Correspondence of M.A. Jinnah

Sub title : Release of Prof. Abdul Sattar Kheiri and Historical Context on Partition

Subject: Political Detention in British India | Defence of India Rules | Early History of the Pakistan Movement

Date of publication: 1940

Language: English

Page: 18 p.

Source: National Archives of Pakistan

Serial no: 27675

Keyword: M.A. Jinnah -- Prof. Abdul Sattar Kheiri -- M.A. Jabbar Kheiri | Defence of India Rules (DIR) -- Political Prisoner -- Camille Huysmans -- Partition of India -- Two-Nation Theory | Stockholm Conference 1917 -- All-India Muslim League --| British Raj -- Detention Camp

Abstract: This file contains a series of poignant letters from Dr. M.A. Jabbar Kheiri to M.A. Jinnah, pleading for help in securing the release of his brother, Prof. Abdul Sattar Kheiri, who was imprisoned under the Defence of India Rules. The correspondence details the harsh conditions of the professor's detention and the family's desperation. Jinnah's brief, sympathetic but ultimately powerless replies are included. The file is significantly enriched by a copied letter from Belgian statesman Camille Huysmans, which confirms that the Kheiri brothers, as early as 1917 at the Stockholm Conference, advocated for the partition of India into Muslim and Hindu states--a foundational idea that Jinnah would later champion, providing a crucial historical backdrop to this personal appeal.

Description: This collection provides a deeply human perspective on the political turmoil of early 1940s India. It showcases Jinnah's role as a figure of authority to whom ordinary Muslims and intellectuals turned for help, even in matters where his direct influence was limited. The core of the correspondence is a heart-wrenching account of a family's struggle against the colonial state's security apparatus. The inclusion of the 1941 Huysmans letter transforms the file, connecting a personal tragedy to a major geopolitical idea. It serves as historical evidence that the demand for Pakistan had intellectual precursors decades before its achievement, and positions the Kheiri brothers as early, unrecognized visionaries in the movement Jinnah led. SCANNED BY: NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF PAKISTAN.

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