Muslim League, Morley-Minto reforms and the First World War years

Formation of the Muslim League (1906)

As the radical movement grew, the British looked for ways to break Indian unity. After the partition of Bengal, they encouraged Muslims to form a permanent political body of their own. In December 1906 the Muhammadan Educational Conference met at Dacca. There Nawab Salimullah Khan proposed a central body to look after Muslim interests. On 30 December 1906 the All India Muslim League was founded, with the Aga Khan as president. Its aim was to protect and advance the rights of Muslims and to put their needs before the government. By backing separate electorates, the British sowed seeds of communalism, meaning politics based on religious groups. Nationalists saw the League as the first fruit of divide and rule. Mohammad Ali Jinnah joined it later.

Morley-Minto reforms (1909): what they gave and what they held back

Your NIOS lesson calls this body the Legislative Assembly. The Central Legislative Assembly came only with the reforms of 1919.

The First World War years (1914 to 1919)

1. 1914
   The First World War begins. Indian leaders agree to help Britain, on the condition that Indians get constitutional powers after the war.
2. War burdens
   To repay war loans, the British raise land rent (lagan), force Indians into the army, push up prices and tax incomes. Protests follow.
3. 1916★
   At the Lucknow session, moderates and radicals reunite. The Congress and the Muslim League sign the Lucknow Pact: the Congress accepts separate electorates, and both demand self-government. Tilak returns to prominence, and Annie Besant's Home Rule movement builds confidence.
4. 1917 to 1918
   Peasants and workers of Champaran, Kheda and Ahmedabad protest, led by Gandhi (next topic).
5. 1919
   The Rowlatt Act lets the government arrest people and jail them without trial.
6. 13 April 1919
   Jallianwala Bagh, Amritsar: on Baisakhi day a peaceful crowd gathers against the Rowlatt Act. General Dyer blocks the exit and his troops fire without warning. The official count was 379 dead and over a thousand wounded. Your NIOS lesson gives about a thousand dead, close to Indian estimates of the time.
7. 1919
   The Montagu-Chelmsford reforms bring dyarchy to the provinces, and stress Indianisation of the services.
8. After the war
   The Ottoman Empire of Turkey is broken up, which Indian Muslims see as an insult to the Khalifa (Caliph), their religious head. Shaukat Ali and Mohammad Ali start the Khilafat movement.

★ key step

Key terms of these years

• Separate electorate: seats kept for one community, filled by votes of that community only.
• Home Rule: self-government for India within the British Empire, the demand of Annie Besant and Tilak.
• Dyarchy: a double government in each province. Some subjects went to Indian ministers answerable to the elected legislature; the rest stayed with the Governor.
• Rowlatt Act: a 1919 law that let the government hold political prisoners without trial, for up to two years.
• Khilafat: the office of the Khalifa; the Khilafat movement protested against the British treatment of Turkey after the war.