Savarkar's Hindu Mahasabha allied with Jinnah's Muslim League, but...

Savarkar’s Hindu Mahasabha allied with Jinnah’s Muslim League, but…

“In practical politics, the Mahasabha knows that we must advance through reasonable compromises,” Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, the then president of the Hindu Mahasabha, said at the 24th session of the Hindu Mahasabha at Cawnpore (now Kanpur) in 1942.

The remarks by Savarkar were regarding the coming together of the Hindu Mahasabha and Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s Muslim League to form coalition governments in Sindh and North-West Frontier Province after the 1937 provincial elections.

The alliance between the Hindu Mahasabha and the Muslim League, which was for a brief period, has returned to political discussions ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, sparking a war of words between the Congress and the BJP.

It all started after Prime Minister Narendra Modi, taking a swipe, said the Congress’s manifesto “completely bears the imprint of the Muslim League”. Other BJP leaders also joined the PM in attacking the Congress over its “politics of appeasement”.

In a clap back, the Congress said BJP ideologue Syama Prasad Mookerjee, who was then part of the Hindu Mahasabha, “formed governments in Bengal, Sindh, and the NWFP (North West Frontier Province) in the 1940s in coalition with the Muslim League”.

The Congress’s claims aren’t completely true.

MUSLIM LEAGUE AND 1937 PROVINCIAL ELECTIONS

A dive into the pages of history shows that while the Congress was right in saying that the Hindu Mahasabha and the Muslim League were in a coalition government in Sindh and NWFP, the story in Bengal was different.

In Sindh and NWFP, the political coming together of the Mahasabha and Muslim League was marked by inherent contradictions and tensions as their long-term goals were at odds.

Also, while the Hindu Mahasabha joined hands with the Muslim League for practical political reasons, it did not compromise its ideology.  Â

The collaboration of the unlikely allies started with the provincial elections in 1937, which coincided with Savarkar being elected as the president of the Hindu Mahasabha.Â

However, both the Hindu Mahasabha and the Muslim League were decimated in the elections, with the Congress securing a landslide victory, winning 711 of the total 1,585 provincial assembly seats. The Congress also garnered an absolute majority in five of the 11 provinces — Madras, Bihar, Orissa, Central, and United Provinces.

On the other hand, the Muslim League even failed to form governments in Muslim-majority regions, winning just 106 seats. The League failed to win a single seat in Sindh and the NWFP. In Bengal, it could not win even one-third of the Muslim-reserved seats.Â

The results gave a clear signal that the Muslim League had no mass support from the community as several Muslim-reserved seats went to Independents.

HINDU MAHASABHA, MUSLIM LEAGUE COALITION GOVERNMENTS  

However, two years later, the scenario changed.

World War II broke out and the then viceroy, Lord Linlithgow, unilaterally declared India would go to war against Germany. The fact that the viceroy made the announcement without any consultation irked the Congress.Â

In October 1939, the Congress proposed that it would support Britain’s decision only if it committed to India’s Independence after the war and recognised its right to frame its own Constitution. However, Linlithgow refused, and all Congress ministers resigned in protest.

The incident opened up paths for the Hindu Mahasabha and the Muslim League to access political power. The two parties then went on to form an alliance in Sindh and NWFP — both Muslim-majority provinces.

However, differences between the parties, who were diametrically opposite ideologically, started cropping up in 1943 when the Sindh Assembly took up the Pakistan Resolution that recommended “Muslims of India are a separate nation”.

The resolution was eventually passed 24-3 in the Sindh Assembly as the Hindu Mahasabha members staged a walk out and three ministers in the government voted against it.

THE HINDU MAHASABHA IN BENGAL

At the same time, a massive churn was taking place in Bengal.

In the 1937 elections in Bengal, a relatively lesser known Krishak Praja Party (KPP), which espoused the cause of the krishaks (peasants) and prajas (tenants), burst onto the political scene.

Led by Fazlul Haq, the party, with its promise to abolish the zamindari system, swept the seats in the East Bengal region (modern day Bangladesh).

As per ‘Leaves from a Diary’ by Syama Prasad Mookerjee, Fazlul Haq was keen to form a coalition with the Congress, but talks fell through.Â

Haq then formed a coalition government with the Muslim League and some Independent members. However, the bonhomie between Haq and Jinnah was short-lived. In 1941, Haq decided to join the Viceroy’s Defence Council during World War II despite opposition from Jinnah.

The Muslim League withdrew from the ministry.Â

However, Fazlul Haq found support from unlikely quarters and the Hindu Mahasabha, led by Syama Prasad Mookerjee, and the Forward Bloc of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose supported the Krishak Praja Party to save the government.

The Hindu Mahasabha, which became popular among Calcutta’s Marwari businessmen and wealthy caste-Hindu zamindars, started gaining popularity in Calcutta. So much so that the Progressive Coalition Ministry under Haq was popularly referred to as “Syama-Haq ministry”.

In his ‘Leaves from a Diary’, Mookerjee, who became the finance minister in the government, mentioned why he decided to join the Haq government.Â

“Left to himself, he (Haq) is one of the most lovable personalities. He indeed shines in the company he keeps — a good batch of friends and followers may help him to do enormous good to his people and country, a bad lot may lead him to hell,” Mookerjee wrote.

In 1943, Mookerjee resigned from the Bengal Cabinet in protest against the interference of the Governor and the bureaucracy in ministerial affairs. He also blamed the Muslim League for the fall of the Haq government.

“The Muslim League for seven months carried on a relentless and vituperative campaign against the ministry and especially the Chief Minister, thus weakening the forces of law and order and rousing communal passions,” he wrote in his diary.

The Hindu Mahasabha had never partnered with the Muslim League in Bengal, like the Congress is suggesting, and on the contrary, it blamed the Muslim organisation for the fall of the government in the eastern province.Â

After resigning, Mookerjee took the reins of the Hindu Mahasabha from Savarkar in 1943 and served its president till 1946.

During this period, he took up the cause of Bengal Hindus in the run-up to Partition. However, two years later, he resigned from the Mahasabha amid differences with other leaders over his suggestion that it should stay away from politics and remain a cultural outfit.

In 1951, Mookerjee, with the help of RSS volunteers, went on to form the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the predecessor of the BJP.

So, the Hindu Mahasabha had indeed partnered with the Muslim League in Sindh and NWFP, both Muslim-majority provinces, but never in Bengal, like the Congress has now suggested. Also, the Hindu Mahasabha never compromised its ideology and the walk out in the Sindh Assembly during the tabling of the ‘Pakistan Resolution’ is clear proof of that.

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