Hundred Great Muslims

352 Hundred Great Muslims
out of eleven Indian Provinces, and their professions, when put to practice,
fell miserably short of public expectations, specially of the Muslims. The utterly
communal policies practised by the Congress high ups like Patel, Tandon, Shukla,
Misra and Sanpurnanand, coupled with the narrowminded communal outlook
of the Hindu masses, exposed the Congress in all its nakedness. Their practice
procured a strange contrast to their professions which created a stir throughout
Muslim India and immensely added to the Muslim distrust towards the Congress,
resulting in rallying of the Muslim masses under the Muslim League banner. The
anti-Muslim policies of the Congress Ministries had greatly contributed to the
popularity of the Muslim League in the Muslim minority provinces. A series of
Hindu-Muslim riots broke out in the Congress administered provinces which
knew no ending. When the Provincial Ministries resigned in 1939, the Muslims
and the untouchables celebrated the "Deliverance Day' throughout India. A
Muslim League Committee was set up earlier to enquire into the atrocities of
the Congress Regimes in the provinces, and the Pirpur Report was published
detailing the persecution of Muslims under the Congress Ministries.
The Muslim League had acquired great popularity among the Muslims due
to the wise statesmanship of its leader, Mr. Jinnah, and the short-sighted and
unrealistic policies of the Congress leadership. He secured another victory when,
in 1937, the Muslim members of Punjab, Bengal and Sind Provincial Assemblies
came to terms with Mr. Jinnah and agreed to abide by the policy and programmes
of the All India Muslim League in all-India matters. Muslim India had rallied
round the Muslim League and Mr. Muhammad Ali Jinnah. The Annual Session of
the Muslim League at Lucknow in 1937 provided a turning point in the history
of Muslim India.
The atrocities perpetrated by the Congress Provincial Ministries over the
Muslims had greatly alienated them from the Congress. This treatment was
taken as a challenge by Muslim India. This unstatesman-like attitude of the
Congress leadership was criticised by some of the far-sighted non-Muslims
including Mr. Tairsee, Sardar Sardul Singh Caveesher and Sir Chaman La! Sitalvad.
Mr. Jinnah took full advantage of the situation created by the Congress
leadership. He had now become the sole leader of Muslim India. Except a handful
of nationalist Muslims, the Muslims recognised him as their Quaid-e-Azarn
(Great Leader). The Congress also realised this but it was unwilling to recognise
the representative character of the Muslim League. Hence all unity talks between
Jinnah and Gandhi representing the Muslim League and the Congress, respectively
broke down on this vital issue. The unrealistic attitude of Mr. Gandhi, who
insisted that Congress, too, represented the Muslims, marred any solution of
the Hindu-Muslim problem in India and Mr. Jinnah was by now convinced that
Indian Muslims should not expect justice from the Congress.
In the session of All India Muslim League held at Karachi in 1938, it was
resolved that the entire question of the future Constitution of India should be
reviewed in a manner of finding out a wayfor securing an honourable status for