Abstract

The period following the great catastrophe of 1857 was a watershed in modern Indian History and a
landmark for the destiny of Indian Muslims as well. After the revolt of 1857 Muslims became the target
of the British hatred and suffered most from its consequences, in words of Nehru “heavy hand of British
government fell on Muslims”.

The decline of Muslim power created a sense of loss among the Muslims of India. Sir Syed Ahmad Khan,
the first post Mutiny thinker recognized that Mughul rule had only itself to blame for its replacement by
British power, as the latter was a definite improvement. He made it his object to dispel British suspicion
towards Indian Muslims - who were mainly blamed for the Mutiny - and to reconcile his co-religionists
with British rule, with a view to enabling them to profit from the social, economic, and educational
possibilities it opened up. The Mohammedan Anglo- Oriental College, Aligarh and the Muslim
Educational Conference were by far the most lasting achievements in the political organization of
Muslims. After the death of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan in 1998 Nawab Mohsin- ul- Mulk and Nawab Viqar- ul–
Mulk played an important role in the political organization of Muslims.

The dawn of the twentieth century found the Muslims debating on the issue whether or not the
Muslims must form a political organization. The political expression of the gradual growth of a Muslim
middle-class in India, formation of Congress and its claim of representative of all India, the partition of
Bengal in 1905 gave impetus to the old efforts of Muslims at uniting them into an All India Organization.
The result was the formation of the Mohammedan Political Union, the Shimla Deputation and eventually
the formation of All India Muslim League in 1906. It had long lasting effects on Muslim politics in India.
Its original purpose was to safeguard the political rights and interests of Muslims in India.

At the outset the League was pro-British, a loyal body which had approached Lord Minto. But within a
period of six years, it made 'self-government' in a 'suitable form' for India as its object.

Historical background of development of Muslim political conciousness

The establishment of the British empire in India initiated an economic transition and a consequential
social transformation, most conspicuously manifested by the rise of an Indian Middle Class. The spread
of English education and the vastly expanded scope for professional employment consolidated the
position of this class after the revolt of 1857, especially after 1870, and gave it the status and strength to
challenge the pre-eminent political and social influence of the indigenous educated aristocracy. The
foundation of the Indian National Congress in 1885 was the culmination of the political and nationalist
identification of the middle-class. The emergent middle-class was however, mainly Hindu in
composition.

Sir Syed and other prominent Muslims were conscious of the urgent need of Muslims keeping pace with
Hindus and emulating their adaptability to the changed conditions. The Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental
College at Aligarh and the Central National Muhammadan Association at Calcutta were symbols of this
consciousness, educational in function but political in objective, striving for the uplift of the Muslims in
India . Muslims, led by the gifted and energetic Sayyid Ahmad Khan, strove to build bridges between
Islam and modern science and between Indian Muslims and the colonial state, they were looked upon
with approval. They received moral and material support from government in this effort.

A perceptive Muslim of the educated classes could see in the eighteen-seventies and early eighties that
the British were ready to treat Muslims as a distinct political interest in India owing to efforts of Sir syed
as well as political circumstances. Muslims were nominated to serve on the Viceroy's Legislative Council
and on the Education and Public Service commissions. Muslims were naturally encouraged to organise
themselves as an avowedly Muslim pressure group to win further concessions from the government.

Most important factor was the Government's desire to use the Muslims as a balancing force against the
growing political consciousness of the middle-class Hindus. When this group, known as the Aligarh
movement, made a point of not supporting the Indian national Congress, the organisation of Indian
nationalism, the British were not displeased.

The organisers of Congress made an open bid for Muslim support. This stimulated a measured debate of
the utmost significance among Muslim leaders about the nature of both Muslim interests and Muslim
identity. The first Congress was attended by two Muslims, the second by thirty three, and the third
Congress at Madras was actually presided over by a Mussalman. In the fourth Congress held at
Allahabad 221 Muslim delegates participated and thus beating all the previous records.

Sir Syed, in keeping with his conviction that the salvation of the Muslim community lay in education,
loyalty and abstention from politics, kept away from the Congress and advised the Muslims to remain
aloof. To safeguard the interests of the Muslims and to divert their attention from the Congress, he
founded the Muhammadan Educational Congress (later known as the Muhammadan Educational
Conference) in 1886, to work for the development of education among Muslims. In 1888 he established
the United Indian Patriotic Association, to bring together Hindu and Muslim loyalists opposed to the
Congress.

The Indian Councils Acts of 1892 brought home to the Muslims fact that if Government policy was
moving towards a representative or responsible form of government it was high time for them to do
something to safeguard their interests. As a minority community they had not been able to secure their
due share under the new elective system. The Government's attempt to nominate some Muslims, to the
Legislative Councils had failed to satisfy the Aligarh School.

Sir Syed himself, after the passage of the 1892 Act had realized that the time had come when the
Muslims should unite politically for the safeguard of their interests. The meeting of the leading Muslims
on 30 December 1893 and the formation of the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental Defence Association of
Upper India were the signs of a change in his attitude towards Muslim political associations.

The twentieth century found Indian Muslims politically 'on edge'. They wanted to play a distinctive role,
but did not know what that role should be. The older generation educated by Sir Saiyid Ahmad Khan had
rejected Congress politics, but, as the Muslim attendance of three hundred and thirteen at the 1899
Congress at Lucknow showed, it was by no means certain that the younger English-educated Muslims
would always follow their lead.

The Hindu nationalist movements; the Urdu-Hindi confrontation and the British intervention in West
Asia resented muslims of all backgrounds further arousing political consciousness among them and
induced them to organise themselves better. The English-educated had been irritated by the Congress
demand for an examination meritocracy and elective government in India and by British behaviour
towards the Muslim countries of the Middle East and North Africa, the vernacularly educated by the
pro-Hindi agitation and the uneducated, by the anti-cow-killing agitation. They could all see, the British
wished to treat them as a counterweight in a political balance to the new Hindu intelligentsia and that
their rulers needed them as much as they their rulers. The British were ready to grant that Muslims had
their own separate identity; it rested with Muslims to assert and define that identity in a context of
active all-India politics and to win constitutional recognition for it.

Indeed, as early as October 1901, the Lucknow conference had decided on the establishment of a Muslin
Political Association to safeguard the interests of their community, though the general response to this
proposal had not been very encouraging. However, the development that appears to have given areal
fillip to the awakening of political consciousness among the Muslims was the partition of Bengal on 16
October 1906.

In this background, came the announcement of Morely (Secretary of the Status of State for India) on
20th July 1906 regarding the expansion of representative institutions in India. He also spoke favourably
about the Indian National Congress. Muslims feared the new proposal of "elected representatives" in
the Legislative Councils. Peter Hardy in his book ‘Muslims of British India’ wrote about how Gokhaly and
Morley meeting In May and June 1906 that discussed the Congress demands for the reform of the
Secretary of State's Council, the executive councils of the Viceroy and of the governors, and the
legislative councils with the moderate Congress leader, aroused feelings of discontent among Muslims
and forced Nawab Waqar ul Mulk to seek meeting with Morley. However K.K Aziz in ‘The Making of
Pakistan- A Study in nationalism’ termed ‘Partition of Bengal’ as a reason that made the decision for
Muslims alongside the one mentioned by Hardy.

Major causes:
Nagri Resolution

The journey towards setting up of a separate political association began with the introduction of Nagri
Resolution in the North West Provinces and Oudh on 18 April 1900. It made compulsory for everyone to
learn Hindi written in Nagri script for admission to Government service. This alarmed the Muslims who
feared losing their cultural heritage and Government jobs. This also brought a change in the attitude of
Aligarh leadership which had hitherto followed the policy of Sir Syed, that is , an active participation in
politics might bring to Muslims another catastrophe like that of 1857. We see glimpses of some
agitational politics led by Nawab Mohsin ul-Mulk.

Hindu Muslim revivalist movements

 Hindu Extremism:           The Urdu-Hindi Controversy spurred by the Hindus in 1867, the
Hindus demanded replacement of Urdu by Hindi as official language. During the same period, Hindu
extremists started programme like the “Arya Samaj” with a purpose to reconvert the Muslims into
Hindu religion. Hindu writer spread hatred against the Muslims among their followers.
Highlights of Extremist Attitude.
i.              Laid the foundation of “Cow Protection Society.”
ii.             Series of article in his newspaper “Kesri 1892”
iii.            Presented “Shivaji” (the notorious anti-Muslim campaigner) as a national hero.
iv.           “Marthatta” newspaper is leading in spreading hatred.
v.            The anti-Urdu posture of Anthony Macdonnel in the year 1900 played a vital role in
the political awakening of Muslims.

The Muslim and Hindu revivalist movements fired them with zeal for the purification of their religion
and sharpened their resentment against the attacks of the followers of other religions. There had been
stirrings of religious reform right from 1828 when Raja Ram Mohan Roy set afoot the Brahmo Samaaj
movement. But from 187O a great change began to make itself manifest In the Hindu spirit. This change
was a new conviction in the greatness of Hinduism. Under this spirit the Arya Samaj, and Sivanarayana
Paramahamsa movements were Initiated and much revivalist, feeling was worked up. The anti-cow-
killing agitation of the eighteen-eighties and eighteen nineties among certain classes of Hindus further
stirred the religious feelings of Muslims.

Bai Gangadhar Tilak organised Ganapati festival in all the important centres of Deccan. Before 1892 both
the communities had very cordial relations but the communal riot of 1892 which broke in Bombay
marred their good relations. Both the communities accused each other for inciting the riots. He also
founded Shivaji festival and said that it was meant to provide a focus for the national spirit. To
achieve this object he started the 'Kesari' in Marathi and supplemented it by an English weekly the
‘Mahratta’.

Uneducated Muslims did not see these religious developments without suspicion. While the issue of the
Shivaj and Ganapati festivals was marring Hindu-Muslim enmity in the south, their relations In north was
diluged with Urdu Hindi controversy.

Rising Politically motivated Middle class:

Establishment of Indian National Congress :

Partition of Bengal

the Bengal partition and the proposed reforms stimulated a Muslim reaction. Muslim leaders had not
originally supported the partition. But faced with the rhetoric of ‘Bande Mataram’, with its implication
that Bengal was a Hindu land, and the riotous behaviour of the Hindu crowds, their position began to
change.
Muslim spokesmen turned to the new province as a way to secure a place for themselves in eastern
India. British officials at the same time eagerly exploited the possibilities of a separate Muslim interest as
a counterweight to the Hindu domination of the old Bengal. The small Muslim elite in East Bengal, led by
Nawab ‘Ali Chowdhry of Dacca (1863–1929), saw in the new province the hope of increased education,
increased opportunities for employment, and, free of the domination of Calcutta, an increased
economic and political voice generally.

With the intervention of the English principal of the Aligarh College, a group of some thirty-five Muslims,
led by the Bombay-based Isma‘ili leader, the Aga Khan (1877–1957), secured an audience with Minto in
the autumn of 1906. They urged the viceroy in the proposed constitutional reforms to grant Muslims a
representation that would reflect not only their numerical strength, but also their political importance.
They argued that Muslims ‘are a distinct community with additional interests . . . which are not shared
by other communities and these . . . have not been adequately represented’. In Minto, these arguments,
first honed by Sayyid Ahmad Khan, found a receptive audience.

Shimla Deputation
With, increasing congress activities, religious revivalist and nationalist movements, Urdu-Hindi
controversy (1901) , the anti-partition agitation (1905-1910), Muslims could not stay away from some
sort of political movement for long. The British with hint of introducing reforms gave just that much
needed jolt.

John Morley, the Liberal Secretary of State for India, and Minto, the Viceroy, were determined to win
over moderate Indian opinion to a policy of association in the Government of India. In May and June
1906 Morley discussed the Congress demands for the reform of the Secretary of State's Council, the
executive councils of the Viceroy and of the governors, and the legislative councils with the moderate
Congress leader, Gokhale.

On July 20, 1906, John Morley while delivering his budget speech in the House of Commons, hinted
towards introduction of reforms and extension of the representative element in the Indian Legislative
Council (Parliamentary Debates, 1906, July 20).

The speech created great concern among the Muslims and, therefore some prominent Muslim leaders
contacted Mohsin-ul-Mulk to represent the Muslim point of view to the GOI as it meant permanent
Hindu domination. In fact, there was a general feeling among the young educated Muslims that old
Aligarh leadership by refusing to join politics, remained unable to safeguard the Muslim political
interests, and they did not suggest any plans for future except asking for funds to strengthen the M.A.O.
College, Aligarh. There was also a general consensus that at present, no Muslim could get into the
legislative councils by election and the Muslims appointed by the GOI’s nomination could not be
considered as their true representatives. Therefore, in case of introduction of election element on a
more extended scale, the Hindus would capture the seats because of their majority, and consequently,
the Muslims would remain unable to get into the councils by the elections.

Brisk correspondence ensued between the leaders of the Muslims community to adequately and clearly
place before Lord Minto the legitimate demands of the community. Shimla Deputation was, thus, the
outcome of this fruitful exercise which led to the foundation of the All-India Muslim League in December
1906 at Dacca.
Consequently, the deputation comprising of 35 prominent Muslim leaders, headed by Sultan
Muhammad Shah Agha Khan III (1877-1957), was received by the Viceroy, Earl of Minto II (1845-1914) at
Simla on October 1, 1906.

The address that they presented was extremely moderate in tone. It conveyed the impression that the
deputationists were politicians by compulsion rather than by choice, and were forced by contemporary
developments to speak out concerning the fears of their community regarding its future position and
status under the contemplated changes in the administrative set-up.

The address criticised the existing system of representation in Municipalities, District Boards and
Legislative Councils, and dwelt on the political importance of the Muslims as a community. It was urged
that "the position accorded to the Mohammedan community in any kind of representation, direct or
indirect, and in all other ways, affecting their status and influence, should be commensurate not merely
with their numerical strength, but also with their political importance, and the value of the contribution
which they make to the defence of the Empire".

It was emphasised that the system of election or nomination to the Legislative Councils prevailing
hitherto had failed to give them proper representation, and it was hoped that this discrepancy would be
removed by granting them the right to send their own representatives through separate electorates.

On these grounds the deputation made the following proposals :-

(a). That in the case of municipal and district boards the number of Hindus and Muslims entitled to scats
should be declared; such proportion being determined in accordance with the numerical strength, social
status, local influence and special requirements of either community and that each community should
be their own representative, as in the Aligarh Municipality and in many towns in the Punjab.

(b). That in case of provincial Legislative Councils the proportion of Muslim representatives should be
determined and declared with due regard to the considerations noted above, and that the important
Muslim landlords, lawyers, and merchants and representative of other important interest, the Muslim
members of district boards and municipalities and Muslim graduates of universities of a certain
standing, say five years, should be formed into electoral colleges and he authorized to return the
number of members that may be declared to the eligible.

(c). For their representation in the Imperial Legislative Council they suggested:-

(i) That the proportion of Muslims should not be determined on the basis of numerical strength and that
they should never be an ineffective minority.

(ii) That as far as possible appointment by election should be given preference over nomination.

(iii) That for the purpose of choosing Muslim members, Muslim landowners, lawyers and merchants,
and representatives of every important interest of a status to be subsequently determined by
government, Muslim members of provincial legislative councils and Muslim fellows of universities
should be invested with electoral powers.
Other demands included
 The Muslims should be appointed as judges of High courts as well as chief courts.
 Financial help should be given for setting up a Muslim university.
 Muslims should be given representation in the Executive council of Viceroy.

Minto’s reply was sympathetic he agreed to deputation that their position should be estimated not
merely on their numerical strength but in respect to their political importance and their service to the
Empire and assured them "that their political rights and interests will be safeguarded in any
administration with which I am 2 concerned."

He agreed that any electoral representation in India would be doomed to mischievous failure which
aimed at granting a personal enfranchisement regardless of the beliefs and traditions of the
communities composing the population of this continent. It was an explicit endorsement of the principle
of representation of communities laid down in the address.

The Government of India concurred with the presenters of the address that neither on the Provincial nor
the Imperial Legislative Councils had the Muslim community hitherto received the measure of
representation to which its numbers and its political importance entitled it.

Hindus had largely predominated in all or almost all the electorates, with the result that the few Muslim
members that had been elected were not true representatives of the Muslims. The Government had
supplemented them by nominations. But the total representation thus effected had not been
commensurate with the weight to which the Muslim community was entitled. The system of nomination
had frequently failed to secure the appointment of the type of Muslims, whom the community desired
to represent their cause.

Results of Shimla Deputation

Muslims felt that it was a 'historic declaration of the policy of the Indian Government' which had 'put a
new heart ' into them. With Minto's reply to the Address presented by the Deputation, 'for good or ill,
the die was cast ' in favour of separate Muslim representation.

 Acceptance of Muslims as a distinct community

The Shimla deputation secured the viceroy's consent in respect of separate electorate for Muslims.
This happened on the ground not only of Muslims being a distinct community with certain special
interests of their own, but also of their historical and military importance.

It set the constitutional basis of two nations theory. It elevated Muslims to status of ‘An all India
political category’ with separate identity positioning them as ‘perpetual minority’ that set the course
of freedom movement culminating in State of Pakistan. Though this evolution from minority to
nationhood took a long and tortuous trajectory.
 Securing Muslim representation in the legislative councils, and the acceptance of both separate
electorates and weightage for Muslims in the legislative councils under the Government of Act 1909
was considered as the greatest achievement of the Muslim League in its early years. It was deemed
as a great victory for early Muslim nationalism in India and Muslims were thought to become a
nation within a nation. The achievement of this demand strengthened the ideological foundations of
Muslim nationalism. The separate electorate turned out to be a source of support to Muslim
Nationalism and played a crucial role in shaping its evolution in the coming years. It was regarded
that the constitutional recognition of the Muslim position under the act of 1909 solidified it and
made it difficult for the Muslims to be absorbed by the growing current of Indian Nationalism. It
remained the foundation of all the future constitutional proposals made for India by successive
British government.

 Basis for creation of Muslim League.

The success of the Shimla Deputation accelerated the movement to form a separate political
organization of Muslims. The initiative was taken by the leading members of the Deputation, as the Aga
Khan recalled 'Our achievement in 1906 seemed important enough, and it was obvious to those of us
most closely associated with it especially Nawab Mohsin-ul-Mulk and myself that since we had obtained
separate electorate recognition, we must have the political organization to make that separate
representation effective.

 The apparent success of the Deputation restored Muslim faith in the Government's capacity and
will to protect Muslim interests.
 It created unity among Muslims. The wind was taken out of the sails of the nascent agitational
mood of the Muslims of Bengal, and the hold of the moderate Muslim leadership over the entire
community was assured.
 Hindu-Muslim conflicts rose to the constitutional level.

Critique on Shimla deputation:

The Shimla, Deputation 'gave rise to one of the undying myths of Indian politics, namely that it was not
the spontaneous product of the disquiet of the Muslim leadership at current developments and the
future direction’s of change, but was maneuvered by the Government or individual Britishers, to impede
the development of the national movement in general and the Indian National Congress in particular.
The Deputation was interpreted as the first episode of the grand design of British imperial interests, in
the classic pattern of divide and rule which was followed by the formation of the Muslim League and the
grant of separate electorates to Muslims, to create in Muslims 'separatism', a counter-thrust to the
increasing momentum of Congress activity after the Bengal partition , a design which culminated in the
finale of the partition of India.

This view point is supported by many writers and historians especially Indians, like Shashi Tharoor(2015),
that the system of separate electorate introduced religious consideration in political matters and
accentuated tension between Hindus and Muslims, resulting in creation of communalism, and ending
any hopes of unification of India.

To Dr. Tara Chand 'The principle of separate representation’ amounted to a denial of Indian
nationalism and this created a gulf which was never bridged. Minto 'had divided Indian nationalism by
communal electorates and had achieved thereby the greatest victory for the British empire in the
twentieth century.

Bipan Chandra declared that the British managed to achieve their divisive objective with the
establishment of Muslim league, by help of some Muslim leaders, and particularly Sir Sayyid Ahmad
Khan, to whom the rise of Muslim communalism in the Indian subcontinent was attributed.

Mr. Mohammad Ali Jinnah also wasn’t amused by the Shimla Deputation, as recalled by Khushwant
Singh in his book ‘Jinnah, India, Partition’. Mr. Singh referenced a letter which Jinnah sent to a Bombay
newspaper named ‘Gujarati’ disapproving the composition and vague demands of the deputation. He
questioned the representative status of the Simla Deputation in 1906 saying he knows no meeting of the
Mahomadan community that appointed these worthies to represent Bombay. 

The question naturally arises whether the decision to concede the Muslim demand was because of a
policy of ‘divide and rule’ resulting in differences between Hindus and Muslims or whether it merely
recognized the cultural and religious differences that already existed between the two.

It seems like policy was intended to dilute the nationalist and extremist aspirations of some of congress
members, by winning more support from the moderate section of the Indian people most importantly
Muslim community whose political aspirations were rising. In this aim they were successful.

Muslims did not join the ranks of dissatisfied Indians. Even the Montagu-Chelmsford Report admitted
this that throughout the troubled days of 1907-10 the Muhammadans, with a few unimportant
exceptions, held severely aloof from the revolutionary movement, and retained their traditional attitude
of sturdy loyalty, secure in the feeling that their interests were safe in the hands of the Government .
The moderate Congress leaders were also satisfied.

However to wholly subscribe to such opinions is to under-rate both Muslim political aspirations; their
apprehensions regarding nationalist and Hindu revivalist movements and their on rising Muslim middle
class with political aspirations; and their fears of being politically sidelined.

Historically Muslims feared the Hindu majority in any representation form of government. Sir Sayyid
Ahmad Khan spoke out forcefully for separate representation for Muslims in self governance
institutions. He won recognition in 1882 for the principle of separate electorates for Muslims on Lord
Ripon’s municipal councils. In a speech before the Governor-General’s Council in January of 1883,
Ahmad Khan explained the need for separate representation: “So long as differences of race and creed,
and the distinctions of caste form an important element in the socio-political life in India, and influence
her inhabitants in matters connected to the administration and welfare of the country at large, the
system of election, pure and simple, cannot be safely adopted. The larger community would totally
override the interests of the smaller community, and the ignorant public would hold Government
responsible for introducing measures which might make the differences of race and creed more violent
than ever”

With, increasing congress activities, religious revivalist and nationalist movements, Urdu-Hindi
controversy (1901) , the anti-partition agitation (1905-1910), Muslims could not stay away from some
sort of political movement for long. The British with hint of introducing reforms gave just that much
needed jolt that resulted in Shimla deputation. The Muslims, though no less patriotic or nationalist than
Hindus, were worried at the prospect of their being swamped by the Hindu majority. Congress had not
been able to satisfy them that the joint electorates would help Hindus and Muslims to develop a
national outlook in political matters.

But acceptance of separate electorates did set the constitutional basis of two nations theory. It elevated
Muslims to status of ‘An all India political category’ with separate identity positioning them as ‘perpetual
minority’ that set the course of freedom movement culminating in State of Pakistan. Though this
evolution from minority to nationhood took a long and tortuous trajectory.

Shimla deputation laid the foundation of Pakistan

The path towards two states was born out of the British conceptualization and institutional recognition
of a separate Muslim community and primarily the creation of Muslim as a political category and
identity. Originally a collection of elite land owners and aristocracy, the League under Jinnah’s
leadership was turned into a party representative of the Muslim majority and garnishing wide based
support by 1947 by mimicking the British in their imagining of that identity, he simply added physical
borders around the conception. An organization of Muslim elites was transformed into a grass roots
movement and then a separate state. The constant reinforcement of separate political identities in the
wake of the 1857 rebellion was finalized through the implementation of separate electorates that made
the partition inevitable as competing groups began to see their interests only represented by ‘their’
party. As the voting base increased so did the need to reinforce unity around homogenous imagery,
compounded by the consolidation of Muslims into the League and for Muslim political control to be in
the hands of the League only, articulated through the demand for Pakistan and the rhetorical
transcendent nature of Muslim League politics leading to partition. The partition andthe violence that
ensued during the process was a direct result of indirect rule based on defined and fixed categories
forming distinct political identities. Demands for Pakistan began to emerge in the early 1930s as plans
for constitutional reforms put forth both by Jinnah and Nehru, in response to the Simon Commission.
Separate electorates were insured by the Government of India act in 1935 and Jinnah began building
parallel structures to the INC. He consolidated the beginnings of political Muslim solidarity and all-India
level advancements of the Muslim League. The election of 1937 that showed the League had little
support, while the INC solidified their position, accelerated the efforts of Jinnah in building a grass roots
organization that would represent the greater Muslim community as defined institutionally through
separate electorates. The League gained immense ground and became the main player with the INC in
deciding India’s constitutional fate. The British seeking to counterbalance the INC with the League
endowed Jinnah with vast power in the process of constitutional reform, reaping the rewards of a
century of Muslim efforts to present themselves as the traditional homogenous community the British
imagined them to be. Divisions quickly became cavernous and the rift became unstoppable, as the
League won overwhelming victories in the election of 1946 on the platform of Pakistan. The inability of
the two parties to come to terms in an Indian federation made cleavages in India burst at the seams.
When India was handed over by the British the result would be a declaration of two states. The
character of the two parties, based in increasingly heated rhetoric, centered on the Muslim-Hindu divide
which over decades was institutionalized in the form of separate electorates. The British for their part
designed to divide-and-rule by manufacturing distinct religious based identities and a diarchic structure
of governance that characterized colonialIndia’s political-social development and the two future states,
it was the strategy of indirect rule and the associated divisions implemented in that service. Separate
electorates were originally awarded at the request of elite Muslim to safeguard their positions and to
the British delight as a counterbalance to the INC. The conditions of colonialism – the British policy of
indirect rule/divide-and-rule and elite minority’s fear of losing their prominent positions initially fostered
the award of separate electorates, but as parties and candidates sought to maximize their electoral
vote’s partition became the most likely outcome. Overall the use and implementation of separate
electorates based on colonially manufactured political identities established that in order to maximize
electoral results an allIndia Muslim appeal needed to be made to an imagined unified community, in
reality the Muslim community was quite politically fractured. The parallel development of Muslim
League structures to that of the INC operationalized this competitive imperative. The rhetoric espoused
by the British and elites over decades entrenched the colonial political identity and enabled partition to
be a viable solution to a government of two “communities.” If only a Muslim can represent a Muslim
than options for government become narrow and partition is an understandable development. “No
electoral system should force electors and the elected into predetermined identities – which is precisely
what separate electorates do.”145 The partition of India and the creation of Pakistan was most directly a
result of the institutionalization of colonially manufactured political identities following the upheaval of
1857 which culminated in the implantation of separate electorates after which it was a matter of path
determinacy.