ENG 515A Lecture Notes - Lecture 18: Direct Action Day, Muhammad Zafarullah Khan, Vallabhbhai Patel
PAMSA seminar - Week 13
Thursday, 16th November, 2017
• Mazilgah asjid iidet led to the…?
• G. M Syed? regretted it later.
• Manzilgah controversy – durig late 9’s, hidus ad uslis ere liig together,
zamindari system, many times hindus ould hadle uslis’ lad et. G. M. “yed is the
founder of modern sindhi nationalism. He believed that we needed partition in order to
gain autonomy for muslims. Chief minister of sindh - Allahbakhs Soomro was against
partition – shot dead in shikarpur – shot by pir pagara hurr – after Pakistan was created,
G. M. saeed was jailed even though he was a supporter of partition. Then he realized his
mistake.
• Ho oual idetities ere eig osolidated i late 9’s ad early 9’s.
• Another pertinent incident – Jinnah gives the call for direct action day – 1946
• What happens? Huge rioting, massacre.
• Divisions/communal divides begin by the end of non cooperation and khilafat
movements.
• Jinnah wanted to show that he can also command mass sentiments/popularity, similar
to gadhi’s oilizatio of ass politis/setiets. Ufortuately the route Jiah
took was based on the communal divides. At the end of direct action day, to people like
Nehru and sardar patel, Jinnah was creating unnecessary trouble, that they were willing
to negotiate to a certain extent on matters of autonomy within a united Indian
federation, but Jinnah was really stretching it. According to Nehru, patel etc, Jinnah was
playing with fire/open call to murder.
• Jinnah is trying to signal to Gandhi, congress and the british that he can also
reate/ause troule like Jiah sa ogress as ofte doig i the for of hartaals,
non cooperation movements etc – he wanted to show that he, too can summon the
masses into action. This is about power politics. Jinnah had always remained a man of
constitution/remained within the realm of constitutional politics – he wants to signal to
the congress and british that just because he remains within constitutional politics, that
is not a sign of his weakness, and so as evidence of his strength to mobilize the masses
he calls direct action day.
• Local level, congress was also appealing to communal sentiments.
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• Earlier, Jinnah had said about Gandhi that bringing religion into politics is not a good
idea, no matter what you call it (himsa etc) at the end of the day it will lead to violence
and conflict. One of the critiques of gandhis approach.
• The way british tried to quote muslim league during the war – we should’t lose sight of
this fact – british needed a diff player ho ould hallege ogress’ legitiay. A major
reaso as to hy usli league’s status/profile ireased.
• Muslim league was a party that was trying to revive its power after the humiliating
defeat in 1936/1937 elections, by appealing to nativist, communal sentiments – very
easy/popular political ploy.
• Another contradiction in terms – usli league’s top leadership are shia uslis –
agha khanis, sir zafarullah khan, Jinnah himself. So theres a lot of complexity in the
politis of late 9’s. Eg late 9’s – shia sunni tensions arise in central india (UP,
lucknow etc).
• There was a pro shia majlis that actually appealed to the congress, because they said
they ould’t trust usli league.
• Broader trend – serious communal rupture, consolidation of communal identities, no. of
incidents in which sectarian and communal tensions flare up and come bubbling up to
the surface, and sets the tone for what would happen in the post colonial period for
india and Pakistan.
• Then what was the point of advocating for partition, if, according to the critique by
ambedkar and other key figures, creation of Pakistan would achieve nothing, because if
partition serves the function to protect muslim interests, then in muslim majority
provinces, their interests will be protected anyway, and in muslim minority provinces,
the minorities will not be protected whether Pakistan is created or not.
• Jiah’s purpose for advocating partition/in his mind, he thought – that they would
protect the interests of the minorities in the muslim majority regions that would come
under Pakistan.
• Jinnah and muslim league were tryna leverage support in muslim majority provinces to
argue for greater protections ..?
• Minority provinces will have greater representation than their actual size. (north Indian
muslims).
• Muslim majority provinces – muslim league was willing to trade its majority, but in order
to do that, it had to ensure first that it had the support of muslim majority provinces,
hih it DIDN’T. hih is hy the series of oes udertaken by Jinnah and muslim
league – efforts to energize the northern Indian muslims, and balochistan, overtures to
khan of kalat –
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find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Thursday, 16th november, 2017: ma(cid:374)zilgah (cid:373)asjid i(cid:374)(cid:272)ide(cid:374)t led to the , g. m syed? regretted it later, manzilgah controversy duri(cid:374)g late (cid:1005)9(cid:1007)(cid:1004)"s, hi(cid:374)dus a(cid:374)d (cid:373)usli(cid:373)s (cid:449)ere li(cid:448)i(cid:374)g together, zamindari system, many times hindus (cid:449)ould ha(cid:374)dle (cid:373)usli(cid:373)s" la(cid:374)d et(cid:272). G. m. yed is the founder of modern sindhi nationalism. He believed that we needed partition in order to gain autonomy for muslims. Chief minister of sindh - allahbakhs soomro was against partition shot dead in shikarpur shot by pir pagara hurr after pakistan was created: m. saeed was jailed even though he was a supporter of partition. Huge rioting, massacre: divisions/communal divides begin by the end of non cooperation and khilafat movements. Jinnah wanted to show that he can also command mass sentiments/popularity, similar to ga(cid:374)dhi"s (cid:373)o(cid:271)ilizatio(cid:374) of (cid:373)ass politi(cid:272)s/se(cid:374)ti(cid:373)e(cid:374)ts. U(cid:374)fortu(cid:374)ately the route ji(cid:374)(cid:374)ah took was based on the communal divides. At the end of direct action day, to people like.
