1945-46 Elections and Pakistan: Punjab’s Pivotal Role

Abstract

The 1945-46 elections were by far the most critical ones at all levels in all the annals of subcontinental history. The first Simla Conference had broken down on 14 July 1945 on the controversial issue of the All India Muslim League (AIML)’s representative character, and Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah (1876-1948) was quick to demand a reference to the electorate to buttress his ‘demonstration of imperious strength at … Simla’. Jinnah, a strategist with an acute sense of timing, seized the moment to call for general elections, so that the League’s claim to being Muslim India’s authoritative body and his claim to being its sole spokesman get validated, once and for all, at the hustings. General elections, thus, came to be announced on 21 August 1945, and were scheduled for winter 1945-46. Not inexplicably though, the two critical issues at stake were: (i) whether the AIML was Muslim India’s sole authoritative spokesman, and (ii) whether Muslims favoured Pakistan or not. Although every Muslim seat throughout the subcontinent was important, more critical, however, were those in the Punjab and Bengal, the most demographically dominant Muslim provinces. After all, if Pakistan were to be established, it had to be in the Muslim provinces. No wonder, Maulana Azad, the Congress Rastrapathi, wrote to Sardar Vallabbhai Patel (1875-1950), the ‘Iron Man’ of the Congress, on 21 October that ‘the Punjab and Bengal hold the key position in the present election’. Patel went a step farther, asserting that ‘the Punjab holds the key to the future of India’. That, above all, underscores Punjab’s preeminent role in the electoral battle for Pakistan, even from the Congress’s viewpoint.