Nehru-Liaquat Pact

Also called: Delhi Pact 1950 · Topic: Challenges of Nation Building: Partition, Princely States and Reorganisation · NCERT: Beyond NCERT

Meaning

The Nehru-Liaquat Pact, also called the Delhi Pact, was an agreement signed in Delhi on 8 April 1950 by Jawaharlal Nehru (Prime Minister of India) and Liaquat Ali Khan (Prime Minister of Pakistan). Under it, each country promised to protect the religious minorities on its own side of the border. [1]

It matters for two reasons. First, it was India and Pakistan's main attempt after Partition to protect minorities through a two-country deal. Second, the Government of India named the Pact's failure as a reason for the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019. [3]

Explanation

Why the Pact was needed

• Economic break → tension in East Pakistan:
• India and Pakistan cut off economic relations in December 1949.

• Tension then grew in East Pakistan. [1]

• Violence → large movement of refugees:

• Fresh communal violence broke out in East and West Bengal in early 1950. Communal violence means violence between religious groups.

• Large numbers of refugees moved in both directions. [1]

• The wider problem: Partition had been made on the basis of religion. Both countries still had large minorities. Each government needed to show that its minorities were safe.

Main terms of the Pact

• Equal citizenship: Minorities in both countries were promised equal citizenship, safety of life and property, and freedom of religion. Their minority rights were confirmed. [1]
• Return of refugees: Refugees could go back home safely and sell their property. [1]
• Abducted women and looted property: Women who had been taken away by force had to be returned. Looted property also had to be returned. [1]
• Forced conversions: If someone had been forced to change their religion, the change would not be recognised. [1]
• Minority commissions: Each country set up these bodies to put the terms into practice. [1]

Limits of the Pact

• Promises only: The Pact depended on each government's goodwill. Each country enforced it on its own side, and nobody outside checked whether it did so.
• Refugees kept coming:
• People felt safer for a time.

• Even so, more than a million more refugees moved into West Bengal in the months after the Pact. [1]

• Not a constitutional rule: The Pact was an agreement between two governments. It did not change the Indian Constitution.

In the Constitution and practice

• Constitutional background: The Pact repeated, for both countries, promises that India's Constitution was already making to its own citizens:
• Article 14: equality before law.
• Article 15: no discrimination on grounds of religion.
• Articles 25-28: freedom of religion.
• Articles 29-30: minorities can protect their culture and run their own educational institutions.

• Articles 6 and 7: these set out citizenship at the start of the Republic for people who moved between India and Pakistan. Article 6 covered migrants from Pakistan. Article 7 covered people who had migrated to Pakistan.

• Political fallout in India:

• Syama Prasad Mukherjee and K.C. Neogy, both from Bengal, resigned from Nehru's cabinet. They felt the Pact did not protect Hindus in East Pakistan enough.

• Mukherjee went on to found the Bharatiya Jana Sangh in 1951. It became a leading opposition party during one-party dominance, the years when the Congress won almost every election.

• Lasting effect: the CAA 2019:

• The Government of India has said that Pakistan did not keep its promises under the 8 April 1950 Pact. It has also said that religious persecution of minorities continued there. [2]
• When the Bill was passed, the government named two reasons for bringing it: India's partition on religious lines, and the failure of the Nehru-Liaquat Pact to protect minorities in Pakistan and Bangladesh. [3]
• The CAA amends the Citizenship Act, 1955. It covers Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian migrants from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan who entered India on or before 31 December 2014. [4]
• For these migrants, the residence needed for naturalisation (gaining citizenship by living in India) falls from 11 of the past 14 years to 5 years. [4]

Don't confuse with

• Ambedkar's resignation: B.R. Ambedkar also left Nehru's cabinet, but in 1951 and over the Hindu Code Bill. Only S.P. Mukherjee and K.C. Neogy resigned over the Nehru-Liaquat Pact.
• Gandhi's Delhi fast (13-18 January 1948): This was a personal fast by Gandhi to win safety for Delhi's Muslims and payment of Pakistan's dues. The Pact came two years later. It was a formal agreement between the two Prime Ministers, and it covered minorities in both countries.
• Constitutional minority rights (Articles 29-30): These are part of India's Constitution, and courts can enforce them. The Pact was a promise between two governments, so it depended only on each side's goodwill.
• CAA 2019: This is an Indian law passed by Parliament that changes the Citizenship Act, 1955. The government says the Pact's failure is one reason for it. The Pact itself made no change to citizenship law. [3]

Prelims Hooks

• Nehru-Liaquat Pact / Delhi Pact → signed 8 April 1950 in Delhi by the Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan. It set up minority commissions. [1]
• Trigger → economic relations were cut off in December 1949, and communal violence followed in East and West Bengal in early 1950. [1]
• Ministers who resigned over the Pact → S.P. Mukherjee and K.C. Neogy. Trap: Ambedkar resigned in 1951 over the Hindu Code Bill, not over this Pact.
• S.P. Mukherjee → founded the Bharatiya Jana Sangh in 1951.
• Which of the following was part of the Pact? → refugees could return home and sell their property, abducted women and looted property had to be returned, and forced conversions were not recognised. [1]
• CAA 2019 link → the government named the failure of the Nehru-Liaquat Pact as a reason for the Bill. [3]

Mains Points

• Two-country guarantees for minorities have limits (GS-I):
• The Pact depended on each state's goodwill and on its own enforcement. Nothing outside the two governments could make either side keep its promises.

• More than a million more refugees still moved into West Bengal after the Pact. This shows that written promises alone could not create trust. [1]

• The Pact and Indian politics (GS-I):

• Opposition to the Pact led Mukherjee and Neogy to resign. Mukherjee then founded the Bharatiya Jana Sangh in 1951.

• This shows that Nehru's secular choice faced challenges even inside his own cabinet. That choice was both a moral principle and a practical strategy.

• From the 1950 Pact to the CAA 2019 debate (GS-II):

• For the Act: Supporters say it repairs a broken 1950 promise. It gives relief to minorities who were persecuted after Pakistan did not keep its commitments. [2]
• Against the Act: Critics say a religious filter goes against the secular choice of 1947. They also ask whether it meets Article 14. Under Article 14, the law may treat groups differently only if there is a fair and clear reason (reasonable classification). [4]
• A balanced answer should give both sides and mention the exemptions. These are the Sixth Schedule tribal areas of Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura, and the Inner Line Permit states of Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Nagaland. [4]

Read more

• Minorities, Gandhi's last fasts and the secular choice