Road to Pakistan

Elections have always been a special tool for sorting different conflicyts across the world. While addressing the partition issues in United India, same method was used. The elections of 1946 have a unique significance in the Indian political history when a political party took part in the elections based on one point manifesto. In fact, Muslim League took part in these elections because of manifesto aimed at the creation of Pakistan. Before taking part in the 1946 elections, Quaid-i-Azam announced on 10 October 1945, “Our demand of Pakistan is quite clear. Those parts of India, where Muslims are in majority should be amalgamated to form a free and sovereign state. If the Muslims voted against Pakistan, I shall accept my defeat. The President of the Indian National Congress, Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad, sent a very detestable telegram to the Viceroy of India reacting against the announcement of these elections. Lord Wavell responded, “Azad [Maulana Abdul Kalam has sent me a very loathsome telegram in reaction of not consulting him in the announcement of election programme. Actually, he is trying to reprieve himself. He is trying to use these elections as an arm for the release of his other companions from jail. The daily Dawn published an appeal of Khan Abdul Qayyum

Khan on 29 August as, “At the end of the procession arranged in

his honour, Khan Abdul Qayyum Khan appealed politely to Khan

Brothers and Khudai Khidmatgars to leave the Congress and join

the Muslim League as they are excitingly awaited for welcome

warmly. The elections of 1946 were decisive in the future political scene as Muslim League and Congress both were claiming that they are representing the cause of India. In these elections there were only two major opponent parties, Muslim League and Congress. The election manifesto and the standpoint of Muslim League

were:

· The Muslims of India are one nation·

The only solution of the complicated constitutional problem of India is the creation of Pakistan.

In contrast, the Congress manifesto claimed to stand for all Indians and stressed on Indian unity. The Congress failed to win the hearts of the Muslims through Nationalist Ulema. Muslims of those parts of India, which were not included in the proposed Pakistan, played an important role in these elections. Beside the students, Muslim journalists and intellectuals also played a historical role in making popular the demand of Pakistan. They introduced in their editorials, columns, news reports and articles the demand, aims and objectives of Pakistan. Lahore, Delhi, Bombay and Hyderabad Daccan were the centres of the Muslim journalism. After passing of the Lahore Resolution on 23rd March 1940, Muslim League became very popular amongst the Muslims of India. They became convinced that the only solution of their problem was the creation of Pakistan. These circumstances put the “Ahrars” and “Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind” in a political crisis, weakening the role of Darul-ulum Deoband as well as Jamiat. After 1942, the differences over the Pakistan issue increased and Maulana Anwar Shah Kashmiri, Mufti Azizur-Rahman and Maulana Shabbir Ahmed Usmani quit the Deoband Darul-Ulum and founded a separate organisation, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam in 1945. They played active role in 1945-46 elections in mobilizing Muslim masses, especially in the NWFP and the Punjab. They organized themselves into several groups and proceeded to canvass for the League candidates in their respective constituencies and to encourage the Muslim masses to vote for the League. In areas where women leaders could not personally visit, they assigned the task to the Punjab Girls Students Federation and Women’s National Guards, the two auxiliary organizations attached to the League. They tried their best to enrol maximum number of women as voters. The result was that according to Mian Mumtaz Daulatana, “almost one third of the audience in the Punjab comprised women.”16 They also took the responsibility to facilitate women in providing transportation to the polling stations and taking them back to their residences. The Muslim League captured overwhelming majority in the Punjab legislature through the labour of these organizations. Two women candidates also won their seats. The elections to the Central Legislative Assembly were held in December 1945 and the provincial elections were held in January 1946. The most spectacular outcome of these elections was the resounding victory of the Muslim League, which won all the thirty Muslim seats in Central Legislative Assembly. Earlier, on 4 December 1945, the Secretary of State for India. Earlier, had come out with a statement to the effect that the full significance of the proposals contained in the Viceroy’s announcement of 19 September had not been properly appreciated, that the holding of discussions for the setting up of a constitution making body after the elections was not intended to delay matters; on the other hand His Majesty’s government regarded the setting up of a constitution making body by which Indians would decide their own future as a matter of great urgency. The statement also expressed government’s intention to send out to India a parliamentary delegation drawn from all parties, so that they could meet leading political Indian personalities in order to learn their views at first hand as also to convey the general desire of the people of England that India should speedily attain her rightful position as an independent partner in the Commonwealth of Nations.