ABSTRACT
The Partition of 1947 was not imposed on the Muslim League and the Indian National Congress who were the main stake-holders for Pakistan and India – the two states which emerged from the division of British India. The Muslim League was the main driver of the process. Led by ‘secular’ Muslims such as Muhammad Ali Jinnah (the ulama had stayed out of the Pakistan movement) the project was meant to secure Muslim rights. This was the leitmotif for the politics of the League. It tried, unsuccessfully, to protect Muslim interests in the face of the perceived danger of Hindu preponderance in independent India. Having failed to secure a guarantee for a legitimate share of office in a united India, in the face of Congress inflexibility, the League eventually moved on to the idea of a territorial state – a homeland for Muslims of India. Partition, which was meant to protect Muslim rights, ended up doing the opposite for many. A substantial number of Indian Muslims were left behind in India where, at 10 per cent of the population, they formed a smaller minority group, having formerly made up 25 per cent of the population. Furthermore, with the loss of powerful Muslim-majority provinces such as Punjab and Bengal, there were no longer any strident regional voices in the Indian federation to defend Muslim interests.
