Jinnah, Muhammad Ali 1876-1948
Pakistani statesman

Born in Karachi, he studied at Bombay and Lincoln's Inn, London, and was called to the Bar in 1897. He ran a successful practice in Bombay, and in 1910 was elected to the Viceroy's legislative council. Already a member of the Indian National Congress, in 1913 he joined the Indian Muslim League and as its president brought about peaceful co-existence between it and the Congress Party through the Lucknow Pact (1916). Although Jinnah supported the efforts of Congress to boycott the Simon Commission (1928), he opposed Mahatma Gandhi's civil disobedience policy and resigned from the Congress Party, which he believed to be exclusively fostering Hindu interests. He continued to try to safeguard the right of Muslim minorities at the London Round Table Conference in 1931. By 1940 he was strongly advocating separate statehood for Muslims and he resisted all British efforts, such as the mission by Sir Stafford Cripps (1942), to retain Indian unity. On 15 August 1947, the Dominion of Pakistan came into existence and Jinnah, Quaid-i-Azam (Great Leader), became its first Governor-General.

Bibliography: Hector Bolitho, Jinnah, Creator of Pakistan (1954)