ABSTRACT
Till well into the 1940s, the Muslim League organisation was strong and its supporters visibly active in Bihar and U.P., in neither of which province Muslims exceeded 15 per cent of the total population. The Bihar Muslim League, which was formed in 1908, did not contest the 1936 elections. But five of the 56 members of the central parliamentary board that Jinnah announced were Biharis. When the members of the provincial working committee of the Muslim League were nominated in 1940, there was a letter to the editor pointing out that the Muslim public of Bihar, realised that they could not hope to get anything, so long as ‘titleholders and aristocrats’ remained at the helm. The support given to the Pakistan movement was traced to the pervasiveness of this perception. While the Muslim League leadership and its Pakistan movement were contested by the Abdul Qaiyum Ansari-led Momin Conference, the branch led by Latifur Rahman supported the Muslim League.
