Historical Figure
Muhammad Ali Jinnah
1876–1948
Founder and 1st Governor-General of Pakistan (1876–1948)
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Biography
Muhammad Ali Jinnah was a barrister, politician, and the founder of Pakistan. Jinnah served as the leader of the All-India Muslim League from 1913 until the inception of Pakistan on 14 August 1947 and then as Pakistan's first governor-general until his death a year later in 1948.
Timeline
The story of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, told in moments.
Joins the All-India Muslim League while remaining a member of the Indian National Congress. He's called the 'ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity.' He believes in a united, secular India. He'll change his mind.
Presides over the Lahore Resolution. One hundred thousand Muslims gather in Minto Park. The resolution doesn't use the word 'Pakistan.' But it demands separate Muslim states in northwest and northeast India. The two-nation theory is now official policy.
Pakistan becomes an independent state. Jinnah is sworn in as Governor-General the next day. He's 71, secretly dying of tuberculosis, and hasn't told anyone. In his first address he says Pakistan will be a state where religion is 'not the business of the state.'
Dies of tuberculosis and lung cancer in Karachi. He's been in office 13 months. His ambulance breaks down on the road from the airport. He waits in the heat for a replacement. His only daughter Dina, whom he'd disowned for marrying a Parsi, doesn't come to the funeral.
In Their Own Words (20)
"We are starting the state with no discrimination ... we should keep that in front of us as our ideal, and you will find that in course of time Hindus will cease to be Hindus and Muslims will cease to be Muslims, not in the religious sense, because that is the personal faith of each individual, but in the political sense as the citizens of the nation.
Muhammad Ali Jinnah, on the day he was elected president of the Pakistan Constituent Assembly, Jinnah in a moving speech, quoted in M. J. Akbar, India: The Siege Within (Harmondsworth, England: Penguin, 1985) p 34. As quoted from Ibn, W. (2004). Leaving Islam: Apostates speak out. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books., 2004
Think a hundred times before you take any decision, but once a decision is taken, stand by it as one man.
Address to the League Lucknow session in 1937, following elections held under the Government of India Act, as quoted in Mohammad Ali Jinnah, Founder of Pakistan (1976) by Ziauddin Ahmad Suleri, p. 1, 1948
The exploits of your leaders in many a historic field of battle; the progress of your Revolution; the rise and career of the great Atatürk, his revitalization of your nation by his great statesmanship, courage and foresight all these stirring events are well-known to the people of Pakistan.
Reply to the speech made by the first Turkish Ambassador to Pakistan at the time of presenting Credentials to the Quaid-i-Azam (4 March 1948), 1948
We are now all Pakistanis — not Baluchis, Pathans, Sindhis, Bengalis, Punjabis and so on — and as Pakistanis we must feet behave and act, and we should be proud to be known as Pakistanis and nothing else.
Reply to the Civic Address presented by the Quetta Municipality (15 June 1948), 1948
My message to you all is of hope, courage and confidence. Let us mobilize all our resources in a systematic and organized way and tackle the grave issues that confront us with grim determination and discipline worthy of a great nation.
Eid-ul-Azha Message to the Nation 24 October 1947., 1948
Artifacts (15)
Admiral of the Fleet Earl Mountbatten of Burma IND5302
No 9 Army Film & Photographic Unit
church is either true or it's a hoax. And I think it's a hoax.
t of Latter-day Saints during her relationship with a Latter-day Saint boyfriend. According to Amy, Schulz told her that the "church is either true or it's a hoax. And I think it's a hoax." Although...
I suppose there's a melancholy feeling in a lot of cartoonists, because cartooni...
rlie Brown, Schulz had often felt shy and withdrawn. In an interview with Charlie Rose in May 1997, Schulz observed, "I suppose there's a melancholy feeling in a lot of cartoonists, because...
It was obviously an attempted kidnap-ransom. This was a targeted criminal act. T...
r Jill drove up to the house, prompting the would-be kidnappers to flee. Sonoma County Sheriff Dick Michaelsen said, "It was obviously an attempted kidnap-ransom. This was a targeted criminal act....
I never dreamed that this was what would happen to me. I always had the feeling ...
early, he announced his retirement on December 14, 1999. The decision was difficult for Schulz, who told Al Roker on The Today Show, "I never dreamed that this was what would happen to me. I always...
but that he did not know one way or the other: I do not go to church anymore .....
the late 1980s, Schulz said in interviews that some people had described him as a "secular humanist" but that he did not know one way or the other: I do not go to church anymore ... I guess you might...
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