Gandhi-Jinnah Talks occupy an eminent significance with regard to the political problems of India and Pakistan movement. The talks between the two great leaders of the sub-continent began in response to a general public desire for a settlement of Hindu-Muslim differences.

Gandhi wrote to Quaid-i-Azam on July 17, 1944 in which he expressed his desire of meeting Quaid-i-Azam. Quaid-i-Azam asked for permission of meeting Mr. Gandhi from the Muslim League which was duly accorded.

Gandhi-Jinnah talks began on September 19, 1944 in Bombay and lasted upto September 24, 1944. The talks were held directly and through correspondence. Gandhi told Quaid-i-Azam that he had come in his personal capacity and was not representing the Hindus or Congress.

Gandhi’s real concern was to extract from Jinnah’s mouth that the whole proposition of Pakistan was absurd. Quaid-i-Azam painstakingly explained the basis for the demand of Pakistan. "We maintain" he wrote to Gandhi, "that Muslims and Hindus are two major nations by any definition or test of a nation. We are a nation of hundred million. We have our distinctive outlook on life and of life. By all the cannons of international law, we are a nation". He added that he was, "convinced that the true welfare not only of the Muslims but of the rest of India lies in the division of India as proposed in the Lahore Resolution".

Gandhi on the other hand maintained that India was one nation and saw in the Pakistan Resolution "Nothing but ruin for the whole of India". "If, however, Pakistan had to be conceded, the areas in which the Muslims are in an absolute majority should be demarcated by a Commission approved by both the Congress and the Muslim League. The wishes of the people of these areas will be obtained through Referendum. These areas shall form a separate state as soon as possible after India is free from foreign domination. There shall be a treaty of separation which should also provide for the efficient and satisfactory administration of foreign affairs, defense, internal communication, custom and the like which must necessarily continue to be the matters of common interest between the contracting countries".

This meant, in effect, that power over whole of India should first be transferred to Congress, which thereafter would allow Muslim majority areas that voted for separation to be constituted, not as independent sovereign state but as part of an Indian Federation.