I saw Mr Jinnah for the first time when he came to speak on the invitation of the Muslim University Union in the famous Strachey Hall. My class fellow and close friend Fasihuddin Ahmed, who was also a nephew of Dr Ziauddln Ahmed, the Vice Chancellor of the Aligarh Muslim University, asked me if I was going or wanted to go to hear Mr Jinnah speak.
1 said: “The hall will be full with students, how shall we get in?” But Fasih took me there and we entered the hall from the backside. We sat near the dice where students were piling up their autograph books to be signed by Jinnah. I think the Vice President of the University Union (the President was always a professor) was perhaps Shamsul Hoda/Haq from Bengal, who delivered an eloquent speech and prepared the audience for Jinnah’s speech.
When his name was announced, there was complete silence in the hall. He delivered an eloquent speech and, perhaps, in this speech said: “Aligarh is the arsenal of Muslim India.” But the only sentence that I remember till now is “build your character”, and since then I have tried to do just that. That was my first encounter with Mr Jinnah.
The next year in April 1944, when I was in the 10th class, Jinnah came again to Aligarh, which had become the centre of the Pakistan Movement. One day, Ahsan sahib, our warden in English House, called and asked me to collect all the boarders, have them properly dressed in the Aligarh uniform to be taken to Habib Manzil – where Mr Jinnah was staying – for a photograph with him. So, I collected all the boarders of English House and took them to Habib Manzil. The cameraman was ready and the chairs were already placed there with a high chair for Mr Jinnah.
Ahsan sahib asked me to go to Jinnah and bring him for the photograph. So, I went upstairs – Jinnah was signing the autograph books of the students – and said: “Mr Jinnah, the English House is ready for the photograph with you.” He replied: “I will be with you in a minute.” I led him downstairs to the place where the photograph was to be taken. However, the chair that I had reserved for myself, besides Mr Jinnah, was occupied by a friend and I rushed to the corner chair. So this was my first meeting and ‘conversation’ with Mr Jinnah.
All of us in English House passed the Matriculation Examination.
I was informed about it by Ahsan sahib by a cable in Naini Tal, where we had gone for summer holidays. Obviously, my mother was very happy and my uncle of Rampur told me that he is going to have a function and also invite Nawab Raza Ali Khan of Rampur. But when I told him that I shall only salute him in a normal manner and not as his subject, the dinner for the nawab had to be cancelled.
A few days after passing the exam, I received a letter from the Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Indian Air Force offering me a commission in the air force primarily due to Dr Ziauddin Ahmed, who had developed a high-level PR with the upper echelons of the British ruling class from which the students of Aligarh benefited. However, my mother was adamant and she said: “My son is not going into the Royal Indian Air Force at all.”
Soon my mother, who was fed up with the Rampur’s conservative society, where she had to play the second fiddle to the Begum of Rampur, decided to shift to New Delhi. So after a brief stay in Darya Ganj in old Delhi, we shifted to New Delhi. Meanwhile, I had been admitted to St Stephen’s College, Delhi.1 went there for admission – with a second division – with my two uncles. l went inside to meet the principal and he asked me a question in English. I replied in the same language with confidence .He wrote on my application form “admitted” and said “go and pay the fees.” My uncles were surprised and also so happy as if they had been admitted to the college.
From the very next day, I started going to college and my friends in college were Ainuddin and Sabharwal – two hefty students from Rajputana (Rajashtan) – who came to be known as my ‘body guards’. l played hockey in college in the second eleven in which Sabharwal was the Centre-Forward, Ainuddin was the Left-in and I was the Right- in. Soon enough, as going to college from New Delhi twice was too much and because of my growing interest in politics, I had to stop playing hockey.
But my friends used to miss me in the hockey field.
Meanwhile, I wrote my first letter to Mr Jinnah, which has been published in the book by Syed Shamsul Hasan, the permanent Secretary of the All India Muslim League, named Plain Mr Jinnah. My letter is dated November 16, 1944, and contrary to Pakistan’s present ruling hierarchy Mr Jinnah replied to me on December 13, 1944, which are also published in the same book. It was the result of that letter and prompt Mr Jinnah’s reply that I and my mother met him the same day and we entered the Pakistan Movement together.
Since our two cars were sold in Rampur because of the petrol, my mother on the advice of Begum Husain MaIik, the President of the Delhi Provincial Women’s Muslim League, bought the car. I started going to college in a car and it placed me in the super-elite of the college and the Delhi University.
I joined the History (Hons) classes because of my good marks in the preparatory class in all the subjects, which were held in the university for all the honours and MA students of all the colleges, including Hindu College, Anglo-Arabic College, Ramjas College and most important of all the lndra-Prasth College for women. The honours and MA classes for History were held in the university in a room, beside the office of the Dean of Arts and Chairman of the History Department, Dr I. Qureshi.
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