7 Mohammed Ali Jinnah 7Muslim League until 1913 and worked to ensure its col-
laboration with the Hindu Indian National Congress.
Jinnah’s endeavours to bring about the political union
of Hindus and Muslims earned him the title of “the
best ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity.” It was largely
through his efforts that the Congress and the Muslim
League began to hold their annual sessions jointly, to facil-
itate mutual consultation and participation. In 1915 the
two organizations held their meetings in Bombay (later
Mumbai) and in 1916 in Lucknow, where the Lucknow
Pact was concluded. Under the terms of the pact, the two
organizations put their seal to a scheme of constitutional
reform that became their joint demand vis-à-vis the
British government. There was a good deal of give and
take, but the Muslims obtained one important concession
in the shape of separate electorates, already conceded to
them by the government in 1909 but previously resisted
by the Congress.
The emergence of Mahatma Gandhi and a series of
Hindu revivalist movements drove a wedge between the
two religious factions in the 1920s and 1930s. Frustrated,
Jinnah moved to London in 1930. He remained there until
1935, when constitutional changes were in progress, and he
was persuaded to return home to head a reconstituted
Muslim League.
Soon preparations started for the elections under the
Government of India Act of 1935. Jinnah was still thinking
in terms of cooperation between the Muslim League and
the Hindu Congress and with coalition governments in
the provinces. But the elections of 1937 proved to be a
turning point in the relations between the two organiza-
tions. The Congress obtained an absolute majority in six
provinces, and the League did not do particularly well.
The Congress decided not to include the League in the
formation of provincial governments, resulting in an