were Jinnah's ancestors Punjabi?......
aamir Riaz
In
good old days My friend Imran Khalid once told me sarcastically about a radio
talk in which the anchor informed listeners regarding Punjabi dissent of Quaid
e Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah's ancestors. My friend declared it Punjabification
of Pakistan and repeated radio information that Quaid's ancestors were from the
area near to SahiWaal. It was a time when we both were in left circle so such
news were part of our entertainment too. I did not know that one day i, myself
will write on the line almost similar to that anchor. In the first decade of
21st century, a friend Khalid mahmood, lovely short story writer & poet
remind me about a article written in past regarding Nawab Ismail Khan, an old
friend of Jinnah. Nawab Sahib was among rare friends of Jinnah who had liberty
to tease, making fun of Jinnah. Indeed, like Nawab Bhadar Yar Jang he was among
great friends of Jinnah. It was Nawab Ismail Khan who mentioned about ancestors
of Jinnah and his reference was none the other then the Jinnah himself.
According to him, ancestors of Jinnah came from the area near to Sahiwal in the
Punjab and had settled in Kathiwar, Gujrat before settling in Karachi, Sindh.
The same news was confirmed by Hector Bolitho in his biography JINNAH;
CREATOR OF PAKISTAN published in 1954, London. This book is recently published
by Oxford University Press Pakistan yet i could not find the important
reference of Zamir Niazi in it which was regarding efforts to censor Jinnah's
august 11, 1947 speech. In his Urdu book "Ungliaan Fagar Apni" at
Page 20 famous journalist cum historian and author of trilogy on Pakistani
media, zamir Niazi gave a reference about that incident in which
some over smart people tried to stop or censored Jinnah’s August 11, 1947
speech. At page 41, in same book Niazi gave reference of London edition page
197-99 but in current edition it is not there. Anyway, in this reprint at page
at Page 2, Bolitho wrote about his meeting with Fatima Bai (a distant bhabi of Jinnah
who lived in same house where Jinnah lived) and her son Muhammad Ali Ganji. According
to them, Jinnah’s ancestors were belonged to the Punjab, near Multan. They were
memons and like many of us were from this land. They never came from outside.
So from Punjab they shifted to Kathiwar, Gujrat.
Unfortunately,
I also read Urdu translation of Bolithi’s book re-published by Urdu science
board, an official institution in 2001. It is an interesting fact that Bolitho
started writing this book in 1952. At that time a lot more friends of Jinnah
were alive. He met many yet people like H.S.Suhrawrdy, MS Fatima Jinnah, Mumtaz
Dautana, Khuro, Hussain Imam were reluctant about that first effort of writing
Jinnah’s official biography. Fatima Jinnah did not share Jinnah’s private
papers with the author, the fact confirmed by Zuhair sadiquee in his note who
did urdu translation. Why MS Fatima Jinnah did not share her notes, it was
quite obvious. She knew very well that after the death of her brother things
had been changed. Rulers had no passion with historical facts nor interested to
know what Quaid said yet they want to change history according to their new
needs. Due to that fact she herself started writing a biography and engaged G
Allana for that job. G Allana had promised her that he would not share it with
General Ayub Khan but than Allana joined Ayub khan and adjusted as
representative in UN. So she stopped writing and at her death, there was an
incomplete manuscript, almost three chapters found among her papers.
Before
sharing this piece I also want to mention some misleading
facts regarding bad urdu translation. The Urdu book published in 1966. In Urdu or hindi, the word communal translated as garohi means from community. In south
Asian literature we often read communal politics and generally this term refers
to intra-religious affairs. But the term sectarian refers to the affairs
related to issues within numerous sects or school of thoughts in a religion. We
often read misleading translations of the term communal especially in Urdu
books translated in India. Zuhair also followed that path and in many places he
translated the word communal as Firqapasti which creates confusion. Now you read the piece and tries to find original
London edition of Bolitho too.
http://dunya.com.pk/index.php/special-feature/2013-05-28/4100#.UaTHnNIwfMY
