I never finished it (of course) but this-and the whole partition if India thing-is a fascinating story with a bitter ending. Pakistan was created as a Muslim nation (Jinnah would have argued it was secular at the government level, though) and the consequences were disastrous for Sikhs and Hindus there and Muslims who stayed in India. Israel was created around the same time. Take note, Israel... 9780195774627 Jinnah, in post WW-II scenario, proved himself to be the wisest amongst the polititions and freedom strugglers in the subcontinent. India was awakening to get independence from British Empire which by then had become too weak, administratively and militarily, to prolong their rule. India had to be left to self rule by native leadership. It was here that Jinnah foresaw the future turbulent political mood in the polity of India.
The life of jinnah was driven by sheer logic and principles. Law studies and practices made his mind work on constitutional lines. Jinnah, gentleman in his outlook, fair in manners but very sharp at mind and winner on negotiation table created Pakistan at the time of the shameful flight of British.
Amongst the prominent political figures of Pre independence India like Gandhi, Nehru, Vallabhai Patel, his stature stands tallest for he primarily added his successes on the blunders of his rivals.
To surmount the difficulties of the time, when British ruled and Congress seemed to be the obvious heir to the next rule of India was to take up the task as underdog right from the beginning. Jinnah did so.
Champion of Hindu-muslim cause once had made up his mind to create a country-state where right of the muslims can be safeguarded as Congress had shown total disregard to the muslim demands like separate electorates. Under Gandhi's leadership All India Congress had done nothing to accommodate muslims or assent to safeguards of muslim rights.
Ironically he or All India Muslim League never enjoyed overwhelming majority in any of the Indian province. He had before him, this magnanimous task of unifying all muslims under one banner and to have the right to represent the case of Muslims of All India.
Stanley Wolpert's words at the preface of the book holds true 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. Jinnah did all three. 9780195774627 One of the most authentic account on the life of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, founder and creator of Pakistan.
Stanley Wolpert has meticulously discussed the life of M.A Jinnah, his personality, work ethic, his contributions.
Besides this biography other work on Jinnah that comes to my mind is that of Hector Bolithio's Creator of Pakistan, although Bolithio's biography of Jinnah has its merits but Wolpert's Jinnah of Pakistan stand out, it is more detailed, comprehensive, highly researched, at times very engaging and on moments very poetic and mesmerizing. Maybe the reason of this is that Wolpert's biography is written in the 80s, so he had the advantage of extensive research available to him whereas Bolithio's biography is of 50s, so there weren't many academic research on the subject back then.
This biography is above all is the story of Jinnah's life, his ups and down, his journey as a leader, as a Barrister, as a Statesman, his work ethic, of his resilience against all odds, Jinnah was no doubt a shrewd and skillful leader, Jinnah's journey is indeed a rollercoaster one.
This biography is candidly written, Professor Wolpert has delve into great depth and details about Pakistan's founder life.
Well, Stanley Wolpert started his book with following lines, and I'm cutting my review short on those lines..
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. 9780195774627 A fascinating book that elucidates the life of Jinnah without any prejudices and preconceived notions. It has helped me, as a Pakistani, understand my great leader. His life, his trials and tribulations. The successes he achieved and the perseverance he demonstrated in the face of unimaginable opposition and adversity are admirable and inspiring. 9780195774627 wow , this biography of Jinnah is much better then the one written by Hector Bolitho. It is detailed and very well researched. I also felt that the writer had a very deep knowledge about the politics in British India, and this made the book a very precise document on political history of subcontinent under British rule and the subsequent independence of Pakistan and india. A must read for every Pakistani. 9780195774627
one of the history's most tenacious enigmatic figures.
Every Pakistani knows quiet a bit about Muslim League History and final 10 years before partition. We have to. But there are many things we never hear. Quaid started as Muslim-Hindu unity ambassador. Was young, intelligent and a great believer of the constitution. He spent 24 years of his life struggling for Hindu Muslim unity denying all those who thought otherwise. Every effort was repudiated by the Congress and its leadership. It took 24 years of endless arguments, debates, conferences, dialogues and destruction of his marriage and loss of woman he loved to convince him that his endeavors were in vain. While reading this book i realized exactly how much humiliation he faced. How many doors were slammed on his face and how many time he was discarded, along with his opinions. Even after all that he kept his head high, he knew how to keep his composure and never to lose an argument, even though those arguments fell on deaf ears and he lost most of his early fights.
Than comes the second phase of his life, in which he appears as proud, vain, whimsical man. who remained adamant on his crazy demands as dubbed by the British viceroys, secretarys and governors of late 1930s and 1940s. Most Britishers thought of him as self indulgent man, who wanted glory. He was unreasonable, never had a valid argument and was most uncooperative. By this time Quaid had figured out that wasting his strained breath on people who would never actually listen to him even when they claimed differently was useless. He had already spent too much of his life arguing with them and had been utterly fruitless. He in 1940s isolated himself, hiding his deteriorating health. Also he had lost complete trust in Congress and had grown a bit paranoid even of his own party leadership. He was a man who had been betrayed one too many times and was not about to lose this time around. And he did not. He lost his health, and his only daughter but did not lose this final fight. Many thought that Pakistan was his obsession one last attempt to show his rivals who and humiliated him, his true worth.
But people have known to talk and they will always, had always, would always, one thing is for sure a country can not be built on a man's vanity and whim. It takes determination, will and loyalty to a true cause. All of which he had. Quaid was nothing if he was not, strategic, persistent and intent.
Mountbatten, the reason of the bloodiest partition of Punjab. Termed Jinnah as psychopathic man, who wanted nothing more than to be Governor General himself, Odd thing for him to say as he had shown strong desire to be GG of not one but two subcontinental domains at the same time!! Never the less Jinnah made his point with Battens multiple times. In being photographed at Battens Jinnah insisted that Lady Mountbatten should stand between him and the lord but the Lord and Lady insisted that Jinnah must stand between them. Which Quaid termed as a rose between two thorns what i would not give to see the expression on the faces of those insolent people, when Quaid made that pun.
There are few things i had problem on in this book. Number one whenever it comes to loss of the life of Hindus the writer gave figures but when it came to the massacre of Muslims the writer took great pains to keep the figures and religion of the deceased fuzzy. Many Muslim unfortunately and shamefully acted as hooligans but the crime against Muslims were 3 fold worse and organized and that was just the year of 47. There is no accounting before that and not to mention the horribleness in Calcutta the year before. And district of Gurdaspur, a Muslim Majority area given on purpose to India where Muslims were killed so extensively that they were whipped out.
Also the presidential address of Quaid You are free, you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques ... all members of the Nation.. The writer questions what was he thinking about, when he said this? was he pleading for united India? why would he talk about religious harmony equality and unity and freedom when millions were migrating towards a Muslim state. Well answer is this Pakistan was to be free place for Muslims a place where discrimination on the bases given above would not exist and be condemned. He was not pleading for united India he was pleading for the brutality taking place on the both sides of border to stop. He wanted a Muslim state that stood for everything which had been denied to Muslims in one way or another. A state which would not treat its minorities the way they had been treated before.
All and all it was good book. There is not much on Quaid's personal life, he was a very private man. Also a man who worked from 14 to 18 hours and even went to office at 8:30 in morning at age of 71 with cancer in his body hard for him a have a personal life. He had many allies eve more followers and even greater number of admirers but he had very few friends. And one companion his sister. He is the least talked about leader, least studied and least admired leader. Never the less he was a single man who brought the most unlikely people to work together and made a weak party into the 2nd largest party of the India and placed Pakistan on the map. If that man was not one of the greatest leader of the modern world than i do not know who is. 9780195774627 4.75 stars.
I don't really write reviews but I felt I should for this one. This was my first biography on Jinnah (and definitely not the last) and I learnt so much about him that surprised me. What I loved most about this account is the fact that Jinnah is not presented as an infallible superhero but in all his human complexity. The book made me realize how true the accusations of the state distorting history textbooks are.
The politics take center stage in the book in all their amoral glory(?). The writer wants the reader to know that for Jinnah, Pakistan was built as as much of a slap on the Congress's face as for the Muslims in India. He wants to make it clear that the people were moved (in masses) by the League after the decision to build a Muslim nation was taken. Jinnah was a talented, brilliant man who was not appreciated in the party he had decided to dedicate his life to. Therefore, it's almost like he decided to show them what they had lost and make them pay for it. Wolpert shows Jinnah as a man driven almost as much by his ego as by his brilliance and political comprehension. That's the thing about brilliance, it demands appreciation.
Most of all, it explains clearly one of Jinnah's most mystifying qualities. How can I man, so adamantly secular, the Ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity, could adopt such a religious (bordering, as portrayed in the book, to an almost extremist zeal) approach? The answer is difficult to explain in a few words, although it is definitely not that Jinnah was a devout Muslim himself. He went through many, many changes in his life because of a number of events. The betrayal of the Congress coincided with the League's respect and the path was clear for Jinnah.
All in all, this is a very insightful account of Jinnah's life. Highly recommended.
9780195774627 This book contains a lot of information about what Jinnah thought, what he said, and what others said about him, however it seems that a lot of the more interesting parts that would get into his personality and some of the non-political aspects of his life were left out. The barrage of details about what was said at almost every meeting he ever attended makes the book exceptionally dry and at times difficult to read. 9780195774627 I've always remembered these lines from Wolpert's introduction :
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.Mohammad Ali Jinnah did all three.
It is quite an achievement for an American academic to write such a comprehensive book on Pakistan's founder,one which all Pakistani students of history should read.
Jinnah was a complex personality,cold and aloof,yet brilliant,resilient and very charismatic.He was born to a Karachi businessman in 1876,and was sent for a business education to England.However,he chose to study law at Lincoln's Inn.
On his return,he moved to Bombay and struggled initially as a young,unknown lawyer.That would change,however.His legal acumen would eventually make him one of the most successful lawyers in the country.
Interested in politics,he joined the Indian National Congress and was initially dubbed the ambassador of Hindu Muslim unity.But Congress was dominated by Gandhi and Nehru,and Jinnah eventually parted ways.
For a while,he was so disheartened by politics that he voluntarily went into exile in England for several years,concentrating on the practice of law there.
Then,the idea of Pakistan was first presented by Chaudhry Rehmat Ali.Jinnah was initially not enthusiastic,but with the passage of time,and with some persuasion from Iqbal the poet,Jinnah reentered the political fray.Now,he was the undisputed leader of the All India Muslim League and there was only one thing on his mind,the attainment of that seemingly impossible dream,Pakistan.
The Pakistan Resolution was passed in 1940.Within seven years,Pakistan was a reality.Jinnah had achieved the impossible and ensured his place in history.
Wolpert's book essentially comprises two parts.
The first deals with the life of Jinnah the man.This part is very interesting with plenty of interesting anecdotes about his personal life.He also describes Jinnah's unhappy marriage to Ruttie Jinnah (she was to die tragically at only 29).
Jinnah's relationship with his only daughter,Dina was also troubled.She chose to marry a Parsi man and only came to Pakistan a couple of times in her life.She also declined Wolpert's request for an interview for this book.
The second part of the book deals with the Pakistan Movement.However,here things get a bit dull and dry.
Wolpert has undoubtedly done exhaustive research on the Pakistan Movement. Here,the book could have done with a fair bit of editing,to make this part of the book more interesting.It does get bogged down with too many details about meetings and statements.
Still,a must read book,which provides a fascinating character study of Pakistan's founder,his life and times. 9780195774627 At the start, the book just felt like a chapter from Pakistan Studies text book. Besides, at start I found the account, a typical book with praises for Jinnah and villainizing of his opponents. I gave up on the first 50 pages. But the recent blowing up of Jinnah's residency motivated me to explore who the man really was. And as explored page by page, this was the first account of Jinnah I find no difficulty to believe in. As the charming, eloquent, intelligent and always wining advocate turns into a stubborn, cold, and egoistic man, who was so used to of the idea of winning that failure wasn't a choice. Those who have read the book would agree that I'm not denouncing Jinnah, I'm instead praising him!
He was the most extraordinary man this land could ever produce. 9780195774627
Mohammad Ali Jinnah was for Pakistan what Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru combined were for modern India—inspirational father and first head of state. Jinnah began his career as the Indian National Congress’s ‘Ambassador of Hindu-Muslim Unity’ but ended it forty years later as the architect of the partition that split Pakistan away from India. This authoritative and uniquely insightful biography explores the fascinating public and private life of this eminently powerful but little understood leader who changed the map of the Asian subcontinent.
Portraying Jinnah’s story in all of its human complexity. Wolpert begins in the late nineteenth century with Jinnah’s early life as a provincial country-boy in Karachi and follows him to London where he studied law and became a British barrister. Returning to India in 1896, Jinnah rapidly ascended the dual ladders of Indian law and politics, climbing to the top rung of each. By the 1920s, however, it appeared that Jinnah’s political career was at an end, superseded by the rise of Gandhi’s leadership and the movement of India in a more revolutionary direction. Yet, Jinnah was to remain a pivotal figure in the turbulent decades that followed, as India struggled for independence from British rule amid growing Hindu-Muslim antagonism.
Wolpert vividly recounts how the tragic clash of personalities and party platforms that initially pitted Jinnah against Gandhi escalated from a personal rivalry into a conflict of national and international proportions. Wolpert shows how Jinnah’s shrewd and skillful leadership combined brilliant advocacy and singular tenacity to win his suit for the creation of Pakistan on behalf of the ‘Muslim nation’—his sole client during the last, lonely, pain-filled decade of his life. Jinnah Of Pakistan