Roderick Matthews

The modern history of South Asia is shaped by the personalities ofits two most prominent politicians and ideologues - Mohammad AliJinnah and Mahatma Gandhi. Jinnah shaped the final settlement by consistently demanding Pakistan, and Gandhi defined the largely non-violent nature of the campaign. Each made their contribution by taking over and refashioninga national political party, which they came to personify.
Theirswould seem, therefore, to be a story of success, yet for each of them, the story ended in a kind of failure. How did two educated barristers who saw themselves as heralds ofa newly independent country come to find themselves on oppositeends of the political spectrum? How did Jinnah, who started out asecular liberal, end up a Muslim nationalist? How did a God-fearingmoralist and social reformer like Gandhi become a national politicalleader? And how did their fundamental divergences lead to the birthof two new countries that have shaped the political history of thesubcontinent?This book skilfully chronicles the incredible similarities and ultimatedifferences between the two leaders, as their admirers and detractorswould have it and as they actually were.