This document provides an overview and comparison of Mahatma Gandhi and Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the two leaders who came to represent the Indian independence movement and the creation of Pakistan, respectively. It notes some key differences between the two men, such as Gandhi's roots in India versus Jinnah's feeling of being uprooted, and their differing approaches to politics and religion. The document also discusses their early interactions upon Gandhi's return to India in 1915 and their increasing divergence in political views as Gandhi rose to prominence in the 1920s.

1. Gandhi and Jinnah - a study in contrasts
An extract from the book that riled India's Bharatiya Janata Party and
led to the expulsion of its author Jaswant Singh, one of the founder
members, of the party.
Comparing Gandhi and Jinnah is an extremely complex exercise but important
for they were, or rather became, the two foci of the freedom movement.
Gandhi was doubtless of a very different mould, but he too, like Jinnah, had
gained eminence and successfully transited from his Kathiawari origins to
become a London barrister before acquiring a political personality. Yet there
existed an essential difference here. Gandhi's birth in a prominent family - his
father was, after all, a diwan (prime minister) of an Indian state - helped
immeasurably.
No such advantage of birth gave Jinnah a leg up, it was entirely through his
endeavours. Gandhi, most remarkably, became a master practitioner of the
politics of protest. This he did not do by altering his own nature, or language of
discourse, but by transforming the very nature of politics in India. He
transformed a people, who on account of prolonged foreign rule had acquired a
style of subservience. He shook them out of this long, moral servitude. Gandhi
took politics out of the genteel salons, the debating halls and societies to the
soil of India, for he, Gandhi - was rooted to that soil, he was of it, he lived the
idiom, the dialogue and discourse of that soil: its sweat; its smells and its great
beauty and fragrances, too.
Some striking differences between these two
great Indians are lucidly conveyed by Hector
Bolitho in In Quest of Jinnah. He writes:
'Jinnah was a source of power'. Gandhi... an
'instrument of it... Jinnah was a cold rationalist
in politics - he had a one track mind, with great
force behind it'. Then: 'Jinnah was potentially
kind, but in behaviour extremely cold and
distant.' Gandhi embodied compassion - Jinnah
did not wish to touch the poor, but then
Gandhi's instincts were rooted in India and life
long he soiled his hands in helping the squalid poor.
Jinnah and Gandhi: Shattered
dreams
Not so Jinnah: for having been uprooted repeatedly in his childhood, then
moved too frequently, he neither easily belonged nor did he relate with
comfort. Besides being the quintessential constitutionalist, he had to follow a
different course; for him to adapt to the changing times, to the dusty trails of

2. rural India, was not at all easy. That is why he found it so difficult, by around
1920, to maintain his position at the national level given Gandhi's arrival and
rapid ascendancy. Besides, there was no province, not one, not then, not later,
that he could rely upon totally as his exclusive parish. His lack of ability to
adapt to the integrative politics of the masses always remained a problem.
Whereafter, his status as a Muslim, it must be accepted, further handicapped
his position at the national level, for in nationalist politics the scene had
already got crowded; as a Muslim, yes, there was a role for him to play but only
in the second rank. For Jinnah, a secondary status was galling; what he had
always sought and mostly attained was the centre stage; yet, now how could he,
when so many factors constantly kept pushing him to the periphery of it?
* * *
Gandhi andJinnah: The two incompatible Kathiawaris
We have earlier, though very briefly, considered these two great but
incompatible Indians, both born of Kathiawari trading communities but not
endowed with much other similarities. One was devoutly and expressly Hindu,
the other but a casual votary of Islam. One shaped religion to his political ends;
the other shunned it on grounds of principle. Gandhi in a very real sense was
deeply under the influence of Tolstoy (it is after Tolstoy that he had named his
settlement in South Africa) and Henry David Thoreau; Jinnah recognised the
political impress only of Dadabhai (Naoroji) and (Gopal Krishna) Gokhale. Gandhi
led his personal life publicly; Jinnah led even his public life close to his chest.
These two, in one fashion or another, not just deeply influenced events of
those momentous decades of India's freedom struggle but actually shaped
them. Gandhi admitted failure in his quest; Jinnah, it is apocryphally suggested,
boasted that 'he won Pakistan with the help of just a typewriter and a clerk.'
It is a fascinating theme, a study of these two great Indians. This sub-chapter
can attempt no more than an outline sketch.
Although the families of both Jinnah and Gandhi had once lived just about 40
miles or so apart in Kathiawar (Gujarat), this adjacency of their places of origin
did nothing to bring their politics close together. At their very first meeting,
at the Gurjar Sabha in January 1915, convened to felicitate Gandhi upon his
return from South Africa, in response to a welcome speech, with Jinnah
presiding, Gandhi had somewhat accommodatingly said he was 'glad to find a
Muslim not only belonging to his own region's sabha but chairing it.' Gandhi had
singled out Jinnah as a Muslim, though, neither in appearance or in conduct was
Jinnah anywhere near to being any of the stereotypes of the religious identity
ascribed by Gandhi. Jinnah, on the other hand, was far more fulsome in his

3. praise.
Gandhi had reached India by boat in January 1915 when many leaders, including
Jinnah and Gokhale, went to Bombay to give him an ovatious welcome. By this
date Jinnah had already engaged as an all India leader and was committed to
attaining his stated goals of unity, not just between the Muslims and the
Hindus, Extremists and Moderates, but also among various classes of India. To
receive Gandhi, Jinnah had forsaken attending the Madras Congress meet of
1914. Gandhi, upon reaching Bombay, had been warmly welcomed by Jinnah who
wanted to enlist his services for the cause of Hindu-Muslim unity. It was
because of his popularity and standing that Jinnah had been invited to preside
over a garden party given by the Gurjar Sabha, an association of the Gurjar
(Gujar) community, arranged to welcome Mr and Mrs Gandhi, on his arrival on
13 January 1915.
In his presidential address, Jinnah 'welcomed... Mr and Mrs Gandhi, not only on
behalf of Bombay but on behalf of the whole of India.' He impressed upon
Gandhi that the greatest problem was 'to bring about unanimity and co-operation
between the two communities so that the demands of India (from
Imperial Britain) may be made absolutely unanimously.' For this he desired
'that frame of mind, that state, that condition which they had to bring about
between the two communities, when most of their problems, he had no doubt,
would easily be solved.' Jinnah went to the extent of saying: 'Undoubtedly he
[Gandhi] would not only become a worthy ornament but also a real worker whose
equals there were very few.' This remark was greatly applauded by a largely
Hindu audience, accounts of that meeting report. Gandhi, however, was cautious
and somewhat circuitous in his response. He took the plea that he would study
all the Indian questions from 'his own point of view,' a reasonable enough
assertion; also because Gokhale had advised him to study the situation for at
least a year before entering politics. This, too, was all right but then,
needlessly, he thanked Jinnah for presiding over a Hindu gathering. This was an
ungracious and discouraging response to Jinnah's warm welcome and had a
dampening effect.
Gandhi, somewhat hesitant at first, could, in that early phase, see no other
route but of following Gokhale, Jinnah and some of the other moderate leaders.
This was also because (Bal Gangadhar) Tilak had also, by then, come around to
the moderate line. Gandhi did cooperate with all of them, but only until about
1920, after which he clearly became the prominent voice and position. Besides,
by then (1920) Gandhi had won acceptance from the British government too,
even though that was through the good offices of Gokhale, who 'exerted the

4. full weight of his prestige and influence upon the Viceroy, Lord Hardinge, to
bring the Government of India solidly behind Gandhi.' This was the period when
the British government, very concerned about Jinnah, his Hindu-Muslim unity
moves, was endeavouring hard to keep the All India Muslim League away from
the Indian National Congress.
Courtesy The Telegraph, Calcutta. Extracted from the book Jinnah: India-
Partition-Independence; by Jaswant Singh; Publisher: Rupa & co; pp: 669;
Price: Rs 695
Jaswant challenges book ban
A former leader of India's opposition Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP) has challenged the decision by an Indian state to ban his book.
The BJP government in Gujarat banned Jaswant Singh's book on Pakistan's
founder, Mohammed Ali Jinnah. Mr Singh has filed a case in the Supreme Court
challenging the ban. He was expelled from the party
last week.
The state said it banned the book for "defamatory
references" to India's first home minister
Vallabhbhai Patel. The late Mr Patel is a political
icon in his home state of Gujarat.
Described often as the "Iron Man of India", Mr
Patel played an important role in the country's
independence and the integration of the different
states in the Indian union.
Jaswant Singh said he was "saddened" by the ban.
"The day we start banning books, we are banning
thinking," he said. The book examines the role of
Congress party leader and the country's first Prime
Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, and Mr Patel in the
Jaswant Singh defending
his book
partition of India in 1947.
Mr Singh writes that Mr Patel was "far off the mark" in many ways with his
projections about the division and future of India. The BJP dissociated itself
from the book and sacked Mr Singh from the party.
Jaswant Singh is a 71-year-old party veteran who has served as finance and

5. external affairs minister in BJP cabinets.
The book has been selling well both in India and Pakistan. Courtesy BBC