Jinnah and the Partition saga: To divide or not to divide

ABSTRACT

The Partition of India in 1947 was an epochal event; even after seven long decades, it looms large like an intractable question mark over the horizon of politics and history in the subcontinent. There is voluminous scholarship on the matter--much of it, however, resembles a cantenkerous debate rather than reasoned dialogue. Opposing sides across India and Pakistan, and also within, seem to have rigid positions on the issue, nurtured by ideological or nationalist compulsions, leaving very little room for academic manoeuvre. This review article seeks to unravel the main knots of the debate on partition, as it has and continues to unfold, in rival historiographical traditions of Pakistan represented chiefly by Ayesha Jalal and Ishtiyaq Ahmed. The Gordian Knot, as it were, of this entire discourse is Jinnah. There is a wide chasm of disagreement that separates these two schools of thought--namely, revisionist and orthodox--in their estimation of both Jinnah’s actions and intentions. The moot question being whether Jinnah really wanted partition or did he unwittingly, in a dangerous game of brinksmanship crafted to gain maximum advantage for Muslims within India, unleash forces that he could no longer control. From this vantage point, and this is the view that Jalal favours, partition was an unintended calamity. Ahmed, on the other hand, brings a wealth of historical evidence to debunk the revisionist claim and argues that Jinnah wanted an independent Pakistan all along. This article attempts to evaluate these two major interventions, by authors cited above who have arguably shaped the contours of scholarly opinion about the role of Jinnah, the main protagonist of the partition saga.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Reviewed books

1. Ayesha Jalal, The Sole Spokesman: Jinnah, the Muslim League and the Demand for Pakistan (New Delhi: Cambridge University Press, 2020).

2. Ishtiaq Ahmed, Jinnah: His successes, failures and role in history (Gurugram: Penguin Random House, 2020).

Notes

^1. Mushirul Hasan (ed.), India’s Partition: Process, Strategy and Mobilization (Oxford University Press: Delhi), 1993.

^2. Larson, Gerald James. India’s Agony Over Religion, (New Delhi, 1997), 182-183.

^3. Robinson, Francis. Modern Asian Studies 20, no. 3 (1986): 611-18. http://www.jstor.org/stable/312542.

^4. Asim Roy, “The High Politics of India’s Partition: The Revisionist Perspective,” Modern Asian Studies 24, no. 2 (1990): 385-408. http://www.jstor.org/stable/312661, 394.

^5. Ayesha Jalal, The Sole Spokesman: Jinnah, the Muslim League and the Demand for Pakistan (New Delhi: Cambridge University Press, 2020), 262.

^6. M. A. K. Azad, India Wins Freedom (Calcutta: Orient Longman, 1957).

^7. Sarvepalli Gopal, Jawaharlal Nehru : An Autobiography, Volume I (Bombay: Oxford University Press, 1976), 327.

^8. The Statesman Weekly, The Maulana’s Lament, (Calcutta & New Delhi, 12 November 1988), 9.

^9. T N Madan, “Sense and Sensibilities on Pakistan,” Economic and Political Weekly, no. 43, October 2009, 24.

^10. Stanley Wolpert, Jinnah of Pakistan (New York: Oxford University Press, 1984).

^11. Robinson, Francis. Modern Asian Studies 20, no. 3 (1986): 611–18. http://www.jstor.org/stable/312542.

^12. Ibid, 613.

^13. T N Madan, “Sense and Sensibilities on Pakistan,” Economic and Political Weekly, no. 43, October 2009, 24.

^14. Ayesha Jalal, The Sole Spokesman: Jinnah, the Muslim League and the Demand for Pakistan (New Delhi: Cambridge University Press, 2020), 33.

^15. Ibid, 57.

^16. Asim Roy, “The High Politics of India’s Partition: The Revisionist Perspective.” Modern Asian Studies 24, no. 2, 1990, 386.

^17. S Akbar Zaidi, A Compassionate Portrayal, Economic and Political Weekly, no.30, July 1989, 1705.

^18. T N Madan, “Sense and Sensibilities on Pakistan,” Economic and Political Weekly, no. 43, October 2009, 24.

^19. G H Sabine, “A History of Political Theory” (New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston Inc, 1973), 328.

^20. T N Madan, “Sense and Sensibilities on Pakistan,” Economic and Political Weekly, no. 43, October 2009, 24.

^21. Ishtiaq Ahmed, Jinnah: His successes, failures and role in history (Gurugram: Penguin Random House, 2020), xx.

^22. Ishtiaq Ahmed, Jinnah: His successes, failures and role in history (Gurugram: Penguin Random House, 2020), 162.

^23. Khurshid Ahmad Khan Yusufi, Speeches, Statements and Messages of the Quaid-e-Azam, vol. II (Lahore: Bazm-e-Iqbal, 1996), 908.

^24. Ishtiaq Ahmed, Jinnah: His successes, failures and role in history (Gurugram: Penguin Random House, 2020), 194.

^25. Ayesha Jalal, The Sole Spokesman: Jinnah, the Muslim League and the Demand for Pakistan (New Delhi: Cambridge University Press, 2020), 58.

^26. Ibid, 58.

^27. Ayesha Jalal, The Sole Spokesman: Jinnah, the Muslim League and the Demand for Pakistan (New Delhi: Cambridge University Press, 2020), 195.

^28. Ibid, 195.

^29. Ishtiaq Ahmed, Jinnah: His successes, failures and role in history (Gurugram: Penguin Random House, 2020), 329.

^30. Ibid, 337.

^31. Khurshid Ahmad Khan Yusufi, Speeches, Statements and Messages of the Quaid-e-Azam, vol. IV (Lahore: Bazm-e-Iqbal, 1996), 2303.

^32. Ishtiaq Ahmed, Jinnah: His successes, failures and role in history (Gurugram: Penguin Random House, 2020), 354.

^33. Ibid, 366.

^34. Ibid, 500.

^35. Ibid, 488.

^36. Hector Bolitho, Jinnah: Creator of Pakistan (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2006), 176.

^37. Ishtiaq Ahmed, Jinnah: His successes, failures and role in history (Gurugram: Penguin Random House, 2020), 493.

^38. A G Noorani, “Jinnah’s 11 August, 1947 Speech,” Criterion Quarterly, vol 5, no. 2 (2012).

^39. Terrance Ball, “History and Interpretation of Texts,” in Handbook of Political Theory ed. Gerald F. Gaus and Chandran Kukathas (London: Sage, 2004), 24, 18–30.

^40. Asim Roy, “The High Politics of India’s Partition: The Revisionist Perspective,” Modern Asian Studies 24, no. 2 (1990): 385–408. http://www.jstor.org/stable/312661, 394.

^41. Ibid, 293.

^42. Terrance Ball, “History and Interpretation of Texts,” in Handbook of Political Theory ed. Gerald F. Gaus and Chandran Kukathas (London: Sage, 2004), 27, 18–30.

^43. Ibid, 27.