Quaid E Azam, The Best Leader
Leadership and Organizational Behavior: “If you change your past and work together in a spirit that every one of you, no matter to what community he belongs, no matter what relations he had with you in the past, no matter what his color, caste or creed, is first, second and last a citizen of this State with equal rights, privileges and obligations, there will be no end to the progress you will make.” (Muhammad Ali Jinnah) (1)
It really takes a lifetime to achieve your dreams but in order achieve the dream of millions, it is a feat that only a few can perform in the whole mankind but Quaid-e-Azam was one of them. The abilities and skills which he manifested in the creation of Pakistan and the fight he fought, with reasons and logics to bring the dream of a lifetime for millions of souls was unsurpassable. We will always remain in debt to this man and those millions of sacrifices.
Why I chose Quaid-e-Azam, the best leader:
Everyone in this earth has a hero. People have heroes because they really admire that specific person and they really look up to that person. They really want to do what they have done and they have achieved in their lives. Likewise, I also have a hero. My hero is Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah.
There has been a lot written and said about him. From Larry Collins, Dominique Lapierre to Stanley Walport; everyone agreed on one thing: this man, this leader and founder of Pakistan had resolve of a man unbreakable even by the might of the mightiest, the British Empire, the Hindus and by all who thought that to create Pakistan was something beyond reach. But he stood strongly against all who promised and applied pressure from every direction and yet they couldn’t move him even an inch. He was to give all, he single handedly performed his responsibilities and there are some elements that make him very unique in all sense; as a leader or as a tactician, as one of the finest implementer of law or as a symbol of governance.
I choose him as my hero leader because I really admire him and his style, his personality and most importantly what he did for the Muslims of our country. He gave Muslims the freedom from the British Empire that was ruling at that time.
Biographies and Articles:
I have read lots of biographies and articles on Quaid-e-Azam and I am going to discuss and analyze a few of those here.
The first biography named, “Muhammad Ali Jinnah Biography” (2) describes the basic introduction about the early life of Quaid-e-Azam and his early education, his comeback to India, starting of his practice at bar, his joining of All India National Congress has also been described, agreement on Lucknow Pact, Jinnah’s fourteen points, his control over the Muslim League, Lahore Resolution, 1945-46 elections and the establishment of Pakistan.
The second biography named, “Biography on Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah” (3) also describes his early life and his education, his life in London has also been discussed, his return to Karachi in 1896, his entrance in Politics in 1906, his role in unifying the Muslims into a nation and becoming the first head of a new estate i.e. Pakistan.
The third biography named, “Biography on Quaid-e-Azam” (4) explains Birth of Quaid-e-Azam, the Early Life of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Political Career of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Constitutional Struggle of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Muslim League Reorganization and link of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Demand for Pakistan Slogan Raised by Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the Cripps Scheme and the most importantly, The Quaid’s last Words.
An article, “Remembering the Founder” (5), from Dawn – December 25, 2000; shows the importance of Quaid-e-Azam in the struggle against the problems in making Pakistan, it also shows his modern vision of politics and his vision of Pakistan as well.
Another article, “Quaid’s Concept of Pakistan” (6), from The News International Pakistan – December 25, 2005; tells about the controversy over whether the Quaid-e-Azam envisaged Pakistan to develop into an Islamic or secular state, the collapse of the 1857 resistance, treatment of minorities, his effective speeches, the dangers to Pakistan and his concept of a Nation.
By reading all the above mentioned biographies and articles, I want to share the information I gathered, his qualities, efforts and most amazingly zero level of weaknesses, my views about the strengths and accurate behavior of this great leader.
Early Life:
Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah was born on December 25th, 1876, to a mercantile family in Karachi. He got his early education at the Sindh Madrassat-ul-Islam and the Christian Mission School. He joined the Lincoln’s Inn in 1893 and became the youngest Indian to be called to the Bar. After three years, he became most famous lawyer in Bombay. In 1905, he entered politics from the platform of the Indian National Congress. As a member of a congress delegation, he went to England in that year to plead the cause of Indian self-governemnt during the British elections.
By forming a political group called the Muslim League, he got us a freedom. Talking to all the Muslims around in the sub-continent at that time, he said, “We are a nation with our own distinctive culture and civilization, language and literature, art and architecture, names and nomenclature, sense of values and proportion, legal laws and moral code, customs and calendar, history and tradition, aptitudes and ambitions; in short, we have our own distinctive outlook on life and of life. By all canons of international law, we are a nation.” (7)
Political Career:
In January 1910, Quaid-e-Azam was elected to the newly-constituted Imperial Legislative Council. He was probably the most powerful voice in the cause of Indian freedom rights all through his parliamentary career. Jinnah was also the first Indian to pilot a private member’s Bill through the Council and soon became a leader of a group inside the legislature.
Strong Beliefs:
For almost three decades since his entry into politics in 1906, Jinnah strongly believed in Hindu-Muslim unity. The Hindu leader before Gandhi, Gokhale, had once said of him, “He has the true stuff in him and that freedom from all sectarian prejudice which will make him the best ambassador of Hindu-Muslim Unity.” (8) And he did become the architect of Hindu-Muslim Unity, he was the one who was responsible for the Congress-League Pact of 1916, known as Lucknow Pact; the only pact ever signed between the two political organizations, the Congress and the All-India Muslim League, the two major communities in the subcontinent.
Key Roles:
The Lucknow Pact showed a milestone in the evolution of Indian politics. It conceded Muslims the right to separate electorate, reservation of seats in the legislatures and weightage in the representation both at the Centre and the minority provinces, thus binding the trend towards Muslim individuality in Indian politics. All the credit for this goes to Jinnah. Thus, by 1917, Jinnah came to be recognized among both Hindus and Muslims as one of India’s most outstanding political leaders. He was very prominent in the Congress and the Imperial Legislative Council as he was the President of the All India Muslim and that of the Bombay Branch of the Home Rule League. More importantly, because of his very special role in the Congress League agreement at Lucknow, he was hailed as the ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity.
Great Impact:
In 1940, the formulation of the Muslim demand for Pakistan had a great impact on the course of Indian politics. It shattered forever the Hindu dreams of Indian, in fact, Hindu empire on British exit from India. The reaction of the Hindus was quick and bitter too.
The British were equally hostile to the Muslim demand, their hostility having stemmed from their belief that the unity of India was their main achievement and their foremost contribution. The irony was that both the Hindus and the British had not anticipated the strong response that the Pakistan demand had elicited from the Muslim masses. Hence, they failed to know how a hundred million people had amazingly become so much conscious of their distinct nationhood and their destiny. In monitoring the course of Muslim politics towards Pakistan, none played a more prominent role than did Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah. It was only his advocacy of the case of Pakistan and it was his remarkable strategy in the delicate negotiations that followed the formulation of the Pakistan demand, particularly in the post-war period, that made Pakistan inevitable.
Limitless Struggle and Efforts:
In subsequent years, however, he felt dismayed at the involvement of violence in the politics. Jinnah really felt that political terrorism was not the way to the national liberation but, the dark route to disaster and destruction. Hence Jinnah could not possibly, countenance Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi’s novel methods of Civil Disobedience and the triple boycott of government aided schools and colleges, courts and councils and British textiles. Earlier, in October 1920, when Gandhi, having been elected President of the Home Rule League, tried to change its constitution as well as its nomenclature, Jinnah had resigned from the Home Rule League, saying: “Your extreme program has for the moment struck the imagination mostly of the inexperienced youth and the ignorant and the illiterate. All this means disorganization and chaos”. (9)
Required Behavior:
In the growing frustration among the masses caused by colonial rule, there was strong cause for extremism. Jinnah felt that it might lead to the building up of resentment, but nothing constructive. Hence, he opposed the tactics adopted by Gandhi to exploit the Khilafat and wrongful tactics in the Punjab in the early twenties. On the eve of its adoption of the Gandhian program, Jinnah warned the Nagpur Congress Session (1920): “You are making a declaration (of Swaraj) and committing the Indian National Congress to a program, which you will not be able to carry out”, (10). He felt that there was no short-cut to independence and that Gandhi’s constitutional methods could only lead to political terrorism, lawlessness and chaos, without bringing India nearer to freedom.
Although Jinnah left the Congress soon thereafter but he continued his efforts towards bringing about a Hindu-Muslim unity. However, because of the huge distrust between the two communities as evidenced by the country-wide communal riots, and because the Hindus failed to meet the right demands of the Muslims, his efforts came to zero. One such effort was the formulation of the Delhi Muslim Proposals in March, 1927.
Jinnah argued in vain at the National convention (1928): “What we want is that Hindus and Muslims should march together until our object is achieved. These two communities have got to be reconciled and united and made to feel that their interests are common”, (11). The Convention’s blank refusal to accept Muslim demands represented the setback to Jinnah’s passionate efforts to bring about Hindu-Muslim unity, it meant “the last straw” for the Muslims, and “the parting of the ways” for him, as he confessed to a Parsee friend at that time. Jinnah’s disillusionment at the course of politics in the subcontinent made him to migrate and settle down in London in the early thirties. He returned to India in 1934, at the pleadings of his co-religionists, and did assume their leadership. But then the Muslims presented a sad spectacle at that time. They were a mass of dissatisfied and demoralized people, politically disorganized program.
To get the Muslim people freedom, Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah played a big role. He was the only Muslim to stand up and rally all the Muslims together so they could have their freedom on Aug. 14, 1947.
Great Thoughts and Sayings of Quaid-e-Azam:
“We can look to the future with robust confidence provided we do not relax and fritter away our energies in internal dissensions. There was never a greater need for discipline and unity in our ranks. It is only with united effort and faith in our destiny that we shall be able to translate the Pakistan of our dreams into reality”. (Mohammed Ali Jinnah) (12)
“My message to you all is of hope, courage and confidence. Let us mobilize all our resources in a systematic and organized way and tackle the grave issues that confront us with grim determination and discipline worthy of a great nation.” (Mohammad Ali Jinnah) (13)
“We are now all Pakistanis–not Baluchis, Pathans, Sindhis, Bengalis, and Punjabis and so on–and as Pakistanis we must feet behave and act, and we should be proud to be known as Pakistanis and nothing else.” (Mohammad Ali Jinnah) (14)
“We should have a State in which we could live and breathe as free men and which we could develop according to our own lights and culture and where principles of Islamic social justice could find free play.” (Mohammad Ali Jinnah) (15)
“Come forward as servants of Islam organize the people economically, socially, educationally and politically and I am sure that you will be a power that will be accepted by everybody.” (Mohammad Ali Jinnah) (15)
The Quaid’s Last Message:
With a sense of great satisfaction at the completion of his mission that Jinnah told the nation in his last message on 14 August, 1948:
“The foundations of your State have been laid and it is now for you to build and build as quickly and as well as you can”, (16). In accomplishing the task he had taken upon himself on the morrow of Pakistan’s birth, Jinnah had worked himself to death.
Result:
The Quaid e Azam is admired by all political parties as well as by the army in Pakistan.
He was a tremendous leader whose first preference was to give special status for the Muslim League within a united India as being the sole representative of the Muslim community.
This was unacceptable to the Congress which had been quite secular in its outlook and had leaders from all the many religions. The Quaid-e-Azam was an accomplished lawyer and a magnificent negotiator. He used the threat of creating Pakistan as a “stick” if his demands were not met.
After getting Pakistan, he wanted it to be a secular state but unfortunately he died within a year of its creation. As a result, religious forces quickly adopted a resolution making Pakistan an Islamic republic and introduced a basis for subsequent misuse for intolerant agendas of some of its most influential leaders.
Conclusions:
That is why I really admire him. He is a hero to everyone in my country because of what he did for our country and for the Muslims. He fought so much for Pakistan and he did so much for us that no one can ever forget. He is a great freedom hero for me.
In all his speeches given in whatever little time he had, it paved way for all to see and to learn how Pakistan should develop its economic and foreign policies, how to protect rights of the minorities, based on justice and fairness, a society set on the principles of Islam, where all will be able to take part to its success and progression but we all forgot within the months of his departure.
It is still time for Pakistanis to wake up and to follow the spirit of its founder to bring back this country to its feet. All the challenges we face, all the resistance we face amongst ourselves and from outside can be removed if we could only understand Jinnah and his life and know the mechanics in creation of a country that became second largest Muslim country in 20th century. But this was not to happen as we forgot our very own sacrifices, our very own people and our very own founder Jinnah.
Instead of following his vision; we followed our instincts based on greed and promotion of values against all what he made and created. We forgot Jinnah and have turned Jinnah into just a mere symbol. It is his words; it is his life which should be lived in all of us. We have betrayed him in last sixty one years. It is still time to appreciate and to bring that spirit back in Pakistan and in all of Pakistanis, and we have to forget these differences that we have created. We must become more understanding and tolerant of each other and work together. It is this task that is the need of the time and our major responsibility.
Remember a young boy, age of seventeen, arriving at Southampton. Remember a person who learnt all the important ways of life in those dull and depressing months of winter. Remember that person who once walked near river Thames, asking himself what a change means and how it can be brought. Even Jinnah had no idea what so ever at that time but he learnt that studying Law will take him so far but he never thought that one day he will fight in a way no one had done it ever before. One day he will fight for the hopes of millions. He took stand against Gandhi, Nehru, Patel, Mountbatten and the whole British Empire. But he fought well with both his mind and words and took intelligent actions to turn this dream into reality. It is now up to us as individuals and as a society and as leaders of this Pakistan to understand the cause and all what it took.
It is this man Mohammed Ali Jinnah who became in the process our Quaid-e-Azam, the founder of Pakistan. It is this man, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, Quaid-e-Azam, a man for all seasons we owe our lives to and to Pakistan.
