-Azam came with his valet to stay with me… That day I invited sixteen leading Baloch sardars to meet him… After some rest, he came out… he was followed by his valet who was carrying a drink in a tray for him. As the sardars were waiting in an outer room to meet him, I politely suggested that he need not keep the glass with him going to the meeting room. He stood there solemn, very angry, put on his monocle and said in great temper in Urdu: ‘Whatever I am inside, I am the same outside. What business have you to advise me like this?’”
A penitent Jinnah?
(Ms) Ajeet Jawed in Jinnah: Secular and Nationalist. (OUP 2009) quotes Jinnah like this: “I have committed the biggest blunder in creating Pakistan and would like to go to Delhi and tell Nehru to forget the follies of the past and become friends again.” At another place she mentions that Jinnah told the Muslim League Council that he was still an Indian citizen: ‘I tell you I still consider myself to be an Indian. For the moment I have accepted the Governor-Generalship of Pakistan. But I am looking forward to a time when I would return to India and claim my place as a citizen of my country.’”
Jawed also informs that Jinnah allegedly wrote to Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan. She quotes the letter: “Khan Sahib I know that you are a man of character and integrity. It is honest men like you whose help I need to build up Pakistan but I am surrounded by thieves and scoundrels and through them I can do little for the poor Muslims who have suffered much [. . .] I am a very much misunderstood man. I never wanted all this bloodshed. I want peace, believe me so that I can do something for the masses. I am myself anxious to convert the League into National League, open to every loyal citizen of Pakistan. But I am being attacked by mad Mullahs and extremists who are out to create trouble for me. That is exactly why I want you and your colleagues to join the League and help me oust these dangerous elements.”
Dina the rebellious daughter
It is not clear if Jinnah’s daughter Dina Jinnah—who became Dina Wadia by marriage—left Islam, but irrespective of her personal faith, her marriage to a non-Muslim disqualified her from inheriting her father’s property, if Islamic law were applied to her claims. Some years ago. Dina Wadia claimed the right to inherit her father’s house on the grounds that Jinnah was an Ismaili Khoja belonging to the Aga Khani sub-sect and was not a Sunni or Ithna Ashari (Twelver) Shia. Her contention was that Aga Khani converts belonged to the Lohana trading caste, and follow the Hindu law of succession and that, according to their practice, succession rights devolved on her as his daughter. Her lawyer Fali Nariman cited several precedents of the Indian Supreme Court which lay down that Khoja Shias are governed by Hindu customary law, in which intestate succession is to the daughter alone.
But the fact remains that except for his sister Fatima Jinnah, all the brothers and sisters of Jinnah remained in India at the time of Partition. Upon Jinnah’s death, Fatima claimed ownership her brother’s property, saying he had converted to mainstream Ithna Ashari Shi’ism and was not a follower of the Aga Khan. After Fatima Jinnah’s death, two of her nephews Mohammed Rajabali Ibrahim and Shakir Mohammed Ebrahim claimed her property. Their contention was that Jinnah had willed the Malabar Hill to his sister (who is their maternal aunt) Fatima Jinnah, who in turn had bequeathed the property to them. That would entail a share in the residual rights of the bungalow, valued at over Rs 3 billion. In this regard, it is worth mentioning that Jafaria Shia law confers more rights on female heirs, such as daughters and sisters, in ancestral property than Sunni Law which favours male relatives.
Conclusion
Author Ishtiaq Ahmed concludes: “Having won Pakistan by invoking Islam and describing Muslims as a distinct and separate nation, these ideas constrained Jinnah’s freedom to manoeuvre freely and extricate the idea and demand for Pakistan from Islam and the concomitant historical heritage and legacy of the state and politics of Muslims not only in the subcontinent but worldwide. In the case of his successors who lacked his stature and charisma, extricating the idea from the Islamic legacy was even more difficult, if not impossible. Under the circumstances, the inbuilt attitudes and habits of the Muslim peoples to build a state and nation on Islamic principles and values was greatly enhanced. Having said this, there is no doubting that Jinnah was one of the most fascinating political leaders of the twentieth-century Indian subcontinent. His successes and failures and his role in history will continue to generate controversy.”