Specials DIVERSITY EMPLOYERS MAGAZINE Spring 2011 - Anniversary Commemorative Issue

Pakistan

Before the British arrived as colonists, Pakistan always a part of India. And for 200 yaers after the establishment of the British Raj, it remained a part of India. However, when Indians began agitating for autonomy from the British, Muslim leaders also wanted autonomy from the predominantly Hindu population. In 1885 the Indian National Congress was formed. In 1906 Muslim leaders formed the Muslim League to represent their own interests. The Government of India Act of 1909 gave them a separate electorates that guaranteed them representation in the legislative councils.

The Muslim League advanced the idea of an autonomous muslim state within India in 1930. By 1940 the idea had evolved into a partition of India into separate Hindu and Muslim nations. Muslim League president, Ali Jinnah, made the demand for a sovereign Muslim state official following the League's Lahore Resolution in 1940. Jinnah and the League kept the pressure on through out independence talks in 1946 which convinced Britain to partition the country and create a separate independent Pakistan on August 14, 1947.