Jinnah lacked personal warmth: Hasan

The spectre of Mohammed Ali Jinnah shows no signs of losing importance in Indian public discourse. After the controversy that has raged on for many months,noted historian Prof Mushirul Hasan delivered the Dr M C Davar lecture on Mohammed Ali Jinnah at the India Islamic Centre in New Delhi.

Hasan,however,steered clear of controversy and tried to locate Jinnah in a historical context. “He was less than qualified to speak on behalf of the subcontinent’s Muslims. Living in Bombay divorced him from the Muslims living in the Indo-Gangetic plains. He was a Khwaja Muslim who spoke Gujarati and English and did not know Urdu,” he said. How did an ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity become an icon of Muslim separatism? Hasan dealt with this question at length.

Describing Jinnah as “vain and arrogant” and lacking personal warmth,he said,“In the 1930’s,he returned to write his own script which would have a violent and tragic ending. Iqbal offered a romanticised,heroic past and his eloquent poetry spoke of a new dignity — and Jinnah harnessed this power.”

Hasan concluded by saying that he would not like to blame individuals. “Individuals leave their imprint on history. But on many occasions,they are carried along by the forces of history,” he said. “The task of a historian is not to pin blame or responsibility. It is to critically assess men and their actions within a particular context.”