The Muslim League

Factors leading to the formation of The Muslim League

1. Loss of Sovereignty by Mughal leaders

The British had established supremacy in India by dethroning the Mughal
rulers. The Muslims became bitter enemies of the British. They participated
in the Wahabi movement that aimed to end British supremacy and also took
part in the 1857 uprising. This made the British view the Muslims with
suspicion and they consciously discriminated against the Muslims. However
after the 1870’s the British govt. changed its attitude and followed a policy of
appeasing the Muslims in order to undermine the National movement. They
sowed seeds of dissention between the communities and encouraged communal
and separatist tendencies.

2. British Policy Of Divide And Rule

After the First war of Independence in 1857 the British were apprehensive
about the safety and stability of their empire in India. They saw the unity
between the Muslims and Hindus as a threat to them. To check the growth of a
united national front and to encourage communal and separatist feelings
they followed the policy of Divide and Rule in the following manner:
a. Lord Mayo’s govt. adopted a resolution which made Urdu the medium of
instruction for primary and secondary schools and increased govt. aid to
educational institutions run by Muslims.
b. They tried to further hatred among Hindus and Muslims by portraying
Muslim leaders as plunderers, and Hindu kings as being cruel to their
Muslim subjects.
c. They tried to justify the partition of Bengal by convincing the Muslims that
Bengal was being partitioned in order to create a Muslim majority province
where the Hindus would not be able to subvert their interests.
d. They tried to utilize the caste structure to turn the non-Brahmins and the
lower castes against the higher castes.
e. They treated Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs as separate communities and
accepted their communal leaders as authentic representatives of their co-
religionists.
f. They tried to spread communal hatred through the Press , posters, literature
and public platform.

3. Relative Backwardness of the Muslim community in Education, Trade and

Industry.
The communal and separatist thinking grew among the Muslims due to:
a. During the first 70 years of the 19th century, upper class Muslims
comprising zamindars and aristocrats were anti-British. They were
conservative and hostile to modern education and so number of Muslims
with a western system of education remained small.
b. The British govt, in India had consciously discriminated against the Muslims
after 1858 holding them responsible for the 1857 uprising. They were
discriminated in the recruitment to civil and military services.
c. The Muslim community was not much involved in the growth of any
organized industry and here too they lagged behind.
d. The Muslims being proud of their own literature and culture did not keep up
with modern trends in social and cultural spheres. They did not adopt the
Western system of education. On the other hand, many Hindus adopted the
Western system of education. Since modern education was essential for entry
into government service, the Muslims were at a disadvantage. In these
circumstances it was quite easy for the British to incite the Muslims against the
Hindus.

4. Role Of Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan

Sayyid Ahmad Khan was a great educationist and social reformer. He regarded
Hindus and Muslims as one Quam (nation). He founded the Mohammedan
Anglo- Oriental college at Aligarh which had both Hindu and Muslim patrons.
However, under the influence of the British Principal of the of the Mohammedan
Anglo-Oriental college, he gave up his earlier views and declared that the
political interests of the Hindus and Muslims were different. When the Indian
National Congress was founded, he opposed it and founded the United Indian
Patriotic Association, mainly with a view to oppose the Congress. It was said that
Sir Sayyid Ahmad believed that since the Hindus outnumbered the Muslim
population, they would dominate the Muslims in case of a withdrawal of British
rule. He felt the continuance of British rule was a “guarantee for the welfare and
progress of the community”. He declared that if the educated Muslims supported
the British, they would be rewarded by the British with govt,. jobs and special
favours.

5. Erroneous Interpretation of History

a. Some British and communal historians divided Indian history into the Hindu
and Muslim periods. The rule of the Turks, Afghans and Mughals was called
Muslim rule, where the rulers were said to be followers of Islam, and their
subjects, the followers of other religions. In the so-called Hindu period, Muslim
rulers were dubbed as foreign invaders who had settled in India. Rana Pratap
and Shivaji were portrayed as national heroes and Akbar and Aurangzeb as
foreigners and infused communal feelings.
b. The British and communal historians ignored the notion of a composite
culture in India and tried to create a rift between the two communities. They
failed to interpret that the diversity was primarily class-wise and region-wise
and not religion-wise.
c. Some communal historians highlighted the myth that Indian society and
culture had reached great heights during the ancient period but had declined
during the medieval period, which was dominated by Mughal rulers. They did
not give much importance to the contribution of the medieval period to the
development of Indian economy, art, religion, literature, culture and society.
d. Communal bias was propagated through poetry, drama, novels, short stories,
newspapers etc.
6. Rise of Assertive Nationalism
The assertive nationalists played an important role in the National movement.
But some of their actions were a step back in respect of the growth of national
unity. The speeches and actions of some of the assertive nationalists annoyed
some sections of Indians. The propagation of Shivaji and Ganapati festivals by
Tilak, Aurobindo Ghosh’s concept of India as mother and nationalism as religion
and the initiation of the Anti-Partition agitation with dips in the Ganga d
id not appeal to some of the Muslims.

7. Economic backwardness of the Country

Due to the British colonial policies, India lacked modern industrial development
and there was acute unemployment among the educated youth. There was fierce
competition among the youth to secure the few available jobs. This led to the
demand of reservation of jobs on the basis of caste creed or religion. The British
fanned communal rivalry among the educated Indians on the question of jobs in
govt. service. The unemployed failed to realize that the British themselves were
responsibe for their economic backwardness.