Jinnah, Pakistan and Islamic Identity

Book info: Jinnah, Pakistan and Islamic Identity (Paperback, 304 pages) – Routledge, 1997. Language: English.

Every generation needs to reinterpret its great men of the past. Akbar Ahmed, by revealing Jinnah's human face alongside his heroic achievement, both makes this statesman accessible to the current age and renders his greatness even clearer than before.

Four men shaped the end of British rule in India: Nehru, Gandhi, Mountbatten and Jinnah. We know a great deal about the first three, but Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, has mostly either been ignored or, in the case of Richard Attenborough's hugely successful film about Gandhi, portrayed as a cold megalomaniac, bent on the bloody partition of India. Akbar Ahmed's major study redresses the balance.

Drawing on history, semiotics and cultural anthropology as well as more conventional biographical techniques, Akbar S. Ahmad presents a rounded picture of the man and shows his relevance as contemporary Islam debates alternative forms of political leadership in a world dominated (at least in the Western media) by figures like Colonel Gadaffi and Saddam Hussein.

CHAPTER ONE

Understanding Jinnah

God cannot alter the past, but historians can.

(Samuel Butler)

Islam gave the Muslims of India a sense of identity; dynasties like theMughals gave them territory; poets like Allama Iqbal gave them a sense ofdestiny. Jinnah's towering stature derives from the fact that, by leading thePakistan movement and creating the state of Pakistan, he gave them all three.For the Pakistanis he is simply the Quaid-i-Azam or the Great Leader. Whatevertheir political affiliation, they believe there is no one quite like him.

Jinnah: a life

Mohammed Ali Jinnah was born to an ordinary if comfortable household inKarachi, not far from where Islam first came to the Indian subcontinent in AD711 in the person of the young Arab general Muhammad bin Qasim. However,Jinnah's date of birth -- 25 December 1876 -- and place of birth are presentlyunder academic dispute.

Just before Jinnah's birth his father, Jinnahbhai Poonja, had moved fromGujarat to Karachi. Significantly, Jinnah's father was born in 1857 -- at theend of one kind of Muslim history, with the failed uprisings in Delhi -- anddied in 1901 (F. Jinnah 1987: vii).

Jinnah's family traced its descent from Iran and reflected Shia, Sunni andIsmaili influences; some of the family names -- Valji, Manbai and Nathoo -- wereeven 'akin to Hindu names' (F. Jinnah 1987: 50). Such things mattered ina Muslim society conscious of underlining its non-Indian origins, a societywhere people gained status through family names such as Sayyed and Qureshi(suggesting Arab descent), Ispahani (Iran) and Durrani (Afghanistan). Anothersource has a different explanation of Jinnah's origins. Mr Jinnah, accordingto a Pakistani author, said that his male ancestor was a Rajput from Sahiwalin the Punjab who had married into the Ismaili Khojas and settled in Kathiawar(Beg 1986: 888). Although born into a Khoja (from khwaja or 'noble') familywho were disciples of the Ismaili Aga Khan, Jinnah moved towards the Sunnisect early in life. There is evidence later, given by his relatives andassociates in court, to establish that he was firmly a Sunni Muslim by the endof his life (Merchant 1990).

One of eight children, young Jinnah was educated in the Sind MadrasatulIslam and the Christian Missionary Society High School in Karachi. Shortlybefore he was sent to London in 1893 to join Graham's Shipping and TradingCompany, which did business with Jinnah's father in Karachi, he was married toEmibai, a distant relative (F. Jinnah 1987: 61). It could be described as atraditional Asian marriage -- the groom barely 16 years old and the bride amere child. Emibai died shortly after Jinnah left for London; Jinnah barelyknew her. But another death, that of his beloved mother, devastated him(ibid.).

Jinnah asserted his independence by making two important personaldecisions. Within months of his arrival he left the business firm to joinLincoln's Inn and study law. In 1894 he changed his name by deed poll, droppingthe 'bhai' from his surname. Not yet 20 years old, in 1896 he became theyoungest Indian to pass. As a barrister, in his bearing, dress and deliveryJinnah cultivated a sense of theatre which would stand him in good stead inthe future.

It has been said that Jinnah chose Lincoln's Inn because he saw theProphet's name at the entrance. I went to Lincoln's Inn looking for the nameon the gate, but there is no such gate nor any names. There is, however, agigantic mural covering one entire wall in the main dining hall of Lincoln'sInn. Painted on it are some of the most influential lawgivers of history, likeMoses and, indeed, the holy Prophet of Islam, who is shown in a green turbanand green robes. A key at the bottom of the painting matches the names to thepersons in the picture. Jinnah, I suspect, was not deliberately concealing thememory of his youth but recalling an association with the Inn of Court half acentury after it had taken place. He had remembered there was a link, agenuine appreciation of Islam. Had those who have written about Jinnah'srecollection bothered to visit Lincoln's Inn the mystery would have beensolved. However, knowledge of the pictorial depiction of the holy Prophetwould certainly spark protests; demands from the active British Muslimcommunity for the removal of the painting would be heard in the UK.

In London Jinnah had discovered a passion for nationalist politics and hadassisted Dadabhai Naoroji, the first Indian Member of Parliament. During thecampaign he became acutely aware of racial prejudice, but he returned to Indiato practise law at the Bombay Bar in 1896 after a brief stopover in Karachi.He was then the only Muslim barrister in Bombay (see plate 1).

Jinnah was a typical Indian nationalist at the turn of the century, aimingto get rid of the British from the subcontinent as fast as possible. Headopted two strategies: one was to try to operate within the British system;the other was to work for a united front of Hindus, Muslims, Christians andParsees against the British. He succeeded to an extent in both.

Jinnah's conduct reflected the prickly Indian expression of independence.On one occasion in Bombay, when Jinnah was arguing a case in court, theBritish presiding judge interrupted him several times, exclaiming, 'Rubbish.'Jinnah responded: 'Your honour, nothing but rubbish has passed your mouth allmorning.' Sir Charles Ollivant, judicial member of the Bombay provincialgovernment, was so impressed by Jinnah that in 1901 he offered him permanentemployment at 1,500 rupees a month. Jinna declined, saying he would soon earnthat amount in a day. Not too long afterwards he proved himself correct.

Stories like these added to Jinnah's reputation as an arrogant nationalist.His attitude towards the British may be explained culturally as well astemperamentally. He was not part of the cultural tradition of the UnitedProvinces (UP) which had revolved around the imperial Mughal court based inDelhi and which smoothly transferred to the British after they moved up fromCalcutta. Exaggerated courtesy, hyperbole, dissimulation, long and low bows,salaams that touched the forehead repeatedly -- these marked the deference ofcourtiers to imperial authority. Even Sir Sayyed Ahmad Khan, one of the mostillustrious champions of the Muslim renaissance in the late nineteenthcentury, came from a family that had served the Mughals, but had readilytransferred his loyalties to the British.

Jinnah often antagonized his British superiors. Yet he was clever enoughconsciously to remain within the boundaries, pushing as far as he could butnot allowing his opponents to penalize him on a point of law. In short helearned to use British law skilfully against the British.

At several points in his long career, Jinnah was threatened by the Britishwith imprisonment on sedition charges for speaking in favour of Indian homerule or rights. He was frozen out by those British officials who wished theirnatives to be more deferential. For example, Lord Willingdon, Viceroy ofIndia in 1931-6, did not take to him, and even the gruff but kindly LordWavell, Viceroy in 1943-7, was made to feel uncomfortable by Jinnah'sclear-minded advocacy of the Muslims, even though he recognized the justice ofJinnah's arguments. The last Viceroy, however, Lord Mountbatten, could notcope with what he regarded as Jinnah's arrogance and haughtiness, preferringthe natives to be more friendly and pliant.

Ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity

On his return from England in 1896, Jinnah joined the Indian NationalCongress. In 1906 he attended the Calcutta session as secretary to DadabhaiNaoroji, who was now president of Congress. One of his patrons and supporters,G. K. Gokhale, a distinguished Brahmin, called him 'the best ambassador ofHindu-Muslim unity'. He was correct. When Bal Gangadhar Tilak, the Hindunationalist, was being tried by the British on sedition charges in 1908 heasked Jinnah to represent him.

On 25 January 1910 Jinnah took his seat as the 'Muslim member from Bombay'on the sixty-man Legislative Council of India in Delhi. Any illusions theViceroy, Lord Minto, may have harboured about the young Westernized lawyer asa potential ally were soon laid to rest. When Minto reprimanded Jinnah forusing the words 'harsh and cruel' in describing the treatment of the Indiansin South Africa, Jinnah replied: 'My Lord! I should feel much inclined to usemuch stronger language. But I am fully aware of the constitution of thisCouncil, and I do not wish to trespass for one single moment. But I do say thatthe treatment meted out to Indians is the harshest and the feeling in thiscountry is unanimous' (Wolpert 1984: 33).

Jinnah was an active and successful member of the (mainly Hindu) IndianCongress from the start and had resisted joining the Muslim League until 1913,seven years after its foundation. None the less, Jinnah stood up for Muslimrights. In 1913, for example, he piloted the Muslim Wakfs (Trust) Bill throughthe Viceroy's Legislative Council, and it won widespread praise. Muslims saw inhim a heavyweight on their side. For his part, Jinnah thought the MuslimLeague was 'rapidly growing into a powerful factor for the birth of a UnitedIndia' and maintained that the charge of 'separation' sometimes levelled atMuslims was extremely wide of the mark. On the death of his mentor, Gokhale, in1915, Jinnah was struck with 'sorrow and grief' (Bolitho 1954: 62), and in May1915 he proposed that a memorial to Gokhale be constructed. A few weeks laterin a letter to The Times of India he argued that the Congress and Leagueshould meet to discuss the future of India, appealing to Muslim leaders tokeep pace with their Hindu 'friends'.

Jinnah was elected president of the Lucknow Muslim League session in 1916(from now he would be one of its main leaders, becoming president of theLeague itself from 1920 to 1930 and again from 1937 to 1947 until after thecreation of Pakistan). Jinnah's political philosophy was revealed in theLucknow conference in the same year when he helped bring the Congress and theLeague on to one platform to agree on a common scheme of reforms. Muslimswere promised 30 per cent representation in provincial councils. A commonfront was constructed against British imperialism. The Lucknow Pact betweenthe two parties resulted. Presiding over the extraordinary session, hedescribed himself as 'a staunch Congressman' who had 'no love for sectariancries' (Afzal 1966: 56-62).

This was the high point of his career as ambassador of the two communitiesand the closest the Congress and the Muslim League came. About this time, hefell in love with a Parsee girl, Rattanbai (Ruttie) Petit, known as 'the flowerof Bombay'. Sir Dinshaw Petit, her father and a successful businessman, wasfurious, since Jinnah was not only of a different faith but more than twiceher age, and he refused his consent to the marriage. As Ruttie was under-age,she and Jinnah waited until she was 18, in 1918, and then got married. Shortlybefore the ceremony Ruttie converted to Islam. In 1919 their daughter Dina wasborn.

By this time even the British recognized Jinnah's abilities. Edwin Montagu,the Secretary of State for India, wrote of him in 1917: 'Jinnah is a veryclever man, and it is, of course, an outrage that such a man should have nochance of running the affairs of his own country' (Sayeed 1968: 86).

Jinnah cut a handsome figure at this time, as described in a standardbiography by an American professor: 'Raven-haired with a moustache almost asfull as Kitchener's and lean as a rapier, he sounded like Ronald Coleman,dressed like Anthony Eden, and was adored by most women at first sight, andadmired or envied by most men' (Wolpert 1984: 40). A British general's wifemet him at a viceregal dinner in Simla and wrote to her mother in England:

After dinner, I had Mr. Jinnah to talk to. He is a great personality. He talks the most beautiful English. He models his manners and clothes on Du Maurier, the actor, and his English on Burke's speeches. He is a future Viceroy, if the present system of gradually Indianizing all the services continues. I have always wanted to meet him, and now I have had my wish. (Raza 1982: 34)

Mrs Sarojini Naidu, the nationalist poet, was infatuated: to her, Jinnah wasthe man of the future (see her 'Mohammad Ali Jinnah -- ambassador ofHindu-Muslim unity', in J. Ahmed 1966). He symbolized everything attractiveabout modern India. Although her love remained unrequited she wrote himpassionate poems; she also wrote about him in purple prose worthy of a Millsand Boon romance:

Tall and stately, but thin to the point of emaciation, languid and luxurious of habit, Mohammad Ali Jinnah's attenuated form is a deceptive sheath of a spirit of exceptional vitality and endurance. Somewhat formal and fastidious, and a little aloof and imperious of manner, the calm hauteur of his accustomed reserve but masks, for those who know him, a naive and eager humanity, an intuition quick and tender as a woman's, a humour gay and winning as a child's. Pre-eminently rational and practical, discreet and dispassionate in his estimate and acceptance of life, the obvious sanity and serenity of his worldly wisdom effectually disguise a shy and splendid idealism which is of the very essence of the man. (Bolitho 1954: 21-2)

However, Gandhi's emergence in the 1920s -- and the radically differentstyle of politics he introduced which drew in the masses -- marginalizedJinnah. The increasing emphasis on Hinduism and the concomitant growth incommunal violence worried Jinnah. Throughout the decade he remained presidentof the Muslim League but the party was virtually non-existent. The Congresshad little time for him now, and his unrelenting opposition to Britishimperialism did not win him favour with the authorities. As we shall see inlater chapters, he was a hero in search of a cause.

In 1929, while Jinnah was vainly attempting to make sense of the uncertainpolitical landscape, Ruttie died. Jinnah felt the loss grievously. He moved toLondon with his daughter Dina and his sister Fatima, and returned to hiscareer as a successful lawyer. At this point, Jinnah's story appeared to haveconcluded as far as the Indian side was concerned.

Securing a financial base

Jinnah had successfully resolved the dilemma of all those who wished tochallenge British colonialism. He had secured himself financially. Sir SayyedAhmad Khan had to compromise; Jinnah did not. This difference was madepossible by developments in the early part of the century: Indians could nowenter professions which gave them financial and social security irrespectiveof their political opinions. Earlier, Indians had been seen as either friendlyor hostile natives. The former were encouraged, the latter were victimized,often losing their lands and official positions.

Jinnah's lifestyle resembled that of the upper-class English professional.Jinnah prided himself on his appearance. He was said never to wear the samesilk tie twice and had about 200 hand-tailored suits in his wardrobe. Hisclothes made him one of the best-dressed men in the world, rivalled in Indiaperhaps only by Motilal Nehru, the father of Jawaharlal. Jinnah's daughtercalled him a 'dandy', 'a very attractive man'. Expensive clothes, perhaps anessential accessory of a successful lawyer in British India, were Jinnah'smain indulgence. In spite of his extravagant taste in dress Jinnah remainedcareful with money throughout his life (he rebuked his ADC for over-tippingthe servants at the Governor's house in Lahore in 1947 -- G. H. Khan 1993:81). Dina recounts her father commenting on the two communities: 'If Muslimsgot ten rupees they would buy a pretty scarf and eat a biriani whereas Hinduswould save the money.'

In the early 1930s Jinnah lived in a large house in Hampstead, London, hadan English chauffeur who drove his Bentley and an English staff to serve him.There were two cooks, Indian and Irish, and Jinnah's favourite food was curryand rice, recalls Dina. He enjoyed playing billiards. Dina remembers herfather taking her to the theatre, pantomimes and circuses.

In the last years of his life, as the Quaid-i-Azam, Jinnah increasinglyadopted Muslim dress, rhetoric and thinking. Most significant from the Muslimpoint of view is the fact that the obvious affluence was self-created. Jinnahhad not exploited peasants as the feudal lords had done, nor had he made moneylike corrupt politicians through underhand deals, nor had he been bribed byany government into selling his conscience. What he owned was made legally,out of his skills as a lawyer and a private investor. By the early 1930s hewas reportedly earning 40,000 rupees a month at the Bar alone (Wolpert1984:138) -- at that time an enormous income. Jinnah was considered, even byhis opponents like Gandhi, one of the top lawyers of the subcontinent andtherefore one of the most highly paid. He also had a sharp eye for a goodinvestment, successfully dabbling in property. His houses were palatial: inHampstead in London, on Malabar Hill in Bombay and at 10 Aurangzeb Road in NewDelhi, a house designed by Edwin Lutyens. His wealth gave him an independencewhich in turn enabled him to speak his mind.

Paradoxically, Jinnah's behaviour reflected as much Anglo-Indian sociologyas Islamic theology. His thriftiness to the point of being parsimonious, hispunctuality, his integrity, his bluntness, his refusal to countenance sifarish(nepotism) were alien to South Asian society (see chapter 4). Yet these werethe values he had absorbed in Britain. He later attempted to weld hisunderstanding of Islam to them. His first two speeches in the ConstituentAssembly of Pakistan in 1947 reflect some of the ideas of a Western liberalsociety and his attempts to find more than an echo of them in Islamic historyfrom the time of the holy Prophet (see chapter 7). Jinnah was attempting asynthesis.

Creating a country

In the early 1930s several important visitors came to Jinnah's Hampstead home,requesting him to return to India to lead the Muslim League. Eventually he waspersuaded and finally returned in 1935. With little time for preparation, heled the League into the 1937 elections. Its poor showing did not discouragehim; instead, he threw himself into reorganizing it. The Muslim League sessionin 1937 in Lucknow was a turning point and generated wide enthusiasm (seechapter 3). A snowball effect became apparent. In 1939, now in his earlysixties, Jinnah made his last will, appointing his sister Fatima, hispolitical lieutenant Liaquat Ali Khan and his solicitor as joint executors andtrustees of his estate. Although Fatima was the main beneficiary, he did notforget his daughter Dina and his other siblings. He also remembered hisfavourite educational institutions, especially Aligarh, which helped lay thefoundations for Pakistan.

Jinnah's fine clothes and erect bearing helped to conceal the fact that hewas in poor physical health. From 1938 onwards he was to be found complainingof 'the tremendous strain' on his 'nerves and physical endurance' (Jinnah'sletter to Hassan Ispahani written on 12 April of that year in the IspahaniCollection). From then on he regularly fell ill, yet that was carefuIly hiddenfrom the public. He remained unwell for much of the first half of 1945. Laterin the year he admitted: 'The strain is so great that I can hardly bear it' (toIspahani, 9 October 1945, Ispahani Collection). His doctors, Dr Jal Patel andDr Dinshah Mehta, ordered him to take it easy, to rest, but the struggle forPakistan had begun and Jinnah was running out of time.

Although by now called the Quaid-i-Azam, the Great Leader, Jinnah nevercourted titles. He had refused a knighthood and even a doctorate from hisfavourite university:

In 1942, when the Muslim University, Aligarh, had wished to award him an honorary Degree of Doctor of Laws, he refused saying: 'I have lived as plain Mr. Jinnah and I hope to die as plain Mr. Jinnah. I am very much averse to any title or honours and I will be more happy if there was no prefix to my name.' (Zaidi 1993: volume I, part I, xlv)

Not all Muslims looked up to Jinnah. Many criticized him, some because theyfound him too Westernized, others because he was too straight anduncompromising. One young man, motivated by religious fervour and belonging tothe Khaksars, a religious party, attempted to assassinate him on 26 July 1943.Armed with a knife he broke into Jinnah's home in Bombay and succeeded inwounding him before he was overpowered. Jinnah publicly appealed to hisfollowers and friends to 'remain calm and cool' (Wolpert 1984: 225). TheLeague declared 13 August a day of thanksgiving throughout India.

In 1940 Jinnah presided over the League meeting in which the LahoreResolution was moved calling for a separate Muslim homeland. In 1945-6 theMuslim League triumphed in the general elections. The League was widelyrecognized as the third force in India along with the Congress and theBritish. Even Jinnah's opponents now acknowledged him: Gandhi addressed him asQuaid-i-Azam. The Muslim masses throughout India were now with him, seeing inhim an Islamic champion.

By the time Mountbatten came to India as Viceroy in 1947 Jinnah was dying;he would be dead in 1948. Neither the British nor the Congress suspected thegravity of Jinnah's illness. Many years later Mountbatten confessed that hadhe known he would have delayed matters until Jinnah was dead; there would havebeen no Pakistan.

There were several dramatic twists and turns on the way to Pakistan, withJinnah trying to negotiate the best possible terms to satisfy the highexpectations and emotions of the Muslims. Pakistan was finally conceded in thesummer of 1947, with Jinnah as its Governor-General. It was, in his words,'moth-eaten' and 'truncated', but still the largest Muslim nation in the world.In Karachi, its capital, as Governor-General Jinnah delivered two seminalspeeches to the Constituent Assembly on 11 and 14 August (see chapter 7).Suddenly, at the height of his popularity, Jinnah resigned the presidency ofthe League.

Despite his legendary reserve and the seriousness of his position, Jinnahretained his quiet sense of humour. As Governor-General, when he was almostworshipped in Pakistan, he was told that a certain young lady had said she wasin love with his hands (Bolitho 1954: 213). Shortly afterwards, she was seatednear him at a function, and Jinnah mischievously asked her not to keep lookingat his hands. The lady was both thrilled and embarrassed at having amused theQuaid-i-Azam.

By now his health was seriously impaired. He was suffering fromtuberculosis, and his heavy smoking -- fifty cigarettes a day of his favouritebrand, Craven A -- and punishing work schedule had also taken their toll.Jinnah died on 11 September 1948 at the age of 71. The nation went into deepmourning (see plates 4 and 15). Quite spontaneously, hundreds of thousands ofpeople joined the burial procession -- a million people, it was estimated.They felt like orphans; their father had died. Dina, on her only visit toPakistan, recalls 'the tremendous hysteria and grief'.

The grief was genuine. Those present at the burial itself or those whoheard the news still look back on that occasion as a defining moment in theirlives. They felt an indefinable sense of loss, as if the light had gone out oftheir lives. (As a typical example take the case of Sartaj Aziz, adistinguished Pakistani statesman. He remembers the impact that hearing ofJinnah's death had on him. He had fainting fits for three days. His mothersaid that he did not respond in the same manner to his own father's death.) Amagnificent mausoleum in Karachi was built to honour Jinnah.

This, then, is the bare bones of Jinnah's life.

The role of Jinnah's family

The closest members of Jinnah's family were his sister Fatima, his wife Ruttieand their daughter, their only child, Dina. Ruttie and Dina are problematicfor many Pakistanis, especially for sociological and cultural reasons. For thefounder of the nation -- the Islamic Republic of Pakistan -- to have married aParsee appears inexplicable to most Pakistanis. Jinnah's orthodox criticstaunted him, composing verses about him marrying a kafirah, a female infidel(Khairi 1995: 468; see also G. H. Khan 1993: 77): 'He gave up Islam for thesake of a Kafirah / Is he the Quaid-i-Azam [great leader] or the Kafir-i-Azam[great kafir]?'

Dina is seen by many as the daughter who deserted her father by marrying aChristian. Because she did not go to live in Pakistan Dina is regarded as'disloyal'. Pakistanis have blotted out Ruttie and Dina from their culturaland historical consciousness. Thus Professor Sharif al Mujahid, aconscientious and sympathetic biographer and former director of theQuaid-i-Azam Academy in Karachi, does not mention either woman in his 806-pagevolume (1981). Nor did the archives, pictorial exhibitions and officialpublications contain more than the odd picture of the two. Someone appears tohave been busy eliminating their photographs.

It is almost taboo to discuss Jinnah's personal life in Pakistan; Ruttieand Dina, his beloved wife and daughter, have both been blacked out fromhistory. None the less, it is through a study of his family that we see Jinnahthe man and understand him more than at any other point in his life becausethat is when he exposes his inner feelings to us.

Fatima: sister of Jinnah

The relationship between Jinnah and his sister Fatima (see plate 2) isimportant in helping us to understand Jinnah, the Muslim movement leading toPakistan and Pakistan history. Her name of course comes from that of theProphet's daughter and symbolizes traditional Muslim family life. Born in1893, Fatima was a constant source of strength to her brother, and after hisdeath she remained the symbol of a democratic Pakistan true to his spirit, asymbol of modern Muslim womanhood. Closest to Jinnah of his siblings in looksand spirit, Fatima is known as the Madr-e-Millat, Mother of the Nation, inPakistan.

After their father's death in 1901, Jinnah became her guardian, firstsecuring her education as a boarder at a convent when she was nine in 1902 andthen enrolling her in a dental college in Calcutta in 1919. In 1923 he helpedher set up a clinic in Bombay. All this was done in the face of opposition athome because Muslim society of the time discouraged Western education andWestern professions for its women (F. Jinnah 1987: xvii). When Ruttie died,Fatima gave up her career as a dentist at the age of 36 and moved intoJinnah's house to run it and look after Dina; she then accompanied Jinnah onhis voluntary exile in London. She accepted the role of her brother'sconfidante, friend, assistant and chief ally.

Fatima attended the League session in 1937 and all the annual sessions from1940 onwards when she took on the role of organizing women in favour of theLeague. She was with her brother on his triumphant plane journey to Pakistanfrom Delhi and stepped out with him on the soil of the independent nation thathe had created in August 1947.

In the last years she was anxious that Jinnah was burning himself out inthe pursuit of Pakistan. When she expressed concern for his health he wouldreply that one man's health was insignificant when the very existence of ahundred million Muslims was threatened. 'Do you know how much is at slake?' hewould ask her (F. Jinnah 1987: 2). She was the last person to see him on hisdeathbed.

Yahya Bakhtiar, a senator from Baluchistan who was sensitive to the issueof notions of women's honour in Baluch society, pointed out that in those daysnot even British male politicians encouraged their womenfolk to take a publicrole as Jinnah did. After Pakistan had been created he asked Fatima Jinnah tosit beside him on the stage at the Sibi Darbar, the grand annual gathering ofBaluch and Pukhtun chiefs and leaders at Sibi. He was making a point: Muslimwomen must take their place in history. The Sibi Darbar broke all precedents.

Fatima's behaviour echoed that of her brother. Zeenat Rashid, daughter ofSir Abdullah Haroon, a leader of Sind who was one of Jinnah's followers, saidthat although the Jinnahs stayed in her family home in Karachi for weeks at atime there was never a hint of moral or financial impropriety. They wouldnever accept presents; indeed no one would dare to give any. There was nolavish spending at government expense. On the contrary, the joke was that whenFatima Jinnah was in charge of the Governor-General's house after the creationof Pakistan the suppliers would be in dismay. 'She has ordered half a dozenbananas ... or half a dozen oranges because six people will have lurch,' theywould moan. The ADCs would ring Zeenat Rashid and say they wished to come toher house for a good meal; they were hungry. Jinnah's broad Muslim platformwas also echoed by his sister years after his death, as quoted by LiaquatMerchant: 'I said, "Miss Jinnah even you are born a Shia." To this sheremarked, "I am not a Shia, I am not a Sunni, I am a Mussalman." She alsoadded that the Prophet of Islam has given us Muslim Religion and not SectarianReligion' (Merchant 1990: 165).

Later in life, retired and reclusive, she once again entered public life.In the mid-1960s, as a frail old woman she took on Field Marshal Ayub Khan,then at the height of his power, in an attempt to restore democracy. Tochallenge a military dictator is a commendable act of courage in Pakistan. Shecame very close to toppling him, in spite of the vote-rigging and corruption:

A combined opposition party with Fatima Jinnah, sister of the Quaid-i-Azam (Founder of the Nation), Mohammed Ali Jinnah, as its candidate won a majority in three of the country's sixteen administrative divisions -- Chittagong, Dacca, and Karachi. Despite a concerted political campaign on the part of the government, Fatima Jinnah received 36 percent of the national vote and 47 percent of the vote in East Pakistan. (Sisson and Rose 1990: 19)

Fatima was bitter about the way Pakistan had treated her and dishonouredthe memory of her brother by the use of martial law, and by corruption andmismanagement. The strain of the campaign hastened her end and she died in1967, just after the elections, at the age of 74. She is buried within theprecincts of Jinnah's mausoleum in Karachi. Fatima Jinnah remains an unsungheroine of the Pakistan movement. A fierce nationalist, a determined woman ofintegrity and principle, she reflected the characteristics of her brother.

Continues...
Excerpted from Jinnah, Pakistan and Islamic Identityby Akbar S. Ahmed Copyright © 1997 by Akbar S. Ahmed. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.