The National India Congress and elected to the Imperial Legislative council. However, perhaps most importantly, Jinnah became the President of the All India Muslim League after being a significant member for many years. Furthermore, Jinnah attended Round Table conferences in England causing great influence within the British government. Many suggest that Jinnah was the leader of the Pakistan movement spurring the Muslim community forward in search of equality and freedom and in essence creating such a movement and evidently the gain of a separate Muslim state. Perhaps as a show of appreciation, Jinnah was elected as the first President of Pakistan and is still known today as the ‘Qaid e azam’ which is Arabic for ‘The Great Leader.’ However, some also suggests that Jinnah merely delayed a Muslim state from forming in his constant fight for unity.
Jinnah was first proclaimed as ‘the best ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity’ as his first aim was to achieve Muslim-Hindu unity within India. This fight for equality was only discarded after Mohanda Gandhi and the India National Congress refused to form coalitions with the Muslim League within Indian provinces with a majority of Muslims. It is often suggested that this only slowed the development of a Muslim state and if it were not for Jinnah, a Muslim state would have been found much earlier. Perhaps evidentiary to this claim would be Jinnah’s return to England and apparent desertion of the Muslim cause. Others argue that Jinnah did nothing to organise the Muslim community into a nationalistic front fighting for one cause, but that the Pakistan resolution was a frenzied affair, which resembled nothing of a movement. Furthermore, it is suggested that Pakistan came about due to the British India policy and the efforts of the Indian National Congress in seeking Indian independence rather than any influence from a Pakistan movement. Some prefer to herald Dr. Mohammad Iqbal, a Muslim poet and University lecturer, as the founder of the nation as he is thought to be the first to suggest the combing of Muslim majority provinces into one unit as a Muslim state. Furthermore, the name Pakistan (Persian for Pure Land) was allegedly ‘invented’ by a group of Indian students and first ridiculed by Jinnah. However, the extensive work that Jinnah did do for the Muslim cause cannot be ignored.
Despite his original aims of unity within India and his failure to form an alliance with the British government or form a real Muslim movement, Jinnah certainly worked hard for the Muslim state. Although Iqbal was the first to suggest it, Jinnah carried it through and battled against the Congress, Gandhi and Hindu press, in gathering supporters and making the idea a reality. Certainly, Jinnah was not independently responsible for the foundation of Pakistan but he played a substantial part.
