M.A Jinnah’s (1876-1948) Political Thought: from Territorial Nationalism to Two Nation Theory

Dr.Preeti Singh

Department of Political Science

Vasanta College for Women, Rajghat, Varanasi

A look at Jinnah’s political journey and political thought make it clear that there is tremendous shift in his political thinking as he started as nationalist , secular, modern democratic visionary but ends as a religious nationalist.

We will try to understand and analyze this shift in this presentation . We will discuss Jinnah’s political thought in dividing it into three phases: the initial phase where he supported the idea of territorial nationalism and worked for the cause of Hindu-Muslim unity; the mid phase where mild shift in his approach can be observed as he started speaking as the advocate of minority interests and the final phase where he not only became a staunch supporter of the two nation theory but also gave it an actual shape in form of creation of Pakistan.

Jinnah as an Advocate of Territorial Nationalism & Ambassador of Hindu-Muslim Unity

• Jinnah joined INC as a liberal nationalist who had great admiration for moderate leaders like Dadabhai Naoroji, Gopal Krishna Gokhale and Pherozeshah Mehta.

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• He strongly pleaded the cause of India’s self-determination and believed that Freedom can be attained through constitutional means.

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• He opposed the separate electorate for Muslims and considered it as a threat to the basic tenets of Indian nationalism. For him, separate electorate a communal & undemocratic principle. However, in 1917 he changed his stand on separate electorate and argued that it could serve Muslim interests by creating political awareness in Muslims.

Jinnah as an Advocate of Territorial Nationalism & Ambassador of Hindu-Muslim Unity

• For Jinnah, core principle of Swaraj or self rule in India is Hindu-Muslim unity. Due to his great insistence on Hindu-Muslim unity he was given the title of ‘Ambassador of Hindu Muslim Unity’. Expressing his faith in Jinnah’s immense capability to work for Hindu- Muslim unity, Gokhale said: ‘He has true stuff in him, and that freedom from all sectarian prejudice which will make him the best ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity’.

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• Initially he was critical of Muslim League, referring to his critical attitude towards Mulim League, Aga Khan, the first President of Muslim League wrote: ‘Who was our doughtiest opponent in 1906? A distinguished Muslim Barrister in Bombay, with a large and prosperous practice, Mr. Mohammad Ali Jinnah….he said that our principle of separate electorate was dividing the nation against itself, and for nearly a quarter of century he remained our most inflexible critic, and opponent.’

Jinnah as an Advocate of Territorial Nationalism & Ambassador of Hindu-Muslim Unity

• However, he joined Muslim League in 1913 on the insistence of Mohammad Ali and Wazir Hasan, but made it very clear that his ‘loyalty to the Muslim League and the Muslim interest would in no way and at no time imply even the shadow of disloyalty to the larger national cause to which his life was dedicated’.
• Jinnah played a crucial role in the pact between the Congress and Muslim League in 1916 popularly known as Lucknow Pact.

Jinnah as an Advocate of Territorial Nationalism & Ambassador of Hindu-Muslim Unity

• He emphasized that key to India’s freedom is communal harmony and explained that ‘the domination by the bureaucracy will continue as the Hindus and Muslims do not come to a settlement. I am inclined to say that India will get a Dominion Responsible Government the day the Hindus and Muslims are united. Swaraj is an interchangeable term with Hindu-Muslim Unity’.
• Jinnah tried to convince Muslim that they should think first as Indian and then as Muslim. Here a incidence of 1926, when his own idea of nationalism is undergoing many changes, need to be mentioned. Referring to his meeting with Jinnah, Raja of Mahmudabad’s a wrote: ‘He called me to his side and asked me about my studies. Then came the question, ‘what are you, a Muslim first or an Indian first.’ To which I replied, ‘I am a Muslim first then an Indian’. To this he said in a loud voice, ‘my boy , no you are an Indian first than a Muslim’.

Jinnah’s Message of Hindu-Muslim Unity from the Platform of Muslim League

• In the beginning, Jinnah kept promoting the goal of Hindu Muslim unity. As the President of Muslim League he stressed the nationalistic and patriotic principles: ‘Modern India is fast growing into a unity of thought, purpose and outlook, and is being responsive to new appeals of territorial patriotism and nationality, stirred with new energy to recover its birth right to direct its own affairs and govern itself’.
• He tried to convince Muslims that they should not develop any fear of Hindu majoritarianism and explained that this false fear is a colonial strategy of dividing the Indians and hence to weaken the demand for self-rule.

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Jinnah’s Message of Hindu-Muslim Unity from the Platform of Muslim League

• In his address in the Muslim League in 1917 he said: ‘if seventy millions Musalmans do not approve of a measure, which is carried by a ballot box, do you think that it would be enforced and administered in this country? Do you think that Hindu statesmen, with their intellect, with their past history, would ever think of …when they get self-government…enforcing a measure by ballot box? Therefore, I say to my Muslim friend not to fear. This is a bogey, which is put before you by your enemies to frighten you. To scare you away from the cooperation with the Hindus, which is essential for the establishment of self-government. If this country is not to be governed by the Hindus, let me tell you in the spirit, it is not to be governed by the Mohammedans either and certainly not by the English. It is to be governed by the people and sons of this country.

Jinnah’s Message of Hindu-Muslim Unity from the Platform of Muslim League

• Similar was his tone while presiding over the session of Muslim League, where he tried to inculcate a sense of responsibility in Muslim community towards the nation when he proclaimed: ‘The whole country is awakening to the call of its destiny and is scanning the new horizons with eager hopes ….The Musalmans of India would be false to themselves and the traditions of their past, had they not shared to the full new hope that is moving India’s patriotic sons today or had they failed to respond to the call of their country. Their gaze, like that of their Hindu fellow countrymen is fixed on the future. But , gentleman of All India Muslim League, remember that the gaze of your community and of the country is at the moment fixed on you. The decisions you take in this historic hall…On the nature of those decisions will depend , in a large measure, the fate of India’s unity, and our common ideals and aspirations for constitutional freedom.’

Jinnah’s Message of Hindu-Muslim Unity from the Platform of Muslim League

• Thus, Jinnah worked hard to develop a bond of unity between Hindus and Muslims by advocating the cause of Hindus before Muslims and of Muslims before Hindus, so that they can understand each-others point of view. He wanted to defeat the British policy of divide and rule by uniting Hindus and Muslims.

Jinnah on Separation of Politics and Religion

• Jinnah strongly argued in favour of separation between religion and politics and stressed that religion should be a private affair.
• As a liberal, Jinnah was critical of Gandhi’s approach of mixing of religion and politics.
• He was critical to Khilafat Movement because according to him it will create a Pan-Islamic sentiments which will be harmful to secular and nationalist spirit of Indian Muslims in long run.

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Jinnah on Separation of Politics and Religion

• Being Critical of orthodoxy and fundamentalist principles, Jinnah asserted: ‘I think I have solution for the Hindu-Muslim problem. You destroy your orthodox priestly class and we will destroy our Mullahs and there will be communal peace’.

Period of Transition

• With the starting of Non-cooperation movement, gradually Jinnah distanced himself from Congress. He opposed Gandhi’s non-cooperation resolution in Nagpur Congress in 1920. He did not support the shift in the policy of Congress and its politics of non-violent protest.
• After, Non-Cooperation movement Jinnah was labelled as communalist as he stressed the need for special measures for protecting Muslim interests and started talking more as the leader of minority but he did not take an extreme position.
• In the all Parties Conference of the Muslim League and the Congress in 1927 , he suggested that ‘ Muslim should be made to feel that they are secure and safeguarded against the Hindu majority during transition period’.

Period of Transition

• He questioned the Motilal Nehru’s Report on the ground that it proposes joint electorate without sufficient safeguards for Muslims and hence it would not make them feel them insecure. He insisted that constitutional safeguards and security of the Muslims was a prerequisite to ensure political unity between the two communities as the ‘majorities are apt to be oppressive and tyrannical’.
• In opposition to the Nehru Report he put forward the Fourteen Points Programme which demanded special provisions for the Muslim minority like issue of separate electorate, reservation for Muslims in services, not less than 1/3 Muslim representation in the Central Legislature, special safeguards for Muslim culture, religion and personal law, at least 1/3 Muslim representation in the Central cabinet and in each Provincial cabinet etc.
• He argued that settlement of these issues are essential for protecting the national interest in long term.

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Jinnah’s Two Nation Theory

• After 1937 Jinnah’s politics took a major shift and he started supporting the two nation theory.
• The theory was gradually evolved since late 19^th century and got its first public articulation in Rahmat Ali’s plan who wrote a pamphlet ‘ Now or Never’ in 1933 and proposed that Punjab, NWFP, Kashmir, Sindh and Baluchistan be separated from India and formed a federation of its own.
• Two nation theory is never a brain child of Jinnah but it got a concrete shape under his leadership . It would not be wrong to say that Pakistan was not a result of Jinnah’s philosophical dream but political dream.
• Jinnah started projecting Congress as the representative of Hindus and Muslim League as the representative of Muslims and argued for a constitutional arrangement based on equitable sharing of power between Muslim League and Congress. Congress’s denial to this plan resulted in Jinnah’s demand for separate Pakistan on the basis of two nations theory.

Jinnah’s Two Nation Theory

• Leaving behind his old tone of Hindu Muslim unity Jinnah proclaimed: ‘ I say that Muslims and Muslim League have only one ally and that ally is the Muslim nation’..
• “ Hindus and Muslims belong to two different religious philosophies, social customs , literature…To yoke together two such nations under a single state, one as a numerical minority and other as the majority, must lead to growing discontent.”
• “We maintain and hold that Muslims and Hindus are two major nations by any definitions or test as a nation. We are a nation of hundred million , and what is more, we are a nation with our own distinctive culture and civilization , language and literature, art and architecture, names and nomenclature, sense of value and proportion, legal laws and moral codes, customs and calendar, history and tradition, aptitudes and ambitions: in short we have our own distinctive outlook on life and of life. By all canons of International Law we are a nation”.

Jinnah’s Two Nation Theory

• This is interesting to note that the same Jinnah for whom self-rule and Hindu-Muslim unity were interchangeable terms , became a staunch supporter of the theory according to which Hindus and Muslims cannot live together because they are two different nations, hence cannot enjoy self-rule together. He said: ‘Religion alone is a cohesive force for the idea of a nationality. In countries where the allegiance of people is divided on the basis of religion, the idea of a single nationality has never finally succeeded.’
• Commenting on Jinnah’s efforts for creation of Pakistan, Ramchandra Guha writes: ‘In their campaign to create Pakistan , Jinnah and the League were helped by separate electorates, by the arrogance of the Congress and by the British policy of ‘divide and rule.’ That said , one cannot and must not discount the quality of Jinnah’s leadership or the energy and commitment of his cadres and followers. These made what, in 1937, had seemed a very distant dream, into a concrete reality ten years later’.
• However, the arguments given by Jinnah and his group were not supported by many of his contemporary Muslim organizations like Jamiat-e-Ulema, the Ahrars and the Ittihad-e-Millat. Moreover, this two nation theory got falsified in practice with making of Bangladesh ,after almost twenty four years of creation of Pakistan.

Critique

• Critics say that Jinnah used the two nation theory for political gain and his demand for a separate Muslim state was part of his political bargaining.
• Ayesha Jalal argues that Jinnah used the demand of separate Pakistan not for protecting the interest of Muslim community as a whole instead he and his allies were representatives of only the aristocratic , feudalist and capitalist section of the Muslim population in colonial India and the lower class of Muslim community remained excluded . She, further argues that Islamic religion was used by him to project unified interest of Muslim community and in this process the linguistic and regional variation within the community were underrated.

Critique

• Politics of Jinnah is labelled as elitist as it did not take notice of the interests of the lower sections of the Muslim community.
• On the one hand, Jinnah blamed the mainstreamIndian leadership for being majoritarian on other hand, himself promoted majoritarianism by not addressing the questions of Pakhatun, Baloch or Sindhi identity. Critics argue that his majoritariansm makes his claim of democracy suspicious . As Sudipto Kaviraj argues that majoritarianism and democracy cannot go together as the former is hostile to the latter .
• Maulana Azad alleged Jinnah’s two nation theory as fallacious since Hindu and Muslim are integral part of India’s composite culture.

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Conclusion

Jinnah’s political thought is an amalgam of paradoxes from territorial nationalism to religious nationalism and from constitutional democracy based on Western ideals to a democracy based on Islamic ideals. These paradoxes can be understood only by uncovering the role of actual interests in politics.

V.P.Verma writes : ‘Jinnah was not a religious man. He was a politician. As a political figure, he was the product of the contradictions and confusions of Indian nationalism.’

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