Pakistan Travelogue II

re:#628 by Mantolives
Jinnah the nationalist, secular person is well known. It is the other side of Jinnah which bothers many historians and laymen like me. What did Jinnah have in mind when he gave the call for Direct Action Day?
Margaret Burke-White has more:
http://www.homestead.com/iref/DirectAction.html

(His statement to the press was in the form of a monologue, delivered in an icy voice, which was forecast of fiery events to come. ``We are preparing to launch a struggle. We have chalked a plan.`` We reporters, although we sat around Jinnah in a closed circle, had almost to stop our breathing to hear his curiously hushed words. He had decided to boycott the Constituent Assembly. He was rejecting in its entirety the British plan for transfer of power to an interim government which would combine both the League and the Congress. He lashed out against the ``Hindu-dominated Congress`` in his flat, chilled monotone. It seemed clear, now the bondage to the British was drawing to an end, that he was free to concentrate all his fire against the opposite party.

``We are forced in our own self-protection to abandon constitutional methods.`` His thin lips slit into a frigid smile. ``The decision we have taken is a very grave one.`` If the Muslims were not granted their separate Pakistan they would launch ``direct action.`` The phrase caught all of us. What form would direct action take, we all wanted to know. ``Go to the Congress and ask them their plans,`` Mr. Jinnah snapped. ``When they take you into their confidence I will take you into mine.``

There was silence for a moment, broken only by the cooing of pigeons, hopping over Jinnah`s manicured lawn. Then he added in the same toneless voice, so strangely unmatched to his words: ``Why do you expect me alone to sit with folded hands? I also am going to make trouble.``

Next day the Quaid-i-Azam changed out of his double-breasted suit and put on Muslim dress and fez for the Muslim masses. Standing on a platform liberally decorated with enlargements of his portrait, he announced that the sixteenth of August, two and a half weeks hence, would be ``Direct Action Day.`` His vituperation against the Congress was acidly explicit. ``If you want peace, we do not want war,`` he declared. ``If you want war we accept your offer unhesitatingly. We will either have a divided India or a destroyed India.`` And the Muslim Leaguers jumped up on their seats and tossed their fezzes in the air.)

My comments: It does not matter who wrote the article but these events are part of history and Ms Burke-White (an American journalist) just recorded them as they happened.
Read the following statements by Jinnah again:
``We are forced in our own self-protection to abandon constitutional methods.``
``We will either have a divided India or a destroyed India.``
His statements leave nobody in doubt that he meant to create trouble with his call of Direct Action day.
Sridhar

Re: # 634

First of all .... had you seen the link it was from an indian...

Secondly the Gandhi statue did exist infront of the Sindh High Court Building... and is still there in the Indian High commission in Pakistan.

#635 by Mantolives on April 12, 2005 1:18pm PT
We got Pakistan... cry and whine all you want now... we have Pakistan and thank God for it

...........I`ve been thanking God all along for the same.NOW, there`s something we can agree on.That`s a start.

You know... I can sense the futility of this.... the Indians will repeat the same lies that they`ve been repeating for the 5 years... and I will respond with the same answers as the last 5 years...

Call me slow but I`ve gotten the hang of the routine now...

So I am going to break it... and say

We got Pakistan... cry and whine all you want now... we have Pakistan and thank God for it

Re #627 Mantolives


I do not know about the story about the saving statue of Gandhiji that is mentioned,
it probably is true but it is my observation, at least in India, that one does not name roads/streets/public libraries or erect statues of people who are living.
Only after they are dead that their statues appear, roads/streets are named etc..

Re: # 625

Dhee taa raundi rendi... udhi baybay teh dadi eh naa uday kanh..

Mein asl ich is vehlay daily times tu ana aan...

Hor tusi sunao... kithay meri email tu tap ta naeen gay?

Re: # 575

I would have no problems admitting an Ahmadi if I was really one...

Re: # 575

I would have no problems admitting an Ahmadi if I was really one...

re:#621 by Mantolives
The question is not how many more muslims died than hindus. The question is: did Jinnah visit Calcutta when riots broke out there? Did he do anything substantial (other than giving out politically correct statements) to stop the riots or prevent it from spreading further? I have not seen any evidence that he did anything of the sort.
Sridhar

#615 by Mantolives on April 12, 2005 11:48am PT



Read two books:


Two books on gandhi? Are you kidding me? I couldn`t get myself to watch the Oscar winning movie...it`s that boring...

so gandhi has a seedy side...BFD...so does the taj mahal(what with all the architects having their hands cut off and all that)...I couldn`t care less..

all that matters to me is that gandhi looks good on a brochure promoting India..as does the Taj Mahal....

Re: # 616

http://ww1.mid-day.com/smd/play/2005/april/107165.htm

Re: # 616

PS: Did Jinnah visit the scene of the riots

YES.... several times... H V Hodson credits him for bringing an end to the disturbances in Lahore which became his temporary capital for a few months in this effort...

Meanwhile in Karachi this famous story should put an end to your false claim based on second guessing history and reading novels/biased accounts instead of real historians...


Publicly, Jinnah and Gandhi were political rivals. But during the post-Partition riots, Jinnah displayed his respect. There was a statue of Gandhi, installed on his 60th birthday in Karachi, which was about to be destroyed by rioters.

He was surveying the area in his car, and he actually had the car stopped and ordered his driver to bring him the statue. He saved it from defacement and later had it passed to the Indian High Commission for safe-keeping,” recounts Baranwal.

arjun #613,
{``It`s like comparing the Taj Mahal to the minar-e-Pakiland.... ``}

Oh Arjun, that one hurt. Ouch! Very unkind.

Manto, yaar sauN jaa hunn....mainu lagda jadoN raat nu teri dhee roan lagdi ay tooN uTh ke internet te baith jaana...te teri dharm-patni vichari ohnu khidaundi te savaundi rehndi ay.:-)

Re: # 604

Harish Hyd...

While most statements were the usual `Keep free from disorder, use peaceful means and don`t play into the hands of your enemies`` there is one very important incident.

After the Congress betrayal under British tutelage after the Cabinet Mission Plan ...Sardar Shaukat Hayat, Iskandar Mirza and several others weighed in on Jinnah to call for a ``Jehad`` .... and he refused. He refused to give any such call...

As of now I couldn`t find any statement in 1946 other than the incident above....

There are several in 1947 ....

Re: # 596

His PASSPORT says ``Islam``