Pakistan Resolution [1940]
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Minar-i-Pakistan, Lahore, the landmark where the historic Pakistan Resolution was passed |
Muslim League had been trying for the last 25 years, to reach an honorable agreement with Congress on the following two principles:
1. Congress rule should recognize Muslim League as the representative body of the Muslims of India.
2. The Muslims of India should not be taken as a mere minor community; on the other hand they should be recognized as a nation.
However, the recent two years of Congress rule proved that it worked on the basis of hostility against Muslims.
A resolution adopting the "Two Nation Theory" had already been passed by the provincial Muslim League at Karachi in October 1938. The Two Nation theory stated that the Hindus and the Muslims were two distinct nations.
It was finally at it’s annual meeting held at Lahore on March 23, 1940, that the Muslim League for the first time categorically adopted the idea of partition of India as it’s final destination. The resolution that came to be known as the Pakistan Resolution was moved by the Bengal’s Chief minister, A. K. Fazlul Haq.
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Quaid-i-Azam is presiding over the session while Choudhry Khaliquzzaman is seconding the Resolution |
Jinnah’s address on this occasion gave clear expression to the basic concept underlying the resolution. He said:
"Hindus and the Muslims belong to two different religions, philosophies, social customs and literature. They neither inter-marry nor inter-dine and, indeed they belong to two different civilizations which are based mainly on conflicting ideas and conceptions. Their concepts on life and of life are different. It is quite clear that Hindu and Muslims derive their inspiration from different sources of history. They have different epics, different heroes and different episodes. Very often the hero of one is a foe of the other, and likewise, their victories and defeats overlap. 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."
"Mussalmans are a nation according to any definition of nation. We wish our people to develop to the fullest spiritual, cultural, economic, social and political life in a way that we think best and in consonance with our own ideals and according to the genius of our people."
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Quaid-i-Azam, Liaquat Ali Khan and Nawab Muhammad Iftikhar Hussain Khan of Mamdot at the Lahore Session in March, 1940 |
On the basis of the above mentioned two nation theory, the resolution which was moved declared:
"No constitutional plan would be workable or acceptable to the Muslims unless geographical contiguous units are demarcated into regions which should be so constituted with such territorial readjustments as may be necessary, that the areas in which the Muslims are numerically in majority as in the North-Western and Eastern zones of India should be grouped to constitute independent states in which the constituent units shall be autonomous and sovereign.
That adequate, effective and mandatory safeguards shall be specifically provided in the constitution for minorities in the units and in the regions for the protection of their religious, cultural, economic, political, administrative and other rights of the minorities, with their consultation. Arrangements thus should be made for the security of Muslims where they were in a minority."
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Pakistan as visualized by Choudhary Rahmat Ali |
Congress reaction was hostile to the resolution. However, with the coining of the word "PAKISTAN" by Choudhary Rahmat Ali, as the name of the country which was to be formed by this resolution, it soon became a household word.
From then onwards, the Muslims of India, instead of seeking alliance with the Hindu community, set on the way leading to the destination of complete independence of the Muslims of India.