Views of an Indian in Pakistan

Salim

Do you know, they call me Bhayya (Rajan Bhayaa) at home? LOL

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I can write my real name because nobody else from my village is likely to be on Chowk, but who knows?! :)

kauno hove tau bataye diyo, isse acchi baat ka hoye sakat hai ...

#120, Kaalchakra {``But why should there be a decline in positive feelings for Pakistan in Turkey?``}

Kaal Bhayya,
Many reasons. But, one of the foremost is probably the openly vicious attacks on Ataturk, siding with Saudi Arabs against moderate Islam, trying to involve and defame Islam at every step, giving a bad name to an otherwise good religion, and ``copying`` their flag without paying attention to the spirit behiind that flag. :)
Narcotics/people smuggling would be the other reasons.
Salim

salim

India-Pakistan, at least, have our mutual problems. But why should there be a decline in positive feelings for Pakistan in Turkey?

#117, Kaal Sahib, {``It is true that Indians waste too much energy on hating Pakistan, but dislike of Islam (quite real among Hindus) has little to do with that emotion. Indians don`t hate Iran, or Turkey, or Malaysia.``{

Kaal Bhai,
Unfortunately, ``hatred`` for Pakistan is spreading like a cancer almong many Muslim countries too. :) Even in Turkey I have noticed a discernable decline in positive feelings for Pakistan. I might have to tell people that Chauhan is an Indian name. :)

re:#107 by Mantolives
what matters today is: has Pakistan lived up to the expectations of Jinnah? Did Jinnah ensure during his short post-partiton lifetime, that Pak would carry on well without him? On both counts, answer is a big NO.
In today`s Pak, muslims kill muslims. Shias are targeted with impunity. Karachi itself has witnessed killing of many prominent Shias, including doctors. Ahmediyas have been declared ``not muslims`` since Zia`s times and nothing has changed since. They are also persecuted for their faith.
I do not have to tell u about the fate of hindu and christian minorities.
The fact of the matter is: partition was just a bad concept. For centuries, people lived together because they belonged to a common culture. In prepartition Punjab for eg, people lived together in one village because they were ``Punjabis`` as different from being ``Kashmiris`` or Madraasis etc. Khushwant Singh talks about this aspect in his book ``Train to Pakistan``. Then came Jinnah and he totally disrupted this community life, dividing the people in the basis of religion. If u ask me, the guy was just after power, something he enjoyed only very briefly or perhaps he was just a man of destiny.
On the second count too, Jinnah failed miserably. He did not ensure a system whereby the nation he founded would carry on well without him. People are still debating his speeches. He seemed to have said different things at different times. And he certainly ruled like a dictator until he died, usurping all power to himself and ensuring that leaders that followed him would always imitate him.
This Noorani guy might have written a good biography on Jinnah but does it matter. The person is long gone. What we look for today is the legacy not the person.
Sridhar

Hindvi

For Hindus, and for all Indic peoples, India is the most special place. It`s our great Holy Land, as well as our Only Land where, along with Nepal, we are in a majority. It is the only place where our cultures have an opportunity to be the dominant cultures. It is the only place where we know that nobody else is going to discriminate against us. It is to us what Israel is to Jews, and Saudi Arabia would be to Muslims if they formed a majority in only that country. (This exclusivity is fortunately not true for Buddhists, but I hope one day we will have Buddhist majority states too, as Punjab is the Sikh majority state).

I don`t think anybody has to teach us to love India. It would be irrational and self-defeating for a Hindu to not love the place. And yes, whatever we love, we makes pictures of, and ``worship,`` even our film heroines :)

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It is true that Indians waste too much energy on hating Pakistan, but dislike of Islam (quite real among Hindus) has little to do with that emotion. Indians don`t hate Iran, or Turkey, or Malaysia. Also, at least I never saw an officially prescribed textbook asking/encouraging Indians to hate Pakistan.

Hatred sometimes simply results from interactions and misunderstandings. Honestly, if most Pakistanis were/are like Romair, it would be silly to not hate the place. The sentiment is probably mutual :)

Re: # 114
//...Pakistan is hated by different people for different reasons....//

And these days, there is only one reason why everybody hates pakiland - islamic terrorism.

This: ``Just like Muhajirs in Pakistan sharnarthis in india have a strong attachment also because of what they suffered and sinc they did well there is also a debt of gratitude. ``

Should read: Just like Muhajirs in Pakistan sharnarthis in india have a strong attachment also because of what they suffered and since they did well there is also a debt of gratitude. Just like you are personally grateful for the creation of Pakistan because of your own and your family`s succes there, and maybe because of your sufferings have a personal attachment to the nation.

just like you there are many in the Indian armed forces serving and retired who are quite nationalistic, but since in your cases their are two objects of identity i.e. Pakistan and Islam and in their case they have only one they are more devoted to the flag they have saluted every working morning of their adult life.

Romair

You have asked this question several times and i have replied to you previously as well. Pakistan is hated by different people for different reasons. Ths sharnarthis (refugees) from Punjab and sindh and some from east Bengal detest it for obvious reasons and that hate is passed down from generation to generation through indoctrination of children and through stories of partition. To some extent this is passed down among all hindus (through atrocities of medievel rulers) and muslims (through description of discrimination and violence against muslims). So there is general hatred towards muslims and vice vesa.

Educated Hindus are not as indoctrinated toward religion as muslims are but something has to fill that vacuum because man needs something to believe in, and this is provided by the nation, thus their nationalism. Even for religious Hindus, India or Bharat Varsha holds a special religious meaning emanating from the Hindu Epics, thus India is often depicted as Saraswati or Lakshmi on hindu religious calendars. India is reffered to as Bharat Mata. Thus the mixing of hindu nationalism with religous iconography was pased of as nationalism by the arch communalist Bankim Chandra in Vande matram (who in the same novel advocated the wiping out of muslims). Also the creation of religious festivals such as Ganpati Utsav by right wing politicians like Bal Gangadhar Tilak to incite nationalism, ditto for Lajpat Rai and Aurobindo Ghosh.

Also most Indians are taught through their schooling and elders that all the wars against India were started by Pakistan, (even I, a precocious child, was not wiser until about my 14th year) this is similar to what most Pakistanis are taught, but in the Indian case they are reinforced by historical invasions from the north west. So most Indians from an early age perceive Pakistan as an enemy nation, like most Pakistanis do for India

But there is an additional difference in the Indian case that has crept up in the 80s and 90s, that is long running sepratist movements. Congress goverments in order to prevent demonisation of the separatist provinces or minority communities and in order to prevent the majority of the population from thinking that large numbers of citizens were supporting seperation, chose to portray those movements as soley pakistan inspired, i.e. the ugravadis (terrorists) were portrayed as solely Pakistani armed and financed hence the ubiquitous ISI conspiracy. The media in India is very statist you can read the Times of India or India Today (now it is basically a BJP mouth piece), or see Zee News, they projected the same image as the goverment, much like in Pakistan the media projects Kashmir and the creation of Pakistan with its own version of history.

These movements have been running now for decades, and unlike the quick split with Bangladesh have fuelled a festering wound part of which is borne by muslims in India today. Hence Indian muslims have no love lost for Pakistan and its government since they view it as callously fueling their persecution.

All told in the 80s and 90s Indians thus have a significantly higher degree of anti pakistan hatred than vice versa though until the seventies it may have been the other way round due to bangladesh and kashmir. Sharnartis are exempt from this they have always and continue to harbour a strong antipathy towards pakistan as you can see in Arun Shourie, Veeresh, Advani, Madan Lal Khurana, etc. there are exceptions too like IK Gujral and Ved Mehta,the outlook editor. But overall you can see the strong performance of the BJP and its predecesor the Jan Sangh in delhi since 1960s.

Just like Muhajirs in Pakistan sharnarthis in india have a strong attachment also because of what they suffered and sinc they did well there is also a debt of gratitude.

though overall in northern India as a whole anti pakistan feling is mixed with anti muslim hatred for example Rajasthani Rajputs of the lower middle class generally harbour very strong anti muslim feelings because of the stories of defeat by the muslims conquerers, the conservative social mileu that they come from (which means they support conservative parties like the BJP) and their low i9nteraction with muslims, they also support strong nationalism. and similarly in Maharashtra, Punjab etc.

Now hatred for jinah is on similar lines, though we learnt almost nothing about him in school history, we know he was responsible for bharat`s vibhajan (vivisection), this view was supported by the movie Gandhi which is as much history as th average middle class bloke cares to know. since his demand was viewed as communal he gets further short shrift, also their was a desire to dissacociate him from the muslims left in India. Those who sufered in partition have obvious reason but since they dont kow the role of other interactors Jinnah gets all the blame.

Stuka #103: ``Your reading of the controversy is wrong. Jinnah is demonized by the Indian establishment, period!! ``

My reading of the controversy was dead accurate. I had stated, the day Advani returned, that he had done this to strengthen his position within the BJP. He wanted to get the message across that he could create trouble for them. I was one of the first to predict that he would take back his resignation. Even our resident Indian politics expert, D-M, acknowledged how accurate I had been.....

I do recognize that Jinnah is demonized across all social lines in India, and not just in the BJP. Which is why I state, in the previous reply, ``Generally all of India hates Jinnah.``

``As the vast majority of the people are rarely ``die-hard`` anything, I am merely normal. ``

Not necessarily. Every long-lasting political party is built on a group of die-hard followers. These are the individuals that define the philosophy of a party, and stick with it regardless of consequences. Go to the BJP website and you will see the views of the die-hard BJP follwers, who define its core philosophy.

Then there are groups, like the one you belong to, who look for certain things in any party, and float around from one to the other, based on which can satisfy them, at one particular piont. For example, there is a die-hard group of life-long Jamaat-i-Islami followers in Pakistan. They join as students and then go on to become MNAs. Then there are others who will vote for one Jamaat candidate and not for another............

As an example, I am a die-hard Tehrik-i-Insaaf follower. Win or lose, I have followed them. Infact, so far, for nearly 15 years, it has been totally, ``lose.`` In over a decade, we have won 1 MNA seat and 1(?) MPA seat. But I am with them. On the other hand, there will be many floaters also. Who will follow it, if they do one or two certain things. And leave if someone else appeals to them. The reason I am die-hard is that I believe in PTI philosophically. The floaters are just looking for someone who can do one particular thing at one particular time........Within Canadian politics, I am a floater......While there are many die-hard Liberals and Conservatives here.........The USA is currently polarized on die-hard lines........

You could say that the floaters, like yourself in India, and me in Canada, are the swing vote. In the USA, lets say 1/3rd are the swing vote. While 1/3rd are die-hard Republicans and 1/3rd are die-hard Democrats.........

``The hostility is to the State of Pakistan, not to fellow Punjabis from the other side of the border as individuals.``

Yes, I agree. This is exactly the point I was trying to make. In case of Punjabis, on both sides, there is hawkishness to the state but not to fellow Punjabis. However, in case of non-Punjabis in India (or maybe non X geographical area in India), there seems to be hawkishness to the State and the individuals. I am basing this or just what I saw during cricket matches (the treatment in Indian Punjab was great; everywhere else it was average). And on my own relations with Indian Punjabis. We bond immediately. With other Indians it takes a bit longer..........I don`t have any strict survey data.........

``Jamaat eIslami is Anti India but not anti Hindu in a communal way? Why is it Anti India then? Because of the 120 million Muslims who live in India or because of the Hindu majority?``

There is no major religously communal party in Pakistan. Hence there are no parties that have anti-Hinduism in their philosophy. There are anti-India parties, however. Primarily and probably only, due to Kashmir. They (JI) are quite hawkish on Kashmir, and feel that Muslims there, are being occupied against their will...........Which is why they are anti-India.......

Stuka #103: You have, yourself, asked a question that I am attempting to answer, based on what I see: ``Why do some (not all thanks goodness) Indians get rectal itch if someone has a good time in Pakistan?``

Obviously there must be some answer to it. Which is why I highlighted that our Indian colleagues should debate it. Since it is quite an unnatural reaction to get a, ``rectal itch`` if some third person has a good time in some place. I have not seen such a reaction anywhere else. If a Pakistani has a good time in India, barring the odd Pakistani on this site, most Pakistanis do not have an itch........

Unfortunately, none of our Indian colleagues wants to debate it. However, they all want to counter any comment that I make on it. Which is fine. It is their right. But then they should, themselves, define some reason for it. Obviously they have better knowledge of themselves and of India than I have...........

If it is not Jinnah, or the BJP, or the fact that South Indians are indifferent to Pakistan. And if Punjabis hate Pakistan as much as South Indians. Then what exactly is it? Why do they have an itch? Why is there such an extreme amount of hatred, on this site, against anything associated with Pakistan. I have, on many occassions, quoted and counted replies, and invariably upto 2/3rd (or more) of our Indian interactors regularly have hate-filled comments against anything Pakistani.

Even when I have said, that I am quite happy in Pakistan, people start having an itch. What to talk of an Indian tourist having a good time. When you wrote your travelogue, so many people had itches.........

Why?

Perhaps, our Indian colleagues could carry out some introspection and answer the question.............

AlephNull

But does not the same apply to yourself too?

I’m not sure why people are still marvelling over Romair’s curious views (about the range of causes for antagonism towards Pakistan among Indians, about why assorted Indians think what they do about Jinnah, etc.). All this should be old hat by now. There are, incidentally, several other celebrated Chowk savants who chronically exhibit strikingly similar symptoms - Romair is by no means the only one.

A person who has to find an explanation for a new fact – or select one out of several candidate explanations - generally prefers the one that least disrupts his existing worldview. This appears to be a human universal – based in biology, in all likelihood – and applies to women and men, to old and young, to Indians and Americans as much as Pakistanis.

It is not a requirement for short-term survival that a person’s beliefs be consistent with reality in all details. Major divergence at the center of a person’s interaction with the world may carry a stiff and painful penalty and force the person to update his mental picture of the world pronto; whereas discrepancies at the margins may not.

It takes unusual integrity and intransigence, to dare disturb the bedrock of one’s basic beliefs – those that were laid down by loving parents and elders, by dutiful schoolteachers, and by decades of state indoctrination – just to assimilate an inconvenient if presently peripheral fact. Most people are not up to the task. To take the easy way out is not particularly praiseworthy, but it is very, very human.

Romair’s poorly informed opinions about why Indians think as they do may not have obviously hurt him so far. They surely bring him much psychic solace. So why should he revise them?

I wonder how much longer we have to wait for a similar article about Mr. Advani
by A.G. Noorani. Should not be too long, at least politically there are too many
similarities.

I wonder how much longer we have to wait for a similar article about Mr. Advani
by A.G. Noorani. Should not be too long, at least politically there are too many
similarities.

ANALYSIS

ASSESSING JINNAH
A.G. NOORANI
Mohammed Ali Jinnah was an Indian nationalist who did not believe that nationalism meant turning one`s back on the rights of one`s community. The Congress stipulated that, virtually.


That this was Jinnah`s favourite photograph tells us a lot about his self-image.
IGNORANT biographers have made much of the fact that at a reception in his honour on January 12, 1915, Gandhi asked Mohammed Ali Jinnah, who was presiding, to speak in Gujarati; implying that he was embarrassed because he knew only English. But Gujarati and Cutchi were the only two languages Jinnah spoke perfectly; ``beautifully``, M.C. Chagla recalled. His devoted follower M.A.H. Ispahani put it delicately: ``Even in this language [English] the meticulous don would have found some flaws`` (The Jinnah I Knew ; page 107).
But, with the indifference to matters of substance that marks most writings on Jinnah, they overlook a more significant aspect to the relationship. Dr. Ajeet Jawed draws pointed attention to its implications. When Gandhi returned to India from South Africa, Jinnah was a national leader towering above Motilal Nehru, Tej Bahadur Sapru and M.R. Jayakar. He was a colleague of Gopal Krishna Gokhale and Bal Gangadhar Tilak. He performed a central role in the Congress, the Muslim League and the Home Rule League (HRL). Gandhi`s demand was certainly presumptuous, if not insulting. But it revealed his pronounced tendency to establish his ascendancy. It worked with all others - save Jinnah. In his correspondence, he even advised Jinnah gratuitously about his wife. In October 1916, addressing a conference over which Jinnah presided, Gandhi referred to him as ``a learned Muslim gentleman ... . an eminent lawyer and not only a member of the Legislature but also president of the biggest Islamic association in India`` (Secular and Nationalist Jinnah; page 193).
Gandhi was ``cutting Jinnah to size``, as a sectarian leader. Jinnah was neither put out nor deflected from the course he followed. Chimanlal Setalvad and he remained two persons who never subordinated their will and judgment to him. On his part, till the end Jinnah treated Gandhi as a peer. He was not forgiven for this. Jinnah could not be ``domesticated`` like the Nehrus and Sardar Patel, nor co-opted.
Equally wrong is the impression that Jinnah was embittered because Gandhi, in effect, ousted him from two bodies - from the Home Rule League of which Jinnah was president, and from the Congress. About what happened in the former, we have Jayakar`s detailed account in his memoirs, The Story of My Life (Vol. I, pages 316-318 and 404-5). In December 1919, Jinnah invited Gandhi to join the HRL as its president. So much for his ambition and ego. He overruled Jayakar`s opposition, which was based on Gokhale`s advice: ``Be careful that India does not trust him on occasions where delicate negotiations have to be carried on with care and caution... . He has done wonderful work in South Africa... . but I fear that when the history of the negotiations... is written with impartial accuracy, it will be found that his actual achievements were not as meritorious as is popularly imagined.``
The concluding part of two-part article.
Gandhi promised Jayakar that he would not change the HRL`s character. He became its president in March 1920. Gandhi and Jinnah had cooperated at the Amritsar session of the Congress in November 1919. At the Calcutta Congress in September 1920, Gandhi unfolded his programme of non-cooperation. Jinnah said that while he was ``fully convinced of non-cooperation`` he found Gandhi`s programme unsound. Gandhi was able to win over the doubters. He failed with Jinnah. Maulana Shaukat Ali tried to assault Jinnah, but was stopped by his friends. Gandhi took the battle to the HRL and presiding over its session on October 3, 1920, had its objectives changed in breach of his promises. It was a coup. Nineteen veterans resigned from the HRL, including Jinnah, Jayakar and K.M. Munshi (vide Jayakar, page 405 for the text of the letter). Gandhi flouted his promises to Jayakar, as he recorded.
On October 30, 1920, Jinnah wrote a letter to Gandhi which is of historic importance: ``I thank you for your kind suggestion offering me `to take my share in the new life that has opened up before the country`. If by `new life` you mean your methods and your programme, I am afraid I cannot accept them; for I am fully convinced that it must lead to disaster. But the actual new life that has opened up before the country is that we are faced with a Government that pays no heed to the grievances, feelings and sentiments of the people; that our own countrymen are divided; the Moderate Party is still going wrong; that your methods have already caused split and division in almost every institution that you have approached hitherto, and in the public life of the country not only amongst Hindus and Muslims but between Hindus and Hindus and Muslims and Muslims and even between fathers and sons; people generally are desperate all over the country and your extreme programme has for the moment struck the imagination mostly of the inexperienced youth and the ignorant and the illiterate. All this means complete disorganisation and chaos. What the consequence of this may be, I shudder to contemplate; but I, for one, am convinced that the present policy of the Government is the primary cause of it all and unless that cause is removed, the effects must continue. I have no voice or power to remove the cause; but at the same time I do not wish my countrymen to be dragged to the brink of a precipice in order to be shattered. The only way for the Nationalists is to unite and work for a programme which is universally acceptable for the early attainment of complete responsible government. Such a programme cannot be dictated by any single individual, but must have the approval and support of all the prominent Nationalist leaders in the country; and to achieve this end I am sure my colleagues and myself shall continue to work.``
This was not an intimation of parting of ways but a plea for unity against the British, differences on the methods notwithstanding.


With Jawaharlal Nehru at the residence of Dr. Rajendra Prasad.
At the Nagpur session in December 1920, Gandhi`s capture of the Congress was complete. Only, it was a victory procured by a Faustian deal with the Ali brothers on Khilafat. Jinnah was in a minority of one. Decades later, Munshi lauded him for his courage. Ian Bryant Wells` comment is fair: ``By taking up the Khilafat issue, he gained substantial support for his own political programme.`` Without the Ali brothers` support, he could not have pushed through his programme.
Before long, the All India Congress Committee (AICC) ordained that Congressmen should give 2,000 yards of hand-spun yarn every month. Jinnah was still not embittered. This is what he said on February 19, 1921: ``Undoubtedly Mr. Gandhi was a great man and he had more regard for him than anyone else. But he did not believe in his programme and he could not support it`` (The Collected Works of Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah; edited by Syed Shatifuddin Pirzada; Vol. I; page 411. Emphasis added throughout). Jinnah attended the Congress` annual session in Ahmedabad in 1921. The yarn requirement was another matter.
Jinnah knew what was at stake. He accurately predicted that the movement would divide the communities and breed disrespect for law and order. He supported the Khilafat cause, opposed the Ali brothers` methods, and gave up once Turkey made its own decision. He told the League: ``We are not going to rest content until we have attained the fullest political freedom in our own country. Mr. Gandhi has placed his programme of non-cooperation, supported by the authority of the Khilafat Conference, before the country... . The operations of this scheme will strike at the individual in each of you, and therefore it rests with you alone to measure your strength and to weigh the pros and cons of the question before you arrive at a decision. But once you have decided to march, let there be no retreat under any circumstances... . One degrading measure upon another, disappointment upon disappointment, and injury upon injury, can lead a people only to one end. It led Russia to Bolshevism. It has led Ireland to Sinn Feinism. May it lead India to freedom... I would still ask the Government not to drive the people of India to desperation, or else there is no other course left open to the people except to inaugurate the policy of non-cooperation, though not necessarily the programme of Mr. Gandhi.``
He convened a meeting of representative Muslims in Delhi in March 1927, which put forth four major demands. One of these was for a one-third representation in the Central Legislature. A committee of the Congress, set up to examine their import, accepted the demands. Its members were Motilal Nehru, Sarojini Naidu, Maulana Mohammed Ali and Srinivasa Iyengar. The AICC accepted the committee`s views with minor changes.
The Hindu Mahasabha led by Madan Mohan Malaviya opposed these demands, as did Muslims in some provinces. Opposition to the Simon Commission divided the League, but Jinnah supported the Congress in the campaign to boycott this all-White body. The alternative constitutional proposals adopted in the famous Nehru Report dashed Jinnah`s hopes. The Report did not even refer to Jinnah`s proposals, or to their acceptance by the Congress. Jinnah now put forth his 14-points. Their rejection and his personal humiliation at the All-Parties Convention are chapters in a story told several times over. (For a crisp, documented account vide Uma Kaura`s classic Muslims, and Indian Nationalism; Manohar; 1977.)
Three myths must be laid to rest. First, it did not mark ``a parting of ways``. Jinnah said in his speech at the Convention: ``We are all sons of the soil. We have to live together... If we cannot agree, let us at any rate agree to differ, but let us part as friends.`` The second myth is that soon after this Convention, ``Jinnah found himself in the company of the Aga Khan`` and other reactionaries. The Aga Khan convened an All-India Muslim Conference in Delhi on December 31, 1928, around the same time as the All-Parties Convention on the Nehru Report in Calcutta. Wolpert `records` how Jinnah came late, looked around and what he wore. It is a fabrication. While the Ali brothers and even radicals like the Leftist poet Maulana Hasrat Mohani participated, in sheer disgust at the outcome of the Calcutta Convention, Jinnah did not. He had rejected the invitation brusquely.
The third is about Motilal Nehru`s attitude. His letter to Gandhi on August 14, 1929, reported his talks with the Hindu Mahasabha leaders: ``We agreed that the Hindu opposition to the Muslim demands was to continue and even be stiffened up by the time the Convention was held.`` He concluded: ``You will see that the stumbling block in our way is this question of one-third Muslim representatives and on this point even the most advanced Musalmans like Dr. M.A. Ansari, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Mr. T.A.K. Sherwani and others are all very strongly in favour of the concession. I would therefore ask you to direct your attention now to the Mahasabha leaving Ali Brothers and Mr. Jinnah to stew in their own juice.`` (The Indian Nationalist Movement 1885 - 1947; Select Documents; edited by B.N. Pandey; Macmillan; pages. 63-64). This document establishes that: the convention failed because of the Hindu Mahasabha`s obduracy; Motilal Nehru cooperated with the Mahasabha leaders though he saw no harm in the demand; and the ``advanced Musalmans`` failed to stand up to the Congress leaders for the community`s rights, which Jinnah did without falling in the Aga Khan`s camp of pro-British reactionaries. This is what made Jinnah truly unique - clarity of thought, moral courage, and sturdy, uncompromising independence. These were the qualities that made him so formidable an adversary later and so tragic in his fall from the ideals he once espoused.
Jinnah continued to cooperate with Gandhi even after Nagpur. In December 1929, he went all the way to Sabarmati Ashram to discuss the Viceroy`s announcement of a Round Table Conference. Documents published recently show Jinnah pleading with the Viceroy on his behalf and that of the Congress in 1929-30. ``I am left with the impression that Mr. Gandhi himself is responsible,`` he wrote.
His wife Ruttie`s death in her 30th year, on February 20, 1929, shook Jinnah to the core. He withdrew from society and became distant. To think that it changed his political outlook is to underestimate the man`s commitment and to fly in the face of the record. Even in 1937, eight years later, he saw ``no difference between the ideals of the Muslim League and of the Congress, the ideal being complete freedom for India``.
On July 21, 1937, Jawaharlal Nehru wrote to Rajendra Prasad: ``During the general election in U.P. [United Provinces] there was not any conflict between the Congress and the Muslim League.`` With characteristic Nehruvian consistency, he proposed ``the winding up of the Muslim League group in the U.P. and its absorption in the Congress``.


With daughter Dina, Liaquat Ali Khan and his wife.
In later years, Azad professing, as ever, superior wisdom pinned the blame on Nehru. It was Azad, not Nehru, who gave the surrender terms to Khaliquzzaman: the League`s group ``shall cease to function as a separate group`` (for the text vide Indian Politics 1936-1942; by R. Coupland; Oxford University Press; page 111). Sapru`s letter to B. Shiva Rao of The Hindu, dated November 16, 1940, referred to his experience of ``party dictatorship or Congress Ministries wherever they have existed... . So long as these people were in power they treated everybody else with undisguised contempt``. That experience led him to believe that the ``Western type of majority rule in India will not do. And we shall have to come to some arrangement by which we may take along with us the minorities in matters of general interest`` (Crusader for Self-Rule; Rima Hooja; Rawat Publishers; page 280). This is precisely what Jinnah came to hold and for the same reason - the Congress` refusal to share power.
He had received short shrift from Gandhi and the British at the Round table Conference in London and decided in desperation to settle down there. Returning to India, he arrived at a pact with Rajendra Prasad in 1934, in which he abandoned separate electorates. In the light of 1928, he insisted that the Congress secure the Mahasabha`s assent as well (for the text vide Marguerite Dove`s Forfeited Future; page 462). Nehru, however, went so far as to assert: ``There are only two parties in the county, the Congress and the government.`` Jinnah retorted: ``There is a third party in the country and that is the Muslims.`` If in 1928 Jayakar questioned Jinnah`s credentials as a representative, in 1937 Nehru did likewise: ``May I suggest to Mr. Jinnah that I come into greater touch with the Muslim masses than most of the members of the League.`` The Congress, at one remove Nehru himself, represented everybody and would lay down the terms for the future.
Jinnah accepted the challenge and built up through mass politics a representative capacity that stunned all. Nothing in his past should have surprised any. Men like Mohammed Iqbal and Maulana Mohammed Ali had come to regard him as the ``only`` Muslim leader. At the League`s session in October 1937, Jinnah pleaded: ``Let the Congress first bring all principal communities in the country and all principal classes of interest under its leadership.`` He had in mind, not merger, but ``a pact``, a concept he had ``always believed in``. But Nehru had no use for ``pacts`` between ``handfuls of upper-class people``. Jinnah, in his view, represented them alone. There really was no ``minority problem``. The people were concerned with bread and butter. Economic issues alone mattered.
Jinnah laid bare his heart in a much neglected speech at Aligarh in February 1938 in which he recalled the past: ``At that time there was no pride in me and I used to beg from the Congress.`` The first ``shock`` came at the RTC; the next, in 1937. ``The Musalmans were like the No Man`s land. They were led by either the flunkeys of the British government or the camp-followers of the Congress... . The only hope for minorities is to organise themselves and secure a definite share in power to safeguard their rights and interests.``
He had said in October 1937 that ``all safeguards and settlements would be a scrap of paper unless they were backed up by power``. In Britain the parties alternate in holding power. ``But such is not the case in India. Here we have a permanent Hindu majority... .``
This is where Jinnah`s recipe went disastrously wrong. The solution lay, not in aggravating the communal divide by his two-nation theory; but in the tactics of the Jinnah of old - mobilise both communities, espouse secular values and seek protection for the rights of all minorities as Dr. B.R. Ambedkar had urged him to do.
Jinnah refashioned the League and made it a progressive body. He told the students at the AMU: ``What the League has done is to set you free from the reactionary elements of Muslims and to create the opinion that those who play their selfish game are traitors. It has certainly freed you from that undesirable element of Maulvis and Maulanas. I am not speaking of Maulvis as a whole class. There are some of them who are as patriotic and sincere as any other but there is a section of them which is undesirable. Having freed ourselves from the clutches of the British government, the Congress, the reactionaries and so-called Maulvis, may I appeal to the youth to emancipate our women.`` Later he delivered ``a warning to the landlords and capitalists who have flourished at our expense`` (J. Ahmad; Vol. I; pages 39, 43 and 507).
What was his alternative, the Viceroy asked Jinnah. He replied on October 5, 1939, that ``an escape from the impasse ... lay in the adoption of Partition``. His article in Time and Tide of London on January 19, 1940, spoke of ``two nations who must both share in the governance of their common motherland... so that the present enmities may cease and India may take its part amongst the great nations of the world`` - as one nation. An identical contradiction was made in his speech of August 11, 1947: ``a nation of 400 million``. The Pakistan Resolution of March 23, 1940, did not refer to the two-nation theory that Jinnah now began to advocate with greater stridency. It envisaged in the last paragraph an interim centre prior to partition, which Ambedkar alone noted. Even 24 hours before its adoption, the draft provided for a limited centre (vide the writer`s article, ``The Partition of India``; Frontline; January 4, 2002).
In a real sense our leaders were a profoundly ignorant and arrogant lot. They failed the crucial test which Edmund Burke propounded in his Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents written in 1770. He held that ``the temper of the people amongst whom he presides ought to be the first duty of a Statesman. And the knowledge of this temper it is by no means impossible for him to attain, if he has not an interest in being ignorant of what it is his duty to learn``.
It is not any ``interest`` alone which prevents self-education. So does Hubris. Jinnah, Gandhi and Nehru were men of colossal pride and vanity beyond the ordinary. Jinnah should have known that besides the inherent falsity of the poisonous concept, a nationalism based on religion degenerates into violent sectarianism. Gandhi acting as ``the supreme leader`` never seriously strove for conciliation in a plural society. Nehru denied the validity of the concept itself. Both spurned Jinnah. He painted himself into a corner from which he did not know how to escape.
We know in retrospect how and why things went wrong. Jinnah did not devise a formula for power-sharing in a united India. The Congress was adamant against sharing power with him. Nehru forgot the lessons of 1914 when socialists expected the workers to rise against their governments when they went to war. The workers turned out to be more chauvinistic than the ``upper classes``. So it was with communal feeling in a deeply religious society which Nehru least understood. Neither did Jinnah. He espoused the two-nation theory. While its consequences affect India, it holds his own state hostage.
We now find the problem of a ``permanent majority`` in all plural societies in Europe, Asia and Africa. On December 20, 1986, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam`s spokesman in Madras (now Chennai) said ``two nations... coexist in one country``. The LTTE does not propound sincerely a ``viable alternative to Eelam``, though.
Arend Lijphart`s seminal work, Democracy in Plural Societies, published in 1982, propounded the concept of ``consociational democracy``. This would have been unthinkable to the Congress. It implied a national pact on power sharing. Safeguards are not enough. Empowerment is crucial.
From 1906 to 1936, the basis for discourse on the minority problem in India was a pact on safeguards for the minorities. What Jinnah said at the RTC in London on September 5, 1931, was conventional wisdom then: ``The new Constitution should provide for reasonable guarantees to Muslims and if they are not provided, the new Constitution is sure to break down.`` Jawaharlal Nehru had no patience with anything that preceded his arrival on the scene of Indian politics. In a letter to Gandhi on September 11, 1931, he branded Jinnah`s proposition as ``narrow communalism``.
Nehru`s was a nationalism that denied the very fundamentals of Indian society, so far removed was he from the realities. Even Jinnah`s moderation in 1931 was of no avail against Nehru`s obdurate refusal to recognise that minorities were entitled to some rights. Nehru`s was an absolutist secularism garnished with a socialism that he could only dimly perceive. A colossal intellectual failure all round produced a tragedy of cataclysmic proportions. Tragedy, it has been said, lies not so much in the conflict between good and evil as between one good force and another.
Like Nehru, Jinnah also shattered the established basis of discourse. Nehru did so on the minorities` rights, Jinnah on India`s unity; Nehru in arrogant ignorance, Jinnah in arrogant reliance on his tactical skills. Jinnah`s greatness lay in the pre-1940 record when he was a tireless conciliator, a real statesman. Both men were secularists. Therein lies the tragedy. Nehru harmed secularism by denying the legitimacy of minority rights. Jinnah ruined it by the two-nation theory.
The leaders drifted apart not only politically but also in personal estrangement. After 1937, Jinnah`s rhetoric became abusive. Gandhi did not spare comments of a personal nature, either.
In the aftermath of Partition, rhetoric on both sides, Indian and Pakistani, verged on abuse. Pakistanis questioned Nehru`s sincerity as a secularist. On the Indian side, a portrait of Jinnah came to be painted of a man rude, arrogant and bereft of humanity. Sarojini Naidu`s was a portrait of a man of deep sensitivity and refinement: ``a naive and eager humanity, an intuition quick and tender as a woman`s, a humour gay and winning as a child`s``.
Unlike Chagla, Jinnah`s other junior, Yusuf Meheralli, went to prison and courageously argued back with him. But he never denigrated Jinnah. He told an American reporter: ``After half an hour`s conversation with Jinnah one returns a devotee.`` Men as diverse as V.P. Menon, Frank Moraes, P.B. Gajendragadkar, A.S.R. Chari, Mohammed Yunus and M.O. Mathai have testified to Jinnah`s warmth and impeccable good manners. He would argue patiently with the young.
The great short-story writer Sadat Hasan Manto interviewed Jinnah`s chauffeur and wrote an essay, ``Mera Saheb`` (My Boss), which was published in a collection called Ganje Farishte (Bald Angels). An English translation was published in the Illustrated Weekly of India of February 10, 1985, by Mr. Ghazeli (a pen name, of course). It reveals a man intensely human and in pain. Whenever memories of his dead wife and estranged daughter possessed him, their clothes would be spread out on the carpet for a while. He would then walk to his bedroom, wiping tears. Memoirs of his ADC Ata Rabhani, I was the Quaid`s ADC (Oxford University Press; 1996) reveal a clubbable gentleman.
But the caricature of ``whiskey, pork and Savile Row suit`` came to stay. No one mentioned two respected Congress presidents who were devotees of Bachus. One, a man of religion, was a notorious alcoholic; the other, a lawyer, was a notorious addict. In a state of inebriation he once kicked a bucket containing food; the guests fled. Jinnah`s neighbour in New Delhi, Sir Sobha Singh, recalled that he always drank in strict moderation.
Remember, Jinnah was eagerly sought after to sit on committees. A good committee man must be a good listener with a talent for compromise. No one cares to ask why it was that while Jinnah got along famously with Tilak, Malaviya and Lajpat Rai, he had problems with Gandhi. ``Lalaji had generally not much difficulty in working with M.A. Jinnah.`` They would walk into each other`s room with ease ``sometimes several times in the course of the same day... and go together to Malaviyaji to continue the discussion`` (Lajpat Rai by Feroz Chand; Publications Division; page 499).
That people were surprised when Jinnah`s stout defence of Bhagat Singh in the Assembly was brought to light recently shows how little he was understood. ``The man who goes on a hunger strike has a soul. He is moved by that soul`` and was prepared to die for the cause, Jinnah thundered. Few had as good a record on civil liberties. ``I thoroughly endorse the principle, that while this measure should aim at those undesirable persons who indulge in wanton vilification or attack upon the religion of any particular class or upon the founders and prophets of a religion, we must also secure this very important and fundamental principle that those who are engaged in historical works, those who are engaged in bonafide and honest criticisms of a religion shall be protected`` (CW, Vol. III, page 208). (Vide the writer`s essay ``Jinnah`s commitment to liberalism``; Economic and Political Weekly; January 13, 1990.)
Yet, it is doubtful if, in the entire history of India`s struggle for freedom, anyone else has been subjected to such a sustained, determined denigration and demonisation as Jinnah has been from 1940 to this day, by almost everyone - from the leaders at the very top to academics and journalists. In his Autobiography Nehru maliciously caricatured him as one who distrusted, if not disliked, the masses and attributed to him a suggestion, he ``once privately`` made, that ``only matriculates should be taken into the Congress``. No authority for this palpable falsehood is cited. Jinnah was not one to make such a remark privately which went against his entire outlook. Nehru wrote thus in 1936. Nearly two decades earlier Jinnah`s strong assertion to the contrary was made publicly and in London on August 13, 1919, in his evidence before the Joint Select Committee of Parliament on the Government of India Bill.
The Secretary of State for India Edwin Montagu was downright rude: ``Question 3633: How long have you been in public life Mr. Jinnah? - (Answer) Since I was twenty-one (i.e. 1897). 3634: Have you ever known any proposal come from any government which met with your approval? - Oh, Yes... 3636: You must have felt very uncomfortable?... ``
Major Ormsby ``Q 3810: You speak really as an Indian Nationalist? - I do.`` Lord Islington asked: ``Q 3884: You would say that there are people in India who though they may be not literate, have a sufficient interest in the welfare of the country to entitle them to a vote? - I think so, and I think they have a great deal of common sense... . I was astonished when I attended a meeting of mill hands in Bombay when I heard some of the speeches, and most of them were illiterates.`` Could such a man have made the suggestion Nehru attributed to him in 1936? Not surprisingly, in 1937 Jinnah converted the League into a mass organisation, pledged to complete independence.
Interestingly, the next day Jinnah took his wife Ruttie to the theatre. He had as a student performed in plays and even toyed with the idea of becoming an actor. When they returned home, a little after midnight Ruttie gave birth to their daughter Dina. It was on August 14-15, 1919, a devoted friend of both recorded (Ruttie Jinnah: The Story of a Great Friendship; Kanji Dwarkadas; page 18).
Addressing the League in 1924, Jinnah proudly noted that ``the ordinary man in the street has found his political consciousness``. He mentioned ``Mahatma Gandhi`` and threatened that if the British did not respond Indians should ``as a last resort make the government by legislature impossible`` and resort to ``parliamentary obstruction and constitutional deadlocks``. This was the language of a Congressman, not liberals like Sapru.
Most of Jinnah`s friends were non-Muslim and they remembered him affectionately. Kanji Dwarkadas` two volumes of memoirs, India`s Fight for Freedom and Ten Years to Freedom, are well documented. K.M. Munshi said ``Jinnah warned Gandhiji not to encourage the fanaticism of Muslim religious leaders`` in the Khilafat movement. He wrote in his Pilgrimage to Freedom (1968): ``When Gandhiji forced Jinnah and his followers out of the Home Rule League and later the Congress, we all felt, with Jinnah that a movement of an unconstitutional nature, sponsored by Gandhiji with the tremendous influence he had acquired over the masses, would inevitably result in widespread violence, barring the progressive development of self-governing institutions based on a partnership between educated Hindus and Muslims. To generate coercive power in the masses would only provoke mass conflict between the two communities, as in fact it did. With his keen sense of realities Jinnah firmly set his face against any dialogue with Gandhiji on this point.``
Even so Jinnah did not part company with him. Three other episodes followed - the Nehru Report, the RTC in London, and the Congress` arrogance of power (1937-39). He appealed to Gandhi in 1937, through B.G. Kher, to tackle the situation. Jinnah drew a blank.
Belatedly, on December 6, 1945, Gandhi confided to the Governor of Bengal, R.G. Casey: ``Jinnah had told him that he (Gandhi) had ruined politics in India by dragging up a lot of unwholesome elements in Indian life and giving them political prominence, that it was a crime to mix up politics and religion the way he had done.``
In 1936, even as he set out mobilising Muslim support, Jinnah refused to exploit the Shahidganj Mosque issue in Lahore and doused the fires. Jinnah was no Advani (vide the author`s article ``Ayodhya in reverse``; Frontline, February 16, 2000). The Governor of Punjab wrote: ``I am greatly indebted to the efforts of Mr. Jinnah for this improvement and I wish to pay an unqualified tribute to the work he has done and is doing.``
Pothan Joseph was handpicked by Jinnah to be Editor of the League`s organ Dawn. He recalled that ``there was no trace of pressure or censure and he was anxious to test his views by inviting criticism in the seclusion of his drawing room... the notion of his having been a common bully in argument is fantastic, for the man was a great listener... he was really a man with a heart, but determined never to be duped or see friends let down. He didn`t care a hang about being misrepresented as Mir Jaffer or Judas Iscariot. No one could buy him nor would he allow himself to be betrayed by a kiss.``
Amazingly, Jinnah`s superb record as an MP remains yet to be studied - as a member of the Central Legislative Assembly he spoke on a variety of subjects; the Motor Vehicles and the Post Office Acts included. On March 10, 1930, he denounced the restrictive orders imposed on Vallabhbhai Patel and on January 22, 1935, the detention of Sarat Bose. He emulated the combative style of British MPs. The British, arrogant as ever, resented it. Indians, thin-skinned, took it personally.
Dewan Chaman Lall, a close friend for 30 years and a noted Congress MP, recalled Jinnah`s efforts for settlement before and after 1940 and said in 1950: ``He was a lovable, unsophisticated man, whatever may be said to the contrary. And he was unpurchasable.``
Sarojini Naidu did not change her opinion of the man even after he began to advocate partition. She described him at a press conference in Madras on January 18, 1945, as the one incorruptible man in the whole of India. ``I may not agree with him, but if there is one who cannot be bought by title, honour or position, it is Mr. Mohammed Ali Jinnah.`` Predictably Nehru was ``upset`` by her ``excessively foolish speech`` (SWJN: First Series; Vol. 13, page 546).
Surely, any decent biography, any honest appraisal must reckon with the entire record. No serious effort has been made to explain the change. Why did a man who wrote on March 17, 1938, that ``it is the duty of every true nationalist, to whichever party or community he may belong, to help achieve a united front`` against the British advocate the partition of India on March 23, 1940? Why, indeed?
The reason is not hard to seek. Jinnah was an Indian nationalist who did not believe that nationalism meant turning one`s back on the rights of one`s community. The Congress stipulated that, virtually. Its shabby record on Muslims in the Congress bears recalling; some day Jinnah lost his balance, abandoned Indian nationalism and inflicted on both his nation and his community harm of lasting consequences. Nehru, in contrast, stood by the secular ideal till his dying day.


In a moment of relaxation.
Pakistanis, on the other hand, wilfully shut their eyes to Jinnah`s grave mistakes and canonise him. They overlook the damage inflicted on Pakistan itself, let alone the Muslims of India.
Jinnah`s record from 1906 to 1940 does not obliterate the record of 1940-48 any more than Nehru`s brave fight, against all odds, for secularism in India or Gandhi`s conscious choice of martyrdom alters the record prior to 1947. Gandhi knew his life was in peril, but did not compromise and did not flinch one bit.
The record prior to 1940 only deepens the tragedy that befell Jinnah, and because of him, the India he loved and the community whose interests he sought to advance. Responsibility for the partition was not his exclusively; but his share was enormous.
The League`s Resolution of March 23, 1940, brought partition into the realm of the possible. The collapse of the Cabinet Mission`s Plan of May 16, 1946, for a united India dragged it into the abyss of inevitability. For this, Jinnah was not a bit responsible. That phase deserves a closer study than it has received.
Indians and Pakistanis must come to terms with Jinnah`s record in its entirety. He was of a heroic mould but fell prey to bitterness and the poison that bitterness breeds. In the present age, some will be talking of his virtues; others of his failings alone. Posterity alone will do him justice.
Some day, the verdict of history on Jinnah will be written definitively. When it is written, that verdict will be in the terms Gibbon used for Belisarius: ``His imperfections flowed from the contagion of the times; his virtues were his own, the free gift of nature or reflection. He raised himself without a master or a rival and so inadequate were the arms committed to his hand, that his sole advantage was derived from the pride and presumption of his adversaries`` (The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire; The Modern Library; Vol. II, page 240).