Muhammad Ali Jinnah, popularly called as Quaid-e-Azam, passionately believed in and diligently worked for unity of people — especially Hindu-Muslim unity — for three decades since his entry into politics in 1906.
Jinnah’s credential as a great unifier was epitomized by Gopal Krishna Gokhale (1866-1915), the foremost Hindu leader before Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948). Gokhale said of Jinnah, “He has true stuff in him and is free from all sectarian prejudices which will make him the best ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity.”
And, surely, he did become the architect of Hindu-Muslim unity. He was responsible for the Congress-Muslim League Pact of 1916. Thus, by 1917, Jinnah came to be recognized among both the Hindus and Muslims as one of India’s most outstanding political leaders.
The Hindu-Muslim unity reached its climax during the Khilafat and Non-Cooperation Movements. The Muslims of South Asia led by Ali brothers, Maulana Mohammad Ali and Maulana Shaukat, launched the historic Khilafat Movement after the World War I to save the Ottoman Empire from dismemberment.
Gandhi linked the issue of self-government with the Khilafat issue to associate the Hindus with the movement. The collapse of the Khilafat Movement was followed by a period of bitter Hindu-Muslim antagonism.
Several Hindu-Muslim conferences were held to remove the cause of conflict but they were not fruitful.
Jinnah’s disillusionment at the course of politics in the subcontinent prompted him to settle down in London in the early thirties. He, however, returned to India in early 1934 on persuasion of his co-religionists and thinkers, and assumed their leadership.
By the close of 1946 communal riots flared to such dangerous heights that it engulfed almost the entire subcontinent. Realizing the gravity of the situation, the British government sent to India a new viceroy, appointing Lord Mountbatten. His protracted negotiations with various political leaders resulted in the June 3 (1947) Plan by which the British decided to partition the subcontinent and hand over power to two successor states. The plan was duly accepted by the three Indian parties to the dispute — the Congress, the Muslim League and the Akali Dal representing the Sikhs.
The new state of Pakistan was born amid virtual chaos, with very limited resources and in more treacherous circumstances. It inherited no central government, no capital, no administrative corps, nor an organized defense force. Its socio-economic resources were poor. Many had thought “the baby” would die from dehydration but that was proven wrong by Jinnah’s untiring leadership, which generated the spirit of fraternity among the Pakistanis.
The period of 1940-47 was very significant in Jinnah’s political life. He became a mass leader and he could not be by-passed by the British at all. He commanded a position that was almost synonymous with the Muslim voice. Yet the Quaid was not a dictator, he never ignored the general will. Instead, he sought the sanction of the All-India Muslim League and the Muslim masses.
Most of the speeches of the League president remained imbued with the massage of unity. Presiding over the historic session of the Muslim League on March 23 in Lahore, he said: “It has been my constant endeavor to try to bring about unity among the Musalmans and I hope that in the great task of reconstruction and building a great and glorious Pakistan, that is ahead of us, you realize that solidarity is now more essential than it ever was... we Musalmans believe in one God, one Book — the Holy Qur’an — and one Prophet (pbuh). So we must stand united as one nation. You know the old saying that in unity lies strength; united we stand, divided we fall.”
Jinnah as “ambassador of unity” was many in one. He was a lawyer, a statesman, a constitutionalist, a freedom fighter, a man of principles with a vision of socio-economic revolution. How dear was the cause of the masses to the advocate of unity is amply clear from his presidential address at a session of the League wherein he stressed: “We wish to live in peace and harmony with our neighbors as a free and independent people, we wish our people to develop to the fullest of our spiritual, cultural, economic, social and political life in a way that we think in consonance with our own ideal and according to the genius of our people.”
In the history of the subcontinent, Jinnah emerged as a champion of freedom fighters — one for whom equality for all sections of society was the sole guarantee of freedom. It is this sense of equality and atmosphere of security that leads to peace and harmony.
The Quaid, accompanied by Miss Fatima Jinnah, visited Edwards College, Peshawar, in April 1948. In his speech, as head of the state, he dwelt mainly on the role of the Pakistani youth and what the nation expected of them after the achievement of Pakistan. There was pin-drop silence throughout his 25-minute speech according to Col. (R) Riaz Jafri, who was 17 then and among the students who were lucky to hear the speech. The rapt attention of the audience was noticed by Quaid and he, in a manner of appreciation, remarked, “Churchill said that V stands for victory,” and the Quaid made a V with his two fingers. “But I must say that ‘U’ stand for unity” and the Quaid made a U with the thumb and the index finger of his right hand. While saying “U stand for Unity” the Quaid continually pointed the ‘U’ made by his fingers at the students. That was, and is, the message of unity to the people of Pakistan for all times to come. In a nutshell, one can say Jinnah wanted to see the people of Pakistan weld themselves, mold themselves and galvanize themselves into a real and true united nation. “You belong to a nation now; you have carved out a territory, vast territory, it is all yours, it does not belong to a Punjabi, or a Sindhi, or a Baloch, or a Pathan,” said Jinnah.
