It is widely believed that Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah was born in Karachi. But some local oral traditions say that he was born in Jherruck, a town in present-day Thatta district of Sindh. The proponents of the latter opinion point to a textbook published in Sindh in the 1950s to support their contention, which mentions that the Quaid-i-Azam was, indeed, born in Jherruck.
This controversy has been going on for a long time. Several attempts were made in the past by various authorities, including Syed Abdullah Shah — when he was serving as the provincial chief minister — as well as the district government of Thatta, who constituted committees to ascertain the facts of this claim. But it was all in vain.
While compiling a biography of Jinnah, I too confronted the same question and decided to approach the matter from three different angles, i.e., documentary evidence, personal statements of the Quaid-i-Azam on the subject and accounts rendered by his family members. Here is the outcome of the exercise. But before we proceed further, let’s briefly outline his family background as well as the two geographical entities involved in the issue, Jherruck and Karachi, as they existed at the time of his birth.
Family Background
The Quaid-i-Azam’s ancestors belonged to a village called Paneli in the princely state of Gondal in the Kathiawar region. His paternal grandfather, Poonjabhai, ran a business relating to weaving of coarse cloth in the village. He had four children: a daughter, Manbai, and three sons, Valibhai, Nathoobhai and Jinnahbhai. The youngest son, Jinnahbhai, who was born around 1850, left Paneli and established his business in Gondal town. In 1874, his parents married him off to Mithbai, a girl from their community. Finding Gondal too small for his ambitions, Jinnahbhai decided to move westward, to Sindh, which was emerging as a new centre of trade and commerce after the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869.
An economic hub - Jherruck
Jherruck was basically a riverine port located on the Indus, about 100 kilometres from Karachi. In the absence of a viable road and rail network in the region, the British introduced an elaborate navigational system, the ‘Indus Flotilla’, with operational headquarters at Jherruck. This place offered tremendous opportunities related to trade and commerce, and attracted enterprising people from far and wide.
The controversy around Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s actual birthplace — Karachi or Jherruck — has lingered for many years. We may finally have a definitive answer
The importance of Jherruck can be gauged from the fact that Prince Hassanally, the Aga Khan I, built his house there in 1843, which still stands today. The British established a school there in 1870, five years before Sir Syed Ahmed Khan established his Aligarh institute. Describing Jherruck in 1861, George Bease wrote in Sind Directory: “Sir Charles Napier regretted that he had not chosen it [Jherruck] for the European barracks instead of Hyderabad.”
Though Karachi existed as a small settlement for a long time, it was during the British rule that it evolved into a modern city and a great seaport. The British found it suitable for their living. In the words of Bease: “The climate seems to agree well with Europeans, the average mortality being much less than any station in the Northwest provinces.”
The opening of the Suez Canal further increased Karachi’s significance, as it became British India’s closest port to Europe. In addition to that, the route through Sindh provided an easier access to Punjab, northern India and Afghanistan.
In view of the tremendous opportunities of growth, Jinnabhai moved to Karachi in the 1870s and established his business. However, there are two points of view here. One says that Jinnabhai directly came from Gondal to Karachi. The other says that he and his family stayed for a few years at Jherruck, where the Quaid-i-Azam was born and received his early education, before coming to Karachi.
Documentary Evidence
School records are considered the most authentic documentary evidence regarding a person’s birthplace. In the case of the Quaid-i-Azam, four of his school records are available to us: three at Sindh Madressatul Islam University, and one at the Church Mission School (CMS). As per these records, Jinnah’s first admission took place on July 4, 1887 at Sindh Madressatul Islam; this has been recorded in the General Register on page 7, serial number 114. Here, ‘Karachi’ has been clearly mentioned as his ‘native place’ in front of his name.
The second and third admission records also relate to his subsequent admissions at Sindh Madressatul Islam, as he was readmitted twice during a span of about four and a half years, from 1887 to 1892. The reason for his multiple admissions there was his travels to Bombay to meet his favourite aunt.
In all these records, recorded at serial numbers 178 and 430, Karachi is mentioned as his native place. His fourth school record relates to his admission in CMS in March 1892, which he took after leaving Sindh Madressatul Islam. He studied there for about seven months until October, before leaving for England. There, too, Karachi has been mentioned as his place of birth.
With such clear mention of Karachi as his birthplace in school records, the controversy should have ended there. But there was a caveat: Jherruck itself was part of Karachi district in those days. Many people in those days, like today, mentioned the names of bigger towns or district headquarters in official documents, instead of giving the exact name of their village or town!
A closer examination of the page recording Jinnah’s first admission at Sindh Madressatul Islam reveals, however, that just above his name, the entry for the student with Serial No. 113, who was also admitted on the same day, i.e., July 4, 1887, mentions “Jherruck” as his native place, while the entry relating to Jinnah says Karachi as his birthplace. If the Quaid-i-Azam had indeed been born in Jherruck, it is unlikely that Karachi would have been mentioned as his birthplace, particularly when the entry just above records Jherruck as another student’s birthplace.
Personal Statements
Next, we move to the Quaid-i-Azam’s own statements because, in matters like this, a person’s own testimony has great value. It is on record that the Quaid-i-Azam mentioned Karachi as his birthplace many times. One such occasion was the Sindh provincial Muslim League Conference held at Karachi on October 7, 1938. While delivering the presidential address, he described Karachi as well as his association with it:
“While speaking in this great city and capital of Sindh, Karachi, with the magnificent position that it occupies, the wonderful seaport and constituting as it does the first homeland for Mussalmans, it gives me no small pleasure that I should preside over a conference the likes of which have never before been seen in Sindh. You can well imagine my surging emotions when I tell you that Karachi is my birthplace, and I cannot adequately express how deeply anxious I am for its welfare.”
Another occasion when he mentioned Karachi as his birthplace was in his letter dated April 30, 1946, addressed to an astrologer of Daily Anjam, who had requested him to provide the exact time, date and place of his birth for preparing his horoscope. In his reply, Quaid-i-Azam mentioned the time of his birth as ‘early morning’, date ‘25th December 1876’ and place ‘Karachi.’
Here it is also interesting to note that, during his entire life of about 72 years, the Quaid-i-Azam neither ever mentioned Jherruck as his birthplace nor visited it even once.
Family Accounts
Yet another source of information about such matters is the accounts rendered by his family members and contemporaries. The closest to him, amongst his family members, was his sister Fatima Jinnah. She authored a book detailing his biography, titled My Brother. She candidly mentioned that their parents had shifted to Karachi in the 1870s from Gondal, and that the Quaid-i-Azam was born in Karachi.
Conclusion
The textbook passage, it seems, was based on hearsay. Another piece of information given in the same passage is that the Quaid-i-Azam passed his matriculation examination from Sindh Madressatul Islam. The fact is that the Quaid-i-Azam left Sindh Madressatul Islam while studying in fifth class — which was two years short of matriculation. Factual errors like this make the textbook passage an unreliable source of information.
Hence, the controversy over the issue of the Quaid-i-Azam’s birthplace, based on an old textbook passage, should be resolved, once and for all.
The writer is a former vice-chancellor of Sindh Madressatul Islam University and former faculty-fellow at American University, Washington DC
Published in Dawn, EOS, July 11th, 2021
https://www.dawn.com/news/1633999/histo ... innah-born
Note: Ancestors and parents of Jinnah were Khoja Ismailis. His parents first moved to Jherruk, stayed there for few years and then moved to Karachi as Jherruk at that time was main business hub of Sind. In early text books of schools his birth place was mentioned Jherruk. When Jinnah was of 10 months his family moved to Karachi, at that time there were not many Khoja Ismailis living in Karachi. It was in late 50's when govt. of Pakistan officially mentioned his birth place Karachi in official documents. Even today many living senior Ismailis believe Jinnah was born in Jherruk.
Birth Place Of Muhammad Ali Jinnah Founder Of Pakistan
GWADAR: A statue of Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah was destroyed in a bomb attack here on Sunday.
The banned Baloch Liberation Front claimed responsibility for the bombing.
The statue was erected early this year at Marine Drive which is considered a safe zone. Official sources said some militants planted an explosive device beneath the statue and blew it up.
An official told Dawn that the statue was completely destroyed, adding that the nature of the blast was yet to be ascertained as the Bomb Disposal Squad would investigate the incident.
Published in Dawn, September 27th, 2021
https://www.dawn.com/news/1648664/quaid ... -in-gwadar
The banned Baloch Liberation Front claimed responsibility for the bombing.
The statue was erected early this year at Marine Drive which is considered a safe zone. Official sources said some militants planted an explosive device beneath the statue and blew it up.
An official told Dawn that the statue was completely destroyed, adding that the nature of the blast was yet to be ascertained as the Bomb Disposal Squad would investigate the incident.
Published in Dawn, September 27th, 2021
https://www.dawn.com/news/1648664/quaid ... -in-gwadar
Re: Birth Place Of Muhammad Ali Jinnah Founder Of Pakistan
Jhirk, the Aga Khan and the mystery of Jinnah’s birthplace
Local lore suggests Jinnah was born in Jhirk in 1876, at around the same time that the first Aga Khan had been living there.
Hasan Ali KhanPublished February 21, 2022 - Updated about 19 hours ago
On Saturday, October 9, 2021, I left Karachi with architect and urban planner Arif Hasan, his research assistant, student interns and a friend to head to the small town of Jhirk in the hope of finding the house where some believe Mohammad Ali Jinnah was born before it was razed to the ground.
The plan was to stop overnight in Makli, a sprawling necropolis and Unesco world heritage site, to see the tombs at night, and then progress to Jhirk the next day.
The road to Thatta is well constructed, and a divided highway for the most part — a far cry from the narrow metalled single-track road we used to take as children. In this, we were retracing our steps from my childhood, when Arif Hasan, also my uncle, habitually took us to Thatta almost every weekend where our family had some lands. This was the first time I was going back to Jhirk since I was eight years old, after nearly 40 years.
A map showing the major routes from Karachi to Jhirk in Thatta district. — Dawn.com
Most landmarks along the route have either been altered or have vanished; it is cleaner and the tiny towns that lined the old road appear more alive and richer. We arrived at the Archaeology Department guest house in Makli where we were received by our host, Sayyid Ghayur Abbas. We rested briefly and then decided to have lunch.
The unmarked road
After lunch, we headed to Jhirk, which is an hour's drive from Keenjhar, where we'd stopped over for lunch, and approached by a deceptively innocuous turn off the highway. Deep into the town, we reached a fork in the road where we asked some men standing around if they knew where Jinnah’s house was.
We were pointed down a side street, which was so narrow that we had to abandon the cars and continue on foot. After passing through the quiet neighbourhood we had to stop a few locals and ask again if they knew where Jinnah’s house was. They produced an elderly Mohana or fisherman, giving the impression that he was a repository of the area’s history.
This gave us hope — that is until he told Arif Hasan that Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s house no longer existed. He knew this because he used to be its caretaker. The house’s ruins had long been razed to the ground and a girls’ school had replaced it. As we heard this, our collective spirits fell. The entire purpose of the trip seemed gutted out.
We turned back, the sadness evident on Arif Hasan’s face. But then, the elderly Mohana suddenly said: “There are other houses here from the same period, especially the mansion of the first Aga Khan Hasan Ali Shah. It’s nearly two hundred years old, as old as Jinnah’s house was. Do you wish to see it?”
The palace in the middle of nowhere
Life seemed to return to the team and as we followed him, just fifty meters away we came upon a well-maintained property with a palatial gate, and a plaque that read: The palace of the first Aga Khan Hasan Ali Shah, date: 1843.
The gate to the Aga Khan palace. — All photos provided by author
A close-up of the plaque atop the gate to the palace.
Our guide, who had been initially hesitant until he saw our deep interest, was apparently employed by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture. He asked us where we were from, and if we were Ismailis. We replied that we were not. He told us that they do not open the place as a rule to anyone but he would do it for us. He proceeded to unlock a small gate at the corner of the property and invited us to step inside. When we lifted our eyes from our feet, after negotiating the raised stoop to cross the threshold, we could not help but exclaim in wonderment.
We found ourselves standing inside what was perhaps the most serene of courtyards for a mansion that had been maintained as a living piece of history. The red brick tile courtyard was built around a well-kept tree grove, which provided dappled shade and a central point to the property.
The mud walls were plastered with an ancient gaara technique of earth mixed with straw or jute fibre or animal hair. Arif Hasan noted that normally, ground seashells would be used to bind the mixture together but that was a luxury in those days. Much to our delight, we did indeed find fragments of seashells embedded in the wall.
Where there were balconies and verandahs in such architecture, timber would be used so that a large opening could be created in the mud walls. And, as we saw, here too timber surfaces were elaborately carved in geometric patterns. An unstable stairwell to the side led to the roof from where we could see the river beyond some fields.
Entrance to the main palace area from the courtyard.
Arif Hasan, his team and our host, as seen from the guest suite adjacent to the courtyard.
Arif Hasan enquired if there were still fish in the river. The caretaker replied that there were and that the fishermen still take their boats up and down the river all the way to Hyderabad and to the coast when they can.
From the roof, we could see the original wind catchers on adjoining roofs, and the alams of an Imambargah. The caretaker told us the entire neighbourhood had been Ismaili in the old days but the alam meant that the neighbourhood was now, to an extent, Twelver Shia, as is the case with many old rural Ismaili neighbourhoods in the country.
Our guide pointed to the school, which had once been Jinnah’s house. All we could see was just one empty plot of land a stone’s throw from the mansion.
Jinnah and the Aga Khan
So the physical proximity between the two — the Aga Khan I and Jinnah — was quite obvious, if indeed both of them had lived here contemporaneously. The local oral history of Jinnah is that he was born in Jhirk in 1876, at around the same time that the first Aga Khan had been living here after arriving from Iran, sometime in the 1840s (the palace was built in 1843 as the plaque announces).
A view of the fields and the river beyond from the roof stairwell of the palace.
The top of the stairwell leading to the roof, with the palace's wind catchers and the alams of the adjoining Imambargah in the background.
A peacock motif carved on columns in the front of the porch of the guest suite.
The Aga Khan I took a special interest in Jinnah’s early upbringing until he passed away when the latter was five years old and also gave him his name ‘Mohammad Ali’. Jinnah was an Ismaili and from an important Ismaili family close to the Aga Khan, we were told.
The Mohana went on to tell us that according to local lore, the Aga Khan I was an ascetic man and possessed spiritual powers. "His arrival blessed our town," he said. "He was a real Sayyid, and you know real Sayyids are special. Sayyids have spiritual powers. This place has spirits guarding the house," he added, implying that this was why the main chambers were locked up.
The Mohana then told us a story: "Once a man came here, just like you. He was snooping around, trying to look inside the locked house chambers and we told him it was not allowed, but he did not listen. Suddenly he got stuck to the window he was trying to look through. Some invisible force had taken over. None of us could pull him away and he kept shouting for help. And then, just as suddenly as it had happened, this force hurled him away with such power that he flew back and landed in the middle of the courtyard. He picked up his things and took off, never to return. This is a true story."
I mulled over the entire episode later on, in light of our observations and what we had learnt.
Of all places, why Jhirk?
The date on the mansion is 1843, which is exactly the year of the British takeover of Sindh and the Aga Khan’s first reported arrival there. How did the Aga Khan have this mansion made in such a short span of time — unless he had arrived earlier, or had sent news of his arrival in advance? Did the mansion belong to another rich Ismaili before and was given to him on arrival? Why did he choose to stay in such a small Ismaili enclave like Jhirk, for he could have gone to Karachi or stayed in Hyderabad, the then capital of Sindh. After all, both cities had much larger Ismaili populations.
Indeed, according to Arif Hasan, there were other small predominantly Ismaili towns in the area, such as Jhimpir, all on the main trade routes. And finally, why, if the reports are correct, was Jinnah’s family, said to be an important Ismaili family, settled in Jhirk, unless there was more to all this than we know.
A locked up Ismaili house on the street leading up to the Aga Khan’s palace.
A close up of a dilapidated old Ismaili house on the street leading up to the Aga Khan's palace.
As we walked back to our cars, we passed many old houses in dilapidated condition, but with the same intricate woodwork. Our guide showed us a large plot of land which he said belonged to the current Aga Khan (no.4) and which had been there since Hasan Ali Shah first arrived in Jhirk.
It was nearly 7pm when we returned to the guest house in Makli where our host Sayyid Ghayur Abbas also spoke at length with Arif Hasan about Jhirk and Jinnah’s house, its legend and reality, historical fact and fantasy.
The mystery of Wazir Mansion
At some point, mention of Sindh's former Secretary for Culture, Tourism and Antiquities, Dr Kaleenullah Lashari, popped up as he had worked on the subject of Jinnah’s birthplace. Arif Hasan recalled Dr Lashari’s work on Wazir Mansion, a house in Kharadar in Karachi, which is touted as Jinnah’s birthplace by state history books in Pakistan.
Dr Lashari presented his work at the annual Karachi Conference in 2017, discrediting the view of Jinnah having been born in Wazir Mansion in Karachi at all. According to his research, in 1880, two houses and a double-storey building existed on the land on which Wazir Mansion was later built. The building postdates Jinnah’s birth.
According to Lashari, a small two-storey structure next to this two-storey building was where Jinnah’s family had initially lived in Karachi. Lashari states that the Sindh government bought the mansion in 1953, declared it a heritage site and termed it Jinnah’s birthplace, which was historically very late. He said that the government has labeled one room in the mansion as, “The room where Jinnah was born”.
According to a report in The Express Tribune, Lashari’s discussion was based on an inquiry into official records. He asserts that Jhirk was also not Jinnah’s birthplace, as he, like other scholars seem to challenge the claim, while others ascribe it to Sindhi nationalists, who wanted to give Jinnah a real ‘Sindhi’ identity.
French historian and anthropologist Michel Boivin told me the same thing when I shared the information with him. Lashari also asserts that Jinnah’s real birthday was not known, which may well be the case.
But in the dates between the first Aga Khan’s death in 1881, which is confirmed, and Jinnah’s own reported birthday in 1876 — as cited by historian Akbar S. Ahmed, in his book Jinnah, Pakistan, and Islamic Identity: The Search for Saladin — and which cannot be off the mark by very much, there is indeed a real overlap between the two personalities.
Hence, the role the first Aga Khan may have played in Jinnah’s early upbringing, directly or directly, if indeed the latter was born in Jhirk in 1876 and lived there afterwards, simply cannot be discounted.
They were obviously neighbours as the placement of their houses reflects, and there would be little chance that the Hazir Imam would not have had a role to play in an important Ismaili neighbour’s house in such a small town in the 19th century — especially after just having arrived there from Iran.
As some would know, this was the first direct contact between an Ismaili Imam based in Iran and the Indian Ismaili community after a break of nearly 400 years.
In 1490, the Ismaili Imamate had severed direct ties with the community in India by discontinuing the office of the deputy or da’i due to a dispute that had occurred between the sons of the last da’i Hasan Kabir al-din (d.1492), who was based in Uch.
Hasan Ali Shah was, after all, on a mission to reestablish his community in India. So were his successors, especially Sultan Muhammad Aga Khan III, who had close ties with Jinnah and who had helped found the Muslim League. Jinnah’s connection to the subsequent Aga Khans is well known, especially Sultan Muhammad Aga Khan III (d. 1957), on whose invitation he moved back from his law practice in London to join the Muslim League.
In spite of the dispute surrounding the actual place of Jinnah’s birth, our local oral history from the caretakers of the first Aga Khan’s mansion, the tallying of the birth dates of the two, Jinnah’s own Ismaili background, and Ghayur Abbas’s reaffirmation of the facts convinced me as an historian that Jinnah may well have been born in Jhirk after all — and must have spent some time there under the auspices of Hasan Ali Shah.
It makes complete sense in light of his reported Ismaili background at birth. In the conversation Arif Hasan and his research assistant had with Ghayur, the latter made it absolutely clear that this was not just his own opinion; everyone who lived around the area believed that Jinnah was unmistakably born in Jhirk and that the matter had been covered up later by the state and certain individuals for various motives — including Jinnah himself, who claimed in 1938 to have been born in Karachi instead — for reasons of political unity.
The Ismaili connection
After the conversation with Ghayur Abbas ended, we ordered food from Makli Grill, which is famous for its fish. I discovered this restaurant in 2014 when an Ismaili from Karachi named Amir Ali Patel had set it up for its patrons after requests from tourists for such a restaurant to be operated in Thatta.
I first met Amir Ali Patel in 2013 at another establishment sought after for its fish, Highway Grill, in Nooriabad on the Karachi-Hyderabad motorway. I was introduced to Amir Ali through Sindhi intellectual and poet Nawaz Ali Shoq who was helping us do field research for the Arzu Center for Vernacular Languages at Habib University and had in turn been introduced to me by Dr Kaleemullah Lashari.
Highway Grill, which serves arguably the best food from Karachi until you reach Multan, became so famous that the entrepreneur from Thatta called Amir Ali Patel over to set up something similar in Malki.
Finally, on our way back Arif Hasan suddenly decided to stop for tea and snacks of all places at Makli Grill. So it was to be. We could not escape the Ismailis on this trip even while trying to leave: the shadows of Hasan Ali Shah, Amir Amir Patel and presumably, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, stayed with us all the way back to Karachi.
As a result of our trip, on the request of Arif Hasan and based on his findings, the Heritage Committee of the Government of Sindh, which includes Dr Kaleemullah Lashari and Hameed Haroon in addition to Arif Hasan, has declared Jhirk a protected site — alas, perhaps a bit too late in this country’s life.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1675250/jhirk ... birthplace
Local lore suggests Jinnah was born in Jhirk in 1876, at around the same time that the first Aga Khan had been living there.
Hasan Ali KhanPublished February 21, 2022 - Updated about 19 hours ago
On Saturday, October 9, 2021, I left Karachi with architect and urban planner Arif Hasan, his research assistant, student interns and a friend to head to the small town of Jhirk in the hope of finding the house where some believe Mohammad Ali Jinnah was born before it was razed to the ground.
The plan was to stop overnight in Makli, a sprawling necropolis and Unesco world heritage site, to see the tombs at night, and then progress to Jhirk the next day.
The road to Thatta is well constructed, and a divided highway for the most part — a far cry from the narrow metalled single-track road we used to take as children. In this, we were retracing our steps from my childhood, when Arif Hasan, also my uncle, habitually took us to Thatta almost every weekend where our family had some lands. This was the first time I was going back to Jhirk since I was eight years old, after nearly 40 years.
A map showing the major routes from Karachi to Jhirk in Thatta district. — Dawn.com
Most landmarks along the route have either been altered or have vanished; it is cleaner and the tiny towns that lined the old road appear more alive and richer. We arrived at the Archaeology Department guest house in Makli where we were received by our host, Sayyid Ghayur Abbas. We rested briefly and then decided to have lunch.
The unmarked road
After lunch, we headed to Jhirk, which is an hour's drive from Keenjhar, where we'd stopped over for lunch, and approached by a deceptively innocuous turn off the highway. Deep into the town, we reached a fork in the road where we asked some men standing around if they knew where Jinnah’s house was.
We were pointed down a side street, which was so narrow that we had to abandon the cars and continue on foot. After passing through the quiet neighbourhood we had to stop a few locals and ask again if they knew where Jinnah’s house was. They produced an elderly Mohana or fisherman, giving the impression that he was a repository of the area’s history.
This gave us hope — that is until he told Arif Hasan that Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s house no longer existed. He knew this because he used to be its caretaker. The house’s ruins had long been razed to the ground and a girls’ school had replaced it. As we heard this, our collective spirits fell. The entire purpose of the trip seemed gutted out.
We turned back, the sadness evident on Arif Hasan’s face. But then, the elderly Mohana suddenly said: “There are other houses here from the same period, especially the mansion of the first Aga Khan Hasan Ali Shah. It’s nearly two hundred years old, as old as Jinnah’s house was. Do you wish to see it?”
The palace in the middle of nowhere
Life seemed to return to the team and as we followed him, just fifty meters away we came upon a well-maintained property with a palatial gate, and a plaque that read: The palace of the first Aga Khan Hasan Ali Shah, date: 1843.
The gate to the Aga Khan palace. — All photos provided by author
A close-up of the plaque atop the gate to the palace.
Our guide, who had been initially hesitant until he saw our deep interest, was apparently employed by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture. He asked us where we were from, and if we were Ismailis. We replied that we were not. He told us that they do not open the place as a rule to anyone but he would do it for us. He proceeded to unlock a small gate at the corner of the property and invited us to step inside. When we lifted our eyes from our feet, after negotiating the raised stoop to cross the threshold, we could not help but exclaim in wonderment.
We found ourselves standing inside what was perhaps the most serene of courtyards for a mansion that had been maintained as a living piece of history. The red brick tile courtyard was built around a well-kept tree grove, which provided dappled shade and a central point to the property.
The mud walls were plastered with an ancient gaara technique of earth mixed with straw or jute fibre or animal hair. Arif Hasan noted that normally, ground seashells would be used to bind the mixture together but that was a luxury in those days. Much to our delight, we did indeed find fragments of seashells embedded in the wall.
Where there were balconies and verandahs in such architecture, timber would be used so that a large opening could be created in the mud walls. And, as we saw, here too timber surfaces were elaborately carved in geometric patterns. An unstable stairwell to the side led to the roof from where we could see the river beyond some fields.
Entrance to the main palace area from the courtyard.
Arif Hasan, his team and our host, as seen from the guest suite adjacent to the courtyard.
Arif Hasan enquired if there were still fish in the river. The caretaker replied that there were and that the fishermen still take their boats up and down the river all the way to Hyderabad and to the coast when they can.
From the roof, we could see the original wind catchers on adjoining roofs, and the alams of an Imambargah. The caretaker told us the entire neighbourhood had been Ismaili in the old days but the alam meant that the neighbourhood was now, to an extent, Twelver Shia, as is the case with many old rural Ismaili neighbourhoods in the country.
Our guide pointed to the school, which had once been Jinnah’s house. All we could see was just one empty plot of land a stone’s throw from the mansion.
Jinnah and the Aga Khan
So the physical proximity between the two — the Aga Khan I and Jinnah — was quite obvious, if indeed both of them had lived here contemporaneously. The local oral history of Jinnah is that he was born in Jhirk in 1876, at around the same time that the first Aga Khan had been living here after arriving from Iran, sometime in the 1840s (the palace was built in 1843 as the plaque announces).
A view of the fields and the river beyond from the roof stairwell of the palace.
The top of the stairwell leading to the roof, with the palace's wind catchers and the alams of the adjoining Imambargah in the background.
A peacock motif carved on columns in the front of the porch of the guest suite.
The Aga Khan I took a special interest in Jinnah’s early upbringing until he passed away when the latter was five years old and also gave him his name ‘Mohammad Ali’. Jinnah was an Ismaili and from an important Ismaili family close to the Aga Khan, we were told.
The Mohana went on to tell us that according to local lore, the Aga Khan I was an ascetic man and possessed spiritual powers. "His arrival blessed our town," he said. "He was a real Sayyid, and you know real Sayyids are special. Sayyids have spiritual powers. This place has spirits guarding the house," he added, implying that this was why the main chambers were locked up.
The Mohana then told us a story: "Once a man came here, just like you. He was snooping around, trying to look inside the locked house chambers and we told him it was not allowed, but he did not listen. Suddenly he got stuck to the window he was trying to look through. Some invisible force had taken over. None of us could pull him away and he kept shouting for help. And then, just as suddenly as it had happened, this force hurled him away with such power that he flew back and landed in the middle of the courtyard. He picked up his things and took off, never to return. This is a true story."
I mulled over the entire episode later on, in light of our observations and what we had learnt.
Of all places, why Jhirk?
The date on the mansion is 1843, which is exactly the year of the British takeover of Sindh and the Aga Khan’s first reported arrival there. How did the Aga Khan have this mansion made in such a short span of time — unless he had arrived earlier, or had sent news of his arrival in advance? Did the mansion belong to another rich Ismaili before and was given to him on arrival? Why did he choose to stay in such a small Ismaili enclave like Jhirk, for he could have gone to Karachi or stayed in Hyderabad, the then capital of Sindh. After all, both cities had much larger Ismaili populations.
Indeed, according to Arif Hasan, there were other small predominantly Ismaili towns in the area, such as Jhimpir, all on the main trade routes. And finally, why, if the reports are correct, was Jinnah’s family, said to be an important Ismaili family, settled in Jhirk, unless there was more to all this than we know.
A locked up Ismaili house on the street leading up to the Aga Khan’s palace.
A close up of a dilapidated old Ismaili house on the street leading up to the Aga Khan's palace.
As we walked back to our cars, we passed many old houses in dilapidated condition, but with the same intricate woodwork. Our guide showed us a large plot of land which he said belonged to the current Aga Khan (no.4) and which had been there since Hasan Ali Shah first arrived in Jhirk.
It was nearly 7pm when we returned to the guest house in Makli where our host Sayyid Ghayur Abbas also spoke at length with Arif Hasan about Jhirk and Jinnah’s house, its legend and reality, historical fact and fantasy.
The mystery of Wazir Mansion
At some point, mention of Sindh's former Secretary for Culture, Tourism and Antiquities, Dr Kaleenullah Lashari, popped up as he had worked on the subject of Jinnah’s birthplace. Arif Hasan recalled Dr Lashari’s work on Wazir Mansion, a house in Kharadar in Karachi, which is touted as Jinnah’s birthplace by state history books in Pakistan.
Dr Lashari presented his work at the annual Karachi Conference in 2017, discrediting the view of Jinnah having been born in Wazir Mansion in Karachi at all. According to his research, in 1880, two houses and a double-storey building existed on the land on which Wazir Mansion was later built. The building postdates Jinnah’s birth.
According to Lashari, a small two-storey structure next to this two-storey building was where Jinnah’s family had initially lived in Karachi. Lashari states that the Sindh government bought the mansion in 1953, declared it a heritage site and termed it Jinnah’s birthplace, which was historically very late. He said that the government has labeled one room in the mansion as, “The room where Jinnah was born”.
According to a report in The Express Tribune, Lashari’s discussion was based on an inquiry into official records. He asserts that Jhirk was also not Jinnah’s birthplace, as he, like other scholars seem to challenge the claim, while others ascribe it to Sindhi nationalists, who wanted to give Jinnah a real ‘Sindhi’ identity.
French historian and anthropologist Michel Boivin told me the same thing when I shared the information with him. Lashari also asserts that Jinnah’s real birthday was not known, which may well be the case.
But in the dates between the first Aga Khan’s death in 1881, which is confirmed, and Jinnah’s own reported birthday in 1876 — as cited by historian Akbar S. Ahmed, in his book Jinnah, Pakistan, and Islamic Identity: The Search for Saladin — and which cannot be off the mark by very much, there is indeed a real overlap between the two personalities.
Hence, the role the first Aga Khan may have played in Jinnah’s early upbringing, directly or directly, if indeed the latter was born in Jhirk in 1876 and lived there afterwards, simply cannot be discounted.
They were obviously neighbours as the placement of their houses reflects, and there would be little chance that the Hazir Imam would not have had a role to play in an important Ismaili neighbour’s house in such a small town in the 19th century — especially after just having arrived there from Iran.
As some would know, this was the first direct contact between an Ismaili Imam based in Iran and the Indian Ismaili community after a break of nearly 400 years.
In 1490, the Ismaili Imamate had severed direct ties with the community in India by discontinuing the office of the deputy or da’i due to a dispute that had occurred between the sons of the last da’i Hasan Kabir al-din (d.1492), who was based in Uch.
Hasan Ali Shah was, after all, on a mission to reestablish his community in India. So were his successors, especially Sultan Muhammad Aga Khan III, who had close ties with Jinnah and who had helped found the Muslim League. Jinnah’s connection to the subsequent Aga Khans is well known, especially Sultan Muhammad Aga Khan III (d. 1957), on whose invitation he moved back from his law practice in London to join the Muslim League.
In spite of the dispute surrounding the actual place of Jinnah’s birth, our local oral history from the caretakers of the first Aga Khan’s mansion, the tallying of the birth dates of the two, Jinnah’s own Ismaili background, and Ghayur Abbas’s reaffirmation of the facts convinced me as an historian that Jinnah may well have been born in Jhirk after all — and must have spent some time there under the auspices of Hasan Ali Shah.
It makes complete sense in light of his reported Ismaili background at birth. In the conversation Arif Hasan and his research assistant had with Ghayur, the latter made it absolutely clear that this was not just his own opinion; everyone who lived around the area believed that Jinnah was unmistakably born in Jhirk and that the matter had been covered up later by the state and certain individuals for various motives — including Jinnah himself, who claimed in 1938 to have been born in Karachi instead — for reasons of political unity.
The Ismaili connection
After the conversation with Ghayur Abbas ended, we ordered food from Makli Grill, which is famous for its fish. I discovered this restaurant in 2014 when an Ismaili from Karachi named Amir Ali Patel had set it up for its patrons after requests from tourists for such a restaurant to be operated in Thatta.
I first met Amir Ali Patel in 2013 at another establishment sought after for its fish, Highway Grill, in Nooriabad on the Karachi-Hyderabad motorway. I was introduced to Amir Ali through Sindhi intellectual and poet Nawaz Ali Shoq who was helping us do field research for the Arzu Center for Vernacular Languages at Habib University and had in turn been introduced to me by Dr Kaleemullah Lashari.
Highway Grill, which serves arguably the best food from Karachi until you reach Multan, became so famous that the entrepreneur from Thatta called Amir Ali Patel over to set up something similar in Malki.
Finally, on our way back Arif Hasan suddenly decided to stop for tea and snacks of all places at Makli Grill. So it was to be. We could not escape the Ismailis on this trip even while trying to leave: the shadows of Hasan Ali Shah, Amir Amir Patel and presumably, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, stayed with us all the way back to Karachi.
As a result of our trip, on the request of Arif Hasan and based on his findings, the Heritage Committee of the Government of Sindh, which includes Dr Kaleemullah Lashari and Hameed Haroon in addition to Arif Hasan, has declared Jhirk a protected site — alas, perhaps a bit too late in this country’s life.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1675250/jhirk ... birthplace
Re: Birth Place Of Muhammad Ali Jinnah Founder Of Pakistan
HISTORY: BECOMING JINNAH
Dr Muhammad Ali Shaikh Published December 25, 2022 Updated about 21 hours ago
School Education
Mohammad Ali Jinnah received his primary education at home. When he turned six, his parents “engaged a teacher to teach him Gujarati at home,” as they were not willing to send their son to school at such a young age, stated his sister Fatima Jinnah in her book My Brother.
From the very beginning, Jinnah loathed mathematics, although his father, Poonja Jinnah, placed the utmost importance on that subject. His first available educational record relates to his admission at the Sindh Madressatul Islam (SMI) on July 4, 1887, where he was admitted to Standard I of the English Branch (secondary education).
According to the records, his sect is mentioned as “KHOJA” and Karachi is listed as his birthplace. In the column under “previous instructions”, it was noted that Jinnah had completed class four (primary education) in Gujarati.
But this admission proved to be short-lived and ended with the recorded remarks: “Left for Bombay.”
The reason for this departure was Jinnah’s paternal aunt, Manbai. Jinnah was very fond of her as “she was a great storyteller”, whose “tales of fairies and the flying carpets; of jinns and dragons” enthralled children, remembered Fatima. When Manbai returned to Bombay, Jinnah also accompanied her. There she got him admitted at the Anjuman-e-Islam School.
But like his previous admission at SMI, this too was short-lived, because Jinnah’s mother could not stand her favourite son being away in Bombay. Jinnah was sent back to Karachi, where he was readmitted to SMI on December 23, 1887. For the first time, his date of birth was recorded in written form as “October 20, 1875” in this entry. He continued to study at SMI till January 5, 1891, when his admission ended due to his “long absence.”
The educational journey of the Quaid-i-Azam has not received adequate scholarly attention. How did a boy educated in Gujarati at home and weak in mathematics end up at the Bar in London? On his 146th birth anniversary, Dr Muhammad Ali Shaikh sheds some light…
Jinnah returned to SMI for a third time on February 9, 1891, where he was admitted to Standard IV. He continued his schooling here till January 30, 1892, when he left SMI for the final time, while studying in Standard V. The reason for leaving the institution was mentioned as “Left for Cutch on marriage.”
After solemnising his marriage with Emi bai in Cutch, Jinnah returned to Karachi and this time got an admission at the Church Mission Society’s (CMS) High School. There he studied from March 8 to October 31, 1892, after which he left his school studies for good while studying in Standard VI, a year short of qualifying for the matriculation examinations.
So how good of a student was Jinnah? Based on all accounts, absences and mathematical weaknesses aside, he was an intelligent and hardworking pupil. His biographer, Hector Bolitho, shared an anecdote told to him by Fatima Bai who lived with Jinnah’s family during his childhood.
She stated, “He was a good boy... We lived, eight of us, in two rooms on the first floor of the house on Newnham Road. At night, when the children were sleeping, he would place a sheet of cardboard against the oil lamp, to shield the eyes of the children from the light. Then he would read and read. One night I went to him and said, ‘You will make yourself ill from so much study’, and he answered, ‘Bai, you know I cannot achieve anything in life unless I work hard.’”
However, Jinnah’s father considered a strong command over mathematics a prerequisite for practising business, and Jinnah’s continued weakness in that subject greatly perturbed him. Due to this, a British business associate of Poonja’s suggested to him that he should send Jinnah to London to work as an apprentice at the head office of Graham’s Shipping and Trading Company. This idea appealed to his father who swiftly sent Jinnah to London, terminating his education in Karachi.
Lincoln’s Inn in London
Jinnah reached London in the winter of 1892-93, and he later recounted that the harsh winter made him gloomy. “I was young and lonely. Far from home: far from my parents. I was in a new country, where life was so different from the life I had known in Karachi,” he told Fatima.
At the office, he was assigned a workstation and entrusted with ledgers to work on. But this did not interest Jinnah. “It did not suit his genius to prepare himself for a business career, where the highest ambition in life was to see that, from year to year, one’s assets exceed one’s liabilities, enabling one to gradually amass a big fortune,” opined Fatima.
Instead of business, Jinnah developed an interest in the lives and ideals of great leaders and was highly inspired by them. He “discovered that many of them had studied for the Bar,” and he decided to pursue law at Lincoln’s Inn, wrote Fatima.
“Fortunately for me, that year was the last when one could obtain admission by passing the examination known at that time as ‘Little Go’... So, I decided to give up my apprenticeship with Grahams and study hard to get through the ‘Little Go,’” Jinnah recalled.
However, there was an obstacle, as the test required clearing a paper in Latin. Jinnah did not know Latin and hence opted to seek an exemption from appearing in that subject. In his hand-written application, dated April 25, 1893, he wrote, “Having learnt that I shall be examined in the Latin Language, I request you in this petition to grant me dispensation for the following reasons: (I) Being a native of India I have never been taught this language. (II) I know several Indian languages, which we are required to learn as our classics or second languages. (III) Thus, having spent my time in learning other languages…, I have not been able to learn the Latin language and which if I am compelled to learn will take some years to pass the required exam.”
His request was granted and he passed the test. Accordingly, he was admitted to the Inn on June 5, 1893. His admission entry reads, “Muhamedali Jinnabhoy, of Karachi, India (19), i.s. Jinnabhoy of Karachi, Sindh, India, afsd., merchant,” where “(19)” denoted his age, while “i.s.” meant that he was the first son of his father.
This change in career plans greatly upset Jinnah’s father, who insisted that he should “give up this unprofitable pursuit and return home immediately.” But Jinnah pleaded with his father to “allow him to remain in England and to complete his studies for the Bar,” Fatima wrote.
Once on his chosen path, Jinnah fully devoted himself to his studies. He became an avid reader, frequenting libraries while also amassing a vast collection of books himself. He used to write his name on some of his personal books. On one such book he wrote, “This book is mine till I am dead. Steal not this for fear of shame. So, here’s the owner’s name. M.A. Jinnah, 10 September 1895.”
His teachers quickly developed a very favourable opinion of him. One of them, Sir Howard Elphinstone, remarked that he was “an able man and likely to do well in anything that he turns his attention to.” Another instructor, Barrister Douglas Edwards, wrote that Jinnah “displayed much diligence, quickness and intelligence,” which led him to form a “favourable opinion as to his intellectual ability.”
Towards the end of his studies at the Inn, Jinnah decided to drop the suffix ‘bhai’ from his surname Jinnabhai. In his application dated March 30, 1896, he wrote that he was “desirous of dropping the ending of my name, namely bhai, meaning Mr…. It being customary in India, at the time of my admission, I happened to give the name after that fashion… The name should be M.A. Jinnah and in full Mahomed Alli Jinnah.” His request was approved, and the name was modified accordingly.
Equipped with a Bar at Law from Lincoln’s Inn, Jinnah returned to Karachi in the summer of 1896, ready for an onward journey to Bombay, to embark upon the next phase of his life.
The writer is author of Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah: Education, Struggle and Achievements and a former vice-chancellor. He tweets @DrMAliShaikh.
Published in Dawn, EOS, December 25th, 2022
https://www.dawn.com/news/1728170/histo ... ing-jinnah
Dr Muhammad Ali Shaikh Published December 25, 2022 Updated about 21 hours ago
School Education
Mohammad Ali Jinnah received his primary education at home. When he turned six, his parents “engaged a teacher to teach him Gujarati at home,” as they were not willing to send their son to school at such a young age, stated his sister Fatima Jinnah in her book My Brother.
From the very beginning, Jinnah loathed mathematics, although his father, Poonja Jinnah, placed the utmost importance on that subject. His first available educational record relates to his admission at the Sindh Madressatul Islam (SMI) on July 4, 1887, where he was admitted to Standard I of the English Branch (secondary education).
According to the records, his sect is mentioned as “KHOJA” and Karachi is listed as his birthplace. In the column under “previous instructions”, it was noted that Jinnah had completed class four (primary education) in Gujarati.
But this admission proved to be short-lived and ended with the recorded remarks: “Left for Bombay.”
The reason for this departure was Jinnah’s paternal aunt, Manbai. Jinnah was very fond of her as “she was a great storyteller”, whose “tales of fairies and the flying carpets; of jinns and dragons” enthralled children, remembered Fatima. When Manbai returned to Bombay, Jinnah also accompanied her. There she got him admitted at the Anjuman-e-Islam School.
But like his previous admission at SMI, this too was short-lived, because Jinnah’s mother could not stand her favourite son being away in Bombay. Jinnah was sent back to Karachi, where he was readmitted to SMI on December 23, 1887. For the first time, his date of birth was recorded in written form as “October 20, 1875” in this entry. He continued to study at SMI till January 5, 1891, when his admission ended due to his “long absence.”
The educational journey of the Quaid-i-Azam has not received adequate scholarly attention. How did a boy educated in Gujarati at home and weak in mathematics end up at the Bar in London? On his 146th birth anniversary, Dr Muhammad Ali Shaikh sheds some light…
Jinnah returned to SMI for a third time on February 9, 1891, where he was admitted to Standard IV. He continued his schooling here till January 30, 1892, when he left SMI for the final time, while studying in Standard V. The reason for leaving the institution was mentioned as “Left for Cutch on marriage.”
After solemnising his marriage with Emi bai in Cutch, Jinnah returned to Karachi and this time got an admission at the Church Mission Society’s (CMS) High School. There he studied from March 8 to October 31, 1892, after which he left his school studies for good while studying in Standard VI, a year short of qualifying for the matriculation examinations.
So how good of a student was Jinnah? Based on all accounts, absences and mathematical weaknesses aside, he was an intelligent and hardworking pupil. His biographer, Hector Bolitho, shared an anecdote told to him by Fatima Bai who lived with Jinnah’s family during his childhood.
She stated, “He was a good boy... We lived, eight of us, in two rooms on the first floor of the house on Newnham Road. At night, when the children were sleeping, he would place a sheet of cardboard against the oil lamp, to shield the eyes of the children from the light. Then he would read and read. One night I went to him and said, ‘You will make yourself ill from so much study’, and he answered, ‘Bai, you know I cannot achieve anything in life unless I work hard.’”
However, Jinnah’s father considered a strong command over mathematics a prerequisite for practising business, and Jinnah’s continued weakness in that subject greatly perturbed him. Due to this, a British business associate of Poonja’s suggested to him that he should send Jinnah to London to work as an apprentice at the head office of Graham’s Shipping and Trading Company. This idea appealed to his father who swiftly sent Jinnah to London, terminating his education in Karachi.
Lincoln’s Inn in London
Jinnah reached London in the winter of 1892-93, and he later recounted that the harsh winter made him gloomy. “I was young and lonely. Far from home: far from my parents. I was in a new country, where life was so different from the life I had known in Karachi,” he told Fatima.
At the office, he was assigned a workstation and entrusted with ledgers to work on. But this did not interest Jinnah. “It did not suit his genius to prepare himself for a business career, where the highest ambition in life was to see that, from year to year, one’s assets exceed one’s liabilities, enabling one to gradually amass a big fortune,” opined Fatima.
Instead of business, Jinnah developed an interest in the lives and ideals of great leaders and was highly inspired by them. He “discovered that many of them had studied for the Bar,” and he decided to pursue law at Lincoln’s Inn, wrote Fatima.
“Fortunately for me, that year was the last when one could obtain admission by passing the examination known at that time as ‘Little Go’... So, I decided to give up my apprenticeship with Grahams and study hard to get through the ‘Little Go,’” Jinnah recalled.
However, there was an obstacle, as the test required clearing a paper in Latin. Jinnah did not know Latin and hence opted to seek an exemption from appearing in that subject. In his hand-written application, dated April 25, 1893, he wrote, “Having learnt that I shall be examined in the Latin Language, I request you in this petition to grant me dispensation for the following reasons: (I) Being a native of India I have never been taught this language. (II) I know several Indian languages, which we are required to learn as our classics or second languages. (III) Thus, having spent my time in learning other languages…, I have not been able to learn the Latin language and which if I am compelled to learn will take some years to pass the required exam.”
His request was granted and he passed the test. Accordingly, he was admitted to the Inn on June 5, 1893. His admission entry reads, “Muhamedali Jinnabhoy, of Karachi, India (19), i.s. Jinnabhoy of Karachi, Sindh, India, afsd., merchant,” where “(19)” denoted his age, while “i.s.” meant that he was the first son of his father.
This change in career plans greatly upset Jinnah’s father, who insisted that he should “give up this unprofitable pursuit and return home immediately.” But Jinnah pleaded with his father to “allow him to remain in England and to complete his studies for the Bar,” Fatima wrote.
Once on his chosen path, Jinnah fully devoted himself to his studies. He became an avid reader, frequenting libraries while also amassing a vast collection of books himself. He used to write his name on some of his personal books. On one such book he wrote, “This book is mine till I am dead. Steal not this for fear of shame. So, here’s the owner’s name. M.A. Jinnah, 10 September 1895.”
His teachers quickly developed a very favourable opinion of him. One of them, Sir Howard Elphinstone, remarked that he was “an able man and likely to do well in anything that he turns his attention to.” Another instructor, Barrister Douglas Edwards, wrote that Jinnah “displayed much diligence, quickness and intelligence,” which led him to form a “favourable opinion as to his intellectual ability.”
Towards the end of his studies at the Inn, Jinnah decided to drop the suffix ‘bhai’ from his surname Jinnabhai. In his application dated March 30, 1896, he wrote that he was “desirous of dropping the ending of my name, namely bhai, meaning Mr…. It being customary in India, at the time of my admission, I happened to give the name after that fashion… The name should be M.A. Jinnah and in full Mahomed Alli Jinnah.” His request was approved, and the name was modified accordingly.
Equipped with a Bar at Law from Lincoln’s Inn, Jinnah returned to Karachi in the summer of 1896, ready for an onward journey to Bombay, to embark upon the next phase of his life.
The writer is author of Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah: Education, Struggle and Achievements and a former vice-chancellor. He tweets @DrMAliShaikh.
Published in Dawn, EOS, December 25th, 2022
https://www.dawn.com/news/1728170/histo ... ing-jinnah
Re: Birth Place Of Muhammad Ali Jinnah Founder Of Pakistan
Jinnah, Pakistan and Islamic Identity
The Search for Saladin
By AKBAR S. AHMED
Routledge
Read the Review
Understanding Jinnah
God cannot alter the past, but historians can.
(Samuel Butler)
Although by now called the Quaid-i-Azam, the Great Leader, Jinnah never courted titles. He had refused a knighthood and even a doctorate from his favourite 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 they found him too Westernized, others because he was too straight and uncompromising. One young man, motivated by religious fervour and belonging to the 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 in wounding him before he was overpowered. Jinnah publicly appealed to his followers and friends to 'remain calm and cool' (Wolpert 1984: 225). The League declared 13 August a day of thanksgiving throughout India.
In 1940 Jinnah presided over the League meeting in which the Lahore Resolution was moved calling for a separate Muslim homeland. In 1945-6 the Muslim League triumphed in the general elections. The League was widely recognized as the third force in India along with the Congress and the British. Even Jinnah's opponents now acknowledged him: Gandhi addressed him as Quaid-i-Azam. The Muslim masses throughout India were now with him, seeing in him 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 the gravity of Jinnah's illness. Many years later Mountbatten confessed that had he known he would have delayed matters until Jinnah was dead; there would have been no Pakistan.
There were several dramatic twists and turns on the way to Pakistan, with Jinnah trying to negotiate the best possible terms to satisfy the high expectations and emotions of the Muslims. Pakistan was finally conceded in the summer 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 seminal speeches to the Constituent Assembly on 11 and 14 August (see chapter 7). Suddenly, at the height of his popularity, Jinnah resigned the presidency of the League.
Despite his legendary reserve and the seriousness of his position, Jinnah retained his quiet sense of humour. As Governor-General, when he was almost worshipped in Pakistan, he was told that a certain young lady had said she was in love with his hands (Bolitho 1954: 213). Shortly afterwards, she was seated near him at a function, and Jinnah mischievously asked her not to keep looking at his hands. The lady was both thrilled and embarrassed at having amused the Quaid-i-Azam.
By now his health was seriously impaired. He was suffering from tuberculosis, and his heavy smoking -- fifty cigarettes a day of his favourite brand, 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 deep mourning (see plates 4 and 15). Quite spontaneously, hundreds of thousands of people joined the burial procession -- a million people, it was estimated. They felt like orphans; their father had died. Dina, on her only visit to Pakistan, recalls 'the tremendous hysteria and grief'.
The grief was genuine. Those present at the burial itself or those who heard the news still look back on that occasion as a defining moment in their lives. They felt an indefinable sense of loss, as if the light had gone out of their lives. (As a typical example take the case of Sartaj Aziz, a distinguished Pakistani statesman. He remembers the impact that hearing of Jinnah's death had on him. He had fainting fits for three days. His mother said that he did not respond in the same manner to his own father's death.) A magnificent mausoleum in Karachi was built to honour Jinnah.
The role of Jinnah's family
The closest members of Jinnah's family were his sister Fatima, his wife Ruttie and their daughter, their only child, Dina. Ruttie and Dina are problematic for many Pakistanis, especially for sociological and cultural reasons. For the founder of the nation -- the Islamic Republic of Pakistan -- to have married a Parsee appears inexplicable to most Pakistanis. Jinnah's orthodox critics taunted 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 the sake 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 a Christian. Because she did not go to live in Pakistan Dina is regarded as 'disloyal'. Pakistanis have blotted out Ruttie and Dina from their cultural and historical consciousness. Thus Professor Sharif al Mujahid, a conscientious and sympathetic biographer and former director of the Quaid-i-Azam Academy in Karachi, does not mention either woman in his 806-page volume (1981). Nor did the archives, pictorial exhibitions and official publications contain more than the odd picture of the two. Someone appears to have been busy eliminating their photographs.
It is almost taboo to discuss Jinnah's personal life in Pakistan; Ruttie and Dina, his beloved wife and daughter, have both been blacked out from history. None the less, it is through a study of his family that we see Jinnah the man and understand him more than at any other point in his life because that is when he exposes his inner feelings to us
Fatima's behaviour echoed that of her brother. Zeenat Rashid, daughter of Sir Abdullah Haroon, a leader of Sind who was one of Jinnah's followers, said that although the Jinnahs stayed in her family home in Karachi for weeks at a time there was never a hint of moral or financial impropriety. They would never accept presents; indeed no one would dare to give any. There was no lavish spending at government expense. On the contrary, the joke was that when Fatima Jinnah was in charge of the Governor-General's house after the creation of Pakistan the suppliers would be in dismay. 'She has ordered half a dozen bananas ... or half a dozen oranges because six people will have lurch,' they would moan. The ADCs would ring Zeenat Rashid and say they wished to come to her house for a good meal; they were hungry. Jinnah's broad Muslim platform was also echoed by his sister years after his death, as quoted by Liaquat Merchant: 'I said, "Miss Jinnah even you are born a Shia." To this she remarked, "I am not a Shia, I am not a Sunni, I am a Mussalman." She also added that the Prophet of Islam has given us Muslim Religion and not Sectarian Religion' (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. To challenge a military dictator is a commendable act of courage in Pakistan. She came 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 dishonoured the memory of her brother by the use of martial law, and by corruption and mismanagement. The strain of the campaign hastened her end and she died in 1967, just after the elections, at the age of 74. She is buried within the precincts of Jinnah's mausoleum in Karachi. Fatima Jinnah remains an unsung heroine of the Pakistan movement. A fierce nationalist, a determined woman of integrity and principle, she reflected the characteristics of her brother.
(C) 1997 Akbar S. Ahmed All rights reserved. ISBN: 0-415-14965-7
The Search for Saladin
By AKBAR S. AHMED
Routledge
Read the Review
Understanding Jinnah
God cannot alter the past, but historians can.
(Samuel Butler)
Although by now called the Quaid-i-Azam, the Great Leader, Jinnah never courted titles. He had refused a knighthood and even a doctorate from his favourite 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 they found him too Westernized, others because he was too straight and uncompromising. One young man, motivated by religious fervour and belonging to the 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 in wounding him before he was overpowered. Jinnah publicly appealed to his followers and friends to 'remain calm and cool' (Wolpert 1984: 225). The League declared 13 August a day of thanksgiving throughout India.
In 1940 Jinnah presided over the League meeting in which the Lahore Resolution was moved calling for a separate Muslim homeland. In 1945-6 the Muslim League triumphed in the general elections. The League was widely recognized as the third force in India along with the Congress and the British. Even Jinnah's opponents now acknowledged him: Gandhi addressed him as Quaid-i-Azam. The Muslim masses throughout India were now with him, seeing in him 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 the gravity of Jinnah's illness. Many years later Mountbatten confessed that had he known he would have delayed matters until Jinnah was dead; there would have been no Pakistan.
There were several dramatic twists and turns on the way to Pakistan, with Jinnah trying to negotiate the best possible terms to satisfy the high expectations and emotions of the Muslims. Pakistan was finally conceded in the summer 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 seminal speeches to the Constituent Assembly on 11 and 14 August (see chapter 7). Suddenly, at the height of his popularity, Jinnah resigned the presidency of the League.
Despite his legendary reserve and the seriousness of his position, Jinnah retained his quiet sense of humour. As Governor-General, when he was almost worshipped in Pakistan, he was told that a certain young lady had said she was in love with his hands (Bolitho 1954: 213). Shortly afterwards, she was seated near him at a function, and Jinnah mischievously asked her not to keep looking at his hands. The lady was both thrilled and embarrassed at having amused the Quaid-i-Azam.
By now his health was seriously impaired. He was suffering from tuberculosis, and his heavy smoking -- fifty cigarettes a day of his favourite brand, 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 deep mourning (see plates 4 and 15). Quite spontaneously, hundreds of thousands of people joined the burial procession -- a million people, it was estimated. They felt like orphans; their father had died. Dina, on her only visit to Pakistan, recalls 'the tremendous hysteria and grief'.
The grief was genuine. Those present at the burial itself or those who heard the news still look back on that occasion as a defining moment in their lives. They felt an indefinable sense of loss, as if the light had gone out of their lives. (As a typical example take the case of Sartaj Aziz, a distinguished Pakistani statesman. He remembers the impact that hearing of Jinnah's death had on him. He had fainting fits for three days. His mother said that he did not respond in the same manner to his own father's death.) A magnificent mausoleum in Karachi was built to honour Jinnah.
The role of Jinnah's family
The closest members of Jinnah's family were his sister Fatima, his wife Ruttie and their daughter, their only child, Dina. Ruttie and Dina are problematic for many Pakistanis, especially for sociological and cultural reasons. For the founder of the nation -- the Islamic Republic of Pakistan -- to have married a Parsee appears inexplicable to most Pakistanis. Jinnah's orthodox critics taunted 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 the sake 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 a Christian. Because she did not go to live in Pakistan Dina is regarded as 'disloyal'. Pakistanis have blotted out Ruttie and Dina from their cultural and historical consciousness. Thus Professor Sharif al Mujahid, a conscientious and sympathetic biographer and former director of the Quaid-i-Azam Academy in Karachi, does not mention either woman in his 806-page volume (1981). Nor did the archives, pictorial exhibitions and official publications contain more than the odd picture of the two. Someone appears to have been busy eliminating their photographs.
It is almost taboo to discuss Jinnah's personal life in Pakistan; Ruttie and Dina, his beloved wife and daughter, have both been blacked out from history. None the less, it is through a study of his family that we see Jinnah the man and understand him more than at any other point in his life because that is when he exposes his inner feelings to us
Fatima's behaviour echoed that of her brother. Zeenat Rashid, daughter of Sir Abdullah Haroon, a leader of Sind who was one of Jinnah's followers, said that although the Jinnahs stayed in her family home in Karachi for weeks at a time there was never a hint of moral or financial impropriety. They would never accept presents; indeed no one would dare to give any. There was no lavish spending at government expense. On the contrary, the joke was that when Fatima Jinnah was in charge of the Governor-General's house after the creation of Pakistan the suppliers would be in dismay. 'She has ordered half a dozen bananas ... or half a dozen oranges because six people will have lurch,' they would moan. The ADCs would ring Zeenat Rashid and say they wished to come to her house for a good meal; they were hungry. Jinnah's broad Muslim platform was also echoed by his sister years after his death, as quoted by Liaquat Merchant: 'I said, "Miss Jinnah even you are born a Shia." To this she remarked, "I am not a Shia, I am not a Sunni, I am a Mussalman." She also added that the Prophet of Islam has given us Muslim Religion and not Sectarian Religion' (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. To challenge a military dictator is a commendable act of courage in Pakistan. She came 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 dishonoured the memory of her brother by the use of martial law, and by corruption and mismanagement. The strain of the campaign hastened her end and she died in 1967, just after the elections, at the age of 74. She is buried within the precincts of Jinnah's mausoleum in Karachi. Fatima Jinnah remains an unsung heroine of the Pakistan movement. A fierce nationalist, a determined woman of integrity and principle, she reflected the characteristics of her brother.
(C) 1997 Akbar S. Ahmed All rights reserved. ISBN: 0-415-14965-7
Re: Birth Place Of Muhammad Ali Jinnah Founder Of Pakistan
Learning from Jinnah
Ambreen Arshad Published December 23, 2023 Updated 2 days ago
In a world where many nations and people long for peace, human rights, freedom and good governance, we, as Pakistanis, are fortunate enough to enjoy most of these most of the time. And while we cannot claim to be the reason for the freedom we have as a nation, it is unfortunate that we are behind all that we lack today.
A free nation was handed over to us by the struggles of our freedom fighters, especially Mohammad Ali Jinnah, but all that was done to turn that promising free country into a state that is still struggling is our fault. We have not been able to bring prosperity and progress to our country because we could not follow the examples of the leaders who made this nation. We had such lofty personalities, possessing great integrity, discipline and selfless dedication, whose teachings and footsteps we simply had to follow to prosper. But we failed them. We failed ourselves and our country.
I know it sounds very pessimistic, but this is the reality, and one can only progress through accepting the reality, owning one’s mistakes and learning from failures. We need to look into what we are doing wrong today. This can be best done by looking at what our great leaders did right and what personality traits they possessed that made them follow the right path and do the right things. And who better do we have than our great Quaid-i-Azam, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, who was admired and respected by both his friends and rivals for the great personality traits that he possessed. Even those who did not agree with him politically, did admire him as a person and vouched for his character.
Let us look into some of the personality traits that made him such a charismatic and influential leader who left a great mark in history. While we are doing so, let us also ask ourselves if we possess any of these noble qualities, and do our leaders today reflect any of the admirable character traits of Jinnah?
A selfless leader
As a statesman, leader and the driving force behind the creation of Pakistan, Mohammad Ali Jinnah was a selfless visionary who always acted for the greater good rather than for personal gains. He, like most of the leaders with him and others who supported the newly-created nation of Pakistan, gave up and contributed so much personally and financially.
Not caring for his health, wealth, or personal life, Jinnah worked tirelessly till the end to make sure the Muslims of the Subcontinent had a free country of their own and the people of the nascent nation enjoyed liberty, justice and peace.
Alas, today we first think of what we can gain from any act before taking even a single step. And if we have little to gain but others will benefit more from it, we step back because we have stopped caring for our fellow countrymen, for the greater good. We have become selfish and self-engrossed — unconcerned about what is happening around us until it starts to affect us.
We need to realise that until everyone around us progresses, until our nation as a whole progresses, our progress is meaningless. Until everyone gets their rights, we cannot hope to get our rights too.
A man of character
One of the first impressions that come to mind on hearing the name Muhammad Ali Jinnah, is that of a man of integrity, principles, incorruptibility and honour, among many other such noble characteristics.
He maintained a high standard of personal and political ethics that earned him admirers not just among his friends, supporters and fellow leaders, but his integrity too was never questioned by even his opponents.
British economist and editor, H.V. Hudson writes about Quaid’s character in his book The Great Divide: “Not even his political enemies ever accused Jinnah of corruption or self-seeking. He could be bought by no one, and for no price. Nor was he in the least degree weathercock, swinging in the wind of popularity or changing the times. He was a steadfast idealist as well as a man of scrupulous honour.”
Today, there are few, if not none, among us who is free from corruption or self-seeking acts that undermine the progress of our nation.
A pillar of courage and resilience
Like all nations who gained independence, Pakistan too faced many challenges in its creation. It was Jinnah’s courage, determination and resilience that made him face all opposition during the struggle for Pakistan’s creation.
When his political journey witnessed many ups and downs, when his values and principles were a target of criticism and opposition from different communities, it was his courage and resilience that made him face it all without deviating from his goal.
I believe we do have resilience as a nation, since we manage to rise and survive despite the many problems we face, both from internal and external forces. If we combine our reliance with the courage to stand up for our rights and what is right, we too can rise above our circumstances and prosper.
Commitment to equality
Equality and social justice were the cornerstones of all that Jinnah worked for. He envisioned not just a free land for the Muslims of the Subcontinent to live, but a nation where all citizens, regardless of their religious or ethnic backgrounds, would have equal rights and opportunities.
It is a pity that this vision of our dear Quaid remains unfulfilled. But by realising that until each one of us gets all the rights they deserve, we too will not be able to get all the rights we should have. So we must ensure to raise our voice for the rights of others, so that our rights too are ensured.
A visionary and steadfast leader
Jinnah’s clear vision for the creation of a separate nation for Muslims in the Indian subcontinent was what led him to be undeterred in the pursuit for the establishment of Pakistan in 1947.
As a visionary leader with lofty aims he was able to inspire others to give their best and stand strong in the face of opposition, since he remained steadfast in his mission. He led by example, but slowly, with the passage of time, we are losing sight of the examples he set for us to follow. Individually, we do have the characteristics that are needed in the citizens of any great country, but we fail to come together as a nation due to the absence of a leader who can unite and lead us out of the mess we are in.
But the good part is that our condition today, as citizens of an independent country, is not as bad as of the oppressed Muslims under colonial rule who followed Jinnah. What is missing is a leader who can inspire and unite us, make us think beyond our personal interests to work for the betterment of Pakistan.
Our leaders today are simply a reflection of our own selves, they rise from us and so they represent us. What they lack is what we lack. So what they need to possess is what we need to possess too. So let us cultivate the qualities that our Quaid embodied, let us follow his footsteps and take our nation out of the problems we are in today.
Published in Dawn, Young World, December 23rd, 2023
https://www.dawn.com/news/1799548/learning-from-jinnah
Ambreen Arshad Published December 23, 2023 Updated 2 days ago
In a world where many nations and people long for peace, human rights, freedom and good governance, we, as Pakistanis, are fortunate enough to enjoy most of these most of the time. And while we cannot claim to be the reason for the freedom we have as a nation, it is unfortunate that we are behind all that we lack today.
A free nation was handed over to us by the struggles of our freedom fighters, especially Mohammad Ali Jinnah, but all that was done to turn that promising free country into a state that is still struggling is our fault. We have not been able to bring prosperity and progress to our country because we could not follow the examples of the leaders who made this nation. We had such lofty personalities, possessing great integrity, discipline and selfless dedication, whose teachings and footsteps we simply had to follow to prosper. But we failed them. We failed ourselves and our country.
I know it sounds very pessimistic, but this is the reality, and one can only progress through accepting the reality, owning one’s mistakes and learning from failures. We need to look into what we are doing wrong today. This can be best done by looking at what our great leaders did right and what personality traits they possessed that made them follow the right path and do the right things. And who better do we have than our great Quaid-i-Azam, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, who was admired and respected by both his friends and rivals for the great personality traits that he possessed. Even those who did not agree with him politically, did admire him as a person and vouched for his character.
Let us look into some of the personality traits that made him such a charismatic and influential leader who left a great mark in history. While we are doing so, let us also ask ourselves if we possess any of these noble qualities, and do our leaders today reflect any of the admirable character traits of Jinnah?
A selfless leader
As a statesman, leader and the driving force behind the creation of Pakistan, Mohammad Ali Jinnah was a selfless visionary who always acted for the greater good rather than for personal gains. He, like most of the leaders with him and others who supported the newly-created nation of Pakistan, gave up and contributed so much personally and financially.
Not caring for his health, wealth, or personal life, Jinnah worked tirelessly till the end to make sure the Muslims of the Subcontinent had a free country of their own and the people of the nascent nation enjoyed liberty, justice and peace.
Alas, today we first think of what we can gain from any act before taking even a single step. And if we have little to gain but others will benefit more from it, we step back because we have stopped caring for our fellow countrymen, for the greater good. We have become selfish and self-engrossed — unconcerned about what is happening around us until it starts to affect us.
We need to realise that until everyone around us progresses, until our nation as a whole progresses, our progress is meaningless. Until everyone gets their rights, we cannot hope to get our rights too.
A man of character
One of the first impressions that come to mind on hearing the name Muhammad Ali Jinnah, is that of a man of integrity, principles, incorruptibility and honour, among many other such noble characteristics.
He maintained a high standard of personal and political ethics that earned him admirers not just among his friends, supporters and fellow leaders, but his integrity too was never questioned by even his opponents.
British economist and editor, H.V. Hudson writes about Quaid’s character in his book The Great Divide: “Not even his political enemies ever accused Jinnah of corruption or self-seeking. He could be bought by no one, and for no price. Nor was he in the least degree weathercock, swinging in the wind of popularity or changing the times. He was a steadfast idealist as well as a man of scrupulous honour.”
Today, there are few, if not none, among us who is free from corruption or self-seeking acts that undermine the progress of our nation.
A pillar of courage and resilience
Like all nations who gained independence, Pakistan too faced many challenges in its creation. It was Jinnah’s courage, determination and resilience that made him face all opposition during the struggle for Pakistan’s creation.
When his political journey witnessed many ups and downs, when his values and principles were a target of criticism and opposition from different communities, it was his courage and resilience that made him face it all without deviating from his goal.
I believe we do have resilience as a nation, since we manage to rise and survive despite the many problems we face, both from internal and external forces. If we combine our reliance with the courage to stand up for our rights and what is right, we too can rise above our circumstances and prosper.
Commitment to equality
Equality and social justice were the cornerstones of all that Jinnah worked for. He envisioned not just a free land for the Muslims of the Subcontinent to live, but a nation where all citizens, regardless of their religious or ethnic backgrounds, would have equal rights and opportunities.
It is a pity that this vision of our dear Quaid remains unfulfilled. But by realising that until each one of us gets all the rights they deserve, we too will not be able to get all the rights we should have. So we must ensure to raise our voice for the rights of others, so that our rights too are ensured.
A visionary and steadfast leader
Jinnah’s clear vision for the creation of a separate nation for Muslims in the Indian subcontinent was what led him to be undeterred in the pursuit for the establishment of Pakistan in 1947.
As a visionary leader with lofty aims he was able to inspire others to give their best and stand strong in the face of opposition, since he remained steadfast in his mission. He led by example, but slowly, with the passage of time, we are losing sight of the examples he set for us to follow. Individually, we do have the characteristics that are needed in the citizens of any great country, but we fail to come together as a nation due to the absence of a leader who can unite and lead us out of the mess we are in.
But the good part is that our condition today, as citizens of an independent country, is not as bad as of the oppressed Muslims under colonial rule who followed Jinnah. What is missing is a leader who can inspire and unite us, make us think beyond our personal interests to work for the betterment of Pakistan.
Our leaders today are simply a reflection of our own selves, they rise from us and so they represent us. What they lack is what we lack. So what they need to possess is what we need to possess too. So let us cultivate the qualities that our Quaid embodied, let us follow his footsteps and take our nation out of the problems we are in today.
Published in Dawn, Young World, December 23rd, 2023
https://www.dawn.com/news/1799548/learning-from-jinnah
Re: Birth Place Of Muhammad Ali Jinnah Founder Of Pakistan
"Mr Jinnah's actions were secular"
Published in Nov-Dec 2013 Mamun M. Adil
Murtaza Solangi, former DG, Radio Pakistan, speaks about Mr Jinnah’s tapes and his vision for Pakistan.
MAMUN M. ADIL: How did you become involved with the Jinnah tapes?
MURTAZA SOLANGI: I joined Radio Pakistan as Director General in June 2008 and while there, I started going through the archived tapes. Mr Jinnah was a subject of interest to me and I went through most of the analogue tapes of his speeches. Very few were digitised, and I was told that since there was no recording facility in Karachi in 1947, a team of engineers from All India Radio in Delhi had been sent to Karachi to record the June 3, August 11 and 14 speeches. However, I only found the June 3 and August 14 speeches, which dealt with the Partition Plan and Transfer of Power respectively. I initiated the digitisation of the analogue tapes, and had the speeches uploaded on Radio Pakistan’s YouTube channel in 2011, along with about 300 other recordings.
MMA: Given that the June 3 and August 14 speeches were made public two years ago, why have they been in the news recently?
MS: Because All India Radio released the master copies of the tapes recently. The quality of their tapes is better than the ones we had.
MMA: What do you think is the impact of the June 3 speech?
MS: Not too much; the June 3 speech gives clues regarding Mr Jinnah’s central thinking of not creating a theocratic state; the August 14 speech says it better. It is important because Mr Jinnah talks about Akbar the Great and the Prophet (PBUH) during whose time Jews and Christians were accorded the same status and respect as Muslims. However, the August 11 speech is the most important of them all.
MMA: What attempts did you make to retrieve the August 11 speech?
MS: I emailed the BBC in London and they replied that they did not have it, but it is still possible that there is a copy somewhere; All India Radio may have a copy. I am still making an effort to recover it. My suspicion is that somebody destroyed the tape in Pakistan.
In this speech Mr Jinnah said, “You are free to go to your temples…” and that religion has nothing to do with the state. I spoke to many people who worked under Zia-ul-Haq and according to them, as well as several books and reports, the tapes had been taken from the Radio Pakistan archives and destroyed.
MMA: Why would they do that?
MS: Because of the content. In this speech Mr Jinnah said, “You are free to go to your temples…” and that religion has nothing to do with the state. I spoke to many people who worked under Zia-ul-Haq and according to them, as well as several books and reports, the tapes had been taken from the Radio Pakistan archives and destroyed. Mr Jinnah was a secular person. The original speech that he was supposed to read on August 14, during the transfer of power, had religious phrases such as “so help me God” but Mr Jinnah chose not to read out these phrases. His actions were also secular. For example, just before the creation of Pakistan, Mr Jogindernath Mandal, a scheduled cast Hindu from East Pakistan, was inducted into the Constituent Assembly and was given the important portfolio of Minister of Law. If Pakistan was going to be an Islamic, theocratic state how could the ministry of law be headed by a Hindu? That is why I feel that the tape was destroyed – because of its content.
MMA: What would the impact of the August 11 recording be if it was found?
MS: To be honest, even if Mr Jinnah rose from his grave and made the speech it would probably not make much difference today. The powerful religious lobbies and those that have militant wings and the power to coerce people would probably lynch Mr Jinnah today if he was alive. That said, the speech is important because of its historic significance – it would refute the lies by some politicians and historians who project that he wanted a theocratic state. The speech also has historic value. The other day, Geo did an enactment of it in Urdu – and someone asked me if it was authentic and I told them it was originally in English. The speech would definitely help people who believe in Mr Jinnah’s vision of a pluralist and democratic Pakistani state. It would be an important tool for people who believe the founder of their country did not want a theocratic state but one where every citizen is treated equally. I am still searching for it by contacting people in Pakistan and India, and I am also fighting for that vision by raising my voice on various forums.
MMA: Did you come across any other tapes during the digitisation process at Radio Pakistan?
MS: We found Liaquat Ali Khan’s last speech which was made on October 16, 1951. It is a few minutes in length and ends with gunshots being fired. I also found a speech made by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto on April 27, 1972, when he laid the foundation stone of the National Broadcasting House of Radio Pakistan in Islamabad. Someone who worked as a technician gave it to us, so miracles do happen. It was very well written and powerful. Mr Bhutto said that radio, as the cheapest and most portable medium, has the capacity to disseminate information, education and empowerment to people and that Radio Pakistan must do so.
MMA: Do you think Radio Pakistan has fulfilled that vision?
MS: No, because consecutive governments have used it as a government rather than a public broadcaster. To an extent, during Mr Bhutto’s time a lot of good public interest programming was developed including Taleem-e-Balighaan. But to turn Radio Pakistan into an institution like the BBC, you need educated people, who are given independence. This was never done. Radio Pakistan was used as a source of government propaganda. People listened to Radio Pakistan because it was the only station at the time; this changed in 2004 when private radio stations started coming up. Now, nobody cares about Radio Pakistan or PTV.
MMA: Why did you leave Radio Pakistan?
MS: On May 3, 2013, I was told that the management was pleased to cancel my contract.
MMA: What plans did you have for the digitised speeches?
MS: I had initiated a project with the help of the US Government to digitise 3.5 million minutes of historical speeches made by several political leaders including Mr Jinnah, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Benazir Bhutto, Mujibur Rahman, Feroz Khan Noon and Zia-ul-Haq. I was planning to create a portal that could be accessed by the general public for free, but would be charged for other broadcasters.
MMA: Why were these digitised archives not publicised?
MS: When I was at Radio Pakistan I didn’t do much on the publicity front. I was running from pillar to post to managing salaries, launching a website (the first bilingual one for a government organisation) and setting up social media accounts for Radio Pakistan. When I left, Radio Pakistan had over 30,000 followers on Twitter (All India Radio had 500). Today All India Radio has more; the babus who came after me drove everything into the ground.
Mamun M. Adil is Manager, BD&R, DAWN. [email protected]
https://aurora.dawn.com/news/1140996
Published in Nov-Dec 2013 Mamun M. Adil
Murtaza Solangi, former DG, Radio Pakistan, speaks about Mr Jinnah’s tapes and his vision for Pakistan.
MAMUN M. ADIL: How did you become involved with the Jinnah tapes?
MURTAZA SOLANGI: I joined Radio Pakistan as Director General in June 2008 and while there, I started going through the archived tapes. Mr Jinnah was a subject of interest to me and I went through most of the analogue tapes of his speeches. Very few were digitised, and I was told that since there was no recording facility in Karachi in 1947, a team of engineers from All India Radio in Delhi had been sent to Karachi to record the June 3, August 11 and 14 speeches. However, I only found the June 3 and August 14 speeches, which dealt with the Partition Plan and Transfer of Power respectively. I initiated the digitisation of the analogue tapes, and had the speeches uploaded on Radio Pakistan’s YouTube channel in 2011, along with about 300 other recordings.
MMA: Given that the June 3 and August 14 speeches were made public two years ago, why have they been in the news recently?
MS: Because All India Radio released the master copies of the tapes recently. The quality of their tapes is better than the ones we had.
MMA: What do you think is the impact of the June 3 speech?
MS: Not too much; the June 3 speech gives clues regarding Mr Jinnah’s central thinking of not creating a theocratic state; the August 14 speech says it better. It is important because Mr Jinnah talks about Akbar the Great and the Prophet (PBUH) during whose time Jews and Christians were accorded the same status and respect as Muslims. However, the August 11 speech is the most important of them all.
MMA: What attempts did you make to retrieve the August 11 speech?
MS: I emailed the BBC in London and they replied that they did not have it, but it is still possible that there is a copy somewhere; All India Radio may have a copy. I am still making an effort to recover it. My suspicion is that somebody destroyed the tape in Pakistan.
In this speech Mr Jinnah said, “You are free to go to your temples…” and that religion has nothing to do with the state. I spoke to many people who worked under Zia-ul-Haq and according to them, as well as several books and reports, the tapes had been taken from the Radio Pakistan archives and destroyed.
MMA: Why would they do that?
MS: Because of the content. In this speech Mr Jinnah said, “You are free to go to your temples…” and that religion has nothing to do with the state. I spoke to many people who worked under Zia-ul-Haq and according to them, as well as several books and reports, the tapes had been taken from the Radio Pakistan archives and destroyed. Mr Jinnah was a secular person. The original speech that he was supposed to read on August 14, during the transfer of power, had religious phrases such as “so help me God” but Mr Jinnah chose not to read out these phrases. His actions were also secular. For example, just before the creation of Pakistan, Mr Jogindernath Mandal, a scheduled cast Hindu from East Pakistan, was inducted into the Constituent Assembly and was given the important portfolio of Minister of Law. If Pakistan was going to be an Islamic, theocratic state how could the ministry of law be headed by a Hindu? That is why I feel that the tape was destroyed – because of its content.
MMA: What would the impact of the August 11 recording be if it was found?
MS: To be honest, even if Mr Jinnah rose from his grave and made the speech it would probably not make much difference today. The powerful religious lobbies and those that have militant wings and the power to coerce people would probably lynch Mr Jinnah today if he was alive. That said, the speech is important because of its historic significance – it would refute the lies by some politicians and historians who project that he wanted a theocratic state. The speech also has historic value. The other day, Geo did an enactment of it in Urdu – and someone asked me if it was authentic and I told them it was originally in English. The speech would definitely help people who believe in Mr Jinnah’s vision of a pluralist and democratic Pakistani state. It would be an important tool for people who believe the founder of their country did not want a theocratic state but one where every citizen is treated equally. I am still searching for it by contacting people in Pakistan and India, and I am also fighting for that vision by raising my voice on various forums.
MMA: Did you come across any other tapes during the digitisation process at Radio Pakistan?
MS: We found Liaquat Ali Khan’s last speech which was made on October 16, 1951. It is a few minutes in length and ends with gunshots being fired. I also found a speech made by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto on April 27, 1972, when he laid the foundation stone of the National Broadcasting House of Radio Pakistan in Islamabad. Someone who worked as a technician gave it to us, so miracles do happen. It was very well written and powerful. Mr Bhutto said that radio, as the cheapest and most portable medium, has the capacity to disseminate information, education and empowerment to people and that Radio Pakistan must do so.
MMA: Do you think Radio Pakistan has fulfilled that vision?
MS: No, because consecutive governments have used it as a government rather than a public broadcaster. To an extent, during Mr Bhutto’s time a lot of good public interest programming was developed including Taleem-e-Balighaan. But to turn Radio Pakistan into an institution like the BBC, you need educated people, who are given independence. This was never done. Radio Pakistan was used as a source of government propaganda. People listened to Radio Pakistan because it was the only station at the time; this changed in 2004 when private radio stations started coming up. Now, nobody cares about Radio Pakistan or PTV.
MMA: Why did you leave Radio Pakistan?
MS: On May 3, 2013, I was told that the management was pleased to cancel my contract.
MMA: What plans did you have for the digitised speeches?
MS: I had initiated a project with the help of the US Government to digitise 3.5 million minutes of historical speeches made by several political leaders including Mr Jinnah, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Benazir Bhutto, Mujibur Rahman, Feroz Khan Noon and Zia-ul-Haq. I was planning to create a portal that could be accessed by the general public for free, but would be charged for other broadcasters.
MMA: Why were these digitised archives not publicised?
MS: When I was at Radio Pakistan I didn’t do much on the publicity front. I was running from pillar to post to managing salaries, launching a website (the first bilingual one for a government organisation) and setting up social media accounts for Radio Pakistan. When I left, Radio Pakistan had over 30,000 followers on Twitter (All India Radio had 500). Today All India Radio has more; the babus who came after me drove everything into the ground.
Mamun M. Adil is Manager, BD&R, DAWN. [email protected]
https://aurora.dawn.com/news/1140996