The Architect of Pakistan
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After the defeat of War of 1857:
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• Decline after the 1857 Uprising
• Sir Syed and his colleagues’ efforts for revival
• Removal of misunderstanding between the Muslims and the British
• Educational movement or acquisition of modern knowledge and English
• Hindi-Urdu Controversy was the issue that unearthed the hatred and enmity of
Hindu community towards the Muslims.
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Formation of the Congress was a method to incorporate the Muslims in
Hinduism. It popularized the agitational politics that Muslims could not afford
because they were still recovering the past gaps.
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Hindu Revivalist movements mostly targeted the Muslims that accelerated the
pace of widening the gulf between the two nations.
In this backdrop The All India Muslim League was founded in 1906
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Mr. Muhammad Ali Jinnah was not the leader of Pakistan
only. In fact he was the leader of the Muslim Ummah of
the South Asian subcontinent, which was called India in
pre-partition days.
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The idea of Pakistan created a spirit which liberated the
minds of Indian Muslims from the bar of space and time.
Muslim League was not just a political party but it became
a “ Common Cause” and a “Movement”.
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It was like a journey of soul searching for self Identity by
the Muslims of Subcontinent where they could realize and
actualize the environment of self-fulfilment and
development.
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In his biography of titled "Jinnah of Pakistan",
the American historian, Stanley Wolpert,
makes the following observation that:
“Few individuals significantly alter the
course of history. Fewer still modify the
map of the world. Hardly anyone can be
credited with creating a nation-state.
Muhammad Ali Jinnah did all three
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During his student years in England, Jinnah
came under the spell of 19th-century
British liberalism, like many other future
Indian independence leaders. This
education included exposure to the idea of
the democratic nation and progressive
politics. He admired William Gladstone and
John Morley, British Liberal statesmen.

Quaid-I-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s personality marked
unique features. He was a man of high principles and great
probity. He was an able advocate, a leading lawyer, a
profound parliamentarian, a super statesman, a dynamic
mass leader, and above all, one of the great nation
builders in modern times.

Historians of the Quaid have focused for the most part, on
his historic struggle under his self-motivated leadership in
the forties that culminated in the great national separate
sovereign state. However, the earlier part of his life is
significant nonetheless; it prepared him meticulously for
the stunning final act of whirling the course of history of
the South Asian subcontinent.
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From his first appearance in Indian polities in 1904, membership of Indian
National Congress in 1906, he supported national causes, such as
Compulsory primary education, freedom of association, of expression, and
of the press, curbing of executive power from Bureaucracy to Democracy,
recruitment of Indians in Civil Services as well as in the army.
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His brilliant advocacy of such All-India causes, made him acceptable to all
sections of the people, never made him unconscious of his basic and
fundamental duty to his own community. He spared no efforts to advance
the interests of Indian Muslims from the platform of the Indian National
Congress and other representative bodies.

It was because of him that the heart of Muslim India, always passionately
faithful to its own spiritual and moral traditions became suddenly and
vividly aware also of its own inheritance politically and its own
responsibility in shaping the national future for freedom.

Motivated by a deep sense of history, Jinnah concluded early in his life
that the British would one day depart from India and leave the
management of the country to the native population.

He was convinced that of the need to bridge deep and abiding
differences between the major religious and cultural communities,
especially the Hindus and Muslims. So, between 1906 and 1920, he
gave the best years of his life to forging relations between Hindus and
Muslims and between the Congress and the Muslim League in the
struggle for getting self-rule for India from the British Government.

Jinnah without abandoning his membership in the Congress joined
the All India Muslim League in October 1913 in a display of Muslim
Solidarity, but his instincts were aimed at identifying moderates in
both parties who, like himself, wished to neutralize the extremist
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In the words of Aysha Jalal, “In 1940 the All-India
Muslim League orchestrated the demand for
independent Muslim states in India. Seven years
later Pakistan was created amidst a communal
holocaust of unprecedented proportions.
Concentrating on the All-India Muslim League
and its leader, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, The Sole
Spokesman assesses the role of religious
communalism and provincialism in shaping the
movement for Pakistan”.
On March 22, 1940 in his presidential address to the
All-India Muslim League Lahore session, the founder
of Pakistan M A Jinnah made it plain that:
 “The Hindus and the Muslims belong to two different
religious philosophies, social customs, and literature.
They neither intermarry, nor interdine together, and
indeed they belong to two different civilizations which
are based mainly on conflicting ideas and
conceptions. He further said ,Musalmans are a nation
according to any definition of a nation, and they must
have their homeland, their territory and their State “
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He fought heroically for a Muslim resurgence in the
subcontinent and most decisively swayed the battle
against the British imperial power as well as the Hindu
congress. As for his personality and position as a
leader of the Muslims of India is concerned, Beverley
Nichols, an English journalist, commented in his
famous book “Verdict on India” that:
 “Mr. Jinnah is in a position of unique strategic
importance. He can sway the battle his way or that as
he chooses. His 100 million Muslims will march to the
left, to the right, to the front, to the rear at his bidding
and at nobody else’s…that is the point”.

Jimail-uddin Ahmed’ quoted in his book “Creation of
Pakistan” that even Lord Mountbatten for all his
animosity towards Pakistan and Quaid-e-Azam made
him admit that:
 “If it could be said that any single man held the future
of India in the palm of his hand in 1947, that man was
Muhammad Ali Jinnah. To all interests and purposes
Jinnah was the Muslim League and if the dream of
Pakistan ___the separate Muslim state__ever did
come true, it would be Jinnah who brought it to life
and fashioned it.”
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He had fought his political battles with the British on their own ground.
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From the Morley-Minto and Montague Chelmsford Reforms, through the
Roundtable Conferences, the Statutory Commission, the Government of
India Act until the dawn of independence, he had waged a ceaseless
struggle for a voluntary transfer of power to a representative government.
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For him it was not an utopian idea but a historical necessity inherent in the
inner contradictions of a heterogeneous society, which no amount of
logical subtlety of the Hindu mind could make homogenous. This led to the
creation of Pakistan.
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The Times acknowledging his role as the architect of Pakistan commented: "Few statesmen have
shaped events to their policy more surely than Mr. Jinnah." He was a strategist and a tactician; he
planned and made his political moves with utmost care, deliberation and astuteness. But his moves
were always tampered with a sense of dignity, fair play, `justice and lofty ideals.”
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On his death USA’s president Truman paid him homage in these
words "He was the originator of the phenomenon that became
Pakistan, architect of the state and Father of world's largest
Muslim nation. Mr. Jinnah was the recipient of a devotion and
loyalty seldom accorded to any man."
The last chief justice of India Lord Patrick Spencer opined: "There
is no man or woman living who imputes anything against his
honor or honesty. He was the most upright person, I know.
 The far sightedness of Jinnah’s views makes them relevant to the
issues faced by Pakistan, even, today. So, Pakistan can perhaps
simply follow the advice of its Founder, Jinnah, truly a great leader
of this world, to shine among the brightest of all nations.
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The independent state of Pakistan, created on August 14, 1947,
represented the outcome of a campaign on the part of the Indian Muslim
community for a Muslim homeland which had been triggered by the
British decision to consider transferring power to the people of India.
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Whilst giving an interview to American press representatives in July 1942,
when asked by one of the journalists whether the Muslims were a nation
or not, Jinnah replied:
“We are a nation with our own distinctive culture and civilization,
language and literature, art and architecture, names and
nomenclature, sense of values and proportion, legal laws and moral
codes, customs and calendar, history and traditions, aptitudes and
ambitions, in short, we have our own distinctive outlook on life and of
life. By all cannons of international law we are a nation”.
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Quaid-e- Azam and Ideology of Pakistan
 On March 22, 1940 in his presidential address to the
All-India Muslim League Lahore session, M A Jinnah
made it plain that “The Hindus and the Muslims
belong to two different religious philosophies, social
customs, and literature. They neither intermarry, nor
interdine together, and indeed they belong to two
different civilizations which are based mainly on
conflicting ideas and conceptions. He further said
,Musalmans are a nation according to any definition
of a nation, and they must have their homeland, their
territory and their State “

On the basis of his speeches and slogan, he was
interpreted differently by different people. The
liberal tried to prove Quaid-e-Azam as a secular
leader , where as by others the Two Nation Theory
has been taken as his love for theocracy.
In a broadcast talk to the people of the United States of
America in Feb. 1948, he said:
 “in any case Pakistan is not going to be a theocratic
state to be ruled by priest with a divine mission. We
have many non-Muslims, Hindus, Christian and Parsis
but they are all Pakistanis. They will enjoy the same
rights and privileges as any other citizen and play their
rightful part in the affairs of Pakistan”.
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In a speech on the address with Parsee
community on 3rd February 1948 and said:
“Pakistan which symbolizes the aspiration
of a Nation that found itself in minority in
the Indian sub-continent can not be
mindful of the minorities with in its own
borders”.
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From his speeches it transpires also that economic
factor was dominating factor for him. On September
26, 1947 on accession on the Foundation stone of the
buildings of the valika textile Mills Ltd. He said:
 ” If Pakistan is to play its proper role in the world to which
its size, manpower and resources entitle it, it must develop
industrial potential side by side with its agriculture and
give its economy and industrial bias. By industrializing our
state we shall decrease our dependence on the outside
world for necessity of life. We will give more employment
in our people and we will also increase the resource of the
state.
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Quid-e-Azam tried to carve Pakistan on the
basis of strong economic and social equality
basis. His many speeches made it clear that he
wanted to treat all the community as equal
citizen of future state.
It is well depicted in a speech of March 27, 1947
in the Memon Chambers; he said that
“ I assure you that I have respect for the great
Hindu community and all that it stands for. They
have their faith, their philosophy , their great
culture, so have the Muslims but two are
different”.
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Jinnah died at the Governor-General’s House in Karachi on 11
September 1948, just over a year after Pakistan’s independence.
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When the then Viceroy of India, Lord Louis Mountbatten, learned of
Jinnah’s ailment he said ‘had they known that Jinnah was about to
die, they’d have postponed India’s independence by a few months as
he was being inflexible on Pakistan’.
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Pakistanis view Jinnah as their revered founding father, an architect
of the state and a man that was dedicated to safeguarding Muslim
interests during the dying days of the British Raj.
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History may judge him but it is almost impossible to doubt that
there is any figure that had more influence and role in the creation
of Pakistan than Jinnah.
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For Jinnah creating of Pakistan was means not end in itself. Quaid envisaged a welfare and
prosperous Pakistan and a welfare state for masses.
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Unfortunately. We have deviated from that vision because we did not follow his principles
of Unity, Faith and Discipline. This nation has faced all sorts of challenges before and after
independence. It can still tackle any challenge with its devotion and dedication.
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We should learn self reliance as this would liberate us from dependence on others. If we can
get freedom without any external help, why can’t we achieve progress and prosperity
without the same?
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The Quaid has taught us hard work. We all know that when his sister asked him reason for
working late at night, he replied “if I don’t work hard how I would become a successful
man”.
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If we don’t work hard with dedication, if we don’t make sacrifices, how can we become a
great and successful nation? Our great Quaid sacrificed his comfort, his health and finally
his life for us.
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He dedicated each moment of his life to the cause of Pakistan. It is our duty and obligation
to follow his vision to make Pakistan truly the state that he wanted it to be, make it a
welfare state, a strong state that commands respect among other states in the world.
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Noor Fatima, Religio-Economic Quest for
Pakistan: All Indian Muslim League
Perspective. National Institute of Historical
Research.
Aysha Jalal. The Sole Spokesman
Jinnah, the Muslim League and the Demand
for Pakistan.
Stanley Wolpert, Jinnah of Pakistan.