The All-India Muslim League (AIML), simply called the Muslim League, was a political party established in Dhaka in 1906 when some well-known Muslim politicians met the Viceroy of India, Lord Minto, with the goal of securing Muslim interests in British India.[5]
The party arose out of the need for the political representation of Muslims in British India, especially during the Indian National Congress-sponsored massive Hindu opposition to the 1905 partition of Bengal. During the 1906 annual meeting of the All India Muslim Education Conference held in Israt Manzil Palace, Dhaka, the Nawab of Dhaka, Khwaja Salimullah, forwarded a proposal to create a political party which would protect the interests of Muslims in British India. He suggested the political party be named the 'All-India Muslim League'. The motion was unanimously passed by the conference, leading to the official formation of the All-India Muslim League in Dhaka.[6] It remained an elitist organization until 1937, when the leadership began mobilising the Muslim masses, which turned the league into a popular organization.[7][8]
The Muslim League played a decisive role in the 1940s, becoming a driving force behind the division of India along religious lines and the creation of Pakistan as a Muslim state in 1947.[9]
After the Partition of India and the establishment of Pakistan, the All-India Muslim League was formally disbanded in India. The League was officially succeeded by the Pakistan Muslim League, which eventually split into several political parties. Other groups diminished to a minor party, that too only in Kerala state of India. In Bangladesh, the Muslim League was revived in 1976, but it was reduced in size, rendering it insignificant in the political arena. In India, a separate independent entity called the Indian Union Muslim League was formed, which continues to have a presence in the Indian parliament to this day.
With the sincere efforts by the pioneers of the Congress to attract Muslims to their sessions, the majority of the Islamic leadership, with the exception of few scholars (like Sir Syed Ahmed Khan and Syed Ameer Ali who focused more on Islamic education and scientific developments), rejected the notion that India has two distinct communities to be represented separately in Congress sessions.[10]
Syed Ahmad Khan, in 1888, at Meerut, said, "After this long preface I wish to explain what method my nation — nay, rather the whole people of this country — ought to pursue in political matters. I will treat in regular sequence of the political questions of India, in order that you may have full opportunity of giving your attention to them. The first of all is this — In whose hands shall the administration and the Empire of India rest? Now, suppose that all English, and the whole English army, were to leave India, taking with them all their cannon and their splendid weapons and everything, then who would be rulers of India? Is it possible that under these circumstances two nations — the Mahomedans and the Hindus — could sit on the same throne and remain equal in power? Most certainly not. It is necessary that one of them should conquer the other and thrust it down. To hope that both could remain equal is to desire the impossible and the inconceivable."[11]
In 1886, Sir Syed founded the Muhammadan Educational Conference, but a self-imposed ban prevented it from discussing politics. Its original goal was to advocate for British education, especially science and literature, among India's Muslims. The conference, in addition to generating funds for Sir Syed's Aligarh Muslim University, motivated the Muslim upper class to propose an expansion of educational uplift elsewhere, known as the Aligarh Movement. In turn, this new awareness of Muslim needs helped stimulate a political consciousness among Muslim elites, For a few of them, many years after the death of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan the All-India Muslim League was formed in Dhaka, Bangladesh.[12]
The formation of a Muslim political party on the national level was seen as essential by 1901. The first stage of its formation was the meeting held at Lucknow in September 1906, with the participation of representatives from all over India. The decision for the re-consideration to form the all-Indian Muslim political party was taken and further proceedings were adjourned until the next meeting of the All India Muhammadan Educational Conference. The Simla Deputation reconsidered the issue in October 1906 and decided to frame the objectives of the party on the occasion of the annual meeting of the Educational Conference, which was scheduled to be held in Dhaka. Meanwhile, Nawab Salimullah Khan published a detailed scheme through which he suggested the party to be named All-India Muslim Confederacy.[citation needed]
Pursuant to the decisions taken earlier at the Lucknow meeting and later in Simla, the annual meeting of the All-India Muhammadan Educational Conference was held in Dhaka from 27 December until 30 December 1906.[13] Three thousand delegates attended,[5] headed by both Nawab Waqar-ul-Mulk Kamboh and Nawab Mohsin-ul-Mulk (the Secretary of the Muhammaden Educational Conference), in which they explained its objectives and stressed the unity of Muslims under the banner of an association.[13] It was formally proposed by Nawab Salimullah Khan and supported by Hakim Ajmal Khan, Maulana Muhammad Ali Jauhar, Zafar Ali Khan, Syed Nabiullah, a barrister from Lucknow, Ibraheem Fazili and Syed Zahur Ahmad, an eminent lawyer, as well as several others.
Separate electorates
The Muslim League's insistence on separate electorates and reserved seats in the Imperial Council were granted in the Indian Councils Act after the League held protests in India and lobbied London.[14]
The draft proposals for the reforms communicated on 1 October 1908 provided Muslims with reserved seats in all councils, with nominations only being maintained in Punjab. The communication displayed how much the Government had accommodated Muslim demands[15] and showed an increase in Muslim representation in the Imperial and provincial legislatures.[16] But the Muslim League's demands were only fully met in UP and Madras. However, the Government did accept the idea of separate electorates. The idea had not been accepted by the Secretary of State, who proposed mixed electoral colleges, causing the Muslim League to agitate and the Muslim press to protest what they perceived to be a betrayal of the Viceroy's assurance to the Simla deputation.[17]
On 23 February Morley told the House of Lords that Muslims demanded separate representation and accepted them. This was the League's first victory. But the Indian Councils Bill did not fully satisfy the demands of the Muslim League.[18] It was based on the October 1908 communique in which Muslims were only given a few reserved seats. The Muslim League's London branch opposed the bill and in a debate obtained the support of several parliamentarians.[19] In 1909 the members of the Muslim League organised a Muslim protest.[20] The Reforms Committee of Minto's council believed that Muslims had a point and advised Minto to discuss with some Muslim leaders. The Government offered a few more seats to Muslims in compromise but would not agree to fully satisfy the League's demand.[21]
Minto believed that the Muslims had been given enough while Morley was still not certain because of the pressure Muslims could apply on the government. The Muslim League's central committee once again demanded separate electorates and more representation on 12 September 1909.[22] While Minto was opposed, Morley feared that the Bill would not pass parliament without the League's support and he once again discussed Muslim representation with the League leadership.[23] This was successful. The Aga Khan compromised so that Muslims would have two more reserved seats in the Imperial Council. The Muslim League hesitantly accepted the compromise.[24]
Early years
Sultan Muhammad Shah (Aga Khan III) was appointed the first honorary president of the Muslim League, though he did not attend the Dhaka inaugural session. There were also six vice-presidents, a secretary, and two joint secretaries initially appointed for a three-year term, proportionately from different provinces.[25] The League's constitution was framed in 1907, espoused in the "Green Book," written by Mohammad Ali Jauhar.[citation needed]
Aga Khan III shared Ahmad Khan's belief that Muslims should first build up their social capital through advanced education before engaging in politics, but would later boldly tell the British Raj that Muslims must be considered a separate nation within India. Even after he resigned as president of the AIML in 1912, he still exerted a major influence on its policies and agendas.[26] In 1913, Mohammed Ali Jinnah joined the Muslim league.[citation needed]
Intellectual support and a cadre of young activists emerged from Aligarh Muslim University. Historian Mushirul Hasan writes that in the early 20th century, this Muslim institution, designed to prepare students for service to the British Raj, exploded into political activity. Until 1939, the faculty and students supported an all-India nationalist movement. After 1939, however, sentiment shifted dramatically toward a Muslim separatist movement, as students and faculty mobilised behind Jinnah and the Muslim League.[27]
Growth of Communalism
Politically, there was a degree of unity between Muslim and Hindu leaders after World War I, as typified by the Khilafat Movement. Relationships cooled sharply after that campaign ended in 1922. Communalism grew rapidly, forcing the two groups apart.[28] Major riots broke out in numerous cities, including 91 between 1923 and 1927 in Uttar Pradesh alone.[29] At the leadership level, the proportion of Muslims among delegates to the Congress party fell sharply, from 11% in 1921 to under 4% in 1923.[30]
The two-state solution was rejected by the Congress leaders, who favoured a united India based on composite national identity. Congress at all times rejected "communalism" — that is, basing politics on religious identity.[31] Iqbal's policy of uniting the North-West Frontier Province, Baluchistan, Punjab, and Sindh into a new Muslim majority state became part of the League's political platform.[32]
The League rejected the Committee report (the Nehru Report), arguing that it gave too little representation (only one quarter) to Muslims, established Devanagari as the official writing system of the colony, and demanded that India turn into a de facto unitary state, with residuary powers resting at the centre – the League had demanded at least one-third representation in the legislature and sizeable autonomy for the Muslim provinces. Jinnah reported a "parting of the ways" after his requests for minor amendments to the proposal were denied outright, and relations between the Congress and the League began to sour.[33]
In November 1930, when all the prominent leaders of APML including Muhammad Ali Jinnah were invited by the British Prime Minister, Ramsay McDonalds for the round table conference, Muhammad Iqbal was invited to give the presidential address of APML in Allahabad in which nothing new was proposed. Some scholars argued that "Iqbal never pleaded for any kind of partition of the country. Rather he was an ardent proponent of a 'true' federal setup for India..., and wanted a consolidated Muslim majority within the Indian Federation".[34]
Another Indian historian, Tara Chand, also held that Iqbal was not thinking in terms of partition of India, but in terms of a federation of autonomous states within India.[35] Dr. Safdar Mehmood also asserted in a series of articles that in the Allahabad address, Iqbal proposed a Muslim majority province within an Indian federation and not an independent state outside an Indian Federation.[36]
On 28 January 1933, Choudhary Rahmat Ali, founder of the Pakistan National Movement, voiced his ideas in the pamphlet entitled "Now or Never".[37] In a subsequent book, he discussed the etymology in further detail: "'Pakistan' is both a Persian and an Urdu word. It is composed of letters taken from the names of all our homelands ... That is, Panjab, Afghania (North-West Frontier Province), Kashmir, Iran, Sindh (including Kachch and Kathiawar), Tukharistan, Afghanistan, and Balochistan."[38]
The British and the Indian press vehemently criticised these two different schemes and created confusion about the authorship of the word "Pakistan" to such an extent that even Jawaharlal Nehru had to write:[39]
Iqbal was one of the early advocates of Pakistan and yet he appears to have realised its inherent danger and absurdity. Edward Thompson has written that in the course of a conversation, Iqbal told him that he had advocated Pakistan because of his position as President of Muslim League session, but he felt sure that it would be injurious to India as a whole and to Muslims especially.
Muslim League Working Committee at the Lahore sessionChaudhry Khaliquzzaman seconding the Resolution with Jinnah and Liaquat presiding the session.
Until 1937, the Muslim League had remained an organisation of elite Indian Muslims. The Muslim League leadership then began mass mobilisation and it then became a popular party with the Muslim masses in the 1940s, especially after the Lahore Resolution.[7][40] Under Jinnah's leadership, its membership grew to over two million and became more religious and even separatist in its outlook.[41][42]
The Muslim League's earliest base was the United Provinces,[43] where they successfully mobilised the religious community in the late 1930s. Jinnah worked closely with local politicians, however, there was a lack of uniform political voice by the League during the 1938–1939 Madhe Sahaba riots in Lucknow.[44] From 1937 onwards, the Muslim League and Jinnah attracted large crowds throughout India in its processions and strikes.[45]
At a League conference in Lahore in 1940, Jinnah said:
Hindus and Muslims belong to two different religious philosophies, social customs, literature... It is quite clear that Hindus and Mussalmans derive their inspiration from different sources of history. They have different epics, different heroes and different episodes ... 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.[46]
In Lahore, the Muslim League formally recommitted itself to creating an independent Muslim state which would include Sindh, Punjab, Baluchistan, the North West Frontier Province, and Bengal, and which would be "wholly autonomous and sovereign". The Lahore Resolution, moved by the sitting Chief Minister of Bengal A. K. Fazlul Huq,[47] was adopted on 23 March 1940, and its principles formed the foundation for Pakistan's first constitution. In the Indian provincial elections of 1946, the Muslim League won 425 out of 476 seats reserved for Muslims[48] (and about 89.2% of Muslim votes) on a policy of creating the independent state of Pakistan, and with an implied threat of secession if this was not granted. Congress, led by Gandhi and Nehru, remained adamantly opposed to dividing India.[citation needed]
In opposition to the Lahore Resolution, the All India Azad Muslim Conference gathered in Delhi in April 1940 to voice its support for a united India.[49] Its members included several Islamic organisations in India, as well as 1400 nationalist Muslim delegates;[50][51] the "attendance at the Nationalist meeting was about five times than the attendance at the League meeting."[52] The All-India Muslim League worked to try to silence those Muslims who stood against the partition of India, often using "intimidation and coercion".[52][51] For example, Deobandi scholar Maulana Syed Husain Ahmad Madani traveled across British India, spreading the idea he wrote about in his book, Composite Nationalism and Islam, which stood for Hindu-Muslim unity and opposed the concept of a partition of India;[53][54] while he was doing this, members of the pro-separatist Muslim League attacked Madani and disturbed his rallies.[53] The murder of the All India Azad Muslim Conference leader Allah Bakhsh Soomro in 1943 further solidified the All-India Muslim League to demand the creation of Pakistan.[52]
Role in communal violence
From the late 1930s and onwards in the British Indian province of Sind, communal tensions between Muslims and Hindus rose to enormous degree. These communal feelings were instrumental in the popularity of the All India Muslim League throughout the province. Even though the Muslims made up about 70% of the population of Sindh, they had a bare majority (34 of 60 seats) in the Assembly. Furthermore, before the British took over, the Sindhi Hindus didn't own any land but within a century of British rule, their landownership grew by 40% while a further 20% was believed to have been mortgaged to them. The inter-faith conflict was at large connected to the peculiar socio economic order in which the Hindus in Sind dominated with their high socioeconomic status, while the Muslims remained marginalized.[55]
The historian Ayesha Jalal describes the actions that the pro-separatist Muslim League used in order to further spread communal division and undermine the elected government of Allah Bakhsh Soomro, which stood for a united India:[56]
Even before the 'Pakistan' demand was articulated, the dispute over the Sukkur Manzilgah had been fabricated by provincial Leaguers to unsettle Allah Bakhsh Soomro's ministry which was dependent on support from the Congress and Independent Party. Intended as a way station for Mughal troops on the move, the Manzilgah included a small mosque which had been subsequently abandoned. On a small island in the near distance was the temple of Saad Bela, sacred space for the large number of Hindus settled on the banks of the Indus at Sukkur. The symbolic convergence of the identity and sovereignty over a forgotten mosque provided ammunition for those seeking office at the provincial level. Making an issue out of a non-issue, the Sind Muslim League in early June 1939 formally reclaimed the mosque. Once its deadline of 1 October 1939 for the restoration of the mosque to Muslims had passed, the League started an agitation.[56]
In the few years before the partition, the Muslim League was accused of "monetarily subsidizing" mobs that engaged in communal violence against Hindus and Sikhs in the areas of Multan, Rawalpindi, Campbellpur, Jhelum and Sargodha, as well as in the Hazara District.[57][58][59] The Muslim League led mobs reportedly paid assassins money for every Hindu and Sikh killed.[57] As such, leaders of the Muslim League, including Muhammad Ali Jinnah, issued no condemnation of the violence against Hindus and Sikhs in Punjab.[60]
The Pakistani incarnation was originally led by the founder of Pakistan, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, and later by Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan, but suffered from ill-fate following the military intervention in 1958. One of its factions[62] remained supportive of President Ayub Khan until 1962, when all factions decided to reform into the Pakistan Muslim League led by Nurul Amin, and to support Fatima Jinnah in the presidential elections in 1965. Furthermore, it was the only party to have received votes from both East and West Pakistan during the elections held in 1970. During the successive periods of Pakistan, the Pakistan Muslim League went on to be one of the ruling parties holding alternating power within the nation.[citation needed]
After the partition of India in 1947, the All-India Muslim League was disbanded. It was succeeded by Indian Union Muslim League in the new India.[63]
Indian Union Muslim League contests Indian General Elections under the Indian Constitution.[63] The party has always had a constant, if small presence, in the Indian Parliament.[63] The party has had two members in every Lower House from the third to the 16th House, with the exception of the Second, in which it had no members, and the fourth, in which it had three members. The party had a single member in the 14th Lower House. The party currently has four members in Parliament.[63] The party is currently a part of the United Progressive Alliance in national level.[63]
Indian Union Muslim League is recognized by the Election Commission of India as a State Party in Kerala.The party is a major member of the opposition United Democratic Front, the Indian National Congress-lead pre-poll state-level alliance in Kerala.[63] Whenever the United Democratic Front rules in Kerala, the party leaders are chosen as important Cabinet Ministers.[63]
Problems in East Pakistan for the Muslim League began to rise following the issue of the Constitution of Pakistan. Furthermore, the Bengali Language Movement proved to be the last event that led the Muslim League to lose its mandate in East Bengal. The Muslim League's national conservatism program also faced several setbacks and resistance from the Communist Party of Pakistan. In an interview given to print media, Nurul Amin stated that the communists had played an integral and major role in staging the massive protests, mass demonstrations, and strikes for the Bengali Language Movement.[64]
All over the country, the political parties had favoured the general elections in Pakistan with the exception of the Muslim League.[65] In 1954, legislative elections were to be held for the Parliament.[65] Unlike in West Punjab, not all of the Hindu population migrated to India, instead a large number stayed in the state.[65] The influence of the Communist Party deepened, and its goal of attaining power was finally realised during the elections. The United Front, the Communist Party, and the Awami League returned to power, inflicting a severe defeat to the Muslim League.[65] Out of 309, the Muslim League only won 10 seats, whereas the Communist Party got 4 seats of the ten contested. The communists working with other parties had secured 22 additional seats, totalling 26. The right-wing Jamaat-e-Islami had completely failed in the elections.[65]
In 1955, the United Front named Abu Hussain Sarkar as the Chief Minister of the State and he ruled the state in two non-consecutive terms until 1958, when martial law was imposed.[65] The Muslim League remained as a minor party in East Pakistan but participated with full rigour during the Pakistan general elections in 1970. It won 10 seats from East Pakistan and 7 seats from other parts of Pakistan. After the independence of Bangladesh, the Muslim League was revived in 1976 but its size was reduced, rendering it insignificant in the political arena.[citation needed]
United Kingdom
During the 1940s, the Muslim League had a United Kingdom chapter active in the British politics. After the establishment of Pakistan, the Pakistani community's leaders took over the UK branch, choosing Zubeida Habib Rahimtoola as president of the party to continue to serve its purpose in the United Kingdom.[66] At present, the Muslim League's UK branch is led by the PML-N, with Zubair Gull as its president.[66]
The History of Pakistan prior to its independence in 1947 spans several millennia and covers a vast geographical area known as the Greater Indus region. Anatomically modern humans arrived in what is now Pakistan between 73,000 and 55,000 years ago. Stone tools, dating as far back as 2.1 million years, have been discovered in the Soan Valley of northern Pakistan, indicating early hominid activity in the region. The earliest known human remains in Pakistan are dated between 5000 BCE and 3000 BCE. By around 7000 BCE, early human settlements began to emerge in Pakistan, leading to the development of urban centres such as Mehrgarh, one of the oldest in human history. By 4500 BCE, the Indus Valley Civilization evolved, which flourished between 2500 BCE and 1900 BCE along the Indus River. The region that now constitutes Pakistan served both as the cradle of a major ancient civilization and as a strategic gateway connecting South Asia with Central Asia and the Near East.
Sir Khawaja Nazimuddin was a Pakistani politician and statesman who served as the second governor-general of Pakistan from 1948 to 1951, and later as the second prime minister of Pakistan from 1951 to 1953.
Choudhry Rahmat Ali was a Pakistani nationalist who was one of the earliest proponents of the creation of the state of Pakistan. He is credited with creating the name "Pakistan" for a separate Muslim homeland in British India and is generally known as the originator of the Pakistan Movement.
The Pakistan Movement was a political movement in the first half of the 20th century that aimed for the creation of Pakistan from the Iranic & Western Indo-Aryan Muslim-majority areas of British India. It was connected to the perceived need for self-determination for Muslims under British rule at the time. Muhammad Ali Jinnah, a barrister and politician led this movement after the Lahore Resolution was passed by All-India Muslim League on 23 March 1940.
The Lahore Resolution, also called the Pakistan Resolution, was a formal political statement adopted by the All-India Muslim League on the occasion of its three-day general session in Lahore, Punjab, from 22 to 24 March 1940, calling for a separate homeland for the Muslims of British India.
Direct Action Day was the day the All-India Muslim League decided to take a "direct action" using general strikes and economic shut down to demand a separate Muslim homeland after the British exit from India. Also known as the 1946 Calcutta Riots, it soon became a day of communal violence in Calcutta. It led to large-scale violence between Muslims and Hindus in the city of Calcutta in the Bengal province of British India. The day also marked the start of what is known as The Week of the Long Knives. While there is a certain degree of consensus on the magnitude of the killings, including their short-term consequences, controversy remains regarding the exact sequence of events, the various actors' responsibility and the long-term political consequences.
The two-nation theory was an ideology of religious nationalism that advocated Muslim Indian nationhood, with separate homelands for Indian Muslims and Indian Hindus within a decolonised British India, which ultimately led to the Partition of India in 1947. Its various descriptions of religious differences were the main factor in Muslim separatist thought in the Indian subcontinent, asserting that Indian Muslims and Indian Hindus are two separate nations, each with their own customs, traditions, art, architecture, literature, interests, and ways of life.
Sir Malik Khizar Hayat TiwanaKCSI, OBE was a British Indian statesman, landowner, army officer, and politician belonging to the Punjab Unionist Party. He served as the prime minister of the Punjab Province of British India between 1942 and 1947. He opposed the Partition of India and the ideology of Muslim League. He was eventually ousted from office by the Muslim League through a civil disobedience campaign, plunging Punjab into communal violence that led to the partition of the province between India and Pakistan.
From a historical perspective, Professor Ishtiaq Ahmed of the University of Stockholm and Professor Shamsul Islam of the University of Delhi classified the Muslims of Colonial India into two categories during the era of the Indian independence movement: nationalist Muslims and Muslim nationalists. The All India Azad Muslim Conference represented nationalist Muslims, while the All-India Muslim League represented the Muslim nationalists. One such popular debate was the Madani–Iqbal debate.
The National Unionist Party was an Anti Brahmin movment or political party based in the Punjab Province during the period of British rule in India. The Unionist Party mainly represented the interests of the landed gentry and landlords of Punjab, which included Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs. The Unionists dominated the political scene in Punjab from World War I to the independence of India and the creation Pakistan after the partition of the province in 1947. The party's leaders served as Prime Minister of the Punjab. The creed of the Unionist Party emphasized: "Dominion Status and a United Democratic federal constitution for India as a whole".
A cabinet mission went to India on 24 March 1946 to discuss the transfer of power from the British government to the Indian political leadership with the aim of preserving India's unity and granting its independence. Formed at the initiative of British Prime Minister Clement Attlee, the mission contained as its members, Lord Pethick-Lawrence, Sir Stafford Cripps, and A. V. Alexander. The Viceroy of India Lord Wavell participated in some of the discussions.
The Urdu movement was a socio-political movement aimed at making Urdu, as the universal lingua-franca and symbol of the cultural and political identity of the Muslim communities of the Indian subcontinent during the British Raj. The movement began with the fall of the Mughal Empire in the mid-19th century, fuelled by the Aligarh movement of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan. It strongly influenced the All India Muslim League and the Pakistan movement.
The "Pakistan Declaration" was a pamphlet written and published by Choudhry Rahmat Ali, on 28 January 1933, in which the word Pakstan was used for the first time and was circulated to the delegates of the Third Round Table Conference in 1933.
When the All-India Muslim League was founded at Dacca, on 30 December 1906 at the occasion of the annual All India Muhammadan Educational Conference, It was participated by the Muslim leaders from Punjab, i.e., Sir Mian Muhammad Shafi, Mian Fazl-i-Hussain, Abdul Aziz, Khawaja Yusuf Shah and Sh. Ghulam Sadiq. Earlier Mian Muhammad Shafi organised a Muslim Association in early 1906, but when the All-India Muslim League was formed, he established its powerful branch in the Punjab of which he became the general secretary. Shah Din was elected as its first president. This branch, organised in November 1907, was known as the Punjab Provincial Muslim League.
Provincial elections were held in British India in the winter of 1936–37 as mandated by the Government of India Act 1935. Elections were held in eleven provinces - Madras, Central Provinces, Bihar, Orissa, the United Provinces, the Bombay Presidency, Assam, the North-West Frontier Province, Bengal, Punjab and Sind.
The East Pakistan Renaissance Society was a political organisation formed to articulate and promote culturally and intellectually the idea for a separate Muslim state for Indian Muslims and specifically for the Muslims of Bengal. The organisation's founders and leaders included Abul Kalam Shamsuddin, the society president, Habibullah Bahar Chowdhury and Mujibur Rahman Khan.
Muhammad Ali Jinnah was a barrister, politician, and the founder of Pakistan. Jinnah served as the leader of the All-India Muslim League from 1913 until the inception of Pakistan on 14 August 1947 and then as the Republic of Pakistan's first governor-general until his death.
The Bengal Legislative Assembly was the largest legislature in British India, serving as the lower chamber of the legislature of Bengal. It was established under the Government of India Act 1935. The assembly played an important role in the final decade of undivided Bengal. The Leader of the House was the Prime Minister of Bengal. The assembly's lifespan covered the anti-feudal movement of the Krishak Praja Party, the period of World War II, the Lahore Resolution, the Quit India movement, suggestions for a United Bengal and the partition of Bengal and partition of British India.
The Bengal Provincial Muslim League (BPML) was the branch of the All India Muslim League in the British Indian province of Bengal. It was established in Dhaka on 2 March 1912. Its official language was Bengali. The party played an important role in the Bengal Legislative Council and in the Bengal Legislative Assembly, where two of the Prime Ministers of Bengal were from the party. It was vital to the creation of the Dominion of Pakistan, particularly after its election victory in 1946.
Opposition to the Partition of India was widespread in British India in the 20th century and it continues to remain a talking point in South Asian politics. Those who opposed it often adhered to the doctrine of composite nationalism in the Indian subcontinent. The Hindu, Christian, Anglo-Indian, Parsi and Sikh communities were largely opposed to the Partition of India, as were many Muslims.
1 2 Rizvi, H. (2000). Military, State and Society in Pakistan. Palgrave Macmillan UK. pp.69–. ISBN978-0-230-59904-8. The Muslim League maintained an elitist character until 1937 when its leadership began to engage in popular mobilisation. It functioned as a mass and popular party for 7-8 years after the Congress provincial ministries resigned in 1939, more so, after the passage of the Lahore Resolution in March 1940.
↑ Keay, John (2000). India: A History. Atlantic Monthly Press. p.468. ISBN978-0-8021-3797-5. Heavily supported by mainly landed and commercial Muslim interests ... they duly consummated this distrust [of Congress] by forming the All India Muslim League.
↑ Jalal, Ayesha (1994). The Sole Spokesman: Jinnah, the Muslim League, and the Demand for Pakistan. Cambridge University Press. p.4. ISBN978-0-521-45850-4. In 1940, ... [the A.I.M.L.] formally demanded independent Muslim states, repudiating the minority status which separate representation necessarily entailed, and instead asserted that Muslims were a nation ... The claim was built upon the demand for 'Pakistan'. But from first to last, Jinnah avoided giving the demand a precise definition.
↑ Rashid Khan, Abdul (January–June 2007). "All India Muhammadan Educational Conference and the Foundation of the All India Muslim League". Journal of the Pakistan Historical Society. 55 (1/2): 65–83.
1 2 Pakistan movement. Commencement and evolution, p. 167, 168, by Dr. Sikandar Hayat Khan and Shandana Zahid, published by Urdu Science Board, Lahore. ISBN969-477-122-6
↑ Robinson, Francis (1974). Separatism Among Indian Muslims: The Politics of the United Provinces' Muslims, 1860–1923. Cambridge University Press. p.153. ISBN978-0-521-04826-2.
↑ Robinson, Francis (1974). Separatism Among Indian Muslims: The Politics of the United Provinces' Muslims, 1860-1923. Cambridge University Press. pp.153–154. ISBN978-0-521-04826-2.
↑ Robinson, Francis (1974). Separatism Among Indian Muslims: The Politics of the United Provinces' Muslims, 1860–1923. Cambridge University Press. p.154. ISBN978-0-521-04826-2.
↑ Robinson, Francis (1974). Separatism Among Indian Muslims: The Politics of the United Provinces' Muslims, 1860–1923. Cambridge University Press. p.156. ISBN978-0-521-04826-2.
↑ Robinson, Francis (1974). Separatism Among Indian Muslims: The Politics of the United Provinces' Muslims, 1860–1923. Cambridge University Press. p.157. ISBN978-0-521-04826-2.
↑ Robinson, Francis (1974). Separatism Among Indian Muslims: The Politics of the United Provinces' Muslims, 1860-1923. Cambridge University Press. p.158. ISBN978-0-521-04826-2.
↑ Robinson, Francis (1974). Separatism Among Indian Muslims: The Politics of the United Provinces' Muslims, 1860–1923. Cambridge University Press. p.159. ISBN978-0-521-04826-2.
↑ Robinson, Francis (1974). Separatism Among Indian Muslims: The Politics of the United Provinces' Muslims, 1860–1923. Cambridge University Press. p.160. ISBN978-0-521-04826-2.
↑ Robinson, Francis (1974). Separatism Among Indian Muslims: The Politics of the United Provinces' Muslims, 1860–1923. Cambridge University Press. pp.160–161. ISBN978-0-521-04826-2.
↑ Robinson, Francis (1974). Separatism Among Indian Muslims: The Politics of the United Provinces' Muslims, 1860–1923. Cambridge University Press. p.161. ISBN978-0-521-04826-2.
↑ Valliani, Amin (January–June 2007). "Aga Khan's Role in the Founding and Consolidation of the All India Muslim League". Journal of the Pakistan Historical Society. 55 (1/2): 85–95.
↑ Markovits, Claude, ed. (2004) [First published 1994 as Histoire de l'Inde Moderne]. A History of Modern India, 1480–1950. London: Anthem Press. pp.371–372. ISBN978-1-84331-004-4. Remarkable unity shown between Hindus and Muslims [during the Khilafat movement] ... the tension between the religious communities worsened ... the reforms of 1919 had encouraged Muslim separatism by maintaining constituencies reserved for Muslims: having to get only the votes of their coreligionists, Hindu and Muslim politicians tended to emphasise what divided rather than what united the two communities.
↑ Sarkar, Sumit (1989) [First published 1983]. Modern India: 1885–1947. Macmillan. p.233. ISBN978-0-333-43805-3. Three waves of riots in Calcutta ... disturbances the same year in Dacca, Patna, Rawalpindi and Delhi; and no less than 91 communal outbreaks in U.P., the worst-affected province, between 1923 and 1927.
↑ Grover, Verinder, ed. (1995). Political Thinkers of Modern Muslim India – Vol. 26, Mohammad Iqbal. New Delhi: Deep & Deep Publications. pp.666–67. ISBN9788171005727.
↑ Chand, Tara (1972). History of the Freedom Movement in India. Vol.3. New Delhi: Publications Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. pp.252–253. OCLC80100683. It is, however, doubtful whether he [Iqbal] contemplated the partition of India and the establishment of a sovereign Muslim state ... at Allahabad, in December 1930 ... It was certainly not a scheme for the partition of India into two independent sovereign states ... his plan of amalgamating Panjab, North-West Frontier Province, Sind and Baluchistan in one autonomous region ... There is no reference here to the two-nation theory and to the incompatibility of Hindu and Muslim cultures.
↑ lang, 23, 24 & 25 March 2003;[full citation needed] Also see, Mahmood, Safdar (2004). Iqbal, Jinnah aur Pakistan (in Urdu). Lahore: Khazina Ilm-wa-Adab. pp.52–69.
↑ Ali, Choudhary Rahmat (1978) [First published 1935]. Pakistan: the fatherland of the Pak nation (3rded.). Lahore: Book Traders. pp.224–225. OCLC12241695.
↑ Sebestyen, Victor (2014). 1946: The Making of the Modern World. Pan Macmillan UK. pp.247–. ISBN978-1-74353-456-4. That, too, had begun life as a cosy club of upper-class Indians, seeking a limited range of extra privileges for Indian Muslims. However, under the leadership of Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the League grew rapidly to a membership of more than two million and its message became increasingly religious and separatist in tone.
↑ Khan, Yasmin (2017) [First published in 2007]. The Great Partition: The Making of India and Pakistan (Newed.). Yale University Press. p.18. ISBN978-0-300-23364-3. Although it was founded in 1909 the League had only caught on among South Asian Muslims during the Second World War. The party had expanded astonishingly rapidly and was claiming over two million members by the early 1940s, an unimaginable result for what had been previously thought of as just one of the numerous pressure groups and small but insignificant parties.
↑ Talbot, Ian (1982). "The growth of the Muslim League in the Punjab, 1937–1946". Journal of Commonwealth & Comparative Politics. 20 (1): 5–24. doi:10.1080/14662048208447395. Despite their different viewpoints all these theories have tended either to concentrate on the All-India struggle between the Muslim League and the Congress in the pre-partition period, or to turn their interest to the Muslim cultural heartland of the UP where the League gained its earliest foothold and where the demand for Pakistan was strongest.
↑ Talbot, Ian (1993). "The role of the crowd in the Muslim League struggle for Pakistan". The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History. 21 (2): 307–333. doi:10.1080/03086539308582893. Huge crowds attended Muslim League meetings and flocked to glimpse Jinnah as he journeyed about India from 1937 onwards. They also joined in processions, strikes, and riots.
↑ Hay, Stephen (1988) [First published 1958]. Sources of Indian Tradition. Vol.2 (Seconded.). Columbia University Press. p.230. ISBN978-0-231-06650-1.
↑ Qasmi, Ali Usman; Robb, Megan Eaton (2017). Muslims against the Muslim League: Critiques of the Idea of Pakistan. Cambridge University Press. p.2. ISBN9781108621236.
↑ Haq, Mushir U. (1970). Muslim politics in modern India, 1857-1947. Meenakshi Prakashan. p.114. OCLC136880. This was also reflected in one of the resolutions of the Azad Muslim Conference, an organization which attempted to be representative of all the various nationalist Muslim parties and groups in India.
1 2 Ahmed, Ishtiaq (27 May 2016). "The dissenters". The Friday Times. However, the book is a tribute to the role of one Muslim leader who steadfastly opposed the Partition of India: the Sindhi leader Allah Bakhsh Soomro. Allah Bakhsh belonged to a landed family. He founded the Sindh People's Party in 1934, which later came to be known as 'Ittehad' or 'Unity Party'. ... Allah Bakhsh was totally opposed to the Muslim League's demand for the creation of Pakistan through a division of India on a religious basis. Consequently, he established the Azad Muslim Conference. In its Delhi session held during April 27–30, 1940 some 1400 delegates took part. They belonged mainly to the lower castes and working class. The famous scholar of Indian Islam, Wilfred Cantwell Smith, feels that the delegates represented a 'majority of India's Muslims'. Among those who attended the conference were representatives of many Islamic theologians and women also took part in the deliberations ... Shamsul Islam argues that the All-India Muslim League at times used intimidation and coercion to silence any opposition among Muslims to its demand for Partition. He calls such tactics of the Muslim League as a 'Reign of Terror'. He gives examples from all over India including the NWFP where the Khudai Khidmatgars remain opposed to the Partition of India.
1 2 Kumar, Pramod (1992). Towards Understanding Communalism. Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development. p.22. ISBN9788185835174. His consciousness was not transformed into communal consciousness, so much so that the Muslim League 'goondas' attacked him several times. For instance, in 1945, Maulana Hussain Ahmad Madani was touring India to plead for composite nationalism and for opposing the idea of partition. Near Moradabad railway station Muslim League 'goondas' threw Keechar (marshy water) on him.
↑ Engineer, Asgharali (1987). Ethnic conflict in south Asia. Ajanta Publications. p.28. At one time, in 1945, Maulana Hussain Ahmad Madani was touring throughout India to plead for composite nationalism and for opposing the idea of partition: once he was coming out of the railway station near Moradabad, and Muslim League goondas threw keechar (marshy water) on him.
1 2 Jalal, Ayesha (2002). Self and Sovereignty: Individual and Community in South Asian Islam Since 1850. Routledge. p.415. ISBN9781134599370.
1 2 Abid, Abdul Majeed (29 December 2014). "The forgotten massacre". The Nation. On the same dates, Muslim League-led mobs fell with determination and full preparations on the helpless Hindus and Sikhs scattered in the villages of Multan, Rawalpindi, Campbellpur, Jhelum and Sargodha. The murderous mobs were well supplied with arms, such as daggers, swords, spears and fire-arms. (A former civil servant mentioned in his autobiography that weapon supplies had been sent from NWFP and money was supplied by Delhi-based politicians.) They had bands of stabbers and their auxiliaries, who covered the assailant, ambushed the victim and if necessary disposed of his body. These bands were subsidized monetarily by the Muslim League, and cash payments were made to individual assassins based on the numbers of Hindus and Sikhs killed. There were also regular patrolling parties in jeeps which went about sniping and picking off any stray Hindu or Sikh. ... Thousands of non-combatants including women and children were killed or injured by mobs, supported by the All India Muslim League.
↑ Chitkara, M. G. (1996). Mohajir's Pakistan. APH Publishing. ISBN9788170247463. When the idea of Pakistan was not accepted in the Northern States of India, the Muslim League sent out its goons to drive the Hindus out of Lahore, Multan and Rawalpindi and appropriate their property.
↑ Bali, Amar Nath (1949). Now it can be told. Akashvani Prakashan Publishers. p.19. The pamphlet 'Rape of Rawalpindi' gives gruesome details of what was done to the minorities in the Rawalpindi Division. No such details have been published for other towns but the pattern of barbarities committed by the Muslim League goondas was the same everywhere.
↑ Ranjan, Amit (2018). Partition of India: Postcolonial Legacies. Taylor & Francis. ISBN9780429750526. In the evening of 6 March Muslim mobs numbering in the thousands headed towards Sikh villages in Rawalpindi, Attock and Jhelum districts. ... According to British sources, some two thousand people were killed in the carnage in three rural district: almost all non-Muslims. The Sikhs claimed seven thousand dead. Government reports showed that Muslim ex-service persons had taken part in the planned attacks. The Muslim League leaders, Jinnah and others did not issue any condemenation of these atrocities.
↑ M S, Amogh (20 May 2011). "A history project on the impact of the AIMD on the future courses of India and Pakistan". Online Daily.
↑ Masood, Alauddin (25 January 2008). "PML Perpetually Multiplying Leagues". The Weekly.
Graham, George Farquhar Irving (1974). The Life and Work of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan. Karachi: Oxford University Press. ISBN978-0-19-636069-0.
Malik, Iftikar H. (2008). The History of Pakistan. The Greenwood Histories of the Modern Nations. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press. ISBN978-0-313-34137-3.
al Mujahid, Shairf (January–June 2007). "Reconstructing the Saga of the All India Muslim League (1906–47)". Journal of the Pakistan Historical Society. 55 (1/2): 15–26.
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