Daily Times

The recent Indian actions in Kashmir have once again ignited the debate on partition. Front and center in the debate as usual is the role of Mr. Jinnah. It is therefore apt to revisit his legacy once again and see just how prescient the dynamo Bombay lawyer was in his analysis of India’s perennial problem: Caste Hindu majoritarianism.

To any discerning student of history it is clear that Modi represents the logical extension of the politics of majoritarianism that Nehru and Gandhi so fervently practised. It is well known that Jinnah had for the longest time in his life been committed to the idea of a modern inclusive India to an extent that Congress leaders called him the best ambassador of Hindu Muslim unity. This was even before he had presided over the Lucknow Pact in 1916. Gokhale saw in Jinnah a man completely free of prejudice or sectarian bias. Jinnah was to prove him right repeatedly. Indians are unable to look beyond their prejudices and nationalist mythology drummed into them since 1947 but a dispassionate review of India’s constitutional history would show that Jinnah’s constitutional and legal contributions to Modern India are far greater than either Nehru or Gandhi. It was Jinnah who stood with H C Gour to support the idea of Indian Supreme Court to replace the Privy Council against opposition by his friend Motilal Nehru. It was Jinnah who fervently fought for the rights of Indians to join officer ranks and then campaigned for an Indian military academy, touring even the US Military Academy at West Point to finalise the blue print for Dhera Dhun Academy. It was Jinnah who stood on Ambedkar’s side in the roundtable conferences when Gandhi and the Congress were completely against giving Dalits separate franchise.

Jinnah’s break with Nehru and Gandhi primarily was on the issue of majoritarianism and also on Gandhi’s use of religion in politics. Jinnah had left the Congress in protest against Gandhi’s encouragement of both Hindu and Islamic religious symbols

Jinnah’s break with Nehru and Gandhi primarily was on the issue of majoritarianism and also on Gandhi’s use of religion in politics. Jinnah had left the Congress in protest against Gandhi’s encouragement of both Hindu and Islamic religious symbols. Both the socialist Nehru and spiritual Gandhi favoured majoritarianism without safeguards as the model for India’s progress. Contrary to the history written in both Pakistan and India, Jinnah played a major role in bringing Muslims to agree to joint electorates provided that they would have guaranteed reserved representation. Jinnah’s four original amendments to the Nehru report would have meant that Muslim reserved seats would be decided by a joint electorate of Hindus and Muslims. This radical proposal would have delivered India the final and abiding unity. It was torpedoed by Nehru and the Hindu Mahasabha at Calcutta. The issue was never of religion but a political one as Jinnah explained upon his return from his self imposed exile in England. Explaining the minorities problem Jinnah told the legislative assembly on 7 February 1935: “Religion should not be allowed to come into Politics….Religion is merely a matter between man and God.” He spoke not as a Congressman but as the leader of the Muslim League that he was reviving upon his return. It is a tragedy that neither Pakistanis nor Indians have bothered to read Jinnah’s speeches in the legislative assembly which span four decades. These show that Jinnah was a passionate advocate of progressive causes, inclusive polity and orderly constitutional advance towards freedom.

There were many ideas of Pakistan but Jinnah’s idea of Pakistan was within an overall Indian Confederation. He settled for less – a federation – when he accepted the Cabinet Mission Plan in 1946. The Cabinet Mission Plan was again wrecked by Pandit Nehru’s arrogance. Jinnah thus accepted the mutilated husk of Pakistan that he himself had rejected on two occasions earlier. For Pakistan his vision was clear: It was to be an inclusive democratic state with equality of citizenship for all Pakistanis regardless of their religion, caste or creed. He did not just express it on 11 August but repeatedly in no less than 33 speeches and statements.

Yasser Latif Hamdani is an Advocate of the High Courts of Pakistan and a member of the Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn in London