Nehru Report vs. Jinnah's fourteen points : A comparative Analysis
After complete
rejection of all-British Simon Commission lead by Sir John Simon, the British
minister of India challenged that Indians cannot frame a constitution of their
own by saying “If they have any political
capability and competence then they should form a unanimous constitution and
present it to us and we will implement it.”
In order to answer this challenge, a committee headed by Pandit
Motilal Nehru, after staying at Allahabad for three months, constituted a
memorandum named Nehru Repot. In the name of Muslim representation, it included
only two Muslim members: Mr. Ali Imam and Mr. Shoaib Qureshi, though at the end
some reservations of Shoaib Qureshi were left unaddressed.
Nehru report demanded several rights
and proposed a dominion status for India. It proposed a bi-cameral legislature.
Although it claimed to be federal in nature, it proposed a unitary form of
government with majority of powers resting in the centre, thus violating the
minority rights in case of any conflict. Nehru report proved to be a last nail
in the coffin of united India. Quaid-e-Azam, who was hailed as the ambassador
of Hindu-Muslim unity, parted ways with congress as the Congress displayed its
explicit communal psyche by neglecting Muslims’ demand of separate electorate
which was earlier accepted by the Congress. It was conservative over this issue,
and completely sidelined the Muslim demand of separate electorate, which they
themselves had accepted in Lucknow Pact (1916). In Delhi Proposals (1927),
Muslims agreed to give up their demand of separate electorates for the sake of
Hindu Muslims unity, but made it conditional with fulfillment of certain
safeguards which were accepted at first, but Nehru report rejected these proposals
as well. Urdu was for a long time used as the main language throughout the
sub-continent and was widely understood, Nehru report proposed Hindi/Sanskrit
(Devanagri) to be the official language of the proposed Union.
The anti-Muslim communal agenda of
so-called Indian National Congress was self-evident from Nehru report. All
these suggestions were never aimed at an honest and a consistent solution, but
were solely based on Muslim enmity. It truly shattered the chance of any
compromise to achieve an independent but united India, Muslims now realized
that they would be maligned in any future set up under Hindus.
Muslims in general rejected the Nehru
report as a whole. Muslims were earlier divided under separate groups, Nehru
report resulted in their re-unification. Shafi League and Jinnah League both
participated in All India Muslim League Council on 28th March 1929.
It was there that Jinnah presented his famous 14 points. His fourteen points
were far more close to reality than Nehru report.
India was a land of variety, many
communities living together for centuries, and the proposed democracy did not
promise peaceful co-existence of all the communities, but only provided
survival of the fittest. Jinnah’s fourteen points addressed this issue by
demanding separate electorate for Muslims.
Contrary to Nehru report, Jinnah’s fourteen points suggested the form of government to be federal with residuary powers resting with the provinces, with necessary autonomy to be given to the provinces. He demanded that Muslim representation in the central government bodies to be no less than one-third. His demand of separate electorates was not exclusive to the Muslims; he suggested separate electorate for representation of all major minorities. His fourteen points as well addressed the intuition of manipulating Muslim majority in a province through territorial modification. He stated that any future territorial distributions that reduced any majority to minority or even equality must not be allowed. He also demanded separation of Sindh and Bombay presidency, as Sindh Division was one of the four divisions of Bombay Presidency.
Jinnah’s fourteen points also
demanded that Muslims, who made up about 27.1% of total population in British
India and 14.2% in princely states, should be given adequate representation in
all government services and local self governing bodies through provision in
the constitution. And in any provincial or central cabinet, Muslims must be
given at least one-third representation. His proposed constitution would not
allow any change in the constitution without consent of the concerned state. If
any constitutional bill targets interests of a certain community, and
three-fourth members of that particular community in that body oppose that
constitutional bill, it must not be passed as a whole or in part. This demand
was most comprehensive, and in any democratic constitution; these privileges
are provided as safeguards for minority communities.
Jinnah demanded complete religious
liberty such as that of belief, worship, observance, propaganda, education and
association should be guaranteed indiscriminately to all communities. He also
demanded constitutional safeguards for Muslim culture, organizations,
institutions, literature, language, religion, personal laws, and Muslim
charitable institutions and their due share in grant-in-aids given by local
self-governing bodies and by the state. As the NWFP and Baluchistan were the
most neglected provinces in terms of development, Jinnah demanded that these
provinces should be developed on the same footing as of other provinces and
that these provinces should be treated at par with other provinces.
Jinnah’s proposals were just and did
not demand anything like separate economy, separate finance and defense matters,
even then Congress rejected Jinnah’s fourteen points as it was led by extremist
Hindu leadership under Nehru, who due to his narrow-mindedness caused the
communities living together for centuries to drift apart in matter of a decade.
Democracy as proposed by British and Nehru would have caused serious troubles
for Muslims in years to come, a part of that has been showcased in
post-independence India. For example in UP, that has the greatest Muslim
population proportion of about 20%, there hasn’t been a single Muslim office
holder in its 70 years history.
Nehru’s memorandum did not provide
safeguards about rights of any minority community, let alone the Muslims,
whereas Jinnah demanded complete religious liberty as is practiced in any
modern democracy plus necessary constitutional safeguards for minorities to
prevent any future blackmailing in united India. Jinnah’s popularity among
Muslims rose, and he was able to unite the Muslim community.
Nehru went even as far to brand his
points as “Jinnah’s ridiculous fourteen points”[i]
that showcased his communal mentality over just and fair demands. In “India, Independence, Partition”, Jaswant
Singh, a former Indian Foreign Minister argued that “It was narrow-minded
Congress leadership under Nehru who kept pushing Muslims towards partitioning,
and left no option for Muslims but to have a separate homeland.” This is self
evident as Nehru invoked Urdu-Hindi conflict formally by making it a part of
his report.
To conclude, we can say that Jinnah, hailed as
greatest lawyer of the entire sub-continent, was able to befittingly address
constitutional interests of the second majority community of united India,
Muslims. His fourteen points were far closer to the reality and promised a
respectable status of Muslims in any future status of India. The Government of
India Act 1935 finally incorporated the separate electorate demand. This reinstates
the intelligence and political wisdom of The Great Quaid.
[i] S.S. Pirzada, Foundations of Pakistan:
All-India Muslim League Documents, Vol. 1 (New Delhi Metropolitan Books), 1982,
p. lxiii
Download printable PDF of this document Here. [MFANET]
Comments
Post a Comment