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ABSTRACT
Muhammad Iqbal and Mohammad Ali Jinnah are normally credited as the founding fathers of Pakistan. Both of them, to begin with, were the supporters of Indian nationalism and later, due to their political and social experiences they emerged as the champions of the idea of Muslim nationalism in South Asia. Two of them had very little interaction with each other yet the partnership between the two had left a great impact on the history of this region. In late 1920s Iqbal and Jinnah supported two different groups of Muslim League. However, in 1930s they realized that actually they were trying to reach the same destination by following separate paths. Eventually they developed a relationship based on trust and respect. Iqbal played a major role in the making of Jinnah as the leader of Pakistan movement. It was the combination of Iqbal's philosophical mind and Jinnah's statesmanship which ultimately resulted in the creation of a nation state, Pakistan.
Key Words: Iqbal, Jinnah, Muslim Nationalism, Muslim League, Punjab Politics
No mention of the history of Pakistan Movement is complete without incorporating the vision of Muhammad Iqbal, the poet-philosopher, and political and legal acumen of the statesman, Mohammad Ali Jinnah. Both of them enjoy undisputed respect and special position in the discourse of the Muslim Nationalist Historiography in South Asia, which revolves around the opinion that Iqbal conceived the idea of Pakistan and Jinnah converted the idea into a practical reality. To the overwhelming majority of the people living in the country, two of them were the real founders of Pakistan and without them creation of an independent state for the Muslims of India was not a possibility. Ralph Russell, a British expert on Urdu, while writing a chapter on Iqbal quoted a Pakistan friend, who believes that "Pakistanis have three articles of faith - Islam, the Quaid-iAzam and Iqbal" (Russell, 1993: 176).
Jinnah and Iqbal had few common characteristics - both of them did not belong to the upper stratums of conventional Muslim Society; both were the products of the modern educational system; both had the exposure of the Western society at relatively young age; both held respectable positions in the Government Institutions in the early days of their career; both participated in politics and...