He argues that, until the very end, Jinnah was merely using Pakistan as a ‘bargaining counter’. The Maulana was vocal and vehement in his opposition to partition and tried to persuade Nehru and Patel to stop it. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, a barrister and statesman, was convinced that there were two separate nations within India and rather than be like brothers bickering every day, they should have ‘one clean fight’ instead. The Maulana was pained that Patel had now become an even greater supporter of the two-nation theory than Jinnah. ‘Jinnah may have raised the flag of Partition but now the
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