Historians draw parallels between Pak founder Jinnah and Congress stalwart Banerjee

Days after the 145th birthday of Pakistan's founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah, in an exclusive interview to ETV Bharat, two historians claimed that Jinnah's vision of liberal democracy closely resembled that of Congress stalwart Surendranth Banerjee, adding that the former held Banerjee in high regard.

Kolkata:Just three days ago the 145th birthday of Pakistan’s founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah was celebrated. Although he adopted religion-oriented politics at the later stage of his political career, Jinnah was held Surendranath Banerjee in high regard.

In a number of articles penned by him as well as in a number of his public speeches Jinnah had referred to his close association with Banerjee. Jinnah also publicly admitted that Banerjee’s political thoughts to a great extent had influenced his own thought process.

Now, the question automatically comes on why Jinnah had such high regard for Banerjee despite adopting the diametrically opposite political path.

On this issue, ETV Bharat talked to a couple of historians, with both opining that to an extent both Jinnah and Banerjee were to a great extent neglected in the pre-independence political spectrum of the Indian National Congress and this was probably an important reason as they became so close intellectually. Another reason, according to them, was despite treading through the religion-oriented political path, Jinnah was basically and originally a propagator of liberal democracy and this was the reason that made Jinnah so respectful about Surendranath Banerjee.

Asish Das, professor of history of Rabindra Bharati University, told ETV Bharat, “This neglect to an extent was an important reason why both came closer to each other,” Das said.

According to him, another reason was that despite adopting the religion-oriented political path at the later stage of his political career, Jinnah was a firm believer of liberal democracy.

“Probably, Jinnah himself felt the pain of moving away from the path of liberal democracy and out of that pain he referred to Surendranath Banerjee again and again,” Das said.

A similar opinion was expressed by historian Tanika Sarkar.

According to her, it is certain that Banerjee’s political through-process has influenced Jinnah to a great extent.

“Actually the original political through-process of both Jinnah and Banerjee were the same and that was liberal democracy. So despotically adopting a diametrically opposite political path at a later stage, Jinnah always was respectful about his faith towards liberal democracy and that is why he had referred to Banerjee again and again,” she said.