Jinnah: India, Partition, Independence

JASWANT SINGH HAS PROVED HIMSELF TO BE ATRUE SECULARIST BY PENNING THIS BOOK. WHAT SURPRISES ME IS HOW SUCH AN ERUDITE PERSONALITY LIVED IN AN OBSCURANTIST PARTY LIKE THE BJP .I HOLD NO CANDLE FOR JINNAH AND HOLD HIM RESPONSIBLE MORE THAN ANY ONE ELSE FOR THE PARTITION. HOWEVER JASWANT LIKE SCHOLARS STANLEY AYSHA JALAL AND RAJMOHAN GHANDI BEFORE HIM HAS GONE INTO THE FOLLOWING ISSUES .HOW DID THIS ARCH SECULARIST AND MODERNIST TURN TO THE PAKISTHAN IDEA REMEMBER THAT SAROJINI NAIDU HAD DEDICATED HER POEM AWAKE TO THE GREAT SECULARIST MOHD ALI JINNAH DID THE MIXING UP OF POLITICS AND RELIGION WHICH JINNAH ABHORRED BY GANDHI PLAY A ROLE IN THIS. JANNAH OPPOSED THE KHILAFAT AGITATION AND WAS HOUNDED OUT OF THE CONGRESS WHICH RELIED MORE ON MOULANAS THAN MODERNISTS JINNAHS EGOISM WAS ANOTHER PROBLEM AS IT LED TO CLASHES WTH GANDHI AND NEHRU THE PERSON WHO DISMISSED REHMAT ALIS PAKISTHAN CONCEPT WEARED AROND TO IT. WAS THIS DUE TO PERSONAL GAIN POLITICAL EXPEDIENCY OR DUE TO CONGRESS CHICANERY DID HE NOT SOW THE SEEDS OF PAKISTHANS DISINTEGRATION ONTHE URDU BENGALI ISSUE JASWANT ISTO BE READ

I congratulate Mr, Jaswant Singh for writing such an honest book. We all have right to differ and people may agree or disagree with his opinion and it's also extreemly difficult to provide proof for all the events that he has described in the book. But at the same time in the largest democracy in the world free flow of ideas and opinion is one's right and no body can deny that. If this is not possible in India then i have a doubt on India's claim of being the largest democracy.
Though i am not a historian but i can tell one thing for sure and that is an event like partition and creation of separate state Pakistan can't be done by just a single person Jinnah. There was Nehru, who was equally eager to taste the power for good or other reasons. At the same time, Patel was very much alligned with Nehru and would support him at every step. Gandhi on the other hand was just wanted everybody to be happy and in doing that he many times inflicted pain to Hindus and Muslims.
I admire Jaswant Singh even more now and sort of feel pitty for BJP who just kicked out one of its great soldiers.

I have been taught that from childhood that Jinnah was responsible for partition. Being a brahman and interested in religious study and practicing hard core hinduism, I also have dream of Akhand Bharat , there for Jinnah was nothing but a SHAITAN in my eyes. But in 1999 - 2003 during my college (REC Trichy), I cam acrross different opinion about people, thier culture, thier religion etc. Very interestingly many times we (My college friends and me) had hot discussion about Indian indepenpednce role of Gandhi and Nehru. I always used to be on the side of Mahatama Gandhi ( Still I think Mahatma Gandhi is the greatest leader undivided india). Though I was not always against Nehru, but 80% of my frnds used to be against Nehru and 20% supports him but interestengly all of my frnds and my self were against the Jinnah. He was portrayed as a SHAITAN in our books thanks to 50 yrs rule of cogress in India.

After my college I started reading history from independent sources ( thanks to internet) and found very interesting facts. I realized that my hatered for Jinnah is not justified at the same time I started praising Nehru also for his stature and influence during the partition. He is not as bad as my frnds used to discuss and the general perception abt the Nehru (Gandhi) family. In My opinion though Nehru also wanted to have gr8 undivided India but after all he was a human bieng and all his decision could not always be right. So however he has taken right decision ( as per his descrtion) for the prosperous India but unfortunately they did not turned up as he wanted. So Nehru can not be blamed for every thing. Similarly I realized that Jinnah also was in favour of undivided India but circumtences were not favourable and unfortunately he would had to demand for independece country. As per my study initially he just want to pressurize congress to get more involvement of muslims in the independece govt of india.. but during the course of time and circumtences this demand shapened into a demand of different country..

Any ways this is my opinion, based on my study.

This book from such a scholar person definitely have a great respect and value. My bow to Jaswant Singh. I think this sort work must be promoted and let people think differently. Though this is very difficult truth, but in my opinion this is just a differnet of seeing the same thing.

Jaswant Singh you are great in telling the truth.
What about British role, no movemnt gets independence in 7 years struggle...resolution for Pakistan is passed in 1940 at Lahore, and India is left divided in 1947. Look around how many independence movements are going on since decades...with out any result. British wanted India to be truncated..don't forget... in addition to Gandhi and Nehru's failure to accomodate Jinnah.
Another blunder of Nehru, not able to solve the problem of Kashnir in early days...both the countries are bleeding to attrition because of this folly.

If there would have been nation wide referendum in undivided India for truncating this great land, I beleive majority of Muslims would have voted against the vivsection of India. Partion of India was forced upon Indians by British.

Mohd Ali Jinnah has as many admirers in Pakistan as he has critics in India. Either side has been strongly opinionated making an objective assessment of the man's personality almost impossible. Intelligentsia on either side oof the Indo-Pak divide have long since felt the need to understand the true personality of Jinnah, see him as a human being instead of as an angel or for that matter as a demon. After Stanley Wolpert's excellent biography of Jinnah, Jaswant's is the only work that fulfills the much felt need in this direction. In fact Jaswant's book scores ove Wolpert's monumental book as it examines the role and place of Jinnah in the most relevant context of his life, context of the partition of India. It is a must read book by all those who are interested in the current and contemporary history of the Indian sub continent.