What would Jinnah do?

• Is it possible to sift the man from the myth?

In the ‘90s the white Christians of United States of America coined an acronym WWJD to sort out their moral dilemmas. The phrase WWJD (What Would Jesus Do) inscribed on bracelets and worn by young and old Christians was supposed to serve as a constant reminder of opting for the right moral choice as and when one has to choose between the devil and the righteous path. To save their fellow believers, the white Christians invoked the holy personage of Jesus Christ to ensure that no one wanders from the path to eternal salvation.

WWJD can work for the Pakistan of today, all we need to do is to make it mean a little different. ‘What Would Jinnah Do?’ is the rallying cry we desperately need. In his political career spanning over half a century, Jinnah rose to zenith through brains and sheer toil. Jinnah kept his integrity intact through the thick and thin of politics of his day and age that was divided along the lines of caste, kin, religion, ethnicity among other factors.

Another birth anniversary of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah came and passed, many of our leaders and intellectuals reminded us of Jinnah’s basic principles of unity, faith and discipline, his stress on interfaith harmony, and his lost dream of seeing a democratic Pakistan materialise in letter and spirit.

Away from the repetitive churning out of statements commemorating Jinnah’s anniversary, away from the yearly exercise of exclusively idolising him before consigning him to the closet till next 25th. Let us try to dig a little deeper in our quest of figuring out Jinnah the man and Quaid-e-Azam the legend.

Another birth anniversary of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah came and passed, many of our leaders and intellectuals reminded us of Jinnah’s basic principles of unity, faith and discipline, his stress on interfaith harmony, and his lost dream of seeing a democratic Pakistan materialise in letter and spirit

The search for the real Jinnah, it seems, is endless. The Jinnah depicted by Ardeshir Cowasjee in his hundreds of columns is in direct opposition to one portrayed by the religious right and the one that dominates the public imagination. The Jinnah of masses and the Jinnah of intellectual and historians are two altogether different beings.

The thoroughly westernised, staunchly liberal, solemnly constitutionalist Jinnah is lost, forgotten and buried so deep that no trace of him remains in the public conscious.

The Sherwani-clad Jinnah reigns the public imagination. We’ve made sure that the public persona of Quaid-e-Azam dwarfs the actual personage of Muhammad Ali Jinnah.

No doubt that it is a universal practice to deify the great men. Bereft of their human frailties and failings and burdened with supernatural powers, these no doubt extraordinary men turn into idols and legends. People revere them, worship them, respect them. What they don’t do, however, is to follow their example. Their reason? Mere fallible, mortal humans are no match to legends. The idols perish as soon as realities rear their ugly head. This divorce between ‘what was intended’ and ‘what turned out to be’ is most visible in our society. No need to go any further, dearest sirs and ma’ams, just skim through the Objectives Resolution and venture out to search for the land it promised. Your search is bound to remain futile.

It has become easy to brush aside a lie told in service of a mightier truth. For the greater good of all, minor sacrifices are bound to be made. At the altar of supreme, the midgets called common men are zilch but cannon fodder.

Jinnah preached the gospel of peace and rule of law. Being a through and through believer of constitutionalism he had utmost respect for the dictate of law. Jinnah never shied away from both the letter and the spirit of law. Aware of the ills gnawing at the very soul of his people. Jinnah pinpointed the hydra headed monster of corruption, jobbery, intellectual backwardness, sectarian and ethnic divide, intolerance and internal rifts among various sections of society as main culprits holding his countrymen back.

In his speeches, addresses, and interaction with press, Jinnah repeatedly prescribed that inculcating sense of nationhood, ability to rise above petty differences, weeding out tribal, ethnic and sectarian outlook, curbing nepotism and collective striving for a just, equal, progressive society as the antidote to rid the newly-born state from the crushing burden of the past.

Jinnah’s greatest task, his own personal Goliath, was to bury the hatchet that, many of his critics claim, he used to achieve the homeland for Muslims of the subcontinent i.e. communal shade that defined the Pakistan movement and the very base on which the whole edifice of Muslim nationhood in Subcontinent was erected.

Ours, now, is a land of many perils. There are those who vanished without a trace, there are those among us who live in continuous fear of being persecuted at trumped up accusations, there are those who vie to get hold of justice in a land where law is up for grabs to highest bidder and there are those who have died or will soon perish in their attempt to flee the land of the pure.

In Jinnah’s land, his vision has become a spectre. In Jinnah’s land, he is hanged on many walls to witness the ‘not so official’ goings-on in countless offices. In Jinnah’s land, if he is ever to make a return, he’ll find himself a stranger.

About time that we bring Jinnah back. What better way to do it then to think of What Would Jinnah Do when confronting a crossroads in our life.