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| Congress, SP doing what League did before 1947 | | Towards Another Partition -- II | | Rustam
JAMMU, Jan 22: It was on September 16, 1906 that a meeting of important Muslims at Lucknow decided to send a deputation under Aga Khan to Governor-General of India, Lord Minto, to acquaint him with their problems and grievances. The deputation met with Minto on October 1, 1906. Aga Khan presented a memorandum to him. According to the memorandum, the position of the Muslims in the future structure of representative government "should be commensurate not merely with their numerical strength but also with their political importance and the value of the contribution which they made to the defence of the (British) Empire" in India. They also asked that the "Muslim representation to the various bodies should be elected by Muslim votes". Lord Minto endorsed the deputation's point of view and told the deputation that "any electoral representation in India would be doomed to mischievous failure which aimed at granting a personal enfranchisement regardless of the beliefs and traditions of the communities composing the population of this continent". Reflecting on what is known in the history of India Shimla deputation, Lady Minto, wife of Lord Minto, wrote in her diary: "This has been a very eventful day; as someone said to me, 'an epoch in Indian history".
The success of the Shimla deputation motivated the Muslims, especially of the United Provinces, to think in terms of establishing a political organization "in order to keep the (British) government informed as to local Muslim feelings and aspirations, but 'methods of agitation such as those employed by the National Congress' were to be carefully avoided".
Ultimately, at the beginning of December 1906, the Nawab of Dacca Salimullah circulated a note to some "important Muslims of India". It suggested the formation of "Moslem-All-India Confederacy". Its objective would be to "support whenever possible all the measures emanating from the government and to protect the cause and advance the interests of the Muslims throughout the country, to convert the growing influence of the so-called Indian National Congress, which has a tendency to misinterpret and subvert British rule in India or which might lead to that deplorable situation; to enable Muslim young men of education, who, for want of such an association have joined the Congress camp, to find scope according to their fitness and ability for public life".
The circular of Nawab Salimullah of Dacca worked. On December 30, 1906, just after the Mohammedan Education Conference at Dacca, a meeting was held to discuss the establishment of a "political association of Muslims". Nawab Viquar-ul-Mulk, the president, remarked that the "time and circumstances have made it necessary to form political associations" for promoting the cause of the Muslims. The Nawab of Dacca in his address said the "proposed League has been forced upon the Muslims, as they have to protect themselves from the mischief created by the Congress extremists and also to save themselves from being submerged by an enormous majority of other race".
A resolution for the establishment of a political organization, called the All-India Muslim League was passed. The stated objectives were three. One was "to promote amongst the Mussalmans of India feelings of loyalty to the British Government and to remove any misconception that may arise as to the intentions of the government with regard to any of its measures". The other was "to protect and advance the political rights and interests of Mussalmans of India and respectfully to represent their needs and aspirations to the (British) Government". The third was "to prevent the rise among Mussalmans of India any feelings of hostility towards other communities without prejudice to the other objects of the League".
Thus it was the fear of the Hindu majority that prevented the Muslims from joining the Congress. Sir Syed Ahmad Khan had explained it and Ameer Ali had emphasized it. The Muslim community's consciousness of its backwardness in relation to the Hindus had been manifestly felt by Sir Syed and his followers at Aligarh and elsewhere during the eighties of the 19th century and the Aligarh movement of Sir Syed had done a great deal to "restore the lost ground". The Congress from its very inception failed to draw in the leaders of the Muslim community to its membership. For, Sir Syed had warned the Muslims of the "danger of joining the Congress" and had "successfully persuaded them to believe that in a political system of the sort which the Congress advocated the Muslims of India would find their legitimate rights and interests thwarted by the majority of the Hindus, unless safeguards were introduced to cover that risk".
It needs to be underlined that the Congress had been struggling only to obtain for the country a parliamentary form of government, introduction of election system, Indianization of services, Indianization of Army and a system that would be based on the Indian interests, as opposed to the British interests. In other words, the Congress was striving hard to achieve self-governance and it was this that was opposed by the Muslim leadership, especially the one belonging to the United Provinces. We are again hearing similar voices in Uttar Pradesh with Lucknow once again in the forefront. (To be continued)
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