Division
of India
by JPN Trakru
My official tours took me to different parts of
India. During the course of my travel I met people from different walks of
life. On discussing the partition of India, I found majority of the people
held Nehru responsible for
division of India. Recently, I read a book titled ‘The Man Who Divided
India’ by Rafiq Zakaria. He
holds Jinnah wholly and solely responsible for the partition of India. I
have attempted to give a gist of the details as enumerated in his book in
chronological order.
Early years of Jinnah :
He did not have purely conventional Islamic background
and therefore had no religious acceptance among the generality of Muslims.
Jinnah could neither read the Quran nor did he say his prayers or fast
during Ramzan. He did not perform Haj either. He was a bright and smart
man having natural aptitude for law, which he studied in England. During
his two years stay in London he practiced the art of oratory and
specialized in cross examination. He loved to argue and score points.
Political Initiation :
Jinnah returned from England to Bombay where he
applied for a job as Presidency Magistrate and got a temporary
appointment. Subsequently he practiced law. He did not have any contact
with his parents except his younger sister Fatima who came to live with
him and served him as his companion for the rest of his life.
While
in Bombay he was drawn into
politics and came in contact with Dadabai Nauroji, and later with Sir
Ferozsha Mehta. He felt more comfortable with westernized Parsis than
orthodox Muslims. He found the Congress more to his liking and not only
attended but also took active interest in the deliberation of the 20th
Annual Session of the Congress held at Bombay in December 1904. He later
went to London as a Congress Member, with a delegation led by Gopal
Krishan Gokhale where they pleaded for a larger share in administration
for Indians. During this travel, he came in close contact with Gokhale who
found Jinnah a young progressive Muslim, free from any communal prejudice.
In his early days he was against the division of India favoured by
orthodox Muslims like Sir Sayyed Ahmed Khan. Jinnah stood solidly by the
agitating Hindu Bengalis during Hindu–Muslim agitations in 1906. Jinnah
refused to join the All India Muslim League founded in Dhaka as a counter
force to the Congress. By such actions, Jinnah became the darling of the
Congress leaders. In 1906, the Viceroy assured Muslim leaders of Dhaka of
a separate electorate. Jinnah strongly reacted against it,
fearing that the British policy of divide and rule would eventually
harm the Muslims and deprive them of participation in national life.
Jinnah collaborated with the Congress and actively worked against the
Muslim communists calling them as the enemies of the nation. He deprecated
the separatist policy advocated by the Muslim League.
However
despite the protest by the Congress, the British made a provision for
separate electorate for the Muslims in the Indian Council Act of 1909. At
the 25th session of the
Congress held at Allahabad in 1910, Jinnah moved a resolution condemning
provision of reserving separate seats for Muslims in municipalities and
other local bodies. He said it would sow the seeds of division between
Hindus and Muslims. Despite this resolution Jinnah did not hesitate to
take personal advantage of it and contested the election to the
Viceroy’s Executive Council from the reserve Muslim constituency of
Bombay and got elected. It was a turning point in his political carrier
but he pursued it cautiously. He cleverly managed the contradictions in
the two streams of communalism and nationalism. He also took care not to
antagonize the Hindus while working for Muslims.
The
generality of Muslims felt alienated from him after he refused to support
the Khilafat movement. But Gandhi supported it. Though isolated, Jinnah
did not give up his efforts to unite the Hindus and Muslims to obtain
constitutional reforms safe guarding the interests of the Muslims. The
worst blow that he suffered was the rejection of his amendment to the
Nehru Report of 1928. At first, the Hindus distrusted him but later even
the Muslims doubted his motives. Consequently he was so disheartened that
he decided to give up politics and retire in London. There too he made
futile efforts to find new political pastures by trying to enter the House
of Commons.
Jinnah
however could not rest content for long, his burning desire was to be in
the limelight and this drove him to regain his position. He came back to
India with a new determination. From an avowed nationalist, he became an
arch communalist. He took a aggressive anti-Hindu stand and concentrated
all his energies on mobilizing the Muslims. He made it his mission to
unite the Muslims and activate the morbid League. He became a born–again
Muslim, hoping to rise on the convenient shoulders of communalism. In the
process, he discarded Hindus but he could not easily mix with illiterate
Muslim masses. He felt comfortable only among the western educated elite.
Despite the arrogance in his approach, he managed to become the darling of
the Muslims. He exploited their religious leaning and inculcated in them
the fear of Hindu domination. He coined the two nation theory, stressing
on vital differences between the Hindus and
the Muslims. He convinced the Muslims that Hindus would never share
power with them. There sole objective, he told them was to oust the
British and establish Hindu raj and subjugate them, so as to avenge the
alleged atrocities committed by the medieval Muslim rulers.
His
approach was totally changed from that of his earlier days until the last
seven or eight years of his life. With this changed approach he made
himself politically vulnerable, the British now accepted him as the
authentic representative of the Muslims and eventually the Congress too
conceded that status to him, even if unwillingly. He felt truly elevated
when he was equated with Gandhi. He steadfastly pursued his objective to
partition the country. He used every political means and organizational
measures to counter his opponents and often had better of them. He did not
deviate from armchair politics and still managed to win over the Muslim
masses. He missed no opportunity to pour venom on the Congress and the
Hindus but always kept the British on his side. Within the League, he was
able to have complete sway. Jinnah’s weapon was not logic but debating
skills in which few could equal him. Also there are indeed few instances
in History were a leader had been able to achieve so much by doing so
little except through play of words. He once remarked that he got Pakistan
by using the services of his secretary and a typewriter.
It was purely a political move to fulfill his
obsessive ambition. He played his game so cleverly that he not only
amassed a huge following of the illiterate masses but also gathered around
him such lieutenants who obeyed him blindly. He silenced his opponents and
thus emerged as the unchallenged leader ‘The Quaid-I-Azam’ (the great
leader). Jinnah had no doubt
used Islam to obtain his Pakistan but as soon as it came into existence,
he clarified that he would run the newly born state on modern western
lines. He believed in concentrating all powers in his hands and made that
clear when he appointed himself as the Governor General of Pakistan. He
had vowed that he would provide Muslims a separate homeland to free them
from Hindu domination. But what has really happened is that they have been
permanently enslaved, two thirds of them to the Hindus and remaining one
third which constitutes Pakistan to power brokers and drug peddlers. A
noted Pakistani author Ahmed Rashid has pointed out Pakistan has become
the hotbed of the biggest smuggling racket in the world enmeshed with
Pakistani smugglers, transporters, drug barons’ bureaucrats, politicians
and army officers.
Source: Milchar
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