Genocide: - DIIS

The Punjab 1937-47 - A Case of Genocide?
would be held with “representatives of several communities”. 44 This announcement
challenged the Congress in its claim to represent all of India
and emphasised that a future transfer of power would not be given to the
Congress alone. However, the Muslim League decided not to back the war
effort either. In the Unionist led Punjab, Governor Craik expected that the
different communities would support the war effort as “the martial races
look forward to recruitment on a large scale”. 45
At a Muslim League meeting in Lahore on March 23, 1940, Muhammed
Ali Jinnah (leader of the All India Muslim League) offi cially denounced
a united Indian nation by stating that it was a “dream” that Hindus and
Muslims could ever evolve a common nationality. “The Hindus and Muslims
belong to two different religious philosophies, social customs, and
literature”. 46 Jinnah further argued that the north-eastern and north-western
parts of India, where the Muslims constituted a majority were to be
independent and sovereign states.
Within the traditionalist 47 and revisionist 48 schools it is disputed how the
Lahore resolution (also known as the Pakistan resolution) is to be interpreted.
The traditionalists see the resolution and the two-nation theory as
an attempt to establish a separate Muslim state and regard the subsequent
independent Pakistan as the logical consequence of the Lahore resolution.
On the other hand, the revisionists argue that the Lahore resolution should
not be seen as a demand for an independent state, but rather as a bargaining
counter. Jinnah wanted Muslims in India to be regarded as a nation
and not as a minority. His real aim was not to partition British India, but to
develop a relationship of equals. 49
44 Ibid., p. 376.
45 FR fi rst half of September 1939, IOL, L/P&J/5/242, p. 90.
46 An Extract from the Presidential Address of M. A. Jinnah, Lahore March 1940, in Mushirul
Hasan (ed.) (1993), India’s Partition: Process, Strategy and Mobilisation. New Delhi, p. 56.
47 Anita Inder Singh (1987), The Origins of the Partition of India, 1936-1947. New Delhi; R. J.
Moore (1983), “Jinnah and the Pakistan Demand”, Modern Asian Studies, 17, 4, p. 529-61.
48 Jalal (1986).
49 Asim Roy (1990), “The High Politics of India’s Partition. The Revisionist Perspective”, Modern
Asian Studies, 24, 2, p. 385-415.
93