From Roses in December by M. C. Chagla : Partition of India

From Roses in December by M. C. Chagla

On the mistakes that occurred on the side of Gandhi, Nehru and Congress

"Of course, we on our side made many mistakes. I do not know whether we were in a hurry to take power, or whether we were genuinely convinced that it was impossible to work with the Muslim League in governing a free country. I do not think Jinnah really expected that Congress would ever concede Pakistan. To him it was more of a bargaining counter, and we had bargained properly, he would have given up the idea of Pakistan and accepted a united India. As a practical man, he realized the utter impracticability of a country, whose two wings were divided by 1,000 miles of Indian Territory, and a country, the major half of whose population in the east was of a different culture and spoke an utterly different language. We must not forget that Jinnah had no foothold in Punjab at all, while in Bengal, Suhrawardy was not happy to go along with him and continued to drag his feet for a long time.
We gave the Punjab province to him on a platter because of our wrong policy. In the Northwest frontier province also Jinnah had a formidable opponent in the form of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, better known as Frontier Gandhi.

The Last Straw

"To my mind, one of the potent causes which ultimately led to the creation of Pakistan was what happened in Uttar Pradesh. If Nehru had agreed to a coalition ministry and not insisted on the representative of the Muslim League on signing the Congress pledge, perhaps Pakistan would not have come about. Uttar Pradesh was the cultural home of the Muslims. Although they were in minority in that state, if Uttar Pradesh had not gone over to the cause of separation, Pakistan would never have become a reality."

On Secularism
"Secularism is an attitude of the mind and a quality of the heart. It is a matter of temperament, of outlook, even of feeling. A man with a secular outlook looks upon all persons as human beings pure and simple, equally estimable and precious, not only in the eye of law, but in the eye of God. You refuse to classify people according to the religious labels which you attach to them. You do not think of a man as a Hindu, a Muslim or a Christian, but merely as a human being and you deal with him as a human being."

Partition of India : The Mistakes 3

From Roses in December by M, C, Chagla

On the mistakes that occurred on the side of Gandhi, Nehru and Congress

"Of course, we on our side made many mistakes. I do not know whether we were in a hurry to take power, or whether we were genuinely convinced that it was impossible to work with the Muslim League in governing a free country. I do not think Jinnah really expected that Congress would ever concede Pakistan. To him it was more of a bargaining counter, and if  we had bargained properly, he would have given up the idea of Pakistan and accepted a united India. As a practical man, he realised the utter impracticability of a country, whose two wings were divided by 1,000 miles of Indian territory, and a country, the major half of whose population in the east was of a different culture and spoke an utterly different language. We must not forget that Jinnah had no foothold in Punjab at all, while in Bengal, Suhrawardy was not happy to go along with him and continued to drag his feet for a long time.
We gave the Punjab province to him on a platter because of our wrong policy. In the Northwest frontier province also Jinnah had a formidable opponent in the form of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, better known as Frontier Gandhi.

The Last Straw

"To my mind, one of the potent causes which ultimately led to the creation of Pakistan was what happened in Uttar Pradesh. If Nehru had agreed to a coalition ministry and not insisted on the representative of the Muslim League on signing the Congress pledge, perhaps Pakistan would not have come about. Uttar Pradesh was the cultural home of the Muslims. Although they were in minority in that state, if Uttar Pradesh had not gone over to the cause of separation, Pakistan would never have become a reality."

On Secularism
"Secularism is an attitude of the mind and a quality of the heart. It is a matter of temperament, of outlook, even of feeling. A man with a secular outlook looks upon all persons as human beings pure and simple, equally estimable and precious, not only in the eye of law, but in the eye of God. You refuse to classify people according to the religious labels which you attach to them. You do not think of a man as a Hindu, a Muslim  or a Christian, but merely as a human being and you deal with him as a human being."

From Roses in December: Change in Jinnah 2

From 'Roses in December' by M. C. Chagla
On the Change in Jinnah
"So long as Jinnah remained a nationalist and the Muslim League continued its secular policy, I remained with Jinnah and with the League....
Why did Jinnah change? There could be many possible explanations  to this. JInnah's besetting fault was his obsessive egoism. He had to be a leader, and the prime mover in whatever cause he worked. With the emergence of Gandhiji in Indian politics, Jinnah felt his importance would gradually diminish. Jinnah was the complete antithesis of Gandhiji. While Gandhiji believed in religion, in abstract moral values, in non-violence, Jinnah only believed in hard practical politics. Even sartorially it was impossible for Jinnah to subscribe to Gandhi's views.
Unfotunately, Jinnah was also antipathetic to Jawaharlal Nehru. These two were never on the same wave-length. Jawaharlal disliked Jinnah as a man because he thoooought he was all arrogance and pomposity. He also despised Jinnah as someone essentially uncultured, almost illiterate. He thought Jinnah's reading never extended beyond the daily newspaper and that he had never a single intelligent or enlightened idea in his head. Jinnah on the other handlooked upon Jawaharlal as an impracticable visionary who had no conception of what politics meant.
After he was dropped from the Third Round Table Conference, Jinnah became convinced that if he had to have a place under the sun, he would have to stand on a communal platform. Jinnah's transformation really began when he saw that he was beginning to be considered as a man of little consequence--so much so that he could not even find a plae in the Third Round Table Conference. Once he adopted the communal platform he drifted rapidly and came to a stop only when he reached the pinnacle to become the leader of the communal party that the Muslim League ultimately became. Jinnah's dominant characteristic was his tenacity. It is the measure of the man that he succeeded in creating a new country,--Pakistan, with very little following, with no string press to back him, and with little financial assistance. Most of his colleagues in the League were men of poor calibre and it was practically his own personality, will-power and self-confidence that made it impossible for his colleagues to differ from him and mad the partition inevitable. Of course, in the end, he could count on mass-communal fervour, while part of the British bureaucracy also threw in its weight consciously or unconsciously on his side.
I have always taken the view that partition was a tragedy and a calamity, and I also hold the view that it was not unavoidable. Partition has solved no problems; on the contrary it has created many problems and very serious ones too. It is absurd to think of a home for Muslims when as many as 60 million of them were left behind in India. I remember once asking Jinnah: "You are fighting for Pakistan  mainly for the Muslim majority states. But what happens to the Muslims in the states where they are in a small minority?" I will never forget the answer he gave me. He looked at me for awhile and said: "They will look after themselves. I am not interested in their fate. " 

On Partition of India: Excerpts from Roses in December 1

From 'Roses in December' by M. C. Chagla

On Tilak and Jinnah
Many years later my first visit to High Court was with the intention of catching a possible glimpse of Tilak. I had read in a newspaper that judgement was going to be delivered in an appeal which had been filed against the conviction  of Tilak, and that the judgement would be given by Mr. Justice Bachelor and Mr. Justice Shah who had heard the appeal. The appeal on behalf of Tilak had been argued by Jinnah. I remember, I went to the court rather early, in order to find a seat in a particular row in which judgement was to be delivered. I sat in the third row and a little later, I found Tilak enter and take his seat in the second row. After a while, Jinnah came and sat in the first row reserved for counsel. Judgement was delivered and and the conviction to everyone's relief was set aside. Jinnah then turned round and warmly shook Tilak by the hand. I believe this was the first time that I had seen Jinnah. I might mention here that during my long association with him, I found that Jinnah always showed the highest respect and regard for Tilak. Even when he was in the process of changing his political stand and becoming more and more communal, I never remember his ever saying anything that was derogatory of Tilak. Two persons in public life for whom Jinnah showed the greatest respect were Gokhale and Tilak. He had hard and harsh things to say about Gandhiji, Nehru and others; but as far as Gokhale and Tilak were concerned,  Jinnah had the most profound admiration and respect for them and for their views.