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Jinnah, Pakistan and Islamic Identity: The Search for Saladin
Every generation needs to reinterpret its great men of the past. Akbar Ahmed, by revealing Jinnah's human face alongside his heroic achievement, both makes this statesman accessible to the current age and renders his greatness even clearer than before.Four men shaped the end of British rule in Nehru, Gandhi, Mountbatten and Jinnah. We know a great deal about the first three, but Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, has mostly either been ignored or, in the case of Richard Attenborough's hugely successful film about Gandhi, portrayed as a cold megalomaniac, bent on the bloody partition of India. Akbar Ahmed's major study redresses the balance.Drawing on history, semiotics and cultural anthropology as well as more conventional biographical techniques, Akbar S. Ahmad presents a rounded picture of the man and shows his relevance as contemporary Islam debates alternative forms of political leadership in a world dominated (at least in the Western media) by figures like Colonel Gadaffi and Saddam Hussein.
304 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 14, 1997
15 people are currently reading
270 people want to read
About the author
Akbar Ahmed
49 books49 followersAkbar Salahuddin Ahmed, is a Pakistani-American academic, author, poet, playwright, filmmaker and former diplomat. He currently holds the Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies and is Professor of International Relations at the American University in Washington, D.C.Immediately prior, he taught at Princeton University as served as a Visiting Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. He also taught at Harvard University and was a Visiting Scholar at the Department of Anthropology. Ahmed was the First Chair of Middle East and Islamic Studies at the US Naval Academy, Annapolis, and a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. In 2004 Ahmed was named District of Columbia Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. A former Pakistani High Commissioner to the UK and Ireland, Ahmed was a member of the Civil Service of Pakistan and served as Political Agent in South Waziristan Agency and Commissioner in Baluchistan. He also served as the Iqbal Fellow (Chair of Pakistan Studies) at the University of Cambridge. An anthropologist and scholar of Islam. He completed his MA at Cambridge University and received his PhD from the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. He has been called "the world's leading authority on contemporary Islam" by the BBC.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
April 29, 2007
This is definitely one of the best books on Pakistan history I have read. Akbar Ahmed really takes you inside Jinnah's life; it's trite but I felt as if I were there as he described everything. He goes into Jinnah's personal life and has very interesting anecdotes about Jinnah's relationship and interactions with his sister, his wife, and his daughter.
It's hard to address the "idea of Pakistan" without talking about for what reasons it was created. Ahmed does this well in talking about Islamic identity specific to this context, and not lumping Muslims all over the world together.
All together a really informative and very interesting book. Reads like a story. Also, the pictures are SWEET.
It's hard to address the "idea of Pakistan" without talking about for what reasons it was created. Ahmed does this well in talking about Islamic identity specific to this context, and not lumping Muslims all over the world together.
All together a really informative and very interesting book. Reads like a story. Also, the pictures are SWEET.
February 12, 2017
Well balanced opinion about India, Pakistan and most Ignored but Charismatic leader of South Asia, M. A Jinnah.
Undoubtedly, Jinnah is among the Top Ten all time great leaders of the world.
Undoubtedly, Jinnah is among the Top Ten all time great leaders of the world.
March 17, 2019
The premise of this book promised good scholarship but the book is anything but. It’s just full of gossips and tabloid journalism. There are chapters devoted to what the people were gossiping about and anecdotal evidences and hearsay denoted as history.
I don’t think that anybody can deny that Jinnah was the key figure of Sub-continent history maybe even misunderstood. But the author spends too much time finding proof that he was warm hearted (all of which fall a bit flat - for ex proofs like he was smiling in a photo) and then trying to demonize Nehru because it seems he was more charming than Jinnah (at least as per Mountbattens).
Ahmed also calls people like Andrew Roberts for support who among other things has supported Iraq war, Margaret Thatcher, and has racist views of South Africa. Well, pretty much uncooked, this book.
I don’t think that anybody can deny that Jinnah was the key figure of Sub-continent history maybe even misunderstood. But the author spends too much time finding proof that he was warm hearted (all of which fall a bit flat - for ex proofs like he was smiling in a photo) and then trying to demonize Nehru because it seems he was more charming than Jinnah (at least as per Mountbattens).
Ahmed also calls people like Andrew Roberts for support who among other things has supported Iraq war, Margaret Thatcher, and has racist views of South Africa. Well, pretty much uncooked, this book.
December 31, 2018
Extremely biased pro-Jinnah book but raises some important points about the whole way the Hindu majority perceived the Muslim minority as outsiders who were either rulers or rebels, but not as serious nation builders who could participate in the development of India. In this climate came in a born-again Muslim saviour who wanted to represent a modern Islam version which could compete with any other modern religion in the world. Akbar successfully presents how Jinnah was able to wrestle away Pakistan from the British Establishment and the Hindu Lobby but was unable to explain the second question he had raised in the preface of the book about why most Pakistanis feel safer in London rather than Karachi, especially now that the Muslims have had ample time to prove the Hindus wrong?
December 20, 2024
Indo Pakistan history has always intrigued me since my adolescent years since my father's side is from the subcontinent. Here in S.E Asia where I was born and live, Ghandi and Nehru always dominate the discussion whenever Indo Pak independence days came about. Little is known about Mohammed Ali Jinnah except that he was the Father of Pakistan. Stories about him were not that palatable to the conservative Muslims in my country. They often talk about Mr Jinnah as not really practicing Muslim, fond of pork and alcohol and it doesn't help that he is Shia which cast even more negative view of him personally. Nonetheless, Pakistan and Mr Jinnah hold a special place for me because of their almost sacred mission for the continuation of Indian Muslims civilization.
Mr Akbar Ahmed objective of writing this book is to portray Mr Jinnah in more positive light. Like Mr Jinnah's daughter point out, all people wanted to know of his father whether hate pork or drank wine. We have been bombarded of Ghandi's nonviolence method of fighting the British. We were enamored by Nehru's intelligence and charisma in leading India. But for Jinnah, he was seen as arrogant, cold, stubborn and general aloofness on his part. The author seeks to uncover Mr jinnah's personal as well as his human side in Mr jinnha's quest for creating Pakistan as a homeland for Indian Muslims. Mr Akbar put forth many details backed by facts and testimonial evidence of Congress party from being a purely secular pursuit of Indian independence and its ascendancy to Hindu dominated pallbearers. Mr Jinnah found out the hard way and it turns him into Muslim communalist partisan with sole purpose to protect the interest of Indian Muslims against Hindu extremist that were creeping in. His Muslim League led party tried their best to secure Muslims votes although initially failed but when Congress party members were thrown into jail, Mr Jinnah took the opportunity to sweep the majority of Muslim votes.
Congress party visibly upset and very angry at Jinnah for this debacle. So after WW2 ended, Lord Moauntbatten was appointed as viceroy of British India. Nehru and his ilk in Congress Party threw themselves over this viceroy and fawning over Lord Maountbatten and his wife. Mr Akbar told a very disturbing story about amorous affair that happened between Lord Maountbatten's wife Edwina and Nehru. There is a picture that saw Nehru laughed with his mouth opened wide between Edwina and Mountbatten. This unsavory event sent discomfort to the Muslim League leaders. It was said that Mr Jinnah received a several letters/documents that pointed out to Nehru and Edwina affair. But, Mr Jinnah decided it was unscrupulous to use this as attacking points to weaken Nehru;s position. Nonetheless, Mr Akbar made an assertion that Nehru Edwina affair had jeopardize Pakistan future standing as a state. He so far made a claim that Nehru's too close relationship with the Viceroy had made some areas that should have belong to Pakistan instead be given to India especially the Gurdaspur district which was majority Muslims. This district allowed India to send its troop straight to Kashmir and prevent rightful possession by Pakistan. It was conspiratorial in nature, but I wouldn't go further.
To sum up, this book is poignant in tone but captivating in another. It manages to depict Mr Jinnah as a statesman, wise, opportunistic, principled man, and clever politician. He truly deserves Quaid e Azam for his contributions and rest assured Mr Jinnah has always been one the greatest Muslim leaders in history.
Mr Akbar Ahmed objective of writing this book is to portray Mr Jinnah in more positive light. Like Mr Jinnah's daughter point out, all people wanted to know of his father whether hate pork or drank wine. We have been bombarded of Ghandi's nonviolence method of fighting the British. We were enamored by Nehru's intelligence and charisma in leading India. But for Jinnah, he was seen as arrogant, cold, stubborn and general aloofness on his part. The author seeks to uncover Mr jinnah's personal as well as his human side in Mr jinnha's quest for creating Pakistan as a homeland for Indian Muslims. Mr Akbar put forth many details backed by facts and testimonial evidence of Congress party from being a purely secular pursuit of Indian independence and its ascendancy to Hindu dominated pallbearers. Mr Jinnah found out the hard way and it turns him into Muslim communalist partisan with sole purpose to protect the interest of Indian Muslims against Hindu extremist that were creeping in. His Muslim League led party tried their best to secure Muslims votes although initially failed but when Congress party members were thrown into jail, Mr Jinnah took the opportunity to sweep the majority of Muslim votes.
Congress party visibly upset and very angry at Jinnah for this debacle. So after WW2 ended, Lord Moauntbatten was appointed as viceroy of British India. Nehru and his ilk in Congress Party threw themselves over this viceroy and fawning over Lord Maountbatten and his wife. Mr Akbar told a very disturbing story about amorous affair that happened between Lord Maountbatten's wife Edwina and Nehru. There is a picture that saw Nehru laughed with his mouth opened wide between Edwina and Mountbatten. This unsavory event sent discomfort to the Muslim League leaders. It was said that Mr Jinnah received a several letters/documents that pointed out to Nehru and Edwina affair. But, Mr Jinnah decided it was unscrupulous to use this as attacking points to weaken Nehru;s position. Nonetheless, Mr Akbar made an assertion that Nehru Edwina affair had jeopardize Pakistan future standing as a state. He so far made a claim that Nehru's too close relationship with the Viceroy had made some areas that should have belong to Pakistan instead be given to India especially the Gurdaspur district which was majority Muslims. This district allowed India to send its troop straight to Kashmir and prevent rightful possession by Pakistan. It was conspiratorial in nature, but I wouldn't go further.
To sum up, this book is poignant in tone but captivating in another. It manages to depict Mr Jinnah as a statesman, wise, opportunistic, principled man, and clever politician. He truly deserves Quaid e Azam for his contributions and rest assured Mr Jinnah has always been one the greatest Muslim leaders in history.
Read
February 5, 2016Perhaps this book might answer some questions and solve some of the puzzles, hence the worth reading - even a partial answer, part solution would take one further in this riddle.
Jinnah was not religious, this much is indisputable - he despised orthodox fellow Muslims as much as he looked down on others not quite of his class, which in his days meant upper class in money as well as a western oriented education. He was urbane, sophisticated, lawyer living in Bombay who had married a Parsi woman.
Parsi is the name the community goes by, of Persians that fled Islamic forces to escape the kill or convert horrors, to survive in India - and nowhere else until recent couple of centuries - and flourish. It is a small community, mostly existing only in India.
The one time his personal life showed any sentiment of religious sort is when his daughter married another Parsi, Wadia, when Jinnah was seriously displeased and disowned her in most ways.
How this man of urbane western non religious sort came to be not only a proponent of a division of an ancient land and coherent nation like India to cut out a part that was based on a religious identity, whence most followers of any other religions were persecuted, hounded, massacred and thrown out in any way at all possible, has been a curiosity for those not of his religion - there, he did only what was right, a beginning of a conversion of India by cutting it into pieces and wiping out any followers of any other faith by conversion or massacre or both, thus "purifying" it in the eyes of "pure" Muslims - hence the very name of the nation he carved out of a living land, Pakistan (which literally translates as "land of the "pure"") by using every method possible.
He remained Indian at heart nevertheless even after he had had his wish, of being the premier of the new nation, and sent a personal message to Nehru through a common acquaintance to forget about the separation and unite as a nation again, even as he was within less than a year of his death. (This message being personal, not official, had no status; moreover he had just orchestrated an attack on India taking half Kashmir and pretending it was only a tribals revolt, the pretense falling apart inadvertently when he spoke with Mountbatten in an official capacity; so the message was of no use to heal the nation divided, however heartfelt it may have been.)
How did such a man come from his urbane sophisticated upper class westernised persona to be the one that called for an "action day" for the Muslim League who obeyed him and massacred thousands of Hindus in Calcutta in one day or two, breaking spirit of Mahatma Gandhi into accepting the partition of the beloved country into one secular and other with a separate religious identity, is the puzzle being explored recently by many.
Was it only that he could not tolerate supremacy of any other person, neither in his personal life nor in his political party? When he came to Congress other great leaders were either far too great for him to compete, and already either past their primes or going another path of the quest for freedom of India. Nehru was still young, and age along with experience and wisdom commands respect in older cultures particularly of Asia. Jinnah's discomfort came from the new arrival on the scene of someone from fame in another land in the fight for freedom, someone with already an acknowledged stature - Gandhi himself.
Gandhi turned the struggle into a direction totally unforeseen by the until then clique of Congress, which had been mostly educated and going the way of legal protests and demands of moderate sort, with few exceptions such as Tilak with his outspoken declaration of independence and right thereof. Gandhi brought several new factors, one being a connecting with ALL of people of India, not merely restricting the independence struggle to upper class educated people. Another one was use of fasting and prayers as a mode of protest across all faiths, and yet another being uniting of all people of India under one giant roof irrespective of faith or religion. Even his prayers were not restricted to his own religion, and he followed Christ in many ways.
Jinnah was uncomfortable with all of this and distanced himself increasingly from the Congress which until then he was an integral part of - and one naturally questions if it was due to his no longer being the leader he thought he indisputably was, since his subsequent political actions had nothing to do with his until then persona and thinking as known - he became the leader of a very narrow vision political party with a single agenda, opposing Congress at all costs and carving out a nation with Muslim supremacy.
At one time he was offered to name his terms for giving up this demand, and his option was to rule India with his choice of Muslim total rule, harking back to the era of Muslim invaders occupation of India before the British rule. This naturally was untenable. Action day finished any possibility of a dialogue further, and to his immense surprise and dismay he got his demand of a separate part carved out to rule for himself.
Even then his vision was of a secular nation of Pakistan where people of all religions could live together in peace, and he said as much in his first public speech in his capacity of a premier of a new nation. That this was not to be was obvious to anyone with any logic - one does not carve out a secular nation with a religious identity, out of an ancient nation with a secular identity, to begin with; much less so by using riots and massacres as "action" for the purpose, calling for "action day" to make it happen. Was he attempting to fool everyone, or himself, is a good question.
Was it all only so he could be a premier, which ironically he could very well have achieved and been president or even prime minister of India if he had not insisted on partition, is not only an obvious question but the most likely answer. Ambition is all very well when moderated by consideration for rights of others and especially their right to life, is the first lesson here - when unmindful of trampling over the whole world and one's own country as well, one may get what one demands, and lose everything one loves and wishes and lives for.
Jinnah was not religious, this much is indisputable - he despised orthodox fellow Muslims as much as he looked down on others not quite of his class, which in his days meant upper class in money as well as a western oriented education. He was urbane, sophisticated, lawyer living in Bombay who had married a Parsi woman.
Parsi is the name the community goes by, of Persians that fled Islamic forces to escape the kill or convert horrors, to survive in India - and nowhere else until recent couple of centuries - and flourish. It is a small community, mostly existing only in India.
The one time his personal life showed any sentiment of religious sort is when his daughter married another Parsi, Wadia, when Jinnah was seriously displeased and disowned her in most ways.
How this man of urbane western non religious sort came to be not only a proponent of a division of an ancient land and coherent nation like India to cut out a part that was based on a religious identity, whence most followers of any other religions were persecuted, hounded, massacred and thrown out in any way at all possible, has been a curiosity for those not of his religion - there, he did only what was right, a beginning of a conversion of India by cutting it into pieces and wiping out any followers of any other faith by conversion or massacre or both, thus "purifying" it in the eyes of "pure" Muslims - hence the very name of the nation he carved out of a living land, Pakistan (which literally translates as "land of the "pure"") by using every method possible.
He remained Indian at heart nevertheless even after he had had his wish, of being the premier of the new nation, and sent a personal message to Nehru through a common acquaintance to forget about the separation and unite as a nation again, even as he was within less than a year of his death. (This message being personal, not official, had no status; moreover he had just orchestrated an attack on India taking half Kashmir and pretending it was only a tribals revolt, the pretense falling apart inadvertently when he spoke with Mountbatten in an official capacity; so the message was of no use to heal the nation divided, however heartfelt it may have been.)
How did such a man come from his urbane sophisticated upper class westernised persona to be the one that called for an "action day" for the Muslim League who obeyed him and massacred thousands of Hindus in Calcutta in one day or two, breaking spirit of Mahatma Gandhi into accepting the partition of the beloved country into one secular and other with a separate religious identity, is the puzzle being explored recently by many.
Was it only that he could not tolerate supremacy of any other person, neither in his personal life nor in his political party? When he came to Congress other great leaders were either far too great for him to compete, and already either past their primes or going another path of the quest for freedom of India. Nehru was still young, and age along with experience and wisdom commands respect in older cultures particularly of Asia. Jinnah's discomfort came from the new arrival on the scene of someone from fame in another land in the fight for freedom, someone with already an acknowledged stature - Gandhi himself.
Gandhi turned the struggle into a direction totally unforeseen by the until then clique of Congress, which had been mostly educated and going the way of legal protests and demands of moderate sort, with few exceptions such as Tilak with his outspoken declaration of independence and right thereof. Gandhi brought several new factors, one being a connecting with ALL of people of India, not merely restricting the independence struggle to upper class educated people. Another one was use of fasting and prayers as a mode of protest across all faiths, and yet another being uniting of all people of India under one giant roof irrespective of faith or religion. Even his prayers were not restricted to his own religion, and he followed Christ in many ways.
Jinnah was uncomfortable with all of this and distanced himself increasingly from the Congress which until then he was an integral part of - and one naturally questions if it was due to his no longer being the leader he thought he indisputably was, since his subsequent political actions had nothing to do with his until then persona and thinking as known - he became the leader of a very narrow vision political party with a single agenda, opposing Congress at all costs and carving out a nation with Muslim supremacy.
At one time he was offered to name his terms for giving up this demand, and his option was to rule India with his choice of Muslim total rule, harking back to the era of Muslim invaders occupation of India before the British rule. This naturally was untenable. Action day finished any possibility of a dialogue further, and to his immense surprise and dismay he got his demand of a separate part carved out to rule for himself.
Even then his vision was of a secular nation of Pakistan where people of all religions could live together in peace, and he said as much in his first public speech in his capacity of a premier of a new nation. That this was not to be was obvious to anyone with any logic - one does not carve out a secular nation with a religious identity, out of an ancient nation with a secular identity, to begin with; much less so by using riots and massacres as "action" for the purpose, calling for "action day" to make it happen. Was he attempting to fool everyone, or himself, is a good question.
Was it all only so he could be a premier, which ironically he could very well have achieved and been president or even prime minister of India if he had not insisted on partition, is not only an obvious question but the most likely answer. Ambition is all very well when moderated by consideration for rights of others and especially their right to life, is the first lesson here - when unmindful of trampling over the whole world and one's own country as well, one may get what one demands, and lose everything one loves and wishes and lives for.
May 19, 2024
When I started reading this book i thought this is going to be an interesting read as author appeared to be unbiased trying to highlight all weaknesses and strengths of the time and communities with great relevance. Then it moved to a very different tangent and became an ardent follower of Mr. Jinnah. He tried to present his completely biased views about Mr. Jinnah by concealing a large number of disturbing facts to present him like a demigod. The author completely failed to bring the true character of Mr. Jinnah where you can see many times trying to justify his bad as good.
He presented completely one aided story where one can see a lot of flavours of his personal emotions as Muslim who is extremely jealous of Hindus - at one side he praises Hindu religion to be very flexible and accommodating, followers to be intelligent but cowards. Moments later he paints them as selfish and mass murders.
Though this was an expensive read for me, not in terms of the price but my time, I learned a lot from this book - something ago I used to trust that good education can revive any brainwashed religious fanatic - but it appears I was wrong! - at least by looking at the author I can say so.
He presented completely one aided story where one can see a lot of flavours of his personal emotions as Muslim who is extremely jealous of Hindus - at one side he praises Hindu religion to be very flexible and accommodating, followers to be intelligent but cowards. Moments later he paints them as selfish and mass murders.
Though this was an expensive read for me, not in terms of the price but my time, I learned a lot from this book - something ago I used to trust that good education can revive any brainwashed religious fanatic - but it appears I was wrong! - at least by looking at the author I can say so.
October 30, 2021
very informative read about some of the complexities concerning the partition and Hindi Muslim history
July 17, 2022
Brushing up on the history of India and I had read mostly Anglo/Indian perspectives.
Not sure that reading this as a Pakistani/Muslim perspective has helped.
Not sure that reading this as a Pakistani/Muslim perspective has helped.
Read
April 30, 2007my people!
well, you're all my people;
good book
well, you're all my people;
good book
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews