The independence movement of India was shaped by towering personalities, among whom Mahatma Gandhi and Muhammad Ali Jinnah are perhaps the most defining. While Gandhi is celebrated as the Father of the Nation in India, Jinnah holds that role in Pakistan. What is often overlooked, however, is that Jinnah was already a well-established political figure in British India before Gandhi’s return from South Africa in 1915. Their initial cordial relationship, based on shared aspirations for Indian self-rule, would ultimately give way to deep ideological rifts — resulting in the historic partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947.

Jinnah’s Early Rise in Indian Politics

Born in 1876 in Karachi, Muhammad Ali Jinnah studied law in London at Lincoln’s Inn and returned to India in 1896. By the early 1900s, Jinnah had entered the political arena, distinguishing himself with a sharp legal mind, impeccable English, and a moderate constitutional approach to Indian self-rule.

●      1906: Jinnah was present in Calcutta when the All-India Muslim League was founded, though he did not join until 1913.

●      1909: He was elected to the Imperial Legislative Council, the highest legislative body for Indians under the Raj.

●      1910–1920: Jinnah gained a reputation as a liberal nationalist, often collaborating with the Indian National Congress, which he joined in 1906. He supported secular principles and worked for Hindu-Muslim cooperation.

●      He was widely respected for his role in the 1916 Lucknow Pact, which brought together the Muslim League and Congress on a common platform for constitutional reforms. This was seen as a triumph of his diplomacy and belief in unity.

By 1915 — the year Gandhi returned to India — Jinnah was already hailed as the "Ambassador of Hindu-Muslim Unity", a title given by none other than Sarojini Naidu, a senior Congress leader.

Gandhi’s Return and Emerging Leadership

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, born in 1869, was older than Jinnah by seven years but had spent two crucial decades in South Africa (1893–1915). There, he developed his philosophy of Satyagraha (non-violent resistance) and fought against racial injustice.

Upon his return to India in 1915, Gandhi was still relatively unknown in Indian political circles. He spent his initial years touring the country, understanding grassroots conditions. His political campaigns in Champaran (1917), Kheda (1918), and Ahmedabad (1918) won him recognition as a people's leader.

It was only in 1919, with the Rowlatt Act agitation and the aftermath of the JallianwalaBagh massacre, that Gandhi emerged as a national leader and assumed full control of the Congress.

Jinnah and Gandhi: Early Relationship

The early relationship between Jinnah and Gandhi was cordial, if somewhat cautious. They met in Bombay in 1915, shortly after Gandhi's return.

●      Jinnah welcomed Gandhi and even chaired one of the early meetings organized in Gandhi’s honor.

●      However, the two differed in methods and vision:

                 ○      Jinnah believed in constitutionalism, legislative reforms, and negotiations within the British framework.

○      Gandhi favored mass mobilization, non-cooperation, and direct civil disobedience - a path Jinnah saw as emotional and unpredictable.

In 1920, when Gandhi launched the Non-Cooperation Movement, Jinnah resigned from the Congress in protest. He wrote a famous letter criticizing the mixing of religion with politics and the abandonment of constitutional methods.

"Your methods are not those by which nations are created. They may succeed in a village or a town, but not in the complex and vast Indian society." — Jinnah to Gandhi, 1920

Ideological Divergence and Political Rivalry

The 1920s and 1930s witnessed an increasing divergence:

●      Jinnah, sidelined during Gandhi's rise in mass politics, moved to London in the mid-1930s in disillusionment.

●      Gandhi dominated the Congress and the national movement with successive campaigns of civil disobedience and jail terms, becoming a global icon of nonviolence.

By 1935, with the Government of India Act offering more provincial autonomy, Jinnah returned to lead the Muslim League, now shifting toward the idea that Muslims were not just a minority, but a "nation" in their own right.

The 1937 elections were a turning point. The Congress swept the polls but refused to form coalition governments with the Muslim League in most provinces. Jinnah saw this as evidence that Muslims would be politically marginalized in a Hindu-majority India.

From Political Differences to Partition

By the early 1940s, the differences between Gandhi and Jinnah had hardened into two competing visions of India:

●     
1940: The Lahore Resolution was passed by the Muslim League, demanding independent Muslim states (later interpreted as Pakistan).

●      1947: After failed talks (like the Cripps Mission, Cabinet Mission Plan), the British finally agreed to Partition, with Gandhi remaining one of its most vocal opponents till the end.

Two Fathers of Two Nations

Gandhi and Jinnah began their political careers with shared ideals of Indian self-rule, legal methods, and secularism. But their personal philosophies, leadership styles, and visions of India's future diverged sharply.

By the time of independence:

●      Gandhi had become the symbol of peace, pluralism, and nonviolence.

●      Jinnah, once a secular constitutionalist, had become the sole spokesman of Muslim political identity, leading to the creation of Pakistan.

They rarely met face-to-face in their later years, and when they did, their meetings were marked more by mutual disappointment than cooperation.

Legacy

●      Gandhi was assassinated in 1948, just months after independence, by a Hindu nationalist who blamed him for being "too soft" on Muslims.

●      Jinnah, gravely ill during Partition, died in September 1948 — having seen Pakistan born but not stabilized.

Their legacies continue to shape India-Pakistan relations, national identity debates, and political thought in South Asia.