Question : “There is no other instance in the history of mankind of a poet and philosopher working such a miracle in shaping the destiny of his people”.
(2007)
Answer : Iqbal was a philosopher, poet and a political leader. He got elected to the Punjab legislative assembly in 1927 and became the President of Allahabad session of Muslim League in 1930.
Initially, he was great supporter of Hindu-Muslim unity. Later he became advocated of the separate state of Pakistan. In addition to his political activism, Iqbal was considered a foremost Muslim thinker of his date.
His poetry and philosophy written in Urdu stressed the rebirth of Islamic and spiritual redemption through individual freedom, moral integrity and self development. His works include “the secret of the Self, Nala-i-Yatim (viels of an orphan), Himala, Shikwa, Howab-i-Shikera, Ashar-i-khundi, Jabur-i-Azam.
Iqbal symbolized certain approaches. Firstly, Iqbal wanted the youth to stand up and boldly face up the challenges. Secondly, Iqbal considered Quran not only as book of religion but a coherent system of principles on which life must be organized. He considered that Quran provides perfect harmony, balance and stability in the society. He firmly opposed theocracy. Thirdly, he was against Muslim alienation after World War I and especially at hands of communal elements.
Iqbal became perhaps the single major influence in sharpening the feelings of Muslim segregation on the basis of tradition, culture, history and religion. In 1930, at his presidential address at Allahabad session of Muslim League he argued that the principle of European democracy could not be applied in India without recognizing the fact the communal groups. Thus, he voiced concern for an independent Muslim State. He specified, the territory of Pakistan by saying “I would like to see Punjab, NWFP, Sindh and Baluchistan amalgamated into a single state being called Indian Muslim State.
He was at pains to state that the creation of separate state for Muslim was in the best interest of India and Islam. For India, it meant unity and peace and for Islam, it meant an opportunity to rid itself of Arabian stamp. But Iqbal’s Pakistan was a separate State on the basis of linguistic infirmity.
Iqbal became of his ideas stands out as poet and philosopher working such a miracle in shaping the destiny of his people.
Question : “I felt that if we did not accept partition, India would be split into many bits and would be completely ruined.”
(2006)
Answer : India was partitioned in 1947 into two dominions, India and Pakistan. It was a saddest event in history of India. The fighters of freedom struggle had never intended the partition of the country. But the Nationalists leaders of India had to accept the partition due to the deteriorating condition of India. According to Vallabh Bhai Patel, had it not been partitioned, India would have been completely ruined.
When English established their political supremacy in India, they followed the policy of divide and rule. They divided India on the basis of caste, religion etc. Their policy of divide and rule got manifested in every spheres of life.
For instance they introduced separate electorates in 1909. Their policy of divide and rule encouraged separate tendencies. It checked the progress of India’s unification which had been a continuous historical process. It became a potent factor in the growth of communalism – both Hindu and Muslim in the country. After some time Muslim League propounded two nation theories.
When the English made up their mind to leave India, the problem became very serious as to whom they transfer authority – Congress or Muslim League. Princely states became active to become independent in case of transfer of authority. Muslim League started the Pakistan Movement. And when cabinet mission plan rejected partition of country, Muslim League gave the call for Direct Action Day. All over the country communal riots started. Thousands of people were killed.
In this background Mountbatten came to India. Initially Lord Mountbatten stated to talk with leaders of India. Seeing that no one was willing to bow, he put forward plan Balkan. As per this plan India was to be divided into a number of small principalities. But this was soon dropped. So in the light of above circumstances it was felt to partition the country otherwise it would be split into many bits.
Question : ‘We are therefore unable to advise the British Government that the power which at present resides in British hands should be handed over to two entirely separate sovereign States.’
(2004)
Answer : After prolonged discussions in New Delhi Cabinet Mission succeeded in bringing the Congress and the Muslim League together in conference at Simla. There was a full exchange of views and both parties were prepared to make considerable concessions in order to try to reach a settlement, but it ultimately proved impossible to close the remainder of the gap between the parties and so no agreement could be concluded. Since no agreement has been reached it rested on the British officials to decide the future of India. The question of a separate and fully independent sovereign state of Pakistan as claimed by the Muslim League was the main isue. Such a Pakistan would comprise two areas: one in the North-West consisting of the provinces of the Punjab, Sind, North-West Frontier, and British Baluchistan; the other in the North-East consisting of the provinces of Bengal and Assam. The League were prepared to consider adjustment of boundaries at a later stage, but insisted that the principle of Pakistan should first be acknowledged. The argument for a separate state of Pakistan was based, first, upon the right of the Muslim majority to decide their method of government according to their wishes, and, secondly, upon the necessity to include substantial areas in which Muslims are in a minority in order to make Pakistan administratively and economically workable.
The setting up of a separate sovereign state of Pakistan on the lines claimed by the Muslim League would not solve the communal minority problem; nor was it justified to include within a sovereign Pakistan those districts of the Punjab and of Bengal and Assam in which the population is predominantly non-Muslim. Every argument that can be used in favour of Pakistan can equally, in our view, be used in favour of the exclusion of the on-Muslim areas from Pakistan. This point would particularly affect the position of the Sikhs. Cabinet Mission therefore, considered whether a smaller sovereign Pakistan confined to the Muslim majority areas alone might be a possible basis of compromise. Such a Pakistan is regarded by the Muslim League as quite impracticable because it would entail the exclusion from Pakistan of:
Any solution which involves a radical partition of the Punjab and Bengal, as this would do, would be contrary to the wishes and interests of a very large proportion of the inhabitants of these provinces. Bengal and the Punjab each has its own common language and a long history and tradition. Moreover, any division of the Punjab would of necessity divide the Sikhs, leaving substantial bodies of Sikhs on both sides of the boundary. Cabinet Mision has therefore been forced to the conclusion that neither a larger nor a smaller sovereign state of Pakistan would provide all acceptable solution for the communal problem.
Question : Trace the Origin and growth of the Indian Muslim League.
(1999)
Answer : In the rise of the separtist tendency along communal lines, Sayyid Ahmad Khan played an important role. Though a great educationist and social reformer, Sayyid Ahmad Khan became towards the end of his life a conservative in politics. He laid the foundations of Muslim Communalism when in the 1880s he gave up his earlier view and declared that the political interests of Hindus and the Muslims were not the same but different and even divergent. He also preached complete obedience to British rule. When the Indian National Congress was founded in 1885, he decided to oppose it and tried to organise along with Raja Shiva Prasad of Varanasi a movement of loyalty to the British rule. He also began to preach that, since the Hinds formed the larger part of the Indian population, they would dominate the Muslims in case of the weakening or with drawal of the British rule. He urged the Muslims not to listen to Badruddin Tyabji's appeal to them to join the national Congress.
The separatist and loyalist tendencies among a section of the educated Muslims and the big Muslims nawabs and landlords reached a climax in 1905 when the All India Muslim League was founded under the leadership of the Aga Khan, the Nawab of Dhaka, and Nawab Mohsin-ul-Mulk. Founded as a loyalist, communal and conservative political organisation, the Muslim League made no critique of colonialism, supported the partition of Bengal and demanded special safeguards for the Muslims in government srivces. Later, with the help of Lord Minto, the Viceroy, it put forward and secured the acceptance of the demand for separate electorates. Thus, while the National Congress was taking up anti-imperialist economic and political issues, the Muslim League and its reactionary leaders preached that the interests of the Muslims were different from those of the Hindus. Stimultaneously, Hindu communalism was also being born and Hindu communal ideas were arising. Many Hindu writers and poltical workers echoed the ideas and programme of Muslim communalism and the Muslim League.
Question : The Pakistan movement converted a cultural and religious entity of a people into a separatist political force. Elucidate.
(1996)
Answer : Communalism remained at the second, liberal stage till 1937 when it increasingly started assuming a virulent, extremist or fascist form. Extreme communalism was based on the politics of hatred, fear psychosis and irrationality. A campaign of hatred against the followers of other religions was unleashed. The interest of Hindus and Muslims were now declared to be permanently in conflict. Communalism also now, after 1937, increasingly acquired a popular base, and began to mobilize popular mass opinion.
The idea of a separate homeland for Muslims to be called Pakistan took a definite shape in the mind of a young under-graduate at Cambridge, Rahmat Ali. He visualized the Punjab, N.W.F.P. (also called Afghan province), Kashmir, Sindh, and Baluchistan as the national home of the Indian Muslims and he coined he world 'Pakistan' in 1933. The word Pakistan was formed by taking the initials of the first four and the last of the fifth. The most unequivocal declaration of the Hindus and Muslims for separate nationalism was made by M.A. Jinnah at the Lahore session of the League's in March, 1940. From 1940 onwards to the partition, Muslim Leagues activities centered around 'Two Nation Theory' and 'Pakistan'. Thus the Lahour session of the Muslim League gave it an Ambition and a Programme. Henceforth the demand for Pakistan became as much as article of faith for the Indian Muslims as their holy book, the Koran.
In response to the Congress offer for co-operation with the British Government conditional on its declaration of 'the full independence of India' and formation of a provisional National Government at the centre, Lord Linlithgow in August 1940 offered the plan of setting up a constitution making body after the war but assured the minorities that the British Government would not agree to any system of Government whose authority was directly denied by large land powerful elements in India's national life. The Mulsim League welcomed this part of the August offer and passed the resolution, 'the partition of India is the only solution of the most difficult problem of India's future constitution'. The Cripps plan (1942) carried further the Muslim League's demand for the partition of India. The Muslim League rejected the cripps plan and reiterated the demand for Pakistan.
After the failure of Cripps mission, when the Congress started the 'Quite India' movement M.A. Jinnah advised the Muslims to remain aloof from this movement. The Muslim League also did not participate in this movement. Not only this, when Viceroy Lord Linlinthgow expressed his opinions of maintaining the unity and integrity of India, in December 1942, Mr. Jinnah became furious.
In the Karanchi session of the Muslim League, Jinnah, in response to the Congress demand of 'Quite India' gave the slogan of 'Divide and Quit' in 1943. On the basis of the Rajagopalachari formula (10th July 1944), Gandhiji met Jinnah and discussed and persuaded Jinnah to agree on the formula. Jinnah however, rejected the Rajagopalachari formula by saying that the Muslims did not want' maimed, multilated, moth eaten and truncated Pakistan,' Similarly, the Wavell Plan and the Shimla Conference in 1945 also failed becausee the League and Jinnah demanded that the League would be given power to nominated all the Muslim members of the Executive Council as if it is the sole representative of Mulsims in India. Cabient mission was sent to India after the failure of the shimla Conference.
The Cabinet Mission granted the formation of an interim Government till the formation of a new Constitution. But it also refused to accept the 'Pakistan' demand of the Muslim League. Both the Congress and the Mulsim League agreed on the proposals of the cabinet mission plan but, the deadlock continued on the quesetion of the formation of the Interim Government. Initially the Congress did not accept to be a part of the Interim Government and therefore the League proposed to from the Government without the Congress. But the Viceroy was in no mood to keep away the Congress from the formation of the Interim Government and so he refused the proposal of the Muslim League. As a result, the Muslim League withdrew its acceptance of the Cabinet Mission Plan and observed 16th August, 1946 as the 'Direct Action Day' Direct Action Day was not directed for wresting Pakistan from the hands of the unwilling British Government but was directed against the Hindus.
The League engineered communal riots in Bengal, U.P., Bombay, the Punjab, Sindh and the N.W.F.P. with the battle cry : 'Lekar rahenge Pakistan, Larke Lenge Pakistan'. Muslim communal groups provoked communal frenzy in the country. The British authorities were worried that they had lost control over the 'Frankenstein monster' they had helped to create but felt it was too late to tame it. They were frightened into appeasing the League by Jinnah's ability to unleash civil war. Wavell quietly brought the League into the Interim Government on 26th October, 1946 though it did not accept either the short or long term provisions of the Cabinet Mission plan and had not given up its policy of Direct Action. The Muslim League joined the Government, not 'to work it but to wreck it' from inside. All the same the Muslim League refused to join the Constitutent Assembly.
In order to end the deadlock of the Interim Government, a London Conference was held in December 1946 in which Prime Minister Atlee, Wavell, Nehru and Jinnah participated. Though the conference tried to end the differences between the Congress and the League but it failed. The developing crisis was temporarily defused by the statement made by Atlee in Parliament on 20th February 1947, that British Government is ready 'to effect the transference of power to responsible hands by a date not later than June 1948'. In order to facilitate the work of transference of power, Lord Mountbatten was appointed as the Viceroy in palace of Lord Wavell.
The anticipation of freedom from Imperial rule lifted the gloom that had set in with continuous internal wrongling. There were wide-spread communal riots in the country. The League launched Civil Disobedience in Punjab and brought down the unionist. Akali-Congress ministry was led by Khizr Hayat Khan. In the communal riots all the three groups, the Muslim League, the Hindu Mahasabha and the Akali Dal (led by Master Tara Singh) participated. Anti-partition demonstrations took place in Lahore. There were large scale killings in Lahore, Amritsar, Taxila, Rawalpindi, Bihar, U.P., Bengal, Bombay and other places. The Army and the police practically did nothing to stop this. Gandhiji was continuously touring the country and appealing the masses for the stoppage of this communal killing, but to no avail. This was the situation in which Mountbatten came to India as Viceroy. Moutbatten's formula was to divide India but retain maximum unity. In June 3, 1947 he offered a plan for the partition of India.
The plan provided for a referendum in the N.W.F.P. to decide whether the province would join India or Pakistan. Gandhiji met Lord Mountbatten in April 1947 and requested him to avoid partition of India. He also agreed to make Jinnah, the Prime Minister of India. He said clearly that, 'if the Congress accepts the Partition, it would have to do it over my agree on the partition plan and I will try to stop Congress from accepting the partition if possible'. Later, under pressure from Nehru and Patel, the Congress accepted the partition of India. The Indian Independence Act passed by the British Parliament in July 1947 provided for the setting up of two independent Dominions of India and Pakistan with effect from 15th August 1947.
