ABSTRACT
The election results came as a thunderbolt to Jinnah. What with his commitments as a practising lawyer in the High Court and his responsibilities as a leader of the Independent Party in the Central Assembly, he was barely able to manage single-handed a skeleton central office of the All India Muslim League from Delhi or from his residence in Bombay. In the spring of 1937, it was clear to Jinnah that the moment of truth had arrived for him. For Jinnah the electoral verdict in the Muslim-majority provinces was the more galling. The election had confronted him with an unpleasant truth. His programme of Hindu-Muslim cooperation for a joint front against the British Government had not cut ice with the Muslim electorate. He had failed to foresee that most of the apolitical, pro-British regional leaders dominating Muslim politics in the provinces could not afford to get on the wrong side of the government.
