Muslim League

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Muslim League political organization of India and Pakistan, founded 1906 as the All-India Muslim League by Aga Khan III. Its original purpose was to safeguard the political rights of Muslims in India. An early leader in the League, Muhammad Iqbal , was one of the first to propose (1930) the creation of a separate Muslim India.

By 1940, under the leadership of Muhammad Ali Jinnah , it had gained such power that, for the first time, it demanded the establishment of a Muslim state (Pakistan), despite the opposition of the Indian National Congress . During World War II the Congress was banned, but the League, which supported the British war effort, was allowed to function and gained strength. It won nearly all of the Muslim vote in the elections of 1946. The following year saw the division of the Indian subcontinent and the Muslim League became the major political party of newly formed Pakistan . By 1953, however, dissensions within the League had led to the formation of several different political parties.

Between 1958 and 1962, while martial law was in force under Muhammad Ayub Khan , the League was officially defunct. Later, the League reformed into two separate factions: the Convention Muslim League (under Ayub) and the Council Muslim League. This latter group joined a united front with other political parties in 1967 in opposition to the group led by Ayub. The Convention Muslim League ceased to exist when Ayub Khan resigned in 1969. The Council Muslim League, which had brought about the founding of Pakistan, was virtually eliminated from the political scene in the elections of 1970.

Since the lifting of restrictions on political parties in 1985 a number of parties have used the name Pakistan Muslim League, but they have little real connection with the original Muslim League. The Muslim League survived as a minor party in India after partition, and since 1988 has splintered into several groups, the most important of which is the Indian Union Muslim League.

Bibliography: See M. Ahmed, ed., Contemporary Pakistan (1980).

Muslim League An Indian party founded on 30 December 1906 in Dacca, initially in order to campaign for separate Muslim representation in all levels of government. It claimed to represent the grievances and demands of the entire Indian Muslim community. Hence in the first decades, it pursued the dual aim of winning greater rights of self-government from the British, and of winning greater rights for Muslims within that system. To achieve the former aim, it cooperated frequently with the Indian National Congress (INC), with which it allied itself in the Lucknow Pact of December 1916. Briefly eclipsed by the Khilafat movement, it was largely ineffective during the 1920s, when it claimed little over 1,000 members throughout the subcontinent. This led to a decade in the 1930s of major revision of its goals and its organization which would enable it to appeal to the disparate Muslim community.

In 1930, Iqbal addressed its annual conference (attended by only seventy-five members) to demand, for the first time, a separate Muslim state in the west. This stance became gradually accepted, particularly after the Muslim League's catastrophic showing in the 1937 elections, when it gained but 104 out of 489 Muslim seats. Its leader, Jinnah, now sought to broaden its mass base, while on 23 March 1940 the demand for separate Muslim homelands became an accepted policy of the League. By 1944, it could claim over two million members, which in the 1945–6 elections translated into 75 per cent of the Muslim vote. It thus had a popular mandate for the creation of a separate Muslim state, and was able to achieve the creation of Pakistan in 1947. Initially dominant in Pakistan politics, now that independence had been gained, and after the death of the commanding Jinnah, it lacked an integrative force, so that it dissolved into various groups during the 1950s.

Muslim League Political party founded in 1905 to represent the separate interests of the Indian Muslims, who felt threatened by the prospects of a Hindu majority in any future democratic system. The radical nationalist elements in the League forged a pact with the CONGRESS in 1916 on the basis of separate electorates and reserved seats in Muslim minority provinces. A section of the League allied itself to the Congress in the non-cooperation movement. In the provincial elections (1937), the League captured very few Muslim seats, but it succeeded in convincing the Muslim masses that the elected Congress ministries were oppressing Muslims. In 1940 it put forward the demand for an autonomous Muslim homeland, Pakistan, interpreted by its leader, M. A. JINNAH, as an independent state during the transfer of power negotiations between the UK and India. He called for a Direct Action Day in August 1946. Mass rioting followed, whereupon the British and the Congress agreed to partition. The League was virtually wiped out at the first elections in Pakistan.

Muslim League Political organization (founded 1906) to protect the rights of Muslims in British India. The League cooperated with the predominantly Hindu National Congress until the 1930s when, fearing Hindu domination, it turned to independent action under the leadership of Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Although pro-British, in 1940 it called for a separate Muslim state, which was achieved when the country was partitioned at independence (1947). At first, the League dominated politics in Pakistan but subsequently split into rival factions.