Lucknow Pact, 1916 – About, Features, Outcome (Important Short Notes)
Lucknow Pact, 1916 – About, Importance, Outcome. The Lucknow Pact of 1916 was an important event in modern Indian history as it marked the first time that both Hindu and Muslim political leaders came together to form a unified agreement. The Lucknow Pact was a major milestone in Indian politics as it increased the influence of the All-India Muslim League and allowed them to have more say in decision making. Important Short note for various exams. From the perspective of an examination like State exams, SSC, Banking, Railways and any other One Day exam, all the necessary facts and information are listed below.
The Lucknow session was one of the most historic of Congress sessions because the extremists expelled out of the Congress after the Surat session were admitted back to the Congress, thus the Lucknow session was the first united session of the Congress after 9 years.
It was at the time of the Lucknow session that the Muslim League also held its session in Lucknow but separately, however, eventually the session ended at the conclusion of the League-Congress Pact or the Lucknow Pact in 1916.
The Lucknow Pact of December was an understanding between the Congress and the Muslim League(controlled by the UP based ‘Young Party’) whereby the Congress accepted separate electorates.
The Pact provided a joint political platform for the Moderates, Extremists and the Muslim.
Features
Demand for self-government was declared as the immediate goal and the Congress agreed to accept the demand for separate electorates for Muslims.
Muslims were conceded separate electorates in seven states in which they were in a minority and got half of the elected seats in the Punjab and one third of the elected seats in the Central legislature.
No bill or resolution introduced by the non-official members affecting the other communities shall proceed unless approved of by 3/4th members of the affected community.
Defence, foreign and political affairs, war and peace treaties were considered outside the powers of the Imperial Legislative Council.
Outcome/Effect
With a separate electorate for Muslims in the provincial councils, for the first time, the Congress recognized the separate electorate and agreed to give a much larger share to Muslims, in proportion to their population.
There were, however, critics among Muslims as well as Hindus opposing the Congress-League alliance.
Despite the opposition, Leaders belonging to different religious faith started visiting temples and mosques showing the virtues of communal harmony.
The alliance inspired younger Muslims to join the Congress led nationalist movement and many of them were in the forefront of the nationalist agitations.
Due to this Pact, Congress legitimized what were later derided as ‘separatist’ and ‘communal’ demands.
Both Tilak and Annie Besant played an important role in these negotiations. However, leaders like Madan Mohan Malaviya felt that too much power have been given to the Muslim League.
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