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All 24 themes of modern India Now open: Communal politics and the Muslim League

Part A The British conquest 1707 to 1857

  1. 01Mughal decline and the regional powers
  2. 02The European trading companies
  3. 03The Carnatic Wars
  4. 04The conquest of Bengal
  5. 05The wars of expansion
  6. 06Instruments of expansion and the frontiers
  7. 07Resistance before 1857
  8. 08The Revolt of 1857

Part B Awakening and early nationalism 1857 to 1915

  1. 09Socio religious reform movements
  2. 10Rise of organised nationalism
  3. 11Partition of Bengal and Swadeshi
  4. 12Revolutionary nationalism, first phase

Part C The Gandhian era 1893 to 1947

  1. 13Gandhi in South Africa
  2. 14The First World War years
  3. 15Khilafat and Non Cooperation
  4. 16Civil Disobedience
  5. 17The Left in the national movement
  6. 18Caste movements and the depressed classes
  7. 19Peasant, worker, tribal and princely state movements
  8. 20Quit India and the INA
  9. 21Communal politics and the Muslim League
  10. 22Partition and independence
  11. 23Women, capitalists, foreigners and others

Part D After 1947 1947 to 1975

  1. 24Integration and reorganisation

Theme 21Part C · The Gandhian era

Communal politics and the Muslim League

1887 to 1946 · from separate electorates to the Pakistan resolution

Partition did not come suddenly in 1947. This theme traces the chain of events, from Aligarh and the Simla deputation through the failed compromises of the 1920s to the Lahore resolution and the elections of 1946, without which partition cannot be understood.

1890190019101920193019401950Separate electoratesAligarhLeagueMorley MintoLucknowUnity to rivalryRSS14 pointsIqbalelectionsPakistan demandLahoreC. R. formulaelections

Event 11887 to 1916

Separate electorates and the League

Communal politics did not come from religion itself but from political competition among the educated for seats, jobs and representation, and from a British policy that treated Indians as communities rather than as citizens.

Aligarh Simladeputation, 1 Oct 1906 DaccaLeague founded, 30 Dec 1906 HaridwarHindu Mahasabha 1915 LucknowPact 1916

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Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan tells Muslims to keep away from the Congress, arguing that elections would mean rule by the Hindu majority. He forms the United Indian Patriotic Association (1888) with Raja Shiv Prasad of Benares, to counter the Congress.

Event or centreMuslim LeagueIndian National CongressEnglish

Event 21922 to 1937

From unity to rivalry

The Khilafat unity of 1920 to 1922 did not survive. The 1920s saw riots, rival missionary campaigns and the hardening of positions on the constitution.

  1. 1920s Shuddhi and sangathan (Arya Samaj, Mahasabha) against tabligh and tanzim; riots in Kohat (1924), Calcutta (1926) and elsewhere.
  2. 1925 The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh is founded at Nagpur by K. B. Hedgewar.
  3. 1927 Delhi Proposals: Muslim leaders offer to give up separate electorates in return for reserved seats and new Muslim majority provinces.
  4. 1928 The Nehru Report offers joint electorates with reservation only for minorities; the Mahasabha blocks concessions.
  5. 1929 Jinnah's Fourteen Points: federal structure, one third Muslim seats at the centre, separate electorates.
  6. 1930 Muhammad Iqbal, presiding over the League at Allahabad, proposes a consolidated northwest Indian Muslim state.
  7. 1933 Choudhary Rahmat Ali, a Cambridge student, coins the word Pakistan in Now or Never.
  8. 1937 Elections: the League does poorly. In UP the Congress refuses to share office with it; the League's Pirpur Report (1938) accuses Congress ministries of injustice to Muslims.
1937about 1 in 5 Muslim seats
1946about 9 in 10 Muslim seats

The Muslim League's share of the Muslim seats in the provincial elections. In ten years it went from a minor party to the voice of most Muslim voters.

Event 31940 to 1946

The Pakistan demand

In March 1940 at Lahore the League adopted the demand that would become Pakistan. Six years later it had won the Muslim vote on that demand.

NORTHWEST EAST BENGALLeague ministry SINDHLeague ministry NWFPCongress PUNJABUnionist coalition AllahabadIqbal 1930 Lahore23 March 1940

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Iqbal's Allahabad address asks for a single Muslim state in the northwest: Punjab, the North West Frontier Province, Sindh and Baluchistan.

Event or centreMuslim LeagueIndian National CongressUnionist coalition

Attempts at a bridge

  • C. R. formula (1944): Rajagopalachari proposes a plebiscite in Muslim majority districts after the war.
  • Gandhi Jinnah talks (September 1944, Bombay): fail.
  • Simla Conference (June 1945): fails on Jinnah's claim that only the League can nominate Muslims.

Why the League rose

  • Fear of permanent minority status in a majoritarian democracy.
  • The 1937 to 1939 experience and the Pirpur Report.
  • British patronage during the war, when the Congress was in jail.
  • Jinnah's leadership and the vagueness of "Pakistan", which let each group read its own hopes into it.

Who's who11 people

People

Sayyid Ahmad Khan

Aligarh

Kept Muslims out of the early Congress.

Aga Khan III

Simla deputation

Led it in 1906; first League president.

Nawab Salimullah

Dacca

Hosted the League's founding.

Madan Mohan Malaviya

Hindu Mahasabha

A founder; also founded BHU.

K. B. Hedgewar

RSS

Founded it at Nagpur (1925).

M. A. Jinnah

League

Fourteen Points; Quaid i Azam.

Muhammad Iqbal

poet

Allahabad address (1930).

Choudhary Rahmat Ali

Cambridge

Coined the name Pakistan (1933).

A. K. Fazlul Huq

Bengal

Moved the Lahore resolution.

C. Rajagopalachari

Congress

C. R. formula (1944).

H. S. Suhrawardy

Bengal

League premier from 1946.

Key terms8

Terms

Separate electorate
Constituencies where only voters of one community vote.
Weightage
More seats for a minority than its share of the population.
Shuddhi and sangathan
Reconversion and organisation campaigns of the 1920s.
Tabligh and tanzim
Muslim propagation and organisation campaigns in reply.
Fourteen Points
Jinnah's 1929 demands.
Pirpur Report
1938 League report on Congress ministries.
Lahore resolution
23 March 1940; the Pakistan resolution.
C. R. formula
1944 proposal for a post war plebiscite.

Maps are drawn on the Survey of India outline used across VidBodh; maps that leave the subcontinent use a world base with India shown as the Survey of India depicts it. Coloured glows show where a power held sway, a movement spread or tribute was collected; they are not borders.