Was Jinnah Secular?

Advani’s recent comment that “Jinnah was secular” has created a huge political storm in India.In the face of barrage of attacks from RSS and internal grudgings Advani has decided to resign.
But the question is was Jinnah secular?

Jinnah was an well educated Muslim who didnt belive in the supersitions and rituals of the religion.Initially he was an open minded individual.Infact he played an important role in the Lukhnow Pact.This Pact brought the Muslim League and the Congress closer together.During this period he was a secular man who wanted Hindu Muslim unity.

But things began to change after 1925.Gandhiji’s influence began to rise.The congress left constitutional means of agitation and switched to more effected and drastic means like Non cooperation.This pushed the League and the Congress apart.Due to clever British policy of divide and rule and his own jealousy and ambition Jinnah started to belive that no good could be done to the Muslims as long as Congress was at large.In later stages of his carrier he definitely wasnt secular.

Click here to read an interesting article published by The Telegraph on this topic.

Here are the excerpts

Even as late as 1925, Jinnah retained the political attributes that harked back to the early Congress. He remained committed to secular reform and national independence. When the young Raja of Mahmudabad spoke of himself as a ?Muslim first??, Jinnah chided him: ?My boy, no, you are an Indian first and then a Muslim.?? Jinnah began on the fringes of Muslim politics but he marked out for himself a space in Indian politics by becoming the sole spokesman of Muslims in India and also by making himself the champion of the two-nation theory……
…..He was a Westernized and secular man who contributed to the making of communal politics in India.

Click here to see excerpts from Jinnah’s address on Aug11,1947

Another interesting piece was in a Bengaly newspaper.It says that there was a rumour that when Advani was 20 he was among the group of people that had tried to kill Jinnah.Was Advani trying to compensate for the mistake he commited in his youth?