The establishment of Pakistan as an independent and sovereign state in August 1947 is such a fascinating development that the historians and political scientists from Pakistan, India, the UK and the US continue to explore this. They have come up with different explanations about the partition of British India and the making of Pakistan.
An important way to understand the dynamics of establishment of Pakistan is to examine the Pakistan Resolution of March 23, 1940 in the context of that time and how did the Muslim League leaders come to the conclusion of passing a resolution for division of British India. This needs to be studied with an understanding of the political environment of that time and especially various other proposals for Muslim homeland that were in circulation when the Lahore Resolution was adopted.
The demand set out in the Pakistan Resolution was outcome of their political experience that convinced them that the Muslim identity, rights and interests would not be secure in united India. They formally demanded in March 1940 that Muslims should have a separate homeland.
Muslim Struggle for Identity and Rights
The Muslim leaders did not ask for a separate homeland when the All India Muslim League was set up in December 1906. It was a Muslim elite forum for interacting with the British government for securing Muslim societal and political concerns. Their struggle was for protecting and advancing Muslim cultural and civilizational identity, rights and interests. They expected this goal to be realized in united India.
Their original demands were for separate electorate for electing Muslim members to the elected bodies, especially the legislature, their representation in the cabinet and government jobs, constitutional guarantees and safeguards for their rights and interests, and a federal constitution with autonomy to provinces. They hoped that the Muslims will be able to manage their affairs in Muslim majority provinces and, in other provinces, constitutional safeguards will protect their identity, rights and interests.
If we examine Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah's "Fourteen Points" (1929) it could be described as the charter of Muslim political rights. He advocated for safeguards for ensuring that the future political system for India offered opportunities for the Muslims to move onwards in political, governmental, economic and societal domains. All this was to be secured in a federal India. The Muslim leaders that participated in the Roundtable Conferences (1930-32) supported a federal democratic political set up for India.
The Muslim League struggle for securing constitutional guarantees for the Muslim identity, rights and interests met with resistance by the Congress Party. The Congress leadership was not willing to accommodate the Muslim League demands but wanted them to join the Congress Party and accept its vision for the future of India. The failure of Jinnah's efforts to secure changes in the Nehru Report (1928) for incorporation of Muslim demands showed the intransigence of the Congress leadership. This was a major setback for those leaders who thought that a joint position on political and constitutional issues would enable them to secure most of their demands from the British Government.
The Muslim alienation from a shared approach on the future of India developed at a fast pace from 1928-29 onwards, although some efforts for cooperation continued in the early 1930s. The real breach came when the Congress Party established provincial governments in the non-Muslim majority provinces in 1937 and ignored the Muslim League even in the United Province (UP) where it won a reasonable number of Muslim seats.
The Congress rule in 7 provinces lasted for two years. These ministries resigned in September 1939, and the Muslim League expressed satisfaction on the end of the Congress rule at the provincial level. The Muslim League was happy because the Muslims suffered under Congress rule with reference to their recruitment to government jobs and protection of their rights and interests. The new education programme introduced by these ministries highlighted Hindu cultural and historical identity to the displeasure of the Muslims. The cultural and educational onslaught alienated the Muslims from the Congress. Not to speak of the Muslim elite, the ordinary Muslim felt the negative impact of the Congress rule.
The Muslim League leaders viewed the Muslim experience under the Congress rule in provinces as a preview of how the Muslims would be treated by the Congress government in independent India.
The fear of being overwhelmed by an unsympathetic majority led by the Congress Party in independent united India led the Muslim League leaders to review their views on "constitutional guarantees" and "federalism."
Separate Homeland
It was this political experience of the Muslim League leaders that changed their political disposition. They realized that their historical agenda of protecting and advancing Muslim identity, rights and interests could not materialize in united India dominated by the Congress Party.
This historical backdrop explains how and why the Muslim League leadership came to realize that they need a separate homeland to secure their civilizational-cultural identity, and political and societal rights and economic interests Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah and the Muslim League advocated a new nationalism that talked of two major nations in India as a substitute to the Congress nationalism of one Indian nation. Jinnah argued that the Muslims of the sub-continent were a nation by any definition of this concept. They were a nation with their distinctive "outlook on life and of life" based on the principles and teachings of Islam. As a separate nation, they ought to have a separate country.
The Resolution passed in the annual session of the Muslim League held in Lahore on March 22-24, 1940, rejected the notion of "one India," and outlined a broad framework for Muslim homeland. This marked a clear shift in the Muslim League strategy to protect and advance Muslim identity, rights and interests. The major issues raised in the March 1940 Resolution were:
1. The federal system as provided in the Government of India Act, 1935, was not acceptable because it was "totally unsuited to and unworkable in the peculiar conditions of this country and is altogether unacceptable to Muslim India."
2. The Muslims would reject any constitutional formula that was not formulated with "their consent and approval."
3. The contiguous territorial units in India need to be delineated into region in a way "that the areas in which the Muslims are numerically in a majority, as in northwestern and eastern zones of India, are turned into "independent states in which the constituent units shall be autonomous and sovereign."
4. Religious minorities in the Muslim majority areas will be given "adequate, effective and mandatory safeguards" for protecting "their religious, cultural, economic, political, administrative and other rights and interests in consultation with them." The Muslim League demanded that similar rights should be given to the Muslims in "other parts of India."
5. The Muslim League Working Committee would prepare a constitutional scheme keeping in view the principles outlined in the Resolution.
By adopting this Resolution, the Muslim League adopted a new approach to the political problems of the Muslims of British India. The shift was in the methodology but the goal remained as before, that is, protection and advancement of Muslim identity, rights and interests. They learnt from their interaction with the Congress Party in the political domain that their political future would not be secure in a political system dominated by the Congress Party.
The political ideas outlined in the Resolution addressed the Muslim question in the Indian political context where territorial adjustments were to be made in the Muslim majority units for enabling them to become autonomous and independent of India. The Resolution did not give any formula for organization of state or the relation between centre and province in independent Pakistan. Though the resolution was passed but very few people expected at that time that a homeland would be available to them in 7 years.
Some proposals for Muslim homelands were in circulation when the Pakistan Resolution was drafted by the Muslim League. These proposals talked of more than Muslim homelands in British India. The Muslim League prepared the resolution in a manner that it did not alienate those thinking about more than one Muslim homelands.
The political movement for establishing Pakistan did not end in 1940. It continued for another seven years. It was during these seven years that the Muslim League engaged in widespread mass mobilization and fully articulated the ideas first float in the 1940 Resolution. It is not possible to understand why and how Pakistan came into being without paying attention to the political developments during 1940-47. Within three years of the passing of the Pakistan Resolution, the Muslim League had made it clear that it stood for one new state of Pakistan as a homeland for the Muslims of British India.
The Muslim League contested the 1946 provincial elections with two major demands that it was the sole representatives of the Muslims and it stood for an independent state of Pakistan. It won the largest number of Muslims seats in the provincial assemblies. By this time the establishment of Pakistan had become the most popular political demand of the Muslims of British India.
The Pakistan Resolution of March 1940 can be described as the turning point in the Muslim struggle for protection and advancement of Muslim cultural and civilizational identity, rights and interests. The Muslim League demanded a separate homeland for the Muslims of British India for securing their socio-political and economic future as a nation.
(The author is an independent political analyst. He holds the PhD degree from the University of Pennsylvania, USA, and a recipient of Sitara-i-Imtiaz for academic excellence).
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