pakistan independence movement through ages

8/7/2019 Pakistan Independence Movement Through Ages

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The first brick in the foundation of Pakistan was laid in 712 A.D. when Mohammad BinQasim anchored at Debal Port (now known as Karachi), freed the Muslim women andchildren from the prisons of Raja Dahir and constructed the first mosque in the townQuaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the Founder of Pakistan, acclaimed the event-

"The Pakistan Movement started when the first Muslim put his foot on the soilof Sindh, the Gateway of Islam in India."

Pakistan Movement is synonymous with the very spirit of Islam. The War ofIndependence in 1857 was an open manifestation of the Muslim spirit of revolt againstthe domination of the British Government and its stooges in India. Frustration and lack odirection, however, pervaded the ranks of Muslims after the unfortunate failure in theWar. At this critical juncture emerged Sir Syed Ahmed Khan who served as a beacon oflight for the Muslim Nation in distress and disarray.

The Independence movement is categorized into three eras.

1857-War of Independence

The uprising of 1857-58 became the great divide in nineteenth-century South Asianhistory. Understated by British historians as the Indian Mutiny or Sepoy Rebellion andreferred by Indian nationalists as the First War of Independence, the uprising

nevertheless heralded the formal end of the Mughal Empire and marked the end ofCompany rule in India as well. In general, the uprising was a reaction to Britishexpansionism and the outcome to the policies of modernization and annexation ofGovernor General Lord Dalhousie (1848-56), especially in Oudh (Avadh, now part of theIndian state of Utter Pradesh) in 1856. The immediate spark for mutiny by the sepoys(Indian soldiers employed by East India Company) was the introduction of the newEnfield rifle, which had cartridge allegedly greased with cow or pig fat, the tips of whichhad to be bitten off before loading these weapons. Both Muslim and Hindu soldiers wereoutraged at this offence to their religious scruples and refused to comply. British officersresponded by dismissing regiment after regiment from the Bengal Army for refusing toload their weapons. This sparked the rebellion against the Company which spread al

across India.

After overcoming the rebellion, the British Parliament passed the Government of IndiaAct of 1858, which transferred authority to the British Crown, represented in India byGovernor General, who thereafter also had the title of viceroy.


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1858-Aligarh Movement

Sir Syed Ahmad Khan (1817-98) launched the Aligarh Movement after the failed war offreedom of 1857. He formed Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College (now AligarhUniversity). Sir Syed considered access to British education as the best means of sociamobility for the sons of the Muslim gentry under colonial rule.

1867-Urdu Hindi Controversy

During the Muslim rule, Urdu was the official language, and all official records werewritten in this language. In 1867, some prominent Hindus emerged who made a claim forHindi as the most common language of the northwestern provinces of India. They starteda movement from Banaras in which they demanded the replacement of Urdu with Hindi,and the Persian script with the Devnagri script, as the court language in thenorthwestern provinces. The reason for opposing Urdu was that the language waswritten in Persian script, which was similar to the Arabic script, and Arabic was thelanguage of the Quran, the Holy Book of the Muslims. The movement grew quickly andwithin a few months it spread throughout the Hindu population of the northwesternprovinces of India. The headquarters of this movement were in Allahabad.

This situation provoked the Muslims to come out in order to protect the importance ofthe Urdu language. The opposition by the Hindus towards the Urdu language made itclear to the Muslims of the region that Hindus were not ready to tolerate the culture and

traditions of Muslims.
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1891-Fall of Hunza

Hunza, remote kingdom bordering china fell into hands of British, bringing an end to theexpansion of British Raj.

1893-Durand Line Demarcated

Through an agreement between Afghans and the British, the boundary was formedbetween Afghanistan and British Controlled tribal areas in the northwest.

1894-Nadva-tul-Ulema

This institution came into existence in 1894 as a result of the efforts of some religiousminded government officials, Ulema, and Sufis, who wished to bring the Ulema togetherand remove sectarian differences. The main work of the organization was the
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establishment of a Dar-ul-Uloom at Lucknow. For some time Shibli Nomani, Sir Syed'scoworker for many years, was associated with the institution. Under his influence itgained importance, but in 1914 he was forced to resign.

1898-Sir Syed Ahmed Khan passes away

In 1898, the founder of Aligarh movement and one of the greatest personalities of thesubcontinent passed away.

1905-Partition of Bengal

The partition scheme was announced on 1st September 1905. The new province calledEastern Bengal and Assam, consisted of Assam and Eastern and Northern Bengal with anarea of 106,650 sq miles and a population of 31 million, out of which 18 million wereMuslims and 12 million were Hindus. This partition was later cancelled as a result ofprotest of Mahasabahi Hindus and Congress.
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1906-Muslim Delegation meets viceroy at Simla

It was in Oct 1906 that a delegation of about 70 Muslims led by Sir Agha khan wasreceived in the Ball Room of Viceroys House at Simla by Lord Minto. They asked forseparate representation of Muslims at all levels of Government.

Author of Simla Pact (Syed Ali Bilgrami)

1906-All India Muslim League was formed

At the dawn of the twentieth century, a number of factors convinced the Muslims of theneed to have an effective political organization. All-India Muslim League was founded byNawab Salimullah Khan and associates at Dhaka, mainly with the objective ofsafeguarding the political rights and interests of the Muslims.

1916-Luckhnow Pact

The Congress-Muslim League rapprochement was achieved at the Lucknow sessionsof the two parties in 1916 and a joint scheme of reforms was adopted. In the Lucknow
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The Nehru Report recommended that a Declaration of Rights should be inserted in theconstitution assuring the fullest liberty of conscience and religion.

The recommendations of the Nehru Report went against the interests of the Muslimcommunity. It was an attempt to serve Hindu predominance over Muslims. The NehruCommittee's greatest blow was the rejection of separate electorates. If the report hadtaken into account the Delhi Proposals, the Muslims might have accepted it. But theNehru Committee did not consider the Delhi Proposals at all while formulating their

report.

The Muslims were asking for one-third representation in the center while NehruCommittee gave them only one-fourth representation. It is true that two demands ofMuslims were considered in the Nehru Report but both of them incomplete. It was saidthat Sindh should be separated from Bombay but the condition of self-economy was alsoput forward. It demanded constitutional reforms in N. W. F. P. but Balochistan wasoverlooked in the report

1929-Fourteen Points by Quaid-i-Azam

A positive aspect of Nehru Report was that it resulted in the unity of divided Muslimgroups. In a meeting of the council of All India Muslim League on March 28, 1929,members of both the Shafi League and Jinnah League participated. Quaid-i-Azam termedthe Nehru Report as a Hindu document, but considered simply rejecting the report asinsufficient. He decided to give an alternative Muslim agenda. It was in this meeting thatQuaid-i-Azam presented his famous Fourteen Points.

The council of the All India Muslim League accepted fourteen points of Quaid.A resolution was passed according to which no scheme for the future constitution of theGovernment of India would be acceptable to the Muslims, unless and until itincluded the demands of the Quaid presented in the fourteen points.

1930-Allahabad Muslim League Annual Conference

Allama Muhammad Iqbal gave the most lucid explanation of the inner feelings of Muslimcommunity in his presidential address to the All India Muslim League at Allahabad in1930. Allama Muhammad Iqbal was a poet, philosopher and thinker who had gainedcountrywide fame and recognition by 1930. In his address, Allama Iqbal explained thatIslam was the major formative factor in the life and history of Indian Muslims. It furnishedthose basic emotions and loyalties, which gradually unify scattered individuals andgroups and finally transform them into well-defined people, possessing a moraconsciousness of their own.

1930-1933, Round Table Conferences


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The first session of the conference opened in London on November 12, 1930.All parties were present except the Congress, whose leaders were in jail due to the CiviDisobedience Movement. Congress leaders stated that they would have nothing to dowith further constitutional discussion unless the Nehru Report was enforced in itsentirety as the constitution of India.

The Muslim-Hindu differences overcastted the conference as the Hindus were pushing foa powerful central government while the Muslims stood for a loose federation o

completely autonomous provinces. The Muslims demanded maintenance of weightageand separate electorates, the Hindus their abolition. The Muslims claimed statutorymajority in Punjab and Bengal, while Hindus resisted their imposition. In Punjab, thesituation was complicated by inflated Sikh claims.

The conference broke up on January 19, 1931, and what emerged from it was ageneral agreement to add safeguards for minorities into the constitution and a vaguedesire to devise a federal system for the country.

Gandhi-Irwin Pact

After the conclusion of the First Round Table Conference, the British government realizedthat the cooperation of the Indian National Congress was necessary for furtheradvancement in the making of the Indian constitution. Thus, Lord Irwin, the then Viceroyextended an invitation to Gandhi for talks. Gandhi agreed to end the Civil DisobedienceMovement without laying down any preconditions.

The agreement between Gandhi and Irwin was signed on March 5, 1931. Following arethe salient points of this agreement:

1. The Congress would discontinue the Civil Disobedience Movement.

2. The Congress would participate in the Round Table Conference.

3. The Government would withdraw all ordinances issued to curb the Congress.

4. The Government would withdraw all prosecutions relating to offenses notinvolving violence.

5. The Government would release all persons undergoing sentences of imprisonmentfor their activities in the civil disobedience movement.

Second Round Table Conference

The second session of the conference opened in London on September 7, 1931. Themain task of the conference was done through the two committees on federal structureand minorities. Gandhi was a member of both but he adopted a very unreasonableattitude. He claimed that he represented all India and dismissed all other Indiandelegates as non-representative because they did not belong to the Congress.


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The communal problem represented the most difficult issue for the delegates. Gandhagain tabled the Congress scheme for a settlement, a mere reproduction of the NehruReport, but all the minorities rejected it. On the concluding day, the British PrimeMinister, Ramsay MacDonald appealed to the Indian leaders to reach a communasettlement. Failing to do so, he said, would force the British government to take aunilateral decision.

Quaid-i-Azam did not participate in the session of the Second Round Table Conference as

he had decided to keep himself aloof from the Indian politics and to practice as aprofessional lawyer in England. On his return to India, Gandhi once again started CiviDisobedience Movement and was duly arrested.

Third Round Table Conference

The third session began on November 17, 1932. It was short and unimportant. TheCongress was once again absent, so was the Labour opposition in the British ParliamentReports of the various committees were scrutinized.

The recommendations of the Round Table Conferences were embodied in a White Paper

It was published in March 1933, and debated in parliament directly afterwards, analyzedby the Joint Select Committee and after the final reading and Royal assent, the billreached the Statute Book on July 24, 1935. As a result of this bill, the elections were heldfor provincial assemblies and Congress won majority in almost all provinces of India.

1938-Death of Allama Iqbal

Allama Muhammad Iqbal Died in 1938 and was buried in front of Badshahi MosqueLahore.

1939-Day of Deliverance

Congress formed governments in almost all provinces of British India as a result of 1937elections and pursued an anti-Muslim agenda. In 1939 Congress resigned from algovernments on commencement of Second World War and Muslim League Celebratedthe Day of Deliverance (Yum-i-Nijat) on 22nd December 1939, on deliverance fromCongress rule

1940-Pakistan Resolution

The twenty-seventh Session of the All-India Muslim League was held in Lahore under thepresident ship of Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah. The historic Lahore Resolution(also known as Pakistan Resolution) was presented by A.K. Fazl ul Haq (Premier oBengal). The resolution demanded that the Muslim-majority areas as in North-Western


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discussion, a deadlock occurred. The All-India Muslim League claimed that no othepolitical party had the right to nominate Muslim members for the Executive Council.

The Congress was opposed to this claim. The Unionist Party in the Punjab was alsopressing for representation on the Executive Council. Lord Wavell requested the twoparties to send him a list giving the names of the members of their parties who couldbe included in the proposed Executive Council. The Congress immediately submitted alist of its members which also included the names of two Muslims. The All-India Muslim

League did not submit the list and insisted that the Muslim members of the proposedExecutive Council should be chosen from the All-India Muslim League. On 14 July, 1945,Viceroy Lord Wavell announced that the Simla Conference had failed and that the effortsto bring Hindus and Muslims together have proved fruitless.

To resolve the issue of representation, the elections were called. All India Muslim Leagueswept the elections on Muslim seats, winning all 30 seats for Federal LegislativeAssembly. It also swept the Muslim seats in provincial assembly.

1946-Cabinet Mission

The cabinet Mission Plan, proposed by Cripps, represented Britains last, desperateattempt to transfer the power it retained over India to a single union. The mission putforward a three-tier federal form of government in which the central government wouldbe limited to power over defence, foreign relations, currency and communicationsignificant other powers would be delegated to the provinces. The plan also prescribedthe zones that would be created: north-west Bengal and Assam would be joined to forma zone with a slight Muslim majority; in north-west, Punjab, Sindh, N.W.F.P., andBloachistan would be joined to form a clear Muslim majority zone; and the remainder ofthe country would be third zone, with a clear Hindu majority. The approximation of theboundaries of a new Pakistan was clear from the delineation of the zones. The missionalso suggested the right of veto on legislation by communities that saw their interestsadversely affected. Finally, the mission proposed that an interim government beestablished immediately and that new elections be held.

June 3, 1947- Partition Plan

This was a plan for the partition of India prepared by Lord Louis Mountbatten, the lastViceroy of India, in consultation with the British Government. It was based on afundamental principle that transfer of power should take place according to the wishes ofthe people.

The members of the provincial legislatures of Bengal and the Punjab were to decide onthe issue of partition and as soon as the decision involving partition had been taken,separate Boundary Commissions would be set up which would demarcate the boundaries


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of the two parts of the provinces. In North-West Frontier Province referendum was to beheld to ascertain the wishes of the people and in Sindh the Indian members of theLegislative Assembly were to take their own decision. In his broadcast statement on theoccasion Quaid -i-Azam said that the Plan did not meet, in some respects, our point ofview. He, however, expressed his satisfaction on some of the matters dealt within thePlan. He said that it is for us now to consider whether the Plan should be accepted by usas a compromise or a settlement.

July 18, 1947-Indian Independence Act

A bill providing independence to India was introduced in the House of Commons on 4July, 1947, and was passed on 15 July, 1947. On 16 July, 1947, it was passed by theHouse of Lords and received the Royal assent on 18 July, 1947. It provided that "from thefifteenth day of August, nineteen hundred and forty-seven, two independent Dominionsshall be set up in India, to be known respectively as India and Pakistan". The Actprovided that for each new Dominion there would be a Governor-General. The Act alsoprovided that as long as the Constituent Assembly of each Dominion does not prepare aconstitution of its own, the new Dominions will be governed by the Government of India

Act, 1935.

August 11, 1947-Quaid addresses First Constituent Assembly of Pakistan

Quaid-I-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah arrived in Karachi on 7 August, 1947, and addressedthe Constituent Assembly of Pakistan on 11 August, 1947, as its first President. He saidthat the Assembly had two main functions to perform. The first was to frame the futureConstitution of Pakistan and the second was to act as a Federal Legislature of Pakistan.

August 12, 1947-Radcliffe Award

The Boundary Commission appointed under the Indian Independence Act 1947,submitted its report commonly known as the Radcliffe Award. The Punjab BoundaryCommission was constituted on 30 June, 1947, as under:

1. Lord Cyril Radcliffe (Chairman)2. Mr. Justice Din Mohammad3. Mr. Justice Mohammad Munir4. Mr. Justice Mehr Chand Mahajan; and5. Mr. Justice Teja Singh.

It worked from 21 July, 1947 to 30 July, 1947, and produced the Award in which theMuslim majority areas of Gurdaspur, Batala, Ferozepur, and Jullundhar were given toIndia. Quaid-i-Azam said that it was an unjust, incomprehensible and even perverseAward. He further said that as we had agreed to abide by it, it was a binding on us.


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August 14, 1947-Transfer of Power

The transfer of power ceremony took place in Karachi. Lord Mountbatten andQuaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah addressed the ceremony.

August 15, 1947-First Governor General Sworn In

On 15 August Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah was sworn in as the first Governor-General of Pakistan. Mr. Liaquat Ali Khan was appointed as the first Prime Minister ofPakistan.

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