You’ve seen the film Gandhi. You know the story, the saintly Mahatma, the noble struggle for freedom, and the cold, ambitious Muslim lawyer who selfishly tore India apart. But what if everything you thought you knew about Mohammed Ali Jinnah was wrong? What if the man who created the world’s largest Muslim nation was not a megalomaniac, but a hero fighting against impossible odds?
Akbar S. Ahmed’s Jinnah, Pakistan and Islamic Identity: The Search for Saladin doesn’t just ask these questions, it answers them with a force that will make you rethink the entire history of South Asia.
Table of Contents
Overview
Jinnah, Pakistan and Islamic Identity is a groundbreaking reassessment of Pakistan’s founder. Written by Akbar S. Ahmed, a distinguished Cambridge anthropologist and former Pakistani ambassador, the book argues that Jinnah has been deliberately misrepresented by Western historians, Indian nationalists, and even his own country’s rulers.
Ahmed uses anthropology, semiotics, and media analysis to reveal the human face of a leader often depicted as cold and calculating.
Jinnah, Pakistan and Islamic Identity challenges the Mountbatten-Nehru narrative, exposes the love affair between Nehru and Edwina Mountbatten, and argues that Jinnah’s vision of Pakistan, tolerant, democratic, and Islamic in its ethics, remains urgently relevant today.
For anyone trying to understand why India and Pakistan are locked in perpetual conflict, this book is essential reading.
Reader Recommendation: Who Will Actually Love Jinnah, Pakistan and Islamic Identity, Or Bounce
You’ll love Jinnah, Pakistan and Islamic Identity if:
- You’re tired of one-dimensional history and want to understand the full complexity of the partition of India.
- You’re Pakistani and want to see your founding father portrayed as a real human being, not a cardboard saint.
- You’re Indian and open to a perspective that challenges the standard Congress narrative about 1947.
- You’re a student of South Asian history, Islam, or post-colonial studies looking for a fresh methodological approach.
- You enjoy history that reads like a detective story, with secret love affairs, political intrigue, and larger-than-life characters.
You might bounce if:
- You’re looking for a dry, neutral academic text, this book has a clear point of view and isn’t afraid to show it.
- You’re deeply committed to the traditional Indian view of Jinnah as the villain of partition.
- You prefer history that stays within the boundaries of conventional biography and avoids speculation about personal relationships.
Introduction
Jinnah, Pakistan and Islamic Identity: The Search for Saladin by Akbar S. Ahmed was first published by Routledge in 1997.
The book runs to 304 pages and is available in both hardcover and paperback editions. Ahmed, a Fellow of Selwyn College, Cambridge, is an anthropologist, Islamic scholar, poet, playwright, and filmmaker described by the BBC as “the world’s leading authority on contemporary Islam”.
He also served as Pakistan’s High Commissioner to the UK.
Context of Jinnah, Pakistan and Islamic Identity
Jinnah, Pakistan and Islamic Identityis part biography, part history of the partition of India, and part exploration of Muslim identity in the modern world. Ahmed positions Jinnah as one of four men who shaped the end of British rule in India, alongside Nehru, Gandhi, and Mountbatten.
But unlike the others, Jinnah has been “mostly either been ignored or portrayed as a cold megalomaniac” in mainstream Western accounts. Richard Attenborough’s 1982 film Gandhi cemented this image, showing Jinnah as a glowering villain. Ahmed’s book is a direct challenge to that portrayal.
Purpose of Jinnah, Pakistan and Islamic Identity
The book’s central argument is that Jinnah was not a secularist or a fundamentalist in the modern sense, but a leader who sought to synthesize Islamic values with modern democratic governance.
Ahmed argues that Jinnah’s Pakistan was meant to be a tolerant, inclusive state where minorities would be protected and where Islam would provide ethical guidance without creating a theocracy.
The book also argues that Jinnah’s relevance extends far beyond Pakistan, he represents a model of Muslim leadership that stands in stark contrast to figures like Saddam Hussein or Muammar Gaddafi. As Ahmed writes, “For Muslims today Jinnah’s relevance is therefore great in providing not only a response to negative media images but an authentic model of leadership”.
Background
To understand Ahmed’s argument, you need to know something about the author’s own background. Born in 1943 in Allahabad, India, Ahmed’s family migrated to Pakistan in 1947. He grew up in the newly created nation and witnessed its triumphs and tragedies firsthand.
As a young civil servant, he served in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) during the tumultuous years leading up to its separation in 1971. This personal experience gives the book an emotional depth that purely academic histories often lack.
Ahmed conceived and completed what he calls the “Jinnah Quartet”, a feature film, a television documentary, an academic book, and a graphic novel on the Quaid. Jinnah, Pakistan and Islamic Identity is the centerpiece of this project. It represents a lifetime of engagement with the man and the nation he created.
Jinnah, Pakistan and Islamic Identity Summary
Part I: Who’s Afraid of Mr Jinnah?
Jinnah, Pakistan and Islamic Identity opens with a biographical sketch of Jinnah, but Ahmed immediately signals that this will not be a conventional biography. He draws on interviews with people who knew Jinnah, including his only child, Dina Wadia, who had never before been interviewed by biographers. Dina described her father as “a sweet man” who was “reserved” but not cold.
She dismissed the characterization of Jinnah as cold, remarking that “he would put his hand on people’s shoulders while he was talking with them”.
Ahmed also explores the role of Jinnah’s family, his sister Fatima, his wife Ruttie, and his daughter Dina. He notes that both Ruttie and Dina have been “written out of history” in Pakistan. Fatima Jinnah, the “Mother of the Nation,” is portrayed as a fierce nationalist who challenged military dictator Ayub Khan in the 1960s.
Ruttie, a Parsee who converted to Islam to marry Jinnah, is described as “warm, intelligent, wonderful” by her daughter. The book reveals that Jinnah was devastated by Ruttie’s death in 1929, he “wept like a child” at her grave.
Ahmed then examines the different ways Jinnah has been “imagined” by various groups. The British, led by Mountbatten, portrayed him as a psychopath and megalomaniac. Indians, influenced by Congress propaganda, saw him as the demon who divided Mother India. Pakistanis, especially the official establishment, turned him into a stern, unsmiling icon, a “Christopher Lee in a horror film,” as one writer put it.
Ahmed argues that all these images are distortions. The real Jinnah was a complex human being who struggled with personal tragedy, health problems, and the immense burden of leading a movement that would change the map of the world.
Part II: Divide and Quit, The Road to Partition
This section provides the historical context for Jinnah’s rise. Ahmed argues that the seeds of partition were planted long before Jinnah became the champion of Muslim nationalism. He traces the decline of Muslim power in India from the death of the last great Mughal emperor, Aurangzeb, in 1707, through the disaster of the 1857 uprising, to the rise of Hindu nationalism in the 1920s.
Ahmed’s treatment of the 1857 uprising is particularly striking. He notes that the British response was savage, in Kanpur, Indians were “stuffed with pork and beef and sewn into pigskins” before being blown from cannons. The British deliberately destroyed the symbols of Mughal power, shooting the emperor’s sons and grandsons in his presence. For Muslims, this was a “fundamental reordering” of their world.
The book then traces the rise of Hindu nationalism. Ahmed highlights Bankim Chandra Chatterji’s novel Anandamath (1882), which portrayed Muslims as foreign invaders and called for their destruction.
The novel’s song “Vande Mataram” later became India’s national anthem, much to the distress of Muslims. Ahmed also discusses the RSS, founded in 1925, which explicitly compared Indian Muslims to German Jews and advocated their “extermination”. Jinnah was acutely aware of this threat, he warned that “British Raj would be succeeded by Hindu or Ram Raj”.
The book then explores Jinnah’s “conversion” from ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity to champion of Pakistan. Ahmed argues that this was not a sudden transformation but a gradual process driven by several factors: the death of liberal Hindu leaders like Gokhale, the rise of Gandhi’s mass politics, the increasing communal violence, and the arrogance of the Congress party after the 1937 elections.
The 1937 Muslim League session in Lucknow was the turning point, Jinnah appeared in Muslim dress for the first time, adopted the karakuli cap that would become his trademark, and spoke of the “magic power” of the Muslims.
Ahmed also examines the influence of Allama Iqbal on Jinnah. Iqbal, the poet-philosopher, had initially been critical of Jinnah, but in his last years he recognized Jinnah as the only leader who could guide the Muslims.
In a famous letter written in 1937, Iqbal told Jinnah: “You are the only Muslim in India today to whom the community has a right to look up for safe guidance”. Iqbal’s vision of a separate Muslim homeland in northwest India became the foundation of Jinnah’s Pakistan movement.
Part III: Mountbatten, Partition, and the Creation of Pakistan
This section is the most controversial and the most gripping. Ahmed portrays Lord Mountbatten as a vain, impulsive, and deeply biased Viceroy who did everything in his power to undermine Pakistan. Mountbatten called Jinnah a “bastard,” a “psychopath,” and “suffering from megalomania”. He boasted to Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre that “I drove the old gentleman quite mad”.
Ahmed argues that Mountbatten’s bias was compounded by his relationship with Nehru and, more significantly, his wife Edwina’s affair with Nehru.
Jinnah, Pakistan and Islamic Identity reveals that Jinnah was given compromising letters between Nehru and Edwina Mountbatten but refused to use them, saying “Caesar’s wife should be above suspicion”. Ahmed also notes that Mountbatten showed top-secret partition plans to Nehru before showing them to Jinnah, allowing Nehru to influence the final boundaries.
The book details Mountbatten’s role in the division of Punjab and Bengal. Mountbatten pushed for the division of these provinces against Jinnah’s wishes, creating a “moth-eaten” Pakistan. The Boundary Commission, headed by Sir Cyril Radcliffe, was manipulated to give Muslim-majority districts like Gurdaspur and Ferozepur to India. This had catastrophic consequences, Gurdaspur was the only land route to Kashmir, and its transfer to India sealed Kashmir’s fate.
Ahmed also provides a harrowing account of the violence that accompanied partition. He quotes Nirad Chaudhuri’s description of a Muslim boy being stripped to check for circumcision, then drowned in a pond while a Bengali engineer timed his death on a Rolex watch. An estimated two million people died and fifteen million were displaced. Mountbatten tried to minimize the death toll, claiming only 100,000 had died, a figure his own chief of staff, Lord Ismay, called “horrifying”.
Part IV: Pakistan, Ethnic versus Religious Identity
The final section of the book examines Pakistan’s troubled history after Jinnah’s death. Ahmed argues that Jinnah’s vision of Pakistan was clear: a modern, democratic, Islamic state that would protect minorities and provide justice for all.
He quotes Jinnah’s famous speech to the Constituent Assembly on August 11, 1947: “You are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other place of worship in this State of Pakistan”. Jinnah also said: “We are starting with this fundamental principle that we are all citizens and equal citizens of one State”.
But after Jinnah’s death, Pakistan went in a different direction. Ahmed traces the rise of military rule, the neglect of East Pakistan, and the eventual breakup of the country in 1971. He argues that Pakistan’s leaders, both democratic and military, have sidelined Jinnah, finding his integrity and commitment to democracy inconvenient.
Ahmed also examines the situation of Muslims in India. He argues that the fears Jinnah expressed in the 1940s have been realized, Muslims in India face systematic discrimination, communal violence, and political marginalization. The destruction of the Babri Masjid in 1992, which Ahmed calls the culmination of a process begun a century earlier, is a stark example.
Jinnah, Pakistan and Islamic Identity concludes with an epilogue that looks toward the next millennium. Ahmed argues that South Asia faces a choice between further disintegration and a new beginning based on tolerance, dialogue, and mutual understanding. He calls for a “South Asian renaissance” that would allow the region’s great religions and cultures to flourish together.
Jinnah, Pakistan and Islamic Identity Analysis
Jinnah, Pakistan and Islamic Identity is a remarkable achievement, passionate, provocative, and deeply human. Ahmed has done something that few historians dare to do: he has taken a figure who has been reduced to a caricature, either a saint or a demon, and restored his humanity.
The Jinnah who emerges from these pages is neither the cold megalomaniac of Attenborough’s film nor the cardboard hero of Pakistani officialdom. He is a man who loved his daughter, wept at his wife’s grave, and sacrificed his health for a cause he believed in.
What makes the book so compelling is Ahmed’s use of anthropology. By interviewing ordinary people who lived through the drama, he gives us a sense of what Jinnah meant to the Muslim masses.
When Yahya Bakhtiar, a young student at the time, describes seeing Jinnah for the first time, he says: “He was like the conqueror of Delhi; like Nadir Shah”. When Zeenat Rashid recalls her father praying that his life might be taken instead of Jinnah’s, you understand the depth of devotion Jinnah inspired.
Jinnah, Pakistan and Islamic Identity is also a powerful indictment of Mountbatten and the British establishment. Ahmed’s exposure of Mountbatten’s bias, his manipulation of the boundary commission, and his attempts to minimize the death toll is devastating. The revelation of the Nehru-Edwina affair, and Jinnah’s refusal to exploit it, adds a layer of tragic irony to the story.
But the book is not without its flaws. Ahmed’s passion for his subject sometimes leads him to overstate his case. Not every criticism of Jinnah is a conspiracy, and not every action of Mountbatten was motivated by malice. The book could also have benefited from more rigorous editing, it is sometimes repetitive and disjointed, as Barbara Crossette noted in her New York Times review.
Nevertheless, Jinnah, Pakistan and Islamic Identity is an important and timely book. It challenges the dominant narratives about partition and forces us to confront the complexity of history. It also raises profound questions about leadership, identity, and the future of Muslim societies in a globalizing world.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Strengths:
Humanizes Jinnah: Ahmed’s greatest achievement is to show Jinnah as a real person, a man who loved, grieved, and struggled. The interviews with Dina Wadia and others who knew Jinnah are invaluable.
Challenges the Mountbatten Narrative: Jinnah, Pakistan and Islamic Identity provides compelling evidence that Mountbatten was biased against Pakistan and manipulated the partition process. Ahmed’s exposure of the Nehru-Edwina affair is a significant contribution to understanding the dynamics of 1947.
Uses Anthropology Effectively: By incorporating oral histories and cultural analysis, Ahmed gives us a sense of what Jinnah meant to ordinary Muslims. This is a refreshing change from conventional political history.
Relevant to Contemporary Debates: Ahmed argues that Jinnah’s model of leadership, tolerant, democratic, and Islamic in its ethics, is relevant to Muslims today. This is a powerful counter to the negative images of Islam in the Western media.
Weaknesses:
Partisanship: Ahmed is clearly sympathetic to Jinnah and critical of his opponents. While this is understandable, it sometimes leads to a lack of balance. Not every action of Nehru or Mountbatten was motivated by malice.
Repetition: Jinnah, Pakistan and Islamic Identity could have benefited from tighter editing. Some points are made multiple times, and the structure is sometimes disjointed.
Overreliance on Conspiracy: Ahmed sometimes sees conspiracy where simpler explanations might suffice. Not every decision that went against Pakistan was the result of a Mountbatten-Nehru plot.
Limited Engagement with Jinnah’s Critics: While Ahmed is good at exposing the distortions of Jinnah’s opponents, he does not always engage seriously with their arguments.
Comparison with Similar Works
Jinnah, Pakistan and Islamic Identity stands out from other biographies of Jinnah in several ways. Stanley Wolpert’s Jinnah of Pakistan (1984) is a more conventional biography, focusing on Jinnah’s political career without the anthropological dimension.
Ayesha Jalal’s The Sole Spokesman (1985) is a more academic work, arguing that Jinnah’s demand for Pakistan was a bargaining chip rather than a fixed goal. Ahmed’s book is different, it is part biography, part history, part cultural analysis, and part polemic.
The book also differs from Indian nationalist accounts. M.J. Akbar’s Nehru: The Making of India (1988) portrays Jinnah as a villain who destroyed the unity of India. Ahmed’s book is a direct rebuttal to this view. He argues that it was Nehru’s arrogance and the Congress party’s refusal to accommodate Muslim demands that made Pakistan inevitable.
In terms of methodology, Ahmed’s work is closest to the “new history” of the subcontinent that has emerged in recent decades, history that incorporates anthropology, media studies, and post-colonial theory.
Like his earlier work Discovering Islam (1988), this book uses a multi-disciplinary approach to make sense of complex historical and cultural phenomena.
Conclusion
Jinnah, Pakistan and Islamic Identity: The Search for Saladin is not a neutral book. It is a passionate defense of a man Ahmed clearly admires and a fierce indictment of those who, in his view, wronged him.
But that passion is also the book’s greatest strength. Ahmed writes as a Pakistani and a Muslim who has lived through the tragedies and disappointments of his nation’s history. He is not an objective observer, he is a participant in the story he tells.
This gives Jinnah, Pakistan and Islamic Identity an urgency and emotional power that more detached histories lack. When Ahmed describes the chaos of partition, the betrayal of Jinnah by Mountbatten, and the corruption of Pakistan’s later leaders, you feel his anger and sorrow. When he describes Jinnah’s integrity, his sacrifice, and his vision, you feel his admiration.
Does Ahmed succeed in his goal of rehabilitating Jinnah’s reputation? I believe he does. The Jinnah who emerges from these pages is not the cold megalomaniac of Attenborough’s film, but a complex, flawed, and ultimately heroic figure.
Ahmed shows that Jinnah was not a secularist or a fundamentalist in the modern sense, he was a Muslim who believed that Islam could provide ethical guidance for a modern, democratic state. His vision of Pakistan was inclusive and tolerant, and his commitment to justice and integrity was absolute.
Related Information
Books:
- Jinnah of Pakistan by Stanley Wolpert (1984)
- The Sole Spokesman by Ayesha Jalal (1985)
- Discovering Islam by Akbar S. Ahmed (1988)
- Freedom at Midnight by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre (1976)
- India: A Million Mutinies Now by V.S. Naipaul (1990)
Films:
- Gandhi (1982), directed by Richard Attenborough
- Jinnah (1998), directed by Jamil Dehlavi (produced by Akbar Ahmed)
Articles:
- “Pakistan’s Father” by Barbara Crossette, The New York Times, December 14, 1997
- “Jinnah, star of the East reborn” by Andrew Roberts, The Sunday Times, August 18, 1996
- “The hero in history: myth, media and realities” by Akbar S. Ahmed, History Today, March 1996
