The Charismatic Leader: Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah and the

Creation of Pakistan by Sikandar Hayat. Karachi: Oxford University Press,

2008. pp. 386.
1. Solely Your Spokesman by Dr. Mohammad Waseem
The founder of Pakistan, Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, continues to
attract the attention of scholars who want to understand his role in history more deeply
and comprehensively. The Charismatic Leader takes the discussion further by placing it
in the conceptual framework of charisma on the one hand and sociological analysis of the
prevalent elite structure of Muslim India on the other. The author uses Max Weber’s two
perspectives on charisma to explore the nature and character of Jinnah’s bond with the
Muslims of India and to explain his leadership.
Perhaps first a word on Weber’s concepts: for the sociologist, charismatic
authority was one of three forms of authority, the other two being traditional authority
and rational-legal authority. Weber explained that charismatic authority (which exists
when the leader’s personality inspires the loyalty and obedience of his followers) flows
from the leader and in his absence can vanish. (This is different from a situation where
the authority flows from institutions.) However if this authority is incorporated into
society, it can lead to power being exercised by a bureaucracy. The process through
which this happens, Weber called “depersonalisation and routinisation” of charisma. And
as the story of Jinnah unfolds in the context of these concepts, it is evident that a rational
(bureaucratic) rather than an emotional (charismatic) approach defines both the means
and the end of the Pakistan Movement.
In addition, the book offers unique observations on well-known facts. The author
demonstrates that Jinnah first pursued and then emerged as the guardian of “Muslim
interests”. Instead of a one-dimensional approach rooted in rigidity, he took a dynamic
and pragmatic approach to men and matters: first supporting the cause of Hindu-Muslim
unity, then focusing on Muslim unity per se. In a similar vein he did first consider the
separate electorates negotiable before holding them indispensable.
Last but not least he agreed to the Cabinet Mission Plan but abandoned it as soon
as the British went back on “their plighted word”.
 Somewhere along the path to Pakistan, Jinnah started to realize the difference
between the “national interests” and “Muslim interests”, and thus moved towards
establishing the League as the symbol of the Muslim “nation”. The writer systematically
traces Jinnah’s steps towards building “national consciousness”. In and around the 1937
elections, Jinnah’s charisma started to take its final shape through crystallization of the
“Muslim cause” and its expression through a set of constitutional positions.
Hayat’s analysis of the “Muslim crisis” in British India is an excellent piece of
scholarship. According to him, this crisis was twofold – Muslims suffered a “Systematic
crisis” characterized by the widening gulf between the perceived interests of the two
leading communities, Hindus and Muslims. This was merely aggravated by the political
developments: as the British government in India lost its authority and legitimacy and the
institutional-constitutional governing framework proved inadequate, as did the political
formulas emanating from parties, the political system in the country ground to a halt.
The second crisis was one of “leadership”. Here the author does a sociological
analysis of the Muslim leadership, which indeed is rare in research on Jinnah and on the
Pakistan movement. He discusses the “social elites” – especially landlords and the
educated professional middle class, pointing out that they lost ground after the Khilafat
Movement. His analysis of provincial leaders such as Fazl-e-Hussain, Sikandar Hayat,
Khizr Hayat and Fazlul Haq highlights the fact that their inability to appeal to the
electorate beyond their immediate regionis led, indirectly, to Jinnah’s emergence as a
national leader. The relative decline of the Jamiat Ulema Hind and the Congress Muslims
led by Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad similarly reveals how Jinnah gained the support of
the people.
After defining the “Muslim crisis” and explaining that it provides the political
context for the emergence of Jinnah, the author focuses on the final phases of the latter’s
career, in which the Muslim leader acquires the Weberian charisma by delivering on the
promise of a separate state for the Muslims of the subcontinent, Pakistan. In this part of
the book, one sees an embattled Jinnah meandering through the maze of Indian politics
faced by a foe as formidable as the Congress and a confused and by-no-means friendly
British government.
 And as the author focuses on Jinnah’s strategy to politically mobilize and organise
the Indian Muslims he brings in Weber’s concept of routinisation. Jinnah’s mobilization
of all the available political resources – including landed elite’s control over peasantry,
the ideological strength of the intelligentsia, the organisational experience of urban-based
party cadres and the financial support of the nascent Muslim bourgeoisie – indicates,
according to Hayat, the structural aspects of his charismatic appeal. The formidable
Muslim organization that emerged as a result of jinnah’s efforts represented the
“routinsation” of his charisma, even as his personal appeal continued to transcend all
party politics.
The creation of Pakistan, which is the title of the last chapter of this book,
represents an impressive finale. Jinnah’s charisma worked miracles among the Muslim
masses. At the same time, it put a huge amount of responsibility on him, as he moved on
the chessboard of Indian politics, choosing between a larger Pakistan within a federated
India and a smaller but independent and sovereign Pakistan.
Nonetheless, Hayat proves his point that charismatic leadership is about a
relationship with a people: it results from the needs, aspirations and trust of the followers
and keep evolving. This is evident as the book elaborates on the bonds between Jinnah
and his followers and traces the genesis and the historical evolution of Jinnah’s
leadership.
Dr. Mohammad Waseem is Professor of Political Science at Lahore University of
Management Sciences, Lahore.
Published in The Herald, April 2009. pp. 112-113