The Pakistan Movement 1927–39

The Pakistan Movement 1927–39

Timeline

The Simon Commission, 1927–30

• The 1919 Act said that a commission would review the constitution after 10 years. In November 1927 the British set up the Simon Commission, led by Sir John Simon. It had seven British members and no Indians.
• The Conservative government brought the date forward because it feared losing the coming election to Labour, which was thought more friendly to India.
• Indians were insulted. Congress and the Jinnah section of the Muslim League boycotted it (the Shafi section of the League, in the Punjab, cooperated). Protests met it everywhere, with the slogan "Simon, go back". Lala Lajpat Rai was fatally injured in Lahore.
• Its report (1930) recommended provincial autonomy and a federation, but the British took no action at once.

The Nehru Report, 1928

• To reply to the challenge to produce an agreed constitution, an All-Parties Conference appointed a committee under Motilal Nehru. The Nehru Report (August 1928) recommended dominion status, a federation with a strong centre, and joint electorates (with no separate electorates). It gave Muslims no weightage except in provinces where they were a minority, and it rejected the demands of the Delhi Proposals, including one-third representation in the Centre. It did not accept the Muslim demand for Sindh to be separated except on conditions. It offered Muslims about one-fourth of the seats in the Centre (against the one-third they wanted), and Hindustani (in either script) rather than Urdu alone as the national language, which Muslims feared would become Hindi.
• The committee under Motilal Nehru had nine other members, only two of them Muslims (Syed Ali Imam and Shuaib Qureshi), and Muslims said it was really a Congress document. Congress demanded that the British accept it by 31 December 1929 or face civil disobedience.
• Muslim response. Jinnah asked for amendments at the All-Parties Convention in Calcutta (December 1928), but they were rejected. He called it "the parting of the ways". Muslim leaders realised that they could not rely on Congress.

Jinnah's 14 Points, March 1929

Jinnah presented the 14 Points as the Muslim League's minimum demands in a future constitution. The main points were:

1. a federal constitution, with residual powers left to the provinces;
2. a uniform measure of autonomy for all provinces;
3. all legislatures and elected bodies to have adequate and effective representation of minorities, without reducing a province's majority to a minority or to equality;
4. Muslim representation in the Central Legislature of not less than one-third;
5. separate electorates to continue;
6. any redrawing of provincial boundaries must not affect the Muslim majority in the Punjab, Bengal and the NWFP;
7. full religious liberty (belief, worship, education and association) for all communities;
8. no bill or resolution to be passed in a legislature if three-quarters of the members of a community oppose it;
9. Sindh to be separated from the Bombay Presidency;
10. constitutional reforms in the NWFP and Balochistan on the same footing as the other provinces;
11. an adequate share for Muslims in the public services and in local bodies;
12. safeguards for Muslim culture, education, language, religion, personal laws and charities;
13. at least one-third Muslim ministers in the Central and the provincial cabinets;
14. no change in the constitution by the Central Legislature without the consent of the states that make up the federation.

The points set out the safeguards that the Muslims wanted as a minority. They remained the Muslim League's basis for negotiating until 1940.

Allama Iqbal's Allahabad Address, 1930

In December 1930, as President of the Muslim League at Allahabad, Allama Muhammad Iqbal said that Muslims were a separate nation and proposed that the Muslim-majority areas of the North-West (Punjab, NWFP, Sindh and Balochistan) should be combined into a single state, within the Indian federation (or within the British Empire). He said, "I would like to see the Punjab, North-West Frontier Province, Sindh and Balochistan amalgamated into a single state." This was the first clear statement of the idea of a Muslim homeland (see chapter 10).

The Salt March and the Gandhi–Irwin Pact

In March–April 1930 Gandhi led a Salt March of about 240 miles from his ashram near Ahmedabad to Dandi on the sea, where he made salt in defiance of the government's salt tax. It started a Civil Disobedience Movement, and tens of thousands of people (including Gandhi) were arrested. The Viceroy Lord Irwin wanted calm before the conferences, so on 5 March 1931 the Gandhi–Irwin Pact ended the campaign: prisoners were released, Indians could make salt for their own use, and Gandhi agreed to attend the Second Round Table Conference.

The Round Table Conferences, 1930–32

The First conference opened in London on 12 November 1930 under King George V, with Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald in the chair, and about 89 delegates, in sub-committees on the federal structure, the provinces, minorities, franchise and other subjects. B.R. Ambedkar pressed for separate seats for the Untouchables. At the Second, Gandhi was the only Congress delegate and said that Congress spoke for all India, which Muslims and other minorities rejected. The Third had only about 46 delegates. The proposals were collected in a White Paper (March 1933) and then the Government of India Act (Royal Assent August 1935).

The conferences were not very successful because the parties could not agree on separate electorates. However, they showed the British that Muslims were a separate group and led to constitutional reform.

The Communal Award, 1932

The British Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald announced the Communal Award (August 1932) since the leaders could not agree. It gave separate electorates to Muslims, Sikhs, Christians and the Depressed Classes (Untouchables). Muslims were the largest group in the Punjab (86 of 175 seats) and Bengal (119 of 250 seats), but did not get an outright majority of seats. Congress opposed it, particularly for the Untouchables, and Gandhi fasted until the Poona Pact (September 1932) altered the arrangement for Hindu seats. Muslims accepted the Award.

Rahmat Ali and the Pakistan National Movement, 1933

Chaudhry Rahmat Ali was a student at Cambridge. In January 1933 he published a pamphlet "Now or Never: Are We to Live or Perish for Ever?" in which he asked for a separate nation for the Muslims of the North-West and gave it the name "PAKISTAN" (Punjab, Afghania (NWFP), Kashmir, Sindh, and -tan for Balochistan). He formed the Pakistan National Movement. At first few took the idea seriously (the Indian Muslim delegates dismissed it as a student's dream), but the name was later adopted.

The Government of India Act, 1935

The most important constitutional change before independence:

• Provincial autonomy: dyarchy was ended in the provinces. Elected ministers controlled all provincial subjects, subject to the governor's reserve powers.
• A proposal for an All-India Federation (of the provinces and princely states) with dyarchy at the Centre. This part was never put into effect because the princes would not agree.
• Sindh was separated from Bombay (1936). Orissa was created, and Burma was separated from India.
• Separate electorates continued. The franchise was widened (about 30 million people could vote).
• A Federal Court was set up.
• Muslims disliked some of its provisions, but accepted the provincial part and fought the elections.
• Three lists of subjects: federal (such as defence, foreign affairs, currency), provincial (such as education, health, agriculture) and concurrent (shared). The federal legislature was to have two houses (a Council of State of 260 and a Federal Assembly of 375). The electorate grew from about 7 million to about 30 million or more, and women had a wider vote.

Why was it opposed?

• Congress thought it gave too little: the Governor's special powers and the Viceroy's veto limited provincial rule, and princes' nominees would fill much of the federal legislature.
• Muslims feared a federation in which Hindus would be a majority, and disliked the safeguards, and Jinnah called it "thoroughly rotten".
• The princes would not agree to join the federation, so that part was never started.
• Some British Conservatives thought it went too far.

Why was it important? It gave Indians real provincial power for the first time, created new provinces (Sindh, Orissa), set up a Federal Court, and became the base of the constitutions of both India and Pakistan (Pakistan used it, with changes, until 1956).

The 1937 elections

Significance. Congress was confident that it was the only party that mattered, and refused to form coalitions with the League (in the United Provinces it demanded that the League members join Congress, and dissolve their party). Jinnah then reorganised the League into a mass party, and the League gained members rapidly.

Congress rule, 1937–39

Muslims were uneasy about the way Congress ruled:

• "Vande Mataram" (a song from a novel with Hindu religious imagery) was sung in schools and assemblies, and the Congress flag was used on government buildings.
• Hindi was promoted over Urdu; the Wardha Scheme and the Vidya Mandir schools were seen as promoting Hindu culture and ideas.
• Cow protection laws harmed Muslim butchers and ignored their interests; Muslims said that they were treated unfairly in government jobs; and there were communal riots.
• Muslims also complained that there was music in front of mosques at prayer times, limits on building new mosques, the use of Gandhi's picture in some schools, and unfair treatment by the police and courts. The two parties' election manifestos had differed mainly on joint v separate electorates and on Hindi v Urdu. Congress rule lasted about 27 months.
• The Muslim League collected complaints in the Pirpur Report (1938) and the Shareef Report (1939).
• In September 1939 the Viceroy took India into the Second World War without asking Indian leaders, and Congress ministries resigned in October–November 1939.
• Jinnah called on Muslims to celebrate "Day of Deliverance" on 22 December 1939, to mark the end of Congress rule. Some non-Muslims joined in.

Summary: how successful was the Pakistan Movement 1927–39?

Outline. Refused a coalition with the League; the Vande Mataram and flag; Hindi and the Wardha Scheme; cow protection; unfair treatment in jobs; communal riots; the Pirpur and Shareef Reports. Result: Muslims united behind the League, and Jinnah celebrated the "Day of Deliverance".