[ALOCHONA] Conversation with Jinnah: Very prescient Observations by Photographer Margaret Bourke-White

Margaret Bourke-White (pronounced /ˌbɜrkˈhwaɪt/;^[1][2] June 14, 1904 – August 27, 1971) was an American photographer and documentary photographer 

 

Excerpt from Margaret Bourke-White's 1949 book, "Halfway to Freedom", 

 

On pages 91-93, Bourke-White describes her discussion with the country`s Founder-Maker Mohammad Ali Jinnah when "Pakistan was one month old".

 

"What plans did he have for the industrial development of the country? Did he hope to enlist technical or financial assistance from America?" she asked Jinnah.

 

"`America needs Pakistan more than Pakistan needs America,` was Jinnah`s reply. `Pakistan is the pivot of the world, as we are placed` … `the frontier on which the future position of the world revolves.` … `Russia,` confided Mr Jinnah, `is not so very far away.`"

 

I wondered whether the Quaid-i-Azam considered his new state only as an armored buffer between opposing major powers. He was stressing America's military interest in other parts of the world.

 

"America is now awakened," he said with a satisfied smile. Since the United States was now bolstering up Greece and Turkey, she should be much more interested in pouring money and arms into Pakistan.

 

"If Russia walks in here," he concluded, "the whole world is menaced."

 

In the weeks to come I was to hear the Quaid-i-Azam's thesis echoed by government officials throughout Pakistan.

 

"Surely America will build up our army," they would say to me. "Surely America will give us loans to keep Russia from walking in."

 

But when I asked whether there were any signs of Russian infiltration, they would reply almost sadly, as though sorry not to be able to make more of the argument, "No, Russia has shown no signs of being interested in Pakistan."

 

This hope of tapping the U. S. Treasury was voiced so persistently that one wondered whether the purpose was to bolster the world against Bolshevism or to bolster Pakistan's own uncertain position as a new political entity.

 

Excerpt from Margaret Bourke-White's 1949 book, "Halfway to Freedom".

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