Punjab In the British Indian province of
Punjab, Muslims placed more emphasis on the Punjabi identity they shared with Hindus and Sikhs, rather than on their religion. The
Unionist Party, which prevailed in the
1923 Indian general election,
1934 Indian general election and the
1937 Indian provincial elections, had the mass support of the Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs of the Punjab; its leaders included Muslim Punjabis, such as
Fazl-i-Hussain and Hindu Punjabis, such as
Chhotu Ram. The Punjab had a slight Muslim majority, and local politics had been dominated by the secular Unionist Party and its longtime leader Sir
Sikandar Hayat Khan. The Unionists had built a formidable power base in the Punjabi countryside through policies of patronage allowing them to retain the loyalty of landlords and pirs who exerted significant local influence. For the Muslim League to claim to represent the Muslim vote, they would need to win over the majority of the seats held by the Unionists. Following the death of Sir Sikander in 1942, and bidding to overcome their dismal showing in the elections of 1937, the Muslim League intensified campaigning throughout rural and urban Punjab. A major thrust of the Muslim's League's campaign was the promotion of
communalism and spreading fear of a supposed "Hindu threat" in a future united India. Muslim League activists were advised to join in communal prayers when visiting villages, and gain permission to hold meetings after the Friday prayers. In 1947, the
Punjab Assembly cast its vote in favour of Pakistan with
supermajority rule, which made many minority Hindus and Sikhs migrate to India while Muslim refugees from India settled in the Western Punjab and across Pakistan.
Sindh and
burial place of
Jinnah, the Founder of Pakistan. In the
Sind province of British India, the
Sind United Party promoted communal harmony between Hindus and Muslims, winning 22 out of 33 seats in the
1937 Indian provincial elections. Both the Muslim landed elite,
waderas, and the Hindu commercial elements,
banias, collaborated in exploiting the predominantly Muslim peasantry of the British Indian province of Sind. In Sind's first provincial election after its separation from Bombay in 1936, economic interests were an essential factor of politics, informed by religious and cultural issues. Due to British policies, much land in Sind was transferred from Muslim to Hindu hands over the decades. In Sind, "the dispute over the Sukkur Manzilgah had been fabricated by provincial Leaguers to unsettle Allah Bakhsh Soomro's ministry which was dependent on support from the Congress and the Hindu Independent Party." Although the prominent Sindhi Muslim nationalist G.M. Syed (who admired both Hindu and Muslim rulers of Sindh) left the All India Muslim League in the mid-1940s, the overwhelming majority of Sindhi Muslims supported the creation of Pakistan, seeing in it their deliverance. Sindhi support for the Pakistan Movement arose from the desire of the Sindhi Muslim business class to drive out their Hindu competitors. The Muslim League's rise to becoming the party with the strongest support in Sind was in large part linked to its winning over of the religious pir families. Although the Muslim League had previously fared poorly in the 1937 elections in Sind, when local Sindhi Muslim parties won more seats, the Muslim League's cultivation of support from the pirs and saiyids of Sind in 1946 helped it gain a foothold in the province.
North-West Frontier Province with Gandhi in 1946. The Muslim League had little support in
North-West Frontier Province. Here the Congress and
Pashtun nationalist leader
Abdul Ghaffar Khan had considerable support for the cause of a united India. During the Independence period there was a
Congress-led ministry in the province, which was led by secular
Pashtun leaders, including
Abdul Ghaffar Khan, who preferred joining
India instead of Pakistan. The secular Pashtun leadership was also of the view that if joining India was not an option then they should espouse the cause of an independent ethnic Pashtun state rather than Pakistan. The secular stance of Abdul Ghaffar Khan had driven a wedge between the Jamiyatul Ulama Sarhad (JUS) and the otherwise pro-Congress (and pro-Indian unity)
Jamiat Ulema Hind, as well as Abdul Ghaffar Khan's
Khudai Khidmatgars, who also espoused
Hindu-Muslim unity. Unlike the centre JUH, the directives of the JUS in the province began to take on communal tones. The JUS ulama saw the Hindus in the province as a 'threat' to Muslims. Accusations of molesting Muslim women were levelled at Hindu shopkeepers in
Nowshera, a town where anti-Hindu sermons were delivered by mullas. Tensions also rose in 1936 over the abduction of a Hindu girl in
Bannu. Such controversies stirred up anti-Hindu sentiments among the province's Muslim population. By 1947 the majority of the JUS ulama in the province began supporting the Muslim League's idea of Pakistan. Immediately prior to Pakistani independence from
Britain in 1947, the British held a referendum in the NWFP to allow voters to choose between joining Pakistan or India. The referendum was held on 2 July 1947 while polling began on 6 July 1947 and the referendum results were made public on 20 July 1947. According to the official results, there were 572,798 registered voters out of which 289,244 (99.02%) votes were cast in favour of Pakistan while only 2874 (0.98%) were cast in favour of India. According to an estimate the total turnout for the referendum was only 15% less than the total turnout in the 1946 elections. At the same time a large number of Khudai Khidmatgar supporters boycotted the referendum and intimidation against Hindu and Sikh voters by supporters of the Pakistan Movement was also reported.
Baluchistan During British rule in India,
Baluchistan was under the rule of a Chief Commissioner and did not have the same status as other provinces of British India. The Muslim League in the period 1927-1947 strived under Jinnah to introduce reforms in Baluchistan to bring it on par with other provinces of British India. Apart from the pro-partition Muslim League that was led by
Qazi Muhammad Isa, "three pro-Congress parties were still active in Balochistan's politics", such as the
Anjuman-i-Watan Baluchistan, which favoured a united India. In British-ruled Colonial India, Baluchistan contained a
Chief Commissioner's province and
princely states (including
Makran,
Las Bela and
Kharan) that became a part of Pakistan. The instrument of referendum was applied in
Chaghi to
Zhob (in northern Balochistan), to determine the will of the people which resulted in a victory for the Muslim League. The province's Shahi Jirga and the non-official members of the Quetta Municipality, agreed to join Pakistan unanimously on 29 June 1947; however, the Shahi Jirga was stripped of its members from the Kalat State prior to the vote. According to Rafi Sheikh, the then president of the Baluchistan Muslim League, Qazi Muhammad Isa, informed Jinnah that "Shahi Jirga in no way represents the popular wishes of the masses" and that members of the Kalat State were "excluded from voting; only representatives from the British part of the province voted and the British part included the leased areas of Quetta, Nasirabad Tehsil, Nushki and Bolan Agency." Kalat finally acceded to Pakistan on 27 March 1948 after the help of All India Radio and a period of negotiations and bureaucracy. The signing of the Instrument of Accession by Ahmad Yar Khan, led his brother, Prince Abdul Karim, to revolt against his brother's decision in July 1948. Princes Agha Abdul Karim Baloch and Muhammad Rahim refused to lay down arms, leading the Dosht-e Jhalawan in unconventional attacks on the army until 1950.
Bengal Dhaka was the birthplace of the
All India Muslim League in 1906. The Pakistan Movement was highly popular in the Muslim population of Bengal. Many of the Muslim League's notable statesmen and activists hailed from
East Bengal, including
Khabeeruddin Ahmed,
Sir Abdul Halim Ghuznavi, Anwar-ul Azim,
Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy,
Jogendra Nath Mandal,
Khawaja Nazimuddin, and
Nurul Amin, many among whom later became Prime ministers of Pakistan. Following the
partition of Bengal, violence erupted in the region, which was mainly contained to
Kolkata and
Noakhali. It is documented by Pakistani historians that Suhrawardy wanted Bengal to be an independent state that would neither join Pakistan or India but would remain unpartitioned. Despite the heavy criticism from the Muslim League, Jinnah realised the validity of Suhrawardy's argument and gave his tacit support to the idea of an Independent Bengal. Nevertheless, the Indian National Congress decided for partition of Bengal in 1947, which was additionally ratified in the subsequent years.
Rohingya Muslims During the Pakistan Movement in the 1940s,
Rohingya Muslims in western Burma had an ambition to
annex and merge their region into
East-Pakistan. Before the
independence of Burma in January 1948, Muslim leaders from Arakan addressed themselves to Jinnah, the
founder of Pakistan, and asked his assistance in annexing of the Mayu region to Pakistan which was about to be formed. In its election campaign in 1946 the Muslim League drew upon the support of Islamic scholars and Sufis with the rallying cry of 'Islam in danger'. In contrast, most Deobandi ulama (led by
Hussain Ahmad Madani) opposed the creation of Pakistan and the two-nation theory. Husain Ahmad Madani and the Deobandis advocated
composite nationalism, according to which Muslims and Hindus were one nation (cf.
Composite Nationalism and Islam). Madani differentiated between
qaum -which meant a multi-religious nation - and
millat - which was exclusively the social unity of Muslims. However, a few highly influential Deobandi clerics did support the creation of Pakistan. Such Deobandi ulama included
Ashraf Ali Thanwi,
Muhammad Shafi,
Shabbir Ahmad Usmani, and
Zafar Ahmad Usmani. Thanwi was one of the chief proponent of this Movement. he dismissed the criticism that most Muslim League members were not practising Muslims. Thanwi was of the view that the Muslim League should be supported and also be advised at the same time to become religiously observant. Thanwi's disciples Shabbir Ahmad Usmani and Zafar Ahmad Usmani were key players in religious support for the creation of Pakistan. Acknowledging the services of these ulema, Shabbir Ahmad Usmani was honoured to raise the flag of Pakistan in Karachi and Zafar Ahamd Usmani in Dhaka. Once, the Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah was asked whether there was any Islamic cleric who authenticated the division of India on religious bases. Jinnah replied that there was Arshraf Ali Thanwi, and his support to the cause of Muslim League was enough. The Barelvis had no representation in the constituent assemblies of Pakistan, whereas the Deobandis had their representatives even in the first Constituent Assembly.
Muslim minority provinces of British India The idea of Pakistan received overwhelming support from Muslim minority provinces of British India, specially the Muslim cultural heartland of U.P. The
Muslim League was known to gain its first foothold in the
United Provinces, from where it derived a substantial portion of its leadership. == Conclusion ==