He agreed to break the fast only when Ambedkar agreed to drop the demand. There is yet another reason why Lucknow Pact became a non-starter. After , Tilak did not live long enough to give a practical shape to its contents. Jinnah on the other hand was finding himself sidelined in the Congress party. Moreover, his two key supporters in the Congress — Gopal Krishna Gokhale and Pherozeshah Mehta, both moderate leaders who believed in the path of constitutional reforms — had passed away in His hopes of the Hindu leaders in the Congress willing to share power with Muslims and the Muslim League in a self-governing India started fading.
And they received a body blow when Jawaharlal Nehru, who was then the Congress president, refused to share power with the Muslim League after the Congress swept the elections to the provincial legislature in UP in Thereafter, there was little trust left between the two parties.
And with growing mistrust, and with little cooperation, the Congress and the Muslim League together led India towards its bloody partition in The kernel of the Lucknow Pact lay in how Tilak had understood Indian nationalism to be. The limits [of patriotism] must be widened. In essence, he was saying that Indian nationalism was a composite whole of Hindu and Muslim communities. For achieving a larger national goal, both communities should display a spirit of compromise and mutual accommodation.
This, indeed, was the spirit of the Lucknow Pact, which Tilak had so courageously articulated in his speech at the Congress session. Now, the question arises: Is the spirit of the Lucknow Pact still relevant, a hundred years later? The answer is most certainly yes.
The issue of separate electorates for any religious community has become completely invalid after India became free and adopted the Republican Constitution with secular democracy as its foundation. There are no community-based separate electorates in Pakistan either. The situation in Pakistan is not really comparable to the one in India since non-Muslims have been reduced to a minuscule minority in that country.
India also does not have religion-based reserved seats either in Parliament or in state legislatures. However, the basic motivational principle behind the pact — namely that the two main communities of India should not only peacefully and cooperatively coexist but also show the readiness to compromise should the need arise — is valid even today.
It is valid for inter-communal relations within post India. It is also valid for India-Pakistan relations. Both Tilak and Jinnah, if they were alive today, would have been deeply distressed at the current state of India-Pakistan relations and also at the inter-community relations within our two countries. We should also include Bangladesh here. In particular, neither India nor Pakistan is showing any magnanimity, any constructive understanding, and any inclination to compromise in dealing with the contentious bilateral issues.
Let us be honest: can the dispute over Kashmir be ever resolved through bilateral negotiations without mutual trust, an attitude of give-and-take, and a commitment to justice and fairness? Are India and Pakistan to regard each other as permanent enemies? And if our hostilities continue forever, will our freedom and unity not be weakened, even endangered, with the interference of outside powers? The Tilak-Jinnah Pact failed, but not its spirit. For this spirit alone can help in the fruition of two all-important challenges before India and Pakistan: Hindu-Muslim harmonisation and India-Pakistan normalisation.
Read the series here. As the founder of Forum for a New South Asia, he is actively engaged in efforts to strengthen communal harmony in India and also to promote India-Pakistan and India-China friendship.
His Twitter handle is SudheenKulkarni. He welcomes comments at sudheenkulkarni gmail. Mohammed Ali Jinnah sighted this as an opportunity to press for constitutional reforms through a joint Hindu-Muslim platform.
Thus, leaders of both INC and the All India Muslim League met for a joint session and a set of demands for constitutional reforms was drafted after due consultation. After making few amendments, finally, in December , the two parties confirmed the agreement in their respective annual sessions held at Lucknow. The executive should be separated from the judiciary. Each community to have a separate electorate. The term for the Legislative Council to be raised to 5 years and members to be given the power of electing their President themselves.
Through this pact, the two parties showed that there is unity among Indians, but the demand for a separate electorate for different communities divided Indian politics on communal grounds. Get Started for Free Download App. More National movement - Questions Q1. In which year was the Satyagraha movement started? Which of the following statement is correct? Lord Dalhousie introduced doctrine of lapse.
Company took over Awadh in Who was the Viceroy of the British India during - ? More General Knowledge Questions Q1. In which year Indian government has enacted the Consumer Protection Act? The activities in primary, secondary, and tertiary sectors are. When was the Human Development Report published for the first time?
Which of the following is one of the criteria of the UNDP for measuring development that is also used by the World Bank in classifying different countries? Muslim league separate status was also being accepted. Through the pact the both parties were able to put a joint demand before the British. Congress got strength in term of political and masses because it had got All India Muslim League Supports.
It was basically give and take sort of agreement between the both parties. The Muslims had to pay a big price of loosing majority in Bengal and Punjab to obtain some concessions. Similarly, it carried great constitutional significance in the future for many developments. The scheme of representation of Muslim community in the central and provincial legislatures as embodied in the Lucknow pact was generally followed in the Montague Chelmsford reforms.
The agreement was very outstanding and its dreams were fulfilled the whole political scenario of Indian subcontinent were different. But, it was impossible to the parties to make a united India.
The Hindus and Muslims are two different nation and they have different culture and civilization. Therefore the Lucknow Pact failed to make a long lasting cooperation in India among the Muslims and Hindus. Lukhnow Pact. Follow Us On:.
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