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On December 25th 1876 at the Wazir Mansion in Karachi, the family of Jinnahbhai Poonja gave birth to who was to become one of the greatest leaders that ever lived.It was none other than 'Muhammad Ali Jinnah' who later went on to become better known as Quaid-e-Azam(Great Leader) and Baba-e-Qoum(Father of the Nation).Muhammad Ali Jinnah was the eldest of the seven children born to Mithibai and Jinnahbhai poonja. His father, Jinnahbhai (1857-1901), was a prosperous Gujarati merchant who had moved to Sindh from Kathiawar, Gujrat before Jinnah's birth. Muhammad Ali Jinnah's family belonged to the Ismaili Khoja branch of Shi'a Islam, though Muhammad Ali Jinnah later converted to Twelver Shi'a Islam.
The first born Jinnah was soon joined by six siblings, brothers, Ahmad Ali, Bunde Ali, and Rahmat Ali and sisters Maryam,Fatima and Shireen. Their mother tongue was Gujarati, however, in time they also came to speak Kutchi, Sindhi and English.Muhammad Ali Jinnah was a very bright and a restless student. After initially being taught at home, Jinnah was sent to the Sindh Madrassah tul Islam in Karachi later he spent a brief time studying at the Gokal Das Tej Primary School in Bombay; and finally at the Christian Missionary Society High School in Karachi, where at the age of sixteen, he passed the matriculation examination of the University of Bombay.
On the advice of an English friend, his father Jinnahbhai Poonja decided to send him to England to aquire business experience. In 1892, Jinnah was offered an apprenticeship at the London office of Graham's Shipping and Trading Company, a business that had extensive dealings with Jinnahbhai Poonja's firm in Karachi. When Jinnah was all set to leave for England, his mother urged that he marry his distant cousin Emibai Jinnah, who was two years his junior. While in London Jinnah suffered two bereavements, his newly wedded-wife died a few months after marriage and later his mother too passed away.
In London, Jinnah soon left his apprenticeship at Graham's Shipping and Trading Company and joined Lincoln's Inn to study Law instead. During his 3 years at Lincoln's Inn he made a study of the british political system and used to make frequent visits to the House of Commons and at age 19, Jinnah became the youngest South Asian to be called to the bar in England.
During his student years in England, Jinnah's education gave him the exposure of the idea of democracy and political progression. He admired and was influenced by british liberal statesmen William E. Gladstone and John Morley. William E Gladstone had become the prime minister for the fourth time in 1892, the year when Jinnah arrived in London.
He used to take keen interest in the affairs of India and in Indian students. An admirer of the Indian nationalists Dadabhai Naoroji and Sir Pherozeshah Mehta. When the Parsi leader Dadabhai Naoroji, ran for the English Parliament, Jinnah joined with other Indian students, and ran a successful campaign for who became the first Indian to hold a seat in the British Parliament.
As an important intellectual and a political authority Jinnah's idea for a nation-state was largely based on self-governance backed by western democratic principles and secular practices which proved to be an obstacle due to the heterogeneous Indian society, that proved to be difficult to reconcile during his later political career.
The Western world and England in particular, inspired Jinnah's political and influenced his personal preferences, especially when it came to dressing. He would be dressed in Western style clothing and kept updated with the new trends in Fashion. It is said that he owned over 200 hand-stitched suits and never wore the same silk twice.
Jinnah came under considerable pressure when his father's business was in ruins and he returned back to Karachi in 1896. When his fathers business was in shambles and there was no income Jinnah decided to practice law. He left Karachi for Bombay and began his legal career in Bombay High Court on August 24,1896, he was then just 20 years old. When Jinnah arrived in Bombay, cities like Bombay, Pune and Ahmedabad were reeling under diseases like the bubonic plague. Since Jinnah was obsessed with extreme personal cleanliness and hygiene, he would wash his hands as if impulsively many times a day. The first three years of his law practice were of extreme hardships until the year 1900 that bought good fortune for the young distressed barrister.
In 1906 Jinnah entered politics by participating in the 1906 Calcutta session when he was made the Secretary of Dadabhai Naoroji in the annual session of the All India Congress, the party that called for dominion status and later for independence for India. Four years later he was elected to the Imperial Legislative Council and thus beginning of a long and distinguished parliamentary career. In Bombay he came to know, among other important Congress personalities, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, the eminent Maratha leader. Greatly influenced by these nationalist politicians, Jinnah aspired during the early part of his political life to become "a Muslim Gokhale". Jinnah's endeavours to bring about the political union of Hindus and Muslims earned him the title of "the best ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity," His strong belief in gradual and peaceful change was in contrast to the civil disobedience movement led by Gandhi.
By the beginning of the 20th century, the conviction of reality had been growing among the Muslims that their interests demanded the preservation of their separate identity rather than consolidating in the Indian nation that would for all practical purposes be Hindu. In order to safeguard Muslim interests, the All-India Muslim League was formed in 1906. But Jinnah remained in distance from it. Only in 1913, when authoritatively assured that the league was as devoted as the Congress to the political emancipation of India, did Jinnah join the league. When the Indian Home Rule League was formed, he became its chief organiser in Bombay and was elected president of the Bombay branch.
Thanks to Jinnah's efforts the Congress and the Muslims League began to hold their annual sessions jointly, to consult mutual consultation and participation. In 1915 the two organizations held their meetings together in Bombay and in 1916 in Lucknow. This meeting settled the details of an agreement about the composition of the legislatures and the quantum of representation to be allowed to the two communities. The agreement was confirmed by the annual sessions of the Congress and the League in their annual session held at Lucknow on December 29 and December 31, 1916 respectively, where the Lucknow Pact was concluded.
Meanwhile, a new force in Indian politics by the name of Mohandas K. Gandhi had appeared and both the Home Rule League and the Indian National Congress had come under his sway. Jinnah was against Gandhi's style of politics. He was against his Non-co-operation civil disobedience Movement and his essentially Hindu Nationalist approach to politics. Eventually Jinnah left both the League and the Congress and kept himself at a distance from the main political movements for a few years. He continued to be a believer of Hindu-Muslim unity and constitutional methods based on logic and understanding in order to achieve a political resolution.After his withdrawal from Congress, he used the Muslim league platform to promote his views but during the 1920s came the downfall of the Muslims League and withit Jinnah, had been overshadowed by the Congress and the religiously oriented the Muslim Khilafat committee.
With the failure of Gandhi's Non-co-operation movement and the emergence of Hindu Nationalist movements led to hostility between the Hindus and Muslims. Jinnah's problems arose during the following years was when he wanted to convert the league into an enlightened political body where all those belonging to different religions, ethnicities, races, and organizations would come together and work foward towards the good of India. In addition he had to convince the Congress, as a prerequisite for political progress of the importance of settling the Hindu-Muslim conflict that was growing with time.
Jinnah's personal life and especially his marriage suffered during this period due to his political work. Although they worked to save their marriage by travelling together to Europe when he was appointed to the Sandhurst committee, the couple separated in 1927. Jinnah was deeply saddened when Rattanbai died in 1929, after a serious illness.
Throughout the late 20s and early 30s Jinnah worked to bring about a reconciliation between all sides of the divide. He worked towards it within the legislative assembly, at the Round Table Conferences in London between 1930-1932. At the Round Table Conferences in London the talks had failed, Jinnah was disillusioned by the breakdown of talks and returned to London for a few years where he practiced Law.
Jinnah was still thinking of a coalition between the Muslim League and the Hindu Congress and with the provincial coalition governments aswell. Preparations started for the elections under the Government of India Act 1935 . In 1936, Jinnah returned to India to re-organize Muslim league and to contest the elections held under the provisions of the act of 1935. In the 1937 elections the league emerged as a competent party, capturing a signifant number of seats under the Muslim electorate But lost in the Muslim-majority provinces Punjab, Sindh and the NWFP. The Congress won an absolute majority in five of the eleven provinces and was able to form governments in 8 provinces. Jinnah offered an alliance with the Congress so that both parties would face the British together but the Congress had to share power, accept separate electorates and the league as the
representative of India's Muslims. The Congress decided not to include the league in the formation of provincial governments and make exclusive all-Congress governments.
Following the failure to work with the Congress, Jinnah was convinced that Muslims and Hindus were distinct nations, with unbridgeable differences; a view that later came to be known as the "Two Nation Theory". Jinnah was adamant a United India with a Hindu majority would lead to the marginalization of Muslims, and eventually civil war between Hindus and Muslims.
The Pakistan resolution was carried out in the Lahore session in 1940 as the main goal of the party. The Congress was quick to reject the resolution and so were other prominent leaders like Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, Syed Ab'ul Ala Maududi and the Jamaat-e-Islami. On July 26, 1943 an assassination attempt was made on Jinnah by the member of the extremist Khaksars.
In the 1946 elections, the Congress won most of the elected seats overall while the Muslim League won a large majority of Muslim electorate seats. After the elections in 1946 the British Cabinet Mission to India released 2 different plans. The first called for a united Indian state comprising considerably autonomous provinces and to form more provinces on the basis
of religion. A second plan called for the separation of South Asia along religious lines, giving option to the princelystates to choose between accession to the country of their choice or Independence. The Congress rejected and criticised both plans whereas Jinnah gave the Muslim League's approval to both plans. Congress knew that power would only go to the party that had supported a plan.After much debate the Congress accepted the May 16 plan. Jinnah accused the British negotiators of treachery and withdrew the Muslim league's approval of both plans and boycotted the assembly leaving the Congress in charge of the government but denying it any real legitimacy in the eyes of Muslims.
Jinnah issued a call for all Muslims to launch "Direct Action Day" on August 16th to achieve Pakistan. Interim Government portfolios were accounted and Muslims Leaguers were sworn in on Oct 26, 1946 and the League entered the interim Government but Jinnah refrained from accepting office.
Muhammed Ali Jinnah was victorious as the league entered government despite having rejected both plans and was allowed to appoint an equal number of ministers despite being the minority party. The coalition did not work and there was a rising feeling within the Congress that in order to avoid political chaos and possible civil war, the independence of Pakistan was the only way out. Thus, the Congress agreed to the division of India on religious lines in late 1946. The Indian civil servant V.P Menon proposed a plan that would create a Muslim dominion in West Punjab, East Bengal, Balochistan and Sindh. The North-West frontier Province voted to join Pakistan in a referendum in July 1947.
The Quaid said at that moment that "No power on earth can prevent Pakistan". This bold step of the Quaid compelled the British rulers to accept the Muslim demand and thus Pakistan emerged as an independent and a sovereign state on August 14th 1947. Quaid-e-Azam Muhammed Ali Jinnah became the first head of state. He took oath as the first governor general on August 15th 1947.Throughout the 40s Jinnah suffered from tuberculosis. In 1948, his health began to deteriorate, hindered furthur by the intense workload of taking charge of the affairs of the newly founded state following the independence of Pakistan. He died on 11th September, 1948 in Karachi.
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