(Sandeep Heble wrote: By no standards could Jinnah have been called a
secular liberal leader. Jinnah never conceived of a Pakistan which was based
on the principles of secularism that completely separated the State from
religion. Rather, he envisioned Pakistan as a state whose political, social
and economic system would seek inspiration and guidance from Islam.)
Sandeep,
Jinnah was a politician and an astute one at that. Even today, a politician
who does not swear by Islam and Holy Quaran at every turn has no future in
Pakistan, not to speak of the surcharged times of Jinnah. Do you think the
Pakistanis would have tolerated it had Jinnah exhorted them to embrace the
Western model of democracy? That would have looked like sacrilege and
negation of the very cause of Pakistan's creation and existence.
So it's understandable that Jinnah couched his democratic impulses in
Islamic verbiage. Advani has clarified that he made the remarks in the
context of a speech Jinnah had delivered to the National Assembly
immediately before his death. That speech was suppressed in Pakistan after
his death.
It's unfair to pick up bits and pieces out of context to paint someone a
fundamentalist. The statements have to be read in the context of the social
milieu and time in history to understand their true import.
Cheers, RKN
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