HISTORICAL CONSTITUTIONS
Jinnah's Fourteen Points
The British colonial government established the Simon Commission in the 1920s to review India’s governance. However, the commission, composed entirely of British members, outraged Indian leaders. In response, the Indian National Congress convened an All-Parties Conference to draft an alternative constitution, which resulted in the Nehru Report.
While the Nehru Report aimed for take on-board the concerns and demands of all major political parties in India, it failed to adequately address the Muslim League’s concerns, particularly regarding their political safeguards. This prompted Muhammad Ali Jinnah, a prominent leader of the Muslim League, to articulate his “14 Points” – a resolution outlining the League’s demands for India’s future constitutional structure.
Jinnah’s 14 Points was a concise document that outlined key demands for a federal system of governance. It called for granting provinces significant autonomy, thereby empowering Muslim-majority regions with greater control over their own affairs. The document demanded that at least one-third of the seats in the central legislature be reserved for Muslims, along with adequate representation in all provincial and local legislatures.
The document emphasized the need for safeguards for Muslim religious and cultural rights, adequate representation in government services, and the right to elect their own representatives through separate electorates. They also advocated for provincial autonomy, residual powers to provinces, the principle of non-interference in religious matters, and the protection of Muslim rights in the Frontier Provinces. Further, it called for the representation of other minorities, the creation of linguistic provinces, the elimination of discrimination against Muslims, and ultimately, the pursuit of complete independence for India.
Jinnah’s 14 Points underscored the Muslim League’s growing apprehensions about their political future within an independent India. The Congress’s rejection of these demands further widened the rift between the two major political forces. This failure to reach a consensus on these crucial issues ultimately contributed to the partition of India in 1947, leading to the creation of Pakistan.
Constitutional historians, although they acknowledge Jinnah’s 14 Points, still do not give it the attention it deserves as a document expressing a constitutional vision in its own right. This relegates the 14 Points to the margins of historical narratives, overshadowed by the prominence of the Nehru Report. This neglect is unfortunate, as Jinnah’s 14 Points offer a distinct constitutional vision for India, constituting an important strand of many constitutional imaginations advanced by Indians.
Seen in this light, viewing the partition as a consequence of failed constitutional imagination, it becomes evident that Jinnah’s 14 Points mark a pivotal moment. This moment was significant not only in the relationship between the Congress and the Muslim League but also in the broader struggle to address the “communal problem”—the challenge of reconciling diverse religious and cultural identities within a unified Indian nation. This “communal problem” continued to plague India’s freedom movement for the next decade and a half, culminating in the tragic partition of the subcontinent.
Jinnah’s Fourteen Points
(Draft resolution presented by Mr. Jinnah at the Council of the All-India Muslim League on 28 March 1929)
Whereas the basic idea with which the All-Parties’ Conference was called in being and a Convention summoned at Calcutta during Christmas Week, 1928, was that a scheme of reforms should be formulated and accepted and ratified by the foremost political organisations in the country as a National Pact; and whereas the Report was adopted by the Indian National Congress only constitutionally for the one year ending 31st December 1929, and in the event of the British Parliament not accepting it within the time limit, the Congress stands committed to the policy and programme of complete independence by resort to civil disobedience and non-payment of taxes: and whereas the attitude taken up by the Hindu Maha Sabha from the commencement through their representatives at the Convention was nothing short of an ultimatum, that, if a single word in the Nehru Report in respect of the communal settlement was changed, they would immediately withdraw their support to it; and whereas the National Liberal Federation delegates at the Convention took up an attitude of benevolent neutrality, and subsequently in their open session at Allahabad, adopted a non-committal policy with regard to the Hindu-Moslem differences; and whereas the Sikh League had already declined to agree to the Nehru Report; and whereas the non-Brahmin and depressed classes are entirely opposed to it; and where as the reasonable and moderate proposals put forward by the delegates of the All India Moslem League at the Convention in modification were not accepted, the Moslem League is unable to accept the Nehru Report.
The League after anxious and careful consideration most earnestly and emphatically lays down that no scheme for the future constitution of the government of India will be acceptable to Mussalmans of India until and unless the following basic principles are given effect to and provisions are embodied therein to safeguard their rights and interests:—
(1) The form of the future constitution should be federal, with the residuary powers vested in the provinces.
(2) A uniform measure of autonomy shall be granted to all provinces.
(3) All legislatures in the country and other elected bodies shall be constituted on the definite principle of adequate and effective representation of minorities in every Province without reducing the majority in any Province to a minority or even equality.
(4) In the Central Legislature, Mussalman representation shall not be less than one third.
(5) Representation of communal groups shall continue to be by means of separate electorates as at present, provided it shall be open to any community, at any time, to abandon its separate electorate in favour of joint electorate.
(6) Any territorial redistribution that might at any time be necessary shall not in any way, affect the Moslem majority in the Punjab, Bengal and N. W. F. Province.
(7) Full religious liberty i.e., liberty of belief, worship and observance, propaganda, association and education, shall be guaranteed to all communities.
(8) No bill or resolution or any part thereof shall be passed in any legislature or any other elected body if three fourths of the members of any community in that particular body oppose such a bill, resolution or part thereof on the ground that it would be injurious to the interests of that community or in the alternative, such other method is devised as may be found feasible and practicable to deal with such cases.
(9) Sind should be separated from the Bombay Presidency.
(10) Reforms should be introduced in the N. W. F. Province and Baluchistan on the same footing as in other provinces.
(11) Provision should be made in the constitution giving Moslems an adequate share along with the other Indians, in all the services of the State and in local self-governing bodies having due regard to the requirements of efficiency.
(12) The constitution should embody adequate safeguards for the protection of Moslem culture and for the protection and promotion of Moslem education, language, religion, personal laws and Moslem charitable institutions and for their due share in the grants-in-aid given by the State and by local self-governing bodies.
(13) No cabinet, either Central or Provincial, should be formed without there being a proportion of at least one-third Moslem Ministers.
(14) No change shall be made in the constitution by the Central Legislature except with the concurrence of the States constituting the Indian Federation.
That in the present circumstances, representation of Musalmans in the different legislatures of the country and other elected bodies through the separate electorates is inevitable and further, the Government being pledged over and over again not to disturb this franchise so granted to the Moslem community since 1909 till such time as the Musalmans chose to abandon it, the Musalmans will not consent to joint electorates unless Sind is actually constituted into a separate province and reforms in fact are introduced in the N. W. F. Province and Baluchistan on the same footing as in other provinces.
Further, it is provided that there shall be reservation of seats according to the Moslem population in the various provinces; but where Musalmans are in a majority, they shall not contest more seats than their population warrants.
The question of excess representation of Musalmans over and above their population in Provinces where they are in a minority is to be considered hereafter.