PKST Assignment
PKST Assignment
PKST Assignment
After the War of Independence 1857, the Muslim rule in India brutally declined. Hindus and
Muslims both were involved in the War, but British only considered Muslims for this rebellious
act. After this era, there were many personalities such as Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, Maulana
Muhammad Ali Johor, Liaqat Ali Khan, Muhammad Ali Jinnah who fought for the rights of the
Muslims on the political grounds. There are many major political developments that took place in
the era of 1905 to 1928 such as Partition of Bengal, Simla Conference, Formation of Muslim
league, Lucknow Pact, Nehru Report etc.
In 1905, Viceroy Lord Curzon decided that the Bengal should be separated into two parts
depending upon the religious majority of people, hence East Bengal became the Muslim majority
province and West Bengal became the Hindu majority province. He took this decision because the
British were unable to govern such a big province having almost 80 million population and the
people were also suffering due to poor administration. Hindus retaliated the partition of Bengal;
they were considering the partitioning of Bengal as the partition of their motherland. Another
reason for their opposition was their believe that the Muslims will create their independent
province and gradually it will result in the partition of India. On the other hand, Muslims favored
the partition because they were suffering the brutality of the British, British were only focusing on
the national hub i.e. Kolkata and due to this reason people of Bengal suffered. Muslims were also
happy because they got a chance to have a separate province of their own where they can live
according to Islam.1
Simla Deputation 1906 is one of the major political development in the history of Pakistan.
Indian National Congress was formed in 1885 which was solely representative of Hindus rights
1
Chakrabarty, B. (2004). The partition of Bengal and Assam: Contour of freedom. New York: Routledge Curzon.
P.143.
and interests, but apparently it was considered as the representative of all the communities of
subcontinent. After the formation of Congress, the Muslim leaders started to establish their own
political grounds which only represents and protects the rights and interests of Muslims. Simla
Deputation was the first systematic attempt of Muslims in this regard, they presented the interests
of Muslims to the British Govt. and seek acceptance from them. Their first demand was more
representation than population, Muslim leaders knew that the population of Muslim is less than
Hindus, that’s why they made this demand because more representatives can play an important
role. They also demanded the share of Muslims in Govt. jobs and Muslims representations in
municipal and district boards University senates as well as in the Viceroy’s Executive Council.
The purpose of these demands was to enable Muslims to put their point of view in Govt. level so
that they must be aware of the interests of Muslims. These demands that were made by the Muslim
leaders clearly shows that they wanted to protect the rights and interests of Muslims of India.2
After Muslim delegation presented the demands of Muslims to British Viceroy, he showed
sympathy towards this and this encouraged Muslims to have a political party so that they could
launch their struggle of the Muslim’s rights parallel to Indian National Congress and as a result
All India Muslim League was formed in 1906. The main goal of Muslim league was the protection
of the rights and interests of the Muslims of the subcontinent. They also had a goal of working in
cooperation with the communities, the purpose of this goal was to spread a sense of loyalty among
the people as well as with the British government. Quaid-e-Azam on the other hand didn’t joined
the Muslim league instantly because he was a nationalist not a communalist and according to him
Muslim league would work for the separation of Muslims. However, the major events that
happened during that era such as annulment of partition of Bengal (1911) due to the Hindus
pressure on Govt., Western aggression towards Muslims, Balkan War etc. changed the goals of
Muslim league and it also changed the thinking of Quaid-e-Azam. Muslim league started to work
for a self-government under the British rule and Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah joined
Muslim league in 1913.3
2
Wolpert, S. A. (2017). Jinnah of Pakistan. Karachi: Oxford University Press. P. 242-245.
3
"Establishment of All India Muslim League". Story of Pakistan. June 2003. P. 1. Retrieved 14 February 2014.
In 1915, the representative of Muslim league and Congress set up committees to make a
scheme for the changes in constitution in consultation with other political parties. Muslim league
and Congress had some common objectives, first was the establishment of self-government and
second was that they wanted to have the changes in the constitution according to their will not by
the British rulers. Quaid-e-Azam who was the member of both the political parties played an
exceptional role in bringing both the parties close to each other. The joint committee of both the
parties made a scheme for the constitutional change and it was then accepted by both the parties
and this scheme of constitutional change is known as Lucknow Pact 1906. Muslims accepted the
Lucknow pact because there were many things that were in their favor such as Muslims will have
one third of the total seats in the Imperial legislative council, Hindus also accepted the separate
electorate, Muslims were also allowed to have a representation in the Viceroy’s council. Lucknow
Pact is one of the significant political development because it was the first time in the history when
Congress accepted the right of separate electorate for the Muslims and this happened only because
of this agreement.4
4
Kelly, Nigel (2014). The History and Culture of Pakistan. Peak Publishing. P. 61.
5
Khilafat movement | Indian Muslim movement | Britannica.com
In World War I, British claimed that they are standing for the protection of the democracy,
so after the war, Indians who fought for the British also demanded democracy in India. Due to the
demands of the people, Govt. decided to give more representations to the local people and ensured
the constitutional reforms in India. In 1918, Lord Chelmsford Montague presented a report on the
constitutional reforms to the British Govt. The report was approved by the government and became
the Act of 1919. After almost ten years, British Govt. sent a commission to investigate the working
of Indian constitution established by the Govt. of India Act 1919. The commission was under Sir
John Simon and comprised of seven members and all were British. When the commission came to
India, it was opposed by the Indians and the Indian National Congress boycotted the commission,
the main reason of this opposition was the racial discrimination that British made by only adding
British people to the commission. The report proposed the provincial autonomy but rejected the
parliamentary responsibility at the center.6
After the failure of the Simon Commission, the British Govt. had no other option than to ask
the locals to make a constitutional frame for themselves. All party conferences were held in India,
but all the leaders could not reach any common ground and the main reason for that was the rights
of minorities. In Lucknow Pact, Congress and Muslim league agreed that the constitutional reforms
would be made on the consent of all the political parties, but after some time Hindu extremist
attitude dominated and the proposals were rejected by the Hindu leaders. Nehru in 1928 formed a
committee which framed new Hindu proposals into a report known as Nehru report. The
recommendations of Nehru report were against Muslims interests, the biggest blow to Muslims
was the non-recommendation of separate electorate. On the other hand, in 1929, Quaid-e-Azam
gave his own fourteen points as a reply to Nehru report and asked British Govt. that these points
should be the basis of the future constitution of India and the Muslims would not accept any
constitution if these minimum demands were not kept in view.7
6
Pew Ghosh (2012). Indian Government and Politics. P. 20–21
7
"Nehru Report". Story of Pakistan. 01 June 2003.