Do we know anything about Lahore Resolution?

Monday, March 23, 2009

By Hamid Mir
March 23 is just a public holiday for most of the Pakistanis. Their knowledge about the
genesis and significance of this day is very limited. They simply think that March 23 is
Pakistan Day because All India Muslim League for the first time adopted a resolution in
Lahore for the creation of a separate Muslim homeland in 1940. Very few of them know that
word ‘Pakistan’ was not used in this resolution. No Muslim Leaguer including Muhammad
Ali Jinnah mentioned the name of Pakistan in their speeches on March 23, except a lady
speaker Begum Muhammad Ali Jauhar. This resolution was originally called Lahore
declaration but Hindu press branded it ‘Pakistan Resolution.’ The text books in schools and
colleges of Pakistan do not say that Lahore resolution was actually passed for at least two
separate Muslim states. Rights of the non-Muslims were also protected in that resolution very
clearly. It also gave protection to the provincial autonomy because Muslims of the
subcontinent wanted economic justice.

The resolution for the creation of separate Muslim states in the British-controlled India was
moved by the chief minister of United Bengal Maulvi A K Fazlul Haq. There was no doubt
that he surely wanted two separate states. One for the Muslims of Punjab, Sindh, NWFP,
Balochistan and Kashmir and the other for the Muslims of Bengal and Assam. Like it or not
but the historical realities are difficult to digest. If we read the Lahore Resolution carefully it
will be easy to understand that this resolution was not implemented in its true spirit on
August 14, 1947, due to the conspiracies of Congress leaders and Lord Mountbatten and also
weakness of All India Muslim League.

In fact, the concept of a sovereign independent Bengal had its origins in the Pakistan
movement. The mother party of Pakistan was All India Muslim League and interestingly this
party was born in 1906 in Dacca in Bengal and not in the present-day Pakistan. Many
historians claim that Chaudhry Rehmat Ali introduced the word Pakistan in 1933. United
Bengal was not part of his Pakistan scheme. He proposed the name ‘Bangsam’ for the
separate state of Bengali Muslims living in Bengal and Assam. Two professors of Aligarh
University Syed Zafarul Hassan and Dr Afzal Hussain again proposed two Muslim states in
their famous Aligarh scheme in 1935. They proposed that Punjab, North West Frontier
Province, Sind, Balochistan, Bahawalpur, Jammu and Kashmir, Kapurthala and Malir Kotla
should be one state. Bangal and Assam including the Purena district of Bihar should be the
second state and the third state should be the rest of India.

Dr Syed Abdul Latif of Osmania University, Hyderabad, in his book ‘The Muslim Problem
of India’ published in 1938 proposed four separate Muslim states. He proposed a state from
Patiala to Rampur including Lucknow for the Muslims of UP and Bihar and another separate
state of Hyderabad (Andhra Perdesh). He also supported the Pakistan scheme and Bangsam
scheme of Chaudhry Rehmat Ali. Another Muslim Leaguer from UP Chaudhry Khaleequz
Zaman also proposed the scheme of two separate Muslim states to England in 1939. The
adoption of the Lahore Resolution in March 1940 was a significant step towards highlighting
the demand for separate homelands for the two Muslim majority zones of India. The Lahore
Resolution said:

‘No constitutional plan would be workable or acceptable to the Muslims unless geographical
contiguous units are demarcated into regions which should be so constituted with such
territorial readjustments as may be necessary. That the areas in which the Muslims are
numerically in majority as in the North-Western and Eastern zones of India should be
grouped to constitute independent states in which the constituent units shall be autonomous
and sovereign.’ The words autonomous and sovereign were used for independent states not
for the provinces.

Some historians like Dr Safdar Mehmood are not ready to accept that Lahore Resolution
actually meant two separate states. He claims that Jinnah clarified to the foreign
correspondents on March 24, 1940, that Muslim League wanted only one state. Few
historians even claimed that the real word in the Lahore Resolution was ‘state’ not ‘states.’ It
was just a typing error. The office secretary of All India Muslim League from 1914 to 1948
Syed Shamsul Hassan have a different story.

Syed Shamsul Hassan was a trusted man of Jinnah. He clarified that there was no typing
error in the Lahore Resolution. The word ‘states’ was approved by the draft committee
members including Malik Barkat Ali, Nawab Ismail Khan and Nawabzada Liaqat Ali Khan.
The working committee of All India Muslim League again met in Bombay from Aug 31 to
Sept 2, 1940 under the chairmanship of Jinnah and this meeting again said that separate
Muslim states should be established in the north-west and east of India.

Unfortunately the Lahore Resolution remained undefined until April 1946. It was again the
chief minister of United Bengal Hussein Shaheed Suharwardi who moved a resolution in the
working committee meeting of Muslim League held in Delhi on April 7, 1946, that Bengal
and Assam in the north-east and Punjab, NWFP, Sindh and Balochistan in the north-west of
India should be a single state. The word Pakistan was used for the first time in that
resolution.

Kamaruddin Ahmad in his book ‘The Social History of East Pakistan’ published in 1967 in
Dacca wrote that Secretary General of Bengal Muslim League Abul Hashim raised objection
on the resolution moved by Suharwardi. Kamaruddin Ahmad was a die-hard Bengali worker
of Pakistan movement. He was present in the meetings of Lahore and Delhi. He wrote that
Jinnah explained to Abul Hashim that Delhi resolution was not meant to change the Lahore
Resolution but to have one constituent assembly for the Muslim India for drafting the
constitution or constitutions of Pakistan on the basis of Lahore Resolution. After few weeks
of the Delhi meeting Suharwardi started his efforts for the creation of a separate United
Bengal state with the help of Abul Hashim and a Bengali Hindu leader of Congress Sarat
Chandra Bose. This Hindu leader was the elder brother of famous freedom fighter Subhash
Chandra Bose. He was in Congress but he failed to convince his party for the creation of
United Bengal.

A very well respected Pakistani historian Zahid Chaudhry claimed that Jinnah quietly
supported the efforts of Suharwardi and Sarat Chandra Bose for a United Bengali state. In his
book ‘Bengali Mussalman aur Tehrik-i-Pakistan’ he clearly wrote on page 448 that Jinnah
told Mountbatten once that there is no use of Bengal without Calcutta and he will be very
happy on the creation of a separate United Bengal and this state will have very friendly
relations with Pakistan. Suharwardi, Abul Hashim and Bose also met Mahatma Gandhi and
 tried to convince him for the United Bengal scheme. Suharwardi even offered that he will
form a coalition government with Congress in United Bengal but Gandhi never listened to
him. He forced Mountbatten to divide Bengal. He occupied many Muslim majority areas like
Kashmir and Gurdaspur in the East Punjab with the help of Mountbatten.

Division of Bengal was a violation of Lahore Resolution as well as Delhi resolution.

Bengalis supported Muslim League because they wanted justice. They were a majority in
United Bengal but they were economically dominated by Hindu elite. Division of Bengal was
a great injustice to them. They never got justice even after the creation of Pakistan. Military
dictators of Pakistan never fulfilled the promises made in the Lahore Resolution. Bengali
leaders like Suharwardi were humiliated by the dictators and their toady judges.

The creation of Pakistan was the result of a political and democratic struggle but pro-
American military dictators destroyed all the democratic institutions and finally Bengalis said
goodbye to Pakistan.

We never learned any lessons. Our students in colleges and universities still do not know
what the real cause was for the creation of Bangladesh, what provincial autonomy is and
what promises were made by the Muslim League in the Lahore Resolution. According to the
original draft of the Lahore Resolution, the central government should have control only over
defence, foreign affairs, communications and finance. Rest of the powers should go to the
provinces. The Lahore Resolution says that Pakistan needs strong provinces, not a strong
centre. Late Bengali leader Sheikh Mujibur Rehman demanded this provincial autonomy
promised in the Lahore Resolution through his famous six points but Pakistani generals
declared him a traitor. Unfortunately Pakistan still has areas like North Waziristan and Bajaur
that are run by old British laws. The constitution of Pakistan has no writ in these tribal areas.
Local people are suffering from injustice even after 1947. The Baloch are also demanding
provincial autonomy. Intelligence agencies are still more powerful than the elected provincial
government in Balochistan It needs justice more than the other provinces today. If we
implement the Lahore Resolution in its true spirit I am sure there will be no problem in the
tribal areas and Balochistan.

The writer works for Geo TV. Email: hamid.mir@geo.tv