A Poet- Philosopher’s aspiration for his Nation Allama Iqbal’s Letters to Jinnah (May 23, 1936 – November 10, 1937)

Author(s) : Erum Gul

Abstract:

This writing is an effort to elaborate and understand the political state of affairs of India in late 1930s and intellectual bend of the prominent Muslim leadership, primarily Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Allama Muhammad Iqbal. Both of these personalities had become the pivotal of Muslim political understanding at that particular rendezvous of the Indian history. Iqbal had presented his views in Annual Session of All India Muslim League at Allahabad in 1930and Muhammad Ali Jinnah had abandoned his self-exile in London and come back to India in 1935. He was endowed with the responsibility of reorganizing League and to popularize its message among the Muslim masses. Later, Iqbal and Jinnah remained in contact through correspondence and enlightened each other about the political situation and upheavals faced by the Muslims in the colonial India. They also pondered over the strategy to cope with those problems and to achieve freedom for India as well as the Muslims. Therefore, a study of these letters is a valuable primary source of developments of these years, which is attempted to find out in this article.