t h i e
a
.very
important matter
I
dearn~stly
request
you
t o
kindly.
sttend
the committee meetin&
at
Bombay
t o
help
9s
in
our delibra-
tion
and
t o
enable
us
t o
deoide
our
fffut\ire
line
of
aotion.
I
remain
Yours
sincere1
y
24.
1,etter for a meetinn of Khilafat Cnmmittee
22.4.5
Parting
of
the Ways
Grorrth
of
Comrnunalbm
u#
to
the
.Second
World
War
The arrival of the Simon Commission and its near unanimous boycott by all sections of
political opinion, once again provided an opportunity for unity. A section of the Muslim
League, under the leadership of Jinnah, took the initiative and was willing to give up
-
-
separate-electorates in favour of joint-electorates, if certain conditions were met. These
were
:
1/3rd representation for the Mus1i.m~
in the central legislature.
separation of Sind from Bombay as a separate province,
reform in the North-West Frontier provinces, and
Muslims' representation in the legislative council in proportion to their population in
Punjab and Bengal.
;
These demands were accepted by the Congress, which opened up prospects for unity. Bu
its rejection in uncompromising terms by the Hindu Mahasabha at the All Parties
Conference (1928) complicated matters. The incompatibility between the League and
Mahasabha frustrated all attempts at unity. The Nehru Report (framed by Motilal Nehru
and Tej Bahadur Sapru), was rejected by the Muslim League as
it
did not incorporate all
their demands.
The impact of the Nehru report was significant
:
It led to the estrzngement of Jinnah. who called
it
a 'Parting of the Ways' with the
Congress. went back to the se~arate-electorates.
and formulated his famous fourteen
poink (including separate-ele'ctorabes, reservation of seats in the centre and provinces,
reservation of jobs for Muslims, creailon of new Muslim majority provinces, etc.)
which became the text of the communal demands.
It increased the distance between various political groups and pushed Jinnah more toward
communalism.
It also conmbuted to the aloofness and even hostility of most leaders among the Muslims
25.
Mohd.
Ali Jinnah
toward the Civil Disobedience Movement.
.
22.4.6
Towards a Mass Base
The events of 1928-29 demonstrated a drifting apart of the communal forces. Soon this
drifting apart was to reach a point of no return. This was the starting point of
communalism transforming into an irresistible mass force. By 1940, all the cbmmunal
demands were to pale into insignificance in front of the new demand-the
demand for
Pakistan, as a separate homeland for Muslims. This demand was finally achieved in 1947.
Let ps look at these events in more details.
The Government of India Act, 1935, provided for provincial autonomy and a wider
franchise than earlier. Elections were held in early 1937 under separate-electorates. The
results were quite revealing. In the general constituencies, Congress swept the polls, was in
,
a position to form ministries in six provinces and was the largest single party in two others.
In the Muslim constituencies however, the Congress performance was disappointing. Out
of 482 Muslim consti~encies, Congress contested 58 and won 26. Quite interestingly,
