The battle of Plassey
Daula to occupy the British factory at
The battle of Plassey was the most important
and decisive battle fought between the British
east India Company and Nawab of Bengal Siraj-
ud-Daula that took place on June 23, 1757. The
battle marks the inception of the English rule in
India. The company’s forces under the
command of Robert Clive won a landslide
victory over young Nawab’s forces establishing
a permanent sway over Bengal that expanded
over entire Indian sub-continent in next
hundred years. It was preceded by Nawab’s
taking possession of Calcutta in 1756 and the
notorious Black Hole incident. The battle was
fought during the Seven Years War and was a
mirror image of the European colonial rivalry
that was manifested in French sending help to
Nawab against the company. Whatever, the
numerical superiority of the Bengali forces fell
short of the well organized and better equipped
company’s forces. The company’s position was
further succored by the hacked conspiracies
with the nobility. Ultimate result was the
execution of Siraj-ud-Daula and installation of
Mir Jafar as puppet Nawab.
Alivardi khan having made Bengal an
independent state in 1741 adopted the policy of
strict neutrality towards the Europeans, both
English and French. He did not want to play in
their hands as they had been using their proxies
in the southern India to grind their axes. But the
friction between the company and the Nawab
was always there over the collection of duties
and the level of freedom in trade enjoyed by
the company. Alivardi khan died in 1756 and
was succeeded by his 19 year old adopted
grandson Siraj-ud-Daula. The young Nawab was
quite suspicious of the Europeans. That is why
he ordered both French and the English to stop
adding additional fortifications. The British
refused to abide by the orders that led Siraj-ud-
Cossimbazar and also Calcutta. There also took
place the incident of Black Hole that stirred the
British consciousness. The council at Madras
sent an expeditionary force under Robert Clive
to restore Calcutta that was recaptured on
January 2, 1757.
Clive desired to dislodge Nawab and replace
him with a puppet because only then the
English interests could be secured; Nawab’s
position was quite vulnerable owing to the
prevalent politics of conspiracies and intrigues
at the court. His commander in chief Mir Jafar
was not happy with him. One of his aunts
Ghaseti Begum was also looking for opportunity
to get rid of him. Clive found the environment
conducive, so conspired with the estranged
nobility. Heconcluded an agreement with Mir
Jafar promising him the post of Nawab to him in
return for his help against Siraj-ud-Daula. He
was a brother in law of Alivardi khan. Other
people who were involved in the conspiracy
were Rai Durlab, Nawab’s treasurer and
Jagatseth, the richest banker of Bengal.
Omichand was the person who brokered this
deal. Mir Jafar promised 175 lacs rupees and
also physical support to Robert Clive.
Having made all these arrangements, Clive sent
a letter to the Nawab alleging violation of the
terms of the treaty of Alinagar by providing
refuge to the French. He also declared his
intention to march on Murshidabad, the capital
of Bengal. The declaration of war was made on
June 14. Nawab had also become aware of the
conspiracy. He, therefore, attacked on Mir
Jafar’s palace and obtained his vow not to join
the English camp in the battlefield. He then
ordered the army to move towards Plassey that
reached there on June 21 after some delay. The
British also reached Plassey with 32000 soldiers
to encounter the huge army of Nawab
comprising of 50000 men. Mir Jafar who was
commanding 16000 men remained altogether
detached and did n. French had also sent a
small contingent of artillerymebut the French
artillery proved useless before the English
artillery. Despite all these adverse conditions
Nawab fought bravely and was slowly inching
towards victory when the sudden death of Mir
Mardan reversed the trend. It proved fatal for
his campaign. Mir Jafar also withdrew from his
camp. Upon this Siraj-ud-Daula acting upon the
advice of Rai Durlabh retreated to
Murshidabad. But he was caught on the way by
Miran, the son of Mir Jafar who executed him.
After this, Clive in accordance with the previous
agreement offered the throne of Bengal to Mir
Jafar. He pleased the company by paying a sum
of 50 lac rupees alongwith ceding to it 24
Parganas. The war and the associated results
sealed the French fate from Bengal. It proved to
be a decisive battle marking the initiation of
British rule in India from next 2 centuries.
Battle of Bauxer
The battle of Bauxer was a significant event in
the history of India that proved beyond any
doubt and was a demonstration of the British
military superiority over the Indians. It
strengthened the foundations of the company’s
rule in India that was laid by the battle of
Plassey. The battle of Bauxer was fought on
October 22, 1764 on the bank of river Ganges in
Bengal between the forces of the British East
India Company and the combined strength of
Mir Qasim, Nawab of Bengal, Nawab Shuja-ud-
Daula, Nawab of Oudh and Shah Alam, the
Mughal Emperor. However, the predominant
numerical superiority of the native forces
proved helpless and the British emerged
victorious.
The battle was primarily the outcome of the
existing tension between the company and Mir
Qasim. After the battle of Plassey the throne of
Bengal was handed over to Mir Jafar as earlier
agreed. In 1760 Mir Jafar was replaced by son in
law, Mir Qasim who handed over the districts of
Chittagong, Midnapor and Burdwan to the
company but at the same time tried his level
best to recover Bengal from the clutches of the
company and restore its independent status. He
did not appear ready to accept the company’s
suzerainty over him. Therefore he transferred
his capital from Murshidabad to Monghyr so
that he could act independently without
accepting any outside interference in the
running of administration. He also organized his
army on the European lines besides developing
the firearms. He was doing all this to overthrow
the authority of the company that brought him
on top of the enemy list of the company.
However, the crunch came when Mir Qasim
forbade all private trade. This was resented by
the company’s officials very much. The
company had been enjoying the right of free
trade under the imperial Farman of 1717. But
the same right was being misused by the
company’s officials by having their own private
trade under the same privilege. It was causing
enormous loss of revenues to the Nawab that
he cannot afford. So, he took drastic measures
and ordered his officials to capture all the boats
belonging to the English merchants despite the
fact they had Dastaks. The Nawab abolished
Dastak and thus brought the foreign traders at
par with the locals in terms of the privileges.
Besides, he undertook some other measures as
well to the detriment of the company’s
interests. He increased the number of custom
stations to check private trade. He increased
the number of soldiers at chaukies to stop
British boats. These measures resulted in great
financial loss to the company that also reacted
to foil these plans.
It was not liked by Mir Qasim. As a result a
quarrel started. A meeting was arranged in
1762 between Mir Qasim the governor of
Bengal but no bridging of gulf took place. The
company’s officials got infuriated. The English
agent at Patna occupied it provoking the wrath
of the Nawab who attacked Patna. But he had
to suffer three successive defeats in three
successive battles namely: Katwa, Gheria and
Udaynal. He fled to Oudh where he organized a
confederacy against the British along with Shah
Alam 2 and Shuja-ud-Daula. Behind him in
Bengal, the company once again enthrones Mir
Jafar to the throne of Bengal.
Shuja-ud-Daula wanted to destroy the British
influence in Bengal but never had enough
resources at his disposal to undertake this
venture of attacking the British settlements in
Bengal. Shah Alam had also retired to Oudh but
was ready to pay any cost for destroying the
British power in India. He was ready to afford all
available resources for this purpose. Now, they
united their horns against the company and
formed a confederacy to wage a war against the
company that was declared in 1764. Their
combined army met the British forces on
October 22, 1764 at Bauxer. The strength of the
British forces was 10000 while that of the
Muslim army was estimated to be around
40000. However, this huge army was defeated
owing to the absence of any coordination
among them. The British relied heavily on the
gun-shooting that became their trademark in
next two decades. As an outcome of the war,
British paramountancy was established. But
also the Diwani of Bihar, Bengal, and Orissa was
got by the British.
Nadir Shah’s Invasion
Nadir Shah’s invasion of India left the most
tumultuous and destructive mark on the
Mughal history of India. He invaded India in
1739. Nadir Shah known for his brutal and
inhumane behavior inflicted irretrievable
damage to Mughal rule. This invasion is marked
as one of the colossal calamities of the period.
The power of Mughals was declining at that
time and the central power had no control over
far flung provinces, which made foreign
invasions easy for the enemies of Mughal
rulers. Nadir shah became ruler of Persia when
Shah Tahmasp last ruler of Safwid dynasty died
in 1736. Since Nadir Shah belonged to Afshar
tribe of Khusrasan laid the foundation of
Afsharid dynasty when his rule as a king started
in Persia. Before Nadir Shah got ascended to the
thrown he captured and influenced many
regions near to Mughal and Safwid sphere of
influence. The diplomatic relations between
Mughal and Safwid empires started
deteriorating at the time Nadir Shah got
ascended to the throne. Mughal emperor
stopped exchange of ambassadors with Persian
court which was considered as a great insult by
Nadir Shah.
After Nadir Shah’s accession to the throne he
abandoned his conquests of Turks and Russians
and got interested in Mughal provinces of
Qandahar and Kabul. On 24th of March 1738 he
recovered Qandahar, and then he advanced
towards Ghazni and Kabul. Muhammad Shah
was ruling Delhi when Nadir shah started
advancing towards India; Mughal
administration was very meager and languid at
that time. Another event which compelled
Nadir Shah to invade India was that emperor of
India refused to return the fugitives who took
refuge in Mughal Empire. All of these things
were considered as insults so in order to take
revenge from Mughal authorities first of all he
attacked Lahore by crossing Indus River at point
of Attock. After capturing Lahore he started to
advance towards Delhi which was the centre of
Mughal power at that time.
The purpose of Nadir shah’s invasion is
composed of two dimensional aspects first is to
take revenge of insults inflicted by Mughals and
second because of his ambitions, he was told
about the wealth of India which excited him and
made him to attack India. On 16th February
1739 he reached Sarhind whereas in a response
to his invasions Muhammad shah reached
Karnal with 80,000 army men. He was first
offered an indemnity of 20 million rupees but
the internal enemies of Mughal government
told Nadir Shah not to accept this amount
because it was very low. After that he denied
and battle of Karnal was fought between Nadir
Shah and Mughal forces.
Battle took place on 24th of February 1739 it
lasted only for three hours because of weak
Mughal forces which were not able to stand
against massive force of Nadir Shah’s army.
After defeating Mughals convincingly on 12th of
March 1739 he entered Delhi. He was warmly
welcomed by Muhammad Shah who was
allowed to retain throne by consent of Nadir
shah. At that time conflict arose between
Persian soldiers and citizens of Delhi, this was
the time when the news of death of Nadir shah
also broke out. This thing caused death of many
Persian soldiers and when Nadir shah saw
bodies of Persian soldiers he ordered full
massacre of Delhi, which was then known as
notorious Qatal-e-am. He killed 20,000 to
30,000 citizens (men, women, and children) of
Delhi in about 6 hours. Whole city was
destroyed and made ruin by Persian army; it
was a demonstration of brutality and most
inhumane treatment ever witnessed by the
history of India. Similarly Delhi was looted and
plundered by Nadir shah and his army at that
level that after Nadir shah’s invasion and sack of
Delhi left Mughal Empire so weak and meager
that Mughals were not able to regain their
strength and fight against other enemies.
Third Battle of Panipat
Third battle of Panipat has great significance in
the history of south-Asia, this battle occurred in
the mid of 18th century. This battle was a
colossal defeat for the Marathas which is
unprecedented in Indian history. The time
period in which this battle was fought is of great
importance, because this is the time when sub-
continent was going through a transitional
phase. The course and history of south-Asia
changing, it was the time in which the glory of
Mughal Empire was about to fade away, other
powers in sub-continent were emerging in
order to replace the Mughal rulers. French,
British, Sikhs, Marathas and other independent
groups were rising to claim the throne which
was about to be vacated by Mughals due to
their inefficiency and apathetic behavior. Third
battle of Panipat occurred when the Mughal
Empire was disintegrating due to weakness of
central power many skirmishes, uprisings,
revolts, and battles took place at that time.
Panipat battle ground is of great importance
because three battles were fought there,
Panipat is 90 Km away from Delhi. This battle is
also of great importance that after this battle
colonial rule starts in Indian sub-continent.
Due to fragility of central authorities in sub-
continent, it was also subjected to foreign
invasions. Third battle of Panipat is a core
example of foreign invasion. Another factor
which brought this invasion was scuttling rule of
Muslims in India in response to the atrocities
made on Muslims by Marathas, Sikhs etc weak
Muslim rulers invited Abdali to save them. This
battle was fought between king of Afghanistan
named Ahmed Shah Abdali and Maratha forces
which were the main actors to scuttle the
Mughal rule and tried to take over the Mughal
crown. Ahmed shah invaded India many times;
Ahmed Shah invaded Punjab for the first time in
January 1748 then in 1750, 1751, 1753, 1756,
1757, 1758, and 1759. The third battle of
Panipat starts when Ahmed Shah Abdali invades
India in 1759. Afghan army enters India in 1759
in Karnal without any apparent resistance by
this time Marathas had captured Delhi. But
when Afghan forces gradually started to
approach towards centre skirmishes started
between Maratha and Afghan forces. This was
the time when both forces started making allies
and partners and perceived war as a final and
inevitable solution in the shape of Panipat
battle. Sikhs, Jatts, Rajputs, and Nawabs of
Oudh, Bengal, Mysore, etc were tried to win
over by both the sides. Since Marathas had
strained relations with almost all other groups
so it helped them very little in this regard,
whereas, Ahmad Shah won support of Shuja-
uddin- Duala, Rajputs, and Jatts.
The main factor which strengthened Afghans
was the support of Muslim rulers such as Najib-
ud-Daulah and Shuja-ud-Daulah. In 1760 Afghan
forces marched to Shahdara near Delhi river
Jumna divides both armies on each side.
Marathan army was led by Sadashiv Rao cousin
of Marathan Peshwa Balaji Bhaji Rao on the
other hand Afghan army was led by Ahmad
Shah Abdali. The course of battle starts on 27th
March 1760 when Marathan army begins its
advance from Deccan to reach Delhi and in
October they reached Delhi. This was the time
when small conflicts occurred between them.
On 23rd, 24rth October Afghans crossed Jumna
River and reached Bhagpat. On 26th October
Afghans drove Marathan forces to Panipat
ground. Ahmad Shah took his position 5 miles
south to Jumna River and created a complete
blockade of Marathan camps. Skirmishes
continued till November. Ahmad did not make
any advance on Marathan forces albeit it was
continuously advised by his allies to finish of the
enemy. Marathas wanted to make settlement
with Afghans but allies did not accept their
proposal.
Due to the failure of negotiations it made
Marathas desperate and they launched a
sudden offensive upon Afghan forces on 6th
January 1761. It was the day when conclusion of
this battle was drawn; Ahmad Shah kept his
nerves and composure and handled this sudden
attack professionally. Afghan forces responded
really well to the initial cannon attack inflicted
by Marathan forces. Initially Marathan forces
got edge due to their surprising attack and
movement but very quickly Afghan army led by
French trained general Gardi was able to
overpower them. Both the belligerents
possessed decent set of strengths Marathas got
robust artillery and Afghan got modern war
equipments so both forces seemed to be at par
with each other. Afghans begin to push
Marathas back very fiercely and enemy’s
defense started to collapse very fast. Marathas
faced wrath of Afghans and got slaughtered like
animals 40,000 Marathas were made prisoners
and colossal number of causalities occurred.
Sadashiv Rao was killed and Marathas faced a
complete defeat by Afghan invaders, which
paralyzed Marathan power for next 10 years.
Third battle of Panipat is a demonstration of
victory of invaders which could be capitalized by
the struggling Muslim rulers but unfortunately
they did not take this advantage.
Carnatic War (1745-1748)
The Carnatic Wars refers to a series of military
conflicts between the British East India
Company and French East India Company along
with the role played by the Nawab of Carnatic
and the Nizam of Hyderabad. Three wars were
fought between 1745 and 1763. The immediate
result of these wars was that struggle for power
in India between the French and the British was
over the French influence was doomed forever
and British were able to consolidate their
foothold in India.
Great Britain and France were the two main
European powers. Both had been looking for an
opportunity to outclass the other. The rivalry
was manifestly obvious in the colonial affairs
where the mercantile system was the main
driving force causing numerous commercial
wars in 18th century both powers were
contenders in Indian sub-continent as well
striving to maximize their influence at cost
curtailing the others. The French power was at
its climax during the governorship of Dupliex
(1742-54). However, towards the closing days of
his term, this power started dwindling and
evaporated completely by early 1760s.at the
same time, the British East India Company
established its stronghold gradually. The tug of
war between the sides in India witness practical
demonstration in Carnatic where three wars
were fought having intimate relationship with
the two great European wars – Austrian War of
Succession and the Seven Years War.
The First Carnatic War (1745-1748) was an off
shot of the Austrian War of Succession on
Indian front. It started with the English
capturing of the French ships that was
retaliated by the latter by taking over Madras.
The English requested help from Nawab of
Carnatic but he was bitterly defeated at the
hands of the French. But as the war in Europe
came to an end with the conclusion of the
Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle 1748 the First Carnatic
war also came to an end. English got back
Madras.
The road to the Second Carnatic war was
prepared by the death of Nizam-ul-Mulk that
was followed by a civil war of succession
between his son and grandson joined by other
stakeholders as well. This war of succession was
the Second Carnatic War.mir Ahmad Ali( Nasir
Jung), Nizam’s son and Muzzafar Jung, Nizam’s
grandson were the two contender to the throne
chanda sahib wanted to become the Nawab of
Arcot, so he also joined the war on the side of
Muzzafar Jung. They were joined by the French
as well. The French were altogether victorious
at the beginning. They were able to place their
nominees on the in control of the affairs. On the
other hand English had sided worth Nasir Jung
but they were humiliated. They were getting
desperate to take revenge. Robert Clive made a
successful bid in 1751 to recapture Arcot that,
however, paved the way for succeeding English
victories over French. They made Muhammad
Ali the Nawab of Carnatic. All French effort to
reverse the trend ended in fiasco. Dupliex was
recalled that sealed french fate in India. Treaty
of Pondicherry concluded the war .
muahammad Ali was recognised as the Nawab
of Carnatic but the French influence over Nizam
of Hyderabad was retained.
In 1756, there started the Third Carnatic War
started as the Seven Year War in Europe got
inception. The war went beyond south India to
Wandiwash Bengal. The French had to face
humiliation at a number of places. They were
defeated at Chandermangore in 1757, at in
1760 and lost Pondicherry in 1761. However,
the war came to an end with signing of the
treaty but of Paris. Pondicherry and
Chandermangore were returned to France their
influence in India was reduced to nothing. Their
ambition to establish an empire in India was
shattered. The success in Carnatic wars
enhanced British prestige and they were left
alone to decide the fate of the crumbling
Muslim rule in India.
Mysore War
Mysore was a small Hindu principality that had
maintained its independence ever since the
demise of the Vijaynagar kingdom. It, however,
remained relatively small and unimportant until
Hyder Ali came to the helm. When Carnatic was
having continuous wars, Bengal was facing
political instability, the circumstance were ripe
for Mysore to gain prominence. Hyder Ali was
born in 1721 in a small family who started his
military career in the army of Nanjaraj and
gained experience during Anglo-French wars.
Though Hyder Lai was illiterate, he was very
shrewd, determined, intelligent and courageous
as well as a good commander. He increased his
resources and in 1761 after overthrowing
Nanjaraj, he became unchallengeable ruler of
Mysore. Right from his accession to power, he
pursued an aggressive policy marked by
occupation of territories that made Mysore a
decisive power of India under Hyder Ali. But it
invited jealousy of English, Marathas and Nizam
who became enemies of Hyder Ali. They made
an alliance against him. However, defeat of
Marathas at the hands of Hyder Ali in 1766
punctured the alliance. Nizam also soon felt
compelled by the circumstances to give up the
alliance the company and became an ally of
Hyder Ali.
Nawab of Carnatic Muhammad Ali was an ally
of the company who had some outstanding
territorial disputes with Mysore. Hyder Ali and
Nizam jointly invaded Carnatic but the English
commander Smith came to rescue Muhammad
Ali who successfully checked the invaders in the
battles of Chargama and Tirnomali. These
defeats compelled Nizam to abandon Hyder Ali
and joined the English camp. Despite this
changing of horses by the Nizam, Hyder Ali
continued his victorious march and reached just
a few milies away from Madras which made the
British to sue for peace. A treaty was signed in
April 1769 that concluded First Mysore War.
Both sides returned the conquered territories
and British promised Hyder Ali help in case of
attack, though they never fulfilled this term.
British had long standing enmity with French. As
French decided to take revenge from British of
their defeat in Seven Years War and jumped
into the American War of Independence on the
side of the revolutionaries, British decided to
pack their luggage from India. They occupied
Mahe, a French settlement lying within the
Jurisdiction of Hyder Ali. Mahe was a seaport
that was very significant for Hyder Ali to
maintain contact with the outside world. Its
occupation was as signal from the company that
they were not in a friendly mood. Therefore,
Hyder Ali made alliance with Marathas and also
join Nizam’s organized confederacy. The war
began in 1780. At the very onset, Hyder Ali got
some success and became master of Carnatic in
a short span but then Warren Hasting started
reorganization and sent Sir Eyre Coote. The war
continued without any ultimate outcome.
Hyder Ali died in 1782 but his son Tipu Sultan
continued the war. French had also jumped into
the arena but when peace in Europe was
realized they withdrew from Mysore war as
well. However, the war went ahead for
sometime but ultimately it was concluded with
the Mangalore treaty in March 1784. Both sides
agreed to handover the conquered territories.
However, the treaty of Manglore proved a mere
truce. Tipu Sultan had allied himself with French
and when relation between England and France
plummeted in European continental affairs, war
in India also became imminent. So when Lord
Corniwallis, Governor General of India, acquired
Guntum and issued a list of allies which
excluded Tipu Sultan, war appeared not far
away. Tipu Sultan had smelt the war. Third
Mysor war erupted in December 1789 with his
invasion of Travancore. This war continued for
three years and finally came to an end in 1792
with signing of Treaty of Seringa Patam. The
treaty cost Tipu Sultan half of his kingdom
which was divided among Marathas, Nizam and
the Company. Tipu Sultan was also forcd to pay
heavy indemnity.
It was a humiliating treaty that was difficult for
Tipu Sultan to forget. He started reorganization
of his armed forces and fortification of the
capital along with securing alliance with France.
New Governor General made alliance with
Nizam and Marathas. He also demanded
submission of Tipu Sultan that was refused. It
resulted in the outbreak of the Fourth Mysore
war. Seringa Patam was besieged in May 1799
that ultimately ended with the death of Tipu
Sultan. His dominion came under occupation of
the British East India Company. Marathas and
Nizam also secured their share. The new
Maysore became a Company’s protectorate
that was to pay annual subsidy to the company.
With the fall of Mysore the last stumbling block
in the way of the consolidation of British Empire
in India was also removed.
Annexation of the Punjab
Raja Ranjit Singh established an independent
Sikh kingdom in Punjab. But after his death in
1839, the political turmoil and instability that
visited Lahore watered the British appetite to
expand into the Punjab. In the absence of any
capable leadership, a situation existed that was
highly vulnerable to interference from outside.
As a result, two Anglo-Sikh wars were fought
that sealed the fate of Sikh empire in the
Punjab. Though very patriotic but less
disciplined Sikh army could not withstand the
onslaught of the British, the Punjab fell into the
British hands and was annexed into the British
empire in India. This annexation was not an
isolated event but a sequel in the long chain of
events following the death of Raja Ranjit Singh.
It was, however, a demonstration of the
deliberate act of wanton aggression on part of
the British in India.
Marathas influence in the Punjab diminished to
a great extent with Ahmad Shah Abdali’s
invasions but those of Sikhs remained strong.
Punjab comprised of 36 areas of which 12 were
the Sikh principalities known as Misl. Ranjit
Singh united 22 under his rule while the rest
were recognized as the British protectorates. He
concluded the Treaty of Amritsar also known as
the Treaty of Perpetual Friendship in 1809 with
the company accepting their right beyond
Sutlej. However, after his death in 1839, the
political instability prevailed in the Punjab and
rapid change of governments was witnessed.
Therefore, the British started looking across the
river Sutlej irrespective of the fact that they had
signed the treaty accepting each other’s
spheres.
Ranjit Singh’s successors proved incapable to
handle the state affairs. His son Kharak Singh
was dethroned after a few months. His
successor Kanwar Nau Nihal Singh also could
not last long. In 1841, Sher Singh was installed
but by that time Khalsa , the Sikh army, had
ballooned and had also multiplied its influence.
Sher Singh could not go well with Khalsa. He
was murdered by an army officer. After that,
Jind Kaur, the youngest widow of Ranjit Singh,
became regent of her son Duleep Singh. Her
brother, Jawaher Singh, became Vazir but he
was also murdered in September during an
army parade. Jind Kaur vowed publically to take
revenge of her brother’s death.
These unstable conditions encouraged the
British to take advantage. They enhanced their
military presence on the other bank of Sutlej
and also annexed Sind in 1843. As the tension
grew, their diplomatic relations were also
broken. The company started moving towards
Ferozpur that was followed by Sikhs crossing
the Sutlej in December 1845. An encounter took
place at Ferozpur where the Sikh army was
routed completely though they demonstrated
great courage and bravery. The treaty of Lahore
was signed in March 1846. The Sikh had to
surrender huge territories and an indemnity of
15 mn rupees. Failing to pay this heavy amount
was to be compensated by cessation of Kashnir,
Hazara, and some other places between Indus
and Beas to the company. Daleep Singh was to
continue as the ruler of the Punjab and her
mother as the regent. However, at request of
the council the company officials signed
another treaty known as the Treaty of Bhyroval.
This treaty provided the maharani a pension of
150000 but she was to be replaced by a British
resident in Lahore aided by a Regency council.
This gave them an effective control over the
government.
Henery Lawerence became the resident but he
fell ill and left for London. He was replaced by
Sir Frederick Corrie. He adopted a stiff policy
because of which the relations turned quite
strained. As a result, the second Anglo-Sikh war
broke out. Sher Singh revolted at Multan on
September 14, 1848. The Sikhs repelled a British
attack in the battle of Ramnagar. The war
continued for sometime but the final battle
took place at Gujrat where the Sikhs were
utterly defeated and their power was razed to
ground. On March 30, Daleep Singh held his
court for the last time at Lahore at which he
signed away all claim to the rule of the Punjab.
In this way annexation of the Punjab was
accomplished.
Causes of War of Independence
There were many causes of the War of
Independence of 1857. They can be divided into
political, religious, military, economic and social
causes. The East India Company was aiming to
annex all the states of India like Avadh, Tanjore,
Jhansi, Satara, etc. That’s why they introduced
systems like Doctrine of Lapse by which Indian
states could be taken over by the Company in
case there was no male heir to the throne of
the state. This provoked the rulers like Nana
Sahib, the adopted son of Peshwa and Lakshmi
Bai, the Rani of Jhansi. The Company also
declared that after the death of the then
Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar, his family
had to move out of the Red Fort and his
successors were also forbidden to use the title
of emperor. All these attempts alienated both
Hindu and Muslim Indians who realized that the
White men were intending to devour their
lands.
The people of India at that time were highly
concerned about their religion and religious
rites. For them the most sacred thing was their
faith. But when they realized that the Company
was promoting Christianity in their land they
became furious. In fact the Christian
missionaries all over India were being
patronized by the British government and in
1855 the priests like E. Edmund professed that
the whole of India should be under one religion,
i.e., Christianity. Similarly the introduction of
some social laws added fuel to fire. For
instance, the English government banned Satti
(Hindu practice of burning the widow along
with the dead body of her husband), and
allowed the widows to remarry. Such
legislations badly hurt the feelings of Hindus. In
the military setup they introduced some
regulations that injured religious sentiments of
the Indians. For example, under the military
rules the Indian soldiers were forbidden to have
beards or wear turbans or put tilaks on their
foreheads. These regulations made Indians
realize that their faiths were in jeopardy.
Whenever the English annexed any state of
India into their domain they dismantled its army
and disemployed the local soldiers. Thus after
having been enslaved the second shock the
local soldiers had to bear was unemployment
that made them despise the foreign invader.
Besides, the English invariably maintained
discrimination between their soldiers and the
Indian soldiers in respect of salaries and fringe
benefits with the result that the disheartened
soldiers made up their minds to fight against
the English.
There were economic causes as well. During the
rule of the Mughals, not only the Muslims but
also the Hindus would be appointed on all
important positions but by the English the
Muslims and the Hindus both were deemed as
untrustworthy and consequently all the higher
posts were held by the White men. The natives
were either turned jobless or appointed on
lower levels of the state departments. The East
India Company that was eager to amass wealth
out of the trade considered India no more than
a field of producing raw materials for the
industries of England. The subsidiary system
with additional taxes even on uncultivated lands
added fuel to the fire and economically
devastated the common Indians.
In addition to these reasons there was an
immediate cause that coerced the Indians to go
for war. In the words of Lord Canning, Lawrence
and Syed Ahmed Khan it was, indeed, the most
significant cause. For a new Enfield rifle
introduced in the early period of 1857 the
cartridges were covered with some animal fat
that was supposed to be either of cow or a
boar. Before using these cartridges they were to
be cut by teeth. Since the cows were sacred for
the Hindus and pigs were haram for the
Muslims both of them refused to carry such
rifles. But their English officers used force that
offended the Hindus and Muslims alike and thus
all these causes instigated the war in India to
which we call the War of Independence 1857.
War Of Independence (1857)
The War of Independence is an important
landmark in the history of Sub-Continent. This
War was fought in 1857 by Indians against the
British in order to get rid of their domination. It
is also given names as Indian Rebellion, Indian
Mutiny as well as Indian Revolt. The main
causes of the War were political, social,
economical, military and religious. It was an
extreme effort made by Indians, but they failed
due to certain reasons including mutual
jealousies, disunity, and lack of central
leadership etc.
This war was not spread throughout India but it
was limited to few areas mainly Meerut, Delhi,
Kanpur, Lucknow etc. The main event which
became the immediate cause of the war was
the refusal of the Sepoys to use the grease
covered cartridges (greased with fat of pig and
cow) on January 23, 1857. At the same time, an
Indian sepoy killed two British officers at
Barrackpore, when he was forced to use
greased cartridges. He was arrested and hanged
to death on April 8, 1857. This news spread as
fast as jungle fire.
Meerut
On 6th May, 1857 A.D. 85 out of 90 Indian
soldiers at Meerut refused to bite the greased
cartridges with their teeth. These 85 soldiers
were court-martialled and imprisoned for 10
years. They were stripped off their uniforms in
the presence of the entire Indian crowd. It was
too much of a disgrace and this incident sent a
wave of indignation. On 10th May 1857, the
Indian soldiers at Meerut broke into open
revolt. They released their companions and
murdered a few European officers. On the night
of 10th May the mutineers marched to Delhi
and reached there on 11th May.
Delhi
The revolutionaries reached from Meerut to
Delhi on 11th May, 1857 and the small British
garrison at Delhi was not able to resist and
consequently fell into their hands within 2 days.
The Mughal Emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar, was
proclaimed Emperor of India. In order to regain
Delhi, Sir John Lawrence sent a strong British
force commanded by John Nicholson. After a
long siege of four months, the British recovered
Delhi in September 1857 A.D. The Mughal
Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar was captured, his
two sons and a grandson were shot dead before
his eyes and he was sent to Rangoon where he
died in the year 1862 A. D.
Kanpur
At Kanpur the struggle for Independence was
led by Nana Sahib Dondu Pant (The adopted son
of Peshwa Baji Rao II). A number of British fell
into his hands and he showed great kindness to
them. But when he heard about inhuman
attitude of Gen. O’Neil towards Indians, he
became very furious and killed all the British.
General Havelock captured Kanpur after
defeating Nana Sahib in a hotly contested battle
on June 17, 1857. Later on Nana Sahib, with the
help of Tantya Topi, recaptured Kanpur in
November, 1857 but not for a long time and
British defeated them once again in a fierce war
from December 1 to 6, 1857. Nana Sahib fled
towards Nepal, where he probably died, while
Tantya Tope migrated to Kalpi.
Lucknow
The struggle for independence at Lucknow was
led by Nawab, Wajid Ali Shah. The Chief
Commissioner, Sir Henry Lawrence, sought
refuge with 1000 English and 700 Indian
soldiers inside the Residency. The Indians did
not make any concession and killed most of the
Englishmen, including Sir Henry Lawrence and
the notorious English General O’Neil. At last,
the Commander-in-Chief General Collin
Campbell, marched towards Lucknow and
captured it after a fierce battle in March 1858.
Jhansi and Gwalior
The leader of the revolutionaries in Central
India was Rani Laxmi Bai of Jhansi. General Sir
Huge Rose attacked Jhansi in March 1858 but
the brave Rani Laxmi Bai kept the British
General unnerved for quite some time. She with
the help of Tantya Tope created problems for
the British troops. Both fought many successful
battles against the British. A fierce battle was
fought between the British and the
revolutionaries under Rani Laxmi Bai and Tantya
Tope from June 11 to June 1 8, 1 858 A. D. But
the personal velour of Rani and Tantya Tope
could not match the resources at the command
of the British. Tantya Tope was betrayed by the
Gwalior Chief Man Singh and fell into the hands
of the British. He was subsequently hanged on
April 18, 1859.
Bihar
In Bihar, the Revolt was led by Kunwar Singh, a
zamindar of Jagdishpur. Though he was eighty
years old, he played a prominent part in the
revolt. He fought the British in Bihar and then
joined Nana Sahib’s forces and took part in
various encounters with the English in Oudh
and Central India. He died on April 27, 1858,
leaving behind a glorious record of valour and
bravery.
Conclusion
Most of the European historians have pointed
out that it was a revolt of Indian soldiers who
were offended at the use of greased cartridges.
In their opinion, the discontented sepoys were
incited by the landlords and the deposed native
princes and the people of India were not
directly involved in this rebellion. They further
assert that it was not a national war of
independence, in as much as the revolt was
confined to a particular region and not to the
whole of India; large areas like the Punjab, Sind
and Rajputana remained unaffected. It was
admittedly a great and courageous effort by
patriotic Indians to get rid of the foreign
domination. It was a glorious landmark in our
history in as much as Hindus and Muslims
fought shoulder to shoulder to win back their
lost independence. One cannot but admire the
patriotic spirit of boatmen of Lucknow who
refused to carry British soldiers across the river.
The sepoys and the people fought gallantly up
to the very end. Though the revolt was
unsuccessful, the spirit of the people remained
unshaken. The revolt left an impression on the
minds of the Indian people and thus paved the
way for the rise of a strong national movement.
Causes of the Failure of the War of
Independence
The majority of the Indian nationals fought
bravely against the rule of the foreigner but
failed in their bold attempts to overthrow the
British Raj. The causes of this failure are many
but the important ones are discussed as below.
The foremost cause was the sudden start of the
war in confusion, without any preparation or
proper planning. Secondly since there was an
extreme lack of communication and
coordination among various groups of freedom
fighters who started their uprising according to
their own wishes, it became easy for the English
troops to curb the revolt of different areas on
by one.
Thirdly there was no experienced leader among
them to lead the Indian soldiers. They had
declared Mughal Emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar,
their leader but instead of warfare he was
devoted to poetry and was too old and
incompetent to lead the revolutionaries. The
British troops, on the other hand, were
endowed with extremely competent generals
like Edwards and Lawrence.
Fourthly, English troops were modern and
strikingly advanced not only in warfare but also
in new ways of swift and speedy
communication. They did not have to cross long
roads and grounds to deliver a message or
order but could simply wire it with a few
minutes. The Indians on the other hand were
devoid of such means. That’s why they utterly
fell behind and got defeated.
Fifthly, the English had full command on waters
due to their advanced navy they got
enforcement from their Crimean fronts to
counter Indian aggression without any delay.
Being equipped with modern weapons
especially Enfield rifles they could hunt down
Indians who were still fighting with their sticks,
swords and daggers to fight their highly
powerful opponents.
The economic conditions of Indian troops also
entailed an obvious cause of their defeat. On
the one hand the war started out of
awkwardness, mismanagement and lack of
planning and even the emperor was practically
penniless who was asking for loans from Delhi
landlords but they were determined to save
their money, not their freedom. The British
troops, on the other hand, had been wealthy
because the prosperous regions of India were
totally under their control.
Another major reason was the treachery of
Sikhs who had been grudgingly fighting against
Muslims for a long time. The East India
Company took advantage of their feeling of
antipathy and aroused them towards their own
countrymen. Sikh states like Patiyala and Jind
helped the English troops in crushing the native
disturbance in Punjab. In the North-West
Frontier Province there were certain feudal
lords like the Wali of Swat displayed their
allegiance to the alien rulers. Even in the Indian
army there were some traitors like Moulvi Rajab
Ali and Mirza Elahi Baksh who were honored
and awarded with affluence for providing
information to he Crown about whereabouts of
the Indian Emperor.
Aftermath of the War of
Independence
The aftermath of the war of independence, The
Indians suffered a disappointing and
discouraging defeat while a glorious victory for
the White men prolonged their rule. For the
subjugated Indians repercussions were rather
more severe. The Mughal rule came to an end
with the dethroning of the last Mughal Emperor
Bahadur Shah Zafar. He was arrested during the
course of the war and sent to Rangoon, Burma
where he was sentenced to life imprisonment.
His family members including twenty-four
princes were nastily executed by the soldiers of
the East India Company. The second upshot was
windup of the control and command of the East
Indian Company in India. The British Charter of
1852 stated that the government of India was
entrusted to the Company by the English crown.
And since the war had left the impression that
the Company was no longer capable of keeping
it safe, the government of India was personally
taken over by the Queen of England who would
appoint a Viceroy in India to represent the
crown. The Board of Directors and the Board of
Control of the Company were dissolved and
instead a council of fifteen members was
appointed with Secretary of State for India as its
head.
Another point the crown had realized was the
obvious mistrust between the Company and the
local landlords. The unlawful and corrupt nineteenth century India witnessed the rise of
activities of the Company in capturing all the nationalism giving rise to two-nation theory
land of India and its resources had enraged the that ultimately resulted in the partition of India
lords of India who collaborated with the and creation of Pakistan.
revolutionaries. Thus contrary to the policy of
the East India Company the crown tried to Aligarh Movement
develop a relationship of trust and confidence
During the second half of the 19th century
with the Indian masses. It was assured that
Muslim history of the Sub-continent, Aligarh
England was no longer interested in capturing
Movement is very famous. It was primarily just
the Indian land anymore and that in the future
an educational movement but its other
all the agreements singed with the Indian lords
contributions for the Muslims of India cannot
would be duly acknowledged. The heirless
be denied. It started with the efforts of Sir Syed
rulers were also given free hand to adopt males
Ahmed Khan who was not only its founder but
as their successors. The motive was to
its heart and soul. And the contributions of
eventually gain their trust and support.
Aligarh Movement were closely linked with the
The crown believed that primarily the Muslims activities of Sir Syed.
had initiated the revolt against the British rule.
Sir Syed Ahmed Khan being the member of the
For that reason they put all the blame on the
British government in India was aware that the
Indian Muslims and took most of the revenge
Muslims were termed the prime instigator of
from them. Most of the Muslims in the
the War of Independence 1857. In that situation
government services were dismissed. Except
it would be unwise for the Muslims to play
the betrayers all the Muslims were ruthlessly
politics. He believed that only with the gaining
looted and killed. The aim was to divest the
of the modern western education could the
Muslim community of their political rights. The
Muslims of India survive the wrath of their
Muslims in repulsion also utterly disgusted the
English masters. Thus in order to help his fellow
British and rejected not only the White people
Muslims he tried to put their concentration on
but also all the new things that were introduced
modern education and for that reason in 1875
by them. In the long run that proved to be a
at Aligarh he laid the foundations of
devastating trend that made the Muslims
Mohammadan Anglo-Oriental School that later
absolutely depressing, desolate and dismal
became a college in 1877. But since the
community mainly because they kept
formation of a college was not enough for the
themselves quite aloof from the modern
Muslims of the whole of the Sub-continent, Sir
education and thus remained awkwardly
Syed founded Mohammadan Educational
uneducated and unfortunately backward. The
Conference in 1886. Meetings of this
Hindus on the other hand joined hands with the
conference were held in different cities but in
new government and became well-educated
these meetings different issues regarding
and prosperous. This also caused a permanent
Muslims were also discussed along with the
rift in the Hindu-Muslim unity since the Muslims
educational ones.
thought that although Hindus fought with them
but it was only the Muslims who were paying At the start of its career the Aligarh Movement
the price. Eventually the second half of the was inclined towards the British government
because its intentions were to keep good
relations between the Muslims and the White
men for according to Sir Syed it was beneficial
for the Muslims. For the same reason he
appointed the English on significant positions.
But with the passage of time this influence
started to decrease. As a result of this
movement and with the policy of Sir Syed a
group of people appeared, educated at Aligarh,
who seemed faithful to the English government
in India and thus the English in return started
adopting positive attitude towards the Indian
Muslims and supported their efforts,
educational in particular.
Being the protagonist Muslim school of modern
education, Aligarh inspired many other
institutions in India. The connection with the
modern world and modern learning led to many
benefits for the Muslims of India. The modern
educated Muslims now had the eligibility to
apply to all sorts of governmental jobs even ICS
and being educated and well aware of their
social and political rights now the Muslims
started demanding for due share in
employment along with other communities of
India. The resulting inclusion in jobs led to their
financial improvement and now the Muslim
trading companies started emerging and
developing along with their Hindu counterparts.
One of the major contributions of Aligarh
Movement was the defense of Urdu language.
Urdu emerged as a full fledged language during
the rule of the Muslims in India and it had all
the effects of Islam and Islamic history. Thus it
was the representative of Muslims and Hindus
tried to replace it with their own Hindi
language. During the lifetime of Sir Syed and
even after his death his successors from the
Aligarh platform tried to counter the anti-Urdu
aggression and they remained successful in
keeping Urdu alive.
It is said that Aligarh Movement also promoted
and spread the Two-Nation Theory. During the
course of the Urdu-Hindi controversy, Sir Syed
had realized that it would no longer be possible
for the Muslims to keep themselves united with
their Hindu Indians and thus he changed his
policy and primarily focused on Muslim Indians.
His successors followed this attitude. The credit
goes to the formation of Simla Deputation in
1906 and the foundation of All India Muslim
League later in the same year also rests with the
Aligarh Movement. As we all know that the
AIML was the cause of the formation of
Pakistan and the division of India, we can say
that Pakistan owes its freedom to Aligarh
Movement. Similarly leading freedom fighters
like Mohammad Ali Johar, Maulana Zafar Ali
Khan and Maulana Shaukat Ali etc. were old
students of Aligarh. The then students of
Aligarh formed All Indian Muslim Students
Federation to unite Muslims under the AIML’s
flag. Aligarh also played the major role in
organizing Pakistan conferences in India. The
Ailgarh Old Boys Association spread the Muslim
League message of independence in the
provinces of North-West and Baluchistan. So
the little high school founded in 1875 at Aligarh
by Sir Syed Ahmed Khan became a full fledged
movement and led to the formation of an
independent state on the map of the world.
Government of India Act 1858
The War of Independence 1857 was an event of
great importance in the history of the Indian
sub-continent. After this war the British policy
towards Indians changed drastically, especially
as far as constitutional development was
concerned. For the purpose of addressing the
grievances of the Indian population a new Act
was introduced in India by the Crown in 1858.
The Act was passed by the British Parliament on
2nd August 1858. The main Provisions of the
Act of 1858 were as follows:
1. The rule of British East India Company was
abolished and the Government of India was
directly taken over by the Crown with Queen
Victoria as the supreme monarch.
2. The Crown was empowered to appoint a
Governor-General and the Governors of the
Presidencies.
3. The Court of Directors and the Board of
Control were abolished and their place was
taken over by the Secretary of State for Indian
Affairs and the India Council.
4. Extensive powers were given to the Secretary
of State for Indian Affairs and the Indian Council
consisted of 15 members. The Council was
made to assist him but only had an advisory
role.
5. The people of India were promised their
rights by Queen Victoria under this Act.
Complete freedom of religion was ensured and
gradual participation in the administration of
the country was also proclaimed.
6. Pardon was given to all the Indians except
those who had killed British people.
The Act said that the princes of the states could
retain their former status and all agreements
with the princes will be honoured.
7. Doctrine of Lapse was discarded under this
Act.
According to this Act the Secretary of State for
Indian Affairs was given extensive powers. He
was not answerable to anyone. He could do
whatever he wants to do. Neither Parliament
nor Indian Council could bind him for taking any
action; both of these institutions were not given
the power to put limits on his extensive powers.
Moreover the promises that were made by
Queen Victoria were never fulfilled by her. The
Indian people were not given their due rights
that were promised to them under this Act.
Government of India Act 1861
The Indian Councils Act 1861 was introduced
because the British Government wanted to
involve the Indian people with the process of
law making. This Act was passed on 1st August
1861. Its main provisions were as under:
1. The Executive Council of the Governor
General was extended. It was decided the
members of his council should not be less than
6 and no more than 12 in number. These
members were called the Additional Members
of the Executive Council, and were not given
any significant power with regards to
legislation.
2. Governor General was empowered to
nominate the Additional Members for a period
of 2 years and half of the members must be
non-official.
3. It was decided that from now Commander-in-
chief would be appointed as an extraordinary
member of the Executive Council.
4. Any bill and regulation passed by the
Provincial Council could not become law until
and unless Governors and the Governor
General gave their assent for the bill and
regulation.
Under this Act the Governor General was
empowered to issue ordinances.
5. Limited powers of legislation were given to
the Presidencies of Bengal and Madras and the
Governor General was empowered to create
similar councils for the provinces of Frontier
and the Punjab.
The biggest drawback of the Act was regarding
the selection and the role of the Additional
Members. These members did not take part in
the discussions and their role was only advisory.
The non-official members of the Executive
Council were not interested in attending the
meetings of the Council, moreover, under this
Act they were not bound to attend them either.
The Indian members were not eligible to
oppose any bill and most often the bills were
passed in one sitting without discussion.
Urdu-Hindi Controversy (1867)
The Urdu language was born in India. India was
considered to be a golden sparrow in terms of
its fertile land and man power. That’s why lots
of invaders came to occupy it for different
purposes. It so happened that when these
different people from different regions of the
world came to India they brought with them,
among other things, their language as well.
People like Arabs, Persians and Turks etc. when
mingled with the native people they exchanged
many words of their languages and thus with
this mingling, a new language emerged which
was termed Urdu, meaning the “language of the
troops.” Since it was formed by the invaders of
the Muslim world and emerged during the rule
of the Mughals in India, it was termed as the
language of the Muslims and that is why initially
it was called Musalmani.
But there were not only Muslims that spoke or
used Urdu but all the communities in India
joined hands for the promulgation and
development of that new language. It was not
only used as an everyday language but a large
number of literary works appeared in Urdu in all
the regions of the sub-continent primarily
Deccan, Lucknow, Maisur, Delhi etc. Thus,
almost the whole of India contributed to the
flourishing of Urdu. Due to these combined
efforts when in 1837, Persian was replaced by
Urdu as the court and state language, no one
objected to that.
With the fall of the Mughal Empire, Hindus,
however, started looking at Urdu as the
language of the invaders. The British on the
other hand, in their disregard for Muslims
adopted the same attitude. Thus both
intentionally started their efforts in order to get
rid of the language of the Muslims. In this
regard names of Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Raja
Shiv Parshad, Lakshman Singh, Haresh Chandra
and Binkam Chatterji etc. among many others
are well known. The first effort was made at the
start of the nineteenth century when a new
language was formed with the name Hindi in
which words of pure Arabic, Persian and Turkish
were removed and replaced by Sanskrit words.
In that regard in 1809 a Hindu wrote a novel in
that very Hindi with the title “Prem Sagar” but
since it was not a full fledged effort, soon that
language went into oblivion. However, after the
War of Independence 1857 when the British
Crown’s wrath fell upon the Muslims, the
Hindus considered it to be a ripe moment to get
rid of Urdu and replace it with their own
language – Hindi.
The combined organized effort started in the
second half of the nineteenth century. In 1867
the Hindus of Banaras presented a request to
their government regarding the replacement of
Urdu with Hindi and its Persian script with that
of Devnagri script. Sir Syed Ahmed Khan at that
demand remarked that when even the language
of a nation is not safe at the hands of other
nations in a region, it would be unwise to
continue living with them. So Sir Syed, who was
in fact a great advocate of Hindu-Muslim unity
prior to that incident, started focusing on the
cause of Muslims alone. His Scientific Society
Gazette presented articles on the importance of
Urdu. Similarly, some Muslim newspapers like
Noor-ul-Absar and Banaras Gazette also took
the responsibility to safeguard their language.
The anti-Urdu process continued when in 1871
the Lt. Governor of Bengal G. Cambell banned
Urdu in the province at all levels, courts,
administration and even schools. This boosted
up Hindus in other regions like NWFP, Punjab,
Behar, U.P, Sindh, and Oudh etc. to counter
Urdu there. Meetings were held of the Hindus
in which thousands of them signed memorials
supporting the cause of elimination of Urdu. In
1882 during the visit of Hunter Commission, a
commission formed by the English government
to analyze the spread of modern English
education in India, Hindu organizations again
tried to attack Urdu. They held meetings with its
chairman, Dr. Hunter and tried to force him to
admit Urdu as the foreign language and to
promulgate Hindi, the native language, for
educational purposes. But in this mission they
remained unsuccessful due to the constant
efforts of Sir Syed and his comrads.
The circumstances became even more hard for
the Muslims and their language when Anthony
MacDonnel became the governor of UP in 1900.
He was a pro-Hindu and thus anti-Muslim. So
after becoming the governor he dismissed Urdu
as the official language of UP, which was in fact
considered to be the home of Urdu language.
He issued orders and declared Hindi the official
language of the province. Sir Syed’s successors
at Aligarh, mainly Nawab Mohsin-ul-Mulk, the
then Secretary of the Aligarh Trust, took action
against MacDonnel’s act. He called for a popular
gathering of the supporters of Urdu at Aligarh
and openly condemned governor’s work. He
also founded Urdu Defense Association and it
was decided that the association would take
actions against the doings of the governor. At
that MacDonnel got angry and threatened
Mohsin-ul-Mulk that if he’ll continue his
aggression against the doings of the
government MacDonnel will see to it that
Aligarh would cease to get government grants.
As the grants were necessary for the institution
and Mohsin-ul-Mulk could not part himself from
the defense of Urdu, in order to save
AligarhCollege he resigned. But since he was
dearly beloved to all of his colleagues and
students he was forced to take back his
resignation. But that did not stop him from
defending Urdu and continued his efforts. The
result of this Muslim response Urdu too along
with Hindi was declared the official language of
the province. But Mohsin-ul-Mulk was not
satisfied with this outcome and continued his
struggle. When UP got rid of MacDonnel, he
founded another association called Anjuman-e-
Tarraqi-e-Urdu to counter all future attempts of
the Hindus and the English against Urdu.
This love and passion for Urdu by the Muslims
of India inclined the founders of Pakistan to
adopt her as the national language of the new
born country. They believed that it was a sign of
the Muslim unity, the representation of
Muslims as an independent nation, among
millions of people of India.
Aligarh Movement
As we know that, after the war of independence
the condition of the Muslims of India were very
miserable as the British fell more on the
Muslims than on Hindus. They considered that
Muslims were responsible for all the wrongs
and the war held just because of their harsh
and rude behavior. After 1857, the Muslims
emerged as a backward nation; they were
illiterate and hopelessly ignorant in every walk
of life. They were deprived of their basic rights
and were neglected in every sphere of life.
Nevertheless, they were economically,
politically, socially and to be more exact
religiously made the subject of ruthless
punishment. They were helpless before the
British and their combine lobby with Hindus; so,
in these conditions they neither trusted Hindus
nor British, who spared no effort to tortured
Muslims.
In such conditions, Sir Syed Ahmad Khan came
forward and tried to help the Muslims come out
from such deplorable and miserable conditions.
He guided the Muslims towards the right path
and attempted to draw out the Muslims from
such helpless condition. He started a movement
in order to give respectable position to Muslims
in society as they had in past, this movement is
known as Aligarh Movement. The main focus of
the Aligarh movement was:
Loyalty to British Government.
Modern western education for the Muslims to
compete with Hindus.
To keep away the Muslims from politics.
Sir Syed realized that this miserable and
deplorable condition of Muslims was due to the
lack of modern education. He believed that the
cure of every problem of Muslims was the
modern education. Therefore, he commenced
an educational program in order to uplift the
deprived and disappointed Muslims, who had
lost their past glory. He took concrete steps for
his education plan. Thus, in 1859, Sir Syed
Ahmad Khan set up a school for Muslims in
Muradabad where English, Persian, Islamiat,
Arabic, Urdu were compulsory subjects. In
1862, Sir Syed was transferred from Muradabad
to Ghazipur where he established another
school for Muslims, which was known as
Madrass Ghazipur. Here, also the English,
Arabic, Persian, Urdu and Islamyat were
compulsory subjects.
In 1864, Sir Syed Ahmad Khan laid the
foundation of a scientific society at Ghazipur.
The purpose of this society was to translate the
English books into Urdu language. But, later on,
in 1866, after his transfer to Aligarh, the main
office of the scientific society was also
transferred to Aligarh. In 1866, the scientific
society issued a journal named as Aligarh
Institute Gazette. This journal was published
both in Urdu and English languages. The aim of
this journal was to wash away the
misconception between Muslims and British
government and brought them close to each
other.
In order to closely watch the educational
system of England, Sir Syed Ahmad Khan
accompanied his son Syed Mehmud, visited
England in 1869 and stayed there for seventeen
months studying English educational
institutions like Oxford and Cambridge
University. Later, after his return to India, he set
up a committee known as “Committee Striving
for Educational Progress of Muslims”. Under
this committee another committee was
established named as “Fund Committee for the
establishment of a Muslim College” and Sir Syed
was selected the secretary of the both
committees. For this purpose, Sir Syed toured
across the country and collected funds for the
establishment of college. The committee
decided first for the forming of school as a
model to the people and later to found the
college. Hence, in 1875, Sir Syed established
Mohammedan Anglo Oriental School at Aligarh.
In 1877, the school was upgraded to the level of
college which was inaugurated by Lord Lytton.
The main characteristic of this college was that
it offered both Western and Eastern educations.
Later on, this college was raised to the level of
university, after the death of Sir Syed in 1920.
In 1886, Sir Syed set up an organization which is
known as Mohammedan Educational
Conference, which presented a twelve point
programme in western and religious education
in English and other languages. It aim was to
convey the message of education to the Muslim
masses. The Conference held its sessions at
different towns of the country to know about
the educational problems and then tried to
solve them. The conference in its meeting
discussed the modern techniques for the
development and improvement of the standard
of the education.
In 1866, Sir Syed established British India
Association at Aligarh. The main purpose of this
organization was to express the grievances and
point of view of Indians to the British
parliament. He also wrote “Loyal
Muhammadans of India” in which he recorded a
detailed account of the loyal services of the
Muslims which they rendered to the British
rulers. In 1870, Sir Syed, after his return from
England, setup an organization known as
“Anjuman-i-Taraqi-i-Muslamanan-i-Hind” in
order to impart modern education to the
Muslims of India.
Sir Syed wrote the philosophical commentary
on Bible named as “Tabaeen-al-Kalam.” In this
commentary Sir Syed draw out the similarities
found between Islam and Chirstianity. He also
wrote “Essay on the life of Muhammad” on the
response to “Life of Muhammad”, written by
William Muir, in which he had criticized the
Holy Prophet. Sir Syed also wrote “Anjuman-i-
Tariki-i-Urdu” for the protection of Urdu. Sir
Syed published another influential magazine
named as “Tahzib-ul-Akhlaaq” in which he
discussed the Muslim society by criticizing the
conservative way of living and emphasized on
the new modern way of life.
Sir Syed, although, was the first Muslim
member of Central Legislative Council, but he
advised the Muslims to remain apart from
politics unless and until they would get
education. He believed that the cure of Muslim
problems is only education and unless and until
Muslims get education, they will remain
backward in every sphere of life. Thus, Sir Syed
did his best, through the Aligarh movement, for
the Muslim cause, and took the support of
British by showing loyalty to them and also
aloof the Muslims from the Indian National
Congress.
Dar-ul-Uloom Deoband
Background:
When the Mughals decline started the east
India Company emerge as the new political
power in India. An active campaign of Christian
missionaries was developing a serious threat to
Islam in India and lastly the western education
with the patronage of the government had
completely ignored the Islamic learnings they
want to Christianize the whole sub-continent
expressing this desire, Mangles, come over the
chairman of the board of the director once
stated in the house of commons in 1857,
“providence has bestowed upon us the empire
of India so that the banner of Christ showed
wave triumphant from one end of India to the
other1. The missionaries made every possible
effort to spread Christianity. In case, a region
was hit by famine. The orphans were admitted
into orphanage where they were forcibly
converted to Christianity. Such incidents were
witnessed in the orphanages of Sikandara
during the famine of 1837 2. These intervention
in religious affairs compelled the Muslims to
made a madrasa where the basic of religion to
be taught.
Introduction:
The day of Thursday 15th of muharram, A.H
1283 (may 30, 1886) blessed and auspicious day
in Islamic history of India when the prominent
Islamic Ulama headed by Maulana Muhammad
Qasim Nanotvi, maulana Rashid ahmed Gangohi
and Haji Muhammad Hussain Abid. Basically
this idea was given by Haji Muhammad Hussain
Abid, which brought the today’s most
renowned religious and academic center in the
Islam[i]ic world. In sub continent it is the largest
institution for the dissemination and
propagation of Islam and the biggest head
spring of education in Islamic sciences, known
as “Manqulat” to the Muslims according to the
Hanafi School of Islamic jurisprudence. At that
time it was simply called the “Islamic –Arabic
Madrasa” and soon came to be known
throughout the world as “ummul-madaris”
means the mother of Madrasas.
The seminary was wholly dependent on public
contributions mostly in the form of annual
pledges, not on fixed holdings of “waqf”. The
first teacher and the first pupil, in coincidence
deemed auspicious, were both named
Mahmud; Maulana Mahmud the teacher and
Mahmud Hassan the pupil, who later to become
the school most famous teacher 3. Deoband
also participated in local politics and made
Jamiat ulama e hind. Later it was divided into
two parts (1) jamiat ulama e hind (2) Jamiat
ulama e Islam . Jamiat ulama e hind led by
Sheikh ul hadees of deoband maulana Hassan
Ahmed Madani and some other deobandi
scholars had opposed the creation of Pakistan,
on the religion basis by the demand of muslim
league although the real reason of their
opposition was the desire to Islamize all India.
They saw nothing Islamic in the idea of Pakistan.
Interestingly, when inaugurating Pakistan’s
constituent assembly, Jinnah proclaimed
Pakistan’s secular ideologies, he was voicing the
established the secular ideological position that
Muslim league had adhered to throughout its
career 4. Maulana Muhammad Yaqoob was the
first principle of this institution that was hired.
The man who made this small Madrasa as a big
one, was Maulana Qasim Nanotvi, when he
became the part of this seminary, he instituted
modern methods of fixed and carefully
curriculum, teaching in classrooms, exam
periods and publishing press. Different faculties
recognized as leaders in their fields to share
their lectures. Medium languages were Arabic
and Urdu. The faculty instructed the student
primarily in Urdu. The students were also
taught books binding, shoe-making, and
tailoring etc to earn in practical life. Maulana
Mahmud Hassan graduated from Madrasa, later
on he joined the Madrasa for teaching purposes
and then became principal of the Madrasa. He
served this institution for twenty three years. In
which he contributed a lot to the institution. In
his tenure the foreigners joined Daroo ulom for
studying. The followers of this school of
theology often described as followers of the
Deobandi school of thought.
In 1893, Daroul Iftah was established under the
supervision of mufti Aziz Ur Rehman to provide
religious, social and economical guidance to the
Muslims. Its main work was translation of
Quran,one translation was done by Mahmud
Hassan.
Pattern of Education
Deoband’s curriculum is based on 17th century
Indo-Islamic syllabus known as Darse nizami.
The core curriculum teaches Islamic law
( Shariah), Islamic jurisprudence( Fiqah),
traditional Islamic spirituality( tasawuf).
The current syllabus consists of four stages, the
first three stages can be completed in a total of
eight years, and the final stage is post graduate
stage where students specialize in a number of
advanced topics, such as the sciences of
hadees, fiqah and so on.
Aims and objectives:
Providing comprehensive information to the
Muslims about their religion and making
arrangements for teaching of Quraan, Tafseer,
Hadees, etc.
Invoking the spirit of Islam among the students.
Propagation and teaching of Islam.
Preserving the freedom of thoughts and
knowledge.
Establishment of Arabic institution for the
propagation of Islam.
Impacts of Darul uloom Deoband:
Many Islamic schools in India, Pakistan,
Bangladesh, Afghanistan, United Kingdom,
South Africa and other parts of the world are
theologically linked to Darul uloom Deoband.
Deobandi graduates established many
seminaries around the world such as darul
uloom sabeel us salam in Hyderabad, India,
Madrasa Ina’amia camperdown near Durban in
south Africa and three seminaries in Pakistan,
Darul uloom Karachi, jamia ashraifiya Lahore,
jaimia zia ul quraan(Almaroof baghwali masjid)
Faisalabad.
Recent development of darul uloom deoband:
Darul uloom has expanded its activities and
started new departments during the last
decades in view of great challenge from the
Ahmadia movement (Qadyanism). Darul uloom
convinced the all India Tahafuz khatm e
Nabuwat conference and established a special
department of refute Qadiyanism. It started
sheikh Ul hind academy for publishing books
and training students in Urdu journalism. In
1996 the computer department was opened
later, internet department also added. It also
introduced two years full time diploma in
English language and literature for students
wishing to pursue higher education in
universities.
Anjuman Himayat-i-Islam (1884)
The Punjab, which during period of Ghaznavi
was known for its educational institutions,
became extremely backward by the end of
nineteenth century educationally. This was
because in 1849, the English brought to an end
the Sikh rule over the Punjab, annexed it and
brought western educational system and
established number of schools, colleges in
Lahore. Due to the certain valid reasons the
Muslim did not benefit from these institutions
and went on to decline educationally. In 1883, a
Sayyed lady along with her three children
converted to Christianity. This accident was a
serious challenge to Muslims. But although she
re-embarrassed Islam later, yet the whole
incident was shocking enough to open the eyes
of Muslims of the Punjab. In order to face these
kinds of situations, Maulana Qazi Hamid-ud-Din
invited a number of public-spirited persons to a
small gathering and set up the Anjuman
Himayat-i-Islam in September 1884. In the
beginning of new Anjuman arrange the group of
religious orators those who to was villages of
the Punjab in prepared the poisonous
propaganda of the Christian missionaries. Some
of these committed and preachers were, Molvi
Sayyed Ahmed Ali, Munshi Shams-ud-din,
Molana Abdul Majid Dehlvi, Muhammad
Mubarak. They were spread throughout the
province and rendered valuable service and
influence of Christian missionaries and to
preach and propagate Islamic teaching.
The Anjuman was set up to achieve the
following aims and objectives:
1. Providing for the religious and general
education for male and female for Muslims
students.
2. Protection and propagation of Islamic values
against the Christian missionaries and Hindu
revivalists.
3. To counteract the propaganda against Islam
through speeches and publications.
Qazi Hameed ud din was elected the first
president of Anjuman’s and Ghulam Ullah
Qasuri as the first secretary. For the fulfillment
of its objectives, the Anjuman started its
operations from a scratch. Its workers would
take utensils to the houses in which the women
would put a hand full of flour daily. In the first
year, the Anjuman’s income was Rs.754 and the
expenditures were Rs.344. Due to the efforts of
the workers, people began participating in the
objectives of the Anjuman eagerly heartedly. In
the year 1885, the number of Anjuman’s
members increased from 200 to 600. Another
sources of income for the Anjuman was the
money from sales of the books. Molvi Dastgeen
wrote a pamphlet in defence of the Holy Quran
and donated it to the Anjuman, similarly Sayyed
Muhammad Hussain donated 300 books, which
were sold for Rs.975. The rulers of different
states also made genius contributions.
The Anjuman started educational activities with
primary school in a house with a rent Rs.2.5
monthly. It gave importance for the
establishment of the female’s schools and
opened a few in the first two years. In 1886, a
boy’s boarding school with accommodation for
the students was established. The school was
shifted to the large Havili of Sikander Khan.
Gradually and slowly in 1887, it was upgraded
to the middle school.
Taking full advantage of the weakness of the
Muslims, Muslims children were converted to
Christianity by Christian missionaries. The
Anjuman tried its best to awaken the Muslim
community. The Anjuman also established Dar
ul Aman and Dar ul Shafyat, for the helpless
Muslims children and needy widows.
The Anjuman render laudable services, its
monthly journal Himayat-i-Islam was started in
1885, it became a weekly in 1926. On the other
hand the large number of books on History,
Civilization, Culture and biography on life of the
Holy Prophet (S.A.W) were published by the
Anjuman.
Concluding, we can say Anjuman Himayat-i-
Islam was really a great institution; its motive
was to save Islam for Muslims community. It
tried to provide education for the Muslims of
the sub-continent. This institution had a great
impact on the Muslim community. The Anjuman
had its own press and published on religious
and literary topics. One important task was
producing a correct text of the Holy Quran.
Nadva tul Ulema
In the second half of the nineteenth century
many educational institutions were founded to
educate the Muslims of India and make them
equal in all terms with their Hindu fellow
countrymen. In this regard one of the major
educational institutions was that of Nadva tul
Ulama. Two of its predecessors the Aligarh
School and College and Dar-ul-Uloom-i-
Deoband were in contrast to each other. Aligarh
emphasized on the modern western education,
fruitful for the Muslims of India while Deoband,
on the other hand, devised to make Muslims a
progressed nation by enhancing their religious
spirit and knowledge of religion. In those
circumstances there was a great need of the
emergence of an institution that could deliver
the two types of education at the same time
and at one place. Thus for that purpose Nadva-
tul-Ulama was founded in 1894 at Lucknow by
Moulvi Abdul Ghaffar, who was working as the
deputy collector for the British government of
India.
The objectives of the establishment of the new
institution were as under:
1. Remove sectarianism among the ranks of the
Muslims
2. Elimination of the prevailing extremist
educational ideas and to make them coherent
3. Improvement of the educational syllabus
4. Elimination of social evils
5. Improvement of all aspects of Muslims’ lives
6. Muslim separation from politics
7. Establishment of a grand educational
institution to impart all sorts of education both,
religious and secular
Later this educational movement expanded
itself and in 1898 Nadva-tul-Ulama was
established and its regular classes started
shortly afterwards. Lots of people put their
contributions in Nadva’s establishment and its
successful working by providing it with grants.
For instance Sir Agha Khan, Amir of Bahawalpur
and Nawab of Bhopal are just a few names to
mention in this regard. However, there were
some criticisms as well like the Governor of U.P
Anthony MacDonnel, famous for his
contributions in the Urdu-Hindi controversy on
the Hindu side, criticized Nadva for being a part
of political activity in the province. But after a
few years the government too started
patronizing Nadva and government grants were
also issued to it. In 1908 Nadva’s grand building
started constructing and the British government
of U.P laid its foundations.
Nadva witnessed the peak of its popularity
when Maulana Shibli Naumani joined it in 1904.
Shibli along with Moulvi Abdul Haq set the rules
and regulations for the Nadva that enhanced its
prestige a lot. Before joining Nadva, Shibli was
the faculty member of Aligarh College where he
proved himself to be a great scholar and a
successful teacher. But he had his issues with
Sir Syed Ahmed Khan and so he left Aligarh in
1904. Later, as mentioned earlier, he joined
Nadva and here again he proved his caliber. He
was made the in charge of Nadva and he made
many changes in the syllabus of courses taught
there. He also made English language as a
compulsory subject at the school. He was the
editor of the magazine of Nadva and he also
established Dar-ul-Musanifin at Azamgarh. But
soon Shibli became unpopular among his staff
of Nadva because of his excessive pride and
rigidity and he had to resign but after his
resignation Nadva lost its popularity and never
it could achieve the status it used to enjoy
during the days of Shibli.
Nadva-tul-Ulama of Lucknow produced famous
scholars like Syed Suleiman Nadvi and Maulana
Abul Kalam Azad. It also provided freedom
movement of Pakistan with freedom fighters
like Suleiman Nadvi, Abdul Salam Nadvi and
Masood Alam Nadvi etc.
Muslims and the Congress
After the War of Independence 1857 the English
government had realized that their policy to
rule by force was no longer beneficial in India.
Thus, they tried to win the support of the Indian
people. Several promises were made by the
government that the Indians will, from now
onward, also be a part of political affairs in their
country and that they will no longer be treated
as mere slave/masses but as citizens. During
these circumstances an ex English CSP officer
named Alan Octavian Hume came up with the
idea of forming a political party, of the Indians
and for the Indians. For that purpose he met
with senior English bureaucrats and with their
guidance, along with local Indian contribution a
political party was formed in 1885. It was called
the All Indian National Congress. Its first
president was an Indian and Mr. Hume was its
first general secretary. On 28th December 1885
the first session of the Congress was held with
72 members among whom, 58 were Hindus of
which only 2 were Muslims. This obvious
difference in the ratio of membership continued
throughout the history of the Congress’s
existence as the only political party in the Indian
sub-continent. For instance in the Congress
session held in 1894 there were 118 Hindu
members of Congress and only 20 were
Muslims. The difference of proportion between
the two nations’ representatives can show a
great deal of truth about the intentions of the
Congress.
The chief Muslim leaders in India at that time
were Sir Syed Ahmed Khan and his Aligarh
comrades who believed that the English
government was accusing Muslims to be the
real force behind the “mutiny of 1857”.
According to Sir Syed, Muslims should stay aloof
from all political matters to give the
government the impression that they were not
concerned with the politics so that they can
save themselves from the government’s wrath.
Attainment of modern western education was
the focus of the educated sections of Muslim
society. The rest of the Muslim population was
either too unaware of the current political
affairs because of their educational
backwardness or too afraid for their lives.
Congress on the other hand started to become
more and more prejudiced against the Muslims.
Hindus, being in majority in the party started
using it to achieve their own ends. The Congress
during all her life in united India kept claiming
that it represented all the communities living in
India no matter what their faiths were. But the
reality was quite the opposite. During the last
decade of the 19th century Congress and its
policies became excessively biased and violent
toward the Muslims. Extremist Hindus like Tilak,
Medan Mohan Malvia, Rash Behari Ghosh and
Banerjee became its major leaders who
practically took arms against the Muslims, their
faith and practices. Their violent protests
against cow slaughter and division of Bengal are
living proofs of Congress’s pro-Hindu approach.
In spite of all anti-Muslim activities of the
Congress, some Muslim politicians had stuck
their desires with the part because they agreed
with the claim of the Congress that all the
people living in India were one nation and
Congress planned to keep it that way. Muslim
politicians like Maulana Azad, Maulan
Mohammad Ali Johar and even Mohammad Ali
Jinnah were also in favor of united India and
they believed that in spite of all the newly
emerging Hindu-Muslim differences there was
still the chance of their unity and that’s why
they remained with the Congress.
On the Aligarh side, after the death of Sir Syed,
his successors like Mohsin-ul-Mulk and Wiqar-
ul-Mulk perceived that the time for Muslim
separation from politics was gone and a new
era had begun, that demanded a political party
for the Muslims as well. For that reason in 1906
All India Muslim League was formed which in
contrast to the Congress declared itself to be
the representative of the Muslims of India alone
who were by all definition a separate nation.
The formation of Muslim League opened new
doors for Muslim politicians who now had an
independent platform of their own to work for
their own good. Still there were some Muslims
like Jinnah and Johar who believed that the
unity of Hindus and Muslims alone could help
figure out the solutions of the problems that
India and the Indians were facing. That’s why
Jinnah joined Muslim League as well in 1913
when he was still a member of the Congress. He
tried to become the bridge between the two
major political parties of India at that time and
because of his efforts in 1916, the famous
Lucknow Pact was finalized between the two
associations which could create a relationship
of mutual trust but even that attempt proved to
be futile because of the rigidity of Congress.
Their constant claim to be the only
representative party of the Indians and their
refusal to accept Muslims as an independent
nation led to the failure of the Lucknow Pact.
Similarly the betrayal of the Congress during the
Khilafat Movement, when the intentional of
Congress the movement to save the Ottoman
Caliphate failed in India disillusioned the
Muslims from Congress even more. Soon Jinnah
also realized the non-conciliatory intentions of
the Congress and resigned from its
membership.
With the passage of time Muslim League
started becoming a great representative of the
aspirations of the Muslims of India and they
started looking towards the League it as their
guardian. So the chances of Congress having the
Muslim support as well started to become
bleak. The Congress, however, did not bother
about that much and in 1928 the Nehru Report
from the Congress platform distinctly
crystallized the anti-Muslim approach of the
“political party of the whole of India”. These
differences of opinion on all matters led to the
freedom movement of Pakistan prior to which
during the elections of 1937 Congress won the
majority seats in the legislature and formed
government in India.
Those were terrible times for all Indians except
Hindus of course, and particularly for Muslims.
Congress during its rule did all in its capacity to
work against Muslims and their representative
political party Muslim League. Hindu-Muslim
riots were common stories of the day in which
the Muslims were always accused for
everything. Cow slaughter was banned in many
regions. Congress party song Banday Mataram
was declared the national anthem of India
which branded all Muslims as outsiders and
traitors and the song suggested the elimination
of Muslims by all means. The language
controversy was given a new life during that
time as well. All these events proved that all
Congress wanted was to destroy Muslims, their
heritage and to rule them as masters over
slaves. That’s why when Congress ministries
resigned in 1939; Muslims of India celebrated
Day of Deliverance on 22nd December. The
Congress doings intensified the feelings of
freedom of the Muslims and though Muslims
like Maulana Azad and his party Jamiat-ul-
Ulema-i-Hind kept themselves on the Congress
side and hailed for a united India the majority of
the Indian Muslims followed Muslim League
and finally founded an independent country for
themselves called Pakistan in 1947.
All India Mohammedan Educational
Conference
As M.A.O College Aligarh, the greatest dream of
Sayyid Ahmed khan was achieved and this
achievement turned the tides for future events.
Still he realized that college was unable to fulfill
educational problems of Muslims of India.
Sayyid Ahmed khan launched All-India
Muhammedan Educational Congress in 1886,
later on changed to “Conference” for Muslims
to provide them a forum through which they
could get educational awareness. On contrary
to the Confrontational Politics of the Indian
National Congress, he wanted co operational
Politics with the British rulers.
All India Muslim Educational Conference
(AIMEC), a Non-political organization which
brought Muslims social and political leaders,
intellectuals and distinguished people from all
of walks of life onto one platform for
educational empowerment of Muslims of India.
It transformed the dimensions of Aligarh
Movement and fulfilled the dream of its
founder, Sir Syed Ahmad Khan by converting
Muhammadan Anglo Oriental College (M.A.O.
College) to Aligarh Muslim University. The
Conference also became championing the cause
of Women’s education and gave birth to one of
the oldest and biggest women’s educational
institution, Women’s College of Aligarh. This
non-political, All India Muslim Educational
Conference which was started for educational
empowerment of Muslims of India also gave
birth to largest Muslim political party “Muslim
League”
The AIMEC held it inaugral meeting on
December 27,1886 at M.A.O College in the chair
Moulvi Samiullah Khan. It was attended by 161
delegates from all over. The Inaugural session at
Aligarh adopted the following resolutions:
Establishment of “AIMEC” and to hold its annual
session in different parts of the country.
British Government should only take care of
modern and western education. Muslims will
take care of Oriental studies.
Promote publications of journals and special
attention should be paid for memorization of
Quran (Hifz-e-Quran)
The Head Office of Muslim Educational
Congress will be at Aligarh.
The main objectives of the Conference were:
To provide a platform for Muslims to get higher
education.
To arrange a forum through which religious
education should be taught in English medium
schools of Muslims.
To provide a forum for ullama and religious
scholars to encourage diniyat and oriental
studies in the schools of Muslims, and support
them to take forward religious tasks.
To provide a forum, through which the
declined status of religious institutions should
be improved.
The annual meetings of AIMEC were regularly
held every year in different parts of the country.
Sir Syed Ahmed acted as the secretary of the
Conference till the time of his death. He himself
took care of regularly publishing of conference
proceeding every year.
The holding of meeting every year under
conference proved a great success for their
required results. People from all-India gathered
and sit together, to talk about their problems,
solutions, and suggestions. This was the first
and the only platform for the Muslims where
they gathered for their united cause. The AIMEC
conference provided a unique platform.
One branch of conference was anjuman-e-
tarraqi-e-urdu, in which many important tracts
were published under the conference like
‘Musilmanon ki ghuzishta taleem’, ‘Al-jazia’ and
few articles like “Kutab Khana Sikanderia”,
“Huqooq-uz-Zimmiyan”, “Muslimanon ki
Taraqqi-o-Tanazili kai Asbab”.
The AIMEC also provided the platform for
Muslims to display their inborn qualities of
people like Moulana Shibli Nomani, Moulana
Altaf Hussain Hali, Mohsin-ul-Mulk and Moulvi
Nazir Ahmed.They used their hidden talents
through this platform by delivering speeches
and poetry to show their desire for education,
passion for self respect and national sympathy.
Through this platform greatest contemporary
literacy figures were sharpened like Abdul
Kalam Azad.
The conference took the initiative to look after
the matters concerning the Indian Muslims
generally:
i) Oriental and religious education should be
started in Government Schools.
ii) Social issues; to curb Non-Islamic and
heinous traditions from the Muslim society.
iii) An extra effort to put for promotion of
women’s education.
iv) Demands were made to remove
derogatory and anti-Islamic contents from
History course books.
v) Translation of literary works of different
languages into Indian languages.
vi) The need of women education was felt and
a proposal to start a women education section
in Muslim Educational Conference was
accepted. The idea to start girl’s schools is all
the state capitals was initiated. Later, girls’
school at Aligarh was established.
vii) Conference also accepted Theodore
proposal regarding education reforms to
continue their struggle and effort regarding
education.
As AIMEC was a non political organization, yet
anything delivered through platform of
conference was considered collective demand
of Muslims. Sayyid Ahmed also delivered his
first anti-congress speech through this platform.
The first ever political party of the Muslims in
the history of India, “The All India Muslim
League” was formed on the platform of this
conference. AIMEC played very important role
in the life of Muslims to get their rights,
education and later on separate state in the
shape of Pakistan.
The Indian Councils Act 1892
The Indian Councils Act 1892 was passed by the
Parliament of the United Kingdom. The main
provisions of the bills were as under:
The number of non-official members was
increased, both in Central and Provincial
legislatures.
The universities, zamindars, municipalities, etc.
were authorized to recommend members to
Provincial Councils. This was the introduction of
the Principle of Representation.
This act allowed the councils to discuss each
year’s annual financial statement.
The number of the Additional Members of the
Governor General Executive Council was raised
up to 16.
Under this act two-fifth of the members of the
council was to be non-official.
The Additional Members of the Council could
ask questions of public interest under this Act.
The numbers of the Additional Members of the
provincial councils were also raised, for Bengal
it was 20 and 15 for the Awadh.
It can be stated that this Act was the cautious
extension of the Act of 1861. One of the
drawbacks of the 1892 Act was that it was
impossible for non-official members to express
any demands against the official bloc. Even after
this Act was passed the Government approved
many bills regardless of the fact that the Indian
Members strongly opposed them.
NWFP as an Independent Province
(1901)
North-West Frontier Province NWFP is a
province of present day Pakistan. It has recently
been renamed as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. This
part of the Sub-continent since the earliest
times has been subject to invading activities.
The people of the place, however, have since
proved themselves to be very aggressive
especially to the people whom they thought
had come to dominate them. It is said that the
Aryans were the first ones who invaded this
place around 4000 years ago. Later on, the
Persians whp came around in 500 BC. After that
many arrived here including Greeks, Mauryans,
Huns and the Guptas etc. and then came the
Muslims. Subuktigin was the first Muslim ruler
who attacked Kabul and drove the natives in the
present NWFP. With the collaboration of
Muslim invaders and the local Muslim
Pushtoons, Islam started to dominate the
region. The same Pushtoons then helped the
famous invader of Indian history, Mahmud of
Ghazna in his attacks on India. The region was
under Muslim control until Ranjeet Singh, the
then ruler of the Punjab took advantage of
inter-regional clashes of the Pushtoon tribes
and attacked and captured the area in 1818.
In 1849 after the defeat and capture of Punjab
by the English troops the frontier region came
under control of the British Empire. A point to
be noted here, that it was the last region in the
Sub-continent that was annexed by the East
India Company. Since the aggressive tribes of
the frontier were hard to control the Company
divided it into two parts, the plains were under
direct rule of the Company with sound
administration While, the hard mountainous
parts were termed as independent tribal belt.
The Company interfered in the affairs of the
belt, with various tactics until on 9th November
1901 during the times of Lord Curzon in India it
was declared to be a separate province. The
new province included districts like Hazara,
Peshawar, Kohat, Bannu, and Dera Ismail Khan
that were previously part of the province of
Punjab, and they were attacked to agencies like
Malakand, Khyber, Kurram, North Waziristan,
and South Waziristan. About 93% of the
population of the province was Muslim who
lived mostly in the countryside, the non-
Muslims’ mostly resided in towns generally of
D.I.Khan and Bannu.
The formal inauguration was held on Apr 26,
1902 and the new province was placed under
charge of the Chief Commissioner who was
directly responsible to the government of India.
Lord Curzon had hoped that this creation under
the direct rule of the government would be
beneficial both for the government and for the
people of the new province. The government,
however, did its best to keep the public of
NWFP away from politics. Because of its
aggressive attitude the place was termed as
“powder magazine”. That’s why the political
activities were discouraged there from the very
start. Initially there was a branch of All Indian
National Congress in Peshawar but within three
to four days of its establishment it was banned
by the government. The government reforms of
1909 and 1919 also for the same reason could
not be shared with the NWFP because of the
uncertain and unsettled conditions of the
province.
NWFP after its annexation to the British Empire
was held under control with the help of special
ordinances because the native Pushtoons kept
on resisting. But when political awareness
spread the people of the province started
demanding for the same constitutional reforms
enjoyed by the other citizens of India. This
unjust treatment affected the political minded
people of the province and they started
demanding equal citizenship rights like the
people of all other provinces of India. Hindus
and other non-Muslims of NWFP were also a
cause of a lack of reforms for the province. They
believed that if these reforms will be introduced
they will be over shadowed by the 93% of
Muslim majority. That’s why they preferred for
the strong authority of the executive. In this
context they tried to reattach the previously
attached districts of NWFP with the province of
Punjab but that wish of theirs could not be
fulfilled.
However, in order to resolve these issues in
1922 the government made a committee
formed to look for the reforms controversy
issue and of re-amalgamation of the districts
with the Punjab province. The committee
suggested the establishment of a legislative
council for the province and the government in
1925 officially rejected the demand for the re-
amalgamation of NWFP districts with the
province of Punjab, but did not introduce the
reforms either. So, the demand for the reforms
continued in which All India Muslim League had
its due share. In 1926, Muslim League council
and Swarajya party presented a resolution in
the assembly demanding equal reform rights for
the citizens of NWFP. Sahibzada Abdul Qayyum
Khan, a renowned Pushtoon politician also
demanded the same and said if the whole of
India was experiencing modern constitutional
reforms why not NWFP which was also a part of
India. All India National Congress also supported
this cause. But the majority of the Hindus of
NWFP came out in the streets and openly
criticized the resolution. Still with all the
opposition the resolution was passed. On Nov
17, 1928 the Simon Commission Committee for
the examination and working of the
constitutional reforms of 1919, came to
Peshawar where on 19th November a group of
loyalist khans headed by K.B. Ghafoor Khan met
the commission and put forward their demand
of reforms in their province as well. The Simon
Commission in its report suggested a council
with equal number of nominated and elected
members for NWFP. In this council a special
arrangement was made for the opposing non-
Muslims minority. These recommendations
were criticized by the Muslims.
In December 1929 at a session of Congress, held
at Lahore, the Khudai Khidmatgar or Red Shirts
representatives attended it. The aim was to get
attention of the ruling elite towards NWFP.
Congress promised them to send a commission
to the government demanding rights of reforms
for the province of North-West. The Congress in
1930 started its Civil Disobedience Movement
and demanded full independence of India in
which Khudai Khidmatgars supported the cause
in return. On Apr 23, 1930 there was this
famous firing on Khudai Khidmatgars protesting
peacefully against the government in the Qissa
Khawani Bazar of Peshawar in which more than
200 were killed. A ban as a result was put on
the Khidmatgars and marital law was
implemented in the province. The Khudai
Khidmatgar which was initially a social welfare
organization tried to connect itself with a
political party in order to put pressure in its
demands to the government. Its first choice was
the Muslim League but to their disappointment
the League flatly refused. So they affiliated
themselves with the Congress that welcomed it
whole heartedly in 1931.
The first Round Table Conference held in
London was boycotted by Congress but
Sahibzada Abdul Qayyum Khan went to visit it
to put the demand of his people before the
government face to face. During the Conference
session a sub-committee was given the duty to
look into the reform matter for the province of
North-West. The committee recommended that
the province should be given the status of the
governor’s province and suggested the
formation of a legislative council for running the
province. After the end of the second Round
Table Conference on 1st December 1931 NWFP
was given the status of governor’s province and
its chief commissioner, Mr. Ralph Griffith was
made its first governor. A legislative council was
also set up with 40 members among which 22
were to be Muslims. And in this way after a long
period of struggle the province of North-West
became an independent province.
Partition of Bengal (1905-1911)
The partition of Bengal was the most important
event during the rule of Lord Curzon. It was
carried out mainly for the convenience of
administration. Bengal in those days was the
biggest province of India extending over 1, 89,
000 square miles with a population of 80
million. It was comprising of Bengal, Behar and
Orissa and was under the central of one
lieutenant Governor. After Lord Curzon took
charge as Governor General of India the
discussion over the Partition began due to the
following issues:
1. Vastness of Province: The Province was
spread over the area of 1, 89, 000 square miles
with the population of 80 million, which was
too vast to be managed by one lieutenant
Governor. He could not make a tour for the
whole province due to its vastness once in his
tenure.
2. Limited Sources of Communication: The
sources of communication in the provinces
were limited due to rivers and forests. The law
and order condition of the provinces was also
worst due to insufficient police and in-efficient
management. Therefore the need of partition
of province was felt severally.
3. Difference of Language: There was also
the difference of Languages and civilization of
the natives of West Bengal and East Bengal. The
natives of West Bengal considered themselves
superior in civilization to the resident of East
Bengal. The Condition demanded for the
division of Provinces.
4. Need of the time: The division of Bengal
was the need of the time to develop trade in
East Bengal and to promote the Port of
Chittagong, which could be done only by
division of the Provinces.
5. Partition: The Partition of Bengal was
thus calculated to restore efficiency in the
Government and administration on one hand
and encouraged local initiatives for progress
and development on the other. Lord Curzon
partitioned Bengal and formed two new
provinces of manageable size – East and West
Bengal. East Bengal consisted of Dacca,
Mamansingh, Assam, Kaula, Rangpur, and Bogra
district, the Dacca was capital of East Bengal
constituted a majority MuslimProvince, while
the Bihar and Orissa constituted a separate
province to be called as West Bengal with the
capital of Calcutta and become the Hindu
Majority provinces.
East Bengal contained a population of eighteen
million Muslims and twelve million Hindus.
Whereas West Bengal had a population fifty
four million of which 42 million where Hindus
and thus was the Hindu majority province.
Muslims’ Response
It received a favorable response from the
Muslims. It was thought that it would bring the
emancipation of Muslims socially and
economically. The Muslims welcomed the
Partition of Bengal for the following reasons:
1. In the majority province of East Bengal
the Muslims would be free from Hindu
dominance in economic field. They would get
opportunities of services and advancement of
agriculture.
2. The city of Dacca, where the Muslims
were in majority was the centre of Muslim
culture. In Dacca Muslims had a great chance of
success for social and cultural advancement
than in Calcutta.
3. The Partition could result in political
uplift and securing represent action in the
Government.
4. The partition of Bengal relieved the
Muslims from competing with Hindus, who
were more advanced in every field of life.
Hindus Response
The Hindus did not accept it, as it dealt a telling
blow to their monopolies and exclusive hold on
economic, social, Political life of the whole of
Bengal. They called it as a deliberate attempt by
British Government
1. The Partition of Bengal had brightened
the possibility of betterment of Muslims; while
the Hindu landlords, capitalists and traders
wanted status quo and to continue the
exploitation of the Muslims.
2. Hindu lawyers also reacted to the
partition of Bengal because they thought that
the new province would have its separate
courts and thus their practice would be
affected.
3. Hindu press was not different from that
of Hindu advocates. Hindus had their monopoly
over almost whole of the province press. They
were afraid that new newspapers would be
established which would decrease their income
naturally.
4. The Hindus launched Swadeshi
Movement whose sole purpose was to boycott
of British goods.
Annulment of the Partition
When Lord Hardinage assumed charge as
Governor General of India Hindus again became
active and sent a representation to him for the
annulment of partition of Bengal. He
recommended the same to the British Prime
Minister for Indian Affairs. On the occasion of
the visiting His Majesty George V to Indo-
Pakistan and holding of Darbar at Delhi on 12th
December 1911 the partition of Bengal was
cancelled.
The united Bengal was placed under a Governor
and Assam was placed under a Chief
Commissioner. This decision was shattering
blow to Muslims. It left them sullen and
disillusioned. Their anger and indignation had
widespread repercussions. The Muslims leaders
and intelligentsia condemned the decision as
betrayal of worst kind.
Conclusion
The Muslims of India had appreciated the step
and started turning in the favour of the British
but the British soon gave in against the
mounting pressure of Hindus which helped the
Muslims to realize the importance of standing
on their feet and to organize themselves
politically. It also affirmed the apprehension of
Sir Syed that the Muslims might submerge in
the majority of Hindus and lose their se
Simla Deputation (1906)
The Simla deputation proved a landmark in the
history of modern India, because for the very
first time the Hindu-Muslim conflict, which
stared with the Urdu-Hindi controversy, was
lifted to the constitutional plane. The Indians
were not satisfied with the Indian council Act of
1892. Especially, the act failed to ensure the fair
representation of Muslims. So, the Indians were
agitating for more power. Due to the growing
political pressure and increasing social unrest,
the British Government decided to make
constitutional reforms relating to the electoral
bodies. On 20th July 1906 John Morley the
Secretary of State for Indian affairs, speaking on
the Indian budget in the British parliament,
announced that the Government wanted to
increase the number of seats for the legislative
councils and also their powers.
John Morley announcement created an anxiety
among the Muslims of the sub-continent. The
proposed reforms, if implemented, as was
demanded by the Congress, would have
suppressed the Muslims more under the Hindu
Majority. Muslim leaders were of the view that
neither elections nor nominations are fulfilled
the requirements of the Indian Muslims, and
that they needed a certain number of seats in
both the central and provincial councils. Their
seats should be filled up by votes of their own
community.
The weekly Muslim Patriot penned down this
important issue to clarify the assumption that
India was inhabited by one class. It stated that
India consists on a heterogeneous mass of
different races whose interests were often
different. It although supported the extended
representation in the legislature, but also
wished that the extension should be based on
the class recognition and each distinct
community should have representatives of its
own in proportion to its population.
Now, many Mohammedans drew the attention
of Mohsin-ul-Mulk, the secretary of the M.A.O
College, Aligarh, to John Morley’s speech. So,
Nawab Mohin-ul-Mulk wrote a letter on August
1906, to Archbold, Principal of the college, in
which he expressed his apprehensions about
the forthcoming constitutional changes. He was
of the view that if combined election would be
held on a more extended scale, Mohammedans
will hardly get a single seat, while Hindus will
carry more advantage because of their majority.
He asked Archbold to advise for submit
memorial from the Mohammedans to the
Viceroy and to request his permission to accept
a deputation for discus the issue of forthcoming
constitutional amendments. Archbold
contacted to Viceroy’s secretary and on 10th
August 1906. He informed Mohsin-ul-Mulk that
the Viceroy was ready to meet the deputation.
After receiving the letter of Archbold, Nawab
Sahib started to put together a deputation for
this purpose. A meeting was held in Lakhnow on
16th September 1906, in which an address,
prepared by Sayyid Husain Bilgarami, was
finalized by learned Muslim leaders. Finally, a
deligation consisting of 35 leaders of Muslim
community meet to the viceroy, under the
leadership of Sir Aga Khan, in Simla on 1st
October 1906. The deputation was included the
members from Bengal, Punjab, U.P., Bombay,
Madras, Sindh, C.P., Deccan, and Delhi. The
members of deputation were drawn from the
Muslim elite class, but most of the members of
deputation were connected with the Aligarh
movement through the AIMEC. Besides these
members, others were associated with different
semi-political parties like Anjuman-i-Islam,
National Mohammedan Association etc.
The deputation presented the memorial in front
of viceroy, which was consisting of the demands
that rights of separate electorates should be
given to the Muslims; Muslims should be given
three more seats in central legislature; quota
should be given to the Muslims in civil services;
Muslims should be given representation in
universities senates and syndicates; an aid
should be given to the Muslims for the
establishment of a Muslin university.
Lord Minto, the Viceroy, assured the Muslim
delegation that as long as he is associated with
the administrative affairs if the country, their
national rights would be preserved.
Congress made an allegation that the
deputation was engineered by the Government
to resist the activities of nationalists. A
newspaper, Amrita Bazar Patrika, closed to the
Congress, launched the propaganda that the
deputation was the part of British policy of
divide and rule. It also stated that the
deputation did not represent the whole of the
Muslim community and self-serving British
officers were involved in its formation.
In order to prove the conspiracy theory,
Congress leaders had referred to a certain letter
written by Archold to an unknown person of
Aligarh. There is not single solid evidence
available to prove that the deputation was the
part of British policy.
The deputation was purely representing the
demands of the Muslim community. If it had
been launched by the Government then there
was no need of Mohsin-ul-Mulk to borrow a
sum of four thousand rupees from King and
King Company at the interest rate of 7% to
meet the expenses of the Simla deputation. The
company started correspondence, after the
death of Mohsin-ul-Mulk, with the Muslim
league for the return of loan and also
threatened to get Moshin-ul-Mulk’s property
confiscated.
The Simla deputation was unique, because for
the first time Muslims were anxious to take
their share in the political activities as a
separate identity. Another purpose of the
delegation was to get a silent permission form
the Government to make a political platform for
the representation of Muslims, and also was to
take the Government into confidence. The
demand of separate electorates, which were
presented through the deputation, was the
foundation of all future constitutional
amendments for India. The inevitable
consequence of deputation was the partition of
Indian and the emergence of Pakistan.
Separate Electorates
Separate Electorates are that type of elections
in which minorities select their own
representatives separately, as opposed to Joint
Electorates where people are selected
collectively. When minorities fear that they
would not get representation in state affairs
and government then they demand separate
electorates. Same was the case with the Indian
Muslims. They were very large in number, but
in case of combined elections they would not
get due representation. When the British
implemented the system of democracy in India
in order to strength their rule, and to involve
local people in government, the Muslims
demanded separate electorates .These were
not imposed by British, however were granted
on the request of the Muslims.
As all nations in Europe were Christians and
there was no concept of a separate nation on
the basis of religion. So they regarded India as a
single country inhabited by Indians who were a
nation collectively. But the Muslims and Hindus
were conscious about their religious differences
and of being two separate nations. In India,
Hindus were in majority so Congress was in
favour of combined elections. In a democratic
government every bill or law is passed by a
majority of 51% or more and in this situation
the Hindus would get 100% legislative powers
and Muslims would get no power to effect
legislation in their own country. More in
number than the population of any state in
Europe, they would have no share in
government. Thus they would become slaves
and serfs having zero percent power in
legislation, politics, and administration of their
own country.
When direct elections were introduced to
increase the participation of Indians in
government affairs, a deputation of Indian
Muslims led by Sir Aga Khan presented an
address to Viceroy and Governor General Lord
Minto at Simla on 1st October 1906. They asked
for separate representation at all levels of
government, district boards, legislative councils,
and municipalities. They mentioned that they
were almost one-fifth and in some areas one-
fourth of the whole population. So they must be
given recognition as an important factor of the
state machinery. The positions given to the
Muslims should not only depend on their
numerical strength, but also on their political
importance and contributions as they had ruled
over India for a long time. Under the Act of
1892 in United Province, where Muslims were
fourteen percent of population, they had not
secured a single seat by joint franchise. And if
by chance they would get any seats they would
have to agree with Hindus, and thus had to go
against their own interests. So, Muslims should
be given separate representation for both local
bodies and legislative councils, through
separate electorates. Viceroy listened to them
and promised them that their demands would
put forward to British Government. With this
positive response Muslims established their
own political party named as All India Muslim
League in December, 1906.
In 1909 the Morley-Minto Reforms granted
separate electorates to Muslims. In these the
numerical strength of legislature councils was
increased. 27 out of total 60 members were to
be elected and 5 seats were reserved for the
Muslims. In provincial government, Muslims
were to be represented by separate electorates.
It gave constitutional recognition to Muslims.
They would have not only elect their own
representatives, but also had right to vote in
general constituencies. Muslims were given
fewer share than their numerical strength, but
this was a land mark in the political history of
Indian Muslims.
In 1916 Lucknow Pact was passed with the
collaboration of Congress and Muslim League.
Congress conceded to the legitimate rights of
Muslims. In this pact the right of separate
electorates for Muslims was recognized. It was
declared that Muslims would be given one third
central legislature seats. And in provinces
minorities were to have more seats than their
numerical strength, this was known as the
Weightage System. According to this system
Muslims got more representation than their
population in minority provinces whereas, in
Bengal and Punjab their representation was
reduced to 50% and 40% from 56% and 55%
respectively. In 1919 the Montague Chelmsford
Reforms were introduced. The demands of
Lucknow Pact were accepted. In centre Muslims
were given one third seats. These all rights were
denied, and Congress deviated from their own
prospective in Nehru Report in 1928.
After many years of constitutional debates,
Government of India Act 1935 was passed. And
elections were held in 1937 under this act.
Congress won 706 seats out of total 1771 seats.
It contested for 58 seats of total 482 Muslim
seats and won 26 seats whereas, the newly
organized Muslim League won 102 Muslim
seats. The remaining seats were won by local
parties. In December 1945 elections to central
Legislative Assembly were held. Congress
demanded for independence of united India
and opposed partition of India. Congress
claimed that it is the only soul representative
party of all Indians, and mentioned the
economic problems as real problems of masses
otherwise all Indians were a community.
Whereas Quaid-i-Azam announced that
Muslims were a separate nation and Muslim
League was their representative party. They
would not accept any constitution, in which
they were relegated as a frustrated minority. He
said that they were a separate nation and they
must have their own state. Congress made
alliance with some split Muslims groups to
prove Muslim League wrong. But the results of
elections proved that Muslim League claims and
demands were right. In central Assembly 30
seats were reserved for Muslims and Muslim
League won all of them. Contrary to that
Congress even lost some of general seats. In
provincial elections Muslim League won 428 out
of 492 seats. Only Party of Frontier Gandhi,
Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, won almost 50%seats
in N.W.F.P.
In this journey of almost 40 years, many
demands were presented, many pacts were
introduced, and many resolutions were passed.
All had their own importance but the right of
separate electorates was a land mark for the
Muslims. They all revolved around this demand
of separate electorates. Acceptance of this
demand was a sign of recognizing them as a
separate nation. They were treated as a
minority before it. Now they had share in
government at Central and provincial levels
both. Beyond that these Separate Electorates
led them towards separate homeland named as
Pakistan.
Establishment of All India Muslim
League
After the creation of the Indian national
Congress and its time as a ‘representative’ party
for the people of the Indian sub-continent,
there was felt a need to reassess its claims at
unbiased representation. From the very start of
its existence the Congress had shown clear its
interest to safeguard the rights of Hindus,
alone. Some of the Congress leaders adopted a
revolutionary policy to establish Hindu Raj in
the sub-continent under the guise of a national
movement. The prediction of Sir Syed Ahmed
Khan Soon proved to be fact that, “Hindus and
Muslims are two different nations who have
different ideologies.” The Muslims of India were
greatly disappointed by the anti-Muslim stance
that the Congress seemed to have adopted. The
events following the partition of Bengal and
Urdu-Hindu controversy strengthened the
desire of the Muslims to organize themselves
politically as separate community. The birth of
All India Muslim League at Dacca on 30th
December 1906 came as an expression of that
desire.
Following are the reasons for the establishment
of Muslim league.
1. Indifferent Attitude of the Congress towards
Muslims: All India National Congress was a pre-
dominantly Hindu body. Its interests were
always at odds ends to those of the Muslims. By
1906, Muslim leaders were convinced that they
must have their own party which may speak for
the community on all important occasions.
2. Educational and Economic Backwardness:
Muslims had lagged far behind from the Hindus
in education and economic progress.
Educational and economic conditions could only
be up graded by establishing a separate
Muslims organization that could represent the
wishes of the Muslims.
3. Urdu-Hindi Controversy: The Urdu-Hindu
controversy began with the demand of Hindus
to replace Urdu by Hindi as official language in
Deva Nagari Script. Sir Anthony Macdonal, the
then Governor of UP ousted Urdu from public
offices. Congress clearly sided with Hindi and
supported the movement against Urdu and
there was no other political party to support
Urdu. Thus, the need of formation of a Muslim
political party was felt severely.
4. The Evolution of Minto Marley Reforms: The
turning point came in the summer of 1906
during John Morley’s budget speech, in which
he hinted of constitutional reforms. At that time
Muslims did not have a political platform to
demand their share. It was reasserted that they
wanted a separate political platform.
5. The Success of Simla Deputation: Minto
offered fullest sympathy to the Muslim
demands. The success of Deputation compelled
the Muslims to have a separate political
association of their own.
6. To Save Muslim Entity: The belief uttered by
sir Syed Ahmed Khan that the Muslims were
somehow a separate entity. The Muslims did
not believe that Hindus and Muslims formed
one nation. They were different by religion,
history, languages and civilization. It became
essential for Muslims to establish a political
party of their own.
A resolution to form the All India Muslim
League was passed by Nawab Salimullah Khan
and was seconded by Hakim Ajmal Khan,
Maulana Muhammad Ali and Moulana Zafar Ali.
The resolution was passed by All India
Educational Conference on 30th December
1906. A committee was formed to prepare its
draft constitution. Sir Agha Khan was appointed
as President and Syed Hassan Balgrami was
appointed as secretary, while Nawab Mohsim-
ul-Mulk and Nawab Viqar-ul-Mulk were made
joint secretaries with six Vice- Presidents, a
Central Committee with forty Members was
also constituted. In this way Muslim league was
established and become the sole representative
of Muslims.
Knowing the circumstances which led to the
formation of Muslim league was not difficult to
make out what it aimed to. However, the
Muslim league laid the following points as its
objectives.
1. To create among Muslims the feelings of
loyalty towards British Government and to
remove misconception and suspicious.
2. To Safeguard the political rights of the
Muslims and to bring them into the notice of
the Government.
3. To prevent among the Muslims, the rise of
prejudicial feelings against the other
communities of India.
The first session of all India Muslim league was
held at Karachi on 29th December, 1907 and
was presided over by Adamji Peer Bhai.
It was being felt from the beginning that the All
India Muslim League would not achieve
considerable success without winning the
British Public opinion to its side. Therefore,
Syed Ameer Ali organized the branch of Muslim
league at London. The inaugural meeting was
held on 6th May 1908, at London Caxton Hall. It
was participated by the Muslim and those
British people who favoured their view point.
There come into being a political body which
was to play a decisive role in the destiny of the
Muslim peoples of the Indian sub-continent.
The day the Muslim delegation won recognition
of the demand of separate electorate, the
course of the Muslim freedom struggle was
charted. It was the beginning of the growth of
Muslim national consciousness. It farmed visible
institutional expression in the form of Muslim
League which after a forty (40) years struggle
was to achieve for the Muslims the culmination
of their national aspiration, Muslim League
became a mass movement of the Muslims and
succeeded in achieving Pakistan in 1974.
Actually the new breed of leadership like Quaid-
i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah was instrumental
in its metamorphosis.
After the acceptance of the demand of separate
representation in the Minto Morely reforms, it
was common sense to have political party to
fight elections for Muslim representation.
Whatever may have been the effects of Muslim
league, but it made clear that the interests of
Muslims must be regarded completely separate
from those of the Hindus. Any fusion of both
the communities in future was not possible. It
steered the ship of Muslim destiny safely
through of Political chaos and turmoil to the
safer harbour of Pakistan.
Minto-Morley Reforms (1909)
By 1909, there was seen a great deal of political
consciousness amongst the Indians. Similarly,
political parties like Indian National Congress
and All Indian Muslim League had emerged. By
then, the British were much influenced and
affected by these political parties. As previous
reforms and acts did not meet the political
aspirations of all the Indians, the British realized
that in order to introduce new reforms to
impoverish the grievances of the Indians they
needed to cater to these two political parties.
Besides this, there were also other factors
which led to the formation of Minto-Morley
Reforms. In this context, the instance is the
victory of Japan in the Russo-Japan War of
1904-5 can be cited as an example. This was a
ray of hope for Indians that India could also
become a great power.
On the other hand, the Liberal Party came to
power in Britain in 1906, and that changed the
political atmosphere. The Liberal Party did not
want to pursue the autocratic policies of the
Conservative Party. Such political changes in
Britain and as well as in India, which altered the
public opinion in both countries. Following are
the salient features of Minto-Morley Reforms.
Salient Features of Minto-Morley Reforms:
The number of members of legislative council of
Governor General and the Governors of various
provinces was increased.
The powers of Members of Legislative were
increased. They could now criticize the actions
of the executive, ask questions and even
supplementary questions, and express their
views by moving resolutions. Matters of public
interest were also discussed in the Legislative
Council.
The Indians were included in the councils,
where ultimate decisions were made, of the
India Secretory and Viceroy. Before these
reforms they were excluded from such councils.
In fact, a type of consultative body was formed.
For the first time, the demand for a separate
electorate was accepted. A constitutional
recognition of Separate Electorate was a great
achievement for the Muslims. Muslims could
now have their own representative members at
the Legislative Councils. They were to be
elected by Muslims alone.
The Indians were not satisfied with these
reforms. Although strict qualifications of
property and education were imposed on
franchise. Consequently, the number of voters
was restricted. Moreover, a system of election
was indirect. The members of local bodies were
elected by the people who, in turn, were to
elect members of electoral colleges. The
members of electoral colleges were to elect
members of Provincial Legislature who, in turn,
were to elect members of Imperial Legislature.
In order to win the support of maximum
factions of the society, the Government wanted
to give special representation to the loyalist
classes. In this context, a special representation
was given to landlords, chambers of commerce
and other influential.
The official majority in the Imperial Council was
maintained. While the non-official majorities in
the Provincial Council were nullified, as they
included nominated members. Though,
parliamentary reforms were introduced, there
was no provision of responsibility.
Further, S.P. Sinha, an Indian, was included in
the Viceroy’s Executive Council. However, this
act was bitterly criticized by the Muslims, for
they had previously demanded that two Indian
members including one Muslim should be
included in the Council. The Government
promised to appoint Muslim the next time.
After Sinha’s resignation, Sayed Ali Imam was
appointed as a Member of the Executive
Council.
The Minto-Morley Reforms drew a gloomy
picture. Though, this act appeased some of the
Indians, the majority was not satisfied with it.
The result was widespread criticism of the
Government. As a matter of fact, the Indian
National Congress was divided into two factions
i.e. the “moderate,” which was led by G.K.
Gokhale and the “extremist,” which was led by
B.G. Tilak. The moderate faction welcomed the
Reforms. In the Imperial Legislative Council,
Gokhale said, “My Lord, I sincerely believed that
you and Lord Morley have saved the country
from anarchy and chaos”. On other hand, the
extremist faction rejected the act of 1909. They
were not in the favor of the Reforms. It was
because of its contradiction to Lord Morley’s
dispatch dated November 27, 1908. On the
contrary, the All India Muslim League welcomed
the council act of 1909. The League passed a
resolution, which offered cooperation with the
government for the success of the Reforms, in
the Delhi session on 1910.
In spite of all its demerits and flaws, the
Reforms contributed and offered space for
political development. The inclusion of the
Indians in Councils was a great experience for
the Indians. They became part of Legislative
Councils. They could move resolutions, discuss
Bills elaborately, and approved Bills. In this
context, the instances are; 24 resolutions were
accepted out of 168 in the Imperial Legislative
Council, and 30 non-official amendments were
presented in the Indian Factories Bill and 7 were
approved. Further, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, as a
private member, also presented a Bill, Waqf-
alal-Aulad, which was passed by the Council. In
the constitutional evolution of India, the Act of
1909 was a decided step and opened the door
for real politics.
Kanpur Mosque Tragedy (1913)
The U.P Government granted a total of two and
half lack rupees to widen the roads of the
Kanpur and to fulfill other welfare works. This
scheme also included AB road. The widening of
this road became a serious issue. The real
problem was that if it were widened straight,
there lay in its way, a Hindu temple just
opposite to the Mosque in the Machli Bazar.
When Hindus heard of this scheme, they forced
the Government to halt its progress. Then the
only way left to save the temple was, to turn
the road in some other direction, because there
was not much space between the mosque and
temple, to widen the road. Hence, there was a
threat for the Muslims that the eastern part of
the mosque might have to be demolished which
was used for the purpose of ablution and for
baths in order to commence the road.
So on 1st of April 1912, in the Improvement
Trust Committee session. The Muslims
requested that no portion of the mosque
should be included in the road for the sake of its
widening but all was in vain.
On April 1913 Lt. Governor of U.P. Sir James
Meston, received a petition through Shahid
Husain, from a group of Muslims of Kanpur
upon “alienation of any part of the mosque.”
Eminent Muslim scholars tried to prove that the
targeted portion is the part and parcel of the
mosque from the religious point of view. On
12th of April 1913, a memorial was presented
by barrister Shahid Hussain, which was about
protecting the eastern part of the mosque
against the expected demolition. On 6th May
1913, James Meston sent a letter to the
memorialists concluding that “the washing
place is not the part and parcel of the sacred
building and must be removed. The authorities
of the mosque will be asked to choose another
site on which a washing place will be built for
them by the municipal Board”
Then on 20th July 1913 Sir James Meston
himself visited Kanpur and inspected the
mosque. He had shown complete disregard for
the feelings of the Muslims and the
Government abolished the Eastern part of the
mosque. There was an outrage among the
Muslims of Kanpur and the Muslim press
strongly protested against it. This action taken
by the Government was condemned
throughout India. Tylor, who was a Magistrate
of Kanpur was ordered by James Meston “to
take effective measures to prevent any breach
of peace in connection with the execution of
the orders, if he wants extra police let him say
so.”
The Muslims then gathered at Idgah on 3rd
August. When the meeting was over an angry
procession which was carrying black flags
appeared before the mosque and began to
place the loose bricks over the dismantle
structure as a symbol of reconstruction. Then to
disperse the mob, the police force opened fire
under Tayler’s orders. The firing continued for
15 minutes and almost 600 cartridges were
used.
By this regard, Muslim Anjumans from all over
the India strongly protested against this wicked
act of firing on the Muslims. Anjumans that
strongly protested were Anjuman-e-Ziaul Islam,
Bombay, Anjuman-e-Islamia, Amritsar,
Anjuman-e-Hadayatul Islam, Islamia, Kohat.
Press media also didn’t remain quiescent and
Muslim press strongly condemned this
perfidious act of Government. The Zamindar
commented “the demolition of a part of the
Kanpur mosque at the point of the bayonet and
the characterization of the Muslim outcry
caused thereby – a spectacle so heartrending
that has shaken the faith of Mussalmans in the
Government’s principle of non-interference in
religious matters.”
Similarly, All India Muslim League did not
remain quiet on this tragedy. On 31st August
and on 19th September, Council of the AIML
had passed two notable resolutions. One, for
the appointment of a committee comprising,
both officials and civilians to conduct an
impartial inquiry and the other on the
importance of showing gratitude to Sayyid
Wazir Hasan and M. Ali for going to England to
present the Muslim case.
Sir James Meston’s attitude filled the hearts of
Muslims with painful feelings, when after this
tragedy he distributed the merit certificates to
those who had taken part in the firing. It
showed his hatred for the Muslims.
Lord Hardinge showed blatant anger at this
policy and strategy. Lord Hardinge called this
act as a “stupid blunder.” He said that it was the
example of shortsightedness of Taylor and
Meston. Lord Hardinge felt the pain of the
Muslims and visited Kanpur along with Sayyid
Ali Imam on 13th to 14th October. He
compromised with the Muslims allowing them
to build a new building over the public road. He
also visited the mosque and ordered to release
the prisoners and withdrew the cases.Thus, this
tragedy played a significant role in awakening
political consciousness among the Indian
Muslims.
Lukhnow Pact
The Lucknow agreement took a new twist with
change in Muslim League’s political doctrine.
The Quaid-e-Azam inclusion in the Muslim
league was a historic event, which gave new
direction to Muslim league’s political struggle.
Self-rule for India brought the Muslim league
and the Congress closer to each other. The
leaders of the both parties agreed that they
should cooperate with each other to make the
British accept their demands. They
acknowledged that the objectives can be
achieved if the two major communities of India
forget their differences on petty issues and
come closer to each other to see eye to eye on
the important national issues. The political
vicinity had taken a happy turn and ground for
cherished Hindu Muslim unity had been
smoothed.
Lucknow pact is considered as a significant
event in the political constitutional history of
India. It is regarded a high water marked of
Hindu Muslim unity. It was the first and last
pact signed between Congress and Muslim
league.
Factor’s Behind the Pact
The relations between the British government
and Muslims were tensed due to aggressive and
unilateral policies of the British. The annulment
of the partition of Bengal in 1911 was a jolt for
the Muslims of India; consequently it shattered
their confidence in British and brought Muslims
closer to Hindus against the British. Similarly the
Kanpur mosque incident and the British policies
in the international system had caused deep
anguish among the Muslims. Thus the Muslims
leaderships decided to change the strategy of
the Muslim league after the annulment of
Bengal in 1911. In December 1912, Muslim
league change its aim from loyalty to form self-
government suitable to India. However, the
league retained the right to modify self-rule in
accordance with their needs and requirements.
Jinnah and the Pact
Jinnah arose as a devoted champion of Hindu
Muslim unity, he convinced all India Muslim
league to change their policies for the better of
India. Muhammad Ali Jinnah in his early career
was a member of both the Congress and the
Muslim league and was well known as a man
free of any religious prejudice, as well as a
brilliant advocate and debater. In 1915, mainly
due to his efforts, both the Muslim league and
the Congress party had their annual meeting in
Bombay. At the end of this meeting, a
committee was formed with the intention to
sort the common understanding between the
two communities. The committee prepared a
scheme in November, 1916. The scheme was
approved by both the parties in December,
1916 at the respective sessions at Lucknow.
Quaid-e-Azam, in his presidential speech at
Lucknow, said “India’s real progress can only be
achieved by a true understanding and
harmonious relations between the two great
communities. With regard to our own affairs,
we can depend upon nobody but ourselves.”
Features of the Pact
The congress party agreed to the right to
separate electorate for the Muslims first and
last time in the history of subcontinent. The
Hindus conceded that the Muslims would have
one third representation in the imperial
legislative council. A weightage formula was
proposed under which the Muslims would get
less representation than their population in the
legislative council in those provinces where they
were in majority but more in provinces where
they were in minority. The provincial legislative
council will have fourth fifth as elected
members and one fifth as nominated members.
The member’s would be elected by the people
directly for the term of five years. In the major
provinces the strength of the legislative councils
would be 125 and in the minor provinces the
strength would be 50 and 75. The Muslims shall
be elected through special electorates and their
strength in the different provinces shall be as:
Punjab 50%, Bengal 40%, U.P 30%, Bihar 25%,
C.P 15%, Madras 15% and Bombay 33 %.
No bill, nor any clause thereof, nor a resolution
introduces by a non-official member effecting
one or other community shall be presented in
the assembly without approval of the concern
group. Provincial autonomy will be given to the
province with maximum powers vested with the
provincial council. The provincial council will
have authorized to impose taxes, raise loans,
and to vote on budget. All proposals for raising
revenues shall have to be submitted to the
provincial council for sanction. There shall be an
executive council in the province headed by the
governor whose half of the member’s shall
Indian national elected by the elected members
of the legislative council their term of office
shall be five year. The members of the
assemblies shall have the right to present
adjournment motion. Seats were reserved for
the Muslims in those provinces in which they
were in minority under the system weightages.
Protection shall be given to the Hindus in
Muslim majority provinces. In the centre there
shall be and imperial legislative council
consisting of 150 members. Four fifth of the
members shall be elected for a term of five
years on the basis of direct election. The
Muslims shall be given 1/3 seats of the elected
members and they will be elected by separate
Muslim electorates. The central Government
will be headed by the government will be
headed by the Governor General, who would be
assisted by an executive council. Half of the
members of the executive council shall be
Indians elected by the elected members of the
imperial legislative council.
Importance of the Pact
The Lucknow pact was a great achievement of
Hindu and Muslim leaders, who were successful
in offering for the first and the only time, a
mutually acceptable solution of the Hindu
Muslim problem. It appeared as a special
significance in the history of India. It was the
Quaid-e-Azam, who had always been a staunch
supporter of Hindu-Muslim unity. The scheme
provided for a substantial step taken halfway
towards the establishment of self-rule in India
which was main core of the jointly sponsored
scheme of Lucknow pact. The Congress first
time accepted the demand of separate
electorate for Muslims. The pact ensured the
protection of political rights of Muslims. Muslim
league separate status was also being accepted.
Through the pact the both parties were able to
put a joint demand before the British. Congress
got strength in term of political and masses
because it had got All India Muslim League
Supports.
It was basically give and take sort of agreement
between the both parties. The Muslims had to
pay a big price of loosing majority in Bengal and
Punjab to obtain some concessions. Similarly, it
carried great constitutional significance in the
future for many developments. The scheme of
representation of Muslim community in the
central and provincial legislatures as embodied
in the Lucknow pact was generally followed in
the Montague Chelmsford reforms.
Conclusion
The agreement was very outstanding and its
dreams were fulfilled the whole political
scenario of Indian subcontinent were different.
But, it was impossible to the parties to make a
united India. The Hindus and Muslims are two
different nation and they have different culture
and civilization. Therefore the Lucknow Pact
failed to make a long lasting cooperation in
India among the Muslims and Hindus.
The Montague-Chelmsford Reforms
(1919)
The Bill was introduced in India in 1919 and
became Act of 1919. This Act, commonly known
as Montague-Chelmsford Reforms.
Minto-Morley reforms, introduced in 1909,
proved unsatisfactory for Indian people.
Resultantly, Indians demanded more
representation and called for greater self-
government. This could not be achieved
without a formal rapprochement between
Congress and Muslim League. The Lucknow Pact
of 1916 removed the sole hurdle in the
attainment of self rule by which both, Congress
and Muslim League set aside their mutual
differences and showed considerable
accommodation to each other’s’ claims.
Meanwhile, the World War I had started and
Indians despite their grievances and
discontentment with the British joined the war
with over one million soldiers with the hope
that after the war British would be obliged to
concede to self rule in recognition of their loyal
services. However, as the war dragged on,
Indians became disillusioned as the British did
not make any promises regarding self
government. Thus Indians pressed for
immediate reforms and it was felt that a civil
disobedience movement might be launched
jointly by congress and Muslim league to
compel the British to accelerate the reforms.
In view of these circumstances the British felt
that something must be done to pacify the
Indians. At that time, Edwin Montague was the
Secretary of State for India. In his famous
August Declaration presented before the House
of Commons on 20th August 1917, Montague
said that in order to satisfy the local demands,
his government was interested in giving more
representation to the natives in India. Lord
Chelmsford was sent to India as the new
Governor General. He stayed for six months and
held numerous meetings with different
government and non-governmental people.
Edwin Montague in collaboration with Lord
Chelmsford collected data and made a report
about constitutional reforms in 1918. The
report was discussed in the House of Common
and later it was approved by the parliament.
The Bill was introduced in India in 1919 and
became Act of 1919. This Act, commonly known
as Montague-Chelmsford Reforms, introduced
the following reforms:
The Council of the Secretary of State was to
comprise of eight to twelve people. Three of
them should be Indian, and at least half of them
should have spent at least ten years in India.
The Central Legislature was to consist of two
houses, Upper House (Council of the State), and
the Lower House (Legislative Assembly). Council
of the State was to consist of 60 members, out
of them 35 members would be elected and rest
of them would be nominated by the Governor
General. The Legislative Assembly was to
consist of 144 members, out of them 103 were
to be elected and 41 to be nominated by the
Governor General. The duration of the Upper
House was five and of the Lower House was
three years.
Powers were divided between the center and
the provinces. The important subjects were
vested with the center and unimportant
remained with provinces. The important central
subjects were defense, foreign affairs, custom,
and relations with Indian states, currency and
railway. On the contrary, unworthy provincial
subjects were local self-government, public
health, education etc.
The salary of the Secretary of State for Indian
Affairs should be paid from British exchequer;
previously, his salary was paid by Indian
treasury.
The system of ‘Diarchy’ or a kind of double
government in the Provinces was introduced.
Provincial subjects were divided into two
categories “Transferred and Reserved.”
Transferred subjects which were public health,
education, local self-government, and
agriculture were under the control of Minister;
likewise all transferred subjects were
unimportant. Reserved subjects included
administration, police, land revenue etc. which
were under the control of Governor with the
help of his secretaries. It was indirect control
over transferred department by reserved
department. Hence, Governor was the head of
transferred and reserved subjects.
Indian Constitutional Act of 1919 was passed to
satisfy Indian people. On the contrary, Indian
people opposed it because the Act went against
Congress-League pact thus resulting in the
Hindu opposition. Muslims partly accepted the
Montague-Chelmsford reforms with certain
reservations and demands regarding the safety
of Muslim states. Gandhi categorically rejected
this scheme and congress denounced it as
inadequate, unsatisfactory and disappointing.
Besides these problems, the events like Rowlatt
act, the Jallianwal Bagh tragedy and Khilafat
movement further aggravated the situation and
doomed the reforms to failure. Thus, there
erupted violent communal riots and anti-British
agitations become frequent creating a disdain
for British rule and Montague Chelmsford also
failed as the two vanguard parties rejected its
reforms and considered them to be
unsatisfactory. The only point of the reforms
appreciated by the Indian was that after ten
years, a commission was to assess the reforms
and to bring further improvement in them.
Jalianwala Bagh Massacre (1919)
The Amritsar massacre also known as Jalinawala
Bagh Massacre. Where the British Indian army
opened fire on gathering who gathered in
Jalinawala Bagh for Bisakhi festival. According
to official source 379 people were killed but
according to private source number was much
higher.
In 1919 after the Rowlett Act, Indian National
Congress started mass movement across the
sub-continent. The peaceful political
demonstration in Amritsar quickly transformed
into violence. A crowd that had been
proceeding towards the residence of the
Deputy Commissioner of Amritsar, to demand
the release of two popular leaders against
whom deportation orders had been issued was
fired upon by a military picket. Several banks,
government and private property were set on
fire. Some foreigners were killed, railway lines
were cut, and telegraph and post were
destroyed. Then British governor of Punjab Sir
Michael O’Dwyer declared martial law in Punjab
and instructions were given ”no gathering of
person, nor procession of any sort will be
allowed”.
On 13th April 1919 thousands of Indian
gathered in the Jalinawala Bagh in the heart of
Amritsar. The occasion was of Bisakhi, a
tradition had been established to gather in
Amritsar to participate in the Bisakhi festival.
Those coming of the rural areas were unaware
of events of Amritsar, as communications were
inadequate and highly underdeveloped in
Punjab. The gathering in the Bagh was violation
of order.
The Bagh was bounded on all sides by brick
walls and buildings and had a single narrow
entrance. The British Indian army troops
marched toward the bagh on vehicles. The
vehicle was unable to enter the park compound
due to the narrow entrance. Dyer ordered his
men to open fire, and without any warning to
the crowd to disperse, the troops started firing.
Sixteen hundred and fifty rounds of ammunition
were spent; nearly 400 people, in the
conservative estimate of the authorities
themselves, were killed at the spot. Since there
was no exit except for the one already manned
by the troops, people desperately tried to climb
the walls of the bagh. Some also jumped into a
well inside the compound to escape the bullets.
A plaque in the monument says that 120 bodies
were plucked out of the well. The wounded
could not be moved from where they had
fallen, as a curfew had been declared. Dyer
reported to his headquarters that he had been
‘confronted by a revolutionary army,’ and had
been obliged ‘to teach a moral lesson to the
Punjab.’ Dyer was called to appear before the
Hunter Commission, a commission of inquiry
into the massacre that was ordered to convene
by Secretary of State for India Edwin Montagu,
in late 1919. In the storm of outrage which
followed, Dyer was retired, and placed on the
inactive list. “I think it quite possible that I could
have dispersed the crowd without firing but
they would have come back again and laughed,
and I would have made, what I consider, a fool
of myself.” He said he did not stop firing when
the crowd began to disperse because he
thought it was his duty to keep firing until the
crowd dispersed, and that a little firing would
do no good. He confessed he did not take any
steps to attend to the wounded after the firing.
“Certainly not. It was not my job.” Senior British
officers applauded his suppression of ‘another
Indian Mutiny. The Conservatives presented
him with a jeweled sword inscribed “Savior of
the Punjab.
On the other hand In India, the massacre
evoked feelings of deep anguish and anger. It
catalyzed the freedom movement in the Punjab
against British rule and paved the way for
Gandhi’s Non-Cooperation Movement against
the British in 1920. In 1920 a trust was formed
to build a memorial at the site following a
resolution passed by the Indian National
Congress. A memorial was built on the site in
1961. The bullet holes can be seen on the walls
and the well into which many people jumped
and drowned attempting to save themselves
from the hail of bullets is also a protected
monument inside the bagh. In 1940 an Indian
revolutionary, named Udham Singh, who had
witnessed the events in Amritsar and was
himself wounded, shot dead Sir Michael O’Dyer,
believed to be the chief planner of the massacre
(Dyer having died years earlier) in London. The
action of Singh was generally condemned, but
some, like Amrit Bazaar Patrika, had different
views. The common people and revolutionary
circles glorified the action of Udham Singh, and
his stance in court was it was my duty,
sacrificed for my motherland. HE was hanged in
1940.Jawaharlal Nehru applauded him in 1952
with following statement “I salute shahed a
azam Udham Singh who had kissed the noose
so that we may be free”.
Khilafat Movement (1919-1922)
The Khilafat movement was a very important
event in the political history of India. The
Muslims of India had a great regard for the
Khilafat (Caliphate) which was held by the
Ottoman Empire. During World War I, the
Ottoman Empire (Turkey) joined the war in
favour of Germany. But Turkey and Germany
lost the war and a pact commonly known as
Istanbul Accord was concluded between the
Allied Forces on 3rd November 1918. According
to this Pact the territories of Turkey were to be
divided among France, Greece and Britain.
During the war the Indian Muslims were in a
very awkward position, because they had a
deep-rooted devotion to the caliphate. They
had profound respect for this holy institution.
Therefore, their support to the British
Government was subject to the safeguard and
protection of the holy places of Turkey and on
the condition that Turkey will not to be
deprived of its territories. But the British
Government could not fulfill both of these
promises. The Treaty of Savers 1920 was
imposed on Turkey and its territories like
Samarna, Thrace and Anatolia were wrested
from it and distributed among European
countries. A wave of anger swept across the
Muslin World and the Indian Muslims rose
against the British Government. Muslim leaders
like Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad, Moulana
Muhammad Ali Johar, Moulana Shoukat Ali and
others reacted against the British Government
policy and were put behind the bars.
Thus, Muslims organized a mass movement,
which came to be known as Khilafat Movement.
The aims of this movement were
(a) To protect the Holy place of Turkey
(b) To restore the Territories of Turkey
(c) To restore the Ottoman Empire.
In December 1919 both the Khilafat Committee
and Congress held their meetings
simultaneously at Amritsar and a delegation
was prepared which was sent to England under
the leadership of Maulana Mohammad Ali Johar
to see the British Prime Minister, Cabinet
Member and Members of Parliament and to
explain the Indian point of view regarding the
Khilafat. The delegation visited England in 1920.
The leaders of the delegation addressed the
House of Commons and saw the British Prime
Minister, Lloyd George who paid no heed to the
delegations demand. The delegation stayed at
London for eight months and won many hearts
and sympathies of people in Britain delivering
speeches. However, the delegation returned to
India unsuccessful in October 1920.
After the unsuccessful visit to England the
leaders of Khilafat Movement realized the fact
that British were not in the mood to help them.
Therefore, they realized that a new strategy
needed to be adopted in order to reinvigorate
the zest and zeal for freedom among a general
populace. With this aim they decided to launch
a movement of Non Co-operation. When the
leaders of Khilafat movement announced the
Non Co-operation Movement, the Congress
extended its full support to the Khilafat
Movement. The leaders of the two met at
Amritsar and resolved to launch a country wide
agitation under the leadership of Mr. Gandhi.
The agitation was against the British
government. The Jamiat-ul-Ulama Hind issued a
Fatwa of Tark-e-Mawalat. The following points
were included in it:
1. Renunciation of all Government titles.
2. Boycott of legislature and court.
3. Withdrawal of student’s from educational
institutions.
4. Resignation from government posts.
5. General civil disobedience.
As a result of this proclamation of fatwa,
hundreds of thousands people returned the
titles and stopped sending their children to
government schools and colleges. All those
highly educated young men who could have
rose to high government positions bade
farewell to their bright future and accepted
ordinary jobs in the private sector. The vacuum
created in government offices was joyfully filled
in by Hindus, while the Muslim government
employees willingly accepted starvation for the
sake of the Muslim cause.
Under the hypnotism of Mr. Gandhi, Muslim
ulama had issued a verdict and declared India as
Dar-ul-Harab and the Muslims therefore
needed to migrate to some other country or
Dar-ul-Salam. Thousands of families sold out
their properties for a tenth of their value and
hastily left for Afghanistan, in August 1920. As
many as eighteen thousand people marched
towards Afghanistan, which was unable to bear
the influx of the people. Thus, the Afghan
authorities closed their frontiers. Eventually the
Muhajarins had to return to their homes. A
great number of old man, women and children
died on their way during returning to homes
and those who luckily reach alive their former
places. They found themselves homeless and
penniless. In fact they faced great difficulties.
Even the preachers of Khilafat Movement
realized the fact.
In January 1921, nearly three thousands
students of various colleges and schools
boycotted their classes and a number of
teachers most of them were Muslims tendered
their resignation. The Movement became so
powerful that the Government was obliged to
pay attention to the problem. The British
Government invited Seth Jan-Muhammad
Chutani, the President of Khilafat conference to
visit London to discuss the issue. A delegation
under has leadership visited London and
discussed the sentiment of Muslims but the
delegation also returned unsuccessfully.
The Khilafat Movement came to an end when
thousands of Indians were put behind the bar.
The leaders in spite of their best efforts could
not maintain the Hindu-Muslim Unity. One of
the main reasons which caused a death blow to
Khilafat Movement was the indirect
announcement of Gandhi to discontinue the
Non Co-operation Movement. Gandhi used an
incident of arson on February 1922, when a
violent mob set on fire a police choki at Chora
Churi at district Gorakpur, burning twenty one
constables to death as an excuse to call off the
non-cooperation movement. It adversely
affected the Khilafat Movement which thought
to be integral part of movement. In 1924, Kamal
Ataturk set up a government on democratic
basis in Turkey by abolishing Khilafat as a
system of government which served a finishing
blow to Khilafat Movement in India and people
had lost whatever interest that they had in the
movement.
Failure of the Movement:
1. The abolition of Khilafat by Kamal
Ataturk was a serious blow on Khilafat
movement in the sub-continent and he exiled
Sultan Abdul Majeed, a helpless Caliph and
abolished Khilafat as an institution, due to this
all agitational activities came to an end in the
Sub-continent.
2. The Hijrat Movement made the Muslims
disillusioned with the Khilafat Movement due to
the declaration of India as Darul-Harab. A large
number of Muslims migrated from Sindh and
N.W.F.P to Afghanistan. The Afghan authorities
did not allow them to cross the border. After
this tragic event those who had advocated the
Hijrat movement come to realize their mistake
which resulted in failure of movement.
3. When Khilafat movement became
mature and was reaching its climax. A tragic
incident took place in the village of Chora Churi
in which the police opened fire on the
procession of local resident. The agitated mob
in counteraction set the police station on fires
which in result twenty one police constables
were burnt alive. Due to this incident the Ali
brother and other Muslim leader were arrested
and Mr. Gandhi put off the movement. As a
consequence the movement lost its intensity.
Conclusion:
The Khilafat movement was started to
safeguard the Khilafat in Turkey, an issue which
essentially belonged to the Muslims. By the
involvement of Hindus the Movement grew
forceful and there was possibility of meeting
the movement with success. The British
Government was the common enemy of the
Muslims and Hindus. That is why, both the
nations continued united efforts against it. But
the difference between the Hindus and Muslims
became even more pronounced and many
other events showed that the opposition of
Hindus to British Government was not lasting.
When Khilafat Movement reached at its
success, the Hindus especially Mr. Gandhi gave
up from movement and leaved the Muslims
alone and caused the failure of Movement.
The Khilafat movement proved that Hindus and
Muslims were two different nations as they
could not continue the unity and could not live
together. The Khilafat Movement created
political consciousness among the Indian
Muslims, which inspired them to constitute
another movement for then Independence.
Thus, they started Pakistan Movement.
Hijrat Movement (1920)
Hijrat movement was launched against the
aggressive policies of British government and
for the restoration of Ottoman Empire. World
War 1 broke out in the year 1914 between
Allied forces and Germany. The Ottoman
Empire was very weak and made alliance with
Germany. Muslims of the Indian sub-continent
had spiritual attachment with Ottoman Empire
and refused to join Britain in their war against
Ottoman Empire. British government promised
that they will fight only against Germany and no
harm would be done to the Ottoman Caliphate.
When Allied forces defeated German the
promise was broken. In the Treaty of Serves the
territory of Ottoman Empire was distributed
between French and Britain and small portion
to Turkey. Khilafat Movement was launched for
the restoration of the Ottoman Caliphate,
Congress supported the movement and mass
mobilization was at its peak. The British
government issued Rowlett Act in 1919,
indefinitely extending emergency measures to
control public unrest and root out conspiracies.
The British government became more
aggressive due to mass mobilization and
arrested Muslims leaders including Ali brothers
and Azad. Around thirty thousand Muslims
were detained. In the meanwhile Jallian Bagh
incident occurred whose purpose was to
demand the release of Muslims prisoners. Hijrat
movement was the result of intolerable
behavior of British government.
When Khilafat movement was at its peak, in the
meantime a voice arose from Lucknow
declaring the India sub-continent as Dar-ul-Harb
(home of war), urging the Muslims to migrate
from their homeland on the plea of few Ulama
of India as a result of their inability to compete
against the aggressive steps of the British, they
ought to go somewhere else. Moulana Abdul
Kalam Azad, Moulana Abdul Bari Farangi,
Moulana Muhammad Ali and Moulana Abdul
Majeed Sindhi issued a Fatwa which declared
migration from India Dar-ul-Harb (home of war)
to Dar-ul-Aman (home of peace) desirable for
the Muslims of India after World War I. Nazims
were appointed in every big city and a central
office was established in Delhi known as
Khuddam-ul-Muhajireen to motivate Muslims
for migration. Giving importance to the
announcement of Ulema most of the Muslims
decided to migrate to the nearest Muslim
country Afghanistan, which was thought a
suitable for their shelter. Muslims of the Indian
sub-continent were unable to spend their life
according to teachings of Islam and Islamic
culture under British rule. Hijrat movement was
considered such an important virtue that the
Muslims were not even made to hear a minor
word in opposition of the movement and it
became so dominant that even Non-
cooperation Movement paled before it.
Muslims sold their property and headed for
Kabul. A group of 750 Muslims Muhajireen form
Sindh set out for Kabul under the leadership of
Barrister Jan Muhammad Junejo. This group of
Muslims received an enthusiastic reception at
every train station it passed; this enhanced the
vigor for migration amongst the Muslims of
Punjab. The popularity of movement can be
determined from the fact the more than thirty
thousand Muslims had left for Kabul in the
second week of August 1920. The movement
spread out to the Frontier province and locals
became more active to surpass other in this
sacred cause. The movement was undertaken
as religious significance. The rural areas of
N.W.F.P province such as Peshawar and Mardan
were the worst affected areas. The local Hindus
motivated Muslims for migration and started
buying their land and cattle at throw-away
price. A land worth of ten thousand was sold for
one hundred and a Bull worth of two hundred
was sold for forty rupees only. The carvans of
emigrants who were moving towards
Afghanistan via Peshawar and Khyber Pass were
brought up and nourished by the locals. A
proper setup was made for their hospitality,
donations from locals and dedicated their time
and energy for the help of refuges. A Sarai at
Namak Mandi Peshawar was reserved for the
stay and hospitalization of the emigrants.
Majority of Muslims leaders from N.W.F.P were
in the favour of Hijrat movement including,
Abdul Ghaffar khan, Abbas khan, Muhammad
Akbar khan and Ali Gul khan and they
themselves migrated to Afghanistan with
common refuges.
The migration took place at a large scale, a very
large number of people majorly from lower
class of society, the common people, the poor
people left from India to Afghanistan. The
emigrants carried out their journey on foot and
carts because sources of transportation were
not that mush developed at that time. In the
beginning the Afghanistan government
welcomed Indian Muslims and King Amanullah
ruler of Afghanistan appointed Muhammad
Iqbal Shedai as his minister for refuges. Afghan
government later on closed down their frontiers
when they found flood of refugees were coming
would be too difficult for them to handle. Even
those who have managed to enter successfully
were spending miserable life and disgusted
because Afghanistan was a poor country and
facing many internal problems. The refugees
came across so many hardships and soon they
were force to take a journey back home. Some
of the refugees went to Soviet Union and
Europe.
Hijrat movement was an emotional and ill
advised movement and it had no potential to
have constructive result. Majority of Ulema and
leaders of public opinion did not approve,
including Moulana Ashraf Ali Thanvi, Habib-ur-
Rehman, Hakeem Ajmal khan, Sahibzada Abdul
Qayyum khan and Alama Inayatullah khan.
Hijrat movement ended in misery for the
Muslims because it was unplanned and was
based on the emotions and had not taken into
account the realities of Afghanistan. It was an
unwise act of Muslims of Sub-continent lost
their lives, home, crops and cattle. It was act of
serious blunder of Muslims not looking into
consequences and made them from poor to
poorer. Muslims were at the brink of disaster
and facing Hindu opposition because they had
nothing in India now as they sold whatever they
had. Sincere and zealous Muslims suffered
severe hardships; however Hijrat movement
reinforced the total commitment of Muslims
sacrifice for the ideology, principles and
teaching of Islam.
Delhi Proposals (1927)
In order to break the ice and to bridge the gulf
between the Muslims League and Congress so
that they could present common demands
before the British for the legislation of the new
Act, a group of prominent Muslims, mostly
members of the two chambers of the central
met at Delhi on March 20, 1927. M.A. Jinnah
presided over the session. The proceedings
were held in camera and lasted for almost
seven hours. They knew that the greatest
constitutional contention between Muslim
League and Congress was the matter of
electorate. Congress propagated joint
electorates as to them separate electorates
would have weakened the foundations of the
Indian nationalism. Whereas Muslim League out
of their insecurity of undermined
representation were not ready to let go of their
demand for separate electorate. Jinnah and
team realized that they could only convince the
Congress to accept a common agenda if they
withdrew the League’s demand of Separate
electorate. They discussed and tried to chalk
out the conditions following which the system
of Joint Electorates could be accepted. After a
prolonged discussion it was unanimously
resolved that League should accept a
settlement with the Congress on the basis of
certain proposals; the concluded agreement
came to be known as Delhi Proposals. Jinnah
and company declared that they would
withdraw the demand of Separate Electorates
provided the following demands will be
accepted by the Congress:
Sind should be separated from Bombay and
should be constituted into an independent
province.
Reforms should be introduced in the North-
West Frontier Province and Baluchistan on the
same footing as in any other province of India.
Reservation of seats according to the
population for different communities in the
Punjab and Bengal.
Muslims should be given 1/3rd representation
in the Central Legislature.
The relinquishment of the right to separate
electorate was an unprecedented concession by
the Muslims and it was a major achievement of
Jinnah to have convinced his colleagues to
concede this. It was the first time that the
Muslim League had agreed to joint electorates
and would not do so ever again. The Muslim
League was, however, divided because of these
proposals and prominent Muslim League
leaders, mainly from the Punjab, under the
leadership of Sir Muhammad Shafi, decided to
part away for the Jinnah Group.
Simon Commission
In Government of India act, 1919 there was a
provision, that to examine the constitutional
reforms and to know the reaction of Montage-
Chelmsford reforms after ten years a
government will appoint a commission who will
make recommendations for adequate
amendment. According to government
Montage-Chelmsford reforms were infavor of
Indian natives but on the opposite side the
Indian natives were not satisfied of these
reformers it was against their expectation So,
however some things was better than nothing
but it was reality that government was failed to
get the favor of Indian people. In, 1927 Lord
Irwin was Viceroy of India. Who appoint a
commission under instruction of British
government which was consist of seven
members under Sir John Simon. Sir John Simon
was its chairman. The instruction were given to
the chairman that they had to investigate the
Indian constitution problems then they had to
present a detailed report in which they
mentioned the adequate reforms .All the
members of commission were British, even they
did not included a single Indian member. Indian
leaders make them to realize that to examine
the problems and felling of Indian nation they
should appoint Indian member in commission
so, they can solve the problems of Indian
people because without this they cannot take
any decision for the future of Indian.
Simon commission reached at Bombay on 3rd
February, 1928.Before the arrival of this
commission all the leaders decided that in any
case they all will boycott the commission.One
day before the arrival of commission viceroy
lord Irwin requested them to cooperate with
commission but the non-governmental people
took it easy. On February, 1928 when the
budget session was going to start in assembly
they decided to present the resolution for
boycott of Simon commission. RajaGhazanfar
Ali, Nawab Ismaeel Khan LalaLajpatRai had
already spread a wave against the commission.
Firstly, Nawab Ismaeel was not agreeing to
boycott the commission because he thought
that if we boycott against it than it will promote
the congress.On16th February,
1928LalaLajpatRai who was the member of the
assemblypresented the movement of boycott of
commission. The movement was accepted with
62 votes out of 68 except this it was also
decided that the members were not going to be
sent who were appointed by the central
assembly. If the governments itself appoint
them they themselves refused to sit with them.
Council of commission selected three members
but there were restrictions that they will only
help them when the commission will needed
them.
Unfortunately, at that time Muslim league was
decided into two groups Shafi league and
Jinnahleague. The confusion amongst them was
temporary but during thisperiod Muslim
clearlygets to know the intentions of Hindus.
Because of this contradiction ideology Sir Shafi
supported commission. The reason which he
explained to support the commission was that
by opposing the commission Hindus will get
more chances on government level.According
to his idea the congress was Hindu party and
every step of Hindus on politics will be against
Muslims, If Hindus were opposing the
commission it does not mean that theywant to
cooperate with Muslims. It was just because
that they want to pressgovernment to fulfill
their demands.
When Sir John Simon reached Delhi from
Bombay he announced that he will considered
the opinion of selective members and will make
a committee consist on a few members. The
committee will always be with them. But the
people of India were not satisfied with this
announcement. TheCommission started his
Indian tour. There were strikes in all over India
against commission. But in Lahore there were
extreme conditions. On30th October, 1928 the
commission reached Lahore through train.
People were gathered at the station; at noon
big crowd was raising slogans “Simon Go
Back”.LalaLajpatRai, Molana Abdul Qadir
Qureshi, and MolanaZafar Ali were leading the
procession. When they reached near Landa
Bazaar there were fence of wires. The
procession stopped there and raising slogans
against commission. Then suddenly the clash
started between police and protesters. The
police officer Mr. Scott started beaten the
people who were in front line. During this
LalaLajpat was hit near his heart at that time he
never feel pain but after few days he died of
this. The Commission never stopped his work
although people were opposing it. And at last
on April, 1929 after the tour of India they went
back and finally presented their report.
There were following recommendations on
Commissions report:
The Diarchy system in the provinces should be
abolished and all the portfolios should be
handed over to the provincial ministers.
The power of the central government and the
provincial governors should be reduced.
Federal system of government should be
introduced in India.
The right to vote should be extended to more
people.
An expert committee should be constituted
regarding the separation of Sindh from Bombay.
The separation of Sindh was not granted in
principal. First there would have to be a close
and detailed enquiry into the financial
consequences which would follow such a step.
The demand of the frontier for equal status was
also neglected.“The inherent right of a man to
smoke a cigarette”, said the report“must
necessarily be curtailed if he lived in a powered
magazine.”
The report was not acceptable for Muslims,
Hindus and also for the elected members of the
Indian legislative assembly.
Nehru Report (1928)
Under the Act of 1919, new reforms were to be
introduced in India by the British Government
after every 10 years. For this purpose Simon
Commission was sent to India in 1927. Most of
the Indian political parties decided to boycott
the Commission on the plea that it lacked
Indian representation. The British decided to
throw the ball in the court of Indian Politicians.
Lord Birkendhead, Secretary of State for Indian
Affairs, challenged the Indians, “If they have any
political capability and competence then they
should form a unanimous constitution and
present it to us and we will implement it.”
Indian political parties accepted the challenge
and called an All Parties Conference at Delhi in
January 1928. The conference was attended by
around hundred delegates from all the
important parties including Indian National
Congress, All India Muslim League, National
Liberal Federation, Hindu Mahasabha, Central
Sikh League etc. The conference failed to reach
a conclusion on the issue of the rights of
minorities. The second round of the All Parties
Conference was held in March the same year.
Two sub-committees were formed but the end
result was not different from the first session. It
was during the third session of the All Parties
Conference held at Bombay in May 1928 that a
seven members committee under the
chairmanship of Motilal Nehru to determine the
basic features of the future constitution of
India.
Despite many hurdles, the Nehru Committee
completed its task and its report, commonly
known as Nehru Report was presented in the
fourth session of the All Parties Conference held
in August 1928. The Committee declared that it
was useless to ask anything less than complete
Swaraj and presented the following demands:
India should be given Dominion Status with the
Parliamentary form of Government.
There should be a bi-cameral legislature
consisting of senate and House of
Representatives. The senate will comprise of
two hundred members elected for seven years,
while the House of Representatives should
consist of five hundred members elected for
five years.
Governor-General will act on the advice of
executive council. It was to be collectively
responsible to the parliament.
There should be Federal form of Government in
India with Residuary powers to be vested in
Centre.
There will be no separate electorate for
minorities. It claimed “since separate electorate
awakens communal sentiments therefore it
should be scrapped and joint electorate should
be introduced”.
System of weightage should not be adopted for
any province.
There will be no reserved seats for communities
in Punjab and Bengal. However, reservation of
Muslim seats could be possible in the provinces
where Muslim population should be at least ten
percent.
Judiciary should be independent from the
Executive
There should be 1/4th Muslim Representation
at Centre
Sind should be separated from Bombay
provided it proves to be financially self
sufficient.
Reforms should be introduced in NWFP
The report was not acceptable to Muslims and
both the Muslim members of the Committee
did not sign it. Syed Ali Imam, due to bad heath
could not attend the meetings of the
Committee while Shoaib Qureshi refused to sign
the repot. In the fourth session of the All Parties
Conference convened in December to review
the Nehru Report, Jinnah representing the
Muslim League presented following four
amendments in the report:
There should be no less than one-third Muslim
representation in the Central Legislature.
In event of the adult suffrage not being
established, Punjab and Bengal should have
seats reserved for the Muslims on population
basis.
The form of the constitution should be Federal
with residuary powers vested in the provinces.
Sind should immediately be made a separate
province and the reforms should also be
introduced in NWFP and Balochistan at the
earliest.
Jinnah’s proposals were rejected when put to
vote in All Parties Conference. The Congress
managed to get the majority vote in favour of
the Report. They asked the Government to
make a constitution till December 31 according
to the recommendations of Nehru Report and
threatened that otherwise the party would start
a mass movement for the attainment of Swaraj.
It was also decided that January 26 would be
celebrated as the Independence Day. Jinnah
considered it as the “parting of the ways” and
once the “Ambassador of Hindu-Muslim Unity”
was now convinced that the Hindu mindset in
India was bent upon pushing the Muslim
minority to the wall.
Fourteen Points of Quaid-i-Azam
In order to counter the proposals made in the
Nehru Report, Jinnah presented his proposal in
the form of Fourteen Points, insisting that no
scheme for the future constitution of the
government of India will be satisfactory to the
Muslims until and unless stipulations were
made to safe guard their interests. The
following points were presented by the Quaid
to defend the rights of the Muslims of the sub-
continent:
The form of the future constitution should be
federal, with the residuary powers to be vested
in the provinces.
A uniform measure of autonomy shall be
granted to all provinces.
All legislatures in the country and other elected
bodies shall be constituted on the definite
principle of adequate and effective
representation of minorities in every province
without reducing the majority in any province
to a minority or even equality.
In the Central Legislature, Muslim
representation shall not be less than one third.
Representation of communal groups shall
continue to be by separate electorates:
provided that it shall be open to any
community, at any time, to abandon its
separate electorate in favor of joint electorate.
Any territorial redistribution that might at any
time be necessary shall not in anyway affect the
Muslim majority in the Punjab, Bengal and the
NWFP.
Full religious liberty i.e. liberty of belief,
worship, and observance, propaganda,
association, and education, shall be guaranteed
to all communities.
No bill or resolution or any part thereof shall be
passed in any legislature or any other elected
body if three fourths of the members of any
community in that particular body oppose such
a bill, resolution or part thereof on the ground
that it would be injurious to that community or
in the alternative, such other method is devised
as may be found feasible practicable to deal
with such cases.
Sind should be separated from the Bombay
Presidency.
Reforms should be introduced in the NWFP and
Balochistan on the same footing as in other
provinces.
Provision should be made in the Constitution
giving Muslims an adequate share along with
the other Indians in all the services of the State
and in local self-governing bodies, having due
regard to the requirements of efficiency.
The Constitution should embody adequate
safeguards for the protection of Muslim culture
and for the protection and promotion of
Muslim education, language, religion and
personal laws and Muslim charitable
institutions and for their due share in the
grants-in-aid given by the State and by local
self-governing bodies.
No cabinet, either Central or Provincial, should
be formed without there being a proportion of
at least one-third Muslim ministers.
No change shall be made in the Constitution by
the Central Legislature except with the
concurrence of the States constituting the
Indian Federation.
Muslim League made it clear that no
constitutional solution will be acceptable to
them unless and until it en cooperates the
fourteen points.
Khudai Khidmatgar Movement
Khudai Khidmatgar was basically a social
movement that was initiated by Badshah Khan
in Pakhtun dominated areas. The purpose of
this movement was to bring reform in the
Pakhtun society. As it is known to every single
individual that the Pakhtun follow their own
code of life also called Pushtunwali in their own
set up that consist on Jirga (council), Melmastia
(hospitality), Badal (revenge), and Nanawaty
(to give security to some one). Due to some
unchangeable principles of Pushtunwali, the
Pakhtun society was entangled in endless tribal
feuds. The reason was obvious that the
Pakhtuns were following the already made
stereotypes, so in this struggle the Khudai-
Khidmatgar tried there best to eliminate the
concept of deep rooted stereotypes from the
Pashtoon society on the bases of social-cultural
reforms and educational network. This would
help them to put the Pashtoon society on the
path of development.
This movement was fundamentally based on
two things, firstly, to serve the humanity by
focusing on idioms like education for all,
encouraging poetry and music and literature
and to eradicate the vicious roots of violence
among Pashtoons. As for as the connotation of
Khudai- Khidmatgar is concerned, it mean
servants of God. But as God needs no service
and help, so by serving God mean to serve the
humanity. Similarly, the non violence become
the base of the Khudai-Khidmatgar movement
for a purpose that the Pashtoon society was
already dominated by tribal feuds as discussed
earlier .So to demolish this curse from the
Pashtoon society and to unite them under the
single platform. The Khudai-Khidmatgar started
the idea of non violence. This would basically
help them to show a united front against the
British imperial designs. With the passage of
time this social movement was transformed
into a political movement. This movement had
and also has a deep influence on the Pashtoon
society.
Education: In those days the people of NWFP
(KPK) was in-fact groping in the dark. Neither
the Government Organizations had any
arrangement for the education. If any school
was established in a village, the Mullaahs
allowed non to go to schools. Therefore under
the patronage of Haji Sahib Turangzai A.G.K.
and his colleagues founded a “Dar-ul-ulum”
which the British deputy commissioner equated
with a gun by which AGK would sooner or later
hit London. The first school was opened by AGK
in Utmanzai during 1910 and similar schools
were opened in different villages. The ultimate
objective of the movement was to prepare the
people for a rebel against the British
Government. For the education and training of
such individuals an Azad Islami High School was
established in 1921. Emphasis was also given to
the women education.
Religious Reforms: The K.K’s (Khudaayi-
Khidmatgar’s) theocratic approach to Islam and
tried to acquaint muslims with its true spirits.
The movement is also against sectarianism.
There are some who offer prayers and claim to
have faith in Allah and His Prophet PBUH, yet
propagate sectarianism. There are Shias, Sunnis,
Fiquies and Wahabis etc, each claiming himself
right and the other wrong. They all believe in
Allah yet declare each other Kaafir on the basis
of minor issues. This depravity has in-fact been
created by the self-seekers in the guise of
religion. The movement also persuades the
people to seek guidance from Shariat in their
disputes.
Economic Reforms: The KKs bring reforms in
individual economy as well as National
economy. As they ban musical concerts
extravagance in the marriage ceremonies. As
the Pakhtoons give sump tons meals to fairly
large number of people, as it’s done even today
and hired male and female dancers upon whom
the host and guest alike emptied their pockets.
The K.Ks requested people in the name of
religion and Pathan honor to shun this bad
habit of squandering their wealth, quite often
borrowed for each occasions. The prohibit sqat
(money in cash and kind distributed at the same
time of funeral). Nobody can deny the
significance of charity. It is good if it is given not
as a custom but solely in the name of Allah.
Moreover the recipient must publically refuse it
if he is sure the heir is below puberty, debtor or
taken in on interest or any other unlawful way.
Such a refusal would thus become a precedent
for others to follow and the people would get
rid of this vicious practice. The movement also
advocates the use of country made cloth of
“khaddar”. Moreover it stressed upon the use
of country cotton presses and country spinning
wheels. Moreover the movement attracted the
illiterate and hard-headed Pakhtoons towards
manual labor through examples from the lives
of the Prophet, like Hazrat Idrees AS, who was a
tailor by profession. A.G.K quotes the Holy
Prophet as saying: “Allah Befriends Workers”.
Political Role
During the Khilafat Movement when Maulana
Abdul Bhari, Abdul Kalam Azad and other
scholars declared India Darul-harb. Then a lot of
people decided to leave India for Afghanistan.
When these migrants were leaving India via
north-west frontier province they were
welcomed warmly by the Khudai-Khidmatgars.
Khudai-Khidmatgars hired hotels in Kisa Khani
bazar and other areas of Peshawar. A lot of
Khudai-Khidmatgars themselves thronged to
Afghanistan in the leadership of Khan Abdul
Ghafar Khan. Khudai-Khidmatgar played an
important role in the independence of India
from the British Raj. Realizing the situation, it
decided to join Congress for this purpose as it
was the only party which was fighting for
‘Sawraj’ (independence) of India. The Khudai-
Khidmatgar movement played an important
role in the civil disobedience movement
launched by Congress during 1931-1934. It
faced a lot of brutalities by the British
government. Their businesses and buildings
were perished. The British government
harassed them and their family members
sexually, but they did not lose passions and did
not adopt any violent way. Its leader Khan
Abdul Ghafar Khan was arrested and exiled time
and again by the British government.
Allahabad Address (1930)
In this address, Allama Iqbal gave the lucid
explanation of the inner feeling of the Muslims
of India. He narrated the basic principles of the
Islam and loyalties of the Muslims to their faith.
He gave the idea and concept about a separate
homeland in this address because the Muslim
were a nation and had a right that they got the
identification and passed their lives in order to
the Islamic principles. Due to these reasons, he
expressed his thoughts in this address.
There were many reasons which caused
Muslims to think about the separate homeland
and compelled to protect the rights of the
Muslim. There was a two branched attack on
the Muslim interests. On the one side, Hindus
were creating the restrictions in the way of the
Muslim and hurting the feeling of the Muslim to
propose the Nehru report as the ultimate
constitution for India. On the other side, the
British government totally ignored the Muslim’s
rights and other facilities were not being
provided to them. They were ignored in every
field of life, especially in education and
government.
In that critical condition, Allama Muhammad
Iqbal realized that these eccentric problems of
the Muslims in North West India needed to be
addressed. In order to solve these problems,
Allama Iqbal pointed a line of action.
In his address, Allama Iqbal explained that Islam
was the major and determining factor in the life
of Indian Muslims. He defined the Muslims of
India as a nation and recommended there could
be no possibility of peace in India without
recognizing them as one. Unless the Muslims
are considered as a nation and their rights are
protected, it is impossible to establish peace
and order in the land. Because there are many
nations in the land, every nation is distinguished
from the other in their customs, traditions and
religion. The difference in the mind, difference
in thoughts and religion furthermore, difference
in the customs and tradition make them unable
to live together. So in these condition, it is
essential that Muslim have a separate
homeland as without a separate homeland they
might face many difficulties for the rest of their
life in united India.
As the permanent solution to the Muslim
Hindus problem, Iqbal proposed that Punjab,
North West Frontier province, Baluchistan, and
Sindh should be converted into one state. He
expressed that the northwestern part of the
country should be established to unite as a self-
governed unit, within or without the British
Empire.
Islam and Nationalism
In his address, Allama Iqbal explained that Islam
was the major formative factor in the life
history of Indian Muslims. It furnished those
basic emotions and loyalties, which gradually
unify scattered individuals and groups and
finally transform them into a well-defined
people, possessing a moral consciousness of
their own.
He defined the Muslims of India as a nation and
suggested that there could be no possibility of
peace in the country unless and until they were
recognized as a nation. He claimed that the only
way for the Muslims and Hindus to prosper in
accordance with their respective cultural values
was under a federal system where Muslim
majority units were given the same privileges
that were to be given to the Hindu majority
units. In this section, Iqbal addressed the idea
the Islam and nationalism. Islam is a way of life
in which the Muslims spend their lives with
peace and harmony, it gives the principles to
regulate and organize life and also form the
identification of a separate nation within the
Muslim psyche. Islam provides the Muslims
with a separate identification and distinguishes
them from others because its customs and
traditions are different from other religions and
this faith stresses upon monotheism and
acceptance of the Holy Prophet’s principles.
As far as nationalism is concerned, it can be said
that nationalism comes through Islam in
Muslims, Islam provides a different way of life.
Although Islam is a religion yet it declares the
rules and regulations about the different
aspects of life. On the other hand, Europeans
considered Islam as a private affair and thought
that Islam should not guide political conditions.
Whereas Iqbal explained that Islam was not a
private matter, the demand of separate
homeland was based on Islam as it did not
neglect the common life. “Man,” says Renan “is
enslaved neither by his race nor by his religion,
nor by the course of rivers, nor by the direction
of mountain ranges. A great aggregation of
men, sane of mind and warm of heart, creates a
moral consciousness which is called a nation.”
The question of unity
In this section of his speech, Iqbal narrated the
principle of unity and whether unity in different
nations was possible or not. According to Iqbal’s
point of view, there are many nations in this
sub-continent and every nation has its own
social, political, and religious structure. Without
partition, establishment of peace and order in
this land is impossible; nevertheless they can
pass their lives with peace. One reason is that
one nation does not accept the customs and
traditions of other nations and consider them
lower. This thing expressed that peace and
harmony can be established but only after the
division of the Indian sub-continent to facilitate
the Muslims to implement their religion.
Muslim Indians within India
The unity of nations is not only territorial as is
believed by European countries. India is a
continent of human groups belonging to the
different races, speaking different languages,
and professing different religions. Their
behavior is not at all determined by a common
race consciousness.
Conclusion
As a permanent solution of the problems was
that division of continent was essential in the
sight of Iqbal that is why Allama Iqbal presented
his ideas in this speech.
Round Table Conference
The three Round Table Conferences of 1930–32
were a series of conferences to formulate
future constitution of India in the light of
suggestions given by the Indian Leaders. In
Indian Act 1919, it was said that new reforms
will be introduced in Indian Act 1929. So they
started planning for 1929 Act. In 1927 British
Government appointed a commission to draft
coming constitution which is called Simon
Commission. There was no representative of
Indians in this Commission that’s why all the
parties decided to boycott of this commission
except Shafi League. There was great
resentment among Indians because they were
waiting for last ten years. Congress wanted a
clear declaration from British Government that
the main aim of these conferences would be to
draft a scheme for Dominion Status to India. On
19 June, 1930 British Prime Minister Ramsay
MacDonald summoned the Indian Leader to
attend these conferences. On 13 March, 1930
Gandhi decided to celebrate Independence Day
and started Civil Disobedience Movement for
complete independence of India. However,
Muslim leaders stayed away from the
movement because Hindus were exploiting the
Muslim demand for their own rights.
Muhammad Ali Jinnah had already given a
proposal to British Prime Minister to settle
down this issue in London. Gandhi had given
ultimatum for the approval of Nehru Report. In
this scenario, when the first Round Table
Conference started M.K Gandhi and Jawaharlal
Nehru were in the jail. Muhammad Ali Jauhar in
April 1930 declared, ‘‘The aim of the movement
was not to work for Indian independence but to
make Muslims slave of Hindu Maha Sabah’’.
Along with sixteen British members, there were
fifty seven representatives from all Indian states
and all parties except Indian National Congress.
Muslim Leaders: Quaid-e-Azam, Sir Agha Khan,
Muhammad Ali Jauhur, .Maulvi Fazl Haq and Sir
Muhammad Shafi Hindu Mahasabha: B. S.
Moonje and M.R. Jayakar Liberals: Tej Bahadur
Sapru, C. Y. Chintamani and Srinivasa Sastri
Sikh: Sardar Ujjal Singh Depressed Classes: B. R.
Ambedkar Princely states: Akbar Hydari (Dewan
of Hyderabad), Mirza Ismail (Diwan of Mysore),
Kailas Narain Haksar of Gwalior, Maharaja
Bhupinder Singh of Patiala, Maharaja Sayajirao
Gaekwad III of Baroda, Maharaja Hari Singh of
Jammu and Kashmir, Maharaja Ganga Singh of
Bikaner, Nawab Hamidullah Khan of Bhopal, K.S.
Ranjitsinhji of Nawanagar, MaharajaJai Singh
Prabhakar of Alwar and the rulers of Indore,
Rewa, Dholpur, Koriya, Sangli and Sarila. After
lengthy debate, it was decided that federal
form of government will be established for
India. The Central Executive would be
responsible to Federal Legislature. Provinces
will be given autonomy in their own affairs and
Sindh will be considered a separate province
with a responsible government. Two sub-
committees were also appointed one will work
out the detail of Federal form of government
and the other one will sort out the problems of
minorities. Both communities failed to reach
any logical conclusion. On January 19, 1931, the
first round table conference was officially
finished. Lord Irwin decided that in the absence
of Congress leaders the future of India could
not be decided. On January 25, 1931, M.K
Gandhi and his colleagues were released from
jail and Gandhi-Irwin Pact was signed. The presence of the Congress which even enhanced
Second Round Table Conference, lasted 7 the level of hostility between the Hindu and the
September 1931 to 1st December 1931, made Muslims and the communal award proved even
more controversies for British Government. final blow to the relations of the two
Maulana Muhammad Ali Jauhar has died before communities of Indian subcontinent. As result
that conference. To resolve the issues of federal of these conferences British Government issued
and minorities, Gandhi appointed himself the a White Paper based on the recommendations
member of both committees. In the absence of which was handed over to Select Committee.
other representatives, he remained fail to On July 4, 1935 a new constitution of India
resolve the issues. He presented already came into being which was approved by both of
rejected Nehru Report to resolve the communal the Houses of the Parliament.
problem. Separate electorate for Untouchables
in the award forced Gandhi to start fast unto Communal Awards
death. On August 16, 1932, the British
Under the Act of 1919, after every 10 years new
Government decided to give its famous
reforms were to be introduced in India by the
Communal Award. In this Award, principle of
Indian British Government and for this purpose
Wieghtage was applied (Muslim lost majority in
a commission was formed. The commission was
Punjab, Sikh got advantage in Punjab,
called the Simon Commission that was headed
Europeans got advantage in Bengal because of
by Sir John Simon. This commission was failed in
principle of Wieghtage). Sindh was awarded the
its objective. After this Nehru report was
status of separate province. Finally, Communal
formed in 1928 but this report was rejected by
Award declared untouchables as a minority in
Muslim leaders and Muhammad Ali Jinnah
India and thus the Hindus depressed classes
presented 14 points against this report but
were given a number of special seats. At that All
these points were not accepted by Hindus.
India Muslim League was divided into two
Under these conditions the constitutional crisis
factions, both expressed their dissatisfaction on
took a serious shape and to overcome the crisis
that Award. At last Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad
3 round table conferences were held in London
Ali Jinnah decided to accept this award till
from 1930 to 1932. The first and second round
alternative solution. The Hindu press
table conferences were failed and it was
considered it against the fundamental principle
seemed that it is impossible to resolve the
of nationalism for India. In the third Round
communal problems so in 1932 the British
Table Conference, November 17, 1932 to
Government announced its own formula known
November 24, 1932, the Congress, and Labour
as Communal Award. This award retained
Party did not take part. It was decided to setup
separate electorate for Muslims and all other
a federal legislature in India consisting of
minorities. On the basis of weighage Muslim
elected representatives of the British India and
received more representation in Muslim
of the representatives of the state to be
minority provinces. The European settlers got
nominated by respective ruler. To sum up, we
this privilege in Bengal and Assam while Sikhs in
can say that the first Conference did not gain
Punjab and Hindus in Sind and in N.W.F.P also
success because of the absence of the Congress,
enjoyed this privilege. The right of separate
the Hindu representative and the second
electorate was also given to the Untouchables.
Conference remained fail because of the
The right of separate electorate of the
untouchables under this award was highly
criticized by Gandi and he said that if this right
was not taken back then he will die by
observing the fast. The result of this threat was
that the Hindu leader D.R Ambedkar renounced
the award for the untouchables.
Government India Act of 1935
The Round Table Conferences could not achieve
their objective and thus failed. However on the
suggestions of Round Table Conferences white
paper was issued in 1933 and efforts were
started to make the constitution of India. A
committee was setup under the chairmanship
of Lord Linlithgow, the viceroy of India, to
consider the recommendations of the white
paper. The report of the committee was
published in 1934 that was contained in a bill of
law. The report along with the bill was passed in
the British Parliament. After the Royal assent
the Act was enforced in the country as
Government of India Act 1935. The
Government of India Act 1935 consisted of two
parts. One part was central and the other part
was the provincial. The Act was also contained
14 parts and 10 schedules. The following were
the salient features of the Act:
The Act proclaimed a bicameral legislature. The
one house of the Assembly was called the
Indian Legislature Assembly and the other
house of the Assembly was The Council of State.
The Council of State was the upper house that
was a permanent body i.e that it could not be
dissolved like the lower house of the
Parliament. One-third members of the upper
house had to retire after every 3 years. The
lower house of the Assembly, the Indian
Legislature Assembly, was not an independent
body. The laws passed by the Assembly could
be Veto by Governor-General. The legislature
had no control over the legislature under this
Act.
As regards the Federal Budget it was consisted
of two parts. One part consisted of non-votable
part of the budget that was 80 % of the whole
budget. This part of budget could not be
discussed or amended in the legislature. The
other part of the budget that consisted of 20%
of the whole budget could be discussed or
amended in the Federal Assembly.
The provinces were given more authority and
powers and for the first time the provinces
were made separate entities.
The system of Dyarchy was scrapped in the
provinces and introduced in the centure.
Under the Act there were three lists of subjects.
One was federal , 2nd was provincial and the
3rd was concurrent list.
The whole country was divided in to 11
provinces.
The Governor-General in the centre and the
Governors in the provinces were given special
rights and privileges. In case of emergency
situation both Governor-General and Governors
enjoyed unlimited powers and their authority
could not be challenged in any institution.
Under the Act a Federal Court was established.
The court was consisted of Chief Justice and six
other judges. After the age of 65 the judges of
the Federal court had to vacant the seat
however the any judge of the court could leave
his seat before the age of 65. The court could
interpret the constitution and if Governor-
General needed any help regarding the
constitution matters the court was bound to
give advise but it was totally depended upon
him to accept or reject the advice.
Under the Act the Secretary of State for India
enjoyed the same powers that the other
ministers enjoyed under the Act. The Indian
Council that was created to help him was
abolished under the Government of India Act
1935.
The Act of 1935 failed to win appreciation from
various sectors. Both the Muslim League and
the Indian National Congress expressed their
dissatisfaction over the Act. Hindu leader
Madam Mohan greatly criticized this Act and
Pandat Jawahar Lal Nehru said on the
emergency rights of Governor-General and
Governors that this Act provided that this Act
was like a machine that had strong brakes and
no engine. Muslim leader Muhammad Ali
Jinnah said this scheme thoroughly rotten
fundamentally bad and totally unacceptable.
Shaheed Ganj Dispute (1935)
In 1935, Shaheed Ganj Movement was launched
in the Punjab. It generated a great enthusiasm
among the Punjabi Muslims in particular, and all
the Muslims of the subcontinent in general.
Before going into details of the movement, it
seems pertinent to briefly deal with the history
of the issue of Shaheed Ganj Mosque, which
was the focal point of the dispute. There was an
old mosque in Lahore on the way to the Delhi
gate from Lahore Railway Station near the
Polytechnic Institute known as Shaheed Ganj
The mosque was built by Abdullah Khan, a cook
of Dara Shikoh, elder son of Shah Jehan, the
Mughals Emperor in 1753 A.D., who rose up to
the position of Kotwal (city magistrate) of
Lahore for his services.
Near the mosque, there was a place where
criminals where given punishments during the
tenure of Nawab Moeen-ul-Mulk, a Mughal
governor of the Punjab in the 18th century. In
those days, Taro Singh, a Sikh Saint, was slain
there. After that incident, Sikhs named that
place as ‘Shaheed Ganj’ ‘and built a Gurdwara
(Sikh temple) on that place. Finally, they also
occupied the adjoining mosque during the Sikh
occupation of Lahore. According to another
version, Sikhs used to call their Gurdwara
‘Shaheed Ganj’ as Muslims, following the
footsteps of the Sikhs named the mosque as
‘Shaheed Ganj Mosque’ instead of naming it as
‘Abdullah Khan Mosque’.
After taking over charge of the Shaheed Ganj
mosque and Gurdwara in March 1935, the local
SGPC of Lahore decided to demolish the
mosque ‘to uplift the condition of Gurdwara’.
The mosque was finally demolished on the
midnight of July 8 and 9, 1935. Consequently,
Masjid Shaheed Ganj Movement was launched
by the Muslims in which Syed Jamaat Ali Shah
played a leading role.
To chalk out the future programme, a private
meeting of the Advisory Committee of MajIis-i-
Ittihad-i-Millat was held in the Barkat Ali
Muhammadan Hall on the evening of
November 10, under the president ship of
Jamaat Ali Shah. The question of inauguration
of a civil disobedience campaign was discussed
but taking a final decision on the future
program of action was postponed until January
9.
Over the issue of civil disobedience a split
occurred in the ranks of Majlis-i-Ittihad-i-Millat,
extremists were led by Aminuddin Sahrai and
Haji Ghulam Jilani. They demanded an
immediate start of civil disobedience
movement, but Jamaat Ali was against it. He
was in favour of the legal solution of the
problem because he thought that civil
disobedience movement would result in the
loss of innocent lives, as already many innocent
Muslims had been killed.
It amply shows t hat Syed Jamaat Ali preferred
constitutional and legal course of action to
agitational politics. To him, the lives of the
Muslims were precious, and at no cost he
wanted their blood to spill in vain. Therefore, he
avoided to make any overt and direct
confrontation with the authorities, and insisted
on making a positive engagement with the
government for solving the issue of Shaheed
Ganj Mosque and other related questions.
Jamaat Ali Shah arranged an All-India Ittihad-i-
Millat Conference at Amritsar from January 17-
19, 1936. Its purpose was to secure the
restoration of Shaheed Ganj Mosque and the
tomb of Kaku Shah. The Conference was
attended by 100 delegates from various districts
of the Punjab, the NWFP and the United
Provinces and presided over by Jamaat Ali Shah.
Nevertheless, the Masjid Shaheed Ganj
Movement failed to achieve its aims. David
Gilmartin has alleged that Jamaat Ali Shah’s
leadership proved to be a failure for the
Shaheed Ganj Movement. In fact, this was not
the case. Both extrogenous and endogenous
factors were responsible for the failure of the
Movement. As for the extrogenous causes, the
British Government of Punjab remained
adamant in its stance not to resolve the issue at
any condition because Government could not
afford, after Kashmir Agitation (1931), another
country-wide movement. So to weaken the
Shaheed Ganj Movement, the Government
forfeited the securities of the Muslim
newspapers such as Ahsan, Zarnindar and
Siyast. Moreover, the Government restricted
Muslims not to carry swords in six districts of
the Punjab by imposing the sections 13 and 15
of the Arms Act, while in these six districts Sikhs
were exempted from any restriction of carrying
Kirpans (daggers) and swords. Sikhs who were
direct party to Shaheed Ganj dispute “made all
negotiations impossible by, in fact, refusing to
negotiate” with the Muslims or the
Government.
Internally, the Shaheed Ganj Mosque
Movement too suffered from organizational
problems and internal schisms. After the
departure of Syed Jamaat Ali Shah to Makkah,
the leadership of the movement came into the
hands of the extremist faction. The extremists
wanted to have confrontation with the
government, but their efforts could bear no
fruit. Syed Jamaat Ali Shah’s departure proved a
setback for the movement, as the leadership
gap or vacuum which was created, could not be
adequately filled by those who succeeded him
as leaders of the movement. In addition,
another important factor which contributed to
the failure of the movement was non-
cooperation from the Ahrars, who came into
prominence in 1931 in connection with the
agitation of the Kashmiri Muslims against the
Hindu ruler of the State. Though Syed Jamaat
Ali Shah supported Ahrar in their struggle but
Ahrar did not cooperate in the Shaheed Ganj
Movement. They kept themselves aloof from it
by saying that it was a conspiracy against them.
The Ahrar who considered themselves the
champions of the rights of the Muslims and
interests ‘became silent spectators while whole
Lahore was burning over the issue of Shaheed
Ganj’.
Syed Jamaat Ali Shah despite his old age and
deteriorating health, worked for the success of
the Movement. On the contrary, leaders and
parties which considered themselves as the
representatives of the Muslims i.e. Ahrar,
Khaksar, Unionist, Jamiat-i-Ulema-i-Hind and
nationalist ulema like Abul Kalam Azad kept
themselves aloof from one of the most burning
issues of the Muslims of India in 1930s, and did
nothing substantial for the solution of the
Shaheed Ganj Dispute. On the other hand, the
Hindus, the Congressite nationalist leaders, who
were not direct party to the dispute, were in full
support of Sikhs by condemning Jamaat ALI
Shah and Shaheed Ganj Movement.
Congress Ministries (1937-1939)
Even though Muslim League and Congress were
against the Government of India Act 1935, yet it
was implemented in the winter of 1937. Now,
what lay before them was the task of
persuading their concerned masses to support
them in the upcoming elections. But Muslim
League, which stood for separate electorates,
was unfortunately divided in several factions
owing to personal and ideological differences.
Congress, on the other hand, was raising
slogans of joint electorates. Congress also
wanted Hindi to be declared as the official
language in the Deva Nagri script, while
Muslims were in favour of Urdu in Persian script
to be officially declared as the national language
of the Indian sub-continent.
The result of elections came as a huge shock to
both the parties. Congress, who claimed to be
representing 95% of the total Indian population,
could not even secure 40% of the seats. It won
almost 750 seats out of 1,771 in 8 out of 11
provinces. Its success was restricted to Hindu-
majority provinces only. As for the results for
the Muslim League, they were greatly
disappointing. Out of 491 Muslim seats, it could
only capture 106 and 26 of them were taken by
Congress. Hence, the final success of the
elections was named in the favour of Congress,
which gained majority in Bihar, Orissa, Madras
and U.P and other regions.
The Congress didn’t set up ministries for about
four months demanding British government to
not interfere in its legislative affairs. Discussions
between them took place, and at last, the
British agreed without making any formal
amendment to the Government of India Act
1935. As a result of which, Congress ministries
were formed in July 1937 but with bitter policy
against Muslims: Hindi became the national
language, Congress flag became the national
flag, and Bande Matram became the national
anthem. A strict prohibition was laid on cow
slaughter and singing of Bande Matram, taken
from the novel of Chandra Chatterji, was started
in schools. Construction of new mosques was
banned and Muslims were harassed while they
offered prayers.
Twenty-seven months of Congress rule were
characterized by rising political Hinduism, which
seemed to be working only for the welfare of
Hindu community and revenging the previous
700-year Muslim rule over them, as stated by
some Congress leaders. Educational reforms
were introduced that were purely anti-Muslim
in spirit. The purpose of Warda Taleemi Scheme
was to displace the idea of two nation theory
from minds of Muslim children, while Vidya
Mandar Scheme aimed at promoting Hindu
culture by making Mandar education necessary
at elementary level. Muslims were also kept
back in economic circle. They were expelled
from government offices and career
opportunities were closed for them. Their trade
and agriculture was a target of Hindu’s harm,
and they couldn’t appeal justice which already
had Hindu imprints upon it. As a result, and to
nobody’s surprise but huge dismay, massive
Hindu-Muslim riots took place.
Several reports such as “Pirpur Report”,
“Muslim Sufferings under Congress Rule”, and
“The Sharif Report” were issued by Muslims
leaders to give word and voice to the injustice
and cruelty they were receiving under Congress
reign, and they found expression in
newspapers.
When World War II started in 1939, the British
were fighting against the Axis Powers. The
Viceroy of India announced India’s involvement
without consulting its representative political
leaders. Congress asked for transfer of power in
repayment of their cooperation in war, which
the British government denied. As a result,
Congress ministries resigned. Thus came to an
end the nightmarish rule which had terrorized
Muslim community beyond imagination. Quaid-
i-Azam asked the Muslims to observe it as a
‘Day of Deliverance’ with peace and without
any harmful intent towards any other nation.
Prayers of thanksgiving and gratitude were
offered and Muslims took a sigh of relief from
the atrocities committed against them in the
two-year Congress rule.
Khaksar Tragedy (1940)
The British Government in the Punjab decided
to ban all the paramilitary organizations in the
Punjab and stopped them from parading in
public and also from wearing military uniform.
Khaksars refused to obey the directives and
decided to hold their military parade in the area
of Bhati Gate, Lahore on March 19. When police
tried to disperse the rebels, they resisted and
clashed with the police. This resulted in the
killing of around 50 Khaksars and many other
were injured. The atmosphere of Lahore
became tense. Sir Sikandar Hayat, a Unionist
leader and the then Chief Minister of the
Punjab, tried to persuade Quaid-i-Azam to
postpone the Lahore session of the Muslim
League but failed to convince the latter. Quaid-
i-Azam, when he reached Lahore on March 21,
went straight from the railway station to Mayo
Hospital to enquire about the health of the
wounded Khaksars. By doing so Quaid-i-Azam
handled the controversial issue well and
without annoying the Khaksars managed to
hold the Muslim League session on the planned
dates and time. The Punjab Police Intelligence
had also appreciated Jinnah’s tactics and
farsightedness.
Lahore Resolution (1940)
With the introduction of political reforms in
India by the British, the Muslims realized that
they would become a permanent minority in a
democratic system and it would never be
possible for them to protect their fundamental
rights. They only constituted one fourth of the
total Indian population and were much lesser in
number than the majority Hindu community. In
order to protect their political, social and
religious rights they first demanded for separate
electorates. However, due to the political
developments that took place in the country
they realized that even the right of separate
electorates would not be enough and they had
to search for some other long term solution.
Muhammad Iqbal, the poet philosopher in his
famous Allahbad address made it clear that
Islam has its own social and economic system
and in order to implement it a political entity
was required. When Jinnah came back to India
in order to reorganize Muslim League and to
make it a political party of the Muslim masses,
he got the opportunity to interact with Iqbal.
Iqbal through his letters tried to persuade
Jinnah that the only solution available was a
separate state for the Indian Muslims where
they could spend their lives according to the
teachings of Holy Quran and Sunnah of the
Prophet (SAW). Though Jinnah was convinced
by late 1930s, but being a realist he was not
ready to announce the new plan until he was
confident that the vast majority of the Muslims
were behind him. Overwhelming support from
the Muslim masses for his call to celebrate Day
of Deliverance on December 22, 1939 was
actually a vote of confidence given by the
Muslim Community in the leadership of Jinnah,
whom they by then had started considering as
their Quaid-i-Azam.
Organization
With the clarity of mind and backing of the
Muslim community behind him, Quaid-i-Azam
called for the 27th annual session of All India
Muslim League to be held from March 22 to 24,
1940 at Lahore. Sir Shah Nawaz Khan of
Mamdot was made the head of the reception
committee and Main Bashir Ahmad was
nominated as secretary of the session.
Prominent leaders including Chaudhry
Khaliquzzam, Nawab Muhammad Ismail Khan,
Nawab Bahadur Yar Jang, A.K. Fazlul Haq,
Sardar Abdur Rab Nishtar, Abdullah haroon,
Qazi Muhammad Isa, I.I. Chundrigar, Sardar
Aurangzeb Khan, Khawaja Nazimuddin, Abdul
Hashim and Malik Barkat Ali etc. attended the
session.
Khaksar Tragedy
Due to the Khaksar Tragedy that took place on
March 19, Sir Sikandar Hayat and others tried to
persuade Jinnah to postpone the session but
the determined Quaid was not ready for it. In
order to participate in the session, he reached
Lahore by train on March 21. He went straight
to Mayo Hospital to see the wounded Khaksars.
By doing so he managed to handle well the
issue of Khaksar disturbances. On his arrival
Jinnah told the print media that the All India
Muslim League will make historic decision in the
upcoming session.
Quaid-i-Azam’s Address
The venue of the session was Minto Park near
Badshahi Masjid and Lahore Fort. The inaugural
session was planned at around three in the
afternoon on March 22. People started coming
from the morning and by the afternoon the
park was jam packed. According to a rough
estimate around 100,000 attended the public
meeting. In the beginning of the session, the
welcome address was presented by the Nawab
of Mamdot. This was followed by the historical
speech of Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah.
The Quaid in his two hours presidential address
in English narrated the events that took place in
the past few months and concluded, “Hindus
and the Muslims belong to two different
religious philosophies, social customs and
literature. They neither inter-marry nor inter-
dine together, and, indeed, they belong to two
different civilizations that are based mainly on
conflicting ideas and conceptions. Their
concepts on life and of life are different. It is
quite clear that Hindus and Muslims derive their
inspiration from different sources of history.
They have different epics, different heroes and
different episodes. Very often the hero of one is
a foe of the other, and likewise, their victories
and defeats overlap. To yoke together two such
nations under a single state, one as a numerical
minority and the other as a majority, must lead
to growing discontent and final destruction of
any fabric that may be so built up for the
government of such a state.” He further
claimed, “Mussalmans are a nation according to
any definition of a nationhood. We wish our
people to develop to the fullest spiritual,
cultural, economic, social and political life in a
way that we think best and in consonance with
our own ideals and according to the genius of
our people”.
During his speech the Quaid quoted the letter
written by Lala Lajpat Rai in 1924 to C.R. Das in
which he clearly mentioned that the Hindus and
the Muslims were two separate and distict
nationas which could never be merged into a
single nation. When Malik Barkat Ali claimed
that Lala Lajpat Rai was a “Nationalist Hindu
leader”, Quaid responded, “No Hindu can be a
nationalist. Every Hindu is a Hindu first and
last.”
The Resolution
On March 23, A.K. Fazul Haq, the Chief Minister
of Bengal, moved the historical Lahore
Resolution. The Resolution consisted of five
paragraphs and each paragraph was only one
sentence long. Although clumsily worded, it
delivered a clear message. The resolution
declared:
“While approving and endorsing the action
taken by the Council and the Working
Committee of the All-India Muslim League, as
indicated in their resolutions dated the 27th of
August, 17th and 18th of September and 22nd
of October, 1939, and 3rd of February 1940, on
the constitutional issue, this session of the All-
India Muslim League emphatically reiterates
that the scheme of Federation embodied in the
Government of India Act, 1935 is totally
unsuited to, and unworkable in the peculiar
conditions of this country and is altogether
unacceptable to Muslim India.
It further records its emphatic view that while
the declaration dated the 18th of October,
1939, made by the Viceroy on behalf of His
Majesty’s Government is reassuring in so far as
it declares that the policy and plan on which the
Government of India Act, 1935 is based will be
reconsidered in consultation with the various
parties, interests and communities in India,
Muslim India will not be satisfied unless the
whole constitutional plan is reconsidered de
novo and that no revised plan would be
acceptable to the Muslims unless it is framed
with their approval and consent.
Resolved that it is the considered view of this
session of the All-India Muslim League that no
constitutional plan would be workable in this
country or acceptable to Muslims unless it is
designed on the following basic principle,
namely, that geographically contiguous units
are demarcated into regions which should be so
constituted, with such territorial readjustments
as may be necessary, that the areas in which
the Muslims are numerically in a majority, as in
the North-Western and Eastern Zones of India,
should be grouped to constitute ‘Independent
States’ in which the constituent units shall be
autonomous and sovereign.
That adequate, effective and mandatory
safeguards should be specifically provided in
the constitution for minorities in these units
and in these regions for the protection of their
religious, cultural, economic, political,
administrative and other rights and interests in
consultation with them; and in other parts of
India where Mussalmans are in a minority,
adequate, effective and mandatory safeguard
shall be specially provided in the constitution
for them and other minorities for the protection
of their religious, cultural, economic, political,
administrative and other rights and interests in
consultation with them.
This session further authorizes the Working
Committee to frame a scheme of constitution in
accordance with these basic principles,
providing for the assumption finally by the
respective regions of all powers such as
defence, external affairs, communications,
customs and such other matters as may be
necessary”.
Besides many others, the Resolution was
seconded by Chaudhary Khaliquzzam from UP,
Maulana Zafar Ali Khan from Punjab, Sardar
Aurangzeb from the N. W. F. P, Sir Abdullah
Haroon from Sindh, and Qazi Muhammad Esa
from Baluchistan. Those who seconded the
resolution, in their speeches declared the
occasion as a historic one. The Resolution was
eventually passed on the last day of the moot,
i.e. March 24.
Controversies
The name Pakistan was not used in the
resolution and the official name of the
resolution was Lahore Resolution. It was the
Hindu newspapers including Partap, Bande
Matram, Milap, Tribune etc., who ironically
coined the name Pakistan Resolution. However,
the idea was appreciated by the Muslim masses
and the Resolution is more known as Pakistan
Resolution. Secondly, the Government and
people of Pakistan wrongly celebrate March 23
as a national day in Pakistan. The actual day
when the resolution was passed was March 24.
It was only presented on March 23. Lastly, it the
word “states” and not “state” was mentioned in
the Resolution. It means that the authors of the
Resolution were foreseeing two separate states
in the north-western and eastern zones of India.
But if one has a good look at the developments
that followed, he or she would come to the
conclusion that either the word “states” was
included as a mistake or the League leadership
soon had a second thought to their idea. A
Resolution passed at the 1941 Madras session
of the League stated, “Everyone should clearly
understand that we are striving for one
independent and sovereign Muslim State.” In all
the speeches that Quaid delivered, he also used
the word “an independent homeland” or “an
independent Muslim state”.
Hindu Reaction
The Hindu reaction was, of course, quick, bitter
and malicious. They called the “Pakistan”
demand “anti-national.” They characterized it
as “vivisection; above all, they denounced it as
imperialist – inspired to obstruct India’s march
to freedom.” In denouncing the demand
outright, they, however, missed the central fact
of the Indian political situation; the
astonishingly tremendous response of the
Pakistan demand had elicited from the Muslim
masses. They also failed to take cognizance of
the fact that a hundred million Muslims were
now supremely conscious of their distinct
nationhood and were prepared to stake
everything to actualize their self-perceived
destiny – the creation of an independent
Muslim state in the sub-continent.
British Reaction
The British were equally hostile to the Muslim
demand for at least two important reasons.
First, they had long considered themselves as
the architects of the unity of India and of an
Indian nation. Second, they had long regarded
the super-imposed unity under tax Britannica as
their greatest achievement and lasting
contribution in history. And the Pakistan
demand threatened to undo these presumed
achievements on which the British had long
prided. However, despite the Hindu
denunciation and the British alarm, the course
of Muslim, indeed Indian, politics was from now
on firmly set towards Pakistan.
Conclusion
The All India Muslim League Resolution of
March 1940, commonly known as the Pakistan
Resolution, is undoubtedly the most important
event that changed the course of Indian history
and left deep marks on the world history. With
the passage of this Resolution, the Muslims of
the sub-continent changed their demand from
“Separate Electorates” to a “Separate State.”
This Resolution rejected the idea of a United
India and the creation of an independent
Muslim state was set as their ultimate goal. It
gave new energy and courage to the Muslims of
the region who gathered around Quaid-i-Azam
from the platform of the Muslim League to
struggle for their freedom. The dynamic
leadership of the Quaid and the commitment
and devotion of the followers made it possible
for them to achieve an independent state
within seven years of their struggle, and that
too when the odds were against them.
The August Offer (1940)
In order to win over the sympathies of the
Indian masses and political parties during the
war, His Majesty’s Government issued a White
Paper on August 8, 1940. The document, which
later on is known as the August Offer in history
books, promised for the establishment of an
independent Indian Constituent Assembly with
completely indigenous representation and a
power to frame the future constitution of the
country. The offer also provided the option for
the extension of the Viceroy’s Executive
Council. Simultaneously, the August Offer talked
about the rights of minorities, especially
Muslims as it declared that the majority
community will not be given the veto power
and full weight would be given to the views of
minorities in making of the Constitution.
However, the document made it clear that all
the promises will be fulfilled after the
conclusion of the war and that too if all the
communities and political parties would help
the British in their war efforts.
In order to discuss the August Offer, Quaid-i-
Azam held meetings with the Viceroy, Lord
Linlithgow, on August 12 and 14. This was
followed by the meeting of the Muslim League
Working Committee on September 1 and 2. The
Committee appreciated the clauses of the offer
in which the British agreed to accept that no
future constitution will be recognized by the
Government without the approval and consent
of the minority communities. However, the
committee showed its reservations on issues
like the composition of the Executive Council
and the vagueness of the War Advisory Council.
The working Committee also made it clear that
no formula was accepted to the party which
was against the spirit of the Lahore Resolution
in which clearly declared that the Muslims of
India were a nation by themselves and they
alone were the final judges and arbiters of their
own future destiny. The Indian National
Congress also opposed the offer and their
president, Abul Kalam Azad, even refused to
discuss the formula with the Viceroy.
Cripps Mission (1942)
The British were alarmed at the successive
victories of Japan during 1940s. When Burma
was turned into a battle field and the war
reached the Indian boarders, the British started
feeling more concerned about the future of
India. Situation in the country was further
complicated as the Congress wanted to take
advantage of the situation by accelerating their
efforts in their struggle for independence.
Moreover the differences between the
Congress and the Muslim League were widening
fast and visibly there was no chance to bring
both the parties on a common agenda. In these
circumstances, the British Government sent a
mission to India in 1942 under Sir Stafford
Cripps, the Lord Privy Seal, in order to achieve
Hindu-Muslim consensus on some
constitutional arrangement and to convince the
Indians to postpone their struggle till the end of
the Second World War.
Cripps arrived in Delhi on March 22, 1942 and
had series of meetings with the leading Indian
politicians including Jawaharlal Nehru, Abul
Kalam Azad, Quaid-i-Azam, Sir Sikandar Hayat
Khan, A. K. Fazlul Haq, Dr. Ambedkar, V.D.
Savarkar and Tej Bhadur Sappru etc. In the
meetings Cripps tried to plead his case before
these political leaders and tried to convince
them to accept his following proposals:
During the course of the war, the British would
retain their hold on India. Once the war
finished, India would be granted dominion
status with complete external and internal
autonomy. It would however, be associated
with the United Kingdom and other Dominions
by a common allegiance to the Crown.
At the end of the war, a Constituent Assembly
would be set up with the power to frame the
future constitution of India. The members of
the assembly were to be elected on the basis of
proportional representation by the provincial
assemblies. Princely States would also be given
representation in the Constituent Assembly.
The provinces not agreeing to the new
constitution would have the right to keep itself
out of the proposed Union. Such provinces
would also be entitled to create their own
separate Union. The British government would
also invite them to join the commonwealth.
During the war an interim government
comprising of different parties of India would be
constituted. However, defence and external
affairs would be the sole responsibility of the
viceroy.
Quaid-i-Azam considered these proposals as
“unsatisfactory” and was of the view that the
acceptance of the Cripps proposals would “take
the Muslims to the gallows.” He said that the
proposals have “aroused our deepest anxieties
and grave apprehensions, specially with
reference to Pakistan Scheme which is a matter
of life and death for Muslim India. We will,
therefore, endeavour that the principle of
Pakistan which finds only veiled recognition in
the Document should be conceded in
unequivocal terms.” The Quaid, however, was
happy to know that in the Cripps proposals, at
least the British Government had agreed in
principle to the Muslim League’s demand of the
partition of India. Yet, Quaid-i-Azam wanted the
British Government and Cripps to thoroughly
amend the proposals to make them acceptable
for the Muslim League.
Actually Quaid-i-Azam and other Muslim League
leaders were convinced that Cripps was a
traditional supporter of Congress and thus
could not present an objective solution to the
problem. On the arrival of Cripps, Quaid-i-Azam
made it clear that he was a friend of Congress
and would only support the Congress’ interests.
Congress leaders themselves accepted that
Cripps was their man. On his first visit to India,
Cripps in fact attended the meetings of the
Congress Working Committee. He also visited
Gandhi and was so much impressed by him that
he wore white khadi suit. He openly ridiculed
the Muslim League’s demand for Pakistan when
he said, “we cannot deny 25 carore Hindus
desire of United India only because 9 carore
Muslims oppose it.” In fact the proposals Cripps
presented were mainly consisted of the ideas
which were discussed in a meeting between
Nehru and Cripps in 1938.
Quit India Movement (1942)
The Quit India Movement was a civil
disobedience movement launched in India in
August 1942 in response to Mohandas Gandhi’s
call for immediate independence. The All-India
Congress Committee proclaimed a mass protest
demanding what Gandhi called “an orderly
British withdrawal” from India. The call for
determined, but passive resistance appears in
his call to Do or Die, issued on 8 August at the
Gowalia Tank Maidan in Bombay.
The Quit India Movement was a civil
disobedience movement launched in India in
August 1942 in response to Mohandas Gandhi’s
call for immediate independence. The All-India
Congress Committee proclaimed a mass protest
demanding what Gandhi called “an orderly
British withdrawal” from India. The call for
determined, but passive resistance appears in
his call to Do or Die, issued on 8 August at the
Gowalia Tank Maidan in Bombay.
The British were prepared to act. Almost the
entire Indian National Congress leadership, and
not just at the national level, was imprisoned
without trial within hours after Gandhi’s speech
at least 60,000. Most spent the rest of the war
in prison and out of contact with the masses.
The British had the support of the Viceroy’s
Council (which had a majority of Indians), of the
Muslims, the Communist Party, the princely
states, the Imperial and state police, the Indian
Army, and the Indian Civil Service. Many Indian
businessmen were profiting from heavy
wartime spending and did not support Quit
India. Many militant students paid more
attention to Subhas Chandra Bose, who was in
exile and supporting the Axis. The only outside
support came from the Americans, as President
Franklin D. Roosevelt pressured Prime Minister
Winston Churchill to give in to Indian demands.
The Quit India campaign was effectively
crushed. The British refused to grant immediate
independence, saying it could happen only after
the war ended. In 1939 Indian nationalists were
angry that the British Governor-General of
India, Lord Linlithgow, had without consultation
with them brought India into the war.
At the outbreak of war, the Congress Party had
passed a resolution during the Wardha meeting
of the working-committee in September 1939,
conditionally supporting the fight against
fascism, but was rebuffed when they asked for
independence in return. Gandhi had not
supported this initiative, as he could not
reconcile an endorsement for war (he was a
committed believer in non-violent resistance to
tyranny, used in the Indian Independence
Movement and proposed even against Adolf
Hitler, Benito Mussolini, and Hideki Tojo).
However, at the height of the Battle of Britain,
Gandhi had stated his support for the fight
against racism and of the British war effort,
stating he did not seek to raise a free India from
the ashes of Britain. However, opinions
remained divided.
After the onset of the war, only a group led by
Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose took any decisive
action. Bose organized the Indian National Army
with the help of the Japanese, and, soliciting
help from the Axis Powers conducted a guerrilla
war against the British authorities. The purpose
of the mission was to negotiate with the Indian
National Congress a deal to obtain total co-
operation during the war, in return of
progressive devolution and distribution of
power from the crown and the Viceroy to
elected Indian legislature. The talks failed,
having failed to address the key demand of a
timetable of self-government and of definition
of the powers to be relinquished, and
essentially portraying an offer of limited
dominion-status that was wholly unacceptable
to the Indian movement.
The Congress Working Committee meeting at
Wardha (14th July, 1942) passed a resolution
demanding complete independence from the
British government. The draft proposed massive
civil disobedience if the British did not accede to
the demands. However, it proved to be
controversial within the party. A prominent
Congress national leader Chakravarti
Rajgopalachari quit the Congress over this
decision, and so did some local and regional
level organizers. Jawaharlal Nehru and Maulana
Azad were apprehensive and critical of the call,
but backed it and stuck with Gandhi’s
leadership till the end. On August 8, 1942 the
Quit India Resolution was passed at the Bombay
session of the All India Congress Committee
(AICC). In his Quit India speech that day at
Gowalia Tank, Bombay, and Gandhi told Indians
to follow non-violent civil disobedience. He told
the masses to act as an independent nation. His
call found support among a large amount of
Indians.
The Congress had little success in rallying other
political forces under a single flag and program.
Smaller parties like the Hindu Mahasabha
opposed the call. The Communist Party of India
strongly opposed the Quit India movement and
supported the war effort because of the need
to assist the Soviet Union, despite support for
Quit India by many industrial workers. In
response the British lifted the ban on the party.
The movement had less support in the princely
states, as the princes were strongly opposed
and funded the opposition.
Muslim leaders opposed Quit India.
Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s opposition to the call
led to large numbers of Muslims cooperating
with the British, and enlisting in the army. The
Muslim League gained large numbers of new
members. Congress members resigned from
provincial legislatures, enabling the League to
take control in Sind, Bengal and Northwest
Frontier. Although at the national level the
ability to galvanize rebellion was limited, the
movement is notable for regional success
especially at Satara, Talcher, and Midnapore. In
Tamluk and Contai subdivisions of Midnapore,
the local populace was successful in establishing
parallel governments, which continued to
function, until Gandhi personally requested the
leaders to disband in 1944. A minor uprising
took place in Ballia, now the easternmost
district of Uttar Pradesh. People overthrew the
district administration, broke open the jail,
released the arrested Congress leaders and
established their own independent rule. It took
weeks before the British could reestablish their
writ in the district. Of special importance in
Saurashtra (in western Gujarat) was the role of
the region’s ‘baharvatiya’ tradition (i.e. going
outside the law) which abetted the sabotage
activities of the movement there. In rural west
Bengal, the Quit India Movement was fueled by
peasants’ resentment against the new war
taxes and the forced rice exports. There was
open resistance to the point of rebellion in 1942
until the great famine of 1943 suspended the
movement.
One of the achievements of the movement was
to keep the Congress party united through all
the trials and tribulations that followed. The
British, already alarmed by the advance of the
Japanese army to the India-Burma border,
responded by imprisoning Gandhi. All the
members of the Party’s Working Committee
(national leadership) were imprisoned as well.
Due to the arrest of major leaders, a young and
till then relatively unknown Aruna Asaf Ali
presided over the AICC session on August 9 and
hoisted the flag; later the Congress party was
banned. These actions only created sympathy
for the cause among the population. Despite
lack of direct leadership, large protests and
demonstrations were held all over the country.
Workers remained absent en masse and strikes
were called. Not all demonstrations were
peaceful, at some places bombs exploded,
government buildings were set on fire,
electricity was cut and transport and
communication lines were severed.
The British swiftly responded with mass
detentions. Over 100,000 arrests were made,
mass fines were levied and demonstrators were
subjected to public flogging. Hundreds of
resisters and innocent people were killed in
police and army shootings. Many national
leaders went underground and continued their
struggle by broadcasting messages over
clandestine radio stations, distributing
pamphlets and establishing parallel
governments. The British sense of crisis was
strong enough that a battleship was specifically
set aside to take Gandhi and the Congress
leaders out of India, possibly to South Africa or
Yemen but ultimately did not take that step out
of fear of intensifying the revolt
The ‘Quit India’ movement, more than
anything, united the Indian people against
British rule. Although most demonstrations had
been suppressed by 1944, upon his release in
1944 Gandhi continued his resistance and went
on a 21-day fast. By the end of the Second
World War, Britain’s place in the world had
changed dramatically and the demand for
independence could no longer be ignored.
Jinnah – Gandhi Talks (1944)
The passing of the Resolution on 23rd March by
the All India Muslim League at its Lahore
session created a serious situation for the
Congress leadership. Mohan Das Karam Chand
Gandhi wrote in Harijan on 6th April 1940, “I
admit that the step taken by the Muslim League
at Lahore creates a baffling situation…the Two
Nations theory is an untruth. The vast majority
of Muslims of India are converts to Islam or are
the descendants of converts. They did not
become a separate nation, as soon as they
converted. C. Rajagapalachari, a liberal congress
leader, who had to resign from the Congress
because of his views, however, realised the
necessity for Hindu-Muslim reconciliation as a
pre-requisite for the attainment of
independence. On 23rd April 1942,
Rajagapalachari addressed a small gathering of
his old Congress supporters in the Madras
legislature and had a resolution passed for
submission to the All India Congress committee,
recommending the acceptance of partition in
principle. On 2nd May 1942, he mooted his
proposal on Pakistan in the AICC at Allahabad,
which stated, “…it has become necessary to
choose the lesser evil and acknowledge the
Muslim League’s claim for separation.” The
proposal was rejected by 120 to 15 votes. Rajaji
did not give up hope, but kept on negotiating
with Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah
during April 1944, when Gandhi and other
Congress leaders were in jail. The
correspondence was released to the press on
9th July 1944, and contained what came to be
known as the “Rajaji Formula”. It was intended
to form the basis of the talks between Jinnah
and Gandhi for a settlement of the Hindu-
Muslim problem. Rajaji declared that he had
already obtained Gandhi’s approval for the
formula.
Jinnah placed the formula before the Working
Committee of the Muslim League on 30th July
1944, but personally considered it
unsatisfactory. He told the committee that Mr.
Gandhi is offering a “shadow and a husk, a
maimed, mutilated and moth-eaten Pakistan.”
Though, in his private capacity Jinnah expressed
his pleasure at Gandhi’s acceptance at least of
“the principle of Pakistan.”
Meanwhile Allama Inayatullah Khan Mashriqi,
leader of the Khaksar Movement also addressed
letters to Jinnah and Gandhi urging them to
meet to discuss the Hindu-Muslim problem.
Gandhi took the initiative and wrote to Jinnah,
“Let us meet whenever you wish, do not
disappoint me.” The Muslim League Council
meeting at Lahore invested Jinnah with full
powers to negotiate with Gandhi on its behalf
Jinnah accepted the offer and suggested a
meeting between the two and offering his
residence at Bombay as venue for discussion.
It is worthwhile noting that while Jinnah had full
powers to negotiate on behalf of the Muslim
League, Gandhi was undertaking this enterprise
on his own behalf without the official sanction
of the Congress. Many members of the
Congress expressed disapproval at Gandhi’s
move. The Mahasabha young men shouted
anti-Pakistan slogans at Gandhi’s prayer
meeting at Panchgani. The meeting took place
between the two leaders at Bombay from 9th
September to 27th September. They met
almost daily, and sometimes even twice in a
day. On 27th September, Jinnah announced the
termination of talks after the failure of the two
leaders to reach an agreement saying, “We
trust that this is not the final end of our effort.”
While Gandhi commented,”the breakdown is
only so- called. It is an adjournment sine die.” In
the course of the seventeen day discussions,
they exchanged 24 letters which were later on
made public.
The discussion as well as the correspondence
can be divided into three distinct stages. The
first stage when Jinnah asked Gandhi for
clarification of various points in the Rajaji
formula. The second stage started when
Gandhi, on account of obvious difficulties,
shunted the Rajaji formula, and attempted to
apply his mind to the Lahore Resolution.
Eventually Gandhi made some new proposals
and after this the final breakdown took place.
An analysis of the correspondence dearly shows
that the talk failed because Gandhi simply
refused to accept the Lahore Resolution as
interpreted by Jinnah. He did not believe in the
two nation theory which was the fundamental
basis of the Muslims’ demand, and totally
rejected the Muslims right of self-
determination. On 4th October Jinnah in a press
conference at Bombay said, “In one breath
Gandhi agrees to the principle of division and in
the next he makes proposals which go to
destroy the very foundation on which the
division is claimed by Muslim India.”
On one hand Gandhi wanted a League-Congress
agreement, and on the other denied the
League’s representative character and authority
to speak on behalf of the Mussalmans of India.
In his letter of 25th September 1944, Jinnah
summed up Gandhi’s attitude to the Lahore
Resolution, thus “You have already rejected the
basis and fundamental principles of Lahore
Resolution: 1) You did not accept that the
Muslims of India are a nation. 2) You do not
accept that the Muslims have an inherent right
of self-determination. 3) You do not accept that
they alone are entitled to exercise this right. 4)
You do not accept that Pakistan is composed of
two zones, north-west and north-east,
comprising six provinces, namely, Sindh,
Baluchistan, the North-West Frontier provinces,
the Punjab, Bengal and Assam subject to
territorial adjustments.”
Gandhi wanted that first the people of India
should oust the British with their joint action.
When India was free then by mutual settlement
and agreement two separate states could be
created. Jinnah was not prepared to trust the
words of Gandhi or the Congress. He said
separation must come first and then matters of
common interest between the two states would
be settled by a treaty.
Lord Wavell expressed his disappointment at
the failure of the talks. He stated that “Gandhi-
Jinnah talks ended on a note of complete
futility. I must say I expected something better.
The two great mountains have met and not
even a ridiculous mouse has emerged. This
surely must blast Gandhi’s reputation as a
leader. Jinnah had an easy task, he merely had
to keep on telling Gandhi he was talking
nonsense, which was true, and he did so rather
rudely, without having to disclose any of the
weakness of his own position, or define his
Pakistan in any way. I suppose it may increase
his prestige with his followers.”
The majority of the Hindus, especially the
Mahasabhaits received the news of the
breakdown of these talks with utmost relief and
joy, for they were anxious lest their leader
should commit himself to the ‘vivisection of
Mother India’. It was the Muslims who were
most bitterly disappointed when the talks
failed.
Matlubul Hasan Saiyid has stated, ‘Gandhi’s
circuitous argumentation, shifting from
Rajagopalacharia’s formula to Lahore
Resolution of the League and then back again
and then over again to League Resolution,
punctuating the discussions by his own
suggestions and those of others whom he did
not claim to represent, had made the
breakdown of the these talks inevitable.
Jinnah had called this breakdown unfortunate,
‘Dr. Tara Chand gives the following reason for
the break down, ‘A perusal of the letters
exchanged shows that the two parties came
very near to one another. What prevented
them from concluding a settlement was not the
apparent differences between their
standpoints, but the distrust and fear which, lay
behind the spoken and written word.
Gandhi’s apparent purpose in holding these
talks seemed to be to discredit the Muslim
League and to appear before the Muslims as a
friend doing all he could to concede to their
demands, while in fact he was merely weaving a
deceptive web of words to fool the public and
to impose upon the Lahore Resolution a
meaning quite different to what was intended
by the framers of the resolution.- The failure of
these talks, on the other hand, enhanced the
prestige of the Quaid and he was able to
consolidate his position as the leader of the
Indian Muslims.
Wavell Plan (1945)
In October 1943 the British Government
decided to replace Lord Linlithgow with Lord
Wavell as the Viceroy of India. Before assuming
the charge, Wavell worked as the Chief of
Indian army and thus had quit an understanding
of the Indian situation. Right after assuming
charge as Viceroy, Wavell’s most important task
was to present a formula for the solution of the
Indian problem which was acceptable for both
the Congress and the Muslim League. After
doing his basic homework, in May 1945 he
visited London and discussed his suggestions
with the British Government. The London talks
resulted in the formulation of a definite plan of
action which was officially made public
simultaneously on June 14, 1945 by L.S. Amery,
the Secretary of State for India in the House of
Commons and by Wavell in a broadcast speech
delivered from Delhi. The plan, commonly
known as Wavell Plan presented the following
proposals:
If all the Indian political parties would help the
British in the war then the British Government
would introduce Constitutional Reforms in India
after the war.
Viceroy’s Executive Council would be
immediately reconstituted and the number of
its members would be increased.
In that Council there would be equal
representation of high class Hindus and the
Muslims.
Other minorities including low-caste Hindus,
Shudders and Sikhs would be given
representation in the Council.
All the members of the Council, except the
Viceroy and the Commander-in-Chief would be
Indians.
An Indian would be appointed as the member
of Foreign Affairs in the Council. However, a
British Commissioner would be appointed to
look after the matters relating to the trade.
Defence of India was to be in the hands of a
British authority till Power was transferred to
the Indian hands
Viceroy would convene a meeting of the Indian
politician including the leaders of Congress and
the Muslim League so that they could nominate
the names of the members of the new Council.
If this plan is approved for the Central
Government then same type of popular
ministries comprising of the political leaders
would be formed in all the provinces.
None of the changes suggested will in any way
prejudice or prejudge the essential form of the
future permanent Constitution of India
In order to discuss the proposal with the Indian
leaders, Wavell summoned a conference in
Simla on June 25, 1945.
Simla Conference (1945)
Lord Wavell succeeded Lord Linlithgow as
Viceroy of India in 1943. Lard Wavell was a
reputed military commander and had
commanded the British armies in the Second
World War. Before coming to India he was the
C-in-C of the British forces which were fighting
in North Africa against German forces. Being a
military commander Lord Wavell possessed
great administrative experience. When he took
over as Viceroy, the tide of the Second World
War was turning in favour of the allies. Lord
Wavell declared that British Government
wanted to see India as an independent and
prosperous country. When the war ended in
August 1945, Viceroy Lord Wavell decided to
hold a political conference to which he invited
Muslim League and Congress representatives.
The conference began in Simla on June 24, 1945
and lasted till July 14, 1945. Muslim League was
represented by Quaid-i-Azam, Liaquat Ali Khan,
Khwaja Nazim-ud-din, Ghulam Hussain Hidayat
Ullah, Sir Muhammad Asad Ullah and Hussain
Imam. The Congress was represented by
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Khizar Hayat Tiwana,
Dr. Khan Sahib and some other leaders.
The Viceroy proposed an Interim Central
Government in which all the portfolios except
that of war would be given to Indians. There
was to be parity of representation between
Muslims and caste Hindus. There was a
deadlock over the Muslim League’s demand
that all five Muslim members of the Executive
Council should be the nominees of the Muslim
League. The Viceroy was of the opinion that
four members should be taken from the Muslim
League while the fifth member should be a
Punjabi Muslim who did not belong to the
Muslim League. The Viceroy’s insistence on
having a non-leaguer in the Executive Council
was in accordance with the advice given by
British and Hindu officials to support Khizar
Hayat Tiwana in his stand against Muslim
League. Khizar Hayat Tiwana, Chief Minister of
Punjab, had demanded that one seat of the
Executive Council, out of Muslim quota, should
be given to his Unionist Party which was happily
accepted by the Viceroy. The Congress also
supported Khizar Hayat in his stand against
Muslim League. The Congress denied Muslim
League’s claim of being the sole representative
of the Indian Muslims. Quaid-i-Azam took a
strong stand on these two issues and the
conference failed to achieve anything and
finally ended on 14th July, 1945.
Elections of 1945-46
The 1945-46 elections were, by far, the most
critical at all levels in the annals of the history of
Indian sub-continent. The first Simla Conference
had broken down on 14th July 1945 on the
controversial issue of the representative culture
of the All India Muslim League (AIML). Also,
once World War II was over the new
government in Britain took control. The new
government gave some new instructions to the
Viceroy of India. So, on 21st August 1945 the
Viceroy Lord Wavell announced that elections
to the central and provincial legislatures would
be held in the coming winter. As for the first
phase it was decided that election to the central
legislative assembly would be held to be
followed by the election to the provincial
assemblies.
The Muslim League announced that it would
fight the elections on the two clear-cut issues –
Pakistan is the national demand of the Muslims
of India and the Muslim League is their sole
representative organization. Soon after the
announcement regarding the general election
the Muslim league started preparation to
contest them. The League’s position in 1945
was entirely different from what it had been at
the time of the previous election held in1937.It
was now well established as a mass
organization with branches in every provinces,
districts, tehsils and villages. To cope with the
finance of the election Quaid-i-Azam asked the
Muslims in his characteristic style “give us the
silver bullets and we will finish the job.”
For Jinnah and the Muslim League election
campaign was urgent and also extraordinarily
hectic and brisk. He suffered bouts of serious
illness at the time. However, Quaid-i-Azam did
not slacken his pace and in a mere 24 weeks,
between mid-July and end of December 1945
“addressed thousands and had talks with
hundreds,” as he himself stated. During this
short period he spoke at more than twenty-six
gatherings across the provinces of Bombay,
Sindh, Baluchistan and the Frontier, gave out
thirty-two press statements and interviews, met
several delegations and received and answered
a great deal of political correspondence. In this
endeavor, Jinnah was helped by a team of
highly committed deputies. He had formed the
All India Muslim League Committee of Action in
December 1943 and later the Central
Parliamentary Board whose proceedings are
also printed in this volume. These small bodies
of dedicated office-holders selected Muslim
League candidates, settled differences and
appeals over the award of League tickets,
distributed funds, coordinated elections work
from their Delhi head office and travelled and
supervised election activity all over India. In this
they were supported admirably by the All India
and Provincial Muslim Students Federations
whose members, especially at Aligarh, set
examples of selflessness, sacrifice and
dedication.
Elections for the Central Legislature were held
in December 1945. Though the franchise was
limited, the turnover was extra ordinary.
Leagues performance was even more
impressive as it managed to win all the 30 seats
reserved for the Muslims. The results of the
provincial election held in early 1946 were not
different. Congress won most of the non-
Muslim seats while Muslim League captured
approximately 95 percent of the Muslim seats.
On the other hand League celebrated January
11, 1946 as the Day of victory and declared that
the election results were enough to prove that
Muslim League under the leadership of Quaid-i-
Azam was the sole representative of the
Muslims of the region.
All said and done, it was the last variable made
Pakistan possible. Indeed, the massive electoral
verdict in Pakistan’s favour during 1945-46 was
the most important development between
1940 and 1947 between the adoption of the
Lahore Resolution and the emergence of
Pakistan. By all standards, this verdict
represented the most critical step in the
establishment of Pakistan. It was clear to the
Congress that the Muslim League was the
authoritative representative of an
overwhelming majority of the Muslims in India,
but it neither accepted it openly nor challenged
its position.
For both the Congress and the League, the
prime issue in the 1945-46 elections was the
creation of Pakistan as opposed to the idea of
Akhand Hindustan. Hence, the elections
represented a referendum of sorts, as
suggested by Gandhi, to ascertain the declared
and established will of Muslims on the
nationhood and separation issues. Once that
will was given in Pakistan’s favour, its
emergence (in some form or another) could no
longer be resisted or delayed.
Cabinet Mission (1946)
After the failure of British efforts to establish
peace consensual constitutional adjustment and
the results of general elections, which created
deadlock between Muslim League and
Congress, British government sent a special
mission of Cabinet ministers in India. This
mission gave the plan to resolve the deadlock
which is known as Cabinet Mission Plan. The
main purpose of the mission was setting up a
constitutional frame work and Executive council
with the help of Indian parties. Lord Pethick
Lawrence, the Secretary of State for India, Sir
Stafford Cripps, the President of the Board of
Trade and A.V. Alexander, the First Lord of the
Admiralty were the members of this mission.
The mission held talks with the representatives
of the Indian National Congress and All India
Muslim League for two weeks. On one side
Congress was eager that the task of constitution
making should be given to the constituent
assembly. It also believed that best solution of
all problems lay in federal form of government.
It demanded that the matters of defence,
foreign affairs and communication should be
dealt by federal government. Moreover
Congress did not want to discuss about the idea
about Pakistan. On the other hand Muslim
League leaders were saying that Hindus and
Muslims had communal differences and they
also raise the voice for the partition of India.
After an extensive discussion with Congress and
Muslim League the Cabinet Mission gave its
own proposal on May 14 1946.
According to their own proposed plan their
would be union of India comprising British India
and the Indian states that would deal with
defence, foreign affairs and communication. All
residuary power would belong to provinces and
the provinces should be divided in to three
sections. There would also be an interim
government with the support of all political
parties.
The Muslim league accepted the plan initially
Congress had accepted the plan though it
rejected the interim government. According to
the plan government should be given to Muslim
League because it had accepted the interim
government but Viceroy did not give it to
Muslim League. In the meantime Nehru said
that Congress had accepted the constituent
assembly by changing the Cabinet plan. In these
circumstances Muslim League quit itself from
the plan and Viceroy invited Congress to made
interim government although it had initially
rejected it. However Viceroy soon realised that
it will give no fruit without Muslim League so he
invited Muslim League as well.
Cabinet Mission Plan (1946)
Lord Pethick-Lawrence, Secretary of State for
India on February 19, 1946, announced in
Parliament that a special mission consisting of
three Cabinet ministers, in association with the
Viceroy, would proceed to India, in order to
hold discussions with the Indian leaders. The
three Cabinet ministers would be Pethick
Lawrence, Sir Stafford Cripps and A.V.
Alexander. Cripps told the press conference on
landing at Karachi on March 23 that the
purpose of the mission was “to get machinery
set up for framing the constitutional structure
in which the Indians will have full control of
their destiny and the formation of a new
interim government.” The Mission arrived in
Delhi on March 24 and left on June 29. Jinnah
faced extreme difficulties in the three-month-
long grueling negotiations with the Cabinet
Mission. The first of these was the continued
delicate state of his health. At a critical stage of
the negotiations, he went down with bronchitis
and ran temperature for ten days. But he never
gave up the fight and battled till the end of the
negotiations. Secondly, the Congress was still
much stronger than the Muslim League as a
party. “They have the best organized — in fact
the only well organized — political machine;
and they command almost unlimited financial
support they can always raise mob passion and
mob support and could undoubtedly bring
about a very serious revolt against British
rule.”– Mountbatten’s “Report on the Last
Viceroyalty”. Thirdly, The Congress had several
powerful spokesmen, while for the League
Jinnah had to carry the entire burden of
advocacy single-handedly. Fourthly, the Mission
was biased heavily in favor of the Congress.
Secretary of State Pethick-Lawrence and Cripps,
the sharpest brains among them, made no
secret of their personal friendship for the
Congress leaders. Wavell was much perturbed
by Pethick-Lawrence’s and Cripps’s private
contacts with the Congress leaders and the
deference they showed to Gandhi. Finally,
Jinnah suffered from the disadvantage that it
was the Muslim League, a minority party, which
alone demanded Pakistan. The Congress, the
smaller minorities and the British Government
including the comparatively fair-minded Wavell
with whom the final decision lay, were all
strongly opposed to the partition of British
India.
Quaid-i-Azam the constitutionalist took
appropriate steps to strengthen his hand as the
spokesman of the Muslim League. He convened
a meeting of the Muslim League Working
Committee at Delhi (4-6 April 1946) which
passed a resolution that “the President alone
should meet the Cabinet Delegation and the
Viceroy. This was immediately followed by an
All India Muslim Legislator’s Convention. Nearly
500 members of the Provincial and Central
Legislatures who had recently been elected on
the Muslim League ticket from all parts of India
attended it. It was the first gathering of its kind
in the history of Indian politics and was called
by some “the Muslim Constituent Assembly”. In
his presidential address, Jinnah said that the
Convention would lay down “once and for all in
equivocal terms what we stand for”.
A resolution passed unanimously by the
Convention (the “Delhi Resolution”) stated that
no formula devised by the British Government
for transferring power to the peoples of India
would be acceptable to the Muslim nations
unless it conformed to the following principles:
Frontier Province, Sind and Baluchistan in the
North-West of India, namely Pakistan, zones
where the Muslims are in a dominant majority,
be constituted into a sovereign independent
State and that an unequivocal undertaking be
given to implement the establishment of
Pakistan without delay.
The two separate constitution-making bodies
be set up by the people of Pakistan and
Hindustan for the purpose of framing their
respective Constitutions.
That the acceptance of the Muslim League
demand of Pakistan and its implementation
without delay are the sine qua non for Muslim
League cooperation and participation in the
formation of an Interim Government at the
Center.
That any attempt to impose a Constitution on a
united-India basis or to force any interim
arrangement at the Center contrary to the
Muslim League demand will leave the Muslims
no alternative but to resist any such imposition
by all possible means for their survival and
national existence.
This impressive show of strength, staged in the
very city where the members of the Cabinet
Mission were quartered, demonstrated to the
Mission and to all the others that the 100
million Muslims of India were solidly behind the
demand for Pakistan and further that the
Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah was their
undisputed supreme leader.
The Mission began their talks by first informing
themselves of the views of the different leaders
and parties. When they found the view-points
of the League and the Congress irreconcilable,
they gave a chance to the parties to come to an
agreement between themselves. This included a
Conference at Simla (5-12 May), popularly
known as the Second Simla Conference, to
which the Congress and the League were each
asked to nominate four delegates for
discussions with one another as well as with the
Mission. When it became clear that the parties
would not be able to reach a concord, the
Mission on May 16, 1946, put forward their
own proposals in the form of a Statement.
Azad, the president of the Congress, conferred
with the Mission on April 3 and stated that the
picture that the Congress had of the form of
government in future was that of a Federal
Government with fully autonomous provinces
with residuary powers vested in the units.
Gandhi met the Mission later on the same day.
He called Jinnah’s Pakistan “a sin” which he,
Gandhi, would not commit.
At the outset of his interview with the Mission
on April 4 the Quaid was asked to give his
reason why he thought Pakistan a must for the
future of India.He replied that never in long
history these was “any Government of India in
the sense of a single government”. He went on
to explain the irreconcilable social and cultural
differences between the Hindus and the
Muslims and argued, “You cannot make a
nation unless there are essential uniting forces.
How are you to put 100 million Muslims
together with 250 million people whose way of
life is so different? No government can ever
work on such a basis and if this is forced upon
India it must lead us on to disaster.”
The Second Simla Conference having failed to
produce an agreed solution, on May 16, the
Mission issued it’s own statement. The Cabinet
Mission broadcast its plan worldwide from New
Delhi on Thursday night, May 16, 1946. It was a
last hope for a single Indian union to emerge
peacefully in the wake of the British raj. The
statement reviewed the “fully independent
sovereign state of Pakistan” option, rejecting it
for various reasons, among which were that it
“would not solve the communal minority
problem” but only raise more such problems.
The basic form of the constitution
recommended was a three-tier scheme with a
minimal central union at the top for only
foreign affairs, defense and communication,
and Provinces at the bottom, which “should be
free to form Groups with executive and
legislatures,” with each group being
empowered to “determine the Provincial
subjects to be taken in common”. After ten
years any Province could, by simple majority
vote, “call for a reconsideration of the terms of
the constitution”. Details of the new
constitution were to be worked out by an
assembly representing “as broad based and
accurate” a cross section of the population of
India as possible. An elaborate method of
assuring representation of all the communities
in power structure was outlined with due
consideration given to the representation of
states as well as provinces.
The Quaid replied on the 19th , asking the
Viceroy if the proposals were final or whether
they were subject to change or modification,
and he also sought some other clarification. The
Viceroy promptly furnished the necessary
explanations. It seemed as if the Quaid would
accept the Viceroy’s proposals. The Congress
Working Committee met in Delhi on June 25
and by a resolution rejected the proposals, as
“Congressmen can never give up the national
character of the Congress or accept an artificial
and unjust party, or agree to the veto of a
communal group.” Azad sent a copy of the
resolution to the Viceroy and in his covering
letter protested against the non-inclusion of a
Muslim-Congressman from the Congress quota.
After the Congress stand had become known,
the Working Committee of the Muslim League
resolved to join the Interim Government, in
accordance with the statement of the Viceroy
dated 16th June. The interpretation of the
Quaid-i-Azam was that if the Congress rejected
the proposals, the League accepted them, or
vice versa,the Viceroy would go ahead and form
the interim Government without including the
representatives of the party that decided to
stand out. But the interpretation of the Viceroy
and the Cabinet Mission was different from that
of the Quaid-i-Azam.
It became clear that the protracted negotiations
carried out for about three months by the
Cabinet Mission did not materialize in a League-
Congress understanding, or in the formation of
an interim Government. Towards the end of
June, the Cabinet Mission left for England, their
task unfulfilled. It had, however not been a
complete failure. It was clear to the Indians that
the acceptance of the demand for Pakistan
would be an integral part of any future
settlement of the Indian problem. In the
meantime the League and the Congress were
getting ready for elections to the Constituent
Assembly.
Interim Government (1946-47)
Lord Wavell wrote letters to Nehru and Jinnah
on July 22, 1946 and invited them to join an
“Interim Coalition Government.” He suggested
that there would be 14 members in the cabinet:
6 of them from Congress, 5 from the Muslim
League and the other 3 would represent the
minority parties and the important portfolios
would be divided equally to the Congress and
the League. He made it clear that neither
Congress nor Muslim League would be entitled
to object the names submitted by the other
party, provided they were acceptable to the
Viceroy. Both Nehru and Jinnah rejected the
proposal in their letters to Wavell written on
July 23 and July 31 respectively. This created a
complete deadlock.
In order to break the deadlock, the Secretary of
State for India asked the Viceroy to contact
Nehru and to offer him to form Government.
The Muslim League was completely ignored. On
August 6, Wavell in letter to Nehru invited him
to form the Government. Congress held its
Working Committee session on August 8 and
authorized Nehru to negotiate the terms and
Conditions for joining the Interim Government.
On August 17 Nehru asked the Viceroy to allow
him to form a full strength Ministry by filling the
5 Muslim seats with non League Muslims. This
idea was, however, not acceptable to the
Viceroy and asked to leave the Muslim seats
vacant. The differences were resolved and on
August 24 a communiqué was issued from
Delhi, declaring that the new Executive Council
would take charge on September 2.
On September 2, the Congress jointed the
Interim Government. Their leaders declare,
“Muslim League may come or not. That would
make no difference. The caravan will move on.”
Congress nominated Jawaharlal Nehru,
Vallabhbhai Patel, Rajendra Prasad, Sarat
Chandra Bose, Chakravarti Rajagopalachari and
Jagjivan Ram as the nominee of the party in the
Cabinet. Three minority positions were filled by
Sardar Baldev Singh (Sikh), C.H. Bhabha (Parsee)
and Johan Matthai (Indian Christian). Three
Muslims, Asaf Ali, sir Shafaat Ahmad Khan and
Syed Ali Zaheer, were also included in the
Government, while two Muslim seats were left
vacant. Muslim League rejected the idea of
installing one party Government. Jinnah
declared Viceroys decision against his earlier
assurance and commitments with the Muslim
League. The Muslim League observed
September 2 as black day and throughout India
they flew black flags on their houses and shops.
As the time passed the British realized that the
Interim Government cannot deliver unless and
until the Muslim League send its
representatives in the Cabinet. They persuaded
Jinnah to join the Interim Government. On the
other hand Muslim League also comprehended
that its exclusion from the Government was
paying havoc with the interests of the Muslims.
Jinnah realized that he could protect the
interests of the Indian Muslims more if his party
joins the Interim Government. A series of
meetings took place between Jinnah and Wavell
and ultimately Muslim League joined the
Interim Government on October 25, 1946. In
order to create space for the Muslim League
Ministers, Sarat Chandra Bose, Shafaat Ahmad
Khan and Syed Ali Zaheer had to quit.
Congress was not satisfied with the way Muslim
League was included in the Interim
Government. Nehru in a letter to the Viceroy on
October 26 wrote, “The choice itself indicated a
desire to have conflict rather than to work in
co-operation.” Gandhi considered that the
League’s entry in to the Government was not
straight. Actually they felt hurt from the fact
that Jinnah decided to enter Interim
Government on the request of Wavell and not
on Nehru’s request. Furthermore, Jinnah made
it clear that the Muslim League members of the
cabinet will not be directly answerable to
Nehru. Congress leadership was also annoyed
because Muslim League nominated a scheduled
cast Hindu, Jogendra Nath Mandal, as a cabinet
member. This act could challenge the Congress
claim of being the sole representative of the
deprived class. Though the Viceroy wanted to
give one of the three important departments,
i.e. External Affairs, Home or Defence to the
Muslim League, Nehru straight away rejected
the idea. Following portfolios were allocated to
the different parties:
Congress
Jawaharlal Nehru External Affairs and
Commonwealth Relations
Vallabhbhai Patel Home, Information and
Broadcasting
Rajendra Prasad Food and Agriculture
C. Rajgopalacharia Education and Arts
Asaf Ali Transport and Railways

Jagjivan Ram Labour
Muslim League
Liaquat Ali Khan Finance
I.I. Chundrigar Commerce
Abdur Rab Nishtar Communications
Ghazanfar Ali Khan Health
J.N. Mandal Legislature
Minorities
John Matthai Industries and Supplies
C.H. Bhabha Works, Mines and Power
Baldel Singh Defence
The Interim government remained in place till
the independence of Pakistan and India. Besides
other duties it assisted the British Government
in the process of transferring the power to the
local people. The Viceroy Executive Council
served as the executive branch of interim
government. Although it was originally headed
by the Viceroy of India, it was transformed into
a council of ministers with the powers of a
Prime Minister bestowed on the vice president
of the Council, a position held by Jawaharlal
Nehru. With the exception of the Viceroy, who
would hold only a ceremonial position, and the
commander in chief of Indian army all members
of the council were Indians.
Poor Man’s Budget (1947)
When Muslim League joined the Interim
Government, differences arouse between the
two major parties over the issue of the
distribution of portfolios. Muslim League
wanted one of the three important ministries,
i.e. External Affairs, Home or Defence, but
Congress was not ready to give any of them to
the League. Nehru considered himself as the
best possible choice for the External Affairs,
while Patel thought it was better for him to
remain outside the cabinet, if he was not made
in charge of the Home department. When
pressure was put on the Congress to give
something of a significant importance to the
Muslim League, on the advice of Rafi Ahmad
Kidwai, a Muslim Congress member, they
offered Muslim League the Finance ministry.
They were sure that since the League had no
finance expert in their leadership, they would
either decline the offer or would badly fail in
running the ministry. To their surprise Muslim
League accepted the challenge and nominated
Liaquat Ali Khan as the Finance Minister.
Knowing the importance of the ministry Liaquat
started putting financial checks on all the
ministries run by the Congress members. They
could not even hire a peon without the prior
consent of Liaquat.
The greatest contribution of Liaquat as Finance
Minister, however, was the budget he
presented on February 28, 1947. This was the
first time when an Indian presented the budget
of his country and that also proved to be the
last budget of British India. The budget, which
was prepared with the help of financial experts
like Malik Ghulam Muhammad, Chaudhari
Muhammad Ali and Zahid Hussain etc. was a
poor’s friendly budget and is known in the
history as Poor Man’s Budget. While presented
the budget in the Central Assembly Liaquat
declared, “It will be my particular endeavour to
reduce, to the maximum extent possible, the
glaring disparities that exist today between the
income and standards of life of the wealthy
classes and the vast multitude of poverty-
stricken masses and to contribute to the best of
my ability to the improvement of the lot of the
common man.” He further stated, “I do believe
in the Quranic injuctions that wealth should not
be allowed to circulate among the wealthy and
the stern warning given against accumulation of
wealth in the hands of individuals.”
Following were some of the main features of
the Poor Man’s Budget:
Salt Tax was completely abolished for the first
time.
Minimum exemption limit for income tax was
raised from Rs. 2000/- to Rs. 2500/-
Special income tax of 25% was introduced on
the businessmen whose annual profit was more
than Rs. 100000/-
A graduated tax was introduced on the capital
gains exceeding Rs. 5000/-
A commission was proposed to look in to the
accounts of those who accumulated wealth
during the Second World War and to introduce
heavy taxes on them.
By presenting the Poor Man’s budget, Liaquat
was able to kill two birds with one stone. On
one hand the budget was hailed in the local
press and was appreciated by the common
people. The popularity of Muslim League
further enhanced and it was proved, i.e. if the
proof was still required, that Muslim League
was competent enough to run the affairs of an
independent state. On the other the hand the
capitalist, most of whom were the pro-Congress
Hindu industrialists and businessmen, termed it
as “Millionaire’s howls” and decided to stop the
funding of the Indian National Congress. The
budget presented by Liaquat compelled the
Congress leaders to accept that giving Finance
ministry to the Muslim League was a blunder on
their part.
Wavell Plan (June 14, 1945)
In October 1943 the British Government
decided to replace Lord Linlithgow with Lord
Wavell as the Viceroy of India. Before assuming
the charge, Wavell worked as the Chief of e) All the members of the Council, except the
Indian army and thus had quit an understanding Viceroy and the Commander-in-Chief would be
of the Indian situation. Right after assuming Indians.
charge as Viceroy, Wavell’s most important task
was to present a formula for the solution of the
Indian problem which was acceptable for both f) An Indian would be appointed as the member
the Congress and the Muslim League. After of Foreign Affairs in the Council. However, a
doing his basic homework, in May 1945 he British Commissioner would be appointed to
visited London and discussed his suggestions look after the matters relating to the trade.
with the British Government. The London talks
resulted in the formulation of a definite plan of
action which was officially made public
g) Defence of India was to be in the hands of a
simultaneously on June 14, 1945 by L.S. Amery,
British authority till Power was transferred to
the Secretary of State for India in the House of
the Indian hands
Commons and by Wavell in a broadcast speech
delivered from Delhi. The plan, commonly
known as Wavell Plan presented the following
proposals: h) Viceroy would convene a meeting of the
Indian politician including the leaders of
a) If all the Indian political parties would help Congress and the Muslim League so that they
the British in the war then the British could nominate the names of the members of
Government would introduce Constitutional the new Council.
Reforms in India after the war.

i) If this plan is approved for the Central

b) Viceroy’s Executive Council would be Government then same type of popular
immediately reconstituted and the number of ministries comprising of the political leaders
its members would be increased. would be formed in all the provinces.

c) In that Council there would be equal j) None of the changes suggested will in any
representation of high class Hindus and the way prejudice or prejudge the essential form of
Muslims. the future permanent Constitution of India

d) Other minorities including low-caste Hindus, In order to discuss the proposal with the Indian
Shudders and Sikhs would be given leaders, Wavell summoned a conference in
representation in the Council. Simla on June 25, 1945.