Pakistan Histoty: The Road To Independence (1909-1947)
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The Road To Independence (1909-1947)
During the last half of the Raj, nationalist sentiment and violence weakened Britain's grip on the subcontinent, the crown jewel of its global empire. Calls for a separate nation for Muslims on the pre- dominantly Hindu subcontinent began to be heard alongside growing demands for an independent India.
As British power ebbed, more control was ceded to local popula- tions. The Hindu majority's voice was amplified by Muslim reticence to engage in the political process. The British supported the concept of legal assurances for the recognition of Muslim rights in the overwhelm- ingly Hindu subcontinent. Through the All India Muslim League and the Indian National Congress, or Congress Party, efforts to reconcile Muslim and Hindu political aspirations were repeatedly made, but all ended in failure. With the inability of Indian and British institutions to protect the rights of the Muslim minority, many politically active Muslims saw a divided subcontinent with a separate nation for Muslims as the only way for them to achieve equality. As Britain prepared to cede independence to the subcontinent, the political battle between Muslim and Hindu led to growing sectarian strife. The monumental struggle for Muslim rights saw its conclusion in the creation of the Republic of Pakistan in 1947.
The Government of India Act of 1909 (Minto-Morley Reforms)
The Government of India Act of 1909 — also called the Minto-Morley Reforms for its sponsors, Gilbert Elliot-Murray- Kynynmound (1845- 1914), fourth earl of Minto, viceroy of India, and John Morley (1838- 1923), Viscount Morley, secretary of state for Indian affairs — was aimed at answering growing Indian demands for self-government. Its sponsors intended it to provide cosmetic changes to British rule rather than any real power sharing. Yet it was noteworthy in that the British had previously ignored popular aspiration in formulating governmental policy. The reforms mandated that legislative councils be established in all provinces and that their members be elected by the population each represented. However, the councils had only advisory power. Membership in the Viceroy's Legislative Council was increased from 25 to 60. Additionally Indians were to be appointed to the Viceroy's Executive Councils and the Secretary of State's Council and were to take over the governorships of Bombay and Madras. Minority groups, including Muslims, Sikhs, landowners, and the tea and jute industry, would have their own representation in provincial legislative councils. This encouraged more Muslim participation in politics. Many Hindus viewed the changes as proof the British had become pro-Muslim.
Partition of Bengal Annulled
At the beginning of the 20th century Muslims were considered politi- cally pro-British, as British support for Muslims' basic rights countered the Hindu nationalist stance of many Hindu politicians. Since its forma- tion in 1906, the All India Muslim League reflected that pro-British bias in its moderate voice. However, British policies after the first decade of the century led to a gradual hardening of the Muslim position. The 1905 partition of Bengal had led to sustained political protests by Hindus, which increasingly included violence and acts of terrorism against the British. In December 1911 Britain's king George V (r. 1910-36) unexpectedly annulled the partition, caving in, as Muslims saw it, to "bombs and bullets" (Stephens 1967, 72). Muslims were shocked and angry. Besides being a betrayal of the Muslims, the reversal cast doubt on all the British stood for. From the day of partition, the decision was portrayed as irreversible, as permanent as the empire itself.
"We told the Mussalmans that the partition was a settled fact, over and over again; there could have been scarcely a civil servant who had not declared that it would be impossible for the British Government to reverse the decision," Lord Minto remarked in the House of Lords in 1912 after his return (Stephens 1967, 72). If British steadfastness over so important an issue could be suddenly reversed, what of its insistence on the limits of independence?
In addition to the annulment of Bengali partition, other British actions contributed to the increasing resistance among Muslims. A turning point came in 1913 when the British destroyed part of a mosque in Kanpur, in north central India, to facilitate road construction. Muslims gathered to protest, and security forces opened fire.
Many of the young Muslims educated at the Muhammadan Anglo- Oriental (M.A.O.) College (now Aligarh Muslim University) and similar institutions had previously avoided joining the Muslim League, prefer- ring to identify themselves with political aspirations for the subconti- nent as a whole, rather than for Muslims as a separate group. However, this now began to change. Among the new members who joined in 1913 were Muhammad Ali Jinnah (1876-1948), an English-trained lawyer and member of the Indian National Congress, and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (1888-1958), also a member of Congress noted for his revolution- ary zeal. These new leaders not only hardened the league's stance against the British but advocated greater cooperation with Hindus through the Congress Party as well. In 1913 the league changed its platform from support for British rule to the goal of self-government for the subconti- nent. The growing militancy alienated some moderate members of the league. Aga Khan III, Sultan Muhammad Shah (1877-1957), the first president of the league, resigned in 1914 because of his discomfort with its growing anti-British attitude. Jinnah was elected the league's presi- dent in 1916 and would go on to play the principal role in the cre- ation of an independent Pakistan. He is popularly known in Pakistan as Quaid-e-Azam, or Great Leader, and is considered to be the father of the nation.
Lucknow Pact
Hindus were also chaffing under British rule, and the mutual opposition drove the two reli- gious groups together. Reflecting the growing solidarity between the Muslim League and Congress Party, in December 1915 both organizations held their annual sessions in Bombay, and their leaders met for the first time in history, linked by their desire to
end British rule of the subcontinent. In October 1916, a group of 19 Muslim and Hindu elected members of the Imperial Legislative Council sent the viceroy a reform memorandum. The British ignored the memo- randum, but it became the basis for an agreement on electorates and rep- resentation reached by Congress and Muslim League leaders at Calcutta in November 1916 and ratified at Lucknow in December. Called the Lucknow Pact, the agreement established an alliance between the Muslim League and the Indian National Congress. It mandated self-government in India with separate electorates for Hindus and Muslims, and it guar- anteed a minimum number of representatives to adherents in areas where they were a minority. Muslims were to have one-third representation in the central government. The Muslim League dropped its claim to major- ity status in Punjab and Bengal in exchange for the promise of extra seats in the Muslim minority areas. The spirit of cooperation was relatively short-lived, but it marked the first time Congress recognized the Muslim League as a legitimate representation of the Muslim community.
Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms
During World War I (1914-18), which pitted the Allied forces (Great Britain, the United States, Russia, and France, among others) against the Central Powers (Germany and Austria-Hungary joined by others, including the Ottoman Empire), Indians of all backgrounds supported Great Britain. In August 1917 Britain had promised the subcontinent a transition to self-governance in recognition of its people's contribu- tion to the war effort. Keeping that pledge seemed a necessity: At the war's end the Defense of India Act would expire, and conscripts from the subcontinent, combat tested and out of work, would return home. Retaining control of the subcontinent might not be possible.
In 1918, following six months in India, Edwin Samuel Montagu (1879-1924), secretary of state for Indian affairs (1917-22), unveiled his constitutional reform plans, drafted with the viceroy, Frederic John Napier Thesiger, third baron Chelmsford (r. 1916-21). Parliament approved them as part of the Government of India Act of 1919, com- monly known as the Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms. They introduced diarchy, a system of double government for the provinces of British India. This marked the first appearance of democratic principles in the executive branch. In coming years the democratic principles would be expanded until the subcontinent ultimately achieved independence. But these first reforms were limited. Both the Muslim League and Congress initially favored the constitutional reforms the British promised.
However, at the same time, efforts at repression continued. In February 1919 the British passed the Rowlatt Acts, named for Sydney Rowlatt, an English judge who chaired the investigative commission on seditious activities, which allowed preventive detention without charges or trial.
The Khilafat Movement
Although many leading Muslims supported Great Britain during the war, some backed the Ottoman Empire, the last vestige of the Islamic Empire that had begun with the conquests of the prophet Muhammed (ca. 570-632) in Arabia some 1,300 years before. The Islamic Empire once reached from Spain and North Africa to China. During the Muslim Mughal Empire, Muslims of India ignored the Ottoman Empire's claim to leadership of the Islamic community. (Tipu Sultan was the first Indian Muslim ruler who, having been frustrated in his attempts to gain recognition from the Mughals, had turned to the sultan of Turkey to establish a legal right to his throne.) But the Muslims of India now had no political power. The Ottoman sultan, Mehmed VI (r. 1918-22), whose office had long laid claim to leadership of the world's Muslims, now appeared to them as a suitable caliph. Though the caliphate bore little connection with its historical antecedents — particularly since the Young Turks, a political movement that eschewed Islamic ties, had moved the Ottoman Empire in a more Western, secular direction — the office nonetheless represented the only Muslim political power in the world. Some among India's Muslims supported Germany as well, because Germany was allied with the Ottoman Empire. Paradoxically, many of the troops from the subcontinent who joined the war effort on behalf of Britain were Muslims from the present-day Pakistan area.
As the end of World War I approached, the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire became imminent. Muslims of South Asia mounted an effort to save the empire, joining in the Khilafat movement. They sought preservation of the caliphate and protested the Allied treatment of the Ottoman Empire. In December 1918 the Muslim League passed a resolution to work for the preservation of the caliphate. Support was not unanimous. Jinnah and the raja of Mahmudabad (r. 1914-73), another influential leader, opposed involvement in international affairs, as Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan had done earlier. Nonetheless, the emotional appeal was unstoppable. The anti-British sentiments of the Khilafat movement overlapped with the interests of the wider Indian nationalist movement, and, when the Rowlatt Acts were passed in February 1919, they sparked widespread protest throughout India. On April 10, 1919, riots erupted in Amritsar in Punjab. In response, a ban was imposed on public meetings. Unaware of the new edict, demonstrators gathered at the Jallianwala Bagh gardens in Amritsar on April 13, 1919. The British opened fire on the crowd, resulting in 379 dead and 1,200 wounded, according to official tallies, though other accounts put the number of casualties considerably higher. The incident became known as the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre, or Tragedy. Unrest spread to other cities in Punjab, where martial law was declared from mid- April to early June. The law was enforced with public beatings and humiliations.
Leaders of the Khilafat movement and the Congress Party issued a joint statement in 1920 calling for a boycott of British goods, schools, and institutions. This noncooperation movement was led by Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1947), who emerged as the leader of the Indian nation- alist movement around this time. Gandhi supported the Khilafat move- ment as a way to bring Muslims and Hindus together in the movement for independence. Jinnah and other Western-educated Muslims, on the other hand, feared that a religious focus would ultimately divide Muslims and Hindus. He favored a secular political leadership, called the move- ment unconstitutional, and resigned from the Congress Party in protest.
Despite the movement and threats of noncooperation against the British, the Ottoman Empire disappeared with the signing of the Treaty of Sevres in 1920. Yet the Khilafat movement remained alive for more than a decade, finding resonance in Punjab, Baluchistan, and Sind. It ended when the sultan, the figurehead of a much-reduced Turkey, was removed in 1922, and the Turkish government itself abolished the caliphate the same year.
The collapse of efforts to save the Ottoman Empire spawned the ill-fated Hijrat, or emigration, movement. Since the British failed to support the caliphate, Islamic scholars concluded that it was sinful to live in British- ruled territory. Hundreds of ulama, or religious leaders, signed a fatwa urging Muslims to immigrate to Islamic lands. In August 1922 thousands of Muslims abandoned their homes and possessions and began trekking to Afghanistan. Most were Pashtuns from the frontier area, Baluchis, and Sindis. Afghanistan, bowing to British pressure, closed its border, leaving the would-be emigres homeless and destitute.
Third Afghan War
Reverberations from Russia's Bolshevik revolution added to the chaos of the post-World War I years in the subcontinent. The revolution's message of power to the downtrodden gave tribal elements in the frontier areas an ideological basis for resisting colonialism and expelling the British. Habibullah Khan, the emir of Afghanistan (r. 1901-19), was assassinated in 1919, and rule passed to his son, Amanullah Khan (r. 1919-29). While Punjab was under martial law, Amanullah declared war on Britain, which he believed was responsible for his father's death. The Afghan army began marching toward its border with India. Frontier tribes rose against the British, and Indian troops mutinied, deserted, and looted. The Afghan army reached Punjab before being driven back by stiff British resistance. However, the light British forces were not a great offensive threat, incapa- ble of carrying a war to Afghanistan, despite their threats to the contrary. The Third Afghan War ended with an armistice treaty, the Rawalpindi Agreement, signed in August 1919. The agreement reconfirmed the Durand Line as the border between Afghanistan and British India and recognized Afghanistan's right to noninterference within its borders.
The entire NWFP area had been left out of the reforms of 1892 and 1909, as had Baluchistan. With disorder spreading through the tribal areas, the British continued denying self-rule to the border region, despite a commission finding in 1922 that self-rule might help quell the unrest. The British found other ways to consolidate control over the tribal areas: More roads were built; a railroad now ran through the Khyber Pass; and the routes were increasingly traveled by military convoys, as local militias charged with protecting British interests were replaced by professional soldiers under direct British command.
In March 1927 Jinnah convened a meeting in Delhi with some 30 of the subcontinent's Muslim leaders in an effort to close the gap between Hindu and Muslim aspirations. At the meeting's conclusion the leaders unanimously agreed to relinquish the demand for a separate elector- ate for India's Muslims if the Hindu leadership accepted what became known as the Delhi Proposals. These four proposals were that Muslims in Punjab and Bengal have representation in the legislative council in proportion to their population; that one-third of the seats in the Central Legislature be reserved for Muslims; that Sind be made a separate province; and that government reforms adopted in the subcontinent be extended to NWFP and Baluchistan. It was the first and only time the leadership of the Muslim League agreed to joint electorates.
Simon Commission and the Nehru Report
The Montagu- Chelmsford Reforms had stipulated the formation of a commission to study the results of the reforms at the end of 10 years. The commission would then recommend the next steps toward the subcontinent's self-rule. An all-British delegation, the Simon Commission (named for its director, British statesman John Allesbrook Simon; 1873-1954) was appointed in 1927. It was widely seen as a self- serving effort by the British to avoid meaningful change. No Indians were appointed to the commission. As a result many political parties refused to participate in the commission's work. In 1927 the Muslim League split into two factions, the Jinnah League and the Shafi League, over the issue. The organization's president, Mian Muhammad Shafi (1869-1932) favored cooperation with the British, while Jinnah and his allies and other Muslim organizations supported a boycott. The arriv- ing British delegation was met with protests. Almost all major political parties boycotted the commission's hearings, and its mission ended in failure. At the end of 1927 Congress Party adopted complete indepen- dence from Britain as its objective.
With the Simon Commission failing to come up with a workable political reform plan, the British turned the problem over to local political leaders. In February 1928 some 100 representatives of Muslim political organizations and Congress met at the All Parties Conference to draft a constitution. As usual a resolution of the differences between Muslim and Hindu leaders was beyond reach. Minority rights — separate politi- cal representation for minority communities — was the primary issue of contention, with Muslims in support and Hindus, who controlled Congress, opposed. In March the second meeting of the All Parties Conference was held, with the same lack of progress. At the third All Parties Conference, in Bombay in May 1928, delegates appointed a small committee headed by Motilal Nehru (1861-1931) to draft a con- stitution. Two Muslims were on the nine-person committee.
After three months, the committee issued the Nehru Report. It rec- ommended abolishing separate electorates, eliminating any weigh tage given to minority communities and populations and making Hindi the national language. It further called for reducing Muslim representation in the Central Assembly (from one- third to one-quarter) and rejected the recent acceptance by Congress of the Delhi Proposals. Muslims refused to accept the report, and an attempt to find a compromise solu- tion failed. Despite pleas from Jinnah, Congress ultimately adopted the report and threatened the British government with a disobedience movement if the terms were not implemented into law by December 31, 1929.
The Nehru Report reunited the Jinnah and Shafi wings of the Muslim League, divided since 1924, as they took a common stand against the proposals. In early 1929, the All Parties Muslim Conference convened in Delhi under Aga Khan to counter the report with Muslim demands. The conference was a turning point in Muslim political attitudes and expression. Jinnah, who had championed cooperation with the Hindus, announced his split with Hindus and Congress.
In March 1929 Jinnah articulated an alternative course in a set of tenets that became known as the Fourteen Points. Most of the prin- ciples had already been advanced. The points stated that the govern- ment should be federal, with provinces exercising residuary powers. They called for all legislatures in the country and other elected bodies to be constituted on the principle of adequate minority representation without reducing the majority in any province to a minority or even equality. These precepts became a blueprint for Muslim political aspira- tions for most of the next decade. The Muslim League made inclusion of the demands expressed in the Fourteen Points a prerequisite for their agreement to any constitution.
A final effort by Jinnah to end the deadlock with the Hindus over the Nehru Report, made at the All Parties Convention at Calcutta in 1929, failed. As the new decade dawned, the divide among Muslims, Hindus, and the British was sharp and deep. At its annual meeting in 1930 in Lahore, Congress demanded Britain make a pledge that the subconti- nent would receive dominion status (a self-governing nation with the British Commonwealth), like Canada and Australia, as a prerequisite for participating in discussions with the Simon Commission. Britain's rejection sparked a second noncooperation movement in 1930. The Simon Commission released its report early in 1930.
Despite the framework of the Fourteen Points Muslims now clung to, some began to doubt any accommodation could ever be reached, given Hindu intransigence and British indifference to Muslim demands. At a meeting of the All India Muslim League at Allahabad in 1930, its president, Allama Muhammad Iqbal (1877-1938), a noted poet and phi- losopher, raised the possibility that peace would be impossible between Muslims and Hindus unless Muslims were given the status of a separate nation. He stated that the predominantly Muslim northwest region of the subcontinent was destined to form a self-governing unit. This was the first public call for statehood for the subcontinent's Muslims.
Badshah Khan and the Khudai Khidmatgar
In the frontier areas the noncooperation movement was led by a charismatic Pashtun pacifist, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan (1890-1988), FOURTEEN POINTS OF M. A. I INN AH (1929)
Muslim opposition to the Nehru Report had a galvanizing effect on Muslim unity. At a meeting of the All India Muslim League on March 28, 1929, Jinnah proposed an alternative to the Nehru Report contained in a series of positions on issues of government and minority rights. These became known as his Fourteen Points. They were:
1 . A federal, rather than a unitary, form of government
2. Electoral safeguards for minorities in all provinces
3. Equality for each province
4. Separate electorates for religious and other groups
5. In the Central Legislature, Muslims would have at least one-third of the seats.
6. No resolution or bill shall be passed in any elected body if three-quarters of the members of any community in that particular body opposes it.
7. Muslim majorities in Punjab, Bengal, and NWFP should not be altered by territorial changes or redistributions.
8. Sind should be separated from Bombay and be made a separate province.
9. NWFP and Baluchistan should enjoy the same reforms as all other provinces.
10. All religions should have full liberty of belief, worship, obser- vance, association, and education.
I I. Muslims should have an adequate share of employment in all the services of the state and in local self-governing bodies.
12. The constitution should guarantee the protection of Muslim culture and the protection and promotion of Muslim educa- tion, language, religion, education, and charitable institutions.
13. Cabinets at both the central and the provincial level should have a proportion of at least one-third Muslim ministers.
14. Any changes to the constitution by the Central Legislature require the consent of all the federating states.
The All India Muslim League made inclusion of the principles con- tained in these 14 points a requirement for Muslim acceptance of any constitution. called Badshah Khan "king of chiefs," who founded the Khudai Khidmatgar ("servants of God") organization in the 1920s. A close ally of Gandhi, Badshah Khan joined the Congress Party, rather than the Muslim League, which he saw as pro-British. Badshah Khan man- aged to unite the various Pashtun tribes behind his movement — at its peak the organization had 100,000 members — and the Khudai Khidmatgar became famous for its pacifist opposition to the British. However, the movement provoked violent British efforts at suppres- sion that affected the entire NWFP. Seeking political partners with the power to pressure the British to rein in their aggressive tactics, the Khudai Khidmatgar formed an alliance with the Congress Party. To counter the Khidmatgars' influence in the area the Muslim League sought supporters from among the wealthy landlords, who opposed the Khidmatgars.
Round Table Conferences
The British central-left Labour Party, had traditionally given more sup- port to the concept of independence for the subcontinent than the Conservatives. With the Labour Party's return to power in Britain in 1929, prospects for a headway to the independence impasse improved. In November 1930 the British convened a Round Table Conference in London involving Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, and Christians to discuss new constitutional reforms. But all Congress Party leaders were in jail on charges related to the civil disobedience movement. They passed the word that they would boycott any future constitutional discussion unless the Nehru Report was enforced in its entirety as the constitution of India. Still, 73 delegates attended the conference, including Jinnah. The Muslims insisted on keeping weigh tage and separate electorates, while the Hindus wanted to end these electoral processes. The Hindus sought a powerful central government, with the Muslims preferring a loose federation of autonomous provinces. The Muslim majority sta- tus in Punjab and Bengal was also a point of contention, with Hindus opposing their imposition. The conference ended in January 1931 with an agreement to provide safeguards for minorities in the constitution under a federal system of rule.
The British government saw the Indian National Congress as the key to developing a constitution that would pave the way for independence. Muslim-Hindu conflict was not as important to the British as Hindu- British cooperation. Nonetheless, the British employed a "divide and rule" strategy in the subcontinent as they (and other powers throughout his- tory) had in other lands under their control, stoking regional rivalries and undermining efforts of indigenous solidarity to prevent the formation of a powerful, unified opposition. The historic animosity between Muslim and Hindu made this approach particularly potent and useful in the subcon- tinent. Under Sir George Cunningham, governor of NWFP (r. 1937-46; 1947-48), British government agents continuously exhorted the Pashtun to avoid conspiring with Hindu revolutionaries. Yet it is noteworthy that the population to whom they preached had indeed allied themselves with Hindus through the Khudai Khidmatgar's alliance with the Congress Party, rather than forging ties with the Muslim League. Edward Frederick Lindley Wood, Lord Irwin, the viceroy at the time (r. 1926-31), invited Gandhi to discuss the subcontinent's political future, and Gandhi agreed. After subsequent talks, in March 1931, the two signed the Gandhi-Irwin Pact, which restarted the stalled constitution-drafting process. Under its terms Congress would discontinue the civil disobedience movement and participate in a second Round Table Conference. The British government, for its part, would withdraw all ordinances issued to curb Congress, cease prosecution of all offenses relating to nonviolent civil disobedience, and release all persons serving sentences for their activities in the civil disobe- dience movement.
The second session of the Round Table Conference, convened in London in September 1931, was intended to address the composition of the central government and, more vexingly minority rights, or the communal issue, as it was known. Jinnah, Iqbal, the Aga Kahn, and Gandhi attended. However, the conference ended without results. On his return to India, Gandhi resumed the civil disobedience movement.
British prime minister Ramsay MacDonald (r. 1924, 1929-35), proclaiming himself a friend of the Indian people, proposed his PAKISTAN
The idea of a separate homeland for the subcontinent's Muslims had been advanced, but the name of the nation-to-be was coined by a student at England's Cambridge University. Chaudhuri Rahmat Ali wrote a pamphlet, Now or Never, calling for a federal state encompass- ing the Punjab (P), Afghania (A), the NWFP; Kashmir (K); Sindh (S); and Baluchistan (Stan). His tract found its way to delegates at the Third Round Table Conference, but it was belittled as a schoolboy's fantasy by delegates. Nonetheless, Pakistan soon became the term applied to the subcontinent's Muslim majority area in the northwest. own solution to the minority rights problem in August 1932. The Communal Award, as he called it, guaranteed all minority com- munities, not just Muslims, the right of a separate electorate. The sudden recognition of the political rights of the Untouchables and lower castes was even more alarming to Hindus than the rights the communal awards bestowed on Muslims. Meanwhile, the weightage principle was misapplied in Punjab and Bengal, giving the majority Muslims minority representation in the provinces' assemblies. In short, the Communal Award was unpopular among all Indian politi- cal organizations. Nonetheless, the Muslim League agreed to accept it, while reserving the right to demand future changes. For Hindu political groups, the rights it would grant lower castes made the Award completely unacceptable.
The final session, the Third Round Table Conference, in November 1932, was limited to discussing committee reports and accomplished little. Jinnah was not invited to the conference, because Conservatives, restored to power in England, considered him anti-British for his insis- tence on equality and self-rule in the subcontinent. The ongoing antip- athy between the Muslims and Congress overcame him. Discouraged, he moved to England and practiced law. But his retirement from politics and the independence movement was relatively brief. In 1934 Jinnah was reelected president of the Muslim League and that same year was elected to the Legislative Assembly. In October 1935 he sold his house in London and returned to the subcontinent.
What came out of the Third Round Table Conference was a white paper, published in March 1933, that became the basis for a reform con- stitution. Parliament voted it into law two years later as the Government of India Act of 1935.
The reformed constitution granted almost complete autonomy to the 11 provinces while preserving British control over the central govern- ment. Muslims were given one- third of the seats in the central legislature, and another third would go to nominees of Indian princes. The right to vote was expanded to include about one-sixth of India's adult popula- tion. This led to a transformation of subcontinental politics. Political parties now had to appeal to commoners. They began retooling their messages as they sought viable candidates for the upcoming provincial elections. However, Muslim populations and leadership in Punjab, the frontier area, Bengal, and the new province of Sind were disunited. Some factions and power groups opposed the Muslim League. Baluchistan, under the rule of the latest of the khans of Kalat, Ahmad Yar Khan (r. 1933-55, 1958), even refused to participate in the provincial elections.
Elections of 1936-37
Elections were held in the winter of 1936-37. The Congress Party won about 70 percent of the popular vote and 40 percent of the provincial government seats, but through coalitions gained an upper hand in the rule of most provinces. The Muslim League won only 5 percent of the total Muslim vote and not a single province, including the Muslim- majority provinces, in which regional parties (in Bengal, Punjab, and Sind) and Congress (in NWFP) gained control. The Congress Party soon proved unwilling to include Muslims in their administrations. At the national level, Congress refused to work with Muslims unless they resigned from the Muslim League. Paradoxically, the reversal of Muslim fortunes revitalized the Muslim League. From a few thousand adherents in 1937 membership grew to a few hundred thousand by 1938, and a reported 3 million by the end of 1939.
At a meeting in Karachi in Sind, a province in which Muslims were still divided, 20,000 delegates gathered and heard the first official pro- nouncement of the two-nation theory. Attendees resolved that it was essential to the interests of peace, cultural development, and the eco- nomic, social, and political self-determination of Hindus and Muslims to revise the entire concept of the constitution.
As the decade ended, World War II began in Europe. Without consulting Indian government officials, the viceroy, Victor Alexander John Hope (r. 1936-43) announced that India would join the Allied cause. Congress answered by demanding immediate independence in return for its approval of the alliance. Britain refused, and in response Congress resigned on December 22, 1939. Jinnah declared it a day of deliverance and celebration marking the end of Congress's rule.
The Lahore Resolution
In March 1940 in Lahore, Jinnah told 100,000 at a public meeting, "Muslims are not a minority as it is commonly known and understood Muslims are a nation according to any definition of a nation, and they must have their homelands, their territory, and their state." The position became Muslim League policy on March 24, 1940, as the Lahore 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.
Though the name Pakistan was never mentioned in the speech, the Indian press called the speech the Pakistan Resolution. The stakes and parameters of the political discussion of the subcontinent's future had been irrevocably changed.
The Muslim League negotiated with British representatives over the terms of a future constitution and Muslim representation in return for their support of the British war effort. The viceroy proffered what became known as the August Offer of 1940, promising that no consti- tution would be adopted without the consent of Muslim India, while denying the Muslim League the representation they sought on the Defense Council, an advisory war council under development. The Muslim League declined the offer.
Unrest spread in 1940 and into 1941. In Sind Muslim extremists waged jihad against the British. The British declared martial law and established
internment camps, confining people without food or water, and razing vil- lages and farms. By mid-1941, some 20,000 people had been arrested.
As the conflict in the Pacific theater intensified, the British worried that Japan would invade India and realized local support needed to be shored up. In March 1942 Richard Stafford Cripps (1889-1952) arrived in India on a high-level mission to appease Muslim concerns. More than 1 million men from the subcontinent were now in the British Indian Army, and most were Muslims. Cripps offered independence for the subcontinent at war's end, an assembly to draft a constitution, protection for minorities, and choice for the provinces as to whether to join the new Indian state. But without a guarantee for an independent Muslim state, the Muslim League rejected Cripps's offer. Congress rejected the plan as well. Meanwhile the disruption wrought by war impacted the subcontinent in other ways: In 1943 famine swept Bengal, and some 3 million died of starvation.
Jinnah and Gandhi
Against this backdrop of war and famine, the Muslim League, with its staunch demand for independence, gained more support in Muslim-
majority areas. It was now the dominant power in Punjab, Sind, and Assam and by spring 1943 had taken power in Bengal. The major- ity of those on the subcontinent were eager for an end to the clash between Muslims and Hindus. Gandhi was adamantly opposed to a two-nation solution. In July 1944, Gandhi, just released from prison, proposed he and Jinnah meet. That September the two conferred in Bombay for six days. Gandhi had come, he said, on a personal mis- sion, and not as a representative of either Congress or the Hindus. Gandhi tried to convince Jinnah that Muslim demands for a separate state were folly. Gandhi argued that the subcontinent's Muslims were descendants of Hindus, proving the subcontinent's historic unity. Gandhi was also worried that if Muslims pressed their demands, other minority groups would seek independence as well.
Simla Conference
In May 1945, with the end of the war in Europe in sight, Archibald Wavell, first viscount Wavell, the viceroy of India (r. 1943-47), returned to London to discuss the subcontinent's future. After the con- flict in Europe ended, in June, the Viceroy's Council demanded immedi- ate dominion status. Instead, Wavell, back from England, unveiled the so-called Wavell Plan at a conference in Simla in northern India at the end of June 1945. With the war all but over, the British no longer felt the need to appease the Muslims, who had comprised a major portion of the troops from the subcontinent. The British preferred to revert to positioning the Congress Party as the sole political representative of Indians. This preference was bolstered by close ties between Britain's Labour government and the leadership of the Congress Party. At the Simla Conference, as it became known, all parties agreed that general elections would be held for central and provisional assemblies. But the Congress Party refused to recognize the Muslim League's claim to be the sole representative of Muslim political aspirations; Congress wanted to be able to nominate Muslim candidates of their own in the upcoming elections. Meanwhile, the Sikh party Akali Dal and the Panthic Party opposed elections, which they saw as a step toward an independent Pakistan. These groups feared that a subcontinent divided along religious lines between Muslim and Hindu would have less toler- ance for the aspirations of the subcontinent's other religious and eth- nic constituencies than would one unified nation. Additionally, many Pashtun political elements had stronger ties to the Congress Party, with whom the Khudai Khidmatgar had been allied, rather than the pro- partition Muslim League. These and other disagreements and concerns scuttled the conference, and at its end, in mid-July, Wavell pronounced it a failure.
Despite the lack of agreement on the subcontinent's political future, central and provincial legislature elections were scheduled for the winter of 1945. Wavell's plans also called for the formation of an executive council and a body charged with drafting a constitu- tion after the election. Jinnah rejected the plan, as it failed to provide for a Muslim state. Congress opposed it as well. Yet both parties recognized the results of the upcoming election would be critical in establishing their legitimacy and position in the subcontinent's future. The Muslim League's primary campaign platform was independent Muslim statehood. The Congress Party campaigned on the platform of a united India. Muslim League candidates won all 30 seats reserved for Muslims in the central assembly. Congress also did well, winning 80 percent of the general seats.
Cabinet Mission Plan
In 1946 the British dispatched three cabinet ministers to settle the dis- pute between the Muslim League and the Congress Party. The envoys first stipulated that the creation of two separate states was not a nego- tiable option. The Cabinet Mission Plan, as it was called, proposed a single nation with a national government that would leave provinces virtually autonomous and free to write their own constitutions. The Muslim League accepted the proposal in principle, but when Congress refused to give the league what it felt was an adequate role in the pro- posed interim government, the Muslim League refused to endorse the plan. The British authorized Congress to form an interim government without the Muslim League's participation, though it was agreed some league members would be part of its final constitution. Muslim repre- sentatives protested bitterly.
The Muslim League proclaimed a Direct Action Day on August 16, 1946, calling for hartals — massive displays of noncooperation that would bring business and commerce to a standstill — demonstrations, strikes, rallies, and meetings. The display of Muslim unity brought a Hindu backlash. In Calcutta, where Muslims were a minority, sectarian violence that became known as the Great Calcutta Killing erupted. As many as 4,000 people of both faiths died. Some 15,000 were injured, and 100,000 left homeless. The violence spread and continued into the fall.
Intransigence of Congress
In late August Wavell met with Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru (1889- 1964), son of Motilal Nehru and president of the Congress Party, and accused the Congress Party of reneging on its commitment to include the Muslim League in a national coalition government. He asked for their pledge in writing. Gandhi and Nehru rejected the request and sought to have Wavell recalled. Instead, the British instructed Wavell to form an interim government. In early September he announced the posts, naming Nehru as vice president and giving one of three key cabinet posts, that of the finance portfolio, to a member of the Muslim League, Liaquat Ali Khan (1896-1951).
A close ally of Jinnah, after graduating from Aligarh Muslim University Liaquat Ali Khan attended Oxford University and two years later returned to India with a law degree. His birthplace in eastern Punjab was among the first areas to agitate for a restoration of Muslim rights. The minority status of Muslims in this region made them acutely aware of the inequality they faced. But most of Punjab was a Muslim- majority area, and here Muslims felt little need for political activism. The Unionist Party, dominated by landowners, had established what most saw as an equitable power-sharing arrangement. Khan joined the All India Muslim League and quickly rose in the ranks. He was also a member of the urban United Provinces Legislative Council, elected in 1926, in which he served until 1940.
The Constituent Assembly was scheduled to go into session on December 9, 1946. Still, Congress remained opposed to a power-shar- ing arrangement, leading the Muslim League, the Princely States, and the Sikhs to refuse to take part in the Constituent Assembly. Before the assembly began, the British prime minister summoned the viceroy, Jinnah, Liaquat Ali Khan, Nehru, and Sikh political leader Baldeve Singh (1902-61) to London to forge a power-sharing arrangement. Congress gave its approval to a plan the leadership agreed to, but again failed to implement the agreement. More minority groups boycotted the assembly.
The British were committed to handing over power no later than June 1948, but who would get the power and whether it would be one government or more was unknown. The British began a campaign to suppress Muslim protests and groups. The Muslim National Guards, the volunteer corps of the Muslim League, was banned, and league leaders in Lahore were arrested. Muslim League offices in Punjab were raided. In response, the league called for a civil disobedience campaign. The British banned assemblies, and tear gas met those that occurred. But a Pakistan movement had built into an unstoppable force, spread- ing across all facets of Muslim society.
Sectarian Violence Spreads
Across the subcontinent tens of thousands of Muslims, Hindus, and Sikhs lost their lives in sectarian riots and violence. Amidst this back- ground of chaos and religious schism, the newly elected government took office. Predictably, progress on legislative matters was virtually impossible in this atmosphere. The finance ministry was now led by the Muslim League's Liaquat Ali Khan, giving the league effective control of the government. The league was determined to leverage this power to fight for its objectives. Liaquat introduced what was called a "poor man's budget," calculated to hamstring the Hindu business class.
In March 1947 Louis Mountbatten (1900-79), first earl Mountbatten of Burma, was named the new and last viceroy (r. 1947). He toured the subcontinent upon his arrival, meeting its leaders. Some of what he saw, such as massive demonstrations in the frontier, convinced him of the depth of Muslim nationalism. Moreover, Jinnah told Lord Mountbatten that an independent Pakistan now had the support of Muslims across India and that Jinnah could not abandon the goal. The Hindu politi- cal community also recognized the depth of Muslim determination. On March 8 the All India National Congress called for the division of Punjab. This was equivalent to sanctioning the partitioning of the sub- continent. Congress was unwilling to work with the Muslim League, but realized the league was powerful enough to thwart any of its aims. The lesser of two evils was to jettison the Muslims, while doing every- thing possible to block the development and success of their state.
Lord Mountbatten's Plan
Lord Mountbatten developed an alternative plan to partitioning India. The details were completed at the Governor's Conference in April 1947 and approved in Britain in May; the plan called for the right of the Indian provinces to choose independence. The details of what became known as the June 3 Plan were to be kept secret until announced publicly, but Nehru was able to see the document before its release. Fearing the plan would lead to a balkanization of the subcontinent, Nehru rejected it. The plan was hastily revised by Lord Mountbatten and a Hindu assistant on his staff and refined by Nehru; it now pro- posed a transfer of authority to the independent dominions of India and Pakistan. Lord Mountbatten himself took it to London, where Prime Minister Clement Attlee (r. 1945-51) and his cabinet quickly approved the partition plan. Both Congress and Britain wanted to limit Pakistan's size, and the Pakistan envisioned was smaller than the five provinces the Muslim League sought to include in the new nation.
On June 4, 1947, Jinnah, Nehru, Baldeve Singh, and Lord Mountbatten addressed the public in a radio broadcast and announced a plan to draw borders for the two new nations. Elected representatives in Sind, West Punjab, and East Bengal would determine territorial borders for their provinces. In the NWFP and parts of Assam, a plebiscite would be held. Baluchistan's borders would be determined through a consulta- tive arrangement. And in Bengal and Punjab, a commission would be appointed to delineate the boundaries between Muslim and non- Muslim areas. The decisions on borders would remain secret until after independence. Mountbatten also made a surprise announcement about accelerating the transfer of power. Instead of June 1948, as previously planned, the transfer would take place on August 15, 1947 — little more than a month from the date of the broadcast.
In late June 1947 Baluchistan decided to join Pakistan, as did the NWFP in a vote in early July. After Bengal chose to become part of Pakistan, a referendum in Sylhet, Assam, determined the parts of Assam that would join with Bengal.
The Indian Independence Act
On July 18 Parliament passed the Indian Independence Act, provid- ing the foundation for establishing Pakistan and India as dominions of the British Commonwealth. The act also established the office of a governor-general for each of the two new dominions.
With partition imminent and sectarian passions further aroused, violence flared. But the road to independence now moved in only one direction. On August 11 the Pakistan Constituent Assembly, which served as both the federal legislature and the creator of the constitu- tion, held its first session. On August 13 Lord Mountbatten arrived in Karachi bearing a message from King George he read to the assembly. On August 15 both Pakistan and India became independent. The dream of independence had been achieved. But the new nation of Pakistan would find its real challenges lay ahead.
