The Quaid-i-azam’s Decision To Become Governor-general

**Argus** · #1 Thursday, May 11, 2006

By IAN STEPHENS

[Ian Stephens is an English writer who in prepartition India was editor of the influential newspaper the statesman. In the following selection from his book Pakistan (1963), he discusses some of the implications of the Quaid’s decision to become Governor-General of Pakistan. The British and some Indians—Jawaharlal Nehru and his lieutenants, in particular – had hoped that one Governor-General (Lord Mountbatten) could be appointed for both India and Pakistan. Such an appointment would have been to the advantage of Hindu India and highly detrimental for Pakistan. But Quaid-i-Azam saw through the Mountbatten-Nehru game, and frustrated their designs by announcing his decision to become the Governor-General of Pakistan. This extract from Mr. Stephens’ book throws light on the great insight of the Quaid-i-Azam – Ed.]

…… A big event of this time was Mr. Jinnah’s decision to become Pakistan’s first Governor-General. It had been supposed that, like Mr. Nehru, he would rather be Prime Minister. Further, the idea had been put about, probably by the Viceroy’s staff, that at the start Lord Mountbaten would become Governor-General of both dominions. Indeed, provision for this wasmade in the Draft Indian Independence Bill, then being hustled through the British Parliament. So when Mr. Jinnah’s decision was announced, early in July (1947). It caused surprise.

There has been speculation about its reasons. Campbell-Johnson – who it must be remembered was Lord Mountbaten’s Press Attache – takes the view that Mr. Jinnah simply wanted “power and glory”. But his diary is hostile to the League leader almost throughout. If that reflects Lord Mountbatten’s attitude at that stage, it is important. But Ismay’s weightier evidence lends no support. Clearly, Lord Mountbatten and Mr. Jinnah differed much in temperament. And any visitor to Government House could learn that, whereas both Viceroy and Vicereine were on affable terms with leading Congressmen, they were not so yet with Mr. Jinnah or the Leaguers. But Mr. Jinnah was not easy to become affable with. It seems doubtful whether Lord Mountbatten had yet really developed the hostility to him which he later showed. Any if he had, Mr. Jinnah was unaware of it. For it is a fact that near the start of this episode, Mr. Jinnah pressed him to become a “a sort of super-Governor-General”, with both Dominion governor-Generals under him; and that when after reference to London, this was turned down, he readily agreed to Lord Mountbatten’s staying on as Governor-General of India only, and indeed got Mr. Liaqat Ali Khan to write saying he hoped this would happen. Possibly, as early as June, some Leaguers had come to suspect that Lord Mountbatten, in his proposed dual role, would subconsciously or otherwise load the dice against Pakistan, because of the friendship he and his wife had formed with leading Hindus. But Mr. Jinnah seems to have been above such suspicions.

According to Chaudhri Mohammad Ali, who was in the League leader’s confidence, Mr. Jinnah’s decision was due to two practical points, the first of which – as an expert in legal niceties – he had at the outset pressed on Lord Mountbatten’s attentions. This was that he wanted it explained because he could not see the answer – what would happen in the almost inevitable event, with relations between Congress and Leaguers so bitter, of the proposed joint Governor-General being given conflicting advice by his two sets of Ministers, those in Karachi urging him one way, those in Dehli another way. The second derived from (the) fact: the shortage of trained Muslims at the higher administrative levels, both military and civilian, because of the community’s backwardness in Western-style education. Owing to this, Pakistan at the start would need British officers to command her forces, and British civil servants as Governors of some provinces. Might not Pakistanis themselves, as well as unfriendly foreigners, ask as a result whether she really was an independent country at all? But with a Muslim as Head of state, such doubts would go.

Whatever the decision’s causes, it did not smooth the pat towards Partition. Is may describes it as “a blow. We had all felt,” he goes on “that the best hope of an orderly transfer of power, a equitable division of assets, and the establishment of friendly relations between the two new Dominions would be for them to start off with the same Governor-General”. And Lord Mountbatten himself seemed personally riled by it. Those brought in touch with him would doubtless agree that his weakness …… was a curiously sensitive kind of vanity. Murphy’s biography confirms this. That someone of his superb gifts should have had such a characteristic is odd; but evidently it was so. And it seemed noticeable at an editor’s conference arranged the afternoon before Mr. Jinnah’s decision was announced. Several of us inferred that the matter had not merely caused him political worry, but had hurt him. Perhaps he had set his heart on becoming dual Governor-General; the rubuff knocked against his most vulnerable point, his pride.

Whether Mr. Jinnah’s choice proved right for Pakistan is a question uncommitted Westerns may prefer to leave open. With Pakistanis, his prestige stands so high that few would admit the possibility of his making any major error. In his lifetime, he became the acknowledged Father of the Nation; and his memory commands unquestioning reverence, rather like Ataturk’s in Turkey or Mr. Gandhi’s in India. And in further support of his decision it could be argues – and his advisers did argue – that as joint Governer-General Lord MountBatten would have spent less time in Karachi than in Delhi, the bigger dominion’s capital; and that while in the letter city, though functioning in part on Pakistan’s behalf, he would have been so near Mr. Nehru, whom he liked, as to be influenced by him. And Mr. Nehru detested the very idea of Pakistan. The point undeniably has weight…. (Courtesy “Iqra” Lahore, Quaid-i-Azam-Azam Number, June 1976)

Arsalan kabeer · #2 Saturday, July 08, 2006

salamz
Nice work Argus Keep It Up!
ALLAH HAFIZ

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