This study seeks to analyse the growth of the Muslim League and demand of Pakistan in Punjab between 1935-47. This exercise has resulted in highlighting certain trends which have been so far either ignored or underplayed. It, for instance, shows that the Punjab Muslim Students Federation waged a relentless campaign for the cause of Muslim League and demand of Pakistan fanning out to the remotest corners of the Muslim Punjab. The federation made extensive use of religious symbols and Islamic appeals to crystallise a unified pan-national Muslim identity which, according to it, had a common destiny and a common goal, i.e. Pakistan. This study also reveals that the Pirs and Sajjada-Nashins of the Punjab, who were influential opinion makers and leaders in their own right, further strengthened the cause of the Muslim League. The Pirs and Sajjada-Nashns felt that the League’s brand of puritan pristine, Arab-inspired Islam would marginalise then in their own pocket boroughs, thus, they supported the League which eventually strengthened the demand of Pakistan. The rural landed elites whose natural instincts were to swim with the tide, the author argues, also deserted from the Unionist Party to the Muslim League, once the League was perceived as a serous contender for power in the province. This, in turn, shifted the balance of the provincial politics in favour of the league. This study shows that the Muslim League presented Pakistan to the Muslim Punjab as the panacea of all Muslim grievances, both perceived as well as genuine which resulted in a meteoric ascendancy of the League in Punjab and its communal agenda eventually led to the partition of the provi.
There are no reviews yet.