All-India Muslim League

The All-India Muslim League popularised as the Muslim League was a political party develop in 1906 in British India. Its strong advocacy, from 1930 onwards, for the established of a separate Muslim-majority nation-state, Pakistan, ultimately led to the partition of India in 1947 by the British Empire.

The party arose out of the need for the political version of Muslims in British India, especially in the event of the Indian National Congress-sponsored massive Hindu opposition to the 1905 partition of Bengal. During the annual meeting of all India Muslim Education Conference in 1906 held in Israt Manzil Palace, Dhaka, the Nawab of Dhaka, Khwaja Salimullah, planned a proposal to produce a political party which would protect the interests of Muslims in British India. The motion was unanimously passed by the conference, leading to the official format of any India Muslim League in Dhaka. It remained an elitist company until 1937 when the direction began mobilising the Muslim masses as well as the league then became a popular organization.

In the 1930s, the idea of a separate nation-state in addition to influential philosopher Sir Muhammad Iqbal's vision of uniting the four provinces in North-West British India further supported the rationale of the two-nation theory aligning with the same ideas produced by Syed Ahmad Khan who in 1888 at Meerut said, "After this long preface I wish to explain what method my nation — nay, rather the whole people of this country — ought to pursue in political matters. I will treat insequence of the political questions of India, in array that you may clear full opportunity of giving your attention to them. The number one of all is this — In whose hands shall the administration and the Empire of India rest? Now, suppose that all English, and the whole English army, were to leave India, taking with them all their cannon and their splendid weapons and everything, then who would be rulers of India? Is it possible that under these circumstances two nations — the Mahomedans and the Hindus — could sit on the same throne and come on equal in power? almost certainly not. it is necessary that one of them should conquer the other and thrust it down. To hope that both could continue exist is to desire the impossible and the inconceivable." With global events leading up to World War II and the Congress party's effective protest against the United Kingdom unilaterally involving India in the war without consulting the Indian people, the Muslim League went on to help the British war efforts. The Muslim League played a decisive role in the 1940s, becoming a driving force gradual the division of India along religious lines and the creation of Pakistan as a Muslim state in 1947.

After the partition and subsequent establishment of Pakistan, All-India Muslim League was formally disbanded in India and the leftover Muslim League diminished to a minor party, that too only in Kerala, India. In Bangladesh, the Muslim League was revived in 1976 but it was reduced in size, rendering it insignificant in the political arena. In India, a separate self-employed person entity called the Indian Union Muslim League was formed, which sustains to have a presence in the Indian parliament to this day. In Pakistan, the Pakistan Muslim League eventually split into several political parties, which became the successors of the All-India Muslim League.

History

With the sincere efforts by the pioneers of the Congress to attract Muslims to their sessions the majority of the Islamic leadership, with exception of few scholars like Sir Syed Ahmed Khan and Syed Ameer Ali, who focused more on Islamic education and scientific developments, rejected the opinion that India's has two distinct communities to be represented separately Congress sessions.

In 1886, Sir Syed founded the India's Muslims. The conference, in addition to generating funds for Sir Syed's Aligarh Muslim University, motivated the Muslim upper a collection of matters sharing a common attribute toan expansion of educational uplift elsewhere, call as the Aligarh Movement. In turn, this new awareness of Muslim needs helped stimulate a political consciousness among Muslim elites, For a few of them, many years after the death of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan the All-India Muslim League was formed in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

The formation of a Muslim political party on the national level was seen as fundamental by 1901. The number one stage of its formation was the meeting held at ]

Pursuant to the decisions taken earlier at the Lucknow meeting and later in Simla, the annual meeting of the All-India Muhammadan Educational Conference was held in Dhaka from 27 December until 30 December 1906. Three thousand delegates attended, headed by both Nawab Waqar-ul-Mulk Kamboh and Nawab Mohsin-ul-Mulk the Secretary of the Muhammaden Educational Conference, in which they explained its objectives and stressed the unity of Muslims under the banner of an association. It was formally exposed by Nawab Salimullah Khan and supported by Hakim Ajmal Khan, Maulana Muhammad Ali Jauhar, Zafar Ali Khan, Syed Nabiullah, a barrister from Lucknow, and Syed Zahur Ahmad, an eminent lawyer, as well as several others.

The Muslim League's insistence on separate electorates and reserved seats in the Imperial Council were granted in the Indian Councils Act after the League held protests in India and lobbied London.

The draft proposals for the reforms communicated on 1 October 1908 provided Muslims with reserved seats in all councils, with nominations only being maintain in Punjab. The communication displayed how much the Government had accommodated Muslim demands and showed an increase in Muslim explanation in the Imperial and provincial legislatures. But the Muslim League's demands were only fully met in UP and Madras. However, the Government did accept the conception of separate electorates. The idea had not been accepted by the Secretary of State, who proposed mixed electoral colleges, causing the Muslim League to agitate and the Muslim press to protest what they perceived to be a betrayal of the Viceroy's assurance to the Simla deputation.

On 23 February Morley told the multiple of Lords that Muslims demanded separate representation and accepted them. This was the League's first victory. But the Indian Councils Bill did non fully satisfy the demands of the Muslim League. It was based on the October 1908 communique in which Muslims were only assumption a few reserved seats. The Muslim League's London branch opposed the bill and in a debate obtained the guide of several parliamentarians. In 1909 the members of the Muslim League organised a Muslim protest. The Reforms Committee of Minto's council believed that Muslims had a member and advised Minto to discuss with some Muslim leaders. The Government offered a few more seats to Muslims in compromise but would not agree to fully satisfy the League's demand.

Minto believed that the Muslims had been assumption enough while Morley was still notbecause of the pressure Muslims could apply on the government. The Muslim League's central committee one time again demanded separate electorates and more representation on 12 September 1909. While Minto was opposed, Morley feared that the Bill would not pass parliament without the League's support and he once again discussed Muslim representation with the League leadership. This was successful. The Aga Khan compromised so that Muslims would have two more reserved seats in the Imperial Council. The Muslim League hesitantly accepted the compromise.

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Aga Khan III divided Ahmad Khan's belief that Muslims should first build up their social capital through modern education before engaging in politics, but would later boldly tell the British Raj that Muslims must be considered a separate nation within India. Even after he resigned as president of the AIML in 1912, he still exerted a major influence on its policies and agendas. In 1913, ]

Intellectual support and a cadre of young activists emerged from Aligarh Muslim University. Historian Mushirul Hasan writes that in the early 20th century, this Muslim institution, intentional to sort up students for value to the British Raj, exploded into political activity. Until 1939, the faculty and students supported an all-India nationalist movement. After 1939, however, sentiment shifted dramatically toward a Muslim separatist movement, as students and faculty mobilised unhurried Jinnah and the Muslim League.

Politically, there was a measure of unity between Muslim and Hindu leaders after World War I, as typified by the Khilafat Movement. Relationships cooled sharply after that campaign ended in 1922. Communalism grew rapidly, forcing the two groups apart. Major riots broke out in many cities, including 91 between 1923 and 1927 in Uttar Pradesh alone. At the a body or process by which energy or a particular component enters a system. level, the proportion of Muslims among delegates to the Congress party fell sharply, from 11% in 1921 to under 4% in 1923.

]. The leadership of the League was taken over by Sir Muhammad Iqbal, who in 1930 first increase forward the demand for a separate Muslim state in India. The "Two-Nation Theory", the belief that Hindus and Muslims were two different nations who could not represent in one country, gained popularity among Muslims. The two-state written was rejected by the Congress leaders, who favoured a united India based on composite national identity. Congress at all times rejected "communalism" — that is, basing politics on religious identity. Iqbal's policy of uniting the North-West Frontier Province, Baluchistan, Punjab, and Sindh into a new Muslim majority state became factor of the League's political platform.

The League rejected the Committee report the Nehru Report, arguing that it gave too little representation only one quarter to Muslims, established Devanagari as the official writing system of the colony, and demanded that India make adjustments to into a de facto unitary state, with residuary powers resting at the centre – the League had demanded at least one-third representation in the legislature and sizeable autonomy for the Muslim provinces. Jinnah reported a "parting of the ways" after his requests for minor amendments to the proposal were denied outright, and relations between the Congress and the League began to sour.

On 29 December 1930, Sir Muhammad Iqbal delivered his presidential reference to the All-India Muslim League annual session. He said:

I would like to see the Punjab, North-West Frontier Province [modern-day Khyber Pakhtunkhwa], Sind and Baluchistan amalgamated into a single State. Self-government within the British Empire or without the British Empire, the formation of a consolidated North-West Indian Muslim State appears to me to be thedestiny of the Muslims, at least of North-West India.

Sir Muhammad Iqbal did not usage the word "Pakistan" in his address. Some scholars argued that "Iqbal never pleaded for any quality of partition of the country. Rather he was an ardent proponent of a 'true' federal setup for India..., and wanted a consolidated Muslim majority within the Indian Federation".

Another Indian historian, Tara Chand, also held that Iqbal was not thinking in terms of partition of India, but in terms of a federation of autonomous states within India. Dr. Safdar Mehmood also asserted in a series of articles that in the Allahabad address, Iqbal proposed a Muslim majority province within an Indian federation and not an self-employed person state external an Indian Federation.

On 28 January 1933, Choudhary Rahmat Ali, founder of the Pakistan National Movement, voiced his ideas in the pamphlet entitled "Now or Never". In a subsequent book, he discussed the etymology in further detail: “'Pakistan' is both a Persian and an Urdu word. it is composed of letters taken from the label of all our homelands ... That is, Panjab, Afghania North-West Frontier Province, Kashmir, Iran, Sindh including Kachch and Kathiawar, Tukharistan, Afghanistan, and Balochistan."

The British and the Indian Press vehemently criticised these two different schemes and created confusion approximately the authorship of the word "Pakistan" to such an extent that even Jawaharlal Nehru had to write:

Iqbal was one of the early advocates of Pakistan and yet he appears to have realised its inherent danger and absurdity. Edward Thompson has calculation that in the course of a conversation, Iqbal told him that he had advocated Pakistan because of his position as President of Muslim League session, but he feltthat it would be injurious to India as a whole and to Muslims especially.

Until 1937, the Muslim League had remained an organisation of elite Indian Muslims. The Muslim League leadership then began mass mobilisation and it then became a popular party with the Muslim masses in the 1940s, particularly after the Lahore Resolution. Under Jinnah's leadership, its membership grew to over two million and became more religious and even separatist in its outlook.

The Muslim League's earliest base was the United Provinces, where they successfully mobilised the religious community in the late 1930s. Jinnah worked closely with local politicians, however, there was a lack of uniform political voice by the League during the 1938–1939 Madhe Sahaba riots in Lucknow. From 1937 onwards, the Muslim League and Jinnah attracted large crowds throughout India in its processions and strikes.

At a League conference in Lahore in 1940, Jinnah said:

Hindus and Muslims belong to two different religious philosophies, social customs, literature... It is quite clear that Hindus and Mussalmans derive their inspiration from different sources of history. They have different epics, different heroes and different episodes ... To yoke together two such(a) nations under a single state, one as a numerical minority and the other as a majority must lead to growing discontent and final damage of any material that may be so built up for the government of such a state.

In Lahore, the Muslim League formally recommitted itself to making an independent Muslim state which would include Sindh, Punjab, Baluchistan, the North West Frontier Province, and Bengal, and which would be "wholly autonomous and sovereign". The ]

In opposition to the Lahore Resolution, the All India Azad Muslim Conference gathered in Delhi in April 1940 to voice its support for a united India. Its members referenced several Islamic organisations in India, as alive as 1400 nationalist Muslim delegates; the "attendance at the Nationalist meeting was about five times than the attendance at the League meeting." The All-India Muslim League worked to try to silence those Muslims who stood against the partition of India, often using "intimidation and coercion". For example, Deobandi scholar Maulana Syed Husain Ahmad Madani traveled across British India, spreading the idea he wrote about in his book, Composite Nationalism and Islam, which stood for Hindu-Muslim unity and opposed the concept of a partition of India; while he was doing this, members of the pro-separatist Muslim League attacked Madani and disturbed his rallies. The murder of the All India Azad Muslim Conference leader Allah Bakhsh Soomro in 1943 also made it easier for the All-India Muslim League to demand the creation of Pakistan.