The British had followed a divide and rule policy in India. In order win the Muslims over to their side, the British helped in in eestablshing the M.A.O. College at Aligarhand supported the All India Muslim Conference, both of which were for the benifits of the Muslims where the ideology of pakistan emerged.As soon as the League was formed muslims were placed on a separate electoral list. Thus the idea of separateness of Muslims in India was built into the electoral process of india.
Muslim league also gained power due to the Congress for the following reasons:
1. The Congess banned any support for the british during the Second World War where as Muslim League marched one step forward by supporting it.
2. The civil disobedience movement and the consequent withdrawal of the Congress from the Assembly, helped the League to occupy the Ministry and gain power.
3. THis gave the Muslim league the opportunity to form strong ministries in provinces where they were large population.
The partition of india could not solve the religious minority problem in Bengal and Punjab which was prevailant as before it was during the partition.
Now the Indian Independence movement in the 1940s was an attempt by both the the Congress and the League to consolidate their their power to serve the interest of their respective feudal-bourgeois. The former was under the garb of a united India in the name of Indian Nationalism and the latter was in the form of a separate state for moslim minorities of India.who actually constituted majorities in the eastern and wewstern part of northern India.
Astonishingly enough the Muslim of the states where they were minorities were also vocal for the separate state, Pakistan.
Angry Telegraph :
After receiving a copy of the agreement of united Bengal signed by Sarat Bose Gandhi wrote to Sarat Bose, "there is nothing in the draft stipulating that nothing will be done by mere majority. Every act of Govt. must carry with it the cooperation of at least two-thirds of Hindu members in the Executive and Legislative".
This was a mild communal approachto what followed:
Gandhi and Sarat Bose both subsequently exchanged angry telegrams, when Gandhi , writing about the above-mentioned agreement, said in a letter to Sarat Bose dated 8 june, 1947,
" I have gone through your draft. I have discussed the scheme roughly with Pandit Nehru and Sarder patel. Both of them are dead against the proposal and they are of the opinion that it is merely a trick for dividing Hindus and Scheduled Caste leaders. With them it is not a suspicion but a conviction . They feel also that money is being lavishly expended in order to secure scheduled caste votes.If such is the case you should give up the struggle at least at present . For, the unity purchsed by corrupt practices would be worse than frank partition, it being recognition of the established decision of hearts and the unfortunate experience of the Hindus."
The scheduled castes were often called SC, untouchables in the British press.
Gandhi was expressing the fear that the Muslim League were forming a bloc with them against the higher caste Hindus. The point was that all the leaders of the nationalist movement were dabbling in reactionary attempts to atir up religious and caste divisions of the movement .
Sarat Bose vehemently protested against Gandhi's accusation of coruupt practices etc. and finally wrote a short letter to him summing up the attitude of Gandhi and the Indian National Congress as a whole at the time of partition . In the letter Sarat Bose wrote to Gandhi,
" It gives me to find that the Congress which was a great National Organisation is fast becoming an organisation of Hindus only. No stronger words could be used for the essential communal character of the Indian National Congress led by Gandhi, Nehru and patel and their likes in 1947."
The question of the partition of Muslim Majority Bengal and the very clear stand of the Congress leaders on the question demonstrated that inspite of raising the boggy of indian nationalism , the Congress through out was actually trying to consolidate the interesty of big Hindu Capitalistsand landlords in the whole of India as a religious majority. The Muslim League in the interest of Muslim feudal lords and trying to make the best out of it by separating the Muslim majority areas in the east and west of India, leaving the interest of the minority Muslims to the goodwill of the majority Hindus.
The people of British India, particularly the various minorities, were thus used both by the Congress and the Muslim League in the interest of the respective capitalists and feudal lords, neglecting the interest of the other minority groups.
