The roots of a rivalry
January 14, 2024
On January 14, 1915, a garden party was held in Bombay by the Gujarat Society—a social circle for people from the state of Gujarat. It was chaired by the prominent lawyer, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, “probably … the most influential Gujarati alive.”1 The party was in Gandhi’s honor; just five days earlier, he and his wife had arrived home after 20 years in South Africa.
Jinnah’s life paralleled Gandhi’s in many ways: both were born on the Kathiawar peninsula of Gujarat and attended law school in London. Jinnah, however, was successful in starting a practice in Mumbai while Gandhi left for South Africa.
He was active in Indian politics—the Muslim League as well as the Hindu-dominated Indian National Congress—and even spent a decade on the elite Imperial Legislative Council. British passage of the 1919 Rowlatt Act prompted him to resign, because Jinnah was “a great civil libertarian, always outspoken in defense of individual rights and equal justice.”2
Their paths diverged in the 1920s. Rising tensions between Hindus and Muslims contributed, and Jinnah preferred legislative solutions to Gandhian civil disobedience. He was shouted down during one Congress session for repeatedly referring to “Mr. Gandhi” instead of “Mahatma Gandhi.” After attending the 1930 Round Table Conference in London, Jinnah tried to run for Parliament, but couldn’t get support from either the Labour or Tory parties.3 I can’t help but wonder how history would have been different had he succeeded.
In the remaining years of British rule, Jinnah would steadfastly demand a separate nation on behalf of Muslims. Jinnah was a proud Muslim but not a devout one; he drank and was a 2-1/2 pack a day smoker. He provoked religious violence (like Direct Action Day) to build leverage and refused to negotiate reasonably. His intransigence resulted in India’s partition and Pakistan—he is the father of that nation—and the deaths of a million people, including Gandhi. (Lung cancer claimed Jinnah months later.)
At the 1915 garden party, Jinnah delivered a polished speech (in English) to welcome Gandhi back, praising his hard work in South Africa and hoping he would work toward Hindu-Muslim unity. Gandhi spoke in their native Gujarati, and began by telling everyone that in South Africa, people from Gujarat were always assumed to be Hindu. How neat it was to find a Muslim among them, especially as chairman! Stanley Wolpert wrote biographies of both of these men, and he observed: “Had he meant to be malicious rather than his usual ingenious self, Gandhi could not have contrived a more cleverly patronizing barb, for he was not actually insulting Jinnah, after all, just informing every one of his minority religious identity.”4
Do you have a rivalry with someone in your life?
Gandhi: The Years That changed the World (1914-1948) (Ramachandra Guha, 2018) p. 12
Jinnah of Pakistan (Stanley Wolpert, 1984) p. 82
Ibid, p. 126
Ibid, pp. 37-38