Mohammad Ali Jinnah ( 1876-1948 )

 Mohammad Ali Jinnah (1876-1948)

By Justice Markandey Katju 

Jinnah was earlier secular and a nationalist, He was known as an ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity in 1915-20. He was a member of both Congress and the Muslim League, and was the main architect of the Lucknow Pact of 1916 between the two parties. He regarded his membership of the Muslim League as secondary to the greater cause of winning India's freedom.

He was initially opposed to separate electorates for Hindus and Muslims, saying it was dividing the country. He was also opposed to the Khilafat Movement supported by Gandhi, saying it promoted religious zealotry.

But he was shocked when he saw Gandhi using religion to get mass support for the Congress e.g. by his talk of Ramrajya, opposition to cow slaughter, etc ( till about 1915, when Gandhi came to India from South Africa, Congress was only a party of intellectuals ). Jinnah strongly objected to this injecting religion into politics, but he was hooted out in the Congress Nagpur session of 1920. Feeling humiliated, Jinnah resigned from the Congress, left India, and started law practice in England.

Later, Jinnah realised that the way to success in Indian politics was to turn communal. He returned to India and started vehemently advocating the bogus two nation theory ( that Hindus and Muslims are two separate nations ), and he was principally responsible for the Lahore Resolution of 1940 Pakistan as a separate homeland for Indian Muslims .