Muslim League

The Muslim League (also known as the All India Muslim League) was a political organization in British India that played an important role in securing Muslim interests in South Asia. The Muslim League later led the Pakistan Movement, calling for a separate Muslim homeland after the British exit from India. The party emerged from the need for political representation of Muslims in British India, particularly in response to the massive Hindu opposition, led by the Indian National Congress, to the 1905 partition of Bengal.

Muslim Zamindars and Nawabs met Lord Minto, the Governor-General (1905–10), at Simla on October 1, 1906, and demanded safeguards for 'Muslim interests,' especially their political interests. They were aware that the 'election' system was being introduced and that they would be marginalised without special protection. The Muslim deputation at Simla demanded the reservation of seats for the Muslim community on the basis of their population.

The Muslim leaders, after the Simla deputation, mooted the idea of a Central Muslim Association to look after the interests of the Muslim community. Thus, the All India Muslim League (AIML) was formed on December 30, 1906, in Dhaka (now in Bangladesh) by Sir Aga Khan (First President), Nawab Salimullah (Founder), Waqar-ul-Mulk, and others. Its objective was to protect the political and other interests of Muslims and to promote friendly relations between Muslims and other communities in India.

The British Government, on the other hand, wanted a strong ally to suppress the growing nationalist movement, especially after the outbreak of the Swadeshi Movement. The Muslim feudal element was their best bet. This is evident from the fact that within three years of its inception, it bagged the trophy of 'separate electorates.' Both Morley, the Secretary of State, and Minto, the Viceroy and Governor-General, were more than happy to grant 'separate electorates' to feudal Muslims as it fit their scheme of 'divide and rule.'

However, the character of the Muslim League changed after a few years when progressive, Western-educated, and nationalist Muslims joined and literally hijacked the Muslim League. Prominent among them were Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar, Shaukat Ali (Ali brothers), Wazir Hussain, Tasadduq Husain Khan Sherwani, Hasrat Mohani, Zafar Ali Khan, and Fazlul Haque. Many of them were editors of newspapers—Mohammad Ali Jauhar was the editor of Comrade and Hamdard, and Zafar Ali Khan was the editor of Zamindar. Unlike their predecessors, they were not loyal to British rule and were more conscious of their Indian and Muslim identity. Their association with the Pan-Islamic movement was an eyesore for the Government.

The Ali brothers and Abdul Bari of the Firangi Mahal School (Lucknow) organised the Anjuman-i-Khuddam-i-Kaaba in 1913 to raise funds to protect Muslim holy places. Dr. Mukhtar Ahmad Ansari and Zafar Ali Khan led a medical mission to help Turkey in the Balkan War (1912–13). The young leaders of the League were viewed with suspicion by the Government. The Ali brothers were interned in 1915, and their internment continued until 1919.

It is interesting to note that Mahatma Gandhi was consulted by the British Government about their fate, as they trusted Gandhi more. The nationalist element in the League brought it closer to the Congress party, and together they signed the Lucknow Pact (1916). However, separate electorates sowed the seeds of sectarian divide. The leaders often used religious slogans. Worse, the Montagu-Chelmsford reforms had broadened the franchise, which meant that the divide spread over much larger areas. The British education system was producing more graduates without creating employment opportunities. "The resentment and bitterness of school, office, and shop (were) sharpened by the disappointment of rising expectations".

The rise and growth of the Hindu Mahasabha, RSS, and other Hindutva forces created fear among minorities, especially Muslims, the largest religious minority in India. A good number of Congress leaders were also members of the Hindu Mahasabha (until 1938), which further complicated the matter. In its Lahore session (1924), presided over by M.A. Jinnah, the Muslim League demanded a federation with full provincial autonomy to preserve Muslim-majority areas from the danger of Hindu domination and the continuation of separate electorates. The Nehru Committee Report widened the gap between the Congress and the Muslim League, especially with Congress's betrayal under Hindu Mahasabha's pressure. Jinnah presented his 14-point programme, which remained the main demands of the Muslim League until 1939.

Despite all of its tall claims, the Muslim League remained, until 1937, a party of a few knights, Khan Bahadurs, Nawabs, and Western-educated Muslims. Its membership was not more than a few thousand.

But the League was not the same after 1937, especially in U.P., where it was reorganized. The refusal of Congress for a coalition, despite promises, proved disastrous. More importantly, the Congress ministries failed to implement their policies and promises in U.P. and other provinces, which was highlighted by the League. The 'Muslim mass contact programme' of Congress remained only on paper and gave an opportunity to Muslim-vested-interest groups to unite. Sometimes, the Congress's behavior and practices appeared dubious as well. For instance, in U.P., the Congress wanted to end the Zamindari system but was not serious enough in Bengal because, in U.P., the big landlords (Taluqedars) were mostly Muslims, while in Bengal, the Zamindars were mainly Hindus. Fazlul Haque of Bengal was interested in 'tenancy reform,' while Congress wanted the release of prisoners, which needed the Governor's sanction. In case of his refusal, Congress wanted a resignation from the ministry. Fazlul Haque was, thus, literally pushed by Congress toward the League.

The 27 months of Congress rule in different provinces were used by the League in intense propaganda. The Pirpur Report, the Shareef Report on Bihar (March 1939), and Fazlul Haq's report "Muslim Suffering Under Congress Rule" (December 1939) added fuel to the fire. These reports made serious accusations against Congress, such as the Congress failing to prevent communal riots, failing to lift the local ban on Bakra-Id cow slaughter, continuing to sing Bande Mataram with its idolatrous passage on public occasions, and encouraging Hindi in the Devanagari script at the cost of Urdu. Some of these charges were real, and some exaggerated, but both helped in the growth of the Muslim League. The Congress party did some fire-fighting work. In October 1937, the Congress Working Committee decided to drop the closing stanzas of Bande Mataram, and in December 1938, the Working Committee declared Mahasabha membership to be a disqualification for remaining in Congress. But this was too late and too little. The Muslim League was strengthening its position. Within a few months, it recruited 100,000 new members in U.P. alone, with the financial assistance of Isphani (the Muslim trading community of Bengal).

The Muslim League succeeded in weakening the position of Fazlul Haque. In Punjab, the League could strengthen itself only after the death of Sikandar Hayat Khan (December 1942). Jinnah played a key role in reviving the Muslim League virtually from ashes. He succeeded in convincing the Muslim peasants of Bengal and Punjab that in Pakistan, they would be free from the exploitation of Hindu Zamindars and traders. He and the League succeeded in convincing the petty traders that they would get better opportunities for progress in Pakistan, as the competition with Hindu capitalists in India, especially Marwaris, would ruin them. The middle-educated class was assured that their honor, religion, and career would be safe from the Hindus. The communal elements among the Hindus, especially the bourgeoisie class, the British policy of divide and rule, and the failure of Congress to win over Muslims, unfortunately, helped in the rise of the Muslim League.

Muhammad Ali Jinnah and the Muslim League led the struggle for the partition of British India into separate Hindu and Muslim states, and after the formation of Pakistan in 1947, the League became Pakistan’s dominant political party. In that year, it was renamed the All Pakistan Muslim League. However, the League functioned less effectively as a modern political party in Pakistan than it had as a mass-based pressure group in British India, and as a result, it gradually declined in popularity and cohesion. In the 1954 elections, the Muslim League lost power in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), and the party lost power in West Pakistan (now Pakistan) soon afterward. By the late 1960s, the party had split into various factions, and by the 1970s, it had disappeared altogether.