Lahore:
82 years ago today, on March 23, 1940, at the conclusion of the three-day annual meeting of the All India Muslim League in Manto Park, Lahore, a landmark resolution was passed, on the basis of which the Muslim League sought the separation of Muslims in the subcontinent. Had started a movement for and after seven years succeeded in getting their demand approved.
The Muslim League was badly defeated in the first general elections in 1936/1937 in the first phase of the British Raj’s handover of power to the people in the subcontinent and its claim that It is the only representative body of Muslims in the subcontinent. Due to this, the leadership of the Muslim League and the workers were discouraged and they had a wonderful sense of helplessness.
The Congress had a clear majority in Madras, UP, CP, Bihar and Orissa. In NWFP and Bombay, it had formed a coalition government with other parties, and in Sindh and Assam, where the Muslims were dominant, the Congress had achieved remarkable success. Praja Krishak Party had won. The Muslim League could not gain power in any of the 11 provinces of India. In these circumstances, it seemed that the Muslim League was seceding from the political mainstream of the subcontinent. For example, the Congress declared Hindi as the national language, banned cow slaughter and made the Congress tricolor the national flag.
In this case, the leadership of the Muslim League was realizing that the Muslim League had been deprived of power on the grounds that it called itself the representative party of the Muslims. This was the starting point for the awakening of the sense of two separate nations under the leadership of the Muslim League. Some doors seemed to open for the Muslim League. Against this backdrop, the three-day meeting of the All India Muslim League in Lahore began on March 21, 1940.
