Muslim LEAGUE

The Background  

The political consciousness in India grew immensely during the second half of the nineteenth century. However, the period also saw the growth of communal feelings between the Hindus and the Muslims. The British policy of divide and rule played an important part in creating this mutual suspicion.

The British placed all the responsibilities of the First War of Independence in 1857 on the Muslims. Since the British didn’t want another such event to occur in future, they followed a repressive policy against the Muslims. Their presence in armed forces or administration was almost zero.

The lack of opportunity and the overall indifference created more pressure on the Muslim community. During the British repression the Muslims largely remained aloof from the western education. The Hindus on the other hand encouraged and supported modern education and were found to be in government jobs in large numbers.

The Divide and Rule Policy  

But once the national movement started gaining strength in India in the 1870s, the British followed the divide and rule policy. Suddenly they became the custodian of the rights of Muslims. They encouraged the separatist attempts among the Muslims and pitted them against the Hindus in general and the Congress in particular. It encouraged the separatist tendencies in the guise of protecting the interest of minorities. Their attempts found support from rich Muslim Nawabs and Zamindars.

So effective was this divide and rule policy that even intellectual like Sayyid Ahmad Khan called Congress a Hindu party and asked the Muslims to stay away from it. The communal organizations were readily accepted as representing the Muslims and were encouraged through official favour and patronage. The introduction of separate electorate was the master plan to encourage the growth of communalism in India.

The British government also encouraged the teaching of communal history, which was distorted. The British historians called ancient history of India as Hindu Period and the medieval as the Muslim period. They also spoke about the Muslims as invaders and guilty of breaking temples and ruining Hinduism. Such notion of history easily created and encouraged communal hatred.

Radical Congress Leaders’ Role  

The radical Congress leaders who dominated the Congress in the first half of the twentieth century gave a religious tinge to the Indian nationalism. They used strong religious sentiment to arouse national consciousness. Tilak, for example used Ganesh and Shiva puja festivals to propagate nationalism. Bankim in his writings used foreigners for Muslims. These proved hard to assimilate the Muslims in the main stream national politics. This situation was greatly exploited by the British  in their favour. They used this in order to create further rift between the Hindus and the Muslims. As a result many Muslim leaders decided to remain aloof from the national struggle.

Events leading to the formation of Muslim League  

Sayyed Ahmad Khan was opposed to Congress because he believed that Congress was speaking for the majority community and the Muslims will gain nothing by joining it as any self government in future will have democratic set up which will surely be dominated by the Hindus. He had large followers in the Muslim community because of his educational endeavour.

Under the influence of Theodore Beck, Sayyed Ahmad Khan established Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental Defence Association in 1893 to protect the rights of the Muslims and avoid them from joining the Congress and the national movement. With the establishment of the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental Defence Association the Muslim landlords started demanding separate representation of the Muslims in the local bodies. The Hindi-Urdu controversy in the United Provinces and the Partition of Bengal saw the demand for a political organisation for the Muslims to safeguard their interest grew rapidly.

In 1906, a delegation of 35 Muslim leaders under the leadership of Aga Khan met the Viceroy Lord Minto in Shimla and asked the government to either consider introducing nomination or representation for Muslims or to introduce separate electorate system of election to the local councils and boards elections.

Formation of Muslim League 

With the success of the deputation some of the leaders decided to organize political party for the Muslims in order to safeguard the Muslim interests. In December 1906, a large number of eminent Muslim leaders attended the Mohammedan Educational Conference at Dhaka. At this meeting, Nawab Salimullah of Dhaka proposed the scheme of a political organization which would look exclusively after the interests of the Muslim community, and thus on 30 December 1906, the Muslim League was born. Aga Khan was appointed the first president of the League

Objectives  

The objectives of the Muslim League was to promote among Muslims of India, a feeling of loyalty to the British government; to protect and advance the political rights of the Muslims of India and to prevent the rise of hostilities towards other communities.

The two most important objective of the Muslim League that was successful in the formation years were keeping the Muslims away from the Congress and the national movement and the introduction of separate electorate by the British government.

The League became an important tool in the hands of the government in their fight against the Congress. Also the provision of the separate electorate for the Muslims introduced by the British was crucial in shaping the nature of the communal politics in India. The Muslims could now elect their own representatives in designated constituencies. This was the precursor of the ‘Two Nation Theory’ that led to the partition of the country.

However, there were many Muslim leaders who promoted cooperation between the Hindus and the Muslims and refused to accept that the Muslim League represented the entire Muslim community in India. Prominent among them were Maulana Abul Kalam Azad and Hakim Ajmal Khan, both joined Congress and were top leaders as well as President of the Congress party many times.

Several of these leaders became very critical of the British policies that encouraged separatism between both the communities. They started advocating increased cooperation among the Congress and the Muslim League. It was their efforts that resulted in the Lucknow Pact in 1916 between the both the parties.

Both the Congress and the Muslim League jointly declared the Lucknow Pact demanding self governing rights for the Indians along with a number of other points like communal electorate, direct election, abolition of the Indian Council and reforms in the Legislative councils.

After the war was finished the British government brought the famous August Declaration basically based on two points – one that India will continue to remain an integral part of the British Empire and second the British government was willing to associate Indians in administration and also willing to develop local self governing bodies like Municipalities and District Boards.

Govt. of India Act, 1919  

The August Declaration finally resulted in the passing of the Government of India Act 1919 which provided the Indians some sort of self rule. The rule of Diarchy was introduced in the Provincial legislature with provisions for elected councillors. Also the Governor General’s Council was for the first time was to have three Indians in the team of eight members. Both Congress and the Muslim League rejected the Act saying it was too less reform and impractical.

Nehru Report  

The Congress on the other hand came up with its own version of the Commission called Nehru Report under the Chairmanship of Motilal Nehru . The report agreed to the dominion status for India headed by the British Parliament appointed Governor General, creation of states based on linguistic ground, Parliament of India to have 500 members in the lower house directly elected by non communal electorate by universal adult franchise for 5 years, and 200 members in the Senate for 6 years elected indirectly. The Muslim League demanded the creation of 4 Muslim majority provinces and more reservations of seats for the Muslims.

First Round Table Conference  

Soon the government announced the First Round Table Conference to be held in London from 16 Nov 1930. The Congress did not participate and boycotted it. The Hindu Mahasabha and the Muslim League and several Princes of the Princely states participated. The outcome of the Conference was meaningless.

After the failure of the First Round Table Conference the government engaged with the Congress to bring it to the negotiating table. Gandhi and other leaders were released from the prison. Congress agreed to be a part of the Second Round Table Conference after signing Gandhi-Irwin Pact which led to the release of all political prisoners not involved in violence.

Second Round Table Conference  

The Second Round Table Conference was held in London between September 1931 and December 1931. Gandhi attended it as the sole representative of the Congress, also attended by Hindu Mahasabha and Muslim League leaders besides Princes. A deadlock happened on the issue of separate electorate for the minorities like Muslims, Anglo-Indians and Christians and also Depressed class Hindus. Gandhi tried hard to prevent leaders from being concerned only about securing seats and reservations for their community. The British government announced the formation of two Muslim majority states of North West Frontier Province and Sindh based on the demands made by the Muslim League.

Communal Award  

In August 1932, the British government announced the Communal award implementing separate electorate not only for the Muslims, but also for the Sikhs, Christians and the Depressed class of Hindus. Gandhi who was at Yeravada Jail at that time, was shocked and went on to indefinite fast. After some days the Depressed class representative B. R. Ambedkar discussed with Gandhi and came up with the Poona Pact rejecting the communal award for the depressed class in the interest of the Hindu unity.

Third Round Table Conference  

The British government in November 1932 decided to organize the Third round Table conference, which was again boycotted by the Congress but attended by the Muslim League and Hindu Mahasabha. After the Conference the government passed the Government of India Act, 1935 that reformed further the Council.

Government of India Act, 1935  

The three main features of the act was replacement of the diarchy at the provinces by the autonomous rule; formation of the bicameral legislature consisting of the Council of States and the Federal Assembly and direct elections to the Council of States and indirect elections for the Federal Assembly.

Though Congress rejected the proposal along with other political parties, it fought elections and won 716 seats out of 1161 it contested in the Council of States and won majority in all the provinces except Bengal, Assam, Sindh, NWFP and Punjab. The Congress formed Provincial ministry in Bombay, Madras, Central Provinces, Bihar, Assam, Orissa, United Provinces, and NWFP. Muslim League formed ministry in Bengal and in Punjab Akali Dal formed ministry in coalition with the Congress party.

Second World War  

During the Second World War, the Congress agreed to help the government in lieu of independence after the war was over. The British government assured Congress that after the war, a constituent assembly would be formed to determine the future political structure of India and some sort of responsible government at the centre would be formed as interim government before gaining full independence. The Congress was adamant on full freedom after the war which was rejected. This led to the withdrawal of the Congress support to the British war efforts. The Congress ministry from all provinces resigned.

The government however continued with their job. Meanwhile, the Muslim League extended their support for the British war efforts in return of the assurance of taking the views of the Muslims before finalizing any constitutional scheme.

The astounding success of Hitler in the war forced the British government to re-negotiate with the Congress as it needed a full fledged support of India in its war efforts. The Congress was still not in any mood to give concession to the government. The government brought August Offer, which was rejected by the Congress because it did not offer any thing new, but was welcomed by the Muslim League as it spoke about the minority rights.

Cripps Mission   

In March 1942 the British government sent Sir Stafford Cripps the leader of the House of the Commons in England to India with a set of proposals in order to seek its support for the war. This was Cripps Mission. It proposed setting up of an Indian Union with a dominion status. After the war it would constitute a Constituent Assembly to frame a Constitution and negotiation for transfer of power. The Congress rejected the proposal as it talked about the dominion status and Congress wanted full independence. The Muslim League rejected on the ground that it did not speak anything about the separate state for the Muslims Pakistan.

Wavell Plan  

During the course of the Second World War, the Indian struggle caught the eyes of the British allies especially the USA, who now started to put pressure on the British government to settle permanently the Indian independence issue. Viceroy Wavell called a conference of the leaders of Congress and other political parties in Shimla in June 1945 and presented the Wavell Plan. The main features of the Plan was that the British government would start negotiations on the new constitution for India once the war was over and that the Viceroy’s Executive Council will have all Indian members except the Viceroy.

The Congress party rejected the Plan as it objected to be called Hindu Party and the Muslim League rejected because it wanted to be the sole representative of all Muslims in India.

Elections of 1945  

The elections to the central and legislative councils in India were announced in August 1945 by the British government which also declared that after the elections a constituent assembly would be convened and an interim government would be in power.

The Congress won 57 out of 102 seats in the Central Assembly and got a majority in the provincial assemblies of most of the provinces except Bengal, Sindh and Punjab. The Muslim League got 90% Muslim votes and won the thirty reserved seats in the central assembly and formed governments in the Sindh and Bengal Province. Akali Dal formed government in Punjab with the help of Congress coalition.

Cabinet Mission  

As promised the British government sent a Cabinet Mission under the leadership of the Secretary of State Pethick Lawrence in March 1946 to negotiate the transfer of power and formation of interim government.

The Cabinet Mission rejected the idea of Pakistan saying that the proposed state would also have a large number of Hindus and practical problems of dividing the army and the provinces of Punjab and Bengal. It offered to create a federal union comprised of the British Indian Provinces and the Princely states. The centre would control defense, communication and external affairs. It would have the power to raise money to carry out its activity. The provinces were grouped in three sections. It also proposed the formation of interim government on the sidelines of the Constituent Assembly.

The Congress accepted the proposal mainly because the proposal had rejected the idea of Pakistan and the Muslim League agreed because the grouping of the province was done according to its plan, Punjab, NWFP, Sindh, Bengal and Assam were grouped separately in two groups, not clubbed with other states.

The Interim Government  

Next year after the Cabinet Mission’s limited success, the British government decided to hold elections for the Constituent Assembly. The Congress managed to win 201 seats and the Muslim League 73 seats. The Congress formed the interim government under the leadership of Nehru, which made the League uncomfortable. The League was mainly offended because it wanted all Muslims in the interim government to be from its leaders. They did not agree to the appointment of any Muslims, even from the Congress quota.

From now onwards Muslim League started to crate troubles for the interim government and was non cooperative.  It accused the Viceroy and withdrew its acceptance of the Cabinet Mission. On August 16, 1946 the Muslim League gave a call for the ‘Direct Action’ to achieve Pakistan. The call was followed by horrible bloodshed and communal riots in Calcutta, Bombay and Noakhali leaving more than 5000 people dead within a couple of days.

At last, Lord Wavell persuaded the League to join the interim government by October 1946. The Muslim League joined the interim government and its leader Liakat Ali Khan got finance portfolio, but its intentions were not good since the beginning, as they had accepted the invite to join the interim government to secure foothold in the government to fight for Pakistan. Finally, the League recommended the dissolution of the Assembly and boycotted the interim government. It didn’t join any of its sitting and intensified its agitation. It brought down the Congress-Akali coalition government in Punjab.

Mountbatten plan  

Lord Mountbatten took charge as Viceroy in March 1947 with a sole objective of independence of India. As soon as he took charge he started to discuss with the leaders of Congress and the Muslim League for transfer of power.

By this time it was clear that the country was heading towards a partition, a Hindu majority India and a Muslim majority Pakistan. A Bill, called the Indian Independence Act was passed in the British Parliament on 1 July, 1947 deciding that India would be partitioned into two dominions – India and Pakistan, to be created on 14 and 15 August 1947.

The Partition  

The British authority now decided to work out the details of the Mountbatten Plan. A Boundary Commission under the British lawyer Radcliff was formed to mark the boundary lines of the two states of India and Pakistan. The Provincial Assemblies of Bengal and Punjab were given the right to meet separately and as expected they voted for the partition of Punjab and Bengal. A plebiscite was done for Assam, which chose to be in India. There were lot of resentment from both Hindus and Muslims for loss of some parts. The Hindus resented the loss of Lahore, Khulna and Chittagong while the Muslims resented the loss of Gurdaspur, Murshidabad, Nadia and Calcutta.

Muslim League after Independence  

To be continued.......