5 - Jinnah's ‘Pakistan’ and the Cabinet Mission plan

Summary

Section 1

After the 1945–46 elections the lines were clearly drawn for the claims and counter-claims of the end game. Congress still wanted independence to come before settling the communal problem. This meant having an essentially unitary form of government – one constitution and one nation – strong enough to fulfil the purposes for which independence was being sought, while appeasing the fears of provinces and minority groups. In contrast, Jinnah and the League reiterated their demand that the first step must be to accept Pakistan in principle now that the Muslim electorate had given its verdict in favour of it. Once Congress was prepared to recognise this, ‘the whole spirit would change and we should become friends’. If the British then ‘declared their decision in favour of Pakistan there would be no trouble’ since the ‘Hindus would quickly accept it’.

Another British initiative was now inevitable, and Congress at any rate wanted to speed up matters. Seeing this, Jinnah had to show a little more of his hand: the principle of Pakistan, he now explained, meant that the old unitary centre of British India had to be replaced by two distinct and separate political entities or federations organised by two constituent assemblies, one for the Muslim provinces and the other for the Hindu provinces.