Formation of All India Muslim League (1906)

The All India Muslim League (also known as the Muslim League) was a political party founded in British India in 1906. Its strong advocacy, beginning in 1930, for the establishment of a separate Muslim-majority nation-state, Pakistan, resulted in the British Empire partitioning India in 1947. The party arose from the need for political representation of Muslims in British India, particularly in the event of massive Hindu opposition to Bengal’s partition in 1905, which was sponsored by the Indian National Congress. During the annual meeting of the All India Muslim Education Conference in Ahsan Manzil in 1906, the Nawab of Dhaka, Khwaja Salimullah, proposed the formation of a political party to protect the interests of Muslims in British India. 

Background

• Despite the sincere efforts of the Congress’s forefathers to attract Muslims to their sessions, the majority of the Islamic leadership, with the exception of a few scholars such as Sir Syed Ahmed Khan and Syed Ameer Ali, who focused more on Islamic education and scientific developments.
• It rejected the notion that India has two distinct communities that should be represented separately in Congress sessions.
• The Indian National Congress was founded in 1885. It was formed with the intention of bringing the thoughts and demands of all Indians, regardless of religion, to the attention of the British government.
• The Indian National Congress was doing well, and because it was working with the British government, it was able to affect many major changes in the structure of the government and its policies.
• Although Congress was successful in many areas, it was unsuccessful in gaining the trust of Indian Muslims.
• The Indian Muslims believed that the Congress was primarily a Hindu organization that could not serve Muslim communities. It sparked the idea of forming a separate political group for Indian Muslims.
• Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, a philosopher and Muslim reformist, was the first to plant the communal idea that Muslims are a separate nation in the Indian political ethos.
• On December 30, 1906, approximately 3000 delegates attended a conference of the Muhammadan Educational Conference in Dhaka, where the ban on politics was lifted and a motion to form the AIML was moved.
  • Nawab Khwaja Sir Salimullah Bahadur proposed the name, which was seconded by Hakim Ajmal Khan.
• The All India Muslim League was India’s first Muslim political party.

Features

• All India Muslim League, was a political organization that led the movement for the establishment of a separate Muslim nation during the partition of British India (1947).
• The Muslim League was established in 1906 to protect the rights of Indian Muslims.
• Initially encouraged by the British and generally supportive of their rule, the league adopted self-government for India as its goal in 1913.
• For decades, the league and its leaders, most notably Mohammed Ali Jinnah, advocated Hindu-Muslim unity in a united and independent India.
• It wasn’t until 1940 that the League of Nations called for the establishment of a separate Muslim state from India’s planned independent state.
• Because it feared that an independent India would be dominated by Hindus, the league advocated for a separate nation for India’s Muslims.
• Jinnah and the Muslim League led the fight for the partition of British India into separate Hindu and Muslim states, and the league became Pakistan’s dominant political party after the country’s independence in 1947.

Reasons for the Formation

• The All India National Congress was a Hindu-dominated organization. Its interests were always at odds with the Muslims’.
• By 1906, Muslim leaders were convinced that they needed their own political party to speak for the community on all major occasions.
• In terms of education and economic progress, Muslims had lagged far behind Hindus. Only by establishing a separate Muslim organisation that could represent the wishes of the Muslims could educational and economic conditions be improved.
• The Urdu-Hindu controversy began with Hindus’ demand that Hindi replace Urdu as the official language in Devanagari Script. Sir Anthony Macdonald, the then-Governor of Uttar Pradesh, removed Urdu from public office.
• The Congress clearly sided with Hindi and supported the anti-Urdu movement, and there was no other political party that supported Urdu. As a result, the need for the formation of a Muslim political party was acutely felt.
• The watershed moment occurred during John Morley’s budget speech in the summer of 1906, when he hinted at constitutional reforms.
• Muslims did not have a political platform to demand their fair share at the time. They reiterated their desire for a separate political platform.
• Minto expressed his full support for the Muslim demands. The success of Deputation compelled Muslims to form their own political organization.
• Sir Syed Ahmed Khan’s belief that Muslims were somehow a separate entity.
• Muslims did not believe that Hindus and Muslims belonged to the same nation. They differed in terms of religion, history, languages, and civilization. It became critical for Muslims to form their own political party.
• Nawab Salimullah Khan proposed the formation of the All India Muslim League, which was seconded by Hakim Ajmal Khan, Maulana Muhammad Ali, and Moulana Zafar Ali.
• On December 30, 1906, the All India Educational Conference passed the resolution.