Lahore Resolution

Muslim leaders from across British India at the All-India Muslim League Working Committee session in Lahore

The Lahore Resolution (Urdu: قرارداد لاہور‬‎, Karardad-e-Lahore; Bengali: লাহোর প্রস্তাব, Lahor Prostab), was prepared by Muslim League Working Committee[1][2][3] and was presented by A. K. Fazlul Huq, the Prime Minister of Bengal was a formal political statement adopted by the All-India Muslim League on the occasion of its three-day general session in Lahore on 22–24 March 1940. The resolution called for independent states as seen by the statement:

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.

Although the name "Pakistan" had been proposed by Choudhary Rahmat Ali in his Pakistan Declaration,[4] it was not until after the resolution that it began to be widely used.

Muhammad Ali Jinnah's address to the Lahore Conference was, according to Stanley Wolpert, the moment when Jinnah, a former proponent of Hindu-Muslim unity, irrevocably transformed himself into the leader of the fight for an independent Pakistan.[5]

Historical context

Until mid-1930s the Muslim Leaders were trying to ensure maximum political safeguards for Muslims within the framework of Federation of India in terms of seeking maximum autonomy for Muslim majority provinces. They got some safeguards through a system of separate electorate on communal basis in the Government of India Act, 1935. As a result of elections held under this Act, Indian National Congress formed government in six out of eight provinces. During Congress rule from 1937–39, its “High Command whose iron control over its own provinces clearly hinted at what lay ahead for the Muslim majority provinces once it came to dominate the center. Much of the League’s propaganda at this stage was directed against the Congress ministries and their alleged attacks on Muslim culture; the heightened activity of Hindu Mahasabha, the hoisting of Congress tricolor, the singing of bandemataram, the Vidya Mandir scheme in the Central Provinces and the Wardha scheme of education, all were interpreted as proof of ‘Congress atrocities’. So, Congress was clearly incapable of representing Muslim interests, yet it was trying to annihilate every other party.”[6]

Therefore by 1938-39, for most of the Muslim Leaders, in or out of Muslim League, the idea of separation was strongly gaining ground. The Sindh Provincial Muslim League Conference held its first session at Karachi in October 1938, adopted a resolution which recommended to the All India Muslim League to devise a scheme of constitution under which Muslims may attain full independence. The Premiers of other Muslim majority provinces e.g. A. K. Fazal-ul-Haque (Bengal) and Sir Sikander Hayat Khan (Punjab), who were not in Muslim League, also were quite convinced towards the idea of separation. The idea was more vividly expressed by M. A. Jinnah in an article in the London weekly Time & Tide on 9 March 1940.[7] Jinnah wrote:

Democratic systems based on the concept of homogeneous nation such as England are very definitely not applicable to heterogeneous countries such as India, and this simple fact is the root cause of all of India’s constitutional ills……If, therefore, it is accepted that there is in India a major and a minor nation, it follows that a parliamentary system based on the majority principle must inevitably mean the rule of major nation. Experience has proved that, whatever the economic and political programme of any political Party, the Hindu, as a general rule, will vote for his caste-fellow, the Muslim for his co-religionist.

About the Congress-led provincial governments, he wrote:

An India-wide attack on the Muslims was launched. In the five Muslim provinces every attempt was made to defeat the Muslim-led-coalition Ministries,...In the six Hindu provinces a “Kulturkampf” was inaugurated. Attempts were made to have Bande Mataram, the Congress Party song, recognized as the national anthem, the Party flag, and the real national language, Urdu, supplanted by Hindi. Everywhere oppression commenced and complaints poured in such force…that the Muslims, despairing of the Viceroy and Governors ever taking action to protect them, have already been forced to ask for a Royal Commission to investigate their grievances.

Furthermore he added:

Is it the desire (of British people) that India should become a totalitarian Hindu State….? ….. and I feel certain that Muslim India will never submit to such a position and will be forced to resist it with every means in their power.

In his concluding remarks he wrote:

While Muslim League irrevocably opposed to any Federal objective which must necessarily result in a majority community rule under the guise of Democracy and Parliamentary system of Government...To conclude, a constitution must be evolved that recognizes that there are in India two nations who both must share the governance of their common motherland.

Lahore Conference

The session was held between 22 and 24 March 1940, at Iqbal Park, Lahore. The welcome address was made by Sir Shah Nawaz Khan of Mamdot, as the chairman of the local reception committee. The various draft texts for the final resolution/draft were deliberated over by the Special Working Committee of the All India Muslim League[8]

Later on, A. K. Fazlul Huq presented the resolution before the public and the AIML General Assembly. The resolution text unanimously accepted the concept of a united homeland for Muslims on the grounds of growing inter-communal violence[9] and recommended the creation of an independent Muslim state.[10]

Sir Muhammad Zafarullah Khan is credited with writing the original draft of the Lahore resolution.

After the presentation of the 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 for partition. Subsequently, Maulana Zafar Ali Khan from Punjab, Mohammad Abdul Ghafoor Hazarvi from North-West Frontier Province, Sir Abdullah Haroon from Sindh, Qazi Esa from Baluchistan, and other leaders announced their support.

The statement

23 March 1940: Newspapers printed news about Lahore Resolution, demanding division of India.

The resolution for the establishment of a separate homeland for the Muslims of British India passed in the annual session of the All India Muslim League held in Lahore on 22–24 March 1940 is a landmark document of Pakistan’s history.[11] In 1946, it formed the basis for the decision of Muslim League to struggle for one state [ later named Pakistan] 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.[13]

The Hindu press and leaders were quick to describe the resolution as the demand for the creation of Pakistan; some people began to call it the Pakistan Resolution soon after the Lahore session of the Muslim League. It is landmark document in history of Pakistan.[11] 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.

Most importantly, to convince smaller provinces such as Sindh to join, it provided a guarantee:

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.

Interpretation

There remains a debate on whether the resolution envisaged two sovereign states in the eastern and western parts of British India. Abdul Hashim of the Bengal Muslim League interpreted the text as a demand for two separate countries.[14] In 1946, Prime Minister H. S. Suhrawardy of Bengal, a member of the All India Muslim League, mooted the United Bengal proposal with the support of Muslim and Hindu leaders, as well as the Governor of Bengal. However, it was opposed by Lord Mountbatten, the Muslim League, the Congress and the Hindu Mahasabha.

Although there were and continue to be disagreements on the interpretation of the resolution, it was widely accepted that it called for a separate Muslim state. Opposing opinions focus on the phrase "independent states" claiming this means Muslim majority provinces, i.e. Punjab, Sindh, etc. would be independent of each other. They ignore the phrase "geographically contiguous units." They also rely on the claims of certain Bengali nationalists who did not agree with one state. They accuse their opponents of diverting the "spirit" of the resolution.

The majority of the Muslim League leadership contended that it was intended for not only the separation of India but into only 2 states (Muslim majority and Hindu majority). Therefore, it is indeed a statement calling for independence and one Muslim state. Eventually, the name "Pakistan" was used for the envisioned state.

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 later one of the important leaders in the forefront of the Sindh independence movement,[15] joined the Muslim League in 1938 and presented the Pakistan resolution in the Sindh Assembly. A key motivating factor was the promise of "autonomy and sovereignty for constituent units".[16]

This text was buried under the Minar-e-Pakistan during its building in the Ayub regime. In this session the political situation was analysed in detail and Muslim demanded a separate homeland only to maintain their identification and to safeguard their rights. Pakistan resolution was the landmark in the history of Muslim of South-Asia. It determined for the Muslims a true goal and their homeland in north-east and north-west. The acceptance of the Pakistan resolution accelerated the pace of freedom movement. It gave new energy and courage to the Muslims who gathered around Muhammad Ali Jinnah for struggle for freedom.

Commemoration

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

See also

References

  1. ↑ Korejo, M S (1993). The Frontier Gandhi: His Place in History. Oxford University Press. p. 152. ISBN 0195774612.
  2. ↑ Dockter, Warren (2015). Churchill and the Islamic World: Orientalism, Empire and Diplomacy in the Middle East. I. B. Tauris (1818). p. 240. ISBN 1780768184.
  3. ↑ "The Case of Sindh - G.M. Syed's deposition in court (Part 4)". GMSyed.org. Naeen Sindh Academy. Retrieved 20 July 2018.
  4. ↑ Choudhary Rahmat Ali, (1933), Now or Never; Are We to Live or Perish Forever?, pamphlet, published 28 January. (Rehmat Ali at the time was an undergraduate at the University of Cambridge)
  5. ↑ Stanley Wolpert (1984). Jinnah of Pakistan. Oxford University Press. p. 182. ISBN 978-0-19-503412-7. Jinnah's Lahore address lowered the final curtain on any prospects for a single united independent India ... once his mind was made up he never reverted to any earlier position ... The ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity had totally transformed himself into Pakistan's great leader. All that remained was for his party first, then his inchoate nation, and then his British allies to agree to the formula he had resolved upon.
  6. ↑ Jalal, Ayesha (1985). The Sole Spokesman: Jinnah, the Muslim League and the Demand for Pakistan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 43. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511558856. ISBN 9780511558856.
  7. ↑ Jinnah, Mohammed Ali (9 March 1940). "The Constitutional Future of India: Two Nations in India". Time & Tide. Vol. 21 no. 10. pp. 238–240.
  8. ↑ The following is the full list of the 25 original, formally designated members of the Special Working Committee of the All India Muslim League, 1940, which met between 21 and 24 March 1940; see Programme of the All India Muslim Leagues 27th Annual Session, to be held at Lahore 21 to 24 March 1940, at the National Archives of Pakistan, Islamabad, the Quaid i Azam Papers, File 1354, and which largely drafted the Lahore Resolution. Also ref Attique Zafar Sheikh, The Pakistan Resolution and the Working Committee of the All India Muslim League, 1940 Islamabad: National Archives of Pakistan, 1998, p. 92, citing the following list of the members:
  9. ↑ Muhammad Aslam Malik (2001), The Making of the Pakistan Resolution, Oxford University Press, Delhi. ISBN 0-19-579538-5
  10. ↑ Syed Iftikhar Ahmed (1983), Essays on Pakistan, Alpha Bravo Publishers, Lahore, OCLC 12811079
  11. 1 2 "An interpretation of the Lahore Resolution". Dawn. 23 March 2013.
  12. ↑ I H Qureshi, (1965), Struggle for Pakistan, Karachi
  13. ↑ I H Qureshi, (1992), A Short History of Pakistan. University of Karachi, Reprint of 1967 edition. ISBN 969-404-008-6
  14. ↑ "Lahore Resolution". banglapedia.org.
  15. ↑ G. M. Syed. A Nation in Chains
  16. ↑ G. M. Syed. The Case of Sindh (Chapter 2)
  17. ↑ Stanford M. Mirkin (1966), What Happened when: A Noted Researcher's Almanac of Yesterdays, I. Washburn, New York City. OCLC 390802 (First published in 1957 under title: When did it happen?)

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