| ||
|---|---|---|
Governor-General of Pakistan Properties | ||
| Gallery: Picture, Sound, Video | ||
TheFourteen Points of Jinnah, also known asJinnah's Fourteen Points, was a political proposal, presented in 1929, byMuhammad Ali Jinnah for future constitutional reforms inBritish India. They constituted theMuslim League's response to theNehru report with demands to safeguardMuslim political rights.
It consisted of the four Delhi proposals, the three Calcutta amendments, demands for the continuation ofseparate electorates and reservation of seats for Muslims in government services and self-governing bodies. In 1928, anAll Parties Conference was convened in reaction to theSimon Commission appointed to discuss parliamentary reform in British India. A committee was set up underMotilal Nehru which prepared the "Nehru Report". This report demanded "Dominion Status" for British India. Separate electorates were refused and the reservation of seats for the Muslims ofBengal andPunjab was rejected. The Nehru Report did not uphold a single demand of the Muslim League.
In reaction to the Nehru Report, the League authorised Jinnah to draft terms for the basis of any future constitution for British India, which would protect the interests of the Muslims. He presented his 14 points and stated it was the "parting of ways" and that he did not want anything to do with theIndian National Congress in the future. The points gave the Muslim League a direction and framework of its demands, and greatly influenced the Muslims' thinking for the next two decades until theestablishment of Pakistan in 1947.
The report was given in a meeting of the council of theAll India Muslim League on 9 March 1929. TheNehru Report was criticized by Muslim leadersAga Khan,andMuhammad Shafi. They considered it as a death warrant because it recommended joint electoral rolls for Hindus and Muslims.[1]Muhammad Ali Jinnah left for England in May 1928 and returned after six months. In March 1929, the Muslim League session was held inDelhi under the presidency of Jinnah. In his address to his delegates, he consolidated Muslim viewpoints under fourteen items and these fourteen points became Jinnah's 14 points and the manifesto of the All India Muslim League.[1][2]
The original points as presented by Jinnah with the spelling, the punctuation, and the structure preserved (note:Mussalman andMoslem mean 'Muslim'):
The Muslim leadership, includingAga Khan III andMian Muhammad Shafi among others, praisedMuhammad Ali Jinnah and accepted the points as theMuslims' political manifesto. The poet-philosopherMuhammad Iqbal supported Jinnah's stance and later built on it in hisAllahabad Address in 1930 where he envisioned aseparate Muslim homeland. It was also supported by the Muslim masses as it sought to strengthen their political representation and protect their rights and interests.
TheIndian National Congress wholly rejected the demands withJawaharlal Nehru referring to them as "Jinnah's ridiculous 14 points".[3]Motilal Nehru and other top Congress leaders were heavily against the demands as it sought to establish a lesscentralised government with moreautonomy given to the provinces, while they pushed for a strongly centralised government without separate electorates.[2][4]
The Fourteen Points have been referred to by historians as the "blueprint for Pakistan" and accounting its rejection by the Congress as deepening the Hindu-Muslim divide. It also strengthened Jinnah's image as the principal spokesperson of the Muslims.
{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
.jpg)
