Jinnah’s Two Nations Theory March 1940

• In November 193, a Pirpur Committe which was submitted by the Muslim league had presented its report in which it charged the congress for interference with the religious rites, suppression of Urdu and propaganda of Hindi, denial of legitimate representation and suppression in economy of the Muslims.

  Pirpur Committee Pirpur Committee was established in November 1930 by the All India Muslim League to prepare a detailed report regarding the atrocities of the Congress Ministries (1937-1939) formed after the elections under the 1935 Government of India Act in different provinces. Its report charged the congress for interference with the religious rites, suppression of Urdu and propaganda of Hindi, denial of legitimate representation and suppression in economy of the Muslims.

• The national poet of Pakistan, Allama Muhammad Iqbal had initially suggested the creation of a separate homeland for the Muslims of India. But in his work Tarana-e-Hind, he stated the belief of a strong united India.
• In the Third round table conference, a Cambridge student Chaudhary Rehmat Ali coined the term Pakistan. On 28 January 1933, he published a pamphlet “Now or Never” which is called “Pakistan Declaration“.

  This declaration said:

  ” At this solemn hour in the history of India, when British and Indian statesmen are laying the foundations of a Federal Constitution for that land, we address this appeal to you, in the name of our common heritage, on behalf of our thirty million Muslim brethren who live in PAKSTAN – by which we mean the five Northern units of India, Viz: Punjab, North-West Frontier Province (Afghan Province), Kashmir, Sind and Baluchistan. ”
  

• This pamphlet appealed the Government that the five northern Units of India come up as a state independent of the proposed Indian Federation.
• But, this was not a movement until Jinnah Took it up.
• For Jinnah, the Congress was “Gandhi Hindu Congress”.

  On March 20, 1940, the Muslim League met at Lahore. Here Fazlul Haq, the Premier of Bengal, who along with Muslim League had formed the Government Bengal Province, moved a resolution, which was passed by Muslim League.

  The resolution said:

  the areas in which Muslims are numerically in majority, as in north-western and eastern zones of India, should be grouped to constitute the Independent States in which the Constituent units would be autonomous and sovereign”.
  

  In this session Jinnah in his Presidential address gave the famous two nation theory as follows:

  “India cannot be assumed today to be Unitarian and homogenous nation, but on the contrary, there are two nations in the main- the Hindus and the Muslims”.
  

• But the term Pakistan was not used in this session. This resolution was ambiguous and only a primitive idea which took firm shape only in 1946.

  Gandhi rejected the two-nation theory and said:

  ” My whole soul rebels against the idea that Hinduism and Islam represent two antagonistic cultures and doctrines. To assent to such a doctrine for me is denial of God”.