The impact of partition on Muslim political representation in India

Abstract

This paper will explore the impact of partition on Muslims’ political representation in postcolonial India. My first objective will be to present a comprehensive picture of the reconfiguration of Muslim political elites between the late colonial period and the first decade after independence (1937-1957). I will compile a database to study the evolutions in the social and political profiles of Muslim parliamentarians in the central and state legislatures during this period. This database will help capture the manifold impacts of partition, from the departure of large sections of Muslim elites to Pakistan, to the dissolution of the All-India Muslim League, the integration of princely states or the call of several prominent Muslim leaders to join the Congress. By including state legislatures, this database will help us document the differentiated impact of partition on India’s diverse regions. My second objective will be to follow the trajectories of a few Muslim parliamentarians to examine how they positioned themselves as political leaders in the aftermath of partition, in the context of India’s new secular regime. As is well known, the Constituent Assembly decided after much discussion to put an end to separate political representation for religious minorities. Yet, in many ways, Muslim citizens remained marked citizens, whom state authorities often projected as a separate entity. What roles did Muslim parliamentarians endorse — formally and informally— within this new framework? I will examine to what extent these politicians acted as intermediaries between state authorities and Muslim citizens, as government or party delegates vis-à-vis religious minorities, or as spokespersons or even patrons for their co-religionists. Through these Muslim parliamentarians, this paper will thus probe the ruptures that partition triggered in the patterns of political representation as well as the continuities in the modes of management of religious diversity between the colonial and postcolonial periods.