Lahore Resolution and the Birth of Muslim League: Most Vital Steps in

the Making of Pakistan

• Course Code: HIS 103. Course Title: Emergence of

Bangladesh.
Prof Dr. A. H. M. Zehadul Karim
• BA (Hons) and MA (Dhaka); MA (Syracuse, USA); PhD (Syracuse,
USA), Cert. in South Asian Studies (USA). Studied Sociology for one
year at the MA level at Lakehead University (Canada).
North South University.
• Summer Semester 2024. 23 October, 2024.
 Lahore Resolution: Congress Antagonism
The background of Pakistan Resolution is that in 1937, provincial
autonomy was introduced in the Sub-continent under the
Government of India Act, 1935.
❖The elections of 1937 provided the Congress with a majority in six
provinces, where Congress governments were formed. (But not in
Bengal and Punjab which they were expecting).
❖This led to the political, social, economic and cultural suppression of
the Muslims in the Congress ruled provinces.
❖Although Muslim League was minority in these six provinces, they asked
for coalition ministries in these provinces which was rejected by Congress.
❖The Muslims were subjected not only to physical attacks but
injustice and discriminatory treatment as regards to their civil rights,
economic measures and employment and educational
opportunities.
❖ The Government of India Act of 1935 was a transformative attempt where the whole country (or the sub-continent) was brought under a
Federal system with the constituent elements of the federated states. It was brought under enactment in the year 1937 which eventually
allowed the Muslims of the sub-continent to conceptualize a nationalistic regional geography. It also brought autonomy of the provinces.
❖ This is the election where Congress performed excellent having victory in six provinces.
2
❖ The Indian National Congress emerged in power in seven of the provinces, (1) Bombay, (2) Madras, (3) the Central Provinces, (4) the
United Provinces, (5) the North-West Frontier Province, (6) Bihar, and Orissa.
❖The Congress Ministries introduced the Wardha scheme/Vidya
Mandir Scheme) of education, the object of which was to de-
Muslimise the Muslim youth and children.
❖The name of the Vidya Mandir Scheme" along with additional
complaints over the neglect of Urdu and compulsory participation in
the singing of "Vande Mataram” and tri-color flag came to the front.
❖According to the British historian Sir Reginald Coupland, “It was not
only the Working Committee’s control of the Congress Ministries
that showed that a ‘Congress Raj’ had been established. It was
betrayed by the conduct and bearing of Congressmen. Many of them
behaved as if they were a ruling caste, as if they owned the country.”
Mahatma Gandhi came up with a special education programme in 1937. It came to be known as the Wardha Education Plan. It aimed that, all the children between
the ages of 8 and 14 should receive free and compulsory education in their respective vernacular languages. It aimed at educating children on the basis of their
native culture and in equipping them with all the basic abilities and attitudes deemed to be essential for a common citizenship. The Indian National Congress directed
its provincial governments to introduce the scheme.
The Vidya Mandir Scheme (VMS) was introduced in the Central Provinces to provide basic education in small villages. From the very beginning there was outright
opposition to the name of the scheme on provincial and on the all India level including objections raised within Congress ranks itself.
A horizontal triband of India (1) saffron, (2) white, and (3) India green (dark green); charged with a navy blue Ashoka Chakra with 24 spokes in the center. The flag is
based on the Swaraj flag, a flag of the Indian National Congress adopted by Mahatma Gandhi

3
 Lahore Resolution: The Situation which impelled the Muslims for a separate homeland being
initiated on 23 March 1940
❖The animosity (adversity and antipathy) shown by the Hindus to the Muslim and their own
experience of two-and-a-half year Congress rule strengthened the Muslims belief in
their separate nationality .
❖The discriminatory attitude coupled with attempts by the Hindu dominated Congress
to suppress the Muslims impelled the Muslims to finally demand a separate and
sovereign state for the Muslims.
❖However, the Muslim demand was violently opposed both by the British and the
Hindus; and
❖the Congress’s attitude towards the Muslims led them to be hardening in their belief
that a separate homeland of Pakistan can only guarantee their freedom.
❖Accordingly, this demand was put in black and white (in writing) on 23rd March*, 1940.
After adoption of the Pakistan Resolution, Jinnah had a clear objective before him
and he struggled hard to achieve it.
❖ *The day later was accepted as the ‘Pakistan national day’ in the country after having gotten the independence.

4
Lahore Resolution-Two-Nation Theory Based on Differential Philosophy, Culture and Religiosity.
(1) “The Hindus and Muslims belong to two different religious
philosophies, social customs, and literatures.
(2) They neither intermarry nor do they inter-dine together and,
indeed, they belong to two different civilizations which are based
mainly on conflicting ideas and conceptions.
(3) Their aspect on life and living are different. It is quite clear that the
Hindus and the Muslims derive their inspiration from different sources
of history.
(4) They have different epics (heroic poem), different heroes, and different
episodes.
(5) Very often the hero of one is a foe of the other and, likewise, their
victories and defeats overlap.
5
Lahore Resolution: Two-Nation Theory of Mr. M.A. Jinnah (Bar at Law) went on preaching
to create an emerging sensation among the Muslims for a separate homeland.

• (6) To flock together two such nations under a single state, one as a
numerical minority and the other as a majority, must lead to
growing discontent and final destruction of any fabric that may be so
built for the government of such a state.”
• (7) In short, as Muslims we have our own distinctive outlook on life.
• (8) He further said that by all cannons of international laws, we are a
nation.

6
 Representing Muslims in the sub-continent
(A) In 1945, Jinnah proclaimed that only Muslim League as a political
party absolutely represented the Muslims of this sub-continent, and it
has been proved when its performances is exposed clearly in the 1946
polls, in which it won 100 per cent of the seats at the Centre, and 80
per cent in the provinces.
(B)Nothing could have been more conclusive to shatter the Congress
claim of being a national body. (very Significant in terms of Congress claimimg the represention of the people
of whole India).

©If the British had read the writing on the wall in this verdict,
Pakistan could have come into existence two years earlier without
bloodshed.
(D)With his charismatic personality, Mr. Jinnah turned to dream of a
separate homeland into reality on 14th of August 1947.
7
The Indian nationalist historians, however, observe the consistent Hindu-Muslim unity in Indian history until the
British introduced separate electorate system to divide the Indians in communal line. By Reverse

• By Reverse, the Indian nationalist historians, however, observe the

consistent Hindu-Muslim unity in Indian history until the British
introduced separate electorate system to divide the Indians in
communal lines.
• To prove the hollowness of the Two Nation Theory, the Indian
nationalist historians argue that the emergence of Bangladesh
through a war of liberation is the positive proof of the falsity of the
Two Nation Theory.
• Against this argument the supporters of Two Nation theory maintain
that Bangladesh did not join India and became independent
according to the spirit and letters of the Two Nation Theory as
preserved in the Lahore Resolution, 1940.

8
.

Lahore Resolution adopted in its General Session of the MUSLIM LEAGUE.

• In 1940 MOHAMMED ALI JINNAH called in a general session (22-24
March, 1940) of the All India Muslim League in Lahore.
• It was intended to discuss the situation that had arisen due to the
outbreak of the Second World War and the Government of India
joining the war without taking the opinion of the Indian leaders.
• And also to analyze the reasons that led to the defeat of the Muslim
League in the general election of 1937 in the Muslim majority
provinces.

9
Lahore Resolution: How it came through a Process

• HUSEYN SHAHEED SUHRAWARDY left with a small group of Muslim League

workers for Lahore on 19 March 1940.
• AK FAZLUL HUQ led the Bengal Muslim League contingent and reached
Lahore on 22 March.
• The Chief Ministers of Bengal and the Punjab were two dominant
figures in the conference.
• Jinnah, in his speech, criticized the Congress and the nationalist
Muslims, and pronunciated (pronounced) the Two-Nation Theory and the
reasons for the demand for separate Muslim homelands.

10
 Khan, Chief Minister of Punjab
• His arguments caught the imagination of the Muslim masses. (1) Sikandar Hayat
Khan, the Chief Minister of the Punjab, drafted the original Lahore Resolution,
which was placed before the Subject Committee of the All India Muslim League
for discussion and amendments.
• (2) The Resolution, radically amended by the Subject Committee, was moved in
the general session by Sher-e-Bangla A.K.Fazlul Huq on 23 March and was (3)
supported by Choudhury Khaliquzzaman and other Muslim leaders. The Lahore
Resolution ran as follows:
• That the areas where the Muslims are numerically in a majority as in the
Northwestern and Eastern zones of India should be grouped to constitute
'independent states' in which the constituent units shall be autonomous and
sovereign.

11
• The Resolution was adopted on 24 March with great enthusiasm.
The Hindu Press dubbed it as the 'Pakistan Demand', after the
scheme invented by Rahmat Ali, an Indian Muslim living at
Cambridge.

• The 1940 resolution nowhere mentioned Pakistan and in asking for

'independent states' the spokesmen of the League were far from
clear what was intended.

• The Hindu press supplied to the Muslim leadership a concerted

slogan, which immediately conveyed to them the idea of a state.

12
 Discussion on aspects of Lahore Resolution continues

• (1) On the first day of the session in Lahore, Muhammad Ali Jinnah
narrated the events of the last few months.
• (2) In an extempore speech, he presented his own solution of the
Muslim problem.
• (3) He said that the problem of India was not of an inter-communal
nature, but manifestly an international one and must be treated as
such. (Quaid-E-Azam’s intelligence)
• To him the differences between Hindus and the Muslims were so
great and so sharp that their union under one central government
was full of serious risks.
• They belonged to two separate and distinct nations and therefore
the only chance open was to allow them to have separate states.
13
The segmented units which were proposed for Pakistan
• (1) The Resolution rejected the concept of United India and recommended the
creation of an independent Muslim state consisting of Punjab, N.W.F.P, Sindh
and Baluchistan in the northwest, and Bengal and Assam in the northeast.
• (2) The Resolution was passed on March 24. It laid down only the principles,
with the details left to be worked out at a future date.
• (3) It was made a part of the All India Muslim League’s constitution in 1941.
• (4) It was on the basis of this resolution that in 1946 the Muslim League decided
to go for one state for the Muslims, instead of two.
• (5) Having passed the Pakistan Resolution, the Muslims of India changed their
ultimate goal.
• (6) Instead of seeking alliance with the Hindu community, they set out on a path
whose destination was a separate homeland for the Muslims of India-with a
name of Pakistan.

14
Lahore Resolution: Aroused a sense of confidence among the Muslims of the
subcontinent along with the Bengalese in the eastern part.
• The Muslims of Bengal, who were searching for an identity
throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, finally
found it in the Lahore Resolution.
• The Lahore Resolution gave them a sense of identity and
nationhood.
• Henceforth the dominant theme in Muslim politics was not
complaint against Hindu injustice, but a demand for separate
political existence.
• On 15 April 1941, the Lahore Resolution was incorporated as a
creed(a set of fundamental beliefs)in the constitution of the All-India
Muslim League in its Madras session.
• It continued to be the League's creed until its dissolution after the
independence of Pakistan in 1947.
15
 Lahore Resolution-Five Demands
• It emphasized the principles that were relevant to modern state
system and the political context of British India. It made five specific
demands:
• 1. The Resolution rejected the federal system of government as
envisaged in the Government of India Act, 1935 because it was
“totally unsuited to and unworkable in the peculiar conditions of
this country and is altogether unacceptable to Muslim India.”
• 2. The Muslims would not accept any revised constitutional plan
unless it was framed with “their consent and approval.”
• 3. The adjacent territorial units should be demarcated into regions
that may involve some territorial adjustments in a manner “that the
areas in which the Muslims are numerically in a majority as in north-
western and eastern zones of India “become “independent states in
which the constituent units shall be autonomous and sovereign.”
16
 Lahore Resolution-Five Demands
• 4. The resolution offered “adequate, effective and
mandatory safeguards for religious minorities” in the
Muslim majority units for the “protection of their religious,
cultural, economic, political, administrative and other rights
and interests in consultation with them.”
• Similar rights will be given to the Muslims in “other parts of
India.”
• 5. The Muslim League Working Committee was asked to
formulate a constitutional scheme on the basis of the
principles outlined in the Resolution.

17
 Lahore Resolution-Analysis
• The Resolution draws attention towards the following important points in the
text.
• First, the phrase “independent states” is used instead of “independent state” in
the content.
• The presence of “s” with the word state in the original text becomes significant
in context of 1971 secession of East Pakistan to become Bangladesh.
• It has been argued that the initial intention was to form many individual states
in the areas where Muslims are in majority rather than single state for the
Muslims of India.
• The fact that the resolution was presented by a Bengali nationalist, Fazal-ul-Haq,
adds weight to the argument that according to the resolution East Pakistan was
never supposed to be the part of Pakistan.

18
of six years it had changed the whole situation.
• But what strike most is the democratic and the revolutionary nature
of the resolution.
• The resolution came after thrashing of the Muslim League in 1937
elections where it only won few seats which were reserved for
Muslims in Sindh, Punjab, Bengal, Baluchistan, and NWFP and
• within 6 years of time it changed the whole scenario with the
overwhelming success of Muslim League in 1946 elections (425 out
of 496 seats reserved for Muslims) which the League ran on the
platform of creating a state of Pakistan.
• The momentum generated by the passage of the Lahore Resolution
actually allowed the Muslims to build a huge support and rally the
Muslims of the sub-continent for the demand of independent state
of Pakistan.
19
 Lahore Resolution: Problems in Clarity
• Second, Lahore Resolution allegedly was unclear about the areas
to be included in the states.
• In response to Beverly Nicholas’s question that why the concept
of Pakistan has not been defined and clarified in detail, Jinnah
replied,
• “All details were left to the future and future is often an
admirable arbitrator. It is beyond the power of any man to
provide in advance a blue print in which every detail is settled.”

20
 Lahore Resolution-Analysis
• The resolution was deliberately kept vague to take full advantage of
elements of uncertainty and the power of manipulability.
• It also distracted the congress from targeting a visible goal set by
the league.
• Muslim League purposely left this matter ambiguous to get as
many Muslim majority areas as possible, including some in the
Muslim minority provinces.

21
 Lahore Resolution-Analysis
• Third, a question is usually asked as to why the word Pakistan was not mentioned
in the Resolution and why there is no reference to the princely states like Kashmir.
• The Lahore Resolution pointed to the areas of both North-western and eastern
India. The resolution did not favor the exchange of population.
• The word was not used as it could give the impression of pan-Islamism and scare
the British and provoke Hindu propaganda.
• But when the Hindu press regarded the Lahore Resolution as the Pakistan
demand, Jinnah owned it without hesitation.
• Madras session of the league in April 1941 formally adopted Pakistan Demand as
the goal of the Muslim League.

22
 Lahore Resolution-Three Debates
• The Lahore Resolution has been a basis of three debates in the pre- and post-
independence periods.
• The first debate relates to the non-use of the name Pakistan in the demand.
• 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.
• The second debate focuses on the use of certain terms in the Resolution.
• These include “independent states” and that the constituent units will be “autonomous
and sovereign.”
• Was the Lahore Resolution talking of one or more than one state for the Muslims of
British India?
• These ambiguities can be addressed if a literalist approach is not adopted to understand
the Lahore Resolution.

23
 Lahore Resolution-Three Debates

• The Muslim League demands became more specific and assertive in the post-
1940 period.
• By 1942, the Muslim League focus shifted to a singular phrase of state.
• In September 1944 Jinnah was very categorical in asserting that he was taking of
one state of Pakistan.
• This issue was finally clarified by the convention of Pakistani parliamentarians
held in Delhi in April 1946.
• The evolutionary process of the movement for the creation of Pakistan began
before March 1940 and ended with the attainment of independence in Pakistan in
1947.

24
Lahore Resolution-Three Debates. Questions of
Confederation also was raised.
• The third political debate relates to the post-independence
period.
• Some regional-nationalist leaders in Sindh and Baluchistan
invoke the Lahore Resolution for seeking maximum
autonomy for provinces.
• They demand that Pakistan’s federal model should be based
on the Lahore Resolution. Some leaders have talked of
turning Pakistan into a confederation.
• This is a literalist interpretation of the Lahore Resolution
which can be described as flawed.

25
 Lahore Resolution: Robert Jackson’s views.
• The Lahore Resolution did not offer a framework for organizing the
Pakistani state, especially the distribution of powers between the
federal government and provinces.
• It addressed the constitutional issues in an all-India framework and
offered a framework to settle the Hindu-Muslim question on a
permanent basis.

• Robert Jackson in his bbok, South Asian Crisis: India-Pakistan-Bangladesh (1975)

mentioned that “The Idea of Pakistan was conceived as an expression of the
religious and cultural nationality of the Muslims in India”.

26
 Lahore Resolution-Three Debates
• Rather, it has to be viewed in the political context of British India in
and around 1940 and the Muslim political experience over time.
• In a federal system sovereignty was the prerogative of the federal
government and its constituent units cannot be both “autonomous
and sovereign” at the same time.
• In the case of Pakistan, the British government transferred power
and authority to the state of Pakistan through its federal
government established in Karachi.
• Pakistani provinces got power from the federal state and the first
Interim Constitution.

27
 Lahore Resolution-Three Debates
• Pakistan’s federal system was not created by the provinces deciding
to set up a federation.
• Pakistan’s federation was built into the Indian Independence Act,
passed in July 1947 by the British Parliament and the First Interim
Constitution.
• This envisaged a strong centre and weak provinces.
• This legacy has haunted Pakistan’s political system from the early
years.
• The Pakistan movement developed gradually.
• It did not stop with the passage of the Lahore Resolution.
• Next seven years were important to understand the making of
Pakistan.
28
 Lahore Resolution-Three Debates

• The demand for greater autonomy can be raised by political parties

and leaders in Pakistan with reference to the Muslim League’s
political disposition on federalism in the pre-independence period.
• It favored greater autonomy to the provinces but it turned in favour
of a strong and assertive centre in the post-independence period.
• The 18th constitutional amendment marks the beginning of the era
of greater administrative and financial autonomy for provinces.

29
 Lahore Resolution-Three Debates

• Provinces have more control over their finances and natural

resources.
• If democracy continues to function and the federal and provincial
governments improve their performance the confidence of people in
the state system will improve.
• This will weaken the role of regionalist-nationalist leaders and they
will find it more difficult to invoke the Lahore Resolution for seeking
more provincial autonomy.

30
 Lahore Resolution-Significance

• Making the common will for the achievement of Pakistan was a

must for which Muslim league had been making efforts just after its
inception.
• This objective was achieved after 7 years in the form of Lahore
resolution.
• This resolution changed the direction of South Asian politics
radically and give the foundation for an independent state for the
Muslims.

31
 Lahore Resolution-Significance

• The concept of Muslim league was altogether changed

after the Pakistan resolution and
• now it was not a political party but it emerged as the
mass party which makes the establishment of Pakistan
possible on the basis of majority demand and strength.
• It is the culmination (a logical consequence) of the two-
nation theory.
• However, the Hindus rejected the resolution immediately
and called the resolution as Vivisection of Mother India
(i.e. its murdering India).

32