Dr. Ayesha Jalal (Urdu: عائشہ جلال) is a Pakistani historian. She is a professor of history at Tufts University and a MacArthur Fellow. The bulk of her work deals with the creation of Muslim identities in modern South Asia. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Tufts University is a private university located in Medford, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston. ... The MacArthur Fellows Program or MacArthur Fellowship (sometimes nicknamed the genius grant) is an award given by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation each year to typically 20 to 40 citizens or residents of the US, of any age and working in any field, who show exceptional merit...

Education

She obtained her BA, majoring in History and Political Science, from Wellesley College, USA, and her doctorate in history from the University of Cambridge. Jalal has been Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge (1980-84), Leverhulme Fellow at the Center of South Asian Studies, Cambridge (1984-87), Fellow of the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars in Washington, DC (1985-86)and Academy Scholar at the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies(1988-90). She has taught at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, Tufts University, Columbia University and Harvard University. Wellesley College is a womens liberal arts college that opened in 1875, founded by Henry Fowle Durant and his wife Pauline Fowle Durant. ... The University of Cambridge, located in Cambridge, England, is the second-oldest university in the English-speaking world. ... Full name The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity Motto Virtus vera nobilitas Virtue is true Nobility Named after The Holy Trinity Previous names Kings Hall and Michaelhouse (until merged in 1546) Established 1546 Sister College(s) Christ Church Master The Lord Rees of Ludlow Location Trinity Street... The University of Wisconsin–Madison is a public university located in Madison, Wisconsin. ... Tufts University is a private university located in Medford, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston. ... Columbia University is a private university whose main campus lies in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of the Borough of Manhattan in New York City. ... Harvard University (incorporated as The President and Fellows of Harvard College) is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. ...

She is the author of The Sole Spokesman and many other books on the partition of the British India in 1947.

Scholarship

Jalal is among the most prominent American academics who writes on the history of Pakistan. Her innovative scholarship has led to frequent criticisms by both Pakistani and Indian establishment scholars. Her most prominent works are on the role of Muhammad Ali Jinnah and the partition of India. She argues that the 1947 partition of India -- the event that opened the door for the creation of Pakistan -- was an accident, a colossal miscalculation. What's more, she says that Jinnah never wanted a separate Muslim state; he was only using the threat of independence as a political bargaining chip to strengthen the voice of the Muslim minority in the soon-to-be sovereign India Office: 1st Governor-General of Pakistan Term of office: August 14, 1947 – September 11, 1948 Succeeded by: Khawaja Nazimuddin Date of birth: December 25, 1876 Place of birth: Wazir Mansion, Karachi Wives: Emibai (1892–1893), Rattanbai Petit (1918–1929) Children: daughter Dina Wadia Date of Death: September 11, 1948 Place... Britains holdings on the Indian subcontinent were granted independence in 1947 and 1948, becoming four new independent states: India, Burma (now Myanmar), Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), and Pakistan (including East Pakistan, modern-day Bangladesh). ...

Conversely, she lays a greater share of the blame for partition on the Indian National Congress and leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Patel, who saw partition as a way of eliminating its main competition and leaving it dominant player in centralised state. Indeed, successive Congress governments ruled India until 1977. Indian National Congress (also known as the Congress Party or Congress (I), abbreviated INC) is a major political party in India. ... Jawaharlal Nehru (Hindi: , IPA: ) (November 14, 1889 – May 27, 1964) was a senior political leader of the Indian National Congress, was a pivotal figure during the Indian independence movement and served as the first Prime Minister of the Republic of India. ... Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Vallabhbhai Jhaverbhai Patel (October 31, 1875–December 15, 1950), popularly referred to as Sardar Patel, was an Indian statesman, an important leader of the Indian National Congress and the deputy Prime Minister in the first cabinet of Independent India. ...

The Sole Spokesman

In this book, Jalal examines what happened in the years between the 1937 elections and the partition, identifying the factors which led to the creation of Pakistan and providing new insights into the nature of the British transfer of power in India.

In particular, Jalal focuses on the role of Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the leader of the All-India Muslim League, and the main proponent of the Two Nation Theory on which the demand for 'Pakistan' was based. Jinnah claimed to be the sole spokesman of all Indian Muslims, not only in provinces where they were in a majority but also in the provinces where they were in a minority. Yet given the political geography of the subcontinent it was clear that there would always be as many Muslims outside a specifically Muslim state as inside it. Aga Khan III, one of the founders of the Muslim League Navin had a boner and put it in his mouth The All India Muslim League (Urdu: مسلم لیگ) was a political party in British India and was the driving force behind the creation of Pakistan as a Muslim state from British... Two-Nation theory is the basis of creation of todays Pakistan. ...

This book investigates how Jinnah proposed to resolve the contradiction between a demand for a separate Muslim state and the need for a strategy which could safeguard the interests of all Indian Muslims. It does so by identifying Jinnah's real political aims, the reasons why he was reluctant to bring them into the open, and his success or failure in achieving them.

Modern South Asia

Coauthored with Sugata Bose, this was the first exploration of modern South Asian history by an Indian and Pakistani in collaboration. Sugata Bose is the Gardiner Professor of History at Harvard University. ...

Lawsuit and Controversy

Jalal taught at Columbia University for several years during which period the number of students taking her course on Modern South Asia doubled. However, she was denied tenure in 1995 amidst great controversy. This occurred just after Jalal vociferously opposed Columbia accepting a large grant from the powerful Indian business Hinduja Group to establish a research institute for Indic studies (which has since been closed by the university). Jalal alleged that Indian and India-centric faculty "were uncomfortable with a Pakistani woman teaching Indian history" and sued Columbia claiming religious and ethnic discrimination. The District Court of New York dismissed her allegations calling them "thin but suggestive". Columbia University is a private university whose main campus lies in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of the Borough of Manhattan in New York City. ... The Hinduja brothers — Srichand, Gopichand (born 29 February 1940) and Prakash — are an Indian business family. ...

Family Background

She is the daughter of Hamid Jalal, a favourite nephew of the famous Urdu fiction writer Manto. Her father was a civil servant. Ms. Jalal came to New York at the age of 16. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Manto may mean: Saadat Hasan Manto, an Urdu short_story writer Manto, the daughter of Tiresias and Mopsus in Greek mythology Mantophasmatodea, an order of carnivorous insect discovered in 2002 This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...

External links

• Tufts University [1]
• Ayesha Jalal [2]
• Dawn's Profile of Ayesha Jalal [3]