What is Lahore Resolution?

About Lahore Resolution:

• It was adopted by the All-India Muslim League during its general session in Lahore from March 22 to March 24, 1940, formally called for an independent state for India’s Muslims.
• The resolution does not include the word ‘Pakistan’ anywhere.
• The Lahore Resolution was criticised by many Indian Muslims, like Abul Kalam Azad and the Deoband ulema led by Husain Ahmad Madani, who advocated for a united India.
• What did the Resolution say?
  • Geographically contiguous units are demarcated into regions which should be so constituted, with such territorial readjustments as may be necessary, that the areas in which the Muslims are numerically in a majority as in the North-Western and Eastern Zones of India, should be grouped to constitute “Independent States” in which the constituent units shall be autonomous and sovereign.”
  • In other parts of India where the Mussalmans are in a minority, adequate, effective and mandatory safeguards shall be specially provided in the constitution for them and other minorities for the protection of their religious, cultural, economic, political, administrative and other rights and interests in consultation with them.”

What was the lead-up to the Lahore Resolution?

• Till the early 1930s, many Muslims had been agitating for better representation and safeguarding of their rights within the Indian Union, and the separate electorate granted to them in the Government of India Act, 1935, was a step towards that.
• The Muslim League session was held days after the Khaksar tragedy, when members of a Muslim group called the Khaksars, fighting for India’s independence, were shot at by the British on March 19 in Lahore, killing many.