He was elected to become the president of the Indian National Congress party in 1923 and it lasted only for a few months owing to the differences with the organization, especially Gandhi, on the haphazard ending of Non-cooperation movement.

Being one of the founders, esteemed member and 10th president of the All-India Muslim League, he represented the party in the first round-table conference held in London.

His mother Abadi Begum (1852 – 1924), affectionately known as 'Bi Amman', inspired her sons to take up the mantle of the struggle for freedom from the British colonial rule.

[4][6][12] Upon his return to India, he served as education director for the Rampur state, and later joined the Baroda civil service.

[4] He became a writer and an orator of the first magnitude and a farsighted political leader, writing articles in major British and Indian newspapers like The Times, London, The Manchester Guardian and The Observer.

[13][14] Jawhar worked hard to expand the Aligarh Muslim University, then known as the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College, and was one of the co-founders of the Jamia Millia Islamia in 1920, which was later moved to Delhi.

Jawhar "had the unique distinction of having directed the affairs of the three most important political parties/movements in the country — The Indian National Congress, the All India Muslim League and the Khilafat movement.

[15] In 1921, Jawhar formed a broad coalition with the nationalist leaders like Shaukat Ali, Abul Kalam Azad, Hakim Ajmal Khan, Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari, Syed Ata Ullah Shah Bukhari as well as Mahatma Gandhi, who then enlisted the support of the Indian National Congress and many thousands of Hindus, who joined the Muslims in a demonstration of unity against the British government.

Jawhar also wholeheartedly supported Gandhi's call for a national civil resistance movement and inspired many hundreds of protests and strikes all over India.

[4][8] The inscription on his grave in the Khātūniyya Madrasa,[19] which is near the Dome of the Rock, says: "Here lies al-Sayyid Muhammad Ali al-Hindi.

"[2] Pakistan Postal Services issued a commemorative postage stamp for Muhammad Ali Jawhar in its 'Pioneers of Freedom' series on his birth anniversary in 1978.