Adil Najam
Today is 9/11. Much will be written and much discussed on the 5th anniversary of the cruel attacks on the World Trade Center in New York, on what has happened since, on all the ways in which the world changed, and on all the other ways in which it did not. Today is a sad day, and at ATP our hearts and prayers go out to the dear ones of the victims of this tragedy, and to the loved ones of all who have lost their lives in the events that were unleashed by it.
While 9.11.2001 will be much debated elsewhere, we here at ATP want to recall the events of 9.11.1948.
For Pakistanis, 9/11 has always been a sad date. A date on which – barely a year after the nation’s birth – its founding leader, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, died. Here is a short (50 sec) newsreel video clip on Mr. Jinnah’s death :
Like every year, APP has announced in advance how the “nation” will mark this occasion, and every newspaper (e.g., Dawn) has printed this “news” on its front page:
ISLAMABAD, Sept 10: The nation will observe Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s 58th death anniversary on Monday with a pledge to transform Pakistan into a vibrant, progressive and enlightened country as envisioned by the great leader.
I am glad that the APP has he psychic power to know exactly how this “nation” will observe the anniversary, even before the occasion. They have been making the same stale prediction every year for as long as I can remember. Maybe, we as a “nation” do actually make that “pledge” every year. Its just that we have not been very good at keeping the pledge.
Some might argue that the “nation” had already begun to let Mr. Jinnah down even in those brief 13 months that he lived in the country he had founded. Others like to believe that Pakistan’s history might have taken a very different path had he lived longer. It may well have. I am just not sure what that path might have been given that tensions between him and those who were running day-to-day Pakistan had begun to appear even while he was alive.
His death, and the circumstances of his death, was itself not without controversy (see, for dramatic effect, the opening scenes of the movie, Jinnah, here). But today, September 11, should not only be a sad reminder of his untimely death. It should also be a moment to reflect on his life. And, maybe, it should be a moment to reflect on what lessons that life might have to offer for the future.
From its very inception, ATP has had an ongoing discussion on the legacy of Mr. Jinnah and the various meanings it has for different people. Today seems to be an appropriate day to continue that discussion; to think, yet again, about the meaning of the life and death of Mr. Jinnah.
Related ATP Posts:
– Read about the Other Side of Mr. Jinnah
– Watch Jinnah: The Movie
– Read about Jinnah’s first message to the nation
– Watch historic footage from August 1947
– Read about the Jinnah-Gandhi relationship
– Listen to and watch Mehdi Hassan’s classic, “yeh watan tumhara hai”, which is in many ways Jinnah speaking to the rest of us.
Dear Sridhar,
Good of you to come back for a post script. The fact of the matter is I am free to interpret your refusal to back up your insinuation any which way. There isn’t any basis for your insinuation that if Gandhi can be proved a racist so can Jinnah… it flies in the face of facts. Jinnah’s record in England as liberal of the John Morley camp… along with his membership of the left liberal British Fabian society (Stanley Wolpert “Jinnah of Pakistan”) some time later- suggests that Jinnah was in his time in England a radical leftist- and it was as a radical leftist Jinnah fought against racial discrimination meted out to the grand old man of India Dadabhoy Naoroji.
I was not interested in a discussion on Gandhi’s racism and casteism.. but you first post on this thread had a very specific intent- to say that in a few centuries only his “Satyagraha” in South Africa would be remembered… why must you react badly when I point out that around this time Gandhi was saying and doing things that would brand him in a certain way.
While I said my goodbyes a few minutes ago, I will just interject one last time to say that my desire not to be drawn into a debate here does not mean that I don’t have facts to back up what I say. It just means that I don’t want to be drawn into that discussion on this thread and for the reasons I have already stated.
Let me add that I am amused at your repeated second-guessing of my thoughts and intentions and attempts to put words in my mouth. I am also amused when you say that you do not wish to waste your time on “Gandhi and his racist and casteist views” given that about half the content of this thread suggests precisely the contrary.
In any case, goodbye and good wishes once again.
Sridhar,
Let us get this straight once and for all or as Jinnah would say: “Lets call a spade a spade”.
As a left liberal of the Suffragist camp and later an avid member of the Fabian Society who fought against racial discrimination in England, there is no question of racism when talking of Jinnah.. You know it full well.. which is why you have failed to back up your assertion with any facts.
The only discussion that is possible is Gandhi’s racism… which is an accepted fact and reality-refer to quotes from his collected works. However I have no desire to waste my time on Gandhi and his racist and casteist views either… so I accept your good bye in good nature.
As I said, I refuse to be drawn into a discussion of Jinnah’s racism here since I don’t think this is the place for it and I find it a pointless exercise.
As to what I said in my first post, any person who reads it (other than perhaps you) can see that there is nothing in it about Gandhi/Jinnah comparisons. There was no reference to Gandhi and none to Jinnah either, for that matter, in the first part of the post. In the second half, I referred to the fact that the Sept. 11th is associated with three events, one of which happens to be related to Gandhi and another to Jinnah. That is the only place where the words Gandhi and Jinnah appear in my post. There was no Gandhi/Jinnah comparison anywhere in the post.
Incidentally, for the record, your first reference to Gandhi (and implicit/explicit comparisons with Jinnah) precedes my first post by two full days.
I have no wish to enter into a slanging match about Gandhi/Jinnah, which seems, from seeing your internet participation elsewhere and also here, to be a thing that you enjoy. Therefore, please accept my goodbye, along with good wishes, for the purpose of this thread.
Sridhar,
I am afraid that is an erroneous point of view.
Jinnah- being associated with John Morley Liberals and the Quakers and Suffragists- in England was known for taking an anti-racial line … during the famous Dadabhoy Naoroji campaign. It must be remembered that England had legally abolished slavery way before the US … and in the legal tradition, Jinnah took the left liberal point of view ala Morley… so it is not possible I am afraid to find instances of racism in his life. I didn’t set Gandhi and Jinnah up against each other- if you note, your first post did, but you later distanced yourself from it.
I will be more than interested if you produce examples of it instead of insinuating something which is not true.