Lahore Resolution 1940

Lahore resolution 1940

From March 22 to March 24, 1940, the All India Muslim League held its annual session at Minto Park, Lahore. This session proved to be historical.

On the first day of the session, Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah narrated the events of the last few months. In an extempore speech he presented his own solution of the Muslim problem. He said that the problem of India was not of an inter-communal nature, but manifestly an international one and must be treated as such. To him the differences between Hindus and the Muslims were so great and so sharp that their union under one central government was full of serious risks. They belonged to two separate and distinct nations and therefore the only chance open was to allow them to have separate states.

In the words of Quaid-i-Azam: "Hindus and the Muslims belong to two different religions, philosophies, social customs and literature. They neither inter-marry nor inter-dine and, indeed, they belong to two different civilizations that are based mainly on conflicting ideas and conceptions. Their concepts on life and of life are different. It is quite clear that Hindus and Muslims derive their inspiration from different sources of history. They have different epics, different heroes and different episodes. Very often the hero of one is a foe of the other, and likewise, their victories and defeats overlap. 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".

He further said, "Mussalmans are a nation according to any definition of nation. We wish our people to develop to the fullest spiritual, cultural, economic, social and political life in a way that we think best and in consonance with our own ideals and according to the genius of our people".

On the basis of the above mentioned ideas of the Quaid, A. K. Fazl-ul-Haq, the then Chief Minister of Bengal, moved the historical resolution which has since come to be known as Lahore Resolution or Pakistan Resolution.

The Resolution 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. That the areas in which the Muslims are numerically in 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".

It further reads, "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, with their consultation. Arrangements thus should be made for the security of Muslims where they were in a minority".

The Resolution repudiated the concept of United India and recommended the creation of an independent Muslim state consisting of Punjab, N. W. F. P., Sindh and Baluchistan in the northwest, and Bengal and Assam in the northeast. The Resolution was seconded by Maulana Zafar Ali Khan from Punjab, Sardar Aurangzeb from the N. W. F. P., Sir Abdullah Haroon from Sindh, and Qazi Esa from Baluchistan, along with many others.

The Resolution was passed on March 24. It laid down only the principles, with the details left to be worked out at a future date. It was made a part of the All India Muslim League's constitution in 1941. It was on the basis of this resolution that in 1946 the Muslim League decided to go for one state for the Muslims, instead of two.

Having passed the Pakistan Resolution, the Muslims of India changed their ultimate goal. Instead of seeking alliance with the Hindu community, they set out on a path whose destination was a separate homeland for the Muslims of India.

Cripps mission 1942

The British government wanted to get the cooperation of the Indian people in order to deal with the war situation. The divergence between the two major representative parties of the country harassed the British government. It found it difficult to make the war a success without the cooperation of both the Hindus and the Muslims.

On MarcThe important points of the declaration were as follows:

a) General elections in the provinces would be arranged as soon as the war ended.

b) A new Indian dominion, associated with the United Kingdom would be created.

c) Those provinces not joining the dominion could form their own separate union.

d) Minorities were to be protected.

However, both the Congress and the Muslim League rejected these proposals. Jinnah opposed the plan, as it did not concede Pakistan. Thus the plan came to nothing.

h 22, 1942, Britain sent Sir Stafford Cripps with constitutional proposals.

Gandhi-Jinnah Talks [1944]

The Gandhi-Jinnah Talks have eminent significance with regard to the political problems of India and the Pakistan Movement. The talks between the two great leaders of the Sub-continent began in response to the general public's desire for a settlement of Hindu-Muslim differences.

On July 17, 1944, Gandhi wrote a letter to Quaid-i-Azam in which he expressed his desire to meet him. Quaid-i-Azam asked the Muslim League for permission for this meeting. The League readily acquiesced.

The Gandhi-Jinnah talks began in Bombay on September 19, 1944, and lasted till the 24th of the month. The talks were held directly and via correspondence. Gandhi told Quaid-i-Azam that he had come in his personal capacity and was representing neither the Hindus nor the Congress.

Gandhi's real purpose behind these talks was to extract from Jinnah an admission that the whole proposition of Pakistan was absurd.

Quaid-i-Azam painstakingly explained the basis of the demand of Pakistan. "We maintain", he wrote to Gandhi, "that Muslims and Hindus are two major nations by any definition or test of a nation. We are a nation of a 100 million. We have our distinctive outlook on life and of life. By all the cannons of international law, we are a nation". He added that he was "convinced that the true welfare not only of the Muslims but of the rest of India lies in the division of India as proposed in the Lahore Resolution".

Gandhi on the other hand maintained that India was one nation and saw in the Pakistan Resolution "Nothing but ruin for the whole of India". "If, however, Pakistan had to be conceded, the areas in which the Muslims are in an absolute majority should be demarcated by a commission approved by both the Congress and the Muslim League. The wishes of the people of these areas will be obtained through referendum. These areas shall form a separate state as soon as possible after India is free from foreign domination. There shall be a treaty of separation which should also provide for the efficient and satisfactory administration of foreign affairs, defense, internal communication, custom and the like which must necessarily continue to be the matters of common interest between the contracting countries".

This meant, in effect, that power over the whole of India should first be transferred to Congress, which thereafter would allow Muslim majority areas that voted for separation to be constituted, not as independent sovereign state but as part of an Indian federation.

Gandhi contended that his offer gave the substance of the Lahore Resolution. Quaid-i-Azam did not agree to the proposal and the talks ended.

Wavell Plan and Simla Conference [1945]

In May 1945, Lord Wavell, the Viceroy of India, went to London and discussed his ideas about the future of India with the British administration. The talks resulted in the formulation of a plan of action that was made public in June 1945. The plan is known as Wavell Plan.

The Plan suggested reconstitution of the Viceroy's Executive Council in which the Viceroy was to select persons nominated by the political parties. Different communities were also to get their due share in the Council and parity was reserved for Cast-Hindus and Muslims. While declaring the plan, the Secretary of State for Indian Affairs made it clear that the British Government wanted to listen to the ideas of all major Indian communities. Yet he said that it was only possible if the leadership of the leading Indian political parties agreed with the suggestions of the British Government.

To discuss these proposals with the leadership of major Indian parties, Wavell called for a conference at Simla on June 25, 1945. Leaders of both the Congress and the Muslim League attended the conference, which is known as the Simla Conference. However, differences arose between the leadership of the two parties on the issue of representation of the Muslim community. The Muslim League claimed that it was the only representative party of the Muslims in India and thus all the Muslim representatives in the Viceroy's Executive Council should be the nominees of the party. Congress, which had sent Maulana

Azad as the leader of their delegation, tried to prove that their party represented all the communities living in India and thus should be allowed to nominate Muslim representative as well. Congress also opposed the idea of parity between the Cast-Hindus and the Muslims. All this resulted in a deadlock. Finally, Wavell announced the failure of his efforts on July 14. Thus the Simla Conference couldn't provide any hope of proceeding further.

Provincial and General Elections [1945-46]

With the failure of the Simla Conference, Lord Wavell announced that the Central and Provincial Legislature elections would be held in the winter of 1945, after which a constitution-making body would be set up. He also announced that after the elections, the Viceroy would set an Executive Council that would have the support of the main Indian political parties. Both the Muslim League and the Congress opposed the proposal.

Quaid-i-Azam declared that Muslims were not ready to accept any settlement less than a separate homeland for them and the All India Congress Committee characterized the proposal as vague, inadequate and unsatisfactory because it had not addressed the issue of independence. Despite this, the two parties launched huge election campaigns. They knew that the elections would be crucial for the future of India, as the results were to play an important role in determining their standing. The League wanted to sweep the Muslim constituencies so as to prove that they were the sole representatives of the Muslims of Sub-continent, while Congress wanted to prove that, irrespective of religion, they represent all the Indians.

Both the Muslim League and the Congress promulgated opposite slogans during their campaigns. The Muslim League presented a one-point manifesto "if you want Pakistan, vote for the Muslim League". Quaid-i-Azam himself toured the length and breadth of India and tried to unite the Muslim community under the banner of the Muslim League.

The Congress on the other hand stood for United India. To counter the Muslim League, the Congress press abused the Quaid and termed his demand for Pakistan as the "vivisection of Mother India", "reactionary primitivism" and "religious barbarism". Congress tried to brand Muslim League as an ultra-conservative clique of knights, Khan Bahadurs, toadies and government pensioners. The Congress also tried to get the support of all the provincial and central Muslim parties who had some differences with the League, and backed them in the elections.

Elections for the Central Legislature were held in December 1945. Though the franchise was limited, the turnover was extraordinary.

The Congress was able to sweep the polls for the non-Muslim seats. They managed to win more then 80 percent of the general seats and about 91.3 percent of the total general votes. The Leagues performance, however, was even more impressive: it managed to win all the 30 seats reserved for the Muslims. The results of the provincial election held in early 1946 were not different. Congress won most of the non-Muslim seats while Muslim League captured approximately 95 percent of the Muslim seats.

In a bulletin issued on January 6, 1946, the Central Election Board of the Congress claimed that the election results had vindicated the party as the biggest, strongest and the most representative organization in the country. On the other hand, the League celebrated January 11, 1946, as the Day of Victory and declared that the election results were enough to prove that Muslim League, under the leadership of Quaid-i-Azam, was the sole representative of the Muslims of the region.

Cabinet Mission Plan [1946]

All of the British Government's attempts to establish peace between the Congress and the Muslim League had failed. The results of the general elections held in 1945-46 served to underline the urgency to find a solution to the political deadlock, which was the result of non-cooperation between the two major parties. To end this, the British government sent a special mission of cabinet ministers to India.

The mission consisted of Lord Pethic Lawrence, the Secretary of State for India, Sir Stafford Cripps, President of the Board of Trade, and A. V. Alexander, the First Lord of the Admiralty.

The purpose of the mission was:

1. Preparatory discussions with elected representatives of British India and the Indian states in order to secure agreement as to the method of framing the constitution.

2. Setting up of a constitution body.

3. Setting up an Executive Council with the support of the main Indian parties.

The mission arrived on March 24, 1946. After extensive discussions with Congress and the Muslim League, the Cabinet Mission put forward its own proposals on May 16, 1946.

The main points of the plan were:

1. There would be a union of India comprising both British India and the Indian States that would deal with foreign affairs, defense and communications. The union would have an Executive and a Legislature.

2. All residuary powers would belong to the provinces.

3. All provinces would be divided into three sections. Provinces could opt out of any group after the first general elections.

4. There would also be an interim government having the support of the major political parties.

The Muslim League accepted the plan on June 6 1946. Earlier, the Congress had accepted the plan on May 24, 1946, though it rejected the interim setup.

The Viceroy should now have invited the Muslim League to form Government as it had accepted the interim setup; but he did not do so.

Meanwhile Jawaharlal Nehru, addressing a press conference on July 10, said that the Congress had agreed to join the constituent assembly, but saying it would be free to make changes in the Cabinet Mission Plan.

Under these circumstances, the Muslim League disassociated itself from the Cabinet Plan and resorted to "Direct Action" to achieve Pakistan. As a result, Viceroy Wavell invited the Congress to join the interim government, although it had practically rejected the plan.

However, the Viceroy soon realized the futility of the scheme without the participation of the League. Therefore, on October 14, 1946, he extended an invitation to them as well.

Jinnah nominated Liaquat Ali Khan, I. I. Chundrigar, Sardar Abdur Rab Nishtar, Ghazanfar Ali Khan and Jogandra Nath Mandal to the cabinet.

Congress allocated the Finance Ministry to the League. This in effect placed the whole governmental setup under the Muslim League. As Minister of Finance, the budget Liaquat Ali Khan presented was called a "poor man's budget" as it adversely affected the Hindu capitalists.

The deadlock between the Congress and the League further worsened in this setup.

On March 22, 1947, Lord Mountbatten arrived as the last Viceroy. It was announced that power would be transferred from British to Indian hands by June 1948.

Lord Mountbatten entered into a series of talks with the Congress and the Muslim League leaders. Quaid-i-Azam made it clear that the demand for Pakistan had the support of all the Muslims of India and that he could not withdraw from it. With staunch extremists as Patel agreeing to the Muslim demand for a separate homeland, Mountbatten now prepared for the partition of the Sub-continent and announced it on June 3, 1947.

June 3rd Plan [1947]

When all of Mountbatten's efforts to keep India united failed, he asked Ismay to chalk out a plan for the transfer of power and the division of the country. It was decided that none of the Indian parties would view it before the plan was finalized.

The plan was finalized in the Governor's Conference in April 1947, and was then sent to Britain in May where the British Government approved it.

However, before the announcement of the plan, Nehru who was staying with Mountbatten as a guest in his residence at Simla, had a look at the plan and rejected it. Mountbatten then asked V. P. Menon, the only Indian in his personal staff, to present a new plan for the transfer of power. Nehru edited Menon's formula and then Mountbatten himself took the new plan to London, where he got it approved without

any alteration. Attlee and his cabinet gave the approval in a meeting that lasted not more than five minutes. In this way, the plan that was to decide the future of the Indo-Pak Sub-continent was actually authored by a Congress-minded Hindu and was approved by Nehru himself.

Mountbatten came back from London on May 31, and on June 2 met seven Indian leaders. These were Nehru, Patel, Kriplalani, Quaid-i-Azam, Liaquat, Nishtar and Baldev Singh. After these leaders approved the plan, Mountbatten discussed it with Gandhi and convinced him that it was the best plan under the circumstances. The plan was made public on June 3, and is thus known as the June 3rd Plan

The following were the main clauses of this Plan:

1. The Provincial Legislative Assemblies of Punjab and Bengal were to meet in two groups, i.e., Muslim majority districts and non-Muslim majority districts. If any of the two decided in favor of the division of the province, then the Governor General would appoint a boundary commission to demarcate the boundaries of the province on the basis of ascertaining the contiguous majority areas of Muslims and non-Muslims.

2. The Legislative Assembly of Sindh (excluding its European Members) was to decide either to join the existing Constituent Assembly or the New Constituent Assembly.

3. In order to decide the future of the North West Frontier Province, a referendum was proposed. The Electoral College for the referendum was to be the same as the Electoral College for the provincial legislative assembly in 1946.

4. Baluchistan was also to be given the option to express its opinion on the issue.

5. If Bengal decided in favor of partition, a referendum was to be held in the Sylhet District of Assam to decide whether it would continue as a part of Assam, or be merged with the new province of East Bengal.

The Birth of Pakistan [August 14, 1947]

The British Parliament passed the Indian Independence Act on July 18, 1947. The Act created two dominions, Indian Union and Pakistan. It also provided for the complete end of British control over Indian affairs from August 15, 1947. The Muslims of the Sub-continent had finally achieved their goal to have an independent state for themselves, but only after a long and relentless struggle under the single-minded guidance of the Quaid.

The Muslims faced a gamut of problems immediately after independence. However, keeping true to their traditions, they overcame them after a while. Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah was appointed the first Governor General of Pakistan and Liaquat Ali Khan became its first Prime Minister. Pakistan became a dominion within the British Commonwealth of Nations.

The boundaries of Pakistan emerged on the map of the world in 1947. This was accomplished on the basis of the Two-Nation Theory. This theory held that there were two nations, Hindus and Muslims living

in the territory of the Sub-continent. Sir Syed Ahmad Khan was the first exponent of the Two-Nation Theory in the modern era. He believed that India was a continent and not a country, and that among the vast population of different races and different creeds, Hindus and Muslims were the two major nations on the basis of nationality, religion, way-of-life, customs, traditions, culture and historical conditions.

The politicization of the Muslim community came about as a consequence of three developments:

1. Various efforts towards Islamic reform and revival during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

2. The impact of Hindu-based nationalism.

3. The democratization of the government of British India.

While the antecedents of Muslim nationalism in India go back to the early Islamic conquests of the Sub-continent, organizationally it stems from the demands presented by the Simla Deputation to Lord Minto, the Governor General of India, in October 1906, proposing separate electorates for the Indian Muslims. The principal reason behind this demand was the maintenance of a separate identity of the Muslim nationhood.

In the same year, the founding of the All India Muslim League, a separate political organization for Muslims, elucidated the fact that the Muslims of India had lost trust in the Hindu-dominated Indian National Congress. Besides being a Hindu-dominated body, the Congress leaders in order to win grass-root support for their political movements, used Hindu religious symbols and slogans, thereby arousing Muslim suspicions regarding the secular character of the Congress.

Events like the Urdu-Hindi controversy (1867), the partition of Bengal (1905), and Hindu revivalism, set the two nations, the Hindus and the Muslims, further apart. Re-annulment of the partition of Bengal in 1911 by the British government brought the Congress and the Muslim League on one platform. Starting with the constitutional cooperation in the Lucknow Pact (1916), they launched the Non-Cooperation and Khilafat Movements to press upon the British government the demand for constitutional reforms in India in the post-World War I era.

But after the collapse of the Khilafat Movement, Hindu-Muslim antagonism was revived once again. The Muslim League rejected the proposals forwarded by the Nehru Report and they chose a separate path for themselves. The idea of a separate homeland for the Muslims of Northern India as proposed by Allama Iqbal in his famous Allahabad Address showed that the creation of two separate states for the Muslims and Hindus was the only solution. The idea was reiterated during the Sindh provincial meeting of the League, and finally adopted as the official League position in the Lahore Declaration of March 23, 1940.

Thus these historical, cultural, religious and social differences between the two nations accelerated the pace of political developments, finally leading to the division of British India into two separate, independent states, Pakistan and India, on August 14 & 15, 1947, respectively.

Lahore ResolutionFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

Minar-e-Pakistan, Lahore, where the Pakistan Resolution was passed

The Lahore Resolution (Qarardad-e-Lahore الھور commonly known as the Pakistan ,(قراردادResolution ( پاکستان Qarardad-e-Pakistan),[1] was a formal political statement adopted قراردادby the Muslim League at the occasion of its three-day general session on 22–24 March 1940 that called for greater Muslim autonomy in British India. This has been largely interpreted as a demand for a separate Muslim state, Pakistan.[2] The resolution was presented by A. K. Fazlul Huq.

Although the idea of founding the state was introduced by Allama Iqbal in 1930[3] and the name Pakistan had been proposed by Choudhary Rahmat Ali in his Pakistan Declaration [4] in 1933, Muhammad Ali Jinnah and other leaders had kept firm belief in Hindu-Muslim unity.[5] However, the volatile political climate and religious hostilities gave the idea stronger backing.[6]

Contents

[hide] 1 Background 2 Proceedings

3 The statement

4 Pakistan Resolution in the Sindh Assembly

5 Commemoration

6 See also

7 References

8 External links

[edit] Background

With the beginning of the Second World War in September 1939, the Viceroy of India Lord Linlithgow declared India's entrance into the war without consulting the provincial governments. In this situation, Jinnah called a general session of the All India Muslim League in Lahore to discuss the circumstances and also analyze the reasons for the defeat of Muslim League in the Indian general election of 1937 in some Muslim majority provinces.

[edit] Proceedings

Chaudhry Khaliquzzaman seconding the Resolution with Jinnah presiding the session

The session was held between 22 March and 24 March, 1940, at Manto Park (now Iqbal Park), Lahore. The welcome address was made by Nawab Sir Shah Nawaz Mamdot. In his speech, Jinnah recounted the contemporary situation, stressing that the problem of India was no more of an inter-communal nature, but manifestly an international.[7] He criticised the Congress and the nationalist Muslims, and espoused the Two-Nation Theory and the reasons for the demand for separate Muslim homelands. According to Stanley Wolpert, this was the moment when Jinnah, the former ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity, totally transformed himself into Pakistan's great leader.[8]

Sikandar Hayat Khan, the Chief Minister of the Punjab, drafted the original Lahore Resolution, which was placed before the Subject Committee of the All India Muslim League for discussion and amendments. The Resolution text unanimously rejected the concept of United India on the grounds of growing inter-communal violence[9] and recommended the creation of an independent Muslim state.[10]

After the presentation of annual report by Liaquat Ali Khan, the Resolution was moved in the general session by A.K. Fazlul Huq, the Chief Minister of undivided Bengal and was seconded by Choudhury Khaliquzzaman who explained his views on the causes which led to the demand of a separate state. Subsequently, Maulana Zafar Ali Khan from Punjab, Sardar Aurangzeb from the NWFP, Sir Abdullah Haroon from Sindh, and Qazi Esa from Baluchistan, and other leaders

announced their support. In the same session, Jinnah also presented a resolution to condemn the Khaksar massacre of 19 March, owing to a clash between the Khaksars and the police, that had resulted in the loss of lives.[11]

[edit] The statement

The principle text of the Lahore Resolution was passed on 24 March. In 1941 it became part of the Muslim League's constitution. In 1946, it formed the basis for the decision of Muslim League to struggle for one state 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. That the areas in which the Muslims are numerically in 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.[13]

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, with their consultation. Arrangements thus should be made for the security of Muslims where they were in a minority.[13]

[edit] Pakistan Resolution in the Sindh Assembly

The Sindh assembly was the first British Indian legislature to pass the resolution in favour of Pakistan. G. M. Syed, an influential Sindhi activist, revolutionary and Sufi and one of the important leaders to the forefront of the provincial autonomy movement joined the Muslim League in 1938 and presented the Pakistan resolution in the Sindh Assembly.

[edit] Commemoration

Muslim League Working Committee at the Lahore session

To commemorate the event, Minar-e-Pakistan, a 60 meters tall distinctive monument in the shape of a minaret has been built at the site in Iqbal Park Lahore, where the resolution was passed.

23 March is a national holiday in Pakistan, celebrated as Republic Day to commemorate Lahore Resolution as well as the day in 1956 when the country became the first Islamic Republic in the world.[14]

Lahore resolution

From March 22 to March 24, 1940, the All India Muslim League held its annual session at Minto Park, Lahore. This session proved to be historical.

On the first day of the session, Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah narrated the events of the last few months. In an extempore speech he presented his own solution of the Muslim problem. He said that the problem of India was not of an inter-communal nature, but manifestly an international one and must be treated as such. To him the differences between Hindus and the Muslims were so great and so sharp that their union under one central government was full of serious risks. They belonged to two separate and distinct nations and therefore the only chance open was to allow them to have separate states.

March 23 commemorates the passage of what was originally the ‘Lahore Resolution’ (Qarardad i Lahore) and later became better known as the ‘Pakistan Resolution’ (Qarardad i Pakistan). If there is a single most important founding document of Pakistan, it has to be this Resolution passed at the annual session of the All India Muslim League at its 1940 meeting (22-24 March) at Minto Park (now called Iqbal Park), Lahore (by the way, what a wonderful idea - for political parties to have annual, open, meaningful, annual sessions where real decisions are taken in a transparent and democratic manner!). In 1941, this Lahore (Pakistan) Resolution became part of the Muslim League constitution and in 1946 it became the basis of the demand for Pakistan.

Most Pakistanis know what the resolution says; or, at least we think we do; in most cases rightly so. But because we are so very sure that we know what it says, we usually do not take the time to actually read it. Maybe we should. And there cannot be a better day to do so than today.It is, like many of the most important documents in history, a fairly short text. I reproduce it here in full. The first two paragraphs are contextual related to the then discussions on federation within the Government of India Act 1935. The third and the fourth paragraphs are the key operational content which is usually cited in textbooks. However, my view is that the final short paragraph is also key; especially in that it talks in the plural about “respective regions” (as do previous paragraphs).

While approving and endorsing the action taken by the Council and the Working Committee of the All-India Muslim League, as indicated in their resolutions dated the 27th of August, 17th & 18th September and 22nd of October, 1939, and 3rd of February, 1940 on the constitutional issue, this Session of the All-India 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.

It further records its emphatic view that while the declaration dated the 18th of October, 1939 made by the Viceroy on behalf of His Majesty’s Government is reassuring in so far as it declares that the policy and plan on which the Government of India Act, 1935, is based will be reconsidered in consultation with various parties, interests and communities in India, Muslims in India will not be satisfied unless the whole constitutional plan is reconsidered de novo and that no revised plan would be acceptable to Muslims unless it is framed with their approval and consent.

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 the Muslims unless it is designed on the following basic principles, viz., 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.

That adequate, effective and mandatory safeguards should be specifically provided in the constitution for minorities in these units in the regions for the protection of their religious, cultural, economic, political, administrative and other rights and interests in consultations with them and in other parts of (British) India where the Mussalmans (Muslims) are in a majority adequate, effective and mandatory safeguards shall be specifically provided in 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.

This session further authorises 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.

Apart from the fact that the Resolution talks clearly about “respective regions” (words that have import in the context of the events of 1971), I find the 4th paragraph particularly important. The complex structure of the language notwithstanding, the sentiment is clear as is its emphasis on the rights of minorities - not just of Muslims as a minority but of non-Muslim minorities in areas where they envisaged Muslim sovereignty. In such a short document, for the founding fathers to have devoted so much space to this issue would suggest that they - having lived as a

minority themselves - considered the subject of minority rights to be of particular importance. This is one of the many areas where we were unable to live up to their aspirations.

Independence struggle

The front page of the "Now or Never" pamphlet produced by Choudhary Rahmat AliMain articles: Muslim League, Pakistan Movement, and Lahore Resolution

The concept of an independent Muslim nation emerged gradually from the aftermath of the Indian Rebellion of 1857. In 1885, the Indian National Congress was founded as a forum, which later became a party, to promote a nationalist cause.[38] Although the Congress attempted to include the Muslim community in the independence struggle and some Muslims were very active in the Congress, the majority of Muslim leaders did not trust the party, viewing it as a "Hindu-dominated" organization.[39] Some Muslims felt that an independent united India would inevitably be "ruled by Hindus",[citation needed] and that there was a need to address the issue of the Muslim identity within India.[citation needed] Thus in 1877, Syed Ameer Ali formed the Central National Muhammadan Association to work towards the political advancement of the Muslims, but the organization declined towards the end of the nineteenth century. A turning point came in

1900 when the British administration in the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh (now Uttar Pradesh), acceded to Hindu demands and made Hindi, written in the Devanagari script, the official language. The Muslims feared that the Hindu majority would seek to suppress Muslim culture and religion in an independent India. The All-India Muslim League was founded on December 30, 1906, on the sidelines of the annual All India Muhammadan Educational Conference in Shahbagh, Dhaka.[40] The meeting was attended by three thousand delegates and presided over by Nawab Viqar-ul-Mulk. It addressed the issue of legitimate safeguards for Muslims and finalised a programme. A resolution, moved by Nawab Salimullah and seconded by Hakim Ajmal Khan. Nawab Viqar-ul-Milk, declared:

The musalmans are only a fifth in number as compared with the total population of the country, and it is manifest that if at any remote period the British government ceases to exist in India, then the rule of India would pass into the hands of that community which is nearly four times as large as ourselves …our life, our property, our honour, and our faith will all be in great danger, when even now that a powerful British administration is protecting its subjects, we the Musalmans have to face most serious difficulties in safe-guarding our interests from the grasping hands of our neighbors.[41]

Choudhary Rahmat Ali

The constitution and principles of the League were contained in the "Green Book", written by Maulana Mohammad Ali. Its goals at this stage did not include establishing an independent Muslim state, but rather concentrated on protecting Muslim liberties and rights, promoting understanding between the Muslim community and other Indians, educating the Muslim and Indian community at large on the actions of the government, and discouraging violence. However, several factors over the next thirty years, including sectarian violence, led to a re-evaluation of the League's aims.[42][43] Among those Muslims in the Congress who did not initially join the League was Muhammed Ali Jinnah, a prominent Bombay lawyer and statesman. This was because the first article of the League's platform was "To promote among the Mussalmans (Muslims) of India, feelings of loyalty to the British Government". In 1907, a vocal group of Hindu hard-liners within the Indian National Congress movement separated from it and started to pursue a pro-Hindu movement openly. This group was spearheaded by the famous trio

of Lal-Bal-Pal - Lala Lajpat Rai , Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Bipin Chandra Pal of Punjab, Bombay and Bengal provinces respectively. Their influence spread rapidly among other like minded Hindus - they called it Hindu nationalism - and it became a cause of serious concern for Muslims. However, Jinnah did not join the League until 1913, when it changed its platform to one of Indian independence as a reaction against the British decision - taken under the enormous pressure and vociferous protests of the Hindu majority - to reverse the 1905 Partition of Bengal, which the League regarded as a betrayal of the Bengali Muslims.[44] Even at this stage, Jinnah believed in Muslim-Hindu co-operation to achieve an independent, united India, although he argued that Muslims should be guaranteed one-third of the seats in any Indian Parliament.

Allama Sir Muhammad Iqbal

The League gradually became the leading representative body of Indian Muslims. Jinnah became its president in 1916, and negotiated the Lucknow Pact with the Congress leader, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, by which Congress conceded the principle of separate electorates and weighted representation for the Muslim community.[45] However, Jinnah broke with the Congress in 1920 when the Congress leader, Mohandas Gandhi, launched a law violating Non-Cooperation Movement against the British, which a temperamentally law abiding barrister Jinnah disapproved of. Jinnah also became convinced that the Congress would renounce its support for separate electorates for Muslims, which indeed it did in 1928. In 1927, the British proposed a constitution for India as recommended by the Simon Commission, but they failed to reconcile all parties. The British then turned the matter over to the League and the Congress, and in 1928 an All-Parties Congress was convened in Delhi. The attempt failed, but two more conferences were held, and at the Bombay conference in May, it was agreed that a small committee should work on the constitution. The prominent Congress leader Motilal Nehru headed the committee, which included two Muslims, Syed Ali Imam and Shoaib Quereshi; Motilal's son, Pt Jawaharlal Nehru, was its secretary. The League, however, rejected the committee's report, the so called Nehru Report, arguing that its proposals gave too little representation (one quarter) to Muslims – the League had demanded at least one-third representation in the legislature. Jinnah announced a "parting of the ways" after reading the report, and relations between the Congress and the League began to sour.

[edit] The rise of the League

The election of Ramsay MacDonald's Labour government in 1929 in Britain, already weakened by World War I, fuelled new hopes for progress towards self-government in India. Gandhi travelled to London, claiming to represent all Indians and criticising the League as sectarian and divisive. Round-table talks were held, but these achieved little, since Gandhi and the League were unable reach a compromise. The fall of the Labour government in 1931 ended this period of optimism. By 1930 Jinnah had despaired of Indian politics and particularly of getting mainstream parties like the Congress to be sensitive to minority priorities. A fresh call for a separate state was then made by the famous writer, poet and philosopher Allama Muhammad Iqbal, who in his presidential address to the 1930 convention of the Muslim League said that he felt that a separate Muslim state was essential in an otherwise Hindu-dominated South Asia.[6][46] The name was coined by Cambridge student and Muslim nationalist Choudhary Rahmat Ali,[47] and was published on January 28, 1933 in the pamphlet Now or Never.[48] He saw it as an acronym formed from the names of the "homelands" of Muslims in northwest India — P for Punjab, A for the Afghan areas of the region, K for Kashmir, S for Sindh and tan for Balochistan, thus forming "Pakstan".[49] An i was later added to the English rendition of the name to ease pronunciation, producing "Pakistan". In Urdu and Persian the name encapsulates the concept of "pak" ("pure") and "stan" ("land") and hence a "Pure Land". In the 1935, the British administration proposed to hand over substantial power to elected Indian provincial legislatures, with elections to be held in 1937. After the elections the League took office in Bengal and Punjab, but the Congress won office in most of the other provinces, and refused to share power with the League in provinces with large Muslim minorities.

Mean while, Muslim ideologues for separatism also felt vindicated by the presidential address of V.D. Savarkar at the 19th session of the famous Hindu nationalist party Hindu Mahasabha in 1937. In it, this legendary revolutionary - popularly called Veer Savarkar and known as the iconic father of the Hindutva ideology - propounded the seminal ideas of his Two Nation Theory or Hindu-Muslim exclusivism, which influenced Jinnah profoundly.

Chaudhry Khaliquzzaman seconding the Resolution with Jinnah presiding the session

In 1940, Jinnah called a general session of the Muslim League in Lahore to discuss the situation that had arisen due to the outbreak of the Second World War and the Government of India joining the war without consulting Indian leaders. The meeting was also aimed at analyzing the reasons that led to the defeat of the Muslim League in the general election of 1937 in the Muslim majority provinces. In his speech, Jinnah criticized the Indian National Congress and the

nationalist Muslims, and espoused the Two-Nation Theory and the reasons for the demand for separate Muslim homelands.[50] Sikandar Hayat Khan, the Chief Minister of Punjab, drafted the original resolution, but disavowed the final version,[51] that had emerged after protracted redrafting by the Subject Committee of the Muslim League. The final text unambiguously rejected the concept of a United India because of increasing inter-religious violence[52] and recommended the creation of an independent Muslim state.[53] The resolution was moved in the general session by Shere-Bangla A. K. Fazlul Huq, the Chief Minister of Bengal, supported by Chaudhry Khaliquzzaman and other Muslim leaders and was adopted on 23 March 1940.[7] The Resolution read as follows:

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. That the areas in which the Muslims are numerically in 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 ... 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, with their consultation. Arrangements thus should be made for the security of Muslims where they were in a minority.[54]

The Working Committee of the Muslim League in Lahore (1940)

In 1941 it became part of the Muslim League's constitution.[55] However, in early 1941, Sikandar explained to the Punjab Assembly that he did not support the final version of the resolution.[56] The sudden death of Sikandar in 1942 paved the way over the next few years for Jinnah to emerge as the recognised leader of the Indian Muslims.[44] In 1943, the Sind Assembly passed a resolution demanding the establishment of a Muslim homeland.[57] Talks between Jinnah and Gandhi in 1944 in Bombay failed to achieve agreement and there were no more attempts to reach a single-state solution.

World War II had broken the back of both Britain and France and disintigration of their colonial empires was expected soon. With the election of another sympathetic Labour government in Britain in 1945, Indians were seeing independence within reach. But, Gandhi and Nehru were not receptive to Jinnah's proposals and were also adamantly opposed to dividing India, since they knew that the Hindus, who saw India as one indivisible entity, would never agree to such a thing.[44] In the Constituent Assembly elections of 1946, the League won 425 out of 496 seats reserved for Muslims (and about 89.2% of Muslim votes) on a policy of creating an independent state of Pakistan, and with an implied threat of secession if this was not granted.[44] By 1946 the British

had neither the will, nor the financial resources or military power, to hold India any longer. Political deadlock ensued in the Constituent Assembly, and the British Prime Minister, Clement Attlee, sent a Cabinet Mission to India to mediate the situation. When the talks broke down, Attlee appointed Louis Mountbatten as India's last Viceroy, to negotiate the independence of Pakistan and India and immediate British withdrawal. Mountbatten, of imperial blood and a world war admiral, handled the problem as a campaign. Ignorant of the complex ground realities in British India, he rashly preponed the date of transfer of power and told Gandhi and Nehru that if they did not accept divivsion there would be civil war in his opinion[44] and he would rather consider handing over power to individual provinces and the rulers of princely states. This forced the hands of Congress leaders and the "Independence of India Act 1947" provided for the two dominions of Pakistan and India to become independent on the 14th and 15th of August 1947 respectively. This result was despite the calls for a third Osmanistan in the early 1940s.

[edit] Independence

Main article: Partition of India

Muhammad Ali Jinnah (right) taking oath from Justice Sir Mian Abdul Rashid (left) as Governor-General of Pakistan on August 14, 1947

The two wings of Pakistan from 1947 to 1970; East Pakistan became independent in 1971 as Bangladesh.

On the 14th and 15th of August, 1947, British India gave way to two new independent states, the Dominion of Pakistan and the Union of India, both dominions which joined the British Commonwealth. However, the ill conceived and controversial decision to divide Punjab and Bengal, two of the biggest provinces, between India and Pakistan had disastrous consequences. This division created inter-religious violence of such magnitude that exchange of population along religious lines became a necessity in these provinces. More than two million people migrated across the new borders and more than one hundred thousand died in the spate of communal violence, that spread even beyond these provinces. The independence also resulted in tensions over Kashmir leading to the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947. The post-independence political history of Pakistan has been characterised by several periods of authoritarian military rule and continuing territorial disputes with India over the status of Kashmir, and with Afghanistan over the Pashtunistan issue.

In 1948, Jinnah declared in Dhaka that Urdu would be the only state language of Pakistan. This sparked protests in East Bengal (later East Pakistan), where Bengali was spoken by most of the population. The Bengali Language Movement reached its peak on 21 February 1952, when police and soldiers opened fired near the Dhaka Medical College on students protesting for Bengali to receive equal status with Urdu. Several protesters were killed, and the movement gained further support throughout East Pakistan. Later, the Government agreed to provide equal status to Bengali as a state language of Pakistan, a right later codified in the 1956 constitution.

In 1953 at the instigation of religious parties, anti-Ahmadiyya riots erupted, killing scores of Ahmadi and destroying their properties.[58] The riots were investigated by a two-member court of inquiry in 1954,[59] which was criticised by the Jamaat-e-Islami, one of the parties accused of inciting the riots.[60] This event led to the first instance of martial law in the country and began the inroad of military intervention in the politics and civilian affairs of the country, something that remains to this day.[61]

Quite simply, it paved the way for the creation of Pakistan in 1947 as a single state and provided the principles of a constitutional plan for partition of India. Muslims of India instead of seeking alliance with Hindus (one nation theory) now identified themselves with a two nation theory and separate homeland for themselves. The resolution was was made part of the All-India Muslim League's consitiution in 1941 and based on this in 1946, the Muslim League demanded a separate nation from the British Raj.

As Quaid-e-Azam put it in his address:

"Mussalmans (Muslims) came to India as conquerers, traders and preachers and brought with them their own culture and civilization. They reformed and remoulded the sub-continent of India. Today, the hundred million Mussalmans in (British) India represent the largest compact body of Muslim population in any single part of the world. We are civilization, language and literature, art and architecture, names

and nomenclature, value and proportion, legal laws and moral code,customs and calendar, history and traditions, aptitude and ambitions, in short we have our distinctive outlookof life and on life. By all canons of international law we are a nation."

The Lahore Resolution

Guest Column by- Pravin Pania  

“Pakistan Day”, on the 23rd of March, is a day of celebration in Pakistan , commemorating the passage of a resolution in 1940 that is believed to have paved the way for the formal creation of Pakistan , which was carved out of British India as a homeland for the Muslims of India. This resolution was passed in 1940 in Lahore by a full annual session of the All India Muslim League, the political party that led the Muslim separatist movement in British India . Since its passage, Pakistan has deemed March 23rd a national holiday, in observation of its role in the birth of a nation, and has erected the impressive Minar-i-Pakistan monument in that spot in Lahore on which the resolution was passed in 1940.  

Yet while the Lahore Resolution is officially credited for the creation of the state of Pakistan , it marks a more somber note for the various autonomy-loving ethnic peoples of Pakistan .  For them, the creation of Pakistan violates the very sentiment of the Lahore Resolution, and March 23rd marks not a day of celebration, but one of steadfast refusal by the Pakistani establishment to acknowledge its true meaning and intent.  The disparities between what is and what was meant to be warrant an in-depth understanding of this influential document, its goals and its vision.  

The history of the Lahore Resolution dates back to the year 1857, when a violent uprising swept throughout India against the emerging power of the British. Hindus and Muslims alike, and Indians from all walks of life, fought gallantly against the foreign conqueror to defend their autonomy and sovereignty.  In the face of superior weaponry and a disciplined military, however, the British defeated Indian forces led by the last Muslim ruler of India .  The year 1857 marked the official end of Muslim rule in India , and the beginning of a new era of British colonial domination.  In the years that followed, it also meant a revived struggle for independence from foreign rule in India .  

The Indian National Congress, established in 1885, comprised of all communities, classes and regions of India , engaged in a protracted struggle of independence. Its governing principles – secularism, democracy and rule of law – fired the imaginations of the Congress’ leadership and its followers from early on. In contrast, the All India Muslim League, established in 1906, strived exclusively to protect the Muslim community from threats – both real and perceived – by the Hindu majority.  Over the years, as prospects for independence and democracy grew brighter, Muslim League leadership distanced itself from the mainstream independence movement, and began asking for a separate Muslim homeland instead.  The Muslim League argued that the two hostile nations, one Hindu and one Muslim, existed within India and should be formally separated. This argument became known as the “Two Nation Theory”.  

In the Indian provinces with Muslim majorities - Sindh, Punjab, Balochistan , North West Frontier Province (NWFP), and East-Bengal – democracy was not viewed as a threat by Muslims.  The Urdu-speaking Muslims of central India , however, were a minority in their province and felt threatened by democracy in independent India . To prevent their eclipse, they quickly assumed positions of leadership in the All India Muslim League, and supported a religious division of India and the creation of a separate country for Indian Muslims.  Their most difficult task would be to convince Muslims in majority provinces to follow suit.  

The All India Muslim League began a quest to assert Muslim unity – espousing the belief that all Muslims of India were one nation, with not only one religion, but also one language, one culture and one destiny.  Undoubtedly, that one language was their Urdu language, one religion was their version of Islam, and one culture was their Mogul culture and one destiny in which they hoped to gain supremacy in the new Muslim country. Although having a common religion, the Muslims of India themselves, however, were not a homogenous nation. Distinct cultures, diverse religious outlooks, separate languages, individual histories and unique national identities all existed within the diverse Muslim population of India . As a result, the “Two Nation Theory” did not initially sit well in all Muslim circles. In the elections of 1937, for example, having campaigned on a platform based on the “Two Nation Theory”, the All India Muslim League suffered a humiliating defeat in all the Muslim majority provinces. Only 4.6 percent of the Muslim population voted for the Muslim League, and it won a mere 3 out of 33 seats reserved for Muslims in Sindh, 2 out of 84 seats in Punjab, 39 out of 117 seats in Bengal and none in NWFP. Thus, just a decade before its birth, Muslims of India had almost unanimously rejected the very idea of Pakistan .  

In year 1940 All India Muslim League called its full annual session at Lahore , where a sharp division of visions was vividly visible. Urdu-speaking Muslims of central India , proponents of a unified Muslim country, formed one faction; leaders of Muslim majority provinces, who advocated linguistic, cultural and ethnic preservation, formed the other. Emboldened by the results of the 1937 elections, the Muslim majority provinces held the upper hand, and proceeded to set forth their own, divergent aspirations. The results were formulated in a resolution presented at the session by Bengali nationalist A.K. Fazlul Haq. However, before Fazlul Haq could present his resolution, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, leader of the Muslim League tried to usher sentiments of oneness of Muslims of India. In a thundering speech before the delegates of the session at Lahore he said:  

“Mussalmans (Muslims) came to India as conquerors, traders and preachers and brought with them their own culture and civilization. They reformed and remoulded the sub-continent of India . Today, the hundred million Mussalmans in (British) India represent the largest compact body of Muslim population in any single part of the world. We are civilization, language and literature, art and architecture, names and nomenclature, value and proportion, legal laws and moral code, customs and calendar, history and traditions, aptitude and ambitions, in short we have our distinctive outlook of life and on life. By all canons of international law we are a nation.”  

Despite such roaring words of Muslim nationhood, neither Jinnah nor any other leader of the Muslim League presented a resolution demanding a Muslim homeland. In wake of fresh

memories of the defeat in 1937 of the “Two Nation Theory”, probably, the leadership was not sure of support for such a demand from the Muslim majority provinces. Instead Fazlul Haq, leader of one of the Muslim majority provinces of Bengal, ignoring the word Pakistan altogether, as well as support for the future creation of a Muslim state, proposed a resolution for the future of Muslim society.  The Muslim League formally adopted this resolution on March 23, 1940 in Lahore .  It states the following:  

The Lahore Resolution

March 23, 1940 - Lahore  

While approving and endorsing the action taken by the Council and the Working Committee of the All India Muslim League, as indicated in their resolutions dated the 27th of August, 17th & 18th of September and 22nd of October, 1939, and the 3rd of February, 1940 on the constitutional issue, this session of the All India 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.  

It further records its emphatic view that while the declaration dated the 18th of October, 1939 made by the Viceroy on behalf of His Majesty's Government is reassuring in so far as it declares that the policy and plan on which the Government of India Act, 1935, is based will be reconsidered in consultation with various parties, interests and communities in India, Muslims in India will not be satisfied unless the whole constitutional plan is reconsidered de novo and that no revised plan would be acceptable to Muslims unless it is framed with their approval and consent.  

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 the Muslims unless it is designed on the following basic principles, viz., 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.  

That adequate, effective and mandatory safeguards should be specifically provided in the constitution for minorities in these units and in the 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 Muslims are in a minority adequate, effective and mandatory safeguards shall be specifically 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.  

The 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."  

The Lahore Resolution of 1940 consists of five paragraphs and each paragraph is only one sentence. Although clumsily worded, it delivers a clear message.  

The first paragraph of the Lahore Resolution states that the Government of India Act 1935 passed by the British Parliament, under which a federation of India was promised for with one-third Muslim representation in the Central Legislature guaranteed and a new province of Sindh was created, was unacceptable to Muslims.  

The second paragraph demands a new constitutional draft, with approval provided by Indian Muslims.  Interestingly, the Resolution does not ask for approval by the All India Muslim League.  Instead, it appeals to the support and consent of the Muslim masses, possibly highlighting the League’s lack of resounding support, as witnessed in the 1937 elections.  

It is the third paragraph, however, that is the essence of the Resolution, offering a plan for the future of the Muslim majority provinces. The Resolution importantly and unambiguously asks that all the Muslim majority provinces be converted into fully “independent states” (countries), each autonomous and sovereign in their own right.  This statement was a dramatic deviation from the original vision of a single Muslim country, as advocated by Jinnah and other members of the mainly Urdu-speaking faction of the All India Muslim League.  

The fourth paragraph of the Resolution reiterates the concept of “autonomy”, separating each Muslim majority province from the rest of British India .  It then requires constitutional guarantees for the non-Muslim minorities in these provinces, as well as for Muslim minorities in British India .   

The fifth and final paragraph of the Resolution expands upon its notion of “sovereign”, authorizing the working committee ‘to frame a scheme of constitution’ under which each independent country would assume the powers to maintain its own armed forces, conduct foreign policy, establish a communications structure, levy customs duties and govern as deemed fit.  As such, each Muslim majority province would be transformed into fully autonomous and sovereign countries.  

At its core, the Lahore Resolution exposed the rift between the Muslim nationalists of majority provinces, unwilling to sacrifice their ethnic identities and their political independence, and Muslims of Central India, who were unwilling to respect diverse Muslim ethnicities and their political pluralism. However, since its inception, the leadership of the Muslim League as well as the Pakistani establishment, are wrestling to misinterpret it – namely, that it calls for the creation of a single Muslim state.  Recognizing such forms of manipulation in advance, some leaders at Lahore felt it necessary to further clarify the true intentions of the Resolution. Hussain Shaheed Suhrawardee, a Bengali nationalist and future Prime Minister of Pakistan, for example, stated at Lahore session, “Each of the provinces in the Muslim majority areas should be accepted as a sovereign state and each province should be given the right to choose its future Constitution or enter into a commonwealth with a neighboring province or provinces”.[1]  

As such, the text of the Lahore Resolution, along with further elaboration such as that provided by Suhrawardee, gives us a very clear understanding of its true intent:  each Muslim majority

province should acquire the status of a fully independent, autonomous and sovereign country.  Further, these autonomous and sovereign states should be each equal to and independent of each other and to the rest of the British India, and should write their own constitutions and decide their own destiny. In particular, the Resolution is a determined endeavor to prevent the creation of one amalgamated Muslim state.  It does, however, leave open the possibility for mergers between some or all the autonomous and sovereign countries, at a later stage, and should they choose to do so of their own free will and as equals.  The actual formula the Resolution established was the following:  

Sovereignty First.  Then, Perhaps, Confederacy.  

Another significant feature of the Lahore Resolution is that it attempts to prevent any form of population exchange caused by the separation, autonomy and sovereignty of Muslim majority provinces. In so doing, paragraph four clearly offers “adequate, effective and mandatory” constitutional guaranties to non-Muslim minorities in future Muslim independent States, and demands the same guaranties for Muslim minorities – especially Urdu-speaking minorities – in their native provinces of India.  The drafters of the Resolution clearly realized that should India be divided into two homelands, one for Hindus and one for Muslims, it would mandate that Muslims from all over India migrate to their respective “homeland.”  Likewise, such a policy would force Sindhi, Bengali, Baluch and Pachtun Hindus to be uprooted and expelled as well.  Cross migration, whether slow or rapid, and with all its miseries, would be the only outcome of such a creation.  The Lahore Resolution very deliberately built safeguards to avoid it, by demanding autonomy and sovereignty for all Muslim majority provinces, and protections for all minorities throughout. These new countries, as envisaged by the Lahore Resolution, were not to become a Muslim homeland, but homelands for the countries own natives.  

Naturally, Jinnah and other Muslim League leaders were furious at Fazlul Haq and his Resolution. Fazlul Haq understood early on that the interests of Bengali Muslims were of little consequence for Jinnah and the Urdu lobby, and acted accordingly.  He called Jinnah, “a single individual who seeks to rule as an omnipotent authority even over the destiny of 33 million Muslims in the province of Bengal.”[2] Protesting in sharp words the intensions of Urdu lobby to dominate the rest of Muslim communities of India, Fazlul Haq wrote to the Urdu speaking general secretary of the League, Mr. Liaqat Ali Khan: “For my part, I will never allow the interests of 33 millions of the Muslims of Bengal to be put under the domination of any outside authority, however eminent it may be.”[3] As a result, while the Muslim League proceeded to subvert the spirit of the Lahore Resolution by promoting the cause of Pakistan, Fazlul Haq declared, “the Pakistan scheme could not be applied to Bengal.”[4] This pronouncement effectively shattered the belief that the Lahore Resolution, and Fazlul Haq, could pave way for the creation of Pakistan.  Fazlul Haq and his ideas were now seen as a mortal threat to the vision of the Muslim League leadership, who alleged that his “conduct amounted to treachery.”[5]  Jinnah formally expelled Abul Kasem Fazlul Haq, the author of the Lahore Resolution of 1940, from the Muslim League in December 1941.  

After the removal of Fazlul Haq, Muslim League leadership was determined to undo the sentiments of the Lahore Resolution.  It continued with plans for the creation of a state of Pakistan, and in the process, also won favor with the British policy of “divide and rule.”

However, the Lahore Resolution stood tall and firm on its own account record, and refused to disappear.  Pakistan promoters were thus left with only two alternatives: to either pass another resolution that clearly sets forth a state of Pakistan, or amend the Lahore Resolution.  The main difficulty, however, was that both alternatives required approval of the full session of the Muslim League, and Jinnah was still unsure of the level of support to be received from Muslim majority provinces.  As a result, Muslim League leadership embarked on a highly dubious means of amending the Lahore Resolution in smaller and unrepresentative bodies, thus foregoing the need for full session approval.  

At a much smaller Legislators’ Convention held in Delhi in April 1946, it was decided that a united state of Pakistan would be formed.  Many Bengali Muslim members were unhappy with the change.  Abul Hashim, a senior Bengali leader in attendance, objected that the demand for the creation of Pakistan effectively amended the Lahore Resolution. Under its own constitution, only a full session of the All India Muslim League could make amendments. The Legislators’ Convention had no such right. [6] 

‘When Abul Hashim made his complaint, Jinnah, the lawyer, could see the problem clearly enough but his first attempt to get around it was feeble in extreme.  He suggested that the letter ‘s’ after the word ‘State’ in the Lahore Resolution was a typographical error.  When Liaquat Ali Khan produced the original minutes of the meeting Jinnah had to concede that he was wrong and word ‘States’ was indeed in the original text.  He then fobbed off Abul Hashim’s objection by assuring the convention that the Lahore Resolution had not been amended.  The resolution, he said, would be the document laid before the future Pakistani Constituent Assembly that, as a sovereign body would take all final decisions.’[7]  

In spite of Jinnah’s tampering, Abul Hashim’s efforts did have some limited success.  Most notably, on May 12, 1946, Muslim League leadership adopted a memorandum of minimum demands, stating, “After the constitutions of Pakistan Federal Government and the provinces are finally framed by the constitution making body, it will be open to any province of the group to decide to opt out of this group, provided wishes of the people of that province are ascertained in a referendum to opt out or not.”[8]  Nevertheless, a new formula had been created, in direct violation and reversal of the Lahore Resolution.  Effectively, the new formula stated:  

Confederacy First.  Then, Perhaps, Sovereignty.  

Pakistan was born on August 14, 1947 – in spite of the Lahore Resolution, not because of it.  For many, it remains an illegitimate creation conceived of deception and born in betrayal.  The existence of a Pakistani state violates the true vision, words and spirit of the Lahore Resolution.  Nevertheless, Pakistan still pretends to venerate this document, as it is the only major resolution in existence passed by the full session of the All India Muslim League. To add insult to the injury, the resolution has since been dubbed the “Pakistan Resolution”, and a national monument to this effect is in Lahore.  In reality, it is in Delhi, where the Legislators’ Convention was held in 1946, that proves to be the most appropriate place for Minar-i-Pakistan.  

The people of Bengal never lost sight of the dream created by the Lahore Resolution.  The Pakistani army, though inflicting willful massacre, rape and mayhem of millions of Bengali

Muslims, could not prevent their secession from Pakistan in 1971.  Unfortunately for Fazlul Haq, he died in Dacca nine years before the birth of an autonomous and sovereign Bangladesh.  And the cry to implement the Lahore Resolution is still heard all over Pakistan.

March 23, 1940: The Lahore Resolution

FROM March 22 to March 24, 1940, the All India Muslim League held its annual session at Minto Park, Lahore. This session proved to be historical.

On the first day of the session, Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah narrated the events of the last few months. In an extempore speech he presented his own solution of the Muslim problem. He said that the problem of India was not of an inter-communal nature, but manifestly an international one and must be treated as such.

To him the differences between Hindus and the Muslims were so great and so sharp that their union under one central government was full of serious risks. They belonged to two separate and distinct nations and therefore the only chance open was to allow them to have separate states.

In the words of Quaid-i-Azam: "Hindus and the Muslims belong to two different religions, philosophies, social customs and literature. They neither inter-marry nor inter-dine and, indeed, they belong to two different civilizations that are based mainly on conflicting ideas and conceptions. Their concepts on life and of life are different. It is quite clear that Hindus and Muslims derive their inspiration from different sources of history. They have different epics, different heroes and different episodes. Very often the hero of one is a foe of the other, and likewise, their victories and defeats overlap. 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".

He further said, "Mussalmans are a nation according to any definition of nation. We wish our people to develop to the fullest spiritual, cultural, economic, social and political life in a way that we think best and in consonance with our own ideals and according to the genius of our people".

On the basis of the above mentioned ideas of the Quaid, A. K. Fazl-ul-Haq, the then Chief Minister of Bengal, moved the historical resolution which has since come to be known as Lahore Resolution or Pakistan Resolution.

The Resolution 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. That the areas in which the Muslims are numerically in 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".

It further reads, "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, with their consultation. Arrangements thus should be made for the security of Muslims where they were in a minority".

The Resolution repudiated the concept of United India and recommended the creation of an independent Muslim state consisting of Punjab, N. W. F. P., Sindh and Baluchistan in the northwest, and Bengal and Assam in the northeast.

The Resolution was seconded by Maulana Zafar Ali Khan from Punjab, Sardar Aurangzeb from the N. W. F. P., Sir Abdullah Haroon from Sindh, and Qazi Esa from Baluchistan, along with many others.

The Resolution was passed on March 24. It laid down only the principles, with the details left to be worked out at a future date. It was made a part of the All India Muslim League's constitution in 1941. It was on the basis of this resolution that in 1946 the Muslim League decided to go for one state for the Muslims, instead of two.

Having passed the Pakistan Resolution, the Muslims of India changed their ultimate goal. Instead of seeking alliance with the Hindu community, they set out on a path whose destination was a separate homeland for the Muslims of India--with a great name of Pakistan.

Perspective

The background of Pakistan Resolution is that in 1937, provincial autonomy was introduced in the Sub-continent under the Government of India Act, 1935. The elections of 1937 provided the Congress with a majority in six provinces, where Congress governments were formed. This led to the political, social, economic and cultural suppression of the Muslims in the Congress ruled provinces.

The Congress contemptuously rejected the Muslim League's offer of forming coalition ministries. The Muslims were subjected not only to physical attacks but injustice and discriminatory treatment as regards civil liberties, economic measures and employment and educational opportunities. The Congress Ministries introduced the Wardha scheme of education, the object of which was to de- Muslimise the Muslim youth and children.

According to British historian Reginald Coupland. "It was not only the Working Committee's control of the Congress Ministries that showed that a'Congress Raj' had been established. It was betrayed by the conduct and bearing of Congressmen. ..Many of them behaved as if they were a ruling caste, as if they owned the country ."

Mr. Ian Stephens, former editor of the newspaper' Statesman ' and an eyewitness to the working of the Congress Ministries, says: "The effect of this simultaneously on many Muslim minds was of a lightning flash. What had before been but guessed at now leapt forth in horridly clear outline. The Congress, a Hindi-dominated body, was bent on the eventual absorption; Westem-style majority rult?, in an undivided sub- continent, could only mean the smaller community being swallowed by the larger."

The animosity shown by the Hindus to the Muslim and their own experience of two-and-a-

half year Congress rule strengthened the Muslims belief in their separate Nationality .The discriminatory attitude coupled with attempts by the Hindu dominated Congress to suppress the Muslims impelled the Muslims to finally demand a separate sovereign state for the Muslims.

However, the Muslim demand was violently opposed both by the British and the Hindus; and the Congress attitude towards the Muslims led to the hardening of the Muslims belief that only a separate homeland -Pakistan -can guarantee their freedom. This demand was put in black and white on 23rd March, 1940.

After adoption of the Pakistan Resolution, Quaid-e-Azam had a clear objective before him and he struggled hard to achieve it. In one of the meetings, he said: "We are a Nation of a hundred million and what is more, we are a Nation with our distinct culture and civilization, language and literature, art and architecture, legal laws and moral codes, customs and calendar, history and traditions, aptitudes and ambitions. In short, as Muslims we have our own distinctive outlook on life". He further said that by all cannons of international laws, we are a nation.

In 1945, Quaid-e-Azam proclaimed that only Muslim League represented the Muslims, and proved it to the hilt during 1946 polls, winning 100 per cent seats at the Centre, and 80 per cent in the provinces. Nothing could have been more conclusive to shatter the Congress claim of being a national body. If the British had read the writing on the wall in this verdict, Pakistan could have come into existence two years earlier without bloodshed.

With his charismatic personal Quaid-e-Azam turned the dream of a separate homeland into reality on 14th of August 1947. Ins of severe opposition, establishment of Pakistan, in such a short span of seven year surely an extra-ordinary achievement, which has no m in history.

On the eve of his departure Karachi from Delhi on August, 1947, Quaid-e-Azam a message to Hindustan, implored "The past must be buried and let us start afresh as two independent sovereign States of Hindustan and Pakistan. I wish Hindustan prosperity and peace."

Even in his post-partition statements, the Quaid-e-Azam envisaged a relationship of peaceful co-existence with India. But, the eruption of war in Kashmir in 1947 created acrimony between India and Pakistan, which became more acute with the passage of time. While Pakistan has throughout been supporting a peaceful resolution of the Kashmir dispute, the Indian obstinacy led to three wars and scores of clashes, peace initiative took him to Agra. Kashmir problem is resolved to bedeviling the relations between Even after the failure of Agra the satisfaction of the parties to both the neighbouring countries.

Pakistan's present leadership continues to subscribe to the policy of peaceful resolution of all disputes with India. Enumerating Pakistan' s foreign policy parameters on 23rd June, 2000, General Pervez Musharraf stated: The war should be avoided through a potent deterrence and diplomacy, engaging India on the issue of Kashmir for bringing permanent peace in the region without compromising on sovereignty.

President Pervez Musharraf's peace initiative took him to Agra. Even after the failure of Agra talks, he continued to persistently pursue his policy of peaceful resolution of all disputes with India. Reciprocating Pakistan President's gesture, the ex-Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, during his visit to Srinagar in April last year, extended his hand of friendship towards Pakistan. A meeting between the two leaders, on the sidelines of SAARC Summit in

Islamabad early this year, led to a barrage of confidence-building measures and Secretary-level talks.

Now there is need to ensure a quick forward movement to resolve the long simmering Kashmir dispute, which has been the main irritant and the bone of contention between

India and Pakistan. All contentious issues between the two countries would be automatically settled if the Kashmir problem is resolved to the satisfaction of the parties to the dispute.

In short, the commemoration of 23rd March is an expression of the whole nation's resolute determination to preserve her independence and the Day's celebrations are a reflection of this.