Founder of Pakistan:

Muhammad Ali Jinnah

Main Life Accomplishments:

Was an Indian Muslim politician and leader of the All India Muslim League who founded Pakistan and served as its first Governor-General. He is officially known in Pakistan as Quaid-e-Azam

Jinnah rose to prominence in the Indian National Congress expounding ideas of Hindu-Muslim unity and helping shape the 1916 Lucknow Pact with the Muslim League; he also became a key leader in the All India Home Rule League. Differences with Mohandas Gandhi led Jinnah to quit the Congress and take charge of the Muslim League. He proposed a fourteen-point constitutional reform plan to safeguard the political rights of Muslims in a self-governing India. His proposals failed amid the League's disunity, driving a disillusioned Jinnah to live in London for many years.

Several Muslim leaders persuaded Jinnah to return to India in 1934 and re-organise the League. Tempered by the failure to build coalitions with the Congress, Jinnah embraced the goal of creating a separate state for Muslims as in the Lahore Resolution. The League won most Muslim seats in the elections of 1946, and Jinnah launched the Direct Action campaign of strikes and protests to achieve "Pakistan", which degenerated into communal violence across India. The failure of the Congress-League coalition to govern the country prompted both parties and the British to agree to partition. As Governor-General of Pakistan, Jinnah led efforts to rehabilitate millions of refugees, and to frame national policies on foreign affairs, security and economic development.
 

Basics:

Born:  Born December 25, 1876 in Karachi, British India

Died: Died September 11, 1948 (72 years old) at Karachi, Pakistan.

Nationality: Pakistan

Religion: Muslim

Fields:  Military, Politics

Main Accomplishments: 

 

Chronology of Life Events:

Dec 25, 1876

Birth of Jinnah
 

1892

He passed the matriculation examination of the University of Bombay. Jinnah was offered an apprenticeship at the London office of Graham's Shipping and Trading Company,
 

1896

Jinnah joined the Indian National Congress
 

Jan 25, 1910

Jinnah became a member on the sixty-member Imperial Legislative Council.
 

1913

He joined the All India Muslim League and became the president
 

1920

Jinnah resigned from the Congress,
 

1927

Jinnah entered negotiations with Muslim and Hindu leaders on the issue of a future constitution
 

Jul 26, 1943

Jinnah was stabbed and wounded by a member of the extremist Khaksars in an attempted assassination.
 

1941

Jinnah founded Dawn
 

Aug 16, 1946

Jinnah issued a call for all Muslims to launch "Direct Action" to "achieve Pakistan"
 

Oct 30, 1947

Jinnah asserted in a speech in Lahore
 

1940's

Jinnah suffered from tuberculosis
 

1948

Jinnah's health began to falter
 

Sep 11, 1948

Jinnah died from a combination of tuberculosis and lung cancer.
 

Early Life:

Jinnah was born as Mahomedali bhai Jinnahbhaiin Wazir Mansion, Karachi, Sindh—then a province of the Bombay Presidency of British India. Although his earliest school records were to state that he was born on October 20, 1875, he himself later in life would give December 25, 1876 as his official date of birth. Jinnah was the eldest of seven children born to Mithibai and Jinnahbhai Poonja. His father, Jinnahbhai (1857–1901), was a prosperous Gujarati merchant who had moved to Sindh from Kathiawar, Gujarat shortly before Jinnah's birth. The firstborn Jinnah was soon joined by six siblings—brothers Ahmad Ali, Bunde Ali, and Rahmat Ali, and sisters Maryam, Fatima and Shireen. Jinnah's family belonged to the Ismaili Khoja branch of Shi'a Islam. Their mother tongue was Gujarati, however, in time they also came to speak Kutchi, Sindhi and English. The young Jinnah, a restless student, studied at several schools: at the Sindh Madrasatul-Islam in Karachi; briefly at the Gokal Das Tej Primary School in Bombay; and finally at the Christian Missionary Society High School in Karachi, where, at age sixteen, he passed the matriculation examination of the University of Bombay.

The same year, 1892, Jinnah was offered an apprenticeship at the London office of Graham's Shipping and Trading Company, a business that had extensive dealings with Jinnahbhai Poonja's firm in Karachi. However, before he left for England, he married, at his mother's urging, a distant cousin, Emibai, who was two years his junior. The marriage was not to last long: a few months later, Emibai died. Later, during his sojourn in England, his mother too would pass away. In London, Jinnah soon left the apprenticeship to study law instead, by joining Lincoln's Inn. In three years, at age 19, he became the youngest Indian to be called to the bar in England. Around this time, Jinnah also became interested in politics. An admirer of the Indian political leaders Dadabhai Naoroji and Sir Pherozeshah Mehta, he worked, with other Indian students, on the former's successful campaign for a seat in the British Parliament. Although, by now, Jinnah had developed largely constitutionalist views on Indian self-government, he nevertheless condemned both the arrogance of British officials in India and the discrimination practised by them against Indians.

During the final period of his stay in England, Jinnah came under considerable pressure when his father's business was ruined. Settling in Bombay, he became a successful lawyer—gaining particular fame for his skilled handling of the "Caucus Case".Jinnah built a house in Malabar Hill, later known as Jinnah House. He was not an observant Muslim and dressed throughout his life in European-style clothes, and spoke in English more than his mother tongue, Gujarati. His reputation as a skilled lawyer prompted Indian leader Bal Gangadhar Tilak to hire him as defence counsel for his sedition trial in 1905. Jinnah argued that it was not sedition for an Indian to demand freedom and self-government in his own country, but Tilak received a rigorous term of imprisonment.
 

Wife Background:

He was married to Emibai. She was his distant relative. At the time of her marriage, Emibai was around 14 or 16 years old. But, Emibai died shortly after Jinnah had gone to London. At around the same time, his mother also died.

 

Jinnah married his second wife Rattanbai Petit ("Ruttie"), twenty-four years his junior. She was the fashionable young daughter of his personal friend Sir Dinshaw Petit, of an elite Parsi family of Bombay. Unexpectedly there was great opposition to the marriage from Rattanbai's family and Parsi society, as well as orthodox Muslim leaders. Rattanbai defied her family and nominally converted to Islam, adopting (though never using) the name Maryam Jinnah -resulting in a permanent estrangement from her family and Parsi society. The couple resided in Bombay, and frequently travelled across India and Europe. In 1919 she bore Jinnah his only child, daughter Dina Jinnah.
 

Jinnah's personal life and especially his marriage suffered during this period due to his political work. Although they worked to save their marriage by travelling together to Europe when he was appointed to the Sandhurst committee, the couple separated in 1927. Jinnah was deeply saddened when Rattanbai died in 1929, after a serious illness.

 

Father Background:

His father born 1857 & died 1901 (aged 44), Jinnah Poonja, was a wealthy man and Jinnah was the eldest of his 7 children.

His father, Jinnahbhai, was a prosperous Gujarati merchant who had moved to Sindh from Kathiawar, Gujarat shortly before Jinnah's birth.

 

Mother Background:

Mithibai. Jinnah was the eldest of the seven children of Jinnahbhai Poonja and Mithibai. His family had migrated to Sindh from the Kathiawar area of Gujarat, India.

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