The Lucknow Pact 1916

These notes cover the Lucknow Pact of 1916, the agreement between the Indian National Congress and the Muslim League on a joint scheme of reforms. They explain why the two parties came together, what they agreed and why it mattered. The topic belongs to Section 2 of the syllabus, the emergence of Pakistan 1906-47.

Key dates

Date	Event
1909	Morley-Minto Reforms give Muslims separate electorates; Congress opposes them
December 1911	Reversal of the partition of Bengal announced at the Delhi Durbar
1912-13	Balkan Wars: the Ottoman Empire loses territory in Europe
1913	Muslim League adopts self-government as its aim; Jinnah joins the League; Kanpur mosque incident
1914	First World War begins; the Ottoman Empire enters the war against Britain
December 1915	Congress and Muslim League both hold their annual sessions in Bombay
1916	Home Rule Leagues started by Tilak and Annie Besant
December 1916	Both parties meet at Lucknow and approve the joint scheme, the Lucknow Pact
August 1917	Montagu Declaration promises gradual progress towards responsible government
1919	Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms passed

Background: why did the Congress and the Muslim League come together?

From its foundation in 1906 the Muslim League had been loyal to the British and had kept its distance from the Congress. Between 1911 and 1916 this changed.

1. The reversal of the partition of Bengal, 1911. The partition of 1905 had created a Muslim-majority province of East Bengal and Assam. Muslims had welcomed it and the British had promised that it was final. In December 1911, at the Delhi Durbar held for King George V, the partition was cancelled after years of Hindu protest. Muslims felt betrayed. Many concluded that the British gave way to agitation, not to loyalty, and that the League should no longer depend on British goodwill.
2. A change in the League's aims, 1913. In 1913 the Muslim League changed its aim to self-government for India in a form suitable to the country. This was close to the Congress demand, so the two parties now had a shared goal.
3. British policy towards Muslims abroad and at home. Britain did not help the Ottoman Empire in the Balkan Wars of 1912-13, and from 1914 Britain was at war with it. The Ottoman Sultan was regarded as the Khalifa (Caliph) by many Muslims, so this caused resentment. Inside India, the Kanpur mosque incident of 1913, when police fired on Muslims protesting at the demolition of part of a mosque, added to the anger.
4. The First World War. Britain needed Indian soldiers, money and supplies. Indian leaders expected reforms in return and saw that a joint demand would be much harder for the British to refuse. The British at first offered little, and the Home Rule Leagues of 1916 showed that pressure was growing.
5. The role of Jinnah. Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah was a member of the Congress and, from 1913, also of the Muslim League. He believed that self-government would come only if Hindus and Muslims worked together. He persuaded the two parties to hold their sessions in the same city, Bombay in 1915 and Lucknow in 1916, so that joint committees could work out an agreed scheme. He presided over the League's Lucknow session. For this work he was called the "ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity".
6. A willing Congress. The Congress also wanted unity. It realised that it needed Muslim support to put real pressure on the British, and it was ready to make concessions to get it.

The terms of the Lucknow Pact

What the two parties agreed between themselves

• Separate electorates. The Congress accepted that Muslims should have separate electorates in the Imperial and provincial councils. It had opposed this since 1909.
• One-third of seats at the centre. Muslims were to have one-third of the elected Indian seats in the Imperial Legislative Council, more than their share of the population.
• Weightage in the provinces. In provinces where Muslims were a minority they were given more seats than their numbers justified, for example about 30 per cent in the United Provinces. In return, Muslims accepted fewer seats than their share of the population in the two provinces where they were a majority: 50 per cent in Punjab and 40 per cent in Bengal.
• Protection for each community. No bill or resolution affecting a community should be passed if three-quarters of the members of that community in the council opposed it.

The joint demands made to the British

• The councils should be enlarged and four-fifths of their members should be elected, not nominated.
• Resolutions passed by a large majority in the councils should be binding on the government.
• The provinces should have much more freedom from central control (provincial autonomy).
• Half of the members of the Viceroy's Executive Council should be Indians, elected by the members of the Imperial Legislative Council.
• The judiciary should be separated from the executive.
• India should be given self-government at an early date.

Results

• For the first time the Congress and the Muslim League presented one set of demands to the British.
• The two parties cooperated closely for several years. This cooperation continued in the protests against the Rowlatt Act and in the Khilafat Movement.
• In August 1917 the Secretary of State, Edwin Montagu, announced that British policy was the gradual development of self-governing institutions in India. The joint demand was one of the pressures behind this statement.
• The Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms of 1919 kept separate electorates, but gave far less than the Pact had asked for.

How important was the Lucknow Pact?

Reasons for seeing it as important

• Recognition of the Muslim League. By negotiating with the League and accepting separate electorates, the Congress accepted that Muslims were a separate community with their own interests and that the League spoke for them. The League could later point to this when the Congress denied it.
• Hindu-Muslim unity. It was the first, and the only, time that the two parties agreed a full constitutional scheme. It showed that agreement was possible when minority rights were protected.
• Pressure on the British. A united demand was difficult to ignore during the war and helped to bring about the Montagu Declaration and the reforms of 1919.
• Jinnah's standing. The Pact made Jinnah a national leader respected by both communities.
• Safeguards. Muslims in minority provinces gained extra seats, and the three-quarters rule gave them a defence against laws harmful to them.

Reasons for seeing its importance as limited

• A cost in Punjab and Bengal. Muslims were a little over half of the population in these provinces but accepted 50 and 40 per cent of the seats. They gave up the chance of clear majorities there, which caused difficulties in later years.
• The British did not accept it. The 1919 reforms fell far short of the joint demands and self-government did not follow.
• Unity did not last. After the Khilafat Movement collapsed in the early 1920s, communal riots increased. In the Nehru Report of 1928 the Congress went back on its acceptance of separate electorates.
• The agreement was made by leaders and the educated classes. It did little to change relations between ordinary Hindus and Muslims.

Judgement. In the short term the Pact had limited results, since the British did not grant its demands and the unity it created lasted less than ten years. Its longer-term importance was greater. The Congress had accepted separate electorates and treated the Muslim League as the representative of Muslims. When the Congress withdrew from this position in 1928, Jinnah and many other Muslims concluded that their rights could not be left to the goodwill of the majority.

Key terms and people

• Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah: member of both parties in 1916 and the main architect of the Pact.
• Delhi Durbar 1911: the ceremony at which the reversal of the partition of Bengal was announced.
• Separate electorates: Muslim voters alone elect the Muslim members.
• Weightage: giving a minority more seats than its share of the population.
• Provincial autonomy: provinces running their own affairs with little control from the centre.
• Home Rule Leagues: organisations started in 1916 by B. G. Tilak and Annie Besant to campaign for self-government.
• Imperial Legislative Council: the central law-making council under the Viceroy.

Exam practice

1. Describe the terms of the Lucknow Pact. [4]
2. Why did the Muslim League and the Congress sign the Lucknow Pact in 1916? [7]
3. "The Lucknow Pact was more important for the Muslims of India than the Morley-Minto Reforms." How far do you agree? Explain your answer. [14]

Outline answers
Question 1: the Congress accepted separate electorates for Muslims; Muslims were to have one-third of the seats in the central council; Muslims received extra seats in minority provinces and accepted 50 per cent in Punjab and 40 per cent in Bengal; no bill affecting a community was to pass if three-quarters of its members opposed it; both parties demanded that most council members be elected and that the provinces be given autonomy.
Question 2: (1) The reversal of the partition of Bengal in 1911 ended Muslim trust in British promises, so the League looked for other allies and adopted self-government as its aim in 1913. (2) The First World War made Britain depend on Indian help, and both parties saw that a joint demand would be hard to refuse. (3) Jinnah, a member of both parties, worked to bring them together, and the Congress was ready to concede separate electorates to gain Muslim support.
Question 3: Lucknow Pact: Congress accepted separate electorates and the League's right to speak for Muslims; one-third of central seats; weightage and the three-quarters rule; joint pressure on the British. But seats were lost in Punjab and Bengal and unity ended in the 1920s. Morley-Minto: separate electorates were first granted in law by the British, who held real power; larger councils; the League's first success. But the councils were only advisory. Judgement: either can be argued. The 1909 reforms gave the right in law; the Pact added the agreement of the Congress, which strengthened the Muslim position in later negotiations.