Quaid-i-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah
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Muhammad Ali Jinnah (b. Dec. 25, 1876, d. Sept. 11, 1948),
led the Indian Muslims in the years before
independence and founded the state of
Pakistan.
Jinnah began his political activities in the
1906 with the Indian National Congress. In 1913
he joined the All-India Muslim League.
He left the Congress party in 1920 because
of disagreements with the leader Mahatma Gandhi,
who opposed the Muslim demand for a separate
communal electorate and advocated policies of
noncooperation.
Jinnah through the Muslim League demanded political equality for India's Muslim minority. And while during the 1920s and early '30s, he continued to seek a agreement between Hindus and Muslims, by the late 1930s - using the slogan (Pakistan) "land of the pure" he was advocating a separate state for Indian Muslims. He won the popular title of Qaid-i-Azam ("the great leader") and became the first governor general of Pakistan. He served only a year in office before his death, but his critics say that he paved the way for a series of unsuccessful successive governments and military coups. |