Sunday, March 28, 2010

Election of 1937 (contd-7)

In Simon Commission report or in Round Table Conference it was imagined that it was not possible to form a govt without the support minority communities. But the election result of 1937 revealed that in five provinces the Congress obtained clear majorities and could form a govt without any support from outside and in two other provinces they needed the support of one or two sympathetic groups. Broadly speaking , therefore, there was no necessary for the Congress to come to terms with minority parties specially with Muslim League. In other words the member of a minority community had been bluntly told that they might be offered a ministry if they rejected the membership of the league and accepted the membership of the congress.But it became a little bit difficult in the  case of UP since Muslim league secured a good number seats there due to Aligarh University Movement and the former Mughal Age.Out of 228 seats 64 were reserved for Muslims of which they secured 26 seats. 28 seats were won by Independent Muslims , 9 by national Agriculturist Party and 1 by a Congress Muslim.
In the opinion of Nehru there were only two parties in the country one was the Congress and the other was the British Govt.
Jinnah took up the challenge, and his brilliancy as a leader never shone forth higher. He completely turned the table on the Congress by denouncing the anti-muslim attitude of the Congress.In his presidential address at the Lucknau session of the Muslim League, he said ,
  "The present leadership of the congress, specially during the last ten years, has beeen responsible alienating the Musalmans of  India more and more pursuing the policy which is exclusively Hindu.......The path before the Musalmans is,therefore, plain...."