discuss the various developments between 1937-47 which led to the creation of Pakistan.
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Answer:
After the 1937 provincial elections, Congress refused to form a coalition government with the League in United Provinces. This irked the League leaders. The Muslim League passed a resolution in 1940 to demand independent states for the Muslims in the north-west and eastern India. The Cabinet Mission came to Delhi in 1946. Its aim was suggesting some framework for the independent nation. It suggested loose confederation and some degree of autonomy for the Muslim-majority areas. But negotiations between the Congress and the League failed. After that, Muslim League persisted with its demand for Pakistan. Large scale violence occurred throughout the northern part of the peninsula. The country was finally partitioned in August 1947.
Developments which led to the creation of Pakistan were:
1.The League believed in the “two nation theory” according to which the Hindus and the Muslims were not two different religions but two different nations.
2.By 1930s, the League began to view the Hindus and the Muslims not as separate communities but as separate nations.
3.When the Congress formed government in seven out of eleven provinces in 1937 elections, League began to feel that the Muslims were a minority in the country and will always have to play a second role in the country or may even not get adequate representation.
4.The Congress rejection of the league’s proposals to jointly form the government in the United Provinces in 1937 also annoyed the latter.
5.The failure of the Congress to mobilise Muslim masses in India helped the league in widening its social base.
6.Elections were held in 1946 to the provinces. League performed extremely well in the seats which were reserved for the Muslims. It thus pressed for the separate state of Pakistan.
7.In 1946, three member committee was sent by the British government to India to examine the demand of the League and to suggest suitable political framework for an independent India.
8.Cabinet Mission Plan suggested against the partition though it suggested some degree of autonomy for the Muslim majority areas. However, some of its proposals on independence were rejected by both congress and the League.
9.After the failure of the Cabinet Mission Plan, the League organised full scale movement to demand the formation of separate state for the Muslims.
10.It declared 16 August 1946 as the ‘Direct Action Day’, in which riots broke out in many parts of the country including Calcutta which resulted in the death of thousands of people. By 1947, most of the northern parts to country were engulfed in the violence.
11.Partition thus became inevitable. Independence of India was thus marred by partition of the country and innumerable miseries that were inflicted upon the people of both the sides.