Startling Facts : Mohammed Ali Jinnah was Born a Hindu

Jinnah and force of circumstances  created Pakistan. He was also a Muslim who propounded the two nation theory that saw India being carved into two states and a Muslim majority state Pakistan being created with two limbs West and East Pakistan. Both wings were separated by 1500 miles of Indian territory and was thus a artificial creation. In due course of time Jinnah's two nation theory fell apart and East Pakistan broke away from the mother country. Jinnah would be turning in his grace at this turn of events.   However Jinnah for all his communal rhetoric had deep Hindu roots.

He was like Gandhi from Saurashtra. Actually he was just a second generation Muslim as his father Punjalal Thakur converted to Islam and gave his 4 sons Muslim names. Jinnah’s grandfather Premjibhai was a Hindu from the Lohana community. He had been ostracized from the Lohana community as he had taken to the trade of selling and distributing Fish which the vegetarian Lohana community could not stomach. this was like a red rag to a bull and he looked for a way out.

Punjalal (Jinnah’s Father) converted to Islam as he could not stand the insult to his father by the Hindu Lohana community which had not only ostracized him, but refused to accept him back even when he gave up trading in Fish and pleaded to be taken back. This unforgiving attitude had its repercussions and Jinnah’s father converted to Islam and took the name Jinn. Mohammed Ali, when he grew up adopted the name Jinnah and has thus come to be popularly known as Mohammed Ali Jinnah. Thus Jinnah was a Gujarati from Saurashtra like Gandhi and was born a Hindu.

Most Muslims are unaware of this aspect of Jinnah. The fact that he was a born a Hindu rankles the Muslims. Perhaps that is one reason he became a rabid communalist  and brought out the 2 nation theory. He was however not interested in Muslims and in case Gandhi and Nehru had allowed him to be Prime minister of India , there would have been no Pakistan. All this is clearly brought out in " The last days of the British Raj" by Leonard Mosley and " freedom at midnight"