The All-India Muslim League (or AIML) was a political party in the British India active between 1906 and 1947 that advocated for Muslim interests. The party emerged from the Aligarh Movement and the broader Islamic modernist and communalist traditions, which sought to preserve the distinct social and political identity of Muslims against the more secular policies of the Indian National Congress. In December 1906, following the successful Simla Deputation in October, the All-India Muslim League was founded in the 20th session of the All-India Muhammadan Educational Conference in Dacca (modern-day Dhaka). It created and spearheaded the movement for the creation of Pakistan based upon the two-nation theory of the Indian scholar Syed Ahmad Khan.
The party arose out of the need for the political representation of Muslims in British India, especially during the Indian National Congress-led opposition to the 1905 partition of Bengal. During the 1906 annual meeting of the All-India Muhammadan Education Conference held in Ahsan Manzil Palace in Dacca, the Nawab of Dacca, Khwaja Salimullah, forwarded a proposal to create a political party which would protect the interests of Muslims in British India. He suggested the political party be named the 'All-India Muslim League'. The motion was unanimously passed by the conference, leading to the official formation of the All-India Muslim League in Dacca. It remained an elitist organisation until 1937, when the leadership, under the command of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, began mobilising the Muslim masses, which turned the League into a popular organisation. The Muslim League played a decisive role in the 1940s, becoming a driving force behind the partition of India along religious lines and the creation of Pakistan as a Muslim state in 1947. After the partition of India and the creation of Pakistan, the All-India Muslim League was formally disbanded.
The party was succeeded by Muslim League in Pakistan and Indian Union Muslim League in India. The Muslim League in Pakistan was banned in 1958 but revived as the Pakistan Muslim League in 1962 and has since split into several political parties. In India, the Indian Union Muslim League remains active in the state of Kerala. In East Pakistan, now Bangladesh, it was succeeded by the All Pakistan Awami Muslim League now the Awami League.
Foundation
thumb|left|[[Ahsan Manzil, birthplace of All-India Muslim League in 1906]]
right|350px|thumb|The [[All India Muhammadan Educational Conference|AIME Conference in 1906, held at the Ahsan Manzil palace of the Dhaka Nawab Family, laid the foundation of the Muslim League.]]
With the sincere efforts by the pioneers of the Congress to attract Muslims to their sessions, the majority of the Islamic leadership, except for a few scholars (like Syed Ahmad Khan and Syed Ameer Ali, who focused more on Islamic education and scientific developments), rejected the notion that India has two distinct communities to be represented separately in Congress sessions.
Syed Ahmad Khan, in 1888, at Meerut, said, "After this long preface, I wish to explain what method my nation — nay, rather the whole people of this country — ought to pursue in political matters. I will treat in regular sequence of the political questions of India, in order that you may have a full opportunity of giving your attention to them. The first of all is this — In whose hands shall the administration and the Empire of India rest? Now, suppose that all English, and the whole English army, were to leave India, taking with them all their cannon and their splendid weapons and everything, then who would be the rulers of India? Is it possible that under these circumstances two nations — the Mahomedans and the Hindus — could sit on the same throne and remain equal in power? Most certainly not. It is necessary that one of them should conquer the other and thrust it down. To hope that both could remain equal is to desire the impossible and the inconceivable."
In 1886, Sir Syed founded the All-India Muhammadan Educational Conference, but a self-imposed ban prevented it from discussing politics. Its original goal was to advocate for British education, especially science and literature, among India's Muslims. The conference, in addition to generating funds for Sir Syed's Aligarh Muslim University, motivated the Muslim upper class to propose an expansion of educational uplift elsewhere, known as the Aligarh Movement. In turn, this new awareness of Muslim needs helped stimulate a political consciousness among Muslim elites. For a few of them, many years after the death of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, the All-India Muslim League was formed in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
The formation of a Muslim political party on the national level was seen as essential by 1901. The first stage of its formation was the meeting held at Lucknow in September 1906, with representatives from all over India in attendance. The decision to reconsider the formation of the all-Indian Muslim political party was taken, and further proceedings were adjourned until the next meeting of the All India Muhammadan Educational Conference. The Simla Deputation reconsidered the issue in October 1906 and decided to frame the party's objectives on the occasion of the annual meeting of the Educational Conference, which was scheduled to be held in Dhaka. Meanwhile, Nawab Salimullah Khan published a detailed scheme suggesting that the party be named the All-India Muslim Confederacy.
Pursuant to the decisions that had been taken earlier at the Lucknow meeting and later in Simla, the annual meeting of the All-India Muhammadan Educational Conference was held in Dhaka from 27 December until 30 December 1906. Three thousand delegates attended,
The draft proposals for the reforms communicated on 1 October 1908 provided Muslims with reserved seats in all councils, with nominations only being maintained in Punjab. The communication was a clear indicator of how much the Government had accommodated Muslim demands and reflected an increase in Muslim representation in the Imperial and provincial legislatures. But the Muslim League's demands were only fully met in UP and Madras. However, the Government did accept the idea of separate electorates. The idea had not been accepted by the Secretary of State, who proposed mixed electoral colleges, causing the Muslim League to agitate and the Muslim press to protest what they perceived to be a betrayal of the Viceroy's assurance to the Simla deputation.
On 23 February, Morley told the House of Lords that Muslims demanded separate representation and accepted them. This was the League's first victory. But the Indian Councils Bill did not fully satisfy the demands of the Muslim League. It was based on the October 1908 communique in which Muslims were only given a few reserved seats. The Muslim League's London branch opposed the bill and, in a debate, obtained the support of several parliamentarians. In 1909, the members of the Muslim League organised a Muslim protest. The Reforms Committee of Minto's council believed that Muslims had a point and advised Minto to discuss with some Muslim leaders. The Government offered a few more seats to Muslims in compromise, but would not agree to all of the League's demands.
Minto believed that the Muslims had been given enough, while Morley was still not certain because of the pressure Muslims could apply on the government. On 12 September 1909, the Muslim League's central committee once again demanded separate electorates and more representation. While Minto was opposed, Morley feared that the Bill would not pass parliament without the League's support, and he once again discussed Muslim representation with the League leadership. This was successful. The Aga Khan compromised so that Muslims would have two more reserved seats in the Imperial Council. The Muslim League hesitantly accepted the compromise.
Early years
Sultan Muhammad Shah (Aga Khan III) was appointed the first honorary president of the Muslim League, though he did not attend the Dhaka inaugural session. There were also six vice-presidents, a secretary, and two joint secretaries, initially appointed for a three-year term, proportionate to the representation from different provinces. In 1913, Muhammad Ali Jinnah joined the Muslim league.
Intellectual support and a cadre of young activists emerged from Aligarh Muslim University. Historian Mushirul Hasan writes that in the early 20th century, this Muslim institution, designed to prepare students for service to the British Raj, exploded into political activity. Until 1939, the faculty and students supported an all-India nationalist movement. After 1939, however, sentiment shifted dramatically toward a Muslim separatist movement, as students and faculty mobilised behind Jinnah and the Muslim League.
Growth of Communalism
Politically, there was a degree of unity between Muslim and Hindu leaders after World War I, as typified by the Khilafat Movement. Relationships cooled sharply after that campaign ended in 1922. Communalism grew rapidly, forcing the two groups apart. Major riots broke out in numerous cities, including 91 between 1923 and 1927 in Uttar Pradesh alone. At the leadership level, the proportion of Muslims among delegates to the Congress party fell sharply, from 11% in 1921 to under 4% in 1923.
The two-state solution was rejected by the Congress leaders, who favoured a united India based on a composite national identity. Congress at all times rejected "communalism" — that is, basing politics on religious identity. Iqbal's policy of uniting the North-West Frontier Province, Balochistan, Punjab, and Sindh into a new Muslim majority state became part of the League's political platform.
The League rejected the Committee report (the Nehru Report), arguing that it gave too little representation (only one quarter) to Muslims, established Devanagari as the official writing system of the colony, and demanded that India turn into a de facto unitary state, with residuary powers resting at the centre – the League had demanded at least one-third representation in the legislature and sizeable autonomy for the Muslim provinces. Jinnah reported a "parting of the ways" after his requests for minor amendments to the proposal were denied outright, and relations between the Congress and the League began to sour.
Conception of Pakistan
In November 1930, when all the prominent leaders of AIML, including Muhammad Ali Jinnah, were invited by the British Prime Minister, Ramsay MacDonald, for the Round Table Conference (1ST RTC), Muhammad Iqbal was invited to give the presidential address of AIML in Allahabad in which nothing new was proposed. Some scholars argued that
"Iqbal never pleaded for any kind of partition of the country. Rather he was an ardent proponent of a 'true' federal setup for India..., and wanted a consolidated Muslim majority within the Indian Federation."
Another Indian historian, Tara Chand, also held that Iqbal was not thinking in terms of partition of India, but in terms of a federation of autonomous states within India. Historian Safdar Mahmood also wrote in a series of articles that in the Allahabad address, Iqbal proposed a Muslim majority province within an Indian federation. Iqbal did not, at that time, back an independent state outside an Indian Federation.
On 28 January 1933, Choudhry Rahmat Ali, founder of the Pakistan National Movement, voiced his ideas in the pamphlet entitled "Now or Never". In a subsequent book, he discussed the etymology in further detail: "'Pakistan' is both a Persian and an Urdu word. It is composed of letters taken from the names of all our homelands ... That is, Panjab, Afghania (North-West Frontier Province), Kashmir, Iran, Sindh (including Kutch and Kathiawar), Tukharistan, Afghanistan, and Balochistan."
The British and the Indian press vehemently criticised these two different schemes and created confusion about the authorship of the word "Pakistan" to such an extent that even Jawaharlal Nehru had to write:
Campaign for Pakistan
250px|thumb|right|Muslim League Working Committee at the Lahore session
250px|thumb|right|Chaudhry Khaliquzzaman seconded the Resolution with Jinnah and Liaquat presiding over the session.
The Muslim League's earliest base was the United Provinces. There local leaders successfully mobilised Muslims in the late 1930s. Until 1937, the Muslim League remained an organisation of elite Indian Muslims. The Muslim League leadership then began mass mobilisation and it then became a popular party with the Muslim masses in the 1940s, especially after the Lahore Resolution. Under Jinnah's leadership, its membership grew to over two million and became more religious and even separatist in its outlook.
From 1937 onwards, the Muslim League and Jinnah attracted large crowds throughout India in its processions and strikes. It did not yet have enough authority, however, to overcome tensions within the Muslim community, such as those exhibited during the Madhe Sahaba Agitation between 1938 and 1939 in Lucknow.
At a League conference in Lahore in 1940, Jinnah said:
In Lahore, the Muslim League formally recommitted itself to creating an independent Muslim state which would include Sindh, Punjab, Baluchistan, the North West Frontier Province, and Bengal, and which would be "wholly autonomous and sovereign". The Lahore Resolution, moved by the sitting Chief Minister of Bengal A. K. Fazlul Huq, was adopted on 23 March 1940, and its principles formed the foundation for Pakistan's first constitution. In the Indian provincial elections of 1946, the Muslim League won 425 out of 476 seats reserved for Muslims (and about 89.2% of Muslim votes) on a policy of creating the independent state of Pakistan, and with an implied threat of secession if this was not granted. Congress, led by Gandhi and Nehru, remained adamantly opposed to dividing India.
In opposition to the Lahore Resolution, the All India Azad Muslim Conference gathered in Delhi in April 1940 to voice its support for a united India. Its members included several Islamic organisations in India, as well as 1400 nationalist Muslim delegates; the "attendance at the Nationalist meeting was about five times than the attendance at the League meeting." The All-India Muslim League worked to try to silence those Muslims who stood against the partition of India, often using "intimidation and coercion". while he was doing this, members of the pro-separatist Muslim League attacked Madani and disturbed his rallies.