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• On 23rd March, 1940, league passed a resolution demanding a measure of autonomy for
Muslim majority areas of the sub-continent. This resolution never mentioned partition or a
separate state.
• Earlier in 1930, Urdu poet Mohammad Iqbal spoke about re-organisation of Muslim
majority areas in the North-Western India into autonomous unit within a large federation.
He also not imagined a separate country at the time of his speech.

The sudden Demand of Partition:

• None of the leaders of Muslim league were clear about Pakistan.
• Demand for autonomous area was made in 1940 and within 7 years only partition took
place.
• Even, Jinnah in the beginning may have seen the Pakistan as bargaining tool for
preventing British to grant concession to Congress and to gain favours for Muslims.

Important Events during Partition: Negotiation and Discussions Started Again

• Negotiations between British, Congress and Muslim league began in 1945 but the
discussions broke down due to Jinnah’s unrelenting demands about members of council
and communal veto.
• In 1946, again provincial elections were held. In this election, Congress swept general
constituencies and league succeed in gaining large majority of Muslim vote.
• The League’s success to capture seats reserved for Muslims was spectacular. It won all 30
reserved constituencies in the centre and 442 out of 509 seats in the provinces. Therefore,
in 1946 league established itself as dominant party among Muslims.

Cabinet Mission Came to India:

• In March 1946, Cabinet Mission came to India to make a suitable political framework for
India.
• Mission recommended India to be united with three tier confederation. It grouped
provincial assemblies into 3 sections. A for Hindu majority province, while B and C were
for Muslim majority areas of North-West and North-East. Cabinet Mission proposed a
weak centre and provinces will have power to set up intermediate level executives and
legislature of their own.
• Initially, all parties agreed but later league demanded that grouping should be made
compulsory and should have right to secede from the union. While Congress wanted that
provinces should be given the right to join the group. So due to differences, talks broke
down.
• Now Congress sensed after this failure that partition became inevitable and took it as tragic
but unavoidable. But Mahatma Gandhi and Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan of North-West
frontier province continued to oppose the idea of partition.

Re-Election in the Year 1946: