Jinnah’s presidential address

IN the address delivered by Muhammad Ali Jinnah as President of the 15th Session of the All-India Muslim League, which concluded its deliberations at Lahore on Sunday, he pointed out the great necessity of bringing about Hindu-Mahomedan unity — which is one of the chief items in the Congress programme. But it is disappointing that Jinnah did not attempt any clear diagnosis of the real causes of the present communal mistrust, which stands in the way of progress and the speedy attainment of Swaraj. We sadly miss in the address any constructive proposal to promote unity and remove the root-causes of such estrangment as is seen on certain occasions at present. It would have been particularly useful if Jinnah had explained what in his opinion would lead to a right solution of the problem. In the prefatory portion of his address, he has been at some pains to declare that non-cooperation has failed, that the Khilafat organisation, which he calls “the handmaid of the Indian National Congress”, has failed too; and that the boycott of the law courts, the schools, colleges and the councils, have all failed. In fact, there is no mention of any organisation of the people that has been working on right lines to secure the country’s freedom. We have not been told either what political purpose a separate communal organisation of the kind Jinnah presided over is designed to serve and what has been the League’s net contribution to the country’s progress. Jinnah, however, admitted that as “the result of the struggle of the last three years… the ordinary man in the street has found his political consciousness.”

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