The Elections of
1945-46
After the failure of the Simla Conference,
Lord Wavell announced that the Central and Provincial Legislature elections
would be held in the winter of 1945, after which a constitution-making body
would be set up. He also announced that after
the elections, the Viceroy would set an Executive Council that would have the
support of the main Indian political parties. Both the Muslim League and the
Congress opposed the proposal. The summary of the proposal are as follow:
· There will be a self-government with the cooperation
of the Indian leaders.
· New elections will held in the winter of 1945-46.
· New provincial govts would be set up in the
provinces after the elections.
· A constituent assembly would be established and
that CA will settle the bases on which the constitution was to be framed.
· Executive Council would be set up and it would
provide representation to all major political parties.
Quaid-i-Azam declared that Muslims were not ready to accept any settlement less than a separate homeland for them and the All India Congress Committee characterized the proposal as vague, inadequate and unsatisfactory because it had not addressed the issue of independence. Despite this, the two parties launched huge election campaigns. They knew that the elections would be crucial for the future of India, as the results were to play an important role in determining their standing. The League wanted to sweep the Muslim constituencies so as to prove that they were the sole representatives of the Muslims of Sub-continent, while Congress wanted to prove that, irrespective of religion, they represent all the Indians.
Both the Muslim League and the Congress promulgated opposite slogans during their campaigns. The Muslim League presented a one-point manifesto "if you want Pakistan, vote for the Muslim League". Quaid-i-Azam himself toured the length and breadth of India and tried to unite the Muslim community under the banner of the Muslim League.
The Congress on the other hand stood for United India. To counter the Muslim League, the Congress press abused the Quaid and termed his demand for Pakistan as the "vivisection of Mother India", "reactionary primitivism" and "religious barbarism". Congress tried to brand Muslim League as an ultra-conservative clique of knights, Khan Bahadurs, toadies and government pensioners. The Congress also tried to get the support of all the provincial and central Muslim parties who had some differences with the League, and backed them in the elections.
Elections for the Central Legislature were held in December 1945. Though the franchise was limited, the turnover was extraordinary.
The Congress was able to sweep the polls for the non-Muslim seats. They managed to win more then 80 percent of the general seats and about 91.3 percent of the total general votes. The Leagues performance, however, was even more impressive: it managed to win all the 30 seats reserved for the Muslims. The results of the provincial election held in early 1946 were not different. Congress won most of the non-Muslim seats while Muslim League captured approximately 95 percent of the Muslim seats.
In a bulletin issued on January 6, 1946, the Central Election Board of the Congress claimed that the election results had vindicated the party as the biggest, strongest and the most representative organization in the country. On the other hand, the League celebrated January 11, 1946, as the Day of Victory and declared that the election results were enough to prove that Muslim League, under the leadership of Quaid-i-Azam, was the sole representative of the Muslims of the region.
Strategies Adopted by AIML & Congress
Even till the early and mid-1940s, the leadership of the
All India Muslim League (AIML) wasn’t quite sure exactly what its status was
among the sizeable Muslim minority of India.
In 1944, AIML’s leading man and strategist, Mohammed Ali
Jinnah, while talking to reporters in Bombay (present-day Mumbai), was
lamenting that even though his opponents in the Indian National Congress (INC)
were doing much to undermine AIML’s influence among the region’s Muslims, more
damage in this respect was being done by certain Muslim politicians and
outfits.
Confessional religious parties like the
Jamiat-i-Ulema-i-Hind (JUH), and radical right-wing outfits such as the
Majlis-i-Ahrar and the Khaksar Movement were staunchly against the concept of
‘Muslim Nationalism’ being propagated by Jinnah and his party.
AIML’s Muslim Nationalism was derived from the thoughts of
various Muslim intellectuals. Most of them had been inspired by the writings of
19th Century Muslim scholars such as Sir Syed Ahmed Khan and Syed Ameer Ali.
Khan and Ali had pleaded to build a rational and modern
Muslim middle-class in South Asia that would lead an intellectual and political
movement to construct a distinct political and cultural identity for the Muslim
minority of India.
But why were the AIML’s ideas in this regard being opposed
by certain powerful Muslim groups?
JUH and radical groups like the Ahrar and the Khaksar
believed that every Indian’s first goal should be independence from the
British. They believed that Muslims of India were a significant minority
(approximately 30per cent at the time) and (thus) would be in a position (after
independence) to carve out a more powerful political, economic and cultural
role for themselves in India.
They also claimed that AIML’s Muslim Nationalism was a
construct based on the European idea of a nation-state and that Islam cannot be
confined within the boundaries of nationalism.
AIML had performed poorly in most elections held in
India’s Muslim-majority provinces. Bengal and Punjab contained the largest
Muslim populations in undivided India. Though by the 1940s AIML had managed to
make important inroads in Bengal, the party had been routed in Punjab in the
elections held there in the 1930s.
In 1945 the British colonial government in India called
for elections for the national and legislative assemblies. The election in the
Punjab was to be held in February 1946.
The Congress’ aim was to win a majority in most provinces
so it could press its claim to form a government of united (post-colonial)
India. AIML’s goal was to win the polls in Muslim majority provinces so it
could not only claim to be the largest Muslim party, but also assert its demand
of carving out a separate Muslim nation-state from areas where the Muslims were
in a majority.
The situation in the Punjab was tricky. Even though 57pc
of Punjab’s population was Muslim, the AIML had badly lost the previous
elections in the province.
Another defeat in the Punjab was guaranteed to deal a
decisive blow to Jinnah and his party’s claims and demands.
The Congress understood this well and went all out to
defeat the AIML in the Punjab.
The province was under the electoral dominance of the
Unionists — a large outfit headed by Muslims belonging to the landed gentry and
influential pirs (Muslim spiritual leaders). The party also had some Hindu and
Sikh leaders.
In the last major election in the province (1937), the
Unionists had won 95 seats (out of a total of 175). Congress had bagged 18
whereas the AIML had managed to win just one.
To guarantee another AIML thrashing in the Punjab, the
Congress Party’s ace strategist, Sardar Patel, and the party’s leading Muslim
leader, Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad, immediately went about constructing an
airtight anti-AIML scenario.
The Congress, apart from contesting the election from its
own platform (of Indian Nationalism), was also backing the Unionists in areas
where the latter was expecting a tough fight from the AIML.
Apart from this, Patel dispatched a check of Rs50,000 (a
hefty sum in those days) to Azad whose job it was to fund and co-ordinate
anti-AIML Muslim groups such as the JUH, the Majlis-i-Ahrar and the Khaksar.
The Ahrar and the Khaksar enjoyed support among Punjab’s
Muslim petty-bourgeoisies. These two parties (along with JUH), provided the
Congress with fiery clerics who went about denouncing the AIML as being a party
of ‘British agents,’ and ‘fake Muslims’.
The powerful Unionist Party on the other hand claimed that
it alone was the true representative of Punjab’s Muslim majority.
Jinnah, who had till then been repulsed by populist
political tactics, got together with Punjab’s AIML President, Khan of Mamdot,
to chalk out a strategy to counter the ruckus being raised by the Congress with
the help of the Unionists, the Ahrar, the Khaskar, the JUH and the Sikh
nationalist outfit, the Akali dal.
Jinnah and Mamdot first brought in hundreds of members of
AIML’s student-wing, the All India Muslim Students Federation (AIMSF), from
various parts of India. Also brought in were members of the AIMSF’s women’s
wing.
College and university students (both male and female)
belonging to the AIMSF were dispatched across the Punjab in groups and asked to
hold small rallies in the cities, villages and towns of the province.
They were to explain AIML’s manifesto as a fight against
economic exploitation and a struggle to create a separate Muslim nation-state
where there will be economic benefits for all and religious harmony.
To counter the fiery denouncements being aired by members
of the Ahrar, the Khaksar and the JUH, the AIML managed to win the support of a
group of JUH leaders who had disagreed with their party’s policy of siding with
the Congress and the Unionists.
Led by Islamic scholar, Alama Shabir Ahmad Usmani, this
batch of JUH renegades successfully began to counter the theological arguments
(against a separate Muslim nation-state) being leveled by the anti-AIML clerics
and ulema.
The anti-AIML clerics had accused the AIML of ‘misguiding
the Muslims of India’ and working to keep the Muslims under the influence of
the forces of exploitation. The pro-AIML clerics counter-attacked by accusing
the Ahrar and other such outfits of being Congress agents who were working to
keep the Muslims ‘under the thumb of India’s Hindu majority.’
AIML was also armed with a rather radical manifesto.
Largely authored by one of the leading members of the AIML’s leftist lobby —
Danial Latifi (a committed Socialist) — the manifesto promised sweeping land
reforms, religious harmony and an end to economic exploitation.
Another (last minute) attainment that Jinnah and his party
managed to achieve was the support of the influential pirs of the province.
Punjab’s pirs had for long been associated with the Unionist Party, but just as
the elections drew near, many of them were convinced by the AIML leadership to
switch sides and become part of the AIML.
The voter turnout was high on the day of the polls. The
Unionists were expected to win the bulk of the seats, followed by the Congress.
But the results shocked the Congress and the Unionists.
The AIML managed to win 73 seats (out of 175). The Unionists could only bag 20.
The Congress won 51 and the Sikh Akali dal 22.
The Ahrar and the Khaksars failed to win even a single
seat. The AIML bagged the largest share of the total Muslim vote (65pc). Just
19pc of the Muslim votes went to Ahrar and the Khaksars.
Though the Congress, the Unionists and the Akali dal
managed to form a wobbly and short-lived coalition government in the Punjab,
AIML finally managed to augment itself as India’s largest Muslim party.
It also did well in two other Muslim majority provinces.
It won 113 (out of 230) seats in the Bengal and 27 (out of 60) in Sindh.
The
results greatly accelerated the party’s demand for a separate Muslim
nation-state, and after winning the provincial election in another
Muslim-majority region, the NWFP (in early/mid-1947), the party finally managed
to carve out Pakistan from the rest of India (August 1947).
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