The recent matter of Jinnah’s portrait at Aligarh Muslim University is making headlines across the nation. In between the entire occurrence, what sounds more surprising is the fact that in India which is the land of great leaders like Gandhi preaching non-violence, we have a fan base of Jinnah.
Undoubtedly, Jinnah can be seen as a great leader but not in India, instead of in Pakistan, the country which is formed by drawing religious lines decades back. The way AMU administration and students are protesting against the removal of the portrait of Jinnah from AMU is sending a wrong message across the nation. It is difficult to point out that which vested interests are making few AMU students protest against it.
Admiring Jinnah in AMU is not only surprising but also reflects the thought of Jinnah which seems still alive in our nation. Conceivably, calling him secular by few elites is also deeply flawed because documented factual history tells a different story. In pursuance of his demand to Pakistan, he attacked the integrity of our nation by dividing the “Akhand-Bharat” into “Khand-Bharat”. The elite section from AMU who are opposing the withdrawal of Jinnah portrait from AMU must not forget his genocidal actions. He was the same person who ordered a “Direct Action Day” on 16th August 1946 and killed thousands of innocents in the streets of Kolkata in a single day only just because of his belief that Hindus and Muslims can’t stay together.
AMU also need to understand Jinnah’s actions can’t be seen as patriotic because a patriotic person will never even think of dividing his nation into pieces. While watching few students from AMU on news, I heard few saying ” Jinnah contribution is similar like that of Gandhi and Nehru” but it is quite absurd to argue or equate Jinnah to Gandhi and Nehru because his actions contradict this fact.
When you try to achieve freedom after killing your own people and with a vested political interest, then you are nowhere patriotic and Jinnah perfectly fits under this section. What Jinnah did, can be related to a modern time terrorism because of the fact which gives him the tag of a “mass murderer”.
Though it is indisputable fact that Aligarh Muslim University during 1939 supported all India nationalist movement but later they shifted their support towards separate Pakistan movement and backed Jinnah. AMU love for Jinnah is not new, because AMU once was a prominent hub of separate Pakistan movement. Even, the great educator and founder of AMU, Sir Syed Khan also supported the two-nation theory and surprisingly much before Jinnah.
Various historical book support this fact and a book called “Khilafat Andolan” also tells something similar. In the page no. 26 of the same book, its written “If the country will become independence from Britishers then 3/4th Hindu population will discriminate 1/4th Muslim of the nation and hence it is important to gain the trust of Britishers by showing them our loyalty”. All these instances are enough to show the swing of AMU towards a two nation theory.
Though that was a history it is an opportunity for AMU to rectify that past mistake. It is indeed a great concern that there is a debate over whether his portrait should be removed from the prominent institute like AMU or not but what is needed is he must be scrapped down from our memories which only reflects bloodshed.
There should not be any space for Jinnah in our society which is Gandhian by nature. Without any second opinion, he will be there in history and we can’t change that but at least we can remove his dangerous idea from our society and AMU can set an example by initiating this.
