Jinnah's Nationalism

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JINNAH’s POLITICS AS NATIONALIST MUSLIM Jinnah – A Nationalist : Jinnah was a typical Indian nationalist at the turn of the century, aiming to get rid of the British from the subcontinent as fast as possible. He adopted two strategies: one was to try to operate within the British system; the other was to work for a united front of Hindus, Muslims, Christians and Parsees against the British. He succeeded to an extent in both. When Jinnah came into politics in 1906 he was an Indian Nationalist. HE believed in Hindu-Muslim unity, and worked tirelessly to protect the unity. Jinnah joined the Congress in 1906 instead of the newly formed Muslim League, because he was then opposed to the idea of separate representation. He thought that it would break the unity between the Hindus and the Muslims. He was also elected in the Imperial Legislative Council against the constituency for Muslims from Bombay as a Congressman. In 1912 Jinnah was instrumental in conducting the meetings between the Muslim League and the Congress, and as a result was successful in convincing the Muslim League to adopt a resolution of "self-government" suitable to India as its new ideal. Then in 1913 he joined the Muslim League, and also retained his Congress membership. The Lucknow Pact was a success for Muslim League as it gained it's objectives. It got its separate representation and was recognized as the sole representative of the Muslim community. Due to Jinnah's hard work in making the Lucknow Pact was a success, earned him the title of "Ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity". During the Khilafat movement, Jinnah remained neutral as he believed that the collaboration between the Hindus and the Muslims would inevitably fail as the Hindu-Muslim unity did not reach the grass root levels. The Mopla's rising and the subsequent clashes with the Britishers and the Hindus proved Jinnah's point.
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