Editing Pakistan Movement (section)

== History of the movement ==

===Background===
{{main|British Raj|}}
During the early 19th century, [[Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay|Lord Macaulay]]'s radical and influential [[British education|educational reforms]] led to numerous changes to the introduction and teaching of Western languages (e.g. English and [[Latin language|Latin]]), [[Western history|history]], and [[Western philosophy|philosophy]].<ref name="columbia.edu">For text see [http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00generallinks/macaulay/txt_minute_education_1835.html "Minute by the Hon'ble T. B. Macaulay, dated the 2nd February 1835"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211024015520/http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00generallinks/macaulay/txt_minute_education_1835.html |date=24 October 2021 }}</ref><ref name="Stephen Evans 2002 pp. 260">{{cite journal |author=Stephen Evans |year=2002 |title=Macaulay's minute revisited: Colonial language policy in nineteenth-century India |journal=Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development |volume=23 |issue=4 |pages=260–281 |doi=10.1080/01434630208666469|s2cid=144856725 }}</ref> Religious studies and the [[Arabic language|Arabic]], [[Turkish language|Turkish]], and [[Persian language|Persian]] languages were completely barred from the state universities. In a short span of time, the English language had become not only the medium of instruction but also the official language in 1835 in place of Persian, disadvantaging those who had built their careers around the latter language.<ref name="Stephen Evans 2002 pp. 260" />
Traditional [[Hindu studies|Hindu]] and [[Islamic studies]] were no longer supported by the [[British monarchy|British Crown]], and nearly all of the ''[[madrasah]]''s lost their ''[[waqf]]'' ({{lit|[[financial endowment]]}}).<ref name="columbia.edu"/><ref name="Stephen Evans 2002 pp. 260"/>

<gallery>
File:Sir David Baird Discovering Body of Tipu Sultan.jpg|Sir David Baird discovering the body of Tipu Sultan
File:Edward Armitage (1817-96) - The Battle of Meeanee, 17 February 1843 - RCIN 407185 - Royal Collection.jpg|The Battle of Miani during the [[British conquest of Sindh|conquest of Sindh]]
</gallery>

===Renaissance vision===
{{Main|Aligarh Movement|Urdu movement|Aligarh Muslim University|Two-nation theory|University of the Punjab}}
[[File:Sir Syed1.jpg|thumb|250px|right|Sir [[Syed Ahmad Khan]] became an inspiration for the Pakistan Movement.]]

Very few Muslim families had their children sent to English universities. On the other hand, the effects of the [[Bengali Renaissance]] made the [[Hindu]] population more educated and enabled them to gain lucrative positions at the [[Indian Civil Service (British India)|Indian Civil Service]]; many ascended to the influential posts in the British government.{{Citation needed|date=August 2015}} In 1930, [[Muhammad Iqbal]] delivered his famous speech in the [[Allahabad]] annual session which is commonly regarded as sowing the seeds for the creation of a separate state, later known as Pakistan.<ref name="Dec 1930">{{cite book |last=Sirriyeh |first=Elizabeth |date=21 October 1998 |title=Sufis and Anti-Sufis: The Defense, Rethinking and Rejection of Sufism in the modern world |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7Bp0K-HpBPsC&q=I+would+like+to+see+the+Punjab,+North-West+Frontier+Province,+Sind+and+Baluchistan+amalgamated+into+a+single+state&pg=PA136 |location=University of Leeds, United Kingdom |publisher=Routledge |page=136 |isbn=9780700710607 |access-date=10 October 2021 |archive-date=7 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220407093226/https://books.google.com/books?id=7Bp0K-HpBPsC&q=I+would+like+to+see+the+Punjab,+North-West+Frontier+Province,+Sind+and+Baluchistan+amalgamated+into+a+single+state&pg=PA136 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Class conflict was coloured in a religious shade, as the Muslims were generally agriculturists and soldiers, while Hindus were increasingly seen as successful financiers and businessmen. Therefore, according to the historian Spear, "an industrialised India meant a Hindu India" to the Muslims. Syed Ahmed Khan converted the existing cultural and religious entity among Indian Muslims into a separatist political force, throwing a Western cloak of nationalism over the Islamic concept of culture. The distinct sense of value, culture and tradition among Indian Muslims originated from the nature of Islamization of the Indian populace during the [[Muslim conquests in the Indian subcontinent]].<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Vu2lu-ZI-vQC&dq=To+the+Muslims+an+industrialised+India+meant+a+Hindu+India,+because+the+Hindu+was+a+financier+and+a+business-man,+the+Muslim+in+general+an+agriculturist+and+soldier&pg=PA26 |title= Historiography of India's Partition: An Analysis of Imperialist Writings |page= 26 |author= Viśva Mohana Pāṇḍeya |date= 2003 |publisher= Atlantic Publishers & Distributors |isbn= 9788126903146 }}</ref>

=== Rise of organised movement ===

The success of the All India Muhammadan Educational Conference as a part of the Aligarh Movement, the All-India Muslim League, was established with the support provided by Syed Ahmad Khan in 1906.<ref name="Oxford History of the British Empire: The Nineteenth Century, (2001a)">Moore, Robin J. "Imperial India, 1858–1914", in Porter, ed. Oxford History of the British Empire: The Nineteenth Century, (2001a), pp. 422–446</ref> It was founded in [[Dhaka]] in a response to the reintegration of [[Bengal]] after a mass Hindu protest took place in the subcontinent. Earlier in 1905, viceroy [[Lord Curzon]] [[Partition of Bengal (1905)|partitioned]] Bengal, which was favoured by the Muslims, since it gave them a Muslim majority in the eastern half.<ref>{{cite journal |author=John R. McLane |date=July 1965 |title=The Decision to Partition Bengal in 1905 |journal=Indian Economic and Social History Review |volume=2 |issue=3 |pages=221–237|doi=10.1177/001946466400200302 |s2cid=145706327 }}</ref>

In 1909 [[The Earl of Minto|Lord Minto]] promulgated the [[Indian Councils Act 1909|Council Act]] and met with a Muslim delegation led by [[Aga Khan III]],<ref>Pakistan was inevitable p. 51-52, Author Syed Hassan Riaz, published by University Karachi. {{ISBN|969-404-003-5}}</ref><ref>History of Pakistan Movement (1857–1947), p. 237-238, Author Prof. M. Azam Chaudhary, published by Abdullah Brothers, Urdu Bazar, Lahore</ref><ref>History of Pakistan and its background, p. 338. Author Syed Asghar Ali Shah Jafri, published by Evernew Book Palace, Circular road, Urdu Bazar, Lahore.</ref><ref>History of Pakistan, p. 58-59. Author Prof. Muhammed Khalilullah (Ex-Principal Federal Govt. Urdu College, Karachi; Former Dean Law Faculty, University of Karachi), published by Urdu Academy Sindh, Karachi.</ref> a deal to which Minto agreed.{{citation needed|date=June 2010}} The delegation consisted of 35 members, who each represented their respective region proportionately, mentioned hereunder.
[[File:HH the AGA KHAN 1936.jpg|thumb|Aga Khan III in 1936.]]

[[File:Siryedazam.jpg|thumb|260px|Nawab Mohsin ul Mulk, (left) who organised the Simla deputation, with Sir Syed Ahmed Khan (centre), Sir Syed's son [[Syed Mahmood|Justice Syed Mahmood]] (right). Syed Mahmood was the first Muslim to serve as a High Court judge in the British Raj.]]

# Sir [[Aga Khan III]] (Head of the delegation); ([[Maharashtra|Bombay]]).
# [[Nawab Mohsin-ul-Mulk]] ([[United Provinces of Agra and Oudh|Aligarh]]).
# Nawab Waqar-ul-Mulk ([[United Provinces of Agra and Oudh|Muradabad]]).
# Maulvi Hafiz [[Hakim Ajmal Khan]] ([[United Provinces of Agra and Oudh|Delhi]]).
# Maulvi Syed Karamat Husain ([[United Provinces of Agra and Oudh|Allahabad]]).
# Maulvi Sharifuddin ([[Bihar|Patna]]).
# Nawab Syed Sardar Ali Khan ([[Maharashtra|Bombay]]).
# Syed Abdul Rauf ([[United Provinces of Agra and Oudh|Allahabad]]).
# Maulvi Habiburrehman Khan ([[United Provinces of Agra and Oudh|Aligarh]]).
# [[Sahibzada Aftab Ahmed Khan]] ([[United Provinces of Agra and Oudh|Aligarh]]).
# Abdul Salam Khan ([[United Provinces of Agra and Oudh|Rampur]]).
# Raees Muhammed Ahtasham Ali ([[United Provinces of Agra and Oudh|Lucknow]])
# [[Muhammad Muzammilullah Khan|Khan Bahadur Muhammad Muzammilullah Khan]]. ([[United Provinces of Agra and Oudh|Aligarh]]).
# [[Haji Muhammed Ismail Khan]] ([[United Provinces of Agra and Oudh|Aligarh]]).
# Shehzada Bakhtiar Shah ([[Bangal|Calcutta]]).
# [[Malik Umar Hayat Khan Tiwana]] ([[Punjab, Pakistan|Shahpur]]).
# Khan Bahadur [[Mian Shah Din|Muhammed Shah Deen]] ([[Punjab, Pakistan|Lahore]]).
# [[Khan Bahadur Syed Nawab Ali Chaudhary]] ([[Bangal|Mymansingh]]).
# Nawab Bahadur Mirza Shuja'at Ali Baig ([[Bangal|Murshidabad]]).
# Nawab Nasir Hussain Khan Bahadur ([[Bihar|Patna]]).
# Khan Bahadur Syed Ameer Hassan Khan ([[Bangal|Calcutta]]).
# Syed Muhammed Imam ([[Bihar|Patna]]).
# Nawab Sarfaraz Hussain Khan Bahadur ([[Bihar|Patna]]).
# Maulvi Rafeeuddin Ahmed ([[Maharashtra|Bombay]]).
# Khan Bahadur Ahmed Muhaeeuddin ([[Southern India|Madras]]).
# Ibraheem Bhai Adamjee Pirbhai ([[Maharashtra|Bombay]]).
# Maulvi Abdul Raheem ([[Bangal|Calcutta]]).
# Syed Allahdad Shah ([[Sindh|Khairpur]]).
# Maulana H. M. Malik ([[United Provinces of Agra and Oudh|Nagpur]]).
# Khan Bahadur Col. Abdul Majeed Khan ([[Punjab region|Patiala]]).
# Khan Bahadur Khawaja Yousuf Shah ([[Punjab region|Amritsar]]).
# Khan Bahadur [[Mian Muhammad Shafi]]. ([[Punjab, Pakistan|Lahore]]).
# Khan Bahadur Shaikh Ghulam Sadiq. ([[Punjab region|Amritsar]]).
# [[Syed Nabiullah]]. ([[United Provinces of Agra and Oudh|Allahabad]]).
# Khalifa Syed Muhammed Khan Bahadur. ([[Bihar|Patna]]).<ref>History of Pakistan. p. 232 to 234. by Muhammed Ali Chiragh, published by Sang-e-Meel Publications, Lahore. {{ISBN|969-35-0413-5}}.</ref>

Until 1937 the Muslim League had remained an organisation of elite Indian Muslims. The Muslim League leadership then began mass mobilisation and the League then became a popular party with the Muslim masses in the 1940s, especially after the Lahore Resolution.<ref name="Rizvi2000">{{cite book|author=H. Rizvi|title=Military, State and Society in Pakistan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZwGIDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA69|date=15 May 2000|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK|isbn=978-0-230-59904-8|pages=69–|quote=The Muslim League maintained an elitist character until 1937 when its leadership began to engage in popular mobilisation. It functioned as a mass and popular party for 7-8 years after the Congress provincial ministries resigned in 1939, more so, after the passage of the Lahore Resolution in March 1940.|access-date=27 April 2018|archive-date=12 July 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190712201047/https://books.google.com/books%3Fid%3DZwGIDAAAQBAJ%26pg%3DPA69|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Venkat Dhulipala|title=Creating a New Medina: State Power, Islam, and the Quest for Pakistan in Late Colonial North India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PrqLBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA50|date=9 February 2015|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-316-25838-5|pages=50–|quote=During this growth spurt, the ML itself was transformed from an elite moribund organization into a mass-based party that gave itself a new constitution, a more radical ideology and a revamped organizational structure.|access-date=27 April 2018|archive-date=12 July 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190712201044/https://books.google.com/books%3Fid%3DPrqLBgAAQBAJ%26pg%3DPA50|url-status=live}}</ref> Under Jinnah's leadership its membership grew to over two million and became more religious and even separatist in its outlook.<ref>{{cite book|author=Victor Sebestyen|title=1946: The Making of the Modern World|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8sH4AwAAQBAJ&pg=PT247|date=1 October 2014|publisher=Pan Macmillan UK|isbn=978-1-74353-456-4|pages=247–|quote=That, too, had begun life as a cosy club of upper-class Indians, seeking a limited range of extra privileges for Indian Muslims. However, under the leadership of Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the League grew rapidly to a membership of more than two million and its message became increasingly religious and separatist in tone.|access-date=27 April 2018|archive-date=12 July 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190712201046/https://books.google.com/books%3Fid%3D8sH4AwAAQBAJ%26pg%3DPT247|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Yasmin Khan |author-link=Yasmin Khan |year=2017 |orig-year=First published 2007 |title=The Great Partition: The Making of India and Pakistan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_PEpDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA18 |edition=New |publisher=Yale University Press |page=18 |isbn=978-0-300-23364-3 |quote=Although it was founded in 1909 the League had only caught on among South Asian Muslims during the Second World War. The party had expanded astonishingly rapidly and was claiming over two million members by the early 1940s, an unimaginable result for what had been previously thought of as just one of the numerous pressure groups and small but insignificant parties. |access-date=27 April 2018 |archive-date=4 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210204131030/https://books.google.com/books?id=_PEpDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA18 |url-status=live }}</ref> The Muslim League's earliest base was the [[United Provinces of British India|United Provinces]].<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Talbot|first1=Ian|title=The growth of the Muslim League in the Punjab, 1937–1946|journal=Journal of Commonwealth & Comparative Politics|year=1982|volume=20|issue=1|pages=5–24|doi=10.1080/14662048208447395|quote=Despite their different viewpoints all these theories have tended either to concentrate on the All-India struggle between the Muslim League and the Congress in the pre-partition period or to turn their interest to the Muslim cultural heartland of the UP where the League gained its earliest foothold and where the demand for Pakistan was strongest.}}</ref> From 1937 onwards, the Muslim League and Jinnah attracted large crowds throughout India in its processions and strikes.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Talbot|first1=Ian|title=The role of the crowd in the Muslim League struggled for Pakistan|journal=The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History|year=1993|volume=21|issue=2|pages=307–333|doi=10.1080/03086539308582893|quote=Huge crowds attended Muslim League meetings and flocked to glimpse Jinnah as he journeyed about India from 1937 onwards. They also joined in processions, strikes, and riots.}}</ref>

=== Lahore Resolution ===
The [[Lahore Resolution]] marked the beginning of the Pakistan movement. At the 27th annual Muslim League session in 1940 at Lahore's [[Iqbal Park]] where about 100,000 people gathered to hear Jinnah speak:

<blockquote>Hindus and Muslims belong to two different religions, philosophies, social customs, and literature... It is quite clear that Hindus and Muslims derive their inspiration from different sources of history. They have different epics, different heroes, and different episodes... To yoke together two such nations under a single state, one as a numerical minority and the other as a majority must lead to growing discontent and final destruction of any fabric that may be so built up for the government of such a state.</blockquote>

At Lahore the Muslim League formally committed itself to create an independent Muslim state, including [[Sindh]], [[Punjab Province (British India)|Punjab]], [[Baluchistan (Chief Commissioner's Province)|Baluchistan]], the [[North-West Frontier Province|North West Frontier Province]] and Bengal, that would be "wholly autonomous and sovereign". The resolution guaranteed protection for non-Muslims. The Lahore Resolution, moved by the sitting Chief Minister of Bengal [[A. K. Fazlul Huq]], was adopted on 23 March 1940, and its principles formed the foundation for Pakistan's first constitution.

In [[Opposition to the partition of India|opposition]] to the Lahore Resolution, the [[All India Azad Muslim Conference]] gathered in Delhi in April 1940 to voice its support for a united India.<ref name="QasmiRobb2017">{{cite book |last1=Qasmi |first1=Ali Usman |last2=Robb |first2=Megan Eaton |title=Muslims against the Muslim League: Critiques of the Idea of Pakistan |date=2017 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9781108621236 |page=2 |language=en}}</ref> Its members included several Islamic organisations in India, as well as 1400 nationalist Muslim delegates.<ref name="Haq1970">{{cite book |last1=Haq |first1=Mushir U. |title=Muslim politics in modern India, 1857-1947 |date=1970 |publisher=Meenakshi Prakashan |page=114 |oclc=136880 |quote=This was also reflected in one of the resolutions of the Azad Muslim Conference, an organization which attempted to be representative of all the various nationalist Muslim parties and groups in India.}}</ref><ref name="Ahmed">{{cite web |last1=Ahmed |first1=Ishtiaq |title=The dissenters |url=https://www.thefridaytimes.com/tft/the-dissenters/ |work=[[The Friday Times]] |date=27 May 2016 |quote=However, the book is a tribute to the role of one Muslim leader who steadfastly opposed the Partition of India: the Sindhi leader Allah Bakhsh Soomro. Allah Bakhsh belonged to a landed family. He founded the Sindh People’s Party in 1934, which later came to be known as ‘Ittehad’ or ‘Unity Party’. ... Allah Bakhsh was totally opposed to the Muslim League’s demand for the creation of Pakistan through a division of India on a religious basis. Consequently, he established the Azad Muslim Conference. In its Delhi session held during April 27–30, 1940 some 1400 delegates took part. They belonged mainly to the lower castes and working class. The famous scholar of Indian Islam, Wilfred Cantwell Smith, feels that the delegates represented a ‘majority of India’s Muslims’. Among those who attended the conference were representatives of many Islamic theologians and women who also took part in the deliberations ... Shamsul Islam argues that the All-India Muslim League at times used intimidation and coercion to silence any opposition among Muslims to its demand for Partition. He calls such tactics of the Muslim League a ‘Reign of Terror’. He gives examples from all over India including the NWFP where the Khudai Khidmatgars remain opposed to the Partition of India. |access-date=13 February 2019 |archive-date=22 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210322163216/https://www.thefridaytimes.com/the-dissenters/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== C. R. formula and Cabinet Mission ===
{{Main|C. R. formula|1946 Cabinet Mission to India}}
Talks were held between [[Muhammad Ali Jinnah]] and [[Mahatma Gandhi]] in 1944. Jinnah negotiated as the representative of the Muslims. Gandhi rejected and insisted that the [[Indian National Congress]] alone represented all of India, including Muslims. Gandhi proposed the [[C. R. formula|C.R Formula]], which sought to first achieve independence from the British and then settle the issue of Pakistan through a plebiscite in Muslim majority districts in which the non-Muslims would also vote. Jinnah rejected both postponing decision on [[partition of British India]] and the formula in favor of the immediate creation of [[Pakistan]].

In 1945 and 1946 general and provincial elections were held in India respectively. The [[All-India Muslim League|Muslim League]] of Jinnah secured most of the Muslim vote in both elections. Jinnah interpreted the results as the entire Muslim nation's demand for partition and a separate state of Pakistan. Congress was forced to recognise the Muslim League as the sole representative of the Muslims.

The same year the British sent a [[1946 Cabinet Mission to India|delegation]] to India to determine its constitutional status and to address the Hindu-Muslim differences. The delegation proposed a plan that three groups in India be formed. One would consist of the Muslim majority Northwest zone, another would consist of the Hindu majority center and the third the Eastern zone of India. The proposal further contemplated the independence of Muslim majority provinces after ten years of Indian Independence. An [[Interim Government of India|interim government]] was to be set up until independence.

The Congress Party rejected the separation of the provinces but agreed to the formation of an interim government. The plan stated that whichever party will agree to the whole of the plan will be allowed to form the interim government which would be established after the General elections in 1946.

Jinnah decided to agree to the plan. The British still invited the Congress to form a government with the Muslim League and the [[Governor-General of India|Viceroy of India]] assigned the Office of [[Prime Minister of India|Prime minister]] to [[Jawaharlal Nehru|Nehru]] of the Indian National Congress.

===World War II===
{{Main|India in World War II}}
On 3 September 1939, British Prime Minister [[Neville Chamberlain]] declared the [[Military history of the United Kingdom during World War II|commencement]] of war with [[Nazi Germany|Germany]]. Shortly thereafter, Viceroy [[Victor Hope, 2nd Marquess of Linlithgow|Lord Linlithgow]] followed suit and announced that India too was at war with Germany.<ref>{{cite book |last=Bolitho |first=Hector |author-link=Hector Bolitho |year=1960 |orig-year=First published 1954 |title=Jinnah: Creator of Pakistan |location=London |publisher=John Murray |page=123 |oclc=14143745}}</ref>

In 1939, the Congress leaders resigned from all [[British Indian Department|British India government]] positions to which they had elected.<ref name="Basic Books"/> The Muslim League celebrated the end of the Congress-led British Indian government, with Jinnah famously declaring it "a day of deliverance and thanksgiving".<ref name="Basic Books"/> In a secret memorandum to the British [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|Prime Minister]], the Muslim League agreed to support the United Kingdom's war efforts—provided that the British recognise it as the only organisation that spoke for Indian Muslims.<ref name="Basic Books">{{cite book |last=Mukerjee |first=Madhusree |author-link=Madhusree Mukerjee |year=2011 |title=Churchill's Secret War: The British Empire and the Ravaging of India During World War II |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RnMTgtXQqCkC&pg=PA9 |location=New York |publisher=Basic Books |page=9 |isbn=978-0-465-02481-0 |access-date=15 November 2015 |archive-date=7 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210207010356/https://books.google.com/books?id=RnMTgtXQqCkC&pg=PA9 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Following the Congress's effective protest against the United Kingdom unilaterally involving India in the war without consulting with them, the Muslim League went on to support the [[United Kingdom in World War II|British war efforts]], which allowed them to actively go against the Congress with the argument of "Islam in Danger".<ref>{{cite book |last=Qureshi |first=M. Naeem |year=1999 |title=Pan-Islam in British Indian Politics: A Study of the Khilafat Movement, 1918-1924 |publisher=Brill |pages=57, 245 |isbn=978-90-04-11371-8}}</ref>

The Indian Congress and Muslim League responded differently over the World War II issue. The Indian Congress refused to support the British unless the whole Indian subcontinent was granted independence.<ref name="ABC-Clio">{{cite book |last=Mohiuddin |first=Yasmeen Niaz |year=2007 |title=Pakistan: A Global Studies Handbook |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OTMy0B9OZjAC&pg=PA69 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |pages=69– |isbn=978-1-85109-801-9 |access-date=15 November 2015 |archive-date=5 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210205040209/https://books.google.com/books?id=OTMy0B9OZjAC&pg=PA69 |url-status=live }}</ref> The Muslim League, on the other hand, supported Britain both politically and via human contributions.<ref name="ABC-Clio"/> The Muslim League leaders' British education, training, and philosophical ideas helped bring the British government and the Muslim League closer to each other.<ref name="ABC-Clio"/> Jinnah himself supported the British in World War II when the Congress failed to collaborate.<ref name="ABC-Clio"/> The British government made a pledge to the Muslims in 1940 that it would not [[Power transfer|transfer power]] to an [[Independent India]] unless its constitution was first approved by the Indian Muslims, a promise it did not subsequently keep.<ref name="ABC-Clio"/>

===The end of the war===

In 1942, Gandhi called for the [[Quit India Movement]] against the United Kingdom. On the other hand, the Muslim League advised Prime Minister [[Winston Churchill]] that Great Britain should "divide and then Quit".<ref name="ABC-Clio"/> Negotiations between Gandhi and Viceroy [[The Viscount Wavell|Wavell]] failed, as did talks between Jinnah and Gandhi in 1944.<ref name="ABC-Clio"/> When World War II ended, the Muslim League's push for the Pakistan Movement and Gandhi's efforts for [[Indian independence movement|Indian independence]] intensified the pressure on Prime Minister Churchill.<ref name="ABC-Clio"/> Given the rise of American and [[Soviet Union|Russian]] [[New world order (politics)|dominance]] in world politics and the general unrest in India, Wavell called for general elections to be held in 1945.<ref name="ABC-Clio"/>

In the 1940s, Jinnah emerged as a leader of the Indian Muslims and was popularly known as ''Quaid-e-Azam'' ('Great Leader'). The [[1945 Indian general election|general elections]] held in 1945 for the [[Constituent Assembly of India|Constituent Assembly]] of [[British Indian Empire]], the Muslim League secured and won 434 out of 496 seats reserved for Muslims (and about 87.5% of Muslim votes) on a policy of creating an independent state of Pakistan, and with an implied threat of secession if this was not granted. The Congress which was led by Gandhi and Nehru remained adamantly opposed to dividing India. The partition seems to have been inevitable after all, one of the examples being [[Lord Mountbatten]]'s statement on Jinnah: "There was no argument that could move him from his consuming determination to realize the impossible dream of Pakistan."<ref>{{cite book |author=Akbar S. Ahmed |author-link=Akbar Ahmed |year=2005 |orig-year=First published 1997 |title=Jinnah, Pakistan and Islamic Identity: The Search for Saladin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RqyniTHXFxUC&pg=PG202 |publisher=Routledge |page=129 |isbn=978-1-134-75022-1 |access-date=2 February 2019 |archive-date=4 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210204130809/https://books.google.com/books?id=RqyniTHXFxUC&pg=PG202 |url-status=live }}</ref>

American historian [[Stephen P. Cohen]] writes in ''The Idea of Pakistan'' with regards to the influence of [[South Asian Muslim nationalism]] on the Pakistan movement:<ref name="Pakistan. Stephen Philip Cohen 2004">{{cite book |last=Cohen |first=Stephen Philip |author-link=Stephen P. Cohen |date=2004 |title=The Idea of Pakistan |location=Washington |publisher=Brookings Institution Press |pages=[https://archive.org/details/ideaofpakistan00cohe/page/203 203, 205] |isbn=978-0-8157-1502-3 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/ideaofpakistan00cohe/page/203 }}</ref>

{{blockquote|[The ethnolinguistic-nationalist narrative] begins with a glorious precolonial state-empire when the Muslims of South Asia were politically united and culturally, civilizationally, and strategically dominant. In that era, ethnolinguistic differences were subsumed under a common vision of an Islamic-inspired social and political order. However, the divisions among Muslims that did exist were exploited by the British, who practiced 'divide-and-rule' politics, displacing the Mughals and circumscribing other Islamic rulers. Moreover, the Hindus were the allies of the British, who used them to strike a balance with the Muslims; many Hindus, a fundamentally insecure people, hated Muslims and would have oppressed them in a one-man, one-vote democratic India. The Pakistan freedom movement united these disparate pieces of the national puzzle, and Pakistan was the expression of the national will of India's liberated Muslims.|author=[[Stephen P. Cohen|Stephen Cohen]] |source=''The Idea of Pakistan'' (2004)<ref name="Pakistan. Stephen Philip Cohen 2004"/>}}

=== 1946 elections ===
The 1946 elections resulted in the Muslim League winning the majority of Muslim votes and reserved Muslim seats in the Central and provincial assemblies,<ref name="Metcalf2012">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TQjrAQAAQBAJ&pg=PT108|title=Husain Ahmad Madani: The Jihad for Islam and India's Freedom|date=1 December 2012|publisher=Oneworld Publications|isbn=978-1-78074-210-6|pages=108–|author=Barbara Metcalf|access-date=15 May 2017|archive-date=7 April 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170407054415/https://books.google.com/books?id=TQjrAQAAQBAJ&pg=PT108|url-status=live}}</ref> performing exceptionally well in Muslim minority provinces such as UP and Bihar, relative to the Muslim majority provinces of Punjab and NWFP. The Muslim league captured 429 of the total 492 seats reserved for Muslims. Thus, the 1946 election was effectively a plebiscite where the Indian Muslims were to vote on the creation of Pakistan; a plebiscite which the Muslim League won.<ref name="Waites2012">{{cite book|author=Bernard Waites|title=South Asia and Africa After Independence: Post-colonialism in Historical Perspective|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d7EcBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA45|date=17 January 2012|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|isbn=978-0-230-35698-6|pages=45–|quote=The 1946 election was, in effect, a plebiscite among Muslims on Pakistan and a mighty success for the League, which won 90 per cent of the Muslim seats.|access-date=23 September 2017|archive-date=7 April 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170407062558/https://books.google.com/books?id=d7EcBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA45|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OTMy0B9OZjAC&q=support+for+pakistan+movement&pg=PA68|title=Pakistan: A Global Studies Handbook|last=Mohiuddin|first=Yasmin Niaz|publisher=ABC-CLIO|year=2007|isbn=9781851098019|page=70|access-date=18 November 2020|archive-date=4 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210204131431/https://books.google.com/books?id=OTMy0B9OZjAC&q=support+for+pakistan+movement&pg=PA68|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>"Pakistan, New Nation in an Old Land", Jean and Franc Shor, The National Geographic Magazine, Nov. 1952, pp. 637-678</ref>

This victory was assisted by the support given to the Muslim League by the rural agriculturalists of Bengal as well as the support of the landowners of [[Sindh]] and [[Punjab (region)|Punjab]]. The Congress, which initially denied the Muslim League's claim of being the sole representative of Indian Muslims, was now forced to recognise that the Muslim League represented Indian Muslims.<ref name=":2" /> The British had no alternative except to take Jinnah's views into account as he had emerged as the sole spokesperson for India's Muslims. However, the British did not desire India to be partitioned<ref name="Metcalf20092">{{cite book|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pR0LzVCpfw8C&pg=PA410|title=Islam in South Asia in Practice|last=Gilmartin|first=David|date=8 September 2009|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-1-4008-3138-8|editor-last=D. Metcalf|editor-first=Barbara|pages=410–|chapter=Muslim League Appeals to the Voters of Punjab for Support of Pakistan|quote=At the all-India level, the demand for Pakistan pitted the League against the Congress and the British.|access-date=23 September 2017|archive-date=7 April 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170407055229/https://books.google.com/books?id=pR0LzVCpfw8C&pg=PA410|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Stein2010">{{cite book|author=Burton Stein|title=A History of India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QY4zdTDwMAQC&pg=PA347|date=4 February 2010|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=978-1-4443-2351-1|page=347|quote=His standing with the British remained high, however, for even though they no more agreed with the idea of a separate Muslim state than the Congress did, government officials appreciated the simplicity of a single negotiating voice for all of India's Muslims.|access-date=18 November 2017|archive-date=25 April 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170425213012/https://books.google.com/books?id=QY4zdTDwMAQC&pg=PA347|url-status=live}}</ref> and in one last effort to avoid it they arranged the Cabinet Mission plan.<ref name="MetcalfMetcalf2002">{{cite book|author1=Barbara D. Metcalf|author2=Thomas R. Metcalf|title=A Concise History of India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jGCBNTDv7acC&pg=PA212|year=2002|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-63974-3|pages=212–|quote=By this scheme, the British hoped they could at once preserve the united India desired by the Congress, and by themselves, and at the same time, through the groups, secure the essence of Jinnah's demand for a 'Pakistan'.|access-date=23 September 2017|archive-date=10 April 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170410133413/https://books.google.com/books?id=jGCBNTDv7acC&pg=PA212|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>Mohiuddin, Yasmin Niaz (2007).&nbsp;[https://books.google.com/books?id=OTMy0B9OZjAC&dq=support+for+pakistan+movement&pg=PA68 ''Pakistan: A Global Studies Handbook''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210204135033/https://books.google.com/books?id=OTMy0B9OZjAC&pg=PA68&dq=support+for+pakistan+movement&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjr6pT2srPPAhXNNpQKHcpeB0gQ6AEIOTAF#v=onepage&q=support%20for%20pakistan%20movement&f=false |date=4 February 2021 }}. ABC-CLIO. p.&nbsp;71.&nbsp;{{ISBN|9781851098019}}.</ref> In 1946, the Cabinet Mission Plan recommended a decentralised but united India, this was accepted by the Muslim League but rejected by the Congress, thus, leading the way for the Partition of India.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OTMy0B9OZjAC&q=support+for+pakistan+movement&pg=PA68|title=Pakistan: A Global Studies Handbook|last=Mohiuddin|first=Yasmin Niaz|publisher=ABC-CLIO|year=2007|isbn=9781851098019|page=71|access-date=18 November 2020|archive-date=4 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210204131431/https://books.google.com/books?id=OTMy0B9OZjAC&q=support+for+pakistan+movement&pg=PA68|url-status=live}}</ref>