Muhammad Ali Jinnah
Muhammad Ali Jinnah was born in Karachi in 1876 and spent much of his childhood in Bombay (Mumbai). He studied law in Bombay and London and went onto run a legal practice. Jinnah joined both the Indian National Congress and the Muslim League, becoming President of the League in 1916. Jinnah was critical of the kind of mass mobilisation advocated by Gandhi and opposed the Congress’s policy of boycotting British rule which led to his resignation from the Party. Jinnah, and the Muslim League, were critical of British rule and saw the best route to Home Rule was through negotiations.
In the late 1920s and early 1930s Jinnah put forward 14 points which he argued protected Indian Muslims’ interests and must be central to any future. These included proposals to form a federal government and to have a one third representation of Muslims in the central government. The British Government passed the Government of India Act in 1935 introducing elections and self-government to the provinces of India while keeping overall control. Ahead of elections in 1937, Jinnah approached Congress to formulate a power-sharing agreement with the Muslim League. Congress rejected this offer.
In 1940, in what became known as the ‘two-nation theory’, Jinnah began to demand for the creation of a separate Muslim state from territories that were currently in British India. Though Jinnah never spelled out clearly the precise nature or relationship between these ‘two nations’ the theory gained traction and became a reality as relations between Hindus and Muslims began to break down and ethnic violence developed.
Viceroy of India, Lord Mountbatten, attempted to persuade Jinnah to keep India united but was unable to. Jinnah became the first Governor General of Pakistan on 15th August 1947 when British India was partitioned into two states, Pakistan and India.