JINNAH AS AN ICON

Quaid e  Azam, Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s fantastic achievement as the founder of Pakistan has dominated his personality, his multi character personality led him to play several roles with distinction: one the brightest legal luminaries India, an ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity, a distinguished constitutionalist ,a freedom fighter, a dynamic Muslim leader, one of the great nation builder of modern times.

Little wonderment that, less has been written about his personal life. His taste and style made him one the most scrupulously neat dressed and appealing man in the world.

He was the most youthful Indian to graduate from Lincoln’s Inn. After coming back to India from England, he became the first Muslim barrister in Bombay in 1896.He made certain of him financially strong, and his modus-Vivendi resembled that of an upper crust English pro.

Jinnah had a fine penchant for homes and prodigal décor. He owned three houses: one in Hampstead, one of the swish areas of London, one on Marabar hill in Bombay and another in Aurangzeb road in New Delhi. All houses designed by Edwin Lutynes, a widely known architect at that time.

At his London home, he would employ an English staff to attend him. He would hire an English chauffeur, who drove his Bentley. He always had two cooks, an Indian, and an Irish. His preferment food was curry and rice. He always smoked his best-loved carven a cigarettes, one of the most hunky-dory and most high priced at the time. His wealth gave him independence, which enabled him to speak his mind.

No doubt about it that he was very attractive man. He plumed himself for his appearance. He was said to never wear the same silk tie again and had almost 200 sewed suits in his wardrobe. His clothes made him one of the best-dressed man in the world, equaled in India, perhaps only by Motilal Nehru. Jinnah’s daughter Din called her father a “dandy”. His tall, thin physique and his liking for good clothes enabled him to wear clothes with panache, confidence and conviction..

With his eyeglass, clipped accent and saville row suit, Jinnah was the perfect upper class a man of refinement of his day. His apery of the upper crust English man in India was so accurate, it made the English uneasy. At that time wearing western clothes among the Indian elite was not usual; but his authenticity and exaggeration of his aristocratic appearance, made him unusual.

By the late 1930’s, he preferred the local dress, although he didn’t altogether abandon his western clothes. For a headgear he opted for a karakuli cap, rather a fez or turban, since the latter reflected the tradition followed by older contemporaries. Jinnah had a pattern of behavior for choosing the right clothes to make a cultural and political statement. With this change in his clothing of a distinctive style; he created a modern Muslim identity.

When Pakistan came into being, he put an end wearing the chooridaar or tight pajama worn in up and Delhi, and adopted the baggy shalwar. He still had on his western clothes with a karakuli, as is limned in many of his official pictures after the 1940s.His clothes proposed a Muslim identity; that was proud of its past and yet at ease with the severely destruction changes in modern Indian society.

Jinnah was idolized by women for his marked yet classic fashion sense. After meeting him at the Viceroy’s dinner in Simla, a British general’s wife wrote to her mother in England:

“After dinner, I had Mr. Jinnah to talk to. He has a great personality. He talks the most beautiful English. He models his clothes and his manners on Du Maurier, the actor, and his English on Burke’s speeches. I have always wanted to meet him and now I had my wish.”

His “beautiful English” could be imputed to the great interest he took during his teenage years in reading Shakespeare and being an actor. His sister often times narrated his love for reading Shakespeare to the family after dinner at his residence in Karachi. He also proffered to work with a theatrical company as a student in London in 1893, but denied to join since he always projected being a barrister and for his tendency towards politics.