ABSTRACT
Addressing the huge gathering assembled at the annual session of the All India Muslim League at Lahore on 23 March 1940, Jinnah observed:
Musalmans are not a minority as it is commonly known and understood. . .Musalmans are a nation according to any definition of a nation and they must have their homelands, their territory and their state. We wish to live in peace and harmony with our neighbours as a free and independent people. We wish our people to develop to the fullest our spiritual, cultural, economic, social and political life in a way that we think best and in consonance with our own ideals and according to the genius of our people.’1
