Birthday and Death of Qaid-i-Azam

The Birthday of Qaid-i-Azam (on 25th December) and his death (on 11th September) are celebrated each year in Pakistan.

Muhammad Ali Jinnah was born Mahomedali Jinnahbhai in Karachi on 25th December 1876, although early school records suggest that he was born on 20th October 1875. He was the eldest of seven children of a wealthy merchant, and his family were highly respected as members of the Khoja branch of Shi'a Islam.

At the age of 16 he was sent to England to work in shipping and trading, but after the death of his child-bride, and then his mother, he chose to study law at Lincoln's Inn. On his return in 1896 he started a law practice in Bombay (now Mumbai).

Turning to politics, he joined the Indian National Congress (a political party) in 1906, and in 1910 he was elected to the Imperial Legislative Council. Three years later he also joined the All-India Muslim League, and became known as an "ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity" – becoming President of the League in 1916.

Jinnah broke with the Indian National Congress in 1920 over Mohandas Gandhi's policy of non-cooperation with the British. Still committed to settling Hindu-Muslim differences, he articulated his 14-point compromise proposal in 1929, and attended three round-table conferences between 1930 and 1932 in London. Frustrated in his efforts, he then remained in London to practice law, returning to India only in 1934, when elected permanent president of the Muslim League.

In the general elections of 1937, the Congress Party led by Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru won a majority in seven of 11 provinces, and refused to form coalition governments with the Muslim League as Jinnah had proposed. This proved to be the final Hindu-Muslim break.

When World War II began in 1939 the Congress Party government resigned to protest India's participation in the war without British commitment to the country's independence. Jinnah declared this decision as a "Day of Deliverance" for the Muslims. The following year the League passed the "Pakistan Resolution", demanding a separate state for Indian Muslims.

Jinnah accepted a 1946 British plan guaranteeing regional autonomy to the Muslims within a territorially united India, but the plan failed.

Subsequently 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. On the stroke of midnight on 15th August 1947 when the Indian sub-continent was granted independence, it was divided into two separate countries, and the creation of a separate Pakistan for Muslims was achieved.

The founding father of Pakistan, Jinnah became its first Governor-General. His contribution to the Islamic world has often been under-estimated, but he is still revered in the country he created almost single-handedly. Both the anniversaries of his birth and death are holidays in his memory.

Jinnah was, and still is, revered by Muslims as "Qaid-i-Azam" (Great Leader). He died in Karachi, West Pakistan on 11th September 1948.

If you're looking for a way to commemorate this event, you might be interested in this article: Commemorations with Cross Stitch

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