Jinnah on Hindu-Muslim unity

IN the course of an interview to a Bombay Chronicle representative, Muhammad Ali Jinnah said: “I am not prepared to abandon efforts and we must move every nerve to bring about unity between Hindus and Mahomedans. One way that suggests itself to me of succeeding is that we must get together the most powerful leaders in both communities on one platform, as was the case in 1916, and if a real determined effort is made, I still consider that unity is within practical politics at no distant date. Another thing is that the two issues of religion and politics should not be mixed up and must be kept apart. Then alone, speaking from a political point of view, unity is possible. But until this question is settled, there is no hope of real further advance.” So far as the first part of the statement is concerned, we are in complete agreement with Jinnah. Our only suggestion is that if a conference of Hindu and Muslim leaders is to be held, it must be held in the vicinity of the place or places where the trouble is most acute, and, what is even more important, it must not move in an atmosphere of airy abstraction but try to solve concrete issues in a practical manner. We say this because nothing to our mind had hindered the solution of this question during the last three years more than the habit of some among our most prominent leaders to indulge in pleasant generalities and fight shy of inconvenient practical issues. As regards the second part of the statement, may we respectfully enquire if the demand for separate representation, which is at the root of the whole trouble, is not itself based upon the mixing up of religion and politics?