Nehru Report - Muslim League's Reaction To The Nehru Report

Muslim League's Reaction To The Nehru Report

With few exceptions League leaders rejected the Nehru proposals. In reaction Mohammad Ali Jinnah drafted his Fourteen Points in 1929 which became the core demands the Muslim community put forward as the price of their participating in an independent united India. Their main objections were:

  • Separate electorates and weightage - the 1916 Congress-Muslim League agreement Lucknow Pact provided these to the Muslim community whereas they were rejected by the Nehru Report;
  • Residuary powers – the Muslims realized that while they would be a majority in the provinces of the North-East and North-West of India, and hence would control their provincial legislatures, they would always be a minority at the Centre. Thus they demanded, contra the Nehru Report, that residuary powers go to the provinces.

The inability of Congress to concede these points must be considered a major factor in the eventual partition of India. This was the major historical significance of the Nehru Report.

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