Quaid e Azam essay

Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan was born on 25 December 1876 in Karachi.Muhammad Ali Jinnah was born in a rich merchant family, his father was a prosperous merchant, his name was Jinnahbhai Poonja and his mother's name was Mithibai Jinnah. Muhammad Ali Jinnah was the eldest of their seven children and he had three brothers and three sisters. He was a lawyer by profession but later on he joined politics with a specific motive.

He started his political career by joining Indian National Congress in 1906, in the beginning, he supported Hindu-Muslim unity but later on he realized that both the Hindus and Muslims have different value systems and they can not live together under a single state of law. He left Indian National Congress in 1920 and joined All-India Muslim League to initiate a new journey of freedom for the Muslims of subcontinent.

Due to his long haul struggle, finally Pakistan came into being on 14 August 1947. Muhammad Ali Jinnah served as the first Governor General of Pakistan from 1947 to 1948. To this day, Muhammad Ali Jinnah is esteemed in Pakistan as Quaid e Azam ("Great Leader") or Baba e Qaum ("Father of the Nation").

Life of Quaid e Azam:

Early Education:

Quaid e Azam started his education from Sindh Madrasatul-Islam at the age of six. He was not much interested in his studies and especially in mathematics, rather he liked playing outdoor games with his friends. Jinnah's father, Jinnahbhai Poonja was always worried about Muhammad Ali Jinnah's low interest levels in mathematics as he was a business man and having his son good at mathematics would have been very positive for his business.

Muhammad Ali Jinnah was very attached with his Aunt(Jinnahbhai Poonja's sister), she used to live in Bombay and visited the Jinnah family in 1887. She wanted to give Jinnah an opportunity to get better education in a larger city like Bombay. She requested his parents to allow her to take Jinnah with her to Bombay in order to give him a better environment to help him maximize his potential. Although, it was very tough for Jinnah's parents especially for his mother to send her beloved son far away from her but she finally got convinced for the sake of better future of her son.

Jinnah went to Bombay and joined Gokal Das Tej Primary School in Bombay but he could not stay there for so long due to his mother's insistence, he came back to Karachi and joined Sindh Madrasatul-Islam again. After some time, he got struck off from Sindh Madrasatul-Islam because of not being regular and frequently missing his classes. His parents then sent him to Christian Mission High School.

Offer for London:

His father's business started growing so well and his company was closely associated with the leading British managing agency in Karachi, Douglas Graham and Company. Sir Frederick Leigh Croft, he was the general manager of Douglas Graham and Company liked well mannered young Jinnah and Jinnah was also impressed by Sir Frederick's personality. Sir Frederick recognized the extra ordinary abilities of Jinnah and offered him an apprenticeship at his office in London.

Muhammad Ali Jinnah's first Marriage:

Muhammad Ali Jinnah's mother was not ready at all to send her son to England for two to three long years as she could not endure his separation for more than six months when he went to Bombay. Upon Jinnah's insistence, her mother finally got convinced but she had a condition. She wanted Jinnah to get married before going to England as she did not want to send his unmarried son to England alone. Muhammad Ali Jinnah agreed to his mother's condition and his parents arranged his marriage with a fourteen-year-old girl named Emibai from Paneli village whereas, Jinnah was sixteen years old at that time.

As a Lawyer/Barrister:

Jinnah travelled to London in 1892 and joined Lincoln's Inn Council, studied law for four years in Lincoln's Inn. He came back to India at the age of 20 as a trained barrister from London and enrolled himself at the Bombay High Court to practice as a barrister, he was the only muslim barrister in the city. While practicing law, Jinnah got interested in national politics. Although he spent most of his time practicing law but carried on his involvement in politics as well.

Politics:

He properly started his political career in 1906 by joining Indian National Congress, he advocated hindu-muslim unity because the british government was ruling the subcontinent through a policy called "divide and rule". Muhammad Ali Jinnah wanted hindus and muslims of the subcontinent to stand by each other and fight for the freedom of the subcontinent against the british government. Muhammad Ali Jinnah also became an active member of All-India Muslim League in 1913 and he tried to get both All-India Muslim League and Indian National Congress on the same page so that both parties can work together for the freedom of subcontinent.

When Mahatma Gandhi came to India, he got so much popularity amongst the people because of his similarity with them. Mahatma Gandhi did not used English language like Muhammad Ali Jinnah and other Congress leader and he also did not use to wear typical English/British suits, that's why people could find so relatable to them and got so much respect and popularity.

Why Muhammad Ali Jinnah left Congress:

Mahatma Gandhi proposed the theory of Satyagraha (satya: "truth", agraha: "insistence" or "holding firmly to"), or "holding firmly to truth", or "truth force". Satyagraha got accepted and appreciated by most of the Congress leaders but Muhammad Ali Jinnah was against it, he considered it as political anarchy. Muhammad Ali Jinnah's relationship with the Congress leaders started getting strained and eventually, he left Indian National Congress in 1920.

Demand for Partition:

Within next few years, Muhammad Ali Jinnah who was an ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity, realized that Hindus and Muslims belong to two different value systems.

Jinnah, in his speech at Lahore, said:

“Hindus and Muslims belong to two different religious philosophies, social customs and literary traditions. They neither intermarry nor eat together, and indeed they belong to two different civilizations that are based mainly on conflicting ideas and conceptions.”

Jinnah started demanding partition of India and a separate state for the Muslims of India.

Struggle for Pakistan:

Muhammad Ali Jinnah through All-India Muslim League started his struggle for an independent state for Indian Muslims. He had a very clear demand that the areas in which Muslims are numerically in majority should be grouped to constitute independent states with their own leaders. All-India Muslim League won the elections of 1945-46 by a clear margin securing 460 out of 533 Muslim seats.

Independence of Pakistan:

By the will of Allah and as a result of abiding struggle of Muhammad Ali Jinnah and other Muslim leaders, finally, Pakistan came into being on 14 August 1947. Quaid e Azam served as the first Governor-General of Pakistan from August 1947 to September 1948.

Illness and Death:

Jinnah was suffering from a lungs disease called tuberculosis but he did not revealed it Publicly only his sister Fatima Jinnah and some close people knew about his health condition. Jinnah believed that revealing his health issues Publicly will hurt him politically and of course the journey of independence as well. Jinnah was right because many years later, Mountbatten stated that if he had known about Jinnah's illness, he would have stalled, hoping Jinnah's death would avert partition. Just after a year of Pakistan's independence, Quaid e Azam's health started to get worse, despite great efforts of the best possible doctors he could not recover. Muhammad Ali Jinnah died at the age of 71 on 11 September 1948 in Karachi. He was buried on 12 September 1948 and the place where he was buried is now known as Mazar e Quaid.