All-India Muslim League

All-India Muslim League
PresidentSee List of presidents of the All-India Muslim League
Historical Presiding Leader(s)Muhammad Ali Jinnah
Aga Khan III
Nawab Waqar-ul-Mulk Kamboh
Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy
Sir Feroz Khan Noon
Khwaja Nazimuddin
Chaudhry Khaliq-uz-Zaman
Mohammad Ali Bogra
Shabbir Ahmad Usmani
Abul Mansur Ahmed
Ibrahim Rahimtoola
Sardar Abdur Rab Nistar
Ibraheem Fazili
FounderKhwaja Salimullah
Founded30 December 1906 (1906-12-30), Dacca, British India
Dissolved15 December 1947[1]
Succeeded byPML
IUML
HeadquartersLucknow
NewspaperDawn
Student wingAll India Muslim Students Federation
Paramilitary wingMuslim National Guard[2]
IdeologySeparatism[3]
Muslim nationalism
Islamic modernism[4]
Two-nation theory
Factions:
Conservatism
Islamic socialism
Regionalism
ReligionIslam
International affiliationAll-India Muslim League (London Chapter)
Election symbol
Crescent and Star
Party flag

The All-India Muslim League (AIML) was a political party founded in 1906 in Dhaka, British India with the goal of securing Muslim interests in South Asia. Although initially espousing a united India with interfaith unity, the Muslim League later led the Pakistan Movement, calling for a separate Muslim homeland after the British exit from India.

The party arose out of the need for the political representation of Muslims in British India, especially during the Indian National Congress-sponsored massive Hindu opposition to the 1905 partition of Bengal. During the 1906 annual meeting of the All India Muslim Education Conference held in Israt Manzil Palace, Dhaka, the Nawab of Dhaka, Khwaja Salimullah, forwarded a proposal to create a political party which would protect the interests of Muslims in British India. He suggested the political party be named the 'All-India Muslim League'. The motion was unanimously passed by the conference, leading to the official formation of the All-India Muslim League in Dhaka.[5] It remained an elitist organisation until 1937, when the leadership began mobilising the Muslim masses, which turned the league into a popular organisation.[6][7][8]

The Muslim League played a decisive role in the 1940s, becoming a driving force behind the division of India along religious lines and the creation of Pakistan as a Muslim state in 1947.[9]

After the Partition of India and the establishment of Pakistan, the All-India Muslim League was formally disbanded in India. The League was officially succeeded by the Pakistan Muslim League, which eventually split into several political parties. Other groups diminished to a minor party, that too only in Kerala state of India. In Bangladesh, the Muslim League was revived in 1976, but it was reduced in size, rendering it insignificant in the political arena. In India, a separate independent entity called the Indian Union Muslim League was formed, which continues to have a presence in the Indian parliament to this day.

  1. ^ The Muslim League: a progress report. himalmag.com. 1 February 1998.
  2. ^ Sajjad, Mohammad (2014). Muslim Politics in Bihar: Changing Contours. Routledge. ISBN 9781317559818.
  3. ^ Keen, Shirin (1998). "Partition of India". Emory University. Retrieved 9 February 2019.
  4. ^ "Atheist Fundamentalists". The Times of India.
  5. ^ Sirajul Islam; Miah, Sajahan; Khanam, Mahfuza; Ahmed, Sabbir, eds. (2012). "Muslim League". Banglapedia: the National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh (Online ed.). Dhaka, Bangladesh: Banglapedia Trust, Asiatic Society of Bangladesh. ISBN 984-32-0576-6. OCLC 52727562. OL 30677644M. Retrieved 16 April 2025.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Rizvi2000 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Keay, John (2000). India: A History. Atlantic Monthly Press. p. 468. ISBN 978-0-8021-3797-5. Heavily supported by mainly landed and commercial Muslim interests ... they duly consummated this distrust [of Congress] by forming the All India Muslim League.
  8. ^ "Establishment of All India Muslim League". Story of Pakistan. June 2003. p. 1. Retrieved 14 February 2014.
  9. ^ Jalal, Ayesha (1994). The Sole Spokesman: Jinnah, the Muslim League, and the Demand for Pakistan. Cambridge University Press. p. 4. ISBN 978-0-521-45850-4. In 1940, ... [the A.I.M.L.] formally demanded independent Muslim states, repudiating the minority status which separate representation necessarily entailed, and instead asserted that Muslims were a nation ... The claim was built upon the demand for 'Pakistan'. But from first to last, Jinnah avoided giving the demand a precise definition.

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