Jinnah, Muhammad Ali

Jinnah, Muhammad Ali (25 Dec. 1876?, d. 11 Sept. 1948). Governor-general of Pakistan 1947–8 Born in Karachi into a prosperous merchant family, he was educated in Bombay and England, where he was called to the Bar in 1895. He returned to Karachi in 1895, and established a law practice in Bombay in 1897. A fervent supporter of greater Indian self-government, he joined the Indian National Congress (INC), which he represented as part of a delegation making its case in London in 1905. Only gradually did he become specifically concerned about the Muslim minority in the country, and its desire for equal political and social rights, in preference to independence. He joined the Muslim League in 1913, distanced himself increasingly from the INC, which under Gandhi's leadership adopted a more distinctively Hindu identity, and he became more confrontational towards the British. Taken aback by the growing turbulence of Indian politics, he sought to retire to London in 1931, but by that time his intellect and personality had already made such an impact that Muslim leaders urged his return.

He arrived back in India in 1935, and focused his energies on helping to create an independent India, but with maximum guarantees for its Muslim population. However, his programme failed to generate large Muslim support: in the 1937 elections, his Muslim League only managed to secure 109 out of the 482 separate seats reserved for Muslims. In particular, he was opposed by regional Muslim leaders who jealously guarded the privileges and status granted them by the British. Eventually, he found an electrifying slogan in the promise to create separate Muslim homelands in India. On the basis of this programme, he polled 75 per cent of the Muslim vote in the 1945–6 provincial elections. Jinnah still hoped to use his strong mandate to increase his bargaining power with Nehru, to ensure extensive Muslim rights in a united India. Once this failed, with the breakdown of the Cabinet Mission Plan, he accepted a separate Muslim state, to consist of the four Muslim-majority provinces in the west (later known as West Pakistan), and the Muslim-dominated East Bengal (later known as East Pakistan, independent since 1971 as Bangladesh). By the time of his appointment as governor-general on 14 August 1947, he was already weakened by tuberculosis, from which he died a year later. The single greatest driving force behind the formation of Pakistan, his death before the establishment of its constitutional, political, and administrative structures struck a severe blow to the new state.