The Lucknow Pact of 1916 was the most important attempt by either the Muslims, Hindus or the British government in seeking a solution to the problems in the sub-continent between 1909 and 1919. Do you agree? Give reasons for your answer.

Lucknow Pact was a significant moment in the movement towards Self Rule as it was the first time that the Hindus and Muslims had made a joint demand for political reform to the British. There were major concessions by congress and they showed how keen it was to gain the support of the League. The Pact included a set of common demands to the British as minorities in the provinces should be protected, number of elected seats Bengal.

Lord Curzon partitioned Bengal in 1905, on the councils should be increased. Muslims had the right of separate electorates, weightage be given to Muslims in the provinces according to their population, Muslims should be given one third of the seats in the Councils and Self Rule be supported by Muslims for the Congress.

The Pact marked the first acceptance by the Hindus that a degree of partition would be necessary in any self-governing India. In 1909, the Morley Minto Reforms gave an opportunity to Muslims for separate electorates, the Imperial council was increased to 60 members by adding more non-official members.

Executive council was increased by adding 60 new members. Provincial councils were also increased to 50 members in larger and 30 in smaller provinces. In 1911, the Partition of Bengal was also reversed which made the Muslims unhappy and congress was very happy. The trust of Muslims on British ended.

In 1919 after the World War I, Turkey was to be divided among British allies, it made the Muslims unhappy which led to start the Khilafat Movement by Ali Brothers and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad to save the seat of Muslim Khilafat. The Khilafat Movement threatened the British a Muslims realized the selfishness of the Hindus for Self-Rule.

The Khilafat lost but due to the non-Co-operation Movement's call off by Gandhi, Movement was a failure on the part of Muslims as it could not save the seat of Khilafat but gave the Indian Muslims a great confidence to fight imposed Diarchy in the provinces, Reserved Subjects were controlled by for their rights.

In 1919, the Montague-Chelmsford reforms by British the Provincial Governor and his Executive council. Transferred subjects were entrusted to ministers responsible to Provincial Legislative Council, the Viceroy had the authority to dismiss the Provincial Legislative councils. The voting rights were increased to 2% population. The Indians did   not like the Reforms as the concessions they demanded were not given. Congress and the League had recently come together calling for Self-Rule and they were bitterly disappointed by the new structure. It was true that the local people had more say in how their country was governed but in reality, British viceroy had all powers. The Reforms led to the Rowlatt Act 1919 which eventually moved towards the Amritsar Massacre 1919, killing many innocent people.

However, in my opinion the Lucknow Pact 1916 marked the high-water mark of Hindu Muslim                unity. It showed that Muslims acknowledged that they stood much more chance of protecting                their rights if they worked with congress against the British.

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