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I did very hard to write this article. This is written in simple words Hope you find it Informative
General
& Provincial Elections
1945-46
British
India
M.S.S.Qureshi
Applied
Physics University of Karachi,2011
This
article is dedicated to my Parents. They made myself able to write
this article. May they live long. (AAMEEN)
Preface
As
a student of Pakistan Studies, I always tried to get the most of the
events in creation of Pakistan.
I
found many events interesting , but I selected 1946 election to do
some study on. So, this article is just a simple study of the event.
I tried to make it easy as I could. This article is written with the
help of my respected teacher “ SYED HUMAYYUN” and the great
library “MAHMOOD HUSSAIN LIBRARY” of “UNIVERSITY OF KARACHI”
.Hopefully, this article will help the reader to understand a part of
history of the Subcontinent.
Muhammad
Shahzaib Shahzad Qureshi
Contents
Topics
Introduction
Reaction
of parties
Preparations
General
Elections
Provincial
Elections
Formation
of Ministries
Short
Analysis
References
Bibliography
Introduction:
1946
Elections of British India have a great role in the creation of
Pakistan. These elections determined the path to a separate
sovereign state for the Muslims. Background of the elections is
that, Simla conference was held to settle the issues between
Muslim League and the Congress, but it failed at least in part ,
because both the Congress and Muslim
League had made claims
about the representatives standing unsupported by electoral
evidence. The general elections had been held since 1934 to the
central legislative and since 1937 to the Provincial assemblies.
The balance of political power had shifted so much in ten years
that new elections were imperative. With the failure of the Simla
Conference, Prime minister Clement Attlee (1883-1967)
reconstructed the India committee of the cabinet. In the first
meeting of the committee it was decided to bring Lord Wavell to
London for consultations and to press for early elections to form
a constitution making body. On 21 august 1945 the viceroy made two
important announcements, The first was that elections to the
central and provincial legislatures would be held in the coming
winter. The second informed the public that he would shortly be
going to London for consultations with the British government. His
visit to Britain lasted from 24 august to 16 September. Wavell
presented his view in the House of commons, he said “ The
announcement that election would be held soon was regarded by
Muslims as a matter of great relief, because it was by this means
they hoped to settle, once for all, the questions of who was their
rightful representative –the All India Muslim League or the
Indian National Congress”.1On
19 September, Lord Wavell confirmed on behalf of his majesty’s
Government that the Central and Provincial Legislature elections
would be held in the winter of 1945-46, after which a
constitution-making body would be set up. He also announced that
after the elections, the Viceroy also take steps to bring into
being an Executive Council that would have the support of the
main Indian political parties.2Wavell
wanted the Indian people especially Muslims to select their party
and these elections decided the representative parties of the
Indian people quite clearly.
Reaction
of Parties:
Wavell’s
announcement of General elections was criticized by both the
parties. Both the Muslim League and the Congress opposed the
proposals. |
Quaid-e-Azam
declared that Muslims were not ready to accept any settlement
except on the basis of Pakistan.3
All India Congress Committee characterized the proposal as vague,
inadequate and unsatisfactory because it had not addressed the
issue of independence and pointed out the omission of any
reference to independence.4
After thus expressing the disapproval of the official plan, both
parties launched huge election campaigns. They knew that the
elections would be crucial for the future of India, as the results
were to play an important role in determining their standing. The
Muslim League wanted to sweep the Muslim constituencies so as to
prove that they were the sole representatives of the Muslims of
Sub-continent, while Congress wanted to prove that, irrespective
of religion, they represent all the Indians Both the Muslim League
and the Congress promulgated opposite slogans during their
campaigns.
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Preparations:
Muslim
League:
The
elections were fought on the simplest platform by the Muslim League.
The league was fighting to vindicate its claim of speaking for
Muslims of India to prove the popular backing for the Pakistan
demand. its manifesto maybe summarized in two sentences; Pakistan is
the only sensible solution of the Indian problem.
Quaid’s
Election Campaign Tour of India:
Quaid-e-Azam
himself toured the length and breadth of India and tried to unite the
Muslim community under the banner of the Muslim League. He spoke of
the dire need for unity, for the sinking of all differences, for
facing the enemy with resolution and confidence; and for standings as
a one united nation. The hour made one peremptory demand: to
“vindicate not only your national character but your national
claim”. He appealed to all non-league Muslims to join the party at
that critical Juncture.
Islamic
Fat’was:
Muslim
League leaders got “Fatwas” from some well-known Ulama-e-Kirams
of India that it is necessary for Muslims now to vote to Muslim
League and sinful to vote for others. This strategy of the Muslim League brought great number
of votes to their bank.
Communal
Strategy:
The
1945-46 election campaign was also conducted by Muslim League with a
patently communal strategy to which was added skillfully the question
of class oppression. In the Muslim majority provinces trade and
commerce were dominated by Hindus while most Muslims were
agriculturalists, many of whom were debt-ridden. On the other hand,
most of the big landlords were also Muslims. The indebted landowners
and peasantry of sindh were convinced by the Muslim League that the
debt burden incurred to Hindu money-lenders would be cancelled if
they supported the PAKISTAN idea. 9
Congress:
The Congress on the
other hand stood on two exactly opposed slogans:
1. The congress
represented all Indians
2. India would
remain one undivided country.
Propaganda
against Pakistan:
Congress acted
militantly to mobilize the mass opinion for the Indian independence.
Nehru declared “A revolution is inevitable”. To counter the
Muslim League, the Congress press abused the Quaid and termed his
demand for Pakistan as the "vivisection of Mother India",
"reactionary primitivism" and "religious barbarism".
Congress tried to brand Muslim League as an ultra-conservative clique
of knights, Khan Bahadurs, capitalists, toadies and government
pensioners. The Congress also tried to get the support of all the
provincial and central Muslim parties who had some differences with
the Muslim League such as the Momins, the Ahrars, the Shia conference
and Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind and backed them in the elections. In Punjab
it supported the Unionist Party against the league.5
The 1945-46
elections were held in two stages; in December 1945 members of the
central legislative assembly were elected, and in the early
1946members to provincial assemblies were elected.
General
Elections:
Muslim League:
The hard work of the
League Members showed a great result and the Muslim League swept
polls in India. The results clearly showed the division of the
assembly between the Congress and the Muslim League. The Muslim
League won every single Muslim seat, the “Nationalist Muslims
forfeiting their deposits in many instances”.6
The Muslim League won 86.6 percent of the total Muslims. Quaid-e-Azam
Muhammad Ali Jinnah congratulated the Muslims of India for the
tremendous victory and termed it as the biggest achievement in the
way of Pakistan.
Congress:
Congress had
spectacular victory in the non Muslim constituencies. Congress got
91.3 percent of the total general votes. The central Election Board
of the Congress issued a bulletin on 6 January 1946, in which it
claimed that the election results has vindicated the Congress as “The
biggest, strongest and the most representative organization in the
country”.7
The final figures
for the central Assembly were:
Congress: 57
Muslim
League 30
Independents 5
Akali Sikhs 2
Europeans 8
[
Total: 102]
In the previous
assembly, elected in 1934, the figures at the time of dissolution
were:
Congress 36
Muslim
league 25
Independents 21
Nationalist
party 10
Europeans 8
[Total
: 100 ]
Congress’ claim to
be the biggest representative party was gone down as they won only 57
seats out of 102 seats, a little over a half while Muslim League
clean swept the legislative Assembly and proved to be the right
representatives of the Indian Muslims.
Provincial
Elections:
Provincial elections
were held in February 1946, and again two main parties swept their
respective constituencies. The congress won a total of 930 seats,
gaining an absolute majority in eight provinces. The Muslim league
captured 428 out of the possible 492 Muslim seats. In Sindh the
league commanded exactly half the votes in the assembly. Therefore, a
fresh election was held in December 1946, in which the league gained
a majority over all other parties.
Formation
Of Ministries:
Congress:
In Assam, Congress
had a clear majority to form the government and it did so under the
leader Gopinath Baedolai. One nationalist Muslim was included in the
cabinet. Two seats were offered to Muslim League with a condition
that it agreed to work with Congress parliamentary, which was
rejected by the Muslim League because of the presence of a
Nationalist party member in the ministry.
Congress formed
ministries in Bihar, Bombay, Madras, United Provinces, Central
Provinces and Orissa. Muslim League was offered ministries with
conditions by the congress, but League rejected to accept their
offer.
In North-West
Frontier Province congress formed their government under
“Abdul-Ghaffar Khan”, also called “Frontier Gandhi”.
Muslim League:
In Sindh, league won
27 seats and one independent Muslim joined the party later.
Nationalist party got 3 seats and four seats were given to
G.M.Sayyad’s group which had left the Muslim league just before the
elections. The Congress had 21 seats, the Europeans three and there
was one Independent Labour member. The sayyad group formed a
coalition with congress and the Nationalist Muslims. Thus each of the
two sides came to have 28 seats. The governor asked the league
leader, G.H.Hidayatullah, to form the government. He offered two
Hindu seats to the congress, but it insisted that G.M.Sayyad, the
leader of the coalition should be approached. As the league did not,
on principle, deal with non-league Muslims, the offer was suspended.
Later, another election was held in which the league won a clear
majority.
In Bengal, ministry
was formed under H.S.Suhrawardy by the coalition of the Independent
elements and the Muslim league which had 113 seats in the house of
250.Although, congress was offered a coalition earlier, but the talks
were not successful.
In Punjab, ruling
Unionist party faced a great defeat and their strength was reduced to
20. The Muslim league had 75 out of 86 Muslim seats. Four Unionists
later joined the Muslim League (increasing their strength to 79) and
six went over to independent and other benches leaving Unionist party
with a total of 10 seats. The Congress and the Akali-Sikhs formed an
alliance and offered their co-operation in the ministry to the Muslim
League with three conditions.
1. Congress should
have right to nominate its minister from any community.
2. Congress-Akali
group would have half seats in the Government.
3. Non-Provincial
topics like Pakistan would not be discussed in the Assembly.
These conditions
were not acceptable by the League, so they tried to reach
understanding with the Akali Sikhs but they insisted that in the
event of creation of Pakistan a Sikh state would be formed in Punjab.
League could not give any assurance so the coalition was not formed.
Then Congress made alliance with Akali Sikhs and the Unionists to
form a coalition ministry.8
Short
Analysis:
With the results of
elections 1945-46 many results were observed which are shortly
listed.
1. Jinnah had
campaigned to secure a mandate for Pakistan and in this he was
successful.
2. Muslims got a
clearer view of their goal which was a sovereign separate state named
Pakistan.
3. It was cleared
that the Muslims are a separate nation.
4. Muslim League was
chosen to be the true representative party for the Muslims.
5. Muslims of India
agreed to Muslim League’s view of separate state as a solution of
conflicts between Muslims and other communities.
6. Muslims showed
their unity for a purpose.
7. Muslim league got
the rule of Muslim provinces from where they could help Pakistan
movement quite nicely.
8. Muslim league
eliminated the unionist party and became a single party for the
Muslims of India.
9. Congress’ view
of united India was broken down.
10. British
government realized that there are two different forces in India now.
So,
these elections have a big role in the achievement of Pakistan. It is
the most crucial and the important part of the history of the
subcontinent. These elections almost decided the future of Indian
people and the Muslims could visualize their goal nearer to them.
They realized that although this is not a finish line but it is a
great step towards the foal under the great leadership of Muhammad
Ali Jinnah.
REFERENCES
1.
Justice Shameem Hussain Kadri: Creation
of Pakistan, (Lahore:
Wajid ali’s limited, 1982), p.316
2.
Wavell, Lord:
Speeches of Lord Wavell 1943-47
(Delhi: 1948), pp. 83-85
3.
Menon, V.P: The
Transfer of Power in India
(Calcutta: 1957), p.220
4.
India
Annual Register, 1945,
vol. II, pp.93-94
5.
A.B.Rajput: Muslim
League yesterday and Today
(Lahore: 1948), p.97
6.
Menon, V.P: op.cit.
, p.226
7.
Quraishi, Ishtiaq, H: The
Struggle for Pakistan (Karachi:
University of Karachi, 1965), p.238
8.
I.bid,
p.240
9. Ahmed, Ishtiaq : State, Nation
and Ethnicity in Contemporary South Asia (A & C Black, 1998), p.89
Bibliography
A.B.Rajput:
Muslim
League yesterday and Today.
India
Annual Register, 1945,
vol. II.
Justice
Shameem Hussain Kadri: Creation
of Pakistan.
Menon,
V.P: The
Transfer of Power in India.
Quraishi,
Ishtiaq, H: The
Struggle for Pakistan
Wavell,
Lord:
Speeches of Lord Wavell 1943-47
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