Editing Pakistan Movement (section)

=== 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>