MUSLIM REFORM MOVEMENTS

1905-1920

Prepared by:
Marium Mustafa
MAIN EVENTS

 India after the War of Independence

 The formation of the Indian Congress
 The partition of Bengal & the consequent riots held by the
outraged Hindus and the British reaction.
 The Simla Deputation & its importance
 The formation of the Muslim League
 The Minto-Morley reforms
 The reversal of the Partition of Bengal
 World War I
 Lucknow Pact, Montague-Chelmsford reforms
 Rowlett's Act, Jallian-walla Bagh incident
The War of Independence
1857
India after the War of Independence
and the birth of Nationalist ideas.

After the war the British

took strong measures to
ensure that their control of
India was unchallenged.
The EIC was abolished and
the Indian control was
passed over to Queen
Victoria at a ceremony in
Delhi.
Queen Victoria
The British attitude towards India after
the War

 Indians were rusticated  The employment

from government opportunities for local
institutions. Indians in the army was
 Indians were given no greatly reduced.
opportunity to speak for  The import taxes on
their country. goods from the Britain
 They were mostly were demolished &so
running the country to the local manufacturers
benefit themselves. found it difficult to sell
their goods.
Vernacular Act & the Arms Act 1878

The lack of opportunities for Indians led to

widespread criticism of the British in newspaper
articles written in regional languages. The British
response was to pass the Vernacular Act of 1878,
which placed strict control over these newspapers.
In the same year the Arms Act was passed which
made it impossible for most Indians to own weapons,
to ensure that if there were another uprising, it would
be less effective.
Vernacular Act 1878

Arm Act 1878

The Beginning of Indian Political
Awareness

Now both India and

British had realized that the Indian people
needed their own political party to represent
their views to the British government. For this
purpose Sir Allan Octavian Hume was
appointed to form a national political
organization.
Sir Allan Octavian Hume – the founder of the Indian
National Congress
Indian National Congress comes into
being. Dec 1883

Congress had declared that its aims were:

 Educate people in India, so the resolutions
could be printed in the newspapers.
 To persuade the Indian Civil Service to call
for more Indian representation in the
councils.
The Indian National flag was derived
from the flag of Congress
The Partition of Bengal - 1905

Bengal the largest province of India had the

population of 85 million; so the British govtt tried to
increase the administrative efficiency by dividing it
into two units east and west. Now the eastern
province became a Muslim-majority and the Hindus
were outraged they thought that the British had
divided it intentionally as a part of their “divide and
rule” policy, Hindus created widespread riots and
protests.
The picture above shows the map of east
and west Bengal.
Swadeshi Movement

Apart from the widespread riots the

Hindus introduced the Swadeshi Movement
in which the Hinds vowed to buy and sell only
locally produced goods and to boycott all
British goods. Soon the sale of British goods
dropped dramatically.
RIOTS
The British Reaction to the Hindu
Protest

 Restrictions were
placed on newspapers
and public meetings.
 In 1908, the Press Act
was introduced.
Winning the Support of the Muslims

The then governor-general of India Lord Morley

had decided to take advantage of their improved
relations with Muslims to try to win their support for
British rule.
Further more the Muslims had seen the reaction
of the Hindus on the partition of Bengal with dismay
the Congress too was dominated by Hindus since
the Hindus were in the majority, the Muslims feared
that they would soon be dominated by Hindus in
local government also.
SIMLA DEPUTATION REACHES LORD
MINTO

Simla Deputation provided the British an ideal

opportunity to improve their relations with the
Muslims so as to win their support for their rule. On
8th October 1906 a group of Muslims headed by
Agha Khan, visited Lord Minto along with a set of
demands which were:
 In all local and provincial elections Muslims should
have their own representatives, who would be
elected only by Muslim voters.
 In the councils, the Muslims should have a higher
percentage of seats than their percentage of
population.
 Lord Sir Minto

Sir Agha Khan SIMLA

THE IMPORTANCE OF SIMLA
DEPUTATION.

 The acceptance of the demands had showed

that Sir Syed’s attempts to restore relations
between the Muslims & the British had been
successful.
 It showed that the Muslim community had
decided to establish a secure place in the
constitution by its own methods.
 It also showed that many Muslims had
eventually accepted the idea of two-nation.
FORMATION OF THE ALL-INDIA
MUSLIM LEAGUE - 1906

AIMS & OBJECTIVES

Group photo taken at the Annual
Mohammedan Educational Conference in
Dhaka, 1906
Why the Muslims felt a need to create
their own political party?

 They needed a political

platform where they
could to counter the
growing effects of
Congress.
 Establish an
organization where the
Muslim views could be
represented to the
British Government.
OBJECTIVES:

 To protect & advance  To remove any

the political rights of misunderstanding
Muslims in India. amongst the Muslims
 To represent Muslim as to the intention of
needs & aspirations to any government
the government. measure.
 To promote feelings of  To prevent the rise of
loyalty to the hostility in Muslims
government. towards other
communities in India.
The All India Muslim-League
Why did the British Govtt give Muslim-
League such a warm welcome?

 It could effectively help counter the Hindu

protests that were growing.
 It was willing to support the British
government in India.
 It was led by landowners and princes.
MINT0-MORLEY REFORMS

Keeping in mind the situation of India at that

time the British Govtt tried to enhance its
political stature as it had promised to let it
happen every ten years. In the year 1909
some reforms were introduced which are
popularly commemorated as the Minto
-Morley reforms
THE MINTO-MORLEY REFORMS.
1909 KEY POINTS

 The Imperial Council  Provincial Councils

was increased to 60 were also increased to
members by adding 50 members in the
more ‘non-official’ larger provinces & 30 in
members. the smaller ones.
 The Central Executive  The demand of a
Council would have separate electorate
more members & could system for the Muslim
advise the Govtt in community was
important matters. accepted.
Lord Minto
THE IMPORTANCE OF THE REFORMS

Contrary to the fact that the reforms gave a

greater say to the Indians in how their
country was run, the councils had no real
power & were purely advisory; but the most
important consequence of the reforms were
the acceptance of separate electorates for
the Muslims.
THE BENGAL PARTITION REVERSED

The fierce opposition of Hindus had

eventually forced the British govtt to reverse
the partition. The decision was announced at
Delhi by King George V on 12th December.
The capital was also moved from Calcutta to
Delhi. This partition had confirmed that
Congress could not be trusted to protect
Muslim rights or interests.
INDIA BEFORE WORLD WAR I

 The Muslims were aggressive towards the

British over the reversal of the partition.
 Minto-Morley reforms were not providing
Indians any real power.
 The League had called for ‘self government’
for the first time as it saw that the
government was not interested in protecting
Muslim rights.
WORLD WAR I
WHY DID INDIA SUPPORT THE
BRITISH IN THE WAR?

The British said that they were fighting the

war for the rights of nations so as to
determine how they should be governed; so
if they win this war, then surely they would
return their loyalty by introducing reforms to
give them a larger role in governing their
country.
THE LUCKNOW PACT - INTRO

The failure of British to grant more

rights to the Indians & their policy of
repression during the war, had moved
Congress & League close together. In 1915,
partly due to the persuasion of Mr.Jinnah, the
two organizations both held their annual
sessions in Bombay.
Jinnah (second from the right) was the principal architect
of the Lucknow Pact, 1916
To avoid serious political unrest the British
introduced the following series of proposals:

Both the Congress

& the League
supported these
proposals.
 At least half of the
members of the
Executive Council
would be elected,
 The Legislative Council
would have a majority
of elected members.
1916 – LUCKNOW PACT

Once again both the parties held their

annual meetings together at Lucknow and
agreed that:
 Separate electorates for the Muslims was
acceptable.
 Muslims be given one third of the seats in the
Councils.
 No bill shall be passed in any elected body if
three-quarters of any community in that body
opposed it.
Muslim League leaders pose for a group photo at
Lucknow, 1916
IMPORTANCE OF THE PACT

 It was the first time that  It led to a growing belief

both the communities in India that maybe self-
had made a joint- government is possible.
demand.  The pact marked the
 Muslims had a better high-water mark of
chance of protecting Hindu-Muslim unity.
their rights if they
worked with the Hindus.
MONTAGUE-CHELMSFORD REFORMS
- & THE REACTION OF THE INDIANS

These reforms were not up to the

expectation of the Indians, they had
participated in the war with enthusiasm in the
expectation of much greater concessions
than these reforms were offering, even
though they had increased the number of
elected members in the council the British
had ensured to keep the power in their
hands.
Montague held meetings with different government and
non-government people of India

Governor General Lord Chelmsford

The Indian Reaction to the 1919
Reforms & the British measures

The reforms were not up to the

expectations of the Indians and they were
once again causing unrest and creating
uprisings and protests, to control this the
British government introduced some
measures; one of them was the Rowlett's
Act.
THE ROWLATT’S ACT- 1917

A committee was formed under Justice

Rowlatt to investigate revolutionary activities
in India, it implemented some of the
emergency measures, among them the most
controversial were:
 Arrest without warrant.
 Detention without bail.
 The right of the provincial government to
order people where to live.
The imposition of Rowlett's act
THE JALLIAN-WALLA BAGH INCIDENT

The harsh British

laws led to serious
political unrest which
led to tragic events
such as the Amritsar
Massacre & the Jallian-
walla bagh incident.