Number of words: 406

In October of that year, 1906, he took a more serious and assertive political step. He went on to question the very representative status of the delegation led by Agha Khan to the viceroy. 32 He was of the view that the Congress represented the Muslims no less, in fact, was the only ‘true political voice in the country’. 33 He also opposed this whole pursuit of separate electorates through a memorandum forwarded to Lord Minto by the Bombay Presidency Association. (Jinnah’s letter in Gujarati , 7 October 1906.)

The Aga Khan, whom Jinnah was opposed to all his life, writing in his memoirs on the question of separate electorates has said: ‘Who then was our doughtiest opponent in 1906? A distinguished Muslim barrister in Bombay, Jinnah had always been on friendly terms but at this juncture he came out in bitter hostility towards all that I and my friends had done and were trying to do. He was the only well known Muslim to take up this attitude, but his opposition had nothing mealymouthed about it; he said that our principle of separate electorates was dividing the nation against itself, and for nearly a quarter of a century, he remained our most inflexible critic and opponent’. 35

Then came the change. In a letter to the editor of The Times of India , dated 20 February 1909, Jinnah took a markedly different stand, he (for the first time?) accepted that the Muslims were ‘entitled to a real and substantial representation in the new reforms’ 36 , but the real question was how this ought to be done; ‘whether to have separate electorates at all stages, from rural Boards to the Viceregal Council? Or something less and if so, then what level?’ On the basis of population, Muslims would become entitled to representation of about twenty-five percent. ‘But if this share could be enhanced to a weightage equivalent to a third then this whole business of communal representation could be dispensed with’, 37 Jinnah reasoned, ‘otherwise, there was no alternative but to retaining the reservation system’. In addition, at a meeting of the Muslims of Bombay held on 13 August 1909, Jinnah successfully proposed that if the alternatives available for Muslim representation in the Bombay Legislative Council were election by separate electorates, or selection by nomination, preference should be given to the former − election.

Excerpted from Page 81-82 of ‘Jinnah: India-Partition Independence’ by Jaswant Singh