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⁵ At the time of the 1939 New Years' Honours' List no less than a third of the Unionist Party Assembly members held titles from the rank of Rai Bahadur to Knight. The Tribune (Ambala), 5 01 1939.Google Scholar

⁶ For the semantics of the term biraderi see Alavi, H. A., ‘Kinship in West Punjab Villages’, in Madan, T. N. (ed.), Muslim Communities of South Culture and Society (Delhi, 1976). For our purposes here, biraderi is best translated as brotherhood or kinship group. As Alavi points out, despite the existence of caste names among the Muslims of the Punjab, it was the biraderi endogamous organization which commanded the primordial loyalties of the Muslim population. At the village level biraderis were controlled by panchayats which ensured their corporate functioning in such areas as politics. At the provincial level biraderis were governed by conferences presided over by representatives from their leading families.Google Scholar

⁷ (FR 1st half of May 1936) Home Poll. 18/5/36-Poll NAI.Google Scholar

⁸ (FR 1st half of November 1945) L/P&J/5/248 IOR.Google Scholar

⁹ Report of The Organizing Secretary Rawalpindi Division. Vol. 162, Pt 7, Punjab Muslim League 1943–1944, pp. 74ff, FMA.Google Scholar

¹⁰ Ibid.

¹¹ Daultana, Mumtaz to Amiruddin, Mian, 16 January 1946, QEAP File 588/143 NAP.Google Scholar

¹² The Eastern Times (Lahore), 23 05 1945.Google Scholar

¹³ The Unionist Party's 1937 electoral success was based on the support of the province's leading landlord and pir families. Despite Mian Fazl-i-Husain's reorganization of the party in 1936, at the time of the elections it had no formal organization in most areas of the province.Google Scholar

¹⁴ (FR 1st half of December 1944) L/P&J/5/247 IOR.Google Scholar

¹⁵ Khan Rab Nawaz Khan to Jinnah, 25 March 1943, QEAP File 579/46 NAP.Google Scholar

¹⁶ See The Eastern Times (Lahore), 15 03 1946, for an assessment of their role in the Muslim League's success.Google Scholar

¹⁷ Dar, B. A. (ed.), Letters and Writings of Iqbal (Lahore, 1967), pp. 105–11.Google Scholar

¹⁸ The Tribune (Ambala), 19 10 1937.Google Scholar

¹⁹ The Tribune (Ambala), 23 10 1937.Google Scholar

²⁰ On his departure from Lahore after his failure to win Unionist Support for the Muslim League Central Parliamentary Board, Jinnah had said: ‘I shall never come back to the Punjab again. It is such a hopeless place’. Husain, Azim, Mian Fazl-i-Husain. A Political Biography (London, 1966), p. 311.Google Scholar

²¹ Nawabzada Rashid Ali Khan and a few other mainly urban-based League activists had attempted to set up a Muslim League Workers' Board in 1943 to put life into the provincial party. Jinnah's opposition to this independent venture, however doomed it to failure.Google Scholar

²² This called for the establishment of a Muslim League Assembly Party to which the Muslim MLA's would owe sole allegiance. It would, however, coalesce with other parties in the legislature and thus constituted carry out the Unionist Party programme under the Unionist Coalition name. Khizr as leader of the Muslim League Assembly Party would select his ministerial colleagues from among those members of the Assembly in whom he had confidence. The Punjab Provincial Muslim League would not thereafter raise any matter about the working of the Muslim League Assembly Party except with Khizr's permission or through the Assembly Party itself. File 16, Khizr Papers, Chicago.Google Scholar

²³ Several Muslim Leaguers issued statements to the press attacking Khizr's attitude at the Simla Conference. See, for example, Dawn (Delhi), 21 07 1945.Google Scholar

²⁴ The Eastern Times (Lahore), 18 09 1945.Google Scholar

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²⁶ See Nawab Muzaffar Ali Khan Qizilbash's statement in reply to Muslim League allegations concerning the Unionist Party's use of official pressure during the elections. The Civil and Military Gazette (Lahore), 23 10 1945.Google Scholar

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²⁸ Craik to Linlithgow, 1 May 1939, Linlithgow Papers, IOR.Google Scholar

²⁹ Chhabra, G. S., Advanced History of The Punjab, Vol. 2 (Ludhiana, 1965), p. 49. Ranjit Singh, in order to strengthen his position in the western districts of the Punjab, wisely attached to his fortunes representatives of the leading Muslim families. The head of the Noon family served in Ranjit Singh's army and held several villages in jagir as a result. He, however, deserted the Sikh cause in favour of the British during the Sikh Wars. Similar opportunism was shown by the Tiwanas. Their head, Malik Bakhsh Khan, served with distinction in Ranjit Singh's Army and was rewarded with considerable grants of land in the Shahpur District. He, too, joined the British forces during the Sikh Wars.Google ScholarMassy, C. F., Chiefs and families of note in the Punjab, Vol. 2 (Lahore, 1910), pp. 193 and 5.Google Scholar

³⁰ Many of the Punjab landlords who had been defeated by the PPP in 1970 joined it during the period to 1977.Google Scholar

³¹ The Zemindara League which was created as a result of Sir Chhotu Ram's efforts was the Unionist Party's extra parliamentary organization. It had originally been formed to mobilize support for the ‘Golden’ Agricultural Legislation of the late 1930s. It was revived again in 1944 in an effort to counter the Muslim League's growing influence in the countryside.Google Scholar

³² The Eastern Times (Lahore), 2 08 1945.Google Scholar

³³ As a result of the worsening supply situation towards the end of the war, the district magistrates issued an ever increasing number of controls which affected the villager as he went about his daily life. See Board of Economic Inquiry Punjab Publication No. 90. Annual Review of Economic Conditions in The Punjab 1945–6 (Lahore, 1946), p. 4.Google Scholar

³⁴ Bari, Abdul, President of the Lyallpur District Muslim League to Jinnah, 23 January 1946, Shamsul Hasan Collection, Punjab Vol. I, General Correspondence.Google Scholar

³⁵ The Unionist Party's power base in East Punjab was amongst the small peasant proprietors which predominated in that area, unlike in the western part of the province which was dominated by large landlords.Google Scholar

³⁶ Over 800,000 Punjabis served in the British Army during the war.Google Scholar

³⁷ The price of cotton sold in Rohtak, for example, had fallen from 7 seers to the rupee in March 1931 to 10 seers to the rupee by that October. The retail price of gur ranged between 9 and 10 seers to the rupee in March 1931 before the worst impact of the agricultural depression was felt. By March 1933 it had so fallen that the price of 25 seers to the rupee was recorded in Rohtak.Google Scholar Note by Asiz, K. B. Mian, Commissioner Ambala Division, on the present Economic Situation in the Ambala Division. Punjab Government Proceedings, Vol. 12017. Development Dept. Proceedings August 1933 No. 22, pp. 72ff, IOR.Google Scholar

³⁸ The retail price index in Lahore rose from a base of 100 in August 1939 to 398 by March 1946. Board of Economic Inquiry Punjab Publication No. 90. Annual Review of Economic Conditions in the Punjab 1945–6, Table 12, p. 62.Google Scholar

³⁹ (FR 14 August 1946) L/P&J/5/249 IOR.Google Scholar

⁴⁰ (FR 20 September 1944) L/P&J/5/247 IOR.Google Scholar

⁴¹ (FR 25 October 1944) L/P&J/5/247 IOR.Google Scholar See also The Tribune (Ambala), 8 10 1944.Google Scholar

⁴² This was in spite of the representations made by the deputation led by Baldev Singh which discussed the food grains situation with the Central Food Department in October 1944.Google Scholar

⁴³ (FR 1st half of November 1945) L/P&J/5/248 IOR.Google Scholar

⁴⁴ Board of Economic Inquiry Punjab Publication No. 90. Annual Review of Economic Conditions in the Punjab 1945–6, pp. 6ff.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ (FR 2nd half of February 1946) L/P&J/5/249 IOR.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ Hawa-e-Waqt (Lahore), 19 04 1945.Google Scholar

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⁴⁹ The Eastern Times (Lahore), 28 12 1945.Google Scholar

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⁵¹ Translation of a pamphlet issued by the election board of the Punjab Muslim Students' Federation. FMA.Google Scholar

⁵² Mao Tse-tung in the 1920s had declared that the key to peasant political mobilization lay in providing them with immediate material aid. Ideological appeal on its own would not be sufficient to achieve this. ‘If we do no other work than simply mobilizing the people to carry out the war, can we achieve the aim of defeating the enemy? Of course not. If we want to win, we still have a great deal of work. Leading the peasants in agrarian struggles and distributing land to them; arousing their labour enthusiasm so as to increase agricultural production; safeguarding the interests of the workers; establishing cooperatives; developing trade with outside areas; solving the problems that face the masses, problems of clothing, food, and shelter, of fuel, rice, cooking oil and salt, of health and hygiene, and of marriage. In short, all problems facing the masses in their actual life should claim our attention’. Tse-tung, Mao, Mind the Living Conditions of the Masses and Attend to the Methods of Work (Peking, 1953), p. 2.Google Scholar

⁵³ The Tribune (Ambala), 3 12 1944.Google Scholar

⁵⁴ In the Rawalpindi District, the leading recruiting area in the province, 1 man in every 2 served during the war, 1,420 persons were recorded as having sent 3 or more sons to the services. File 16, Khizr Papers.Google Scholar

⁵⁵ The Eastern Times (Lahore), 8 11 1942.Google Scholar

⁵⁶ Government of Punjab Five Year Postwar Development Plan (Lahore, 1945). See for example p. 214.Google Scholar

⁵⁷ Ibid.; see fn. 44 above, pp. 13ff.

⁵⁸ See Peacocks, W. Couley Calling, ‘One Man's experience of India 1939–47’, Typed Manuscript, Centre of South Asian Studies, Cambridge University, pp. 60ff.Google Scholar

⁵⁹ (FR 14 December 1946) L/P&J/5/249 IOR.Google Scholar

⁶⁰ Shaukat Hyat who had been serving in the army before his return to the Punjab to take up his ill-fated ministerial post in the Khizr Cabinet was the League's chief spokesman on this matter. He delivered a series of hard-hitting speeches against the Unionist Party in the main recruiting areas in September 1945.Google ScholarThe Eastern Times (Lahore), 29 09 1945.Google Scholar

⁶¹ Dawn (Delhi), 8 10 1945.Google Scholar

⁶² This decision was the result of pressure from local League branches in the major recruiting areas. Shamsul Hasan Collection, Punjab Vol. 2, General Correspondence. Resolution of the Montgomery District Muslim League.Google Scholar

⁶³ Muslim League Council Meetings, Vol. 253, Pt 2, p. 60, FMA.Google Scholar

⁶⁴ Muslim League Working Committee Meetings 1943–1947, Vol. 142, p. 23, FMA.Google Scholar

⁶⁵ Such practice on one occasion in the Khanewal Tehsil in the Multan District almost proved detrimental to the League, when the Parliamentary Board in an endeavour to maintain its authority rode roughshod over the religious susceptibilities of the local electorate, and elected Pir Budhan Shah as candidate for the constituency—despite the fact that he had written a promise on the first page of the Quran to stand down as candidate in favour of someone else. Hussain Bakhash Propaganda Secretary Anjuman Islah-ul-Muslemeen, Miancharri, Multan District to Jinnah, 21 January 1946, Shamsul Hasan Collection, Punjab Vol. 1, General Correspondence.Google Scholar

⁶⁶ Immediately after the results were known the Punjab Provincial Muslim League issued a statement praising the students' crucial role in its success. The Eastern Times (Lahore), 17 03 1946.Google Scholar

⁶⁷ Muslim University Union Aligarh and Muslim University Muslim League, Vol. 237, p. 71, FMA.Google Scholar

⁶⁸ Ibid.; see fn. 51.

⁶⁹ The Unionist Party employed Mirasis to work on its behalf during the elections. The Eastern Times (Lahore), 30 12 1945.Google Scholar

⁷⁰ It never in fact kept this promise. The Punjab League ran into financial difficulties during the campaigning and had to resort to a 3 lac rupee loan from its parent body's Central Election Fund. In such circumstances the question of the payment of the student workers became a vexed issue. At one point, because of difficulties over funds, the Aligarh students were able to stay only ten days at a time in the Punjab. Jinnah handed over 30,000 rupees in all from the Central Election Fund to the Aligarh Election committee. See Shamsul Hasan Collection U.P. Vol. 3.Google Scholar

⁷¹ Report of Mohd. Sadiq. Muslim Student Deputation 22 July 1941, QEAP File 1099/84 NAP.Google Scholar

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⁷³ Khizr's point was that Allah is described in the Quran as Rabb-ul-Alameen, Lord of everything and everyone not just the Muslims. In this light the Unionist Party's non-communalism was more Islamic than the League's avowed communalism.Google Scholar

⁷⁴ Gopal, Madan, Sir Chhotu Ram. A Political Biography (New Delhi, 1977), p. 146.Google Scholar

⁷⁵ Maulana Jamal Mian of Firangi Mahal made several tours to the Punjab on the League's behalf, including one of the Ambala District in January 1945. Pro-League Ulema from Deoband headed by Maulana Shabbir Ahmad Uthmani attended the Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Islam conference in Lahore from which they proceeded to tour several districts of the province.Google Scholar

⁷⁶ Baraka was the religious charisma believed to be transmitted by a saint to his descendants and his shrine.Google Scholar

⁷⁷ Complete obedience and respect towards his pir was demanded of a murid. The relationship between the pir and his murids was likened to that of the Prophet and his companions. Milson, Menahem (trans.), Kitab Adab al-Muridin of Abu al-Najib al-Suhrawardi. A Sufi Rule For Novices (Cambridge Mass., 1978), p. 46.Google Scholar

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⁸⁰ Report of the Administration of Estates Under The Court of Wards For The Year Ending 30 September 1911, IOR.Google Scholar

⁸¹ Chopra, G. L., Chiefs and familes of note in the Punjab, Vol. 2 (Lahore, 1940), p. 242.Google Scholar

⁸² Ibid.; see fn. 80.

⁸³ The Unionist Party approached the following 14 leading pirs and Sajjada Nashins for support in 1937: Diwan Sahib Pakpattan (Chishti), Sajjada Nashin Mahar Sharif Bahawalpur (Chishti), Pir Taunsa (Chishti), Pir Sial (Chishti), Pir Golra (Chishti), Pir Fazal Shah (Chishti), Pir Makhad (Chishti), Sajjada Nashin of Sultan Bahu, Sajjada Nashin Pirkot (Qadiri), Makhdum Murid Hussain Qureshi (Suhrawardi), Pir Jamiat Ali Shah (Naqshbandi), Sajjada Nashin Ajmer Dargarh Rajputana (Chisti), Sajjada Nashin Sahranpur, Sajjada Nashin of the Shrine of Nizamudin Auylia Delhi (Chishti). DrAhmad, Waheed (ed.), The Letters of Mian Fazl-i-Husain (Lahore, 1976), pp. 592–4.Google Scholar

⁸⁴ Interview with Abu Saeed Enver (Propaganda Secretary of the Punjab League in this period), Lahore, 10 April 1978.Google Scholar

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⁸⁷ The Sajjada Nashin of the shrine of Pir Sayed Mohd. Ghaus, for example, used the Urs ceremonies at the shrine to appeal to his murids to support the Muslim League candidate in the Shakargarh constituency.Google Scholar

⁸⁸ Nawa-e-Waqt (Lahore), 19 01 1946.Google Scholar

⁸⁹ Ibid., 3 January 1946.

⁹⁰ Punjab Proceedings P 12096. Revenue Department Proceedings November 1936, The Assessment Report of the Jaranwala Tehsil of The Lyallpur District, p. 12, IOR.Google Scholar

⁹¹ Bourne, F. C., The Final Settlement Report of The Lower Bari Doab Canal Colony 1927–35 (Lahore, 1935), p. 3.Google Scholar

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⁹³ The brother of the Sajjada Nashin of the Gilani shrine at Pirkot Sidhana in the Jhang District was, for example, a zaildar in the Chenab Canal Colony. Jhang District Gazetteer (Lahore, 1930), p. 45.Google Scholar

⁹⁴ Bourne, F. C., Assessment Report of the Okara Tehsil of the Montgomery District contained in the Lower Bari Doab Canal Colony (Lahore, 1929), p. 19, Punjab Revenue Proceedings May 1934, Pt A P 12048, IOR.Google Scholar

⁹⁵ The Muslim League gained 80 per cent of the popular vote in the Jhang District, 77 per cent in the Montgomery District and 70 per cent in the Lyallpur District, the three main colony areas.Google Scholar

⁹⁶ Pir Makhad had always been traditionally factionally aligned against the Khan of Makhad who in 1946 was supporting the League.Google Scholar

⁹⁷ Information compiled from Chopra, G. L., Chiefs and families of note in the Punjab, Vol. 2 (Lahore, 1940), p. 52,Google Scholar and from Gurdaspur District Gazetteer (Lahore, 1915), p. 74.Google Scholar

⁹⁸ Gilmartin, David ‘Religious Leadership and the Pakistan Movement in the Punjab’, Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 13, No. 3 (1979), p. 509.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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¹⁰⁰ The Urs of leading shrines were great meeting places not only for pilgrims but for the pirs of the shrine's order. Pir Taunsa and Pir Golra were only 2 of the leading pirs who annually attended Baba Farid's Urs at Pakpattan, for example.Google Scholar

¹⁰¹ Nawa-e-Waqt (Lahore), 18 01 1946.Google Scholar

¹⁰² Dawn (Delhi), 14 01 1945.Google Scholar

¹⁰³ Inqilab (Lahore), 8 11 1945.Google Scholar

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¹⁰⁵ Nawa-e-Waqt (Lahore), 19 01 1946.Google Scholar

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¹⁰⁷ Wriggins, W. H., Pakistan in Transition (Islamabad, 1975), p. 160ff.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁸ The Civil And Military Gazette (Lahore), 4 09 1945.Google Scholar

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¹¹⁰ The Khyber Mail (Peshawar), 15 02 1946.Google Scholar

¹¹¹ Calculated from 1941 Census, Punjab, Pt 1, Table XIII, p. 42 (Lahore, 1941).Google Scholar

¹¹² 1931 Census, Punjab, Pt 2, Table XIII, pp. 233–47 (Lahore, 1933).Google Scholar

¹¹³ Dependent as this is upon the existence of a socially mobilized community to whom a sense of communal identification can be communicated.Google Scholar

¹¹⁴ Race, Jeffrey, War Comes to Long An (Berkeley, 1972), p. 179.Google Scholar

¹¹⁵ For evidence elsewhere of popular Islam legitimizing peasant protests and interests see Kessler, Clive S., ‘Muslim Identity and Political Behaviour in Kelantan’, in Roff, William R. (ed.), Kelantan Religion, Society and Politics in a Malay State (London, 1974).Google Scholar