Lahore Resolution | |
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Presented | 22 March 1940 |
Ratified | 23 March 1940 |
Location | Lahore, Punjab, British India |
Signatories | All-India Muslim League |
Purpose | Establishment of a separate homeland for the Muslims of (British) India. |
Independence of Bangladesh |
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Events |
Organisations |
Key persons |
Related |
Bangladeshportal |
The Lahore Resolution, [a] 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.
It was written and prepared by a nine-member subcommittee of the All-India Muslim League (which included Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Liaquat Ali Khan, Khawaja Nazimuddin, Abdullah Haroon, and Nawab Ismail Khan) [1] [2] [3] and was presented by A. K. Fazlul Huq, the Prime Minister of Bengal.
The resolution mainly called for independent sovereign states:
That geographically contiguous units are demarcated regions which should be 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 (British) India should be grouped to constitute 'independent states' in which the constituent units should be autonomous and sovereign.
Although the name "Pakistan" had been proposed by Choudhary Rahmat Ali in his Pakistan Declaration, [4] it was not until after the resolution that it began to be widely used.
Muhammad Ali Jinnah's address to the Lahore conference was, according to Stanley Wolpert, the moment when Jinnah, once a proponent of Hindu-Muslim unity, irrevocably transformed himself for the cause of separate Muslim homeland called Pakistan. [5]
Until the mid-1930s the Muslim leaders were trying to ensure maximum political safeguards for Muslims within the framework of federation of India in terms of seeking maximum autonomy for Muslim majority provinces. They got some safeguards through a system of separate electorate on communal basis in the Government of India Act 1935. As a result of elections held under this Act, Indian National Congress formed government in six out of eight provinces. During Congress rule from 1937 to 39, its "High Command whose iron control over its own provinces clearly hinted at what lay ahead for the Muslim majority provinces once it came to dominate the centre. Much of the League's propaganda at this stage was directed against the Congress ministries and their alleged attacks on Muslim culture; the heightened activity of Hindu Mahasabha, the hoisting of Congress tricolor, the singing of Bande Mataram, the Vidya Mandir scheme in the Central Provinces and the Wardha scheme of education, all were interpreted as proof of 'Congress atrocities'. So, the Congress was clearly incapable of representing Muslim interests, yet it was trying to annihilate every other party." [6]
Therefore, by 1938–39, the idea of separation was strongly gaining ground. The Sindh Provincial Muslim League Conference held its first session in Karachi in October 1938, adopted a resolution which recommended to the All-India Muslim League to devise a scheme of constitution under which Muslims may attain full independence. The premier of the Bengal province, A. K. Fazal-ul-Haque, who was not in the All-India Muslim League, was quite convinced in favour of separation. The idea was more vividly expressed by M. A. Jinnah in an article in the London weekly Time & Tide on 9 March 1940. [7] Jinnah wrote:
Democratic systems based on the concept of homogeneous nations such as England are very definitely not applicable to heterogeneous countries such as India, and this simple fact is the root cause of all of India's constitutional ills... If, therefore, it is accepted that there is in India a major and a minor nation, it follows that a parliamentary system based on the majority principle must inevitably mean the rule of major nation. Experience has proved that whatever the economic and political programme of any political Party, the Hindu, as a general rule, will vote for his caste-fellow, the Muslim for his coreligionist.
About the Congress-led provincial governments, he wrote:
An India-wide attack on the Muslims was launched. In the five Muslim provinces every attempt was made to defeat the Muslim-led-coalition Ministries. In the six Hindu provinces a "Kulturkampf" was inaugurated. Attempts were made to have Bande Mataram, the Congress song, recognized as the national anthem, and the real national language, Urdu, supplanted by Hindi. Everywhere oppression commenced and complaints poured in such force...that the Muslims, despairing of the Viceroy and Governors ever taking action to protect them, have already been forced to ask for a Royal Commission to investigate their grievances.
Furthermore, he added:
Is it the desire (of British people) that India should become a totalitarian Hindu State...? ...I feel certain that Muslim India will never submit to such a position and will be forced to resist it with every means in their power.
In his concluding remarks he wrote:
While Muslim League irrevocably opposed to any Federal objective which must necessarily result in a majority community rule under the guise of Democracy and Parliamentary system of Government... To conclude, a constitution must be evolved that recognises that there are in India two nations who both must share the governance of their common motherland.
The session was held on 22–24 March 1940, at Iqbal Park, Lahore. The welcome address was made by Sir Shah Nawaz Khan of Mamdot, as the chairman of the local reception committee. The various draft texts for the final resolution/draft were deliberated over by the Special Working Committee of the All India Muslim League [8]
The resolution text, unanimously approved by the Subject Committee, accepted the concept of a united homeland for Muslims[ citation needed ] and recommended the creation of independent Muslim-majority states. [9]
The resolution was moved in the general session by A. K. Fazlul Huq, the chief minister of undivided Bengal, and was seconded by Chaudhry Khaliquzzaman from the United Provinces, Zafar Ali Khan from Punjab, Sardar Aurangzeb Khan from North-West Frontier Province, Pir Ziauddin Andrabi from Kashmir, and Sir Abdullah Haroon from Sindh. [10] Qazi Muhammad Essa from Balochistan and other leaders announced their support.[ citation needed ]
The resolution for the establishment of a separate homeland for the Muslims of British India passed in the annual session of the All India Muslim League held in Lahore on 22–24 March 1940 is a landmark document of Pakistan's history. [11] In 1946, it formed the basis for the decision of Muslim League to struggle for one state [ later named Pakistan] for the Muslims. [12] The statement declared:
No constitutional plan would be workable or acceptable to the Muslims unless geographical contiguous units are demarcated into regions which should be so constituted with such territorial readjustments as may be necessary. [13]
The Hindu press and leaders were quick to describe the resolution as the demand for the creation of Pakistan; some people began to call it the Pakistan Resolution soon after the Lahore session of the Muslim League. It is landmark document in history of Pakistan. [11] Additionally, it stated:
That adequate, effective and mandatory safeguards shall be specifically provided in the constitution for minorities in the units and in the regions for the protection of their religious, cultural, economic, political, administrative and other rights of the minorities.
Most importantly, to convince smaller provinces such as Sindh to join, it provided a guarantee:
That geographically contiguous units are demarcated into regions which should be 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 (British) India should be grouped to constitute 'independent states' in which the constituent units should be autonomous and sovereign.
The full text of the resolution document was as follows:
"THE LAHORE RESOLUTION"
Resolved at the Lahore Session of All-India Muslim League held on 22nd-24th March, 1940.
(1) While approving and endorsing the action taken by the Council and the Working Committee of the All Indian Muslim League as indicated in their resolutions dated the 10th of August, 17th and 18th of September and 22nd of October, 1939, and 3rd February 1940 on the constitutional issues, this Session of the All-Indian 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.
(2) 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.
(3) 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 the Mussalmans are in a minority, adequate, effective and mandatory safeguards 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.
(4) 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 defense, external affairs, communications, customs and such other matters as may be necessary." [14] [15]
This section needs additional citations for verification .(March 2017) |
There remains a debate on whether the resolution envisaged two sovereign states in the eastern and western parts of British India. Abdul Hashim of the Bengal Muslim League interpreted the text as a demand for two separate countries. [16] In 1946, Prime Minister H. S. Suhrawardy of Bengal, a member of the All India Muslim League, mooted the United Bengal proposal with the support of Muslim and Hindu leaders, as well as the Governor of Bengal.
Although there were and continue to be disagreements on the interpretation of the resolution, it was widely accepted that it called for a separate Muslim state.[ citation needed ] Opposing opinions focus on the phrase "independent states" claiming this means Muslim majority provinces, i.e. Punjab, Sindh, etc. would be independent of each other. They ignore the phrase "geographically contiguous units." They also rely on the claims of certain Bengali nationalists who did not agree with one state. They accuse their opponents of diverting the "spirit" of the resolution.
The majority of the Muslim League leadership contended that it was intended for not only the separation of India but into only 2 states (Muslim majority and Hindu majority). Therefore, it is indeed a statement calling for independence and one Muslim state.[ citation needed ] Eventually, the name "Pakistan" was used for the envisioned state.
The All India Azad Muslim Conference gathered in Delhi in April 1940 to voice its support for an independent and united India, in response to the Lahore Resolution. [17] [18] Its members included several Islamic organisations in India, as well as 1400 nationalist Muslim delegates. [19] [20] [21] The pro-separatist All-India Muslim League worked to try to silence those nationalist Muslims who stood against the partition of India, often using "intimidation and coercion". [21] [20] The murder of the Chief Minister of Sind and All India Azad Muslim Conference leader Allah Bakhsh Soomro also made it easier for the All-India Muslim League to demand the creation of a Pakistan. [21]
The Sindh assembly was the firstly British Indian legislature to pass the resolution in favour of Pakistan. G. M. Syed, an influential Sindhi activist, revolutionary and Sufi and later one of the important leaders in the forefront of the Sindh independence movement, [22] joined the Muslim League in 1938 and presented the Pakistan resolution in the Sindh Assembly. A key motivating factor was the promise of "autonomy and sovereignty for constituent units". [23]
This text was buried under the Minar-e-Pakistan during its building in the Ayub regime.[ citation needed ] In this session the political situation was analysed in detail and Muslim demanded a separate homeland only to maintain their identification and to safeguard their rights. Pakistan resolution was the landmark in the history of Muslim of South-Asia. It determined for the Muslims a true goal and their homeland in north-east and north-west. The acceptance of the Pakistan resolution accelerated the pace of freedom movement. It gave new energy and courage to the Muslims who gathered around Muhammad Ali Jinnah for struggle for freedom.[ citation needed ]
Liaquat Ali Khan was a Pakistani lawyer, politician and statesman who served as the first prime minister of Pakistan from 1947 until his assassination in 1951. He was as pivotal to the consolidation of Pakistan as the Quaid-i-Azam, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, was central to the creation of Pakistan. He was one of the leading figures of the Pakistan Movement and is revered as Quaid-e-Millat and later on as "Shaheed e Millat".
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.
The Pakistan Movement emerged in the early 20th century as part of a campaign that advocated the creation of an Islamic state in parts of what was then British India. It was rooted in the two-nation theory, which asserted that Indian Muslims were fundamentally and irreconcilably distinct from Indian Hindus and would therefore require separate self-determination upon the decolonization of India. The idea was largely realized when the All-India Muslim League ratified the Lahore Resolution on 23 March 1940, calling for the Muslim-majority regions of the Indian subcontinent to be "grouped to constitute independent states" that would be "autonomous and sovereign" with the aim of securing Muslim socio-political interests vis-à-vis the Hindu majority. It was in the aftermath of the Lahore Resolution that, under the aegis of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the cause of "Pakistan" became widely popular among the Muslims of the Indian independence movement.
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.
The Fourteen Points of Jinnah were proposed by Muhammad Ali Jinnah in response to the Nehru report. It consisted of four Delhi proposals, the three Calcutta amendments, demands for the continuation of separate electorates and reservation of seats for Muslims in government services and self-governing bodies. In 1928, an All Parties Conference was convened in reaction to the Simon Commission appointed to discuss parliamentary reform in British India. A committee was set up under Motilal Nehru which prepared the "Nehru Report". This report demanded "Dominion Status" for India. Separate electorates were refused and the reservation of seats for the Muslims of Bengal and Punjab was rejected. The Nehru Report did not uphold a single demand of the Muslim League. In reaction to the Nehru Report, the League authorised Jinnah to draft in concise terms the basis of any future constitution for India. Jinnah aimed to safeguard the interests of Muslims. He gave his 14 points which covered the interests of Muslims and in these 14 points Jinnah stated it was the "parting of ways" and that he did not want anything to do with the Indian National Congress in the future. The League leaders motivated Jinnah to revive the Muslim League and give it direction. As a result, these points became the demands of the League and greatly influenced the Muslims' thinking for the next two decades until the establishment of Pakistan in 1947.
Pakistan has several official national symbols, including a flag, an emblem, an anthem, a memorial tower as well as several national heroes. The symbols were adopted at various stages in the existence of Pakistan and there are various rules and regulations governing their definition or use. The oldest symbol is the Lahore Resolution, adopted by the All India Muslim League on 23 March 1940, and which presented the official demand for the creation of a separate country for the Muslims of India. The Minar-e-Pakistan memorial tower which was built in 1968 on the site where the Lahore Resolution was passed. The national flag was adopted just before independence was achieved on 14 August 1947. The national anthem and the state emblem were each adopted in 1954. There are also several other symbols including the national animal, bird, flower and tree.
Pakistan Day is a national holiday in Pakistan primarily commemorating the adoption of the first Constitution of Pakistan during the transition of the Dominion of Pakistan to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan on 23 March 1956 making Pakistan the world's first Islamic republic, which remains a member state of the Commonwealth of Nations. The day also celebrates the adoption of the Lahore Resolution by the Muslim League at the Minar-e-Pakistan which called for the creation of an independent sovereign state derived from the provinces with Muslim majorities located in the North-West and East of British India on 23 March 1940.
Allah Bux Muhammad Umar Soomro, or Allah Baksh Soomro, was a zamindar, government contractor, Indian independence activist and politician from the province of Sindh in colonial India. He is considered to be amongst the best premiers of the province, known for promoting Hindu-Muslim unity and campaigning for an independent, united India. He was referred to as Shaheed or "martyr".
Qazi Muhammad Isa was a Pakistani politician and one of the leading founding fathers of Pakistan. He was an advocate of the Pakistan Movement and represented Balochistan in the Lahore Conference that led to the ratification of Lahore Resolution. He led the Muslim League's branches in Balochistan and NWFP.
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.
Ghulam Muhammad Khan Bhurgri (Barrister),(1878-1924) was a Sindhi statesman.
Chaudhry Nazir Ahmed Khan was a Pakistani politician. He was a member of the All India Muslim League, who served as a Member of the National Assembly of Pakistan (1990-1993). During the pre- and post-partition of the subcontinent, Nazir Ahmed Khan played a significant role in political parties such as the All India Muslim League (Pre-Partition) and Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan.
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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.
The All India Azad Muslim Conference, commonly called the Azad Muslim Conference, was an organisation of nationalist Muslims in India. Its purpose was advocacy for composite nationalism and a united India, thus opposing the partition of India as well as its underlying two-nation theory put forward by the pro-separatist All-India Muslim League. The conference included representatives from various political parties and organizations such as Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, Majlis-e-Ahrar-ul-Islam, All India Momin Conference, All India Shia Political Conference, Khudai Khidmatgar, Krishak Praja Party, Anjuman-i-Watan Baluchistan, All India Muslim Majlis, and Jamiat Ahl-i-Hadis. The Canadian orientalist Wilfred Cantwell Smith felt that the attendees at the Delhi session in 1940 represented the "majority of India's Muslims". The Bombay Chronicle documented on 18 April 1946 that "The attendance at the Nationalist meeting was about five times than the attendance at the League meeting."
Composite nationalism is a concept that argues that the Indian nation is made up of people of diverse ethnicities, cultures, tribes, castes, communities, and faiths. The idea teaches that "nationalism cannot be defined by religion in India." While Indian citizens maintain their distinctive religious traditions, they are members of one united Indian nation. Composite nationalism maintains that prior to the arrival of the British into the subcontinent, no enmity between people of different religious faiths existed; and as such these artificial divisions can be overcome by Indian society.
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Jinnah's Lahore address lowered the final curtain on any prospects for a single united independent India ... once his mind was made up he never reverted to any earlier position ... The ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity had totally transformed himself into Pakistan's great leader. All that remained was for his party first, then his inchoate nation, and then his British allies to agree to the formula he had resolved upon.
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 the open session, on 24 March, the resolution was moved ... by Fazlul Haq, and was seconded by Khaliquzzaman (UP), Zafar Ali Khan (Punjab), Aurangzeb (NWFP), and Haroon (Sindh).
Within five weeks of the passage of the Pak resolution, an assembly of nationalist Muslims under the name of the Azad Muslim Conference was convened in Delhi. The Conference met under the presidentship of Khan Bahadur Allah Bakhsh, the then Chief Minister of Sind.
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.
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.