ABSTRACT
Ideologically and politically the Muslim League, since its birth in 1906, remained a conservative body serving its own sectarian interests with an avowed objective of the protection and promotion of the religious, cultural and political rights of the Muslims. The memorial presented to Lord Minto, the Viceroy, in 1906 by the Muslim deputation in Simla desired that ‘any kind of representation, direct or indirect, and in all other ways affecting their status and influence, should be commensurate not merely with the numerical strength but also with their political importance’. Political importance came to be defined, informally, as the past political position as the rulers of the land before the British conquest. In respect of the present and the future, a political relationship was to be forged between the Muslims and the British government, on the premise that the willing support and loyalty of the Muslims might serve as a bulwark to the onrush of nationalism in India as evidenced by the popular upsurge against the partition of Bengal of 1905. In actual fact, however, Muslim rights essentially meant upholding the interests of the upper-class Muslims at that point in time. With the growth of nationalist public opinion represented by the Indian National Congress, especially after the 1920s, the British began supporting the Muslim cause more systematically to counteract the influence of what they called ‘the seditious Hindus’ on the Indian masses.
