Lahore, 16 April: Oxford University Press launched its book Jinnah: India Partition Independence written by the politician, parliamentarian, and former Foreign, Finance, and Defence Minister of India, Jaswant Singh, who is in Pakistan these days to promote his book and launched it in Lahore and Karachi earlier this week. Singh is the first Indian politician to have written a book on the life of Jinnah. His book, which sparked off a great controversy in India last year and resulted in his expulsion from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), attempts to find answers to why the Partition took place at all and reassesses the role played by Jinnah, the Congress party, and the British in this great upheaval. He explores where and when the questionable thesis of Muslims as a separate nation first originate and lead the Indian subcontinent to. Jaswant Singh examines in detail Jinnah's political journey from an ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity to the sole spokesman of Muslims in India and eventually the creator of Pakistan, the Quaid-i-Azam. The book stands apart for its author has written an objective and analytical political biography of Jinnah.
Jaswant Singh is a Member of Parliament, in the Lok Sabha, having successfully contested the 2009 elections. Jaswant Singh’s experience as a minister responsible for the conduct of India’s foreign policy, managing the country’s defence (concurrently), had been uniformly challenging (Lahore Peace Process; betrayed at Kargil; Kandahar; the Agra Peace Summit; the attack on Jammu and Kashmir Assembly and the Indian Parliament; coercive diplomacy of 2002; the peace overtures reinitiated in April 2003). Uniquely, he has also been the country’s Finance Minister.
The launch ceremony was well-attended by diplomats, bureaucrats, politicians, academics, and the media. The evening featured a discussion with Jaswant Singh conducted by Rashed Rahman, Editor, Daily Times. The conversation brought out how the Indian leaders had not only misunderstood Jinnah but also made a demon out of him as a direct result of the trauma of Partition. Jaswant Singh pointed out that he admires certain aspects of Jinnah’s personality, particularly his determination and the will to rise, and the way he single-handedly stood against the Congress and the British and created something out of nothing.
The author was firmly of the view that for the return of lasting peace in the region, the two neighbouring countries should resolve their differences themselves instead of depending on and engaging others. In her welcome address, Ameena Saiyid, Managing Director, Oxford University Press Pakistan, introduced the author and said that historiographers in both the countries would do well to take a leaf out of Jaswant Singh’s book and try to be impartial and fair in their assessments of historical persons and events.
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