Jinnah and the Muslim identity

Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah was one of the most eminent leaders of his time. His visionary leadership transformed the Muslim community of the sub-continent into a nation rooted in their religio-cultural historical identity and a shared perspective on their future against the backdrop of the political experience gained during the British rule. He guided the Muslims of the sub-continent in their search for identity and a secure future in the transformed political and economic environment of the 20th Century.
Quaid-i-Azam Jinnah was the product of modern education and British liberal traditions who maintained a strong attachment with the Indian Muslim cultural identity. He strongly believed in constitutionalism, the rule of law and honour and dignity of the people. Therefore, he was often critical of the policies of the British Indian government and viewed the British rule as an affront to human dignity.
A number of other leaders, including those belonging to the Congress, shared his liberal background and were critical of the British rule in India. Whereas the Congress leaders first struggled for humanisation of the British rule and then sought freedom from the British rule, Jinnah, who shared these goals, had an additional concern to deal with. He wanted to make sure that the Muslims were not overwhelmed by the Congress emphasis on majority rule and their socio cultural identity and rights and interests were adequately protected in the post-British India.
Jinnah's main goal was the protection and advancement of the Muslim identity, rights and interests. He was firmly committed to this goal but he changed his strategies to achieve this goal over time. Initially, Jinnah worked towards promoting Hindu-Muslim harmony and co-operation. His support to Hindu-Muslim unity was contingent on provision of safeguards and constitutional guarantees for the protection of Muslim rights and interests.
He believed that adequate constitutional and legal guarantees could secure the Muslim identity, rights and interests. He also advocated the introduction of federal system with autonomy to provinces.
These two inter-related demands, ie constitutional and legal safeguards and federal system with provincial autonomy, were projected as pre-requisites for the Muslim acceptance of any constitutional system for the future of India.
However, the sufferings of the Muslims under the Congress provincial governments in the non-Muslim majority provinces in the first run of provincial autonomy during 1937-39 led Jinnah and the Muslim League to rethink their position on the federal solution to the Hindu-Muslim question.
Jinnah's role in the freedom struggle can be divided into three major phases representing three major strategies: 1906-1920, 1920-1934, and 1934-47. The first phase covers the initial years of his political career. He began his active political life in the Congress, attending its annual session in Bombay for the first time in December 1904.
Two years later, he joined the organisation. By that time he had established a flourishing legal career in that city, and within a couple of years he carved out an important space for himself in the political domain.
Jinnah was elected to the Imperial Legislative Council from Bombay in late 1909 and took his seat in January 1910. He made his first formal speech in the Legislative Council in February 1910 on a resolution recommending to the Indian government to prohibit recruitment of Indian labour for employment in South Africa.
In March 1911, he introduced his first legislative measure entitled "Musalman Wakf (Validating) Bill", which on its passage became the first non-officially sponsored law since the implementation of the Indian Councils Act, 1909. He joined the Muslim League in October 1913 but retained his Congress membership until 1920.
He emerged as an ardent advocate of Hindu-Muslim unity and worked hard to bring the Muslim League and the Congress Party together on a shared political agenda. The agreement between the Congress and the Muslim League on the constitutional and political reforms at Lucknow in October 1916, popularly known as the Lucknow Pact, was the concrete manifestation of his efforts to bring the two communities on a shared political platform.
The constitutional formula described as the Lucknow Pact, incorporated guarantees for the Muslim rights and interests. For example, the Congress accepted the Muslim League demand for a separate electorate for the Muslims.
He was re-elected to the Legislative Council but he resigned its membership soon after the passage of the Rowlatt Bill in March 1919.
This new law gave a free hand to the British Indian government to suppress political agitation. In his letter of resignation to Viceroy Lord Chelmsford, Jinnah wrote: "In my opinion, the government that passes or sanctions such a law in times of peace forfeits its claim to be called a civilised Government." Jinnah stayed away from the Khilafat Movement and refused to join the Gandhi-led non-co-operation agitation which he launched in 1920. He quit the Congress in the same year, although he maintained personal contacts with the Congress leaders.
During the second phase of his career (1920-34), Jinnah devoted himself completely to the protection and advancement of the rights of the Muslims in the context of the fast changing political conditions in the post World War I period. He returned to the Legislative Council in 1923 to avail of the opportunity to project the demands of the Indians in general and the Muslims in particular.
He advocated a speedier Indianization of the commissioned ranks of the Indian Army and served as a member of the committee set up by the British government in March 1925 to suggest measures to speed up the Indianization of the commissioned ranks of the Indian Army and to explore the possibilities of setting up an Army training college in India for commissioning officers. Such a college was set up in Dehra Dun in December 1932.
Quaid-i-Azam Jinnah was shocked by the constitutional proposals of the Motilal Nehru Report (1928), which negated the political and constitutional arrangements agreed to between the Muslim League and the Congress at Lucknow in 1916. He suggested four amendments in the Nehru Report in December 1928 to make it acceptable to the Muslim League. The Congress leadership rejected the proposed amendments and emphasised the primacy of majority rule in the future political order, ignoring the concerns of the Muslims.
In March 1929, Jinnah delivered his famous address to the Muslim League, popularly known as Jinnah's Fourteen Points, as the charter of the demands of the Muslims for any constitutional and political framework for India. It was a rejoinder to the Nehru Report and a manifestation of Jinnah's efforts to secure safeguards and guarantees for the identity, rights and interests of the Muslim in British India. He repeated these demands on several occasions during 1929-34.
The third phase began with his assumption of the Muslim League leadership after returning from England in 1934. He spent the next couple of years in promoting internal harmony in the Muslim League and building its organisation. It was during 1937-47 that he lost the hope of political accommodation with the majority community because its leadership was not willing to accommodate the concerns of the Muslims.
The demand for a separate homeland for the Muslims, as presented in the Lahore session of the Muslim League in March 1940, was a turning point in their political disposition and aspirations.
Jinnah's address to the Muslim League session offered a forceful exposition of the demand for a separate homeland. Jinnah was at his best during this phase in demonstrating his leadership skills and capacity for popular mobilisation. He overcame the opposition of the British, the Congress Party, and a section of the Muslims who opposed the demand for a separate and independent homeland.
Jinnah showed flexibility in his strategies when the Muslim League accepted the Cabinet Mission Plan (1946) which envisioned a loose federation with an option to the federating units to review their mutual relations, including an option to walk out of the federation, after ten years. The Congress rejected it and continued with its non-flexible policy towards the demands of the Muslims as presented by the Muslim League.
The sole objective of Jinnah's changing strategies was to evolve a constitutional and political framework for best protecting and advancing the Muslim identity, rights and interest in the sub-continent. He advocated the establishment of a separate state for the Muslims when the Congress refused to work with the Muslim League for evolving a mutually acceptable solution of the Hindu-Muslim question and adopted a narrow and unilateral approach.
(The writer is a political and defence consultant).