MJ Akbar’s book throws up some intriguing questions on Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Partition

New Delhi: Was Muhammad Ali Jinnah a creation of the British to counter Mahatma Gandhi? Had the British reconciled themselves to the fact as far back as 1911 that they would, in the not too distant future, have to leave and hence shifted their capital from Calcutta to Delhi and constructed a variety of edifices to leave their permanent stamp on India?

Was Partition pre-ordained because of a feeling in Whitehall that had this not happened, there would have been an economic block stretching all the way from Burma, through India, Afghanistan, Iran, and Iraq and ending on the edge of what is now the Middle East? This would have rivaled anything that Europe and the rest of the Western world had to offer - even the modern-day European Union.

Thus, were the various three-way negotiations (for want of better wording) carried out during the freedom movement between the British, Mahatma Gandhi and the Congress and Muhammad Ali Jinnah a mere charade because the ultimate decision had been pre-decided?

Had the denouement not been delivered on August 15, 1947, but allowed to linger, is it possible that Partition would not have happened? Jinnah died on September 11, 1948, and with him might have died the idea of Pakistan, given the manner in which it is driven by the man who became the Quaid-e-Azam of the new nation.

Given the machinations of the British, why did India join the Commonwealth and why does it continue to be a member? Reading between the lines, these are some of the intriguing questions raised by a new book, “Gandhi’s Hinduism - The Struggle Against Jinnah’s Islam” (Bloomsbury/pp 454/Rs 699) painstakingly researched by distinguished writer and Member of Parliament M.J. Akbar and which throws new light on the tumultuous years in the first half of the 20th century. Gandhi, a devout Hindu, believed faith could nurture the civilizational harmony of India, a land where every religion had flourished. Jinnah, a political Muslim rather than a practicing believer, was determined to carve up a syncretic subcontinent in the name of Islam. His confidence came from a wartime deal with Britain, termed the August Offer of 1940 promising the expansion of the Viceroy’s Executive Council to include more Indians, the establishment of an advisory war council, giving full weight to minority opinion, and the recognition of the Indians’ right to frame their own constitution (after the end of the war). (IANS)

Also Read: Pakistan Has No Say on Jinnah House: India

Also Watch: Minister of State for Education Smt. Vibhavariben Dave addresses Academia in Guwahati.