Extract from the book of a populer historian.Suun to sahi jahaN mein hey tera fasana kya?
Biographers and publishers of M.A. Jinnah’s life must thank L.K. Advani for reviving sales of books long gone out of circulation. To him also goes the credit of encouraging new authors to write on the subject — among them is Jinnah — Secular & Nationalist by Ajeet Jawed, a first venture by a new publishing house, Faiz Books. From her name, it appears the author is a Sikh married to a Muslim. She teaches political science in Satyawati College, Delhi, and in 1988, wrote Left Politics in Punjab (1935-1947).
There is little about Jinnah that remains unknown. Ajeet Jawed has nothing new to add as her version is entirely based on secondary sources. Nevertheless, it is a valuable addition to Jinnah’s bibliography since it clearly brings out the three phases of his political career: the nationalist, regarded as the ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity, leader of the Muslim League, who sowed the seeds of Partition, and the man who lived to regret what he had created.
Comparisons between Nehru and Jinnah are pertinent. Both were nationalists and indifferent to their religions. Nehru, born a Hindu, was an agnostic and never visited temples. Jinnah was
a Shia Muslim who never went to a mosque, did not know how to perform the namaaz and never fasted during Ramazan. Both ignored religious taboos against certain kinds of food and drink. Nehru ate all kinds of meat with a glass of wine and a cigarette to follow. Jinnah liked a glass of sherry with a ham sandwich, followed by a Havana cigar. After he lost his wife, Nehru had several lady friends. Jinnah married a Parsi and made an indifferent husband. Many maulanas condemned him as a kafir. Both men were trained to be lawyers. Nehru did not bother to set up legal practice and became a full-time politician. Law was Jinnah’s first love, politics came second. He loved to win cases. He won the argument in favour of the creation of Pakistan.
Nehru and Jinnah had one thing in common — they hated each other. Nehru did his best to steal Muslim masses from Jinnah’s Muslim League in favour of the Congress. He failed miserably and agreed to let Jinnah get his Pakistan to be rid of him. Jinnah was landed with the baby he had sired but really did not want. He wanted to live in his mansion in Bombay. Both men thought once Muslims got the State they wanted, both India and Pakistan would be freed of communal tension and live at peace with each other. Both men were woefully wrong in reading the future. Millions were rendered homeless, over a million died for the blunder they’d made
