Adil Najam
Today, December 25, marks the birth anniversary of Pakistan’s founder, Mohammad Ali Jinnah. Mr. Jinnah has been a subject of frequent, and sometimes heated, discussion on ATP (here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here). Maybe it is best to spare him the agony of argumentation on his birthday.
Instead, we wish to share this rather interesting and apt tribute to him (supposedly, the first in a series) by Dawn newspaper. (Click on image for larger image).
Dawn newspaper is currently celebrating its own and Pakistan’s 60th anniversary and as part of this celebration will carry a series of illustrated episodes from Mr. Jinnah’s life. This one, the first in this series, is illustrated by Syed Salman Nasir.
I, for one, liked this very much. As readers know I have always liked Jinnah the human even more than Quaid-i-Azam the icon. I also think that this type of story-telling might appeal to the young far more than staid narrations.
Given how our official portraits of Mr. Jinnah tend to be over-stylized and how the national discourse on his is more iconic than human, it is interesting (to say the least) that his human side (see here and here) emerges much more clearly in this caricature than it does in most of our national discussions about him.
SO the message of this is what… we play as a team. All as Pakistanis, not as ethnicities or sects, or falana maslaq or dhamalka maslak. That is a good message. Unfortunately, like much of the mesage of Jinnah most Pakistanis will ignore this message too.
I think we sometimes give Jinnah too much attention. Don’t get me wrong, I think he was a great man. But Pakistan’s problems today have to b solved by Pakistanis today. Maybe we should stop always looking towards the Quaid for solutions to problems that we created and we should be solving.
The Mighty Mountains of the world
@ Icons are man-made Taghoot, caricatures, cartoons,
they remain a true picture of “their” creator’s lowerness
of quality and level, on the other hand you have K2 and
Himalaya.
M.A.Jinnah was never an icon, but when Quaid
was born, K2 and Himalay grew 47 cm higher.
We have turned Jinnah into just an icon. Every government twists his sayings to suit their purpose. In all of this the Quaid’s real meaning and ideas have been totally lost. I like this effort and the image of his playing cricket is certainly one that I can identify with more than studying under a single candle all night. So, good job Dawn.
Perhaps if someone introduces this to kids at the elementary level, things might change.
I still remember the ridiculously long and monotonous chapters on Jinnah in EVERY Urdu and Pakistan Studies book in primary school. To be honest, knowing the date he joined the league did not inspire me much! If only…