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Jinnah and the Pakistan Demand

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

R. J. Moore
R. J. Moore
Affiliation:
Flinders University of South Australia
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Extract

In an age sceptical of the historic role of great men there is universal agreement that Mahomed Ali Jinnah was central to the Muslim League's emergence after 1937 as the voice of a Muslim nation; to its articulation in March 1940 of the Pakistan demand for separate statehood for the Muslim majority provinces of north-western and eastern India; and to its achievement in August 1947 of the separate but truncated state of Pakistan by the Partition of India. Subcontinental judgements of Jinnah are bound to be parti pris and to exaggerate his individual importance. While Pakistanis generally see him as the Quaid-i-Azam, Great Leader, or father of their nation, Indians often regard him as the Lucifer who tempted his people into the unforgivable sin against their nationalist faith. Among distinguished foreign scholars, unbiassed by national commitment, his stature is similarly elevated. Sir Penderel Moon has written:

There is, I believe, no historical parallel for a single individual effecting such a political revolution; and his achievement is a striking refutation of the theory that in the making of history the individual is of little or no significance. It was Mr Jinnah who created Pakistan and undoubtedly made history.

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Articles
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 17 , Issue 4 , October 1983 , pp. 529 - 561
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1983

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References

I am indebted to my colleague, Dr Lance Brennan, for discussions and suggestions for sources on the subject of this article.

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129 Ibid., 256. See also 276, Annex, 1.

130 Ibid., 229. See also 227–8, 264. Cf. the common Pakistani belief that Jinnah saw Suhrawardy's scheme as a heresy (e.g. Ispahani, M. A. H., Qaid-e-Azam as I Knew Him (Karachi, 1967 edn), 257–8Google Scholar). For relations between Jinnah and Suhrawardy over the scheme from February 1947, see Ziring, , ‘Jinnah’. A draft scheme for a ‘Free State of Bengal’, d. 4 June 1947, appears in Q.A.P., file 142.Google Scholar

131 Moore, , ‘Mountbatten, India and the Commonwealth’, Journal of Commonwealth and Comparative Politics, XXIX.1 (1981), 5–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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133 In May 1949 three of Pakistan's governors, the three chiefs of staff, and 470 military officers, were still British.

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