Jinnah, Allama Iqbal and Rahmat Ali
Muhammad Ali Jinnah (1876–1948)
Early life. Born in Karachi on 25 December 1876. He studied in London and qualified as a barrister (called to the bar in 1896). He built a successful legal career in Bombay.
Jinnah as an advocate of Hindu–Muslim unity
| Date | Role |
|---|---|
| 1906 | worked with the Congress (he was Dadabhai Naoroji's secretary) |
| 1910 | elected to the Imperial Legislative Council; spoke for the rights of Indians |
| 1913 | joined the Muslim League, without leaving Congress, in order to bring the two together |
| 1916 | the architect of the Lucknow Pact; earned the title "ambassador of Hindu–Muslim unity" |
| 1920 | left Congress over Gandhi's non-cooperation methods and the mixing of religion and politics |
| 1927–29 | the Delhi Proposals, response to the Nehru Report, the 14 Points |
| 1930–34 | in England (attended the Round Table Conferences, practised law) |
| 1934 | returned to India and reorganised the Muslim League, as its president |
| 1937–40 | rebuilt the League into a mass party after the 1937 election; the Lahore Resolution (1940) |
| 1940–47 | led the demand for Pakistan; negotiated with the British (Cripps, Wavell, Cabinet Mission, Mountbatten) |
| 1947 | first Governor-General of Pakistan |
His relations with Gandhi, Nehru and Congress
- Gandhi: Jinnah disliked the religious style of Gandhi's politics and his mass movements (the "Gandhian methods"). After 1920 they were opponents. In the 1944 talks at Bombay, they could not agree. Jinnah called Gandhi a Hindu leader who could not speak for Muslims.
- Nehru: the Nehru Report (1928) and Nehru's claim in 1937 that there were "only two parties in India, the Congress and the British" (Jinnah replied that there was a third party, the Muslims) led Jinnah to reject Congress as a partner. He later said that Congress was Hindu.
- Congress: after 1937 he argued that Congress had shown, in power, that Muslims could not expect fair treatment.
Qualities. Honest, determined, a constitutional politician who worked through law and negotiation, a skilled negotiator and speaker. Muslims called him Quaid-e-Azam ("the Great Leader"), and later Baba-e-Qaum (Father of the Nation). Importance: he turned the League into a mass party, achieved the League's success in 1945–46, and led the negotiations that ended in the creation of Pakistan.
Allama Muhammad Iqbal (1877–1938)
Early life. Born at Sialkot in 1877; studied in Lahore, Cambridge and Munich (PhD). He was a poet, philosopher and lawyer, and knighted in 1922. He wrote in Urdu and Persian (for example Bang-e-Dara, Asrar-e-Khudi) and the lectures "The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam" (1930).
His views on the Hindu–Muslim future.
- He believed that Islam was a complete way of life (religion, culture and politics) and that Muslims were a separate nation, not just a minority.
- At first (in his early poetry) he was a nationalist, but he became convinced after about 1905 (during his studies in Europe) that Muslims needed their own identity.
- He felt that in a united India with a Hindu majority Muslims would lose their religious and cultural identity.
- He wrote in 1930 and later that Muslims needed their own homeland, within the subcontinent.
The Allahabad Address (1930). As President of the Muslim League at Allahabad (29 December 1930), he stated that Islam was not just a private faith but a social order, and proposed that the Punjab, NWFP, Sindh and Balochistan be united in one state — "the final destiny of the Muslims, at least of North-West India". He saw this as within the Indian federation (or the British Empire).
His later role. In 1936–37 Iqbal wrote letters to Jinnah (who was then in England) persuading him to return and lead the Muslims and to take up the idea of a separate state. He died in April 1938 before Pakistan was demanded officially. He is known as Mufakkir-e-Pakistan (Thinker of Pakistan) and the Poet of the East.
Chaudhry Rahmat Ali (1897–1951)
Who he was. Born in Hoshiarpur in the Punjab; studied at Lahore and Cambridge (where he was a student when he wrote his pamphlet).
His views on a separate Muslim homeland.
- He wanted a completely separate and independent Muslim nation, outside an Indian federation.
- In "Now or Never: Are We to Live or Perish for Ever?" (28 January 1933), signed by himself and three other Cambridge students, he asked British and Indian Muslim leaders to recognise the five northern units (Punjab, Afghania, Kashmir, Sindh and Balochistan) as the nation of "PAKSTAN" — Pakistan. He also proposed other Muslim homelands (Bang-i-Islam in Bengal and Osmanistan in Hyderabad).
- He founded the Pakistan National Movement (1933), but he had little support in India at first.
Differences between his views and Iqbal's.
| Allama Iqbal | Rahmat Ali |
|---|---|
| a single Muslim state in the North-West, within an Indian federation | a fully independent state, with no link to India |
| the state to include four provinces | the state to include five units (including Kashmir) and other Muslim states elsewhere |
| worked inside the League and by ideas and poetry | formed his own movement, outside the League, and lived in England |
| had influence with the Muslim leaders and with Jinnah | ignored in India at first, and he disagreed with the Lahore Resolution and with Jinnah's plan for Pakistan |
After 1947. He was disappointed with the Pakistan that was created (he thought it was too small, a "truncated" Pakistan). He returned to England and died in 1951.
Assessment of their contributions
| Person | Main contribution |
|---|---|
| Iqbal | gave the idea: the philosopher who described the destiny of the Muslims and proposed a homeland |
| Rahmat Ali | gave the name: the first to put forward a separate nation called Pakistan |
| Jinnah | gave the leadership and organisation: turned the idea into a political reality |
Outline. Iqbal: the Allahabad Address (1930) and his letters to Jinnah. Rahmat Ali: the name and the first plan (1933), but little influence. Jinnah: leader who reorganised the League, led negotiations and gained the support of Muslims in 1945–46. Judgement: all three were important, but Jinnah was the most important, because without leadership the idea would not have become a state.