76 the islamic prism“require that the Balfour Declaration shall be immediately scrapped.”^24
Following the adoption of a resolution to this eff ect, the Muslim League
continuously demanded the abolition of the Balfour Declaration.
By the time the Muslim League held its twenty- fi fth session, in Luc-
know in October 1937, Mohammed Ali Jinnah had fi rmly established
himself as its undisputed leader. In a passionate speech, he castigated
the British for their dishonesty, deception, and betrayal of the Arabs.
Speaking in the name of “not only the Mussalmans of India but of the
world,”^25 he accused the Mandate authorities of having exploited the
Arabs through false and irreconcilable promises. Responding to the Royal
Palestine Commission, which had suggested partition as a solution to
the Arab- Jewish confl ict, Jinnah charged that Britain was hoping to com-
plete the tragedy initiated by the “infamous Balfour Declaration.”^26 Fol-
lowing his speech, the League adopted a strongly worded statement stat-
ing, inter alia: (1) that British policy on Palestine was in confl ict with the
religious sentiments of Indian Muslims and thus world peace was not
possible without “rescission” of that policy; (2) that the Mandate of Pales-
tine was never accepted by the Arabs and must be annulled; (3) that Mus-
lim countries should endeavor to save the holy places “from the sacrilege
of non- Muslim domination and... from the enslavement of British im-
perialism backed by Jewish fi nance”; (4) that the Muslim League en-
dorsed the leadership of the Supreme Muslim Council and the Arab
Higher Committee, both headed by the grand mufti of Jerusalem; (5) and
that Indian Muslims, in “consonance with the rest of the Islamic world,”
would treat and respond to the British as an enemy of Islam if it “fails to
alter its present pro- Jewish policy in Palestine.”^27
Not surprisingly, expressions such as “Jewish high fi nance” and other
overtly racist or anti- Semitic terms were common in Muslim League de-
liberations. The twenty- sixth session of the Muslim League, which met at
Patna in December 1938, witnessed some unpre ce dented emotional out-
bursts. Some members took their cue from Jinnah’s warning that the
British were stirring up troubles in Palestine “with the ulterior motive of
placating the international Jewry which commands the money- bags.”^28 In
a unanimous resolution, the Muslim League castigated the British for the
“unjust” Balfour Declaration and its subsequent policy of repression to-
ward the Arabs. The Muslim League saw it as the problem of the entire
Muslim community and that the British failure to modify its support for
“Jewish usurpation” would lead to “a state of perpetual unrest and con-
fl ict” and provoke an international Islamic co ali tion against the British.^29