Mohammand Ali Jinnah was once asked about his ancestry, on this he proudly said that he is descendants of Rajputs.
He was from the Lohana subtribes of Rajputs also known as Thakurs or Thakkars. This word is derived from Takhars . During the Kushana period, which reached its peak in the time of Kanishka, Kushana kingdom Included all of Afghanistan, Pakistan and India except extreme south and northeast.
Kanishka himself was from the Takhar province of Afghanistan. Large number of Takharians settled in all parts of India upto Bengal in the east and Maharashtra in the south and Gujrat and Sindh in the west. They being from the ruling class arrogated to the status of petty landlords in all of their occupied areas. Brahmins were forced to accord them as low class Kshatriyas(Rajputra) unwillingly for their own sake , Takhars did not care much. Gradually Takhar word became synonymous with Thakur in Sindh , Rajasthan and Bihar, and as Thakkar in Gujrat and Saurashtra.
Lohana thakurs were spread in Sindh and Kathiawad. During the invasion of Muhammad bin Quasim , Lohana Rajputs or Thakurs defected from Raja Dahir. But did not support Mohammad bin Quasim either. Thus they can be termed as traitors.
All Thakkars or Thakurs were non-vegetarians to begin with as originally they were from a cold area but due to Vaishnava and Jain influence of Gujrat, Lohanas of Kathiawad/Saurashtra were turned vegetarian as a norm.
Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s grand father was Hindu by the name of Premji Meghji Thakkar, whose son’s name was Punjalal Thakkar. Premji Meghji started a business that involves trading of fishes. This was a taboo for Lohana community. It is not sure whether Premji became non-vegetarian or not.
But Lohanas shunned them from the community , however Premji did not care and continue with his business as usual without any hindrances in his trade by anyone including Lohanas. He was not in a position to leave the trade as it was giving good dividends. His son Punjalal went a step ahead and perhaps became non-vegetarian apart from being in fish business. This precludes any chances of him to be taken as part of Lohanas again. Punjalal was married to a girl named Mithibai and gave birth to eldest son who was later to be Mohammad Ali Jinnah , It was during this time that Premji tried again to get united with the Lohana community but failed. Young Punjalal was not happy with his fathers humble entreaties.
There was possibility of them being remained ostracized and still lived normally as it did not change their life style and no one was threatening their life for trading in fish or eating flesh(probably, not sure). But Punja Lal was a crooked man, he wants to teach Lohanas a lesson, he was a man of revenge. Thus he found a good platform in the form of Islam, that matched his intent closely. Immediately after the birth of the fourth son he got himself converted to Islam along with his wife and kids. This must have been around 1885.
It is interesting to note that Punjalal decided to convert to Islam but not to other Indian religions prevalent in Gujrat. He could also continue with Hinduism as he was well off and his business was not affected due to ostracism. Vaishnavs accept any person who accepts his sins and decides to conform to non violence henceforth, notwithstanding the previous credentials thus this was the option available in the then Gujrat. Another option was Jainism. Jains do not ask for previous credentials and accepts the person after certain questionnaires. Jainism was alive in Gujrat in those days.
The Similar event happened in 1935 when Dr Ambedkar decided to renounce Hinduism. But Dr Sahib took his time, he studied all major religions without bias and decided to convert to Buddhism although Buddhism at that time was not the living religion in India. This took him 21 years of rigorous study of religions before converting to Buddhism. He was sure as he has written in his autobiography that Islam and Christianity cuts one person of their root. This was not acceptable to him.
Punja Lal was an ordinary stuff. Moreover it is quite possible that he might have lots of Muslims friends as trade partners or due to his typical business which is normally manned by Muslims to this day. These friends might have prompted him to become Muslim.
Mahatma Gandhi in his autobiography has narrated an eventful period of his life when he was impressed by his Muslim friend Mushtaq who was strong and could run miles without tiring. Gandhi started taking flesh under the influence of Mushtaq but his conscious was strong enough to coerce him retracing his steps. He later repented. Here it is important to note that when he has written his autobiography and narrated this incidence , no one from his community raised a finger or ostracized him from the society of Kathiavadi Baniyas.
Basically Punjalal seems to be a sensitive and susceptible person. He was lean and thin and thus was called as Jinno, this might have also irritated to him. Another thing is that when his father was insulted, it was he who converted to Islam not his father who was actually insulted. So he possessed a reactive personality who could not withstand anyone saying anything against anyone of his family. He was hasty and quick decision maker and was not going to wait for 21 years like Dr Ambedkar. He was easily becoming angry and ever ready to take revenge. All these attributes we find in his illustrious but controversial son Mohammad Ali Jinnah.
Another thing is that there is not much point in blaming Lohana community to ostracize Premji Thakkar for this profession. Vegetarianism is the most cherished virtue , it is complete way of life , not only eating. It also entails that one does not involve in a profession that deals even remotely with the killing of animals or birds. But like all other virtues , it is difficult to sustain given the instinctive human nature for vices like meat, vine and women. Thus it is but obvious that Lohanas were going to take such action as they did.
Had there been no Jinnah , Pakistan would still be there. As harbinger of Pakistan the Muslim league was founded by Aga Khan in 1906 in Dhaka when Jinnah was no where in the picture.
