Pakistan
Topic: The National Movement: Gandhian Era · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 3 "Mahatma Gandhi and the Nationalist Movement"; Class 12, Ch 4 "Framing the Constitution"
Meaning
Pakistan is the separate state for Muslims that was carved out of British India. The Muslim League's Lahore Resolution (March 1940) asked for autonomy for the Muslim-majority areas, and this soon grew into the demand for Pakistan. After the polarised elections of 1946 and the riots that followed, Pakistan was created on 14 August 1947. It was made from Muslim-majority areas in the north-west and the east. Jinnah was elected president of its Constituent Assembly on 11 August 1947.
Example
In 1930 the poet Muhammad Iqbal spoke of a "Muslim India within India". Later this was used as the "intellectual justification" (the reasoning behind the idea) for the Pakistan demand. In 1947 Mountbatten's plan gave freedom along with Partition, and India and Pakistan became separate countries.
Don't confuse with
- Iqbal's idea of 1930: Iqbal asked for separate electorates and a Muslim region within India, not a fully separate country.
Related concepts
- Provincial elections of 1937
- Congress ministries 1937-39
- Wardha scheme of basic education
- Congress Socialist Party
- Haripura session 1938
- Tripuri crisis 1939
- Forward Bloc
- Second World War
- Lord Linlithgow
- Resignation of Congress ministries