A History of the All-India Muslim League 1906-1947

803 Pages·2014·36.663 MB·English

by  M. Rafique Afzal

A History of the
All-India Muslim League
·1906-1947
. /
M.
RAFIQUE 'AFZAL
! ··..
·. :;.·:
.... ·
. dXFORD
UNIVERSITY 'PRESS '
OXFORD
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Published in Pakistan by Oxford University Press
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First published 2013
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ISBN 978-0-19-906735-0
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Published by
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Karachi-74900, Pakistan.
Dedicated to
those who sacrificed their lives in the struggle
for freedom and Pakistan
•. f-
Contents
List of Tables lX
xi
Preface
xv
A.)breviations
Introduction xvu
PART ONE
1. Formation of the 906-1910 3
2. Organi.zational Stru Ure and its Working, 1906-1935 26
3. Recognition by Performance, 1906-1921 97
4. Fumbling in the Dark, 1922- 1934 159
PART Two
5. Revival of the All-India Muslim League, 1935-1937 203
6. Search for a Goal, 1940 240
7. Reorganization and Mobilization, 1937-1947 287
8. Muslim League Branches, 1937- 1947 380
PART THREE
9. Reluctance at Recognition, 1940- 1945 497
10. The General Elections, 1945-1946 569
11. Bypassing the Pakistan Demand, 1945-1946 609
12. Plans, Partition, and Pakistan, 1947 670
739
Glossary ,..
Bibliography 740
747
Index

List of Tables
Table 1.1: Distribution of the AIML members by region 8
Table 1.2: Ratio of the members of the AIML Central Committee/ 10
Council according to provincial distribution
<.·
Table 1.3: Members of the first central committee of the AIML 11
Table 2.1: Member~l,!.i.p of$h' "'\ IML 31
,.
;··~>-J(Vi~;;.,
Table 2.2: Permanent pr~~f:) ents of the AIML, 1908-1930 34
Table 2.3: Joint secretaries of the AIML, 1908-1935 38
Table 2.4: Honorary secretaries of the AIML, 1908-1936 40
Table 2.5: Proportional representation of provinces in the 44
AIML Council
Table 2.6: . Annual sessions of the AIML, 1906-1933 63
Table 3.1: Percentage of Muslims in various provincial 123
legislatures according to the Lucknow Pact
Table 5.1: Election results, 1937 219
Table 7.1:; Working Committee of the AIML, 1938-47 304
Table 7.2: Provincial distribution,of the council members 308
according to the October 1937 constitution
Table 7.3: Annual sessions of the AIML 313
Table 10.1: Election results, 1945-46 598

Prefa ce
After the collapse of the Muslim rule in India, the Muslims dispersed
into small units, scattered all over the Indian subcontinent with
practically no platform for their mutual interaction. In fact, they
virtually lost their identity as a community with no direction about their
future. The All-India Mu'slim League provided them a forum at the
all-India level where they could deliberate upon their common
problems and unite thems~lves for the protection of their rights and
interests. The his'top ,-:/~'~:'.!h~ All-India Muslim League is the story of
the Indian Muslims · 'Je to define their objectives to protect their
rights and interests' obilize themselves for their realization. It
was through its forum that the Muslim leadership not only united the
community but also interacted with the non-Muslim communities of
India and the British authorities. The Muslim League in the process
passed through several phases. Like the Indian National Congress, it
started as an elitist party and was transformed into a mass organization
in the final phase (1937-47) of its history. Starting with a fixed number
of 400 members for the whole subcontinent including Burma and
limiting .that membership to those with an income of Rs 500/- per
month, besides other strict conditions, it developed into a mass party
with membership open to ordinary Muslims, with no other condition
except adherence to its ideals, on payment of two annas as annual fee,
which was half the subscription fee charged by the Congress from its
members. At its inception, it demanded separate electorates, weightage
(i.e. more seats than their proportion in population warranted) and
reservation of seats in the legislatures and in government jobs for the
Muslims, and after passing through different phases, it finally
demanded a separate Muslim State in the 'Pakistan Provinces/uni .. s' of
the north-west (Punjab, Sindh, NWFP and Balochistan) and north-east
(Bengal and Assc1m) of the subcontinent, and 'adequate, effective and
mandatory safeguards for ,the minorities in the partitioi1ed States.
Pakistan is a fribute to the subcontinetJ.t-\vide struggle that it organized
under the leadership of Quaid-i'..Az~in Mohammad ·.Ali · Jirinah; ·Its
success was only partial: it secured Pakistan against formidable odds
Xll PREFACE
but it was not in the shape that it had demanded; and it could not ensure
the 'safeguards' for the minorities that it had visualized.
The record of the All-India Muslim League is preserved primarily
in three collections-Archives of the Freedom Movement (AFM),
Quaid-i-Azam Papers (QAP) and the Shamsul Hasan Collection (SHC).
The first two collections are available in the National Archives,
Government of Pakistan, Islamabad, and the third collection has been
acquired by the National Documentation Wing (formerly Centre) of the
Cabinet Division, Government of Pakistan. SHC is better organized
than the other two collections. That1<part of the AFM which Professor
M.H. Siddiqi and his staff sifted when this collection was located at
the University of Karachi Is properly organized and bound in separate
volumes; however, documents in some volumes are paginated and in a
few others are numbered but not paginated. Hence some references to
the AFM in the present study are to the number(s), and not to the
page(s), of the document in a volume. Another part of the AFM lay
un-sifted and unlisted in the National Archives in boxes at the time I
consulted this collection. QAP are in separate files, most of which bear
no table of contents. Two other important primary sources, relevant for
the final phase of the AIML (1937-47), are the official collection of
documents published by the Government of Great Britain in twelve
volumes, edited by Nicholas Mansergh, E.W.R. Lumby, Penderal Moon
and others entitled The Tran5fer of Power (London, 1970-82), and the
collection of documents published by the Quaid-i-Azam Academy in
seven volumes, compiled and edited by Dr Waheed Ahmad, entitled
The Nation's Voice (Karachi, 1992-2003). I have extensively used these
sources and other material listed in the bibliography. There might be
more source-material on the AIML and Provincial Muslim Leagues in
the private collections in Pakistan but individuals with limited
resources cannot search for and use such material. Unlike India, no
concerted and sustained effort has ever been made in Pakistan at the
official level to collect this source-material and locate it at some central
place in the provinces or at the centre.
I am grateful to Professor Ahmad Saeed for promptly responding to
my queries. My thanks are due to Mohammad Ramzan, former Director
of the National Archives, Government of Pakistan, and his staff, Sajid
Mahmud in particular, for the'·assistance that they extended to me while
I was consulting the AFM and QAP. I. am thankful to Saleemullah
Khan, former Director of the National Documentation Wing (formerly
Centre), Government of Pakistan, for helping me in using the material