History assignment

Towards partition & Pakistan: 1940-47

Submitted by: Maaz Ahmad Siddiqui

Submitted to: Ma’am Faiza Ali
Submission date: 6 of May, 2022
Class: Eight
Section: Red

Criteria:
Length According to topic /5
Addressed options: Original content /5
Organized and easy to follow; includes summary /10
Refer to topics in the course /5
Grand total /25

Background of the partition

The creation of Muslim majority Pakistan and Hindu majority India is one of the
phenomena of world history. Pakistan came into being as a homeland for the
Muslims of the Indian subcontinent; this was not simple and made the
subcontinent go through immense changes/difficulties. It all started with the
British taking over the subcontinent in 1858, then the rise of Hindu and Muslim
nationalists, in 1885, which brought rivalry among the two religions, followed by
unity again in 1912 to gain popularity among the British, the British ultimately felt
the need to separate the two religious societies into two different states, Muslim-
dominant Pakistan, and Hindu-dominant India on the 14th of August and 15th of
August, 1947 correspondingly.

1
The first move: Lahore resolution
The day of deliverance lead to the Lahore resolution in 1940 after all congress
ministries resigned from their positions due to a protest against the British raj
who entered the 2nd world war without notifying the congress ministries. The
declaration for the establishment of a separate homeland for the Muslims of
British India was approved in the annual session of the All-India Muslim League
held in Lahore on 22-24 March 1940 and is an accomplished milestone in
Pakistan’s history. The huge gathering was held at Minto Park, located in the
subcontinent. A crowd as large as 100,000 people was present at the moment
when M. Ali Jinnah said:

“Muslims are a nation by any definition of a nation. Hindu and Muslims belong to
two religions, philosophies, social customs and literature. They neither inter-marry
nor interdine and indeed belong to different civilizations which are based on
conflicting ideas and conceptions; their concepts of life are different. As such they
must have their homeland, their territory and their state.”

It was clear how Jinnah wanted a separate independent nation for the Muslims of
the subcontinent, this idea had been passed by Allama Iqbal earlier and sought
the destiny of the Muslims. The passing of the resolution marked the change of
the Muslim minority in British India into a realm with its distinctive cultural,
economic, and political features. This passed a feeling of history and shared
objectives for the future of this territory. According to analysis, the Muslim league
had put forward the following demands in pursuit of protecting their religious
identity:

o The resolution spoke against the Federal way of government as it was not
in the interests in both Muslims and Hindus of India

o The Muslims would not agree upon a newly made constitutional plan unless
it was made with their permission and approval.

o The Muslims wanted separate territories for themselves in which Muslims

comparatively were in majority until they got an independent, revised state
for themselves that will get to be known as Pakistan.

2
 o The resolution would offer all minority religious communities within their
majority regions with their rights as it is their responsibility to protect any
religious society and their culture and value.

o The Muslim League Working Committee was asked to construct a

constitutional conspiracy on the basis of the ideas outlined in the
Resolution.

The congress members disagreed to this resolution and many of them marked it
as a “mad scheme” and “bad idea”. The Muslims, by supporting the Brits at time
of difficulty had made room for themselves in the subcontinent while the Hindus
had not. After the attack of Japan on India the congress members, led by Gandhi
suddenly broke up all the ties between them and the British and demanded
complete independence from the British raj. The British somewhat agreed to this
cause and sent Sir Stafford Cripps to negotiate with the Indian leaders and find a
solution to India.

The Cripps proposals of 1942

The Cripps proposals, also known as The Cripps Mission was named after Sir
Stafford Cripps who was a lawyer, a politician, and a member of the British
parliament. While mission means an important assignment given to a group of
people. At this time India was facing many issues and the country was overall
imbalanced. British was fighting against many countries in WW2. Muslims and
Hindus had different thoughts, the Muslims wanted a separate state for
themselves while the Hindus wanted to rule over the sub-continent and didn’t
want it to separate. The Indians also feared that the Japanese would enter India in
circumstances of war which would have a bad result and possible bloodshed. The
British needed Indian support and so they sent sir Stanford Cripps with other
members to negotiate with the Indians until they come to a settlement.
The proposals offered dominion status for the Hindus and Muslims of the
subcontinent which meant they would get semi-independence. In one of Cripps
speech, he even stated that he would give Indians 100% independence after the
war was over. Both the Muslims and the Hindus disagreed to these proposals and
rejected them because it did not fulfil their demands. Right after the rejection of
the proposals Gandhi decided to “Quit” India immediately.

3
The quit India movement
The purpose of the movement was to protest against the unfairness being done
to the Indians by the British. The Hindus were only given one day to do so and the
next day Gandhi & other congress members were arrested for their doings even
though enough damage to the British property had already been done. Jinnah’s
reaction to this movement was rather unique, he added to its name and called it
the” Divide and Quit” movement.

The Jinnah-Gandhi talks of 1944

Even though Gandhi and Jinnah had different point of views to this issue of
independence, they didn’t have any personal issues among them and had a
meeting together in 1944. Jinnah stayed strong on his idea of independence and
separation of the subcontinent into two different states, India and Pakistan.
Gandhi also kept hold of his thoughts, thus, the talks were unsuccessful.

The end of WW2

After many years the world war was finally coming to an end with the British
surrendering because of a severe economic crisis. It was a now or never sort of
situation and so the British decided to give the Indians almost 100%
independence. They decided to give the Indians full control on the subcontinent
and keep only two British members in the government but due to some issues
this proposal also failed badly.

Elections of 1945-46
As the British couldn’t see the Indians settling on any constitutional settlement,
they decided to announce elections. Both the Indian parties accepted the
elections and got prepared. The elections proved how the Muslim league was a
league for the Muslims and the Congress was for the Hindus as all the Non-
Muslims voted the congress members and the Muslims voted the Muslim league
members. This showed how both the religions could no longer stay together and
needed to divide at last.
4
The cabinet mission, 1946
The British government tried one last time to keep India united and prevent it
from separating. They sent 3 British members to resolve all the issues the Indian
leaders are facing. Yet they failed once again. They proposed some points with
one of them being that the provinces would be divided into 3 groups/clusters (A,
B, & C), for the time being both the parties accepted the idea. The cabinet was
now to make a temporary government that was supposed to handle Indian
affairs. The British government made sure that if one of the parties doesn’t agree
they wont simply stop but would proceed further without that party.
Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case when the Congress backed off, the British
waited until it was ready again and then they re-started forming an interim
government. All the princely posts were provided to the Hindus and so the
Muslims left the British and later joined when Liaqat Ali Khan was given the post
of finance minister.

Direct action day in 1946

In 1946, Muhammad Ali Jinnah aka Quaid-e-Azam declared 16 August as ‘Direct
Action Day’ and called for Muslims all over the country to “suspend all
businesses.” This day according to him was the most unique day in history of the
Muslims as it was the first time they decided to against constitutional philosophy.
The day saw multiple deaths and thousands of injuries. This was to put pressure
on the British government to yield to the Muslim League’s (headed by Jinnah)
demand of distributing the country on the basis of religion, thus allowing the
creation of a Muslim-dominated Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

Independence and partition

Lord Mountbatten was given the charge of the Indian subcontinent. He said that
he would only become so if the British agreed on these 2 conditions:

o He would be given 100% command on his area with no intrusion in his work
from London.

5
 o He would be made the first Lord of the seas after the Indian subcontinent
was finally partitioned.

Lord Mountbatten eventually took charge of the subcontinent on 22 nd of March,

1947. He didn’t consider talking to the leaders again was important as it played no
role in helping them earlier. The thing he had to focus on was not on what he
shall do but was how he’d like to do the partition. The stubborn congress leaders
still didn’t agree to this plan but after approval from other parties and the British
authorities themselves they were left with no other choice to accept the partition
that was to be held on the 15th of August, 1947. The only condition they kept was
that they would only accept this idea until Jinnah does too. This condition was
fulfilled and lead to the making of the Independence act on the 18th of July, 1947.

The act of Independence, 18 July 1947

This act was a result of the acceptance of the 3rd June plan that approved the
acceptance of the following:

o Belief of the partition of British India was recognized by the British

Government
o Governments that would follow would be given dominion status
o Self-rule and power to be given to both countries
o The newly formed states would be able to make their own constitution(s)
o Significant States were given the authority to join either Pakistan or India,
based on two key factors: Geographical contiguity and the people's desire.

The Independence act marked the end of British government in the Indian
subcontinent and provided the following points of procedure:

o India would no longer be a part of the British colonies after the 15 th of

August, 1947.
o The two new governments that were in formation would follow the act of
1935 till both the governments form their own separate constitution.
o Two nations would form; India and Pakistan
o Both the countries would have a governor-general

6
The act also stated that both the dominions would be given British assets on a
basis of 17: 5 (India: Pakistan).

Radcliffe Award
The Radcliffe award, more popularly known as the Radcliffe line decided the fate
of the two newly born regions. Sir Cyril Radcliffe was leading the project along
with 4 other judges, two on the Pakistani side and two on the Indian side. As the
judges couldn’t come to an agreement, Radcliffe had to take decision of the
partition. All the dominion states within Indian-subcontinent had the right to
choose either India or Pakistan as their new country. Most of the Hindu majority
moved to India while Muslim majority moved to Pakistan.
After all the states were decided, three states were left pending until later when
two of them were conquered by the Indian military and Kashmir was left pending
again.

The Kashmir issue

Kashmir used to be a Muslim majority region in the subcontinent that was
governed by a Hindu ruler, it led to many arguments so the British council decided
elections would be held in Kashmir if they want to be with India or Pakistan. As of
now these elections never happened and the Indian armed forces have taken
over half of the Kashmiri population and are making them suffer brutality. This
issue has grabbed international attention and we see hope for polling in Kashmir
after many years.

Quaid’s stand for the Muslims

According to the directives both the newly born states were to be headed by a
governor general, possibly the same. Lord Mountbatten decided to head both of
the states and take over as governor general of India as well as Pakistan. Jinnah
objected his decision and decided he would become the first governor general of
Pakistan proving its independence and sovereignty.
Quaid against all odds had won, he had won Pakistan, he did what all deemed
impossible.

7
The Mughals gave the Muslims territory, Poets like Iqbal gave them hope and
destiny, Islam gave the Muslims identity, But Jinnah seemed to give all three. No
matter what happens Jinnah is not Jinnah but is The Quaid-e-Azam of Pakistan
and its people.

Quaid-e-Azam: The superman of 220 million

Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s name, also known as Quaid-e-Azam (A great leader),
Baba-e-Qaum (Founder of the nation), etcetera, will always be written with great
devotion as he was the most loyal, kind, and hardworking of all men. Quaid-e-
Azam was born in the Indian subcontinent and became a lawyer. No one had ever
thought what he’d do in future would result so important in the history of the
world. Allama Iqbal said “Now none but Jinnah is capable of leading Muslims- “.
The world saw one of the biggest cross-migration in 1947 as people moved from
Indian based territory to Pakistan. Many people lost their lives in the pursuit of
freedom and justice. Jinnah feared if the minorities within Pakistan would be
treated fairly and requested, they’d be given their rights. After the birth of
Pakistan Jinnah got extremely ill and weakened till his death on 11 September,
1948. Thousands attended his funeral held at Karachi and built him a great
mausoleum that can be seen from anywhere in Karachi*.

8
*T&C apply