How Jinnah survived an assassination attempt in Bombay

On a July day in 1943, Muhammad Ali Jinnah entered his secretary’s room in his Malabar Hill bungalow to find a young man speaking with the secretary. The man was desperate for a meeting with the Muslim League leader. He hoped that if he could just speak to Jinnah, he might convince him to reach a compromise with the Congress and Mahatma Gandhi on the issue of India’s partition.

But instead of dialogue, there was violence.

Aggravated by Jinnah’s refusal to meet, the young man pulled a knife from his pocket and attempted to stab him in the throat.

Jinnah managed to deflect the blade – just barely. He suffered a small puncture wound on his jaw and a gash across the back of his hand. His assailant, Rafiq Sabir Mozangvi, was quickly overpowered by the household staff and arrested by the Bombay Police.

But one question lingered: who was this man, and had he travelled halfway across India to attack the leader of the Muslim League?

Travels from Lahore

The story begins weeks earlier in Lahore, when Mozangvi boarded a train to Delhi, driven by a burning political grievance. Although only 32, Mozangvi had lived many lives – working as an electrician, committing petty crime, serving short stints in prison, and...

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