Mahatma Gandhi to Jinnah

 

 

Gandhi and Jinnah probably had some of the most intense exchange of views between any two world leaders. The sparks used to fly as both held forth on nations, religion, politics, power and governance. There are many remarkable letters between them, but this is the one where Gandhi lays out his objections to the theory of Pakistan. He argues brilliantly why Pakistan would make it impossible to govern, and lead to ruin. See his posers on Islam. Also, note how Gandhi has moved from ‘Bhai Jinnah’ to ‘Dear Quaid-e-Azam’.

September 15, 1944

Dear Quaid-e-Azam,

This is in terms of our talks of Wednesday the 13th instant. For the moment I have shunted the Rajaji Formula and with your assistance am applying my mind very seriously to the famous Lahore Resolution of the Muslim League. You must admit that the Resolution itself makes no reference to the two nations theory. In the course of our discussions, you have passionately pleaded that India contains two nations, i.e., Hindus and Muslims. The more our argument progresses, the more alarming your picture appears to me. I find no parallel in history for a body of converts and their descendants claiming to be a nation apart from the parent stock. If India was one nation before the advent of Islam, it must remain one in spite of the change of faith of a very large body of her children. You do not claim to be a separate nation by right of conquest, but by reason of acceptance of Islam.

Will the two nations become one if the whole of India accepted Islam? Will Bengalis, Oriyas, Andhras, Tamilians, Maharashtrians, Gujaratis, etc., cease to have their special characteristics if all of them become converts to Islam? These have all become one politically because they are subject to one foreign control. They are trying today to throw off that subjection. You seem to have introduced a new test of nationhood. If I accept it, I would have to subscribe to many more claims and face an insoluble problem. In this background, I shall present you with my difficulty in accepting your Resolution.

1. Pakistan is not in the Resolution. Does it bear the original meaning Punjab, Afghanistan, Kashmir, Sind and Baluchistan, out of which the name was mnemonically formed? If not what is it? 2. Is the goal of Pakistan pan-Islam? 3. What is it that distinguishes an Indian Muslim from every other Indian, if not his religion? Is he different from a Turk or an Arab? 4. What is the connotation of the word ‘Muslims’ in the Resolution under discussion? Does it mean the Muslims of India of geography or of the Pakistan to be? 5. Is the Resolution addressed to the Muslims by way of education, or to the inhabitants of the whole of India by way of appeal, or to the foreign ruler as an ultimatum? 6. Are the constituents in the two zones to constitute ‘Independent States’, an undefined number in each zone...?

As I write this letter and imagine the working of the Resolution in practice, I see nothing but ruin for the whole of India. Believe me, I approach you as a seeker. I know that you have acquired a unique hold on the Muslim masses. I want you to use your influence for their total welfare, which must include the rest. In this hastily written letter, I have only given an inkling of my difficulty.

Yours sincerely,

M. K. Gandhi