Jinnah vs. Gandhi

Hello dear friends,

               On the occasion of our 65^th independence day of India, Times of India had launched a special edition. While reading the paper, I came across an interesting page titled ‘Father’s day 2’. This article was all about the book ‘Jinnah vs. Gandhi’ written by British historian Roderick Matthews. When Mr. Mathews was interviewed about the book, some of the questions asked and the answers given by him were as follows:

Q1. What inspired you to write about Indian history?

A) I read modern history at Oxford University and my special subjects were politics and empire. I also have family links to India. My great grandfather was Charles Roberts Under-Secretary of State for India. When Gandhi came to London in 1914, he stayed with him. Gandhi fell ill and it was Roberts who persuaded him to return to India, inadvertently precipitating the fall of British Raj.

         Gandhi was in London to meet Gopal Gokhale, a politician fighting for Indian independence who was his and Jinnah’s guru. My great grandmother Cecilia Roberts took to nursing Gandhi.

Q2. Why did you decide to do book on Jinnah vs. Gandhi?

A) It is a hot topic and a very few authors have written about them together.

Q3. What are the conclusions you draw in the book?

 A) I say that Pakistan got the worse of Jinnah and India got the best of Gandhi and the two countries that came out of that reflect the strength and weakness of those leaders.

 Pakistan is now paranoid, too small, military indefensible, and tends towards hero worship. India is muddled but very free, vibrant diverse and tolerant mostly.

I say that Jinnah had a very negative nationalism. His vision of Pakistan was that it should not be Hindu-dominated or British-dominated and filled with Muslims. But he made no attempt to define what a Muslim nation was. Muslim people always say that he wanted a strict Islamic nation but I don’t think he did; he just wanted a state for Muslims.

Gandhi had a positive inclusive nationalism that anyone in India was Indian. India is now inclusive, noisy, merry, vibrant and positive and that is what Gandhi wanted to propagate. But not all of Gandhi is represented in India as he also advocated alcohol prohibition, was anti consumerism, pro-celibacy and against violence. So he wouldn’t like modern consumerist India with its nuclear weapons.

Q4. Why is Pakistan lagging behind India today?

A) Jinnah had been asking for partition ever since 1940 but the congress had resisted. Then with the country becoming ungovernable, their idea was to get the best India and create the worst Pakistan. Jinnah had no choice but to accept partition as he had asked for it so often. Jinnah wanted a big Pakistan but he got a smaller Pakistan and the provinces he got were poor. So, Pakistan was a poor country from start.

Nehru was for it at the end as he wanted to get rid of Jinnah as he kept making more demands. The brits had lost power by then to impose anything. They were bankrupt by 1947 and wanted to leave India. Partition was agreed on by all parties and not imposed by but backed by British.

     Nehru later admitted that partition was a big mistake but they had waited so long to get into government and it was being offered to them and they could have a very big India with a big central government so they could bring social reform. Congress pushed through land reform in India whereas in Pakistan Jinnah did nothing to dismantle the land-owing elite, who were his supporters and Pakistan did not get a constitution for another decade.  

 

So friends, this interview gives us a short introduction about the book and about the author’s view and approach towards the subject. According to me, the topic is quite interesting and I would love to take a glance at the book. If anyone of you people are interested in Indian history and would like to know how the two nations were shaped from the beginning I would like you also to take a quick look at the book.

Also if you people have more interesting topics for the blog, your ideas are always welcome. You can send me your articles ,poems or any stuff which shows ur creativity and talent will be published in the blog with the contributors name id: defaulterssot.07@gmail.com

SO Friends 

see U & t.c 

Bye

Author