QUAID-E-AZAM MUHAMMAD ALI JINNAH’S 14 POINTS

QUAID-E-AZAM MUHAMMAD ALI

JINNAH’S 14 POINTS

In the All parties meeting at Calcutta in December 1928, Jinnah moved certain amendments to the Nehru Report. But these amendments were not accepted by Congress. So Jinnah at all refused to participate further in the conference. A few days later, there was a Muslim All Parties conference was held in Delhi, in which the nationalist Muslims attended and formulated a series of demands on behalf of the Muslims of the Country. In this All Muslim Parties conference, it was made clear that no constitution, by whomsoever proposed or devised, would be acceptable to the Muslims of the country, unless it conformed with those demands. At the same time Jinnah after consulting the Muslim leaders formulated the “Fourteen Points” for safeguarding the rights and interests of the Muslims in any future constitution of the country.

A positive aspect of Nehru Report was that it resulted in the unity of divided Muslim groups. 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 termed the Nehru Report as a Hindu document, but considered simply rejecting the report as insufficient. He decided to give an alternative Muslim agenda. It was in this meeting that Quaid-i-Azam presented his famous Fourteen Points.

THE HISTORICAL FOURTEEN POINTS ARE AS BELOW:

1.Federal System
The form of the future constitution should be federal with the residuary powers rested in the provinces.
2.Provincial Autonomy
A uniform measure of autonomy shall be granted to all provinces.
3.Representation of Minorities
All legislative in the country and other elected bodies shall be constituted on the definite principles of adequate and effective representation of minorities in every province without reducing the majority in any province to a minority or even equality.
4.Number of Muslim Representative
In the central legislative ,Muslims representative shall be not less than one -third.
5.Separate Electorates
Representative of communal groups shall continue to be by means of separate electorates as at present provided it shall be open to any community, at any time to abandon its separate electorate in favour of joint electorate.
6.Muslim Majority Provinces
Any territorial re-distribution that might at any time be necessary shall not in any way,effect the Muslim majority in Punjab,Bengal and N.W.F.P.
7.Religious Liberty
Full religious Liberty,liberty of belief,worship and observance,association and education shall be guaranted to all the communication.
8. Three-Fourth Representation
No bill or resolution shall be passed in any legislative or any other elected body if three-fourths of the members of any community in that particular body oppose such a bill.
9. Separation of Sind
Sind should be separated from Bombay Presidency.
10. Introduction of Reforms in N.W.F.P and Baluchistan
Reforms should be introduced in the North-West Frontier Province and Baluchistan on the same footing as in other provinces.
11. Government Services
Muslims should be given adequate share along with other Indians in the services of State.
12. Protection of Muslim's culture and Language
The constitution should embody adequate safeguard for the protection of Muslim culture,language,religion and civilization.
13. One-Third Muslim Ministers
No cabinet,either central or provincial be formed.Without being a proportion of at least one-third Muslim Ministers.
14. Constitution
No change shall be made in the constitution of state except with the concurrence of State constituting the Indian Federation.

The reasonable and moderate demands contained in the fourteen points,were rejected by the Hindus leaders which considerably widened the gulf between the two communities.

CRITICAL APPRAISAL

A comparison of the Nehru Report with the Quaid-e-Azam's Fourteen Points shows that the political gap between the Muslims and the Hindus had really widened.Fourteen points of Quaid-e-Azam became principles for Muslims of India. Those points made it clear to Hindus and British Government that Muslims wanted their own identity without influence by Hindus.Fourteen Points not only revived Muslim League but also directed them on a new way.These points prepared the Muslims of India for a bold step to struggle for freedom.

The importance of these points can be judged by the fact that these points were presented in the Round Table Conference of 1930.

As a result,these points became the demands of the Muslims and greatly influenced the Muslims thinking for the next two decades till the establishment of Pakistan in 1947.

difference between Jinnah's 14 point and Nehru's report

THE NEHRU REPORT:
In 1927 the Simon Commission was appointed by the British to review the constitutional arrangements for India and suggest changes. However no Indian was on this Commission which led to the "Simon Go Back" protests in India. The British Government gave the rationale that there was an enormous amount of disunity and disharmony amongst the various groups of India. Hence, Indians had not been included. The Secretary of State, Lord Birkenhead threw a challenge to the Indian leaders to draw up a constitution on which there would be an all partyconsensus.

In May 1928, an all Party Conference was held which appointed a committee to draft a scheme of the constitution. The members of the committee were M.S. Aney, Shuab Qureshi, Sardar Mangal Singh, G.R. Pradhan, Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru, Sir Ali Iman and Subhashchandra Bose. The chairman of this committee was Motilal Nehru. Hence the name the Nehru Report.

JINNAH'S 14 POINTS:

In December 1927 a large number of Muslims leaders had met in Delhi and evolved a set of 4 basic demands that came to be known as the Delhi proposals.

In 1928, an All Parties Conference was convened in Calcutta to discuss and approve the Nehru Report. Jinnah suggested four amendments to the Report which are known as the Calcutta Amendments. One of the major amendments was that residuary powers should rest with the provinces. According to Nehru Report, residuary powers should vest with the Federal Government. However these proposals were outvoted in the conference. Jinnah may have considered this as an insult to the Muslim community.

Over a period of time a large number of demands had been made by various Muslim groups for reservations in the local self-governing bodies and provincial councils.

Jinnah combined all the above three and in a meeting of the Muslim League put forth his 14 points.


DIFFERENCES BETWEEN NEHRU REPORT AND JINNAH'S 14 POINTS

There were some points of agreement in both (Separation of Sind from Bombay) and many points of disagreement. The major disagreements were:

1. The Nehru report (NR) rejected the idea of separate electorates for minorities. However Jinnah's 14 points (JFP) demanded separate electorates for various communities.

2. The NR recommended 1/4th representation for Muslims at the Centre. The JFP demanded 1/3rd representation at the Centre.

3. According to the NR there would be not reserved seats for communities in Bengal and Punjab. However, reserved seats would be provided to Muslims communities in provinces where Muslim population was at least 10%. The JFP however demanded that adequate representation should be given to Muslims in all provinces; even if the population was less than 10%. The Delhi proposals had recommended that non-Muslim majority areas 1/3rd of the seats in the provincial assemblies should be reserved for Muslims and in Muslim majority areas, the number of seats reserved should be in proportion to the population. 

4. Besides these. JFP had many demands; for example a certain percentage of the Ministers in all cabinets also to be Muslims which was not recommended by the NR; which led to a lot of conflicts between the two reports.

One more point that should be noted was there were differences within both the Congress and the Muslim League. A section of the Congress felt that acceptance of Dominion Status be the NR after the demand for complete Independence had been made in 1927 was a step down. Prominent among these leaders were Bose and Jawaharlal Nehru.

Within the Muslim league two factions emerged; communal and nationalist. The Nationalist Muslims formed the Nationalist Muslim Party and participated in the Civil Disobedience Movement. The Muslim League did not.

CONCLUSION: A STEP TOWARDS PAKISTAN

The main difference between the Nehru report and Jinnah points was that Nehru report focused on addressing the issues related to Hindus whereas Jinnah points focused on addressing the issues related to Muslims. Jinnah points demanded separate rights for Muslims which were left ignored in Nehru report. Jinnah demanded the separate electorate rights for Muslims. He demanded that Muslim majority areas should be given a separate status. Jinnah suggested that Sindh should be separated from the Bombay presidency. Hence Jinnah points were for the protection of rights of Muslims and Nehru report failed to address the rights of Muslims.