Iqbal continues, explaining how Muslims cannot prosper in a centralized India where they would remain a perpetual minority. He draws a vision of a Muslim-majority region in the northwest—autonomous, self-governing, united.
But a 24-year-old lawyer in Bombay, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, reads the Urdu transcript sent by Sayyid. He folds the paper and whispers to his sister Fatima:
“Iqbal ne wo baat keh di jo kehni zaroori thi. Ab humein isay amal mein lana hoga.”