The Pakistan Resolution 23rd March 1940

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Jinnah's Lahore address brought down the final curtain on any possibilities for a solitary joined free India. The people who comprehended him enough know that once his brain was made up he never returned to any earlier position and realized how pivotal a proclamation their Quaid-I-Azam had quite recently made.

The remainder of the world would take at least seven years to appreciate that he literally meant each word that he had articulated that important afternoon in March. There was no retreat. The ambassador of Hindu-Muslim solidarity had totally transformed himself into Pakistan's great leader.

All that remained was for his party first, then his inchoate nation, and then his British allies to agree to the formula he had settled upon. As for Gandhi, Nehru, Azad, and the rest, they were advocates of a neighboring state and would be dealt with according to classic canons of diplomacy. - Stanley Wolpert, Jinnah of Pakistan. 

The Quaid-i-Azam is presiding over the session

The British had been constrained to perceive the Muslim League as the sole representative of the Muslims of India by 1940 and Quaid-I-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah as its undisputed leader.

Time and Tide of London distributed an article by Jinnah on January 19, 1940, under the caption "The Constitutional Future of India". He maintained: "Democratic frameworks based on the idea of a homogeneous nation, for example, England are certainly not applicable to heterogeneous nations like India." He called the Hindus and the Muslims "two different nations" with different religions and different social codes.

Clearly, by calling the Hindus and the Muslims two nations, Jinnah had reached the limit of partition, yet he was as yet reluctant to abandon his long-lasting dream that Hindus and the Muslims would come to an understanding and as one make "their normal motherland " one of "the great nations of the world".

The Quaid-I-Azam crossed the barrier at the Lahore session of the Muslim League in March 1940. He traveled to Lahore from Delhi in a colorfully decorated train on which green flags were mounted, bearing the image of the Muslim League: the bow and star.

Jinnah chose to address a public gathering on the first day of the season. It was a colossal gathering of the Leaguers, the Khaksars, and the Muslims at Minto Park (now Iqbal Park). Jinnah had clarified the rationale of the goal in his presidential address that lasted for hundred minutes and was much of the time punctuated by booming applause.

However the majority of his audience of the north of 100,000 didn't know English, he held their attention and apparently contacted their inclination. He asserted that the Muslims were "a nation by any definition". In his historical address he laid the foundation of a separate state for the Muslims of India:

The Quaid-i-Azam and by Liaqat Ali Khan at All-India Muslim League Lahore Session in March 1940

"The Hindus and the Muslims have a place with two different religions, methods of reasoning, social traditions, and literature. They neither marry, nor feast together, and for sure they have a place with two different civilizations which are based mainly on clashing ideas and originations. Their aspects of life are different. It is very clear that Hindus and Muslims get their inspiration from different wellsprings of history. They have different stories, their legends are different, and they have different episodes.

All the time the legend of one is an enemy of the other, and in like manner, their victories and defeats overlap. To burden together two such nations under a solitary state, one as a numerical minority and the other as a majority should lead to developing discontent and the final obliteration of any fabric that may be so worked for the public authority of such a state."

The session began with Nawabzada Liaquat Ali Khan introducing the annual report on March 23, 1940. After the report, Maulana Fazlul Haq from Bengal moved the famous Lahore Resolution, otherwise called the Pakistan Resolution, " the areas wherein the Muslims are numerically in a majority as in the North-Western and Eastern zones of India ought to be gathered to comprise 'Free States' in which the constituent units shall be autonomous and sovereign." The goal was backed by Choudhry Khaliquzzaman who gave a short history of the causes which drove the Muslims to demand a separate state for themselves. Maulana Zafar Ali Khan, Sardar Aurangzeb Khan, Sir Abdullah Haroon, Nawab Ismail Khan, Qazi Mohammad Isa and I.I Chundigar supported it, among others.

The goal passed in Lahore on March 23, created a scare in the personalities of the Congress and the Hindus. They could see that the Muslim League had now straightforwardly advocated the division of India into "Free States." The Quaid had anticipated the Hindu reaction and had taken organizational moves toward face the resistance of the Hindus. He personally set an example of calm courage and an iron determination to lead the Muslims to their valued goal of opportunity.

The Pakistan Resolution released the potential creative energies of the Muslims and even the humblest amongst them made his commitment to the achievement of Pakistan. The Quaid knew that without an obvious goal that could be seen even by the most straightforward Muslim, there could be no real awakening of the Muslims. The Pakistan Resolution gave them a decipherable, objective, and reachable goal: Pakistan.