Two Js- Jaswant and Jinnah
by Despite the fact that six decades have passed and much is said and written, partition of India and the creation of Pakistan is still a subject fraught with complications. Historians and intellectuals are never exhausted discussing it, shedding more light on this remarkable event of 20th century that changed the lives of billions in subcontinent forever. Every new statement made, every new word written intensifies rather fuel the need to further discuss and analyze the major characters of this extraordinary incident of history and so is done and is being done by the scholars not only in South Asia but around the world. This brings us to the recent controversial book, “Jinnah – India, Partition, Independence”.
Apparently this is not the first book written on Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, admiring his role as a great leader of India. It has been done before, in his life and after his demise, by Muslims and non-Muslims, by Indians, Pakistanis and by the researchers of America and Europe. Indian authors like Ajit Javed, H.M. Sreervai, S.K. Mazumdar and even Gandhi’s grandson, Rajmohan Gandhi have argued that Jinnah is un-necessarily demonised in India and justice is not done with his central role in the shaping the future of sub-continent. But this one comes from the most unusual and least expected person – Jaswant Singh, the co-founder of right wing Hindu Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP), a former defence, finance, union and foreign minister.
The Point
A fiend and malicious figure of Jinnah’s character is imbibed into the minds of Indians through history books in schools and colleges who because of his malevolence for “mother land India” divided the country. In his book, Jaswant Singh questions the vilification of Mr. Jinnah and holds him least responsible for the partition. He, instead, assigns much of the blame to Pandit Nehru and Sardar Vallabhai Patel, the most revered figures of independence movement in India. He admired Jinnah as a great nationalist and a man with prodigious leadership qualities. In an interview with CNN-IBN, Jaswant regarded Jinnah as an intricate, complex personality of great character and determination. Adding to this he said that he was drawn to the personality, sufficiently attractive to go and research it for five years. He goes on to say that Jinnah was a great man who created something (Pakistan) out of nothing singlehandedly and stood against great might of BritishSamraj and congress party, who did not really like him. He vigorously defends his thesis by saying that his conclusion is not new rather he just corroborates the facts borne out of historical events. In his talk
to Dawn News, a Pakistani TV channel, he called Jinnah, Quaid-e-Azam, and respect for our Quaid in Jaswant’s eyes is quite visible. (See video below)
Have you read the book?
Repercussions of the book were widespread. India or more specifically BJP was practically “set on fire”. The BJP ruled Gujarat and Congress ruled Madhya Pardesh banned the book and their workers burnt it. Police check posts were established on highways which were given the authority to search through even the personal luggage of people travelling so that they are not carrying the book with them. Ironically all of it was done without reading the book. The authorities took only few hours to ban a book which contains 752 pages. When responsible people were approached with a question “Have you actually read the book?” the answer was either “No” or “Some of it” or even “I don’t need to”. Gujartat Chief Minister, infamous Narinder Modi, accused the author of giving derogatory remarks about the so called “Son of Gujarat”, Vallabhai Patel, forgetting that Jinnah’s forefathers also belonged to Gujarat and his mother tongue was Gujrati and not Urdu. How come that he is so bitter for another son of Gujarat? The most entertaining fact comes after the Gujarat high court’s decision revoking the ban where it states that it appears that authors of the notification invoking ban on the book not even have read the book. The lawyer of Jaswant’s book termed it as a slap on the face of Gujarat government and a slap it was indeed. Even more ridiculously, Gujarat government withdrew the original ban order and replaced it with a new one. (Watch the debate of three different Indian News Channel below, first debate was so aggressive that in the 2nd half of debate participants started talking in Hindi whereas debate started in English)
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