Ishtiaq Ahmed’s Jinnah: His Successes, Failures and Role in History (Vanguard Books 2022) narrates the events that led to Muhammad Ali Jinnah joining the Indian National Congress, starting from his birth and early education through the years he spent in the U.K., where he decided to join politics.
Jinnah’s official date of birth is Dec. 25, 1876, and it is said that he was born in Karachi; some accounts give different information. His ancestors belonged to the Hindu trading caste of Lohanas, who were spread over western India along the coastline. Sections of the Lohanas had converted to Islam and were to be found among Sunnis, as well as the Ithna Ashari, Ismaili Aga Khani and Bohri sects of Shiism. Jinnah’s family belonged to the Aga Khani Ismaili sect.
As a young lad, Jinnah showed no interest in education and was not keen to help his father in his business. On the advice of a British partner, his father managed to send him to England to learn accountancy and help the family business—before completing his matriculation. While in London, Jinnah lost interest in accountancy but found a passion for politics after attending discussions in the British Parliament and seeing the excitement of the first Indian, Dadabhai Naoroji, elected as a member of the Liberal Party. Jinnah was also attracted to theater and dramatics but gave up the profession after his father sent a disapproving letter. Not surprisingly the legal profession appealed to him for its comparable stimulation; he applied for admission to Lincoln’s Inn, seeking exemption from Latin. It was granted and he was admitted in 1893. He passed the exam in 1895.
Back from England
During his time in London, Jinnah’s mother and young wife both died. Upon his return to India in 1896, he joined his father in Bombay and was appointed Presidency Magistrate. Though offered a permanent job in the Bombay Law Department, he left the job after three months and decided to pursue a career of legal counsel while also joining politics. His grasp of the English language, height, attractive features and sharp wit, coupled with immaculate upper-class English attire, quickly elevated his social status and finances. Still, his reading was mostly confined to law books and newspapers, with little interest in abstract and theoretical ideas or fiction. His forte was cross-examination in courts, where he excelled and impressed everyone, including sitting judges. His associates often described him as rule-centered, distant, unapproachable and lacking in human warmth and empathy.
In addition to a flourishing legal practice, Jinnah grew his fortune by buying and selling shares in the stock market, building a residence on Malabar Road, one of the poshest areas of Bombay. There he lived the life of a bachelor, with his sister Fatima, till he married a second time at 42. Both siblings were frugal, and Ahmed’s recounting states that Jinnah never gave any charitable donations.
Jinnah joins Congress
In 1906, Jinnah joined the Indian National Congress and attended its Calcutta session, where he acted as the honorary private secretary to Congress President Dadabhai Naoroji. Under Naoroji’s influence, Congress acquired greater secular, inclusive and socially progressive characteristics. Jinnah was also a disciple of the moderate Gopal Krishna Gokhale (d. 1915) as well as a friend of the extremist Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak (d. 1920).
Jinnah’s entry into politics coincided with the partition of Bengal in 1905, which was considered by Congress as a divisive measure aimed at bifurcating Bengal on religious lines. Then-viceroy Lord Curzon had created a West Bengal with a Hindu majority and an East Bengal with a Muslim-majority. Upper-caste, middle-class Hindus agitated against it, resorting to violence in a mix of Bengali nationalism with Hindu radicalism. The Muslim elite of Calcutta, however, welcomed it, as it provided new jobs and opportunities for the people of East Bengal. Jinnah, at the time an outspoken Indian nationalist, described the partition of Bengal as “the virus introduced into the body politic of India with evil design.”
‘Muslims as a distinct community’
The landed Muslim gentry, influenced by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan to steer clear of inclusive Indian nationalism, was apprehensive of Secretary of State Lord Morley’s July 1906 plans to introduce constitutional reforms.
They contacted William A.J. Archbold, the principal of the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College at Aligarh, expressing their concerns with any reforms that treated Indians as a homogeneous nation, stressing that Muslims should be considered a distinct community. Morley agreed and arranged a meeting between the Muslim delegation and Viceroy Lord Minto in October 1906. During the meeting, the delegation emphasized the importance of the Muslim community in north-western India and the need to retain their loyalty.
In a system of mixed, general elections, Muslims—backward economically and educationally—were greatly handicapped vis-à-vis the Hindus. Therefore, they demanded separate electorates for Muslims, allowing them to vote for reserved seats, as well as more seats in the legislative council and reserved placements in government services, universities, etc. As an example, Muslims constituted 13 percent of the population of the United Provinces, but didn’t have a single seat in the provincial council.
Jinnah opposes Muslim League
Jinnah questioned the representation of the delegation, presumably because it consisted of landlords and other notables who enjoyed hereditary privileges and British patronage. He similarly opposed their establishment of the All-India Muslim League at Dacca at the end of 1906 and a Congress resolution in favor of reserved seats for the educated class of backward communities (referring to Muslims) in the legislatures and local bodies. He wanted all communities to be treated equally, with no reservation for any class or community.
Congress leaders, including Jinnah, also criticized the demand for separate electorates, but this was granted through the Indian Councils Act of 1909, also known as the Morley-Minto Reforms. From an administrative point of view, separating Muslims from Hindus and other communities enhanced the position of the British as arbiters between them. Moreover, the 1909 Act objectified Muslims as a separate political category comprising different sects and sub-sects as well as linguistic nationalities. Henceforth, Muslim candidates had to pay special attention to communal interests to win elections, even if they aspired to a bigger role in national politics. On the other hand, Hindu candidates seeking electoral support were no longer obliged to consider the interests of Muslims living in their constituencies. Theoretically, a Muslim could contest a general seat, but the existence of religious groups and subgroups carried the risk of going to polls without the support of co-religionists.
Jinnah adopts separate electorates
Despite initial opposition, Congress adjusted to both the partition of Bengal and separate electorates. Jinnah himself contested and won elections as a Muslim candidate of the Congress Party. In 1911, the British annulled the partition of Bengal, concerning Muslim leaders, with Jinnah speaking in favor of separate electorates for Muslims at a Congress session in December. It is unclear why he changed his stance on separate electorates but it is likely he felt a need to build a reliable support base among Muslims to establish his leadership over the community. He also attended a meeting of Hindu-Muslim leaders to discuss Muslim representation in the legislature and representation in government services. He was also persuaded to join the Muslim League, which he did in 1913. At that point, both the Congress and the Muslim League were on the same page with regard to the demand for suitable self-government. Notwithstanding different perceptions of the partition of Bengal, Congress applauded his decision to join the Muslim League in its session at Karachi.
One of Jinnah’s major achievements as a legislator was to pilot the Mussalman Waqf Al-aulad (Islamic trust in favor of family), Muslim Family Trust, the Imperial Legislative Council. The Muslim family Trust is an institution under Islamic law by which a Muslim can provide for himself, his family, children and his descendants’ property in perpetuity. It is not to be confused with trusts established for philanthropic and charitable purposes for the poor. The British annexation of India resulted in them trying to apply English common law principles to Islamic and Hindu legal precepts and practices. Anglo-Muhammadan law developed out of such a process.
Jinnah’s hopes for Congress
In an 1894 ruling, the highest court of appeal for India, the Privy Council, ruled that since the beneficiaries of Muslim Family Trusts were not the poor, they should be subjected to income and revenue tax. This greatly angered Muslim landowners and other property owners, who deplored the Privy Council violating Islamic law that provided for tax exemption of family trusts. In 1911, Jinnah took up the cudgels on behalf of those disgruntled circles and was supported by Congress. He observed: “This shows one thing gentlemen, that we Muhammadans can equally stand on this platform and pray for our grievances being remedied through the program of the National Congress.”
In 1913, Jinnah successfully tabled a private member bill in the Central Legislative Assembly to have the Privy Council ruling of 1894 overturned. This saw his premium rise sharply among rich Muslims, and his reputation won him wealthy clients from across India, multiplying his personal wealth. More importantly, the support he received from the Congress Party indicated that, at that stage, it too was an elite party catering to the interests of the landed classes, most of whom were based in Bombay and other commercial centers that had cropped up under British tutelage.