Father
of the Nation Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s achievement as the
founder of Pakistan, dominates everything else he did in his long and
crowded public life spanning some 42 years. Yet, by any standard, his was
an eventful life, his personality multidimensional and his achievements in
other fields were many, if not equally great. Indeed, several were the
roles he had played with distinction: at one time or another, he was one
of the greatest legal luminaries India had produced during the first half
of the century, an ‘ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity, a great
constitutionalist, a distinguished parliamentarian, a top-notch
politician, an indefatigable freedom-fighter, a dynamic Muslim leader, a
political strategist and, above all one of the great nation-builders of
modern times. What, however, makes him so remarkable is the fact that
while similar other leaders assumed the leadership of traditionally
well-defined
nations and espoused their cause, or led them to freedom, he
created a nation out of an inchoate and down-trodeen minority and
established a cultural and national home for it. And
all that within a decase. For over three decades before the successful
culmination in 1947, of the Muslim struggle for freedom in the South-Asian
subcontinent, Jinnah had provided political leadership to the Indian
Muslims: initially as one of the leaders, but later, since 1947, as the
only prominent leader- the Quaid-i-Azam. For over thirty years,
he
had guided their affairs; he had given expression, coherence and direction
to their ligitimate aspirations and cherished dreams; he had formulated
these into concerete demands; and, above all, he had striven all the while
to get them conceded by both the ruling British and the numerous Hindus
the dominant segment of India’s
population. And for over thirty years he had fought, relentlessly and
inexorably, for the inherent rights of the Muslims for an honourable
existence in the subcontinent. Indeed, his life story constitutes, as it
were, the story of the rebirth of the Muslims of the subcontinent and
their spectacular rise to nationhood, phoenixlike.
Father
of the Nation Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s achievement as the
founder of Pakistan, dominates everything else he did in his long and
crowded public life spanning some 42 years. Yet, by any standard, his was
an eventful life, his personality multidimensional and his achievements in
other fields were many, if not equally great. Indeed, several were the
roles he had played with distinction: at one time or another, he was one
of the greatest legal luminaries India had produced during the first half
of the century, an ‘ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity, a great
constitutionalist, a distinguished parliamentarian, a top-notch
politician, an indefatigable freedom-fighter, a dynamic Muslim leader, a
political strategist and, above all one of the great nation-builders of
modern times. What, however, ma
kes him so remarkable is the fact that
while similar other leaders assumed the leadership of traditionally
well-defined
nations and espoused their cause, or led them to freedom, he
created a nation out of an inchoate and down-trodeen minority and
established a cultural and national home for it. And
all that within a decase. For over three decades before the successful
culmination in 1947, of the Muslim struggle for freedom in the South-Asian
subcontinent, Jinnah had provided political leadership to the Indian
Muslims: initially as one of the leaders, but later, since 1947, as the
only prominent leader- the Quaid-i-Azam. For over thirty years,
he
had guided their affairs; he had given expression, coherence and direction
to their ligitimate aspirations and cherished dreams; he had formulated
these into concerete demands; and, above all, he had striven all the while
to get them conceded by both the ruling British and the numerous Hindus
the dominant segment of