Correspondence and Official Communications with Muhammad Ali Jinnah

Sub title : High-Level Negotiations, Minority Engagements, and the Path to Partition

Subject: Jinnah, Muhammad Ali, | Cabinet Mission (1946) | India -- Politics and government

Date of publication: 1939

Language: English

Page: 23 p.

Source: National Archives of Pakistan

Serial no: 27804

Keyword: M.A. Jinnah -- Cabinet Mission 1946 -- Lord Pethick-Lawrence -- G.E.B. Abell | Indian Independence Act 1947 -- Partition -- Muslim League -- Constitutional Proposals | Minority Rights -- Britasian League -- World War II and India

Abstract: This collection comprises high-level official correspondence and personal letters addressed to M.A. Jinnah during a critical period (1939-1947). It includes confidential letters from the Viceroy's Private Secretary (G.E.B. Abell) and the Cabinet Delegation (led by Lord Pethick-Lawrence), detailing the logistics and substance of negotiations for India's future constitution. The documents capture the formal proceedings leading to the Cabinet Mission Plan, the eventual failure of talks, and the final communication regarding the Indian Independence Bill.

Description: This collection offers a crucial primary source perspective on the final, tense years of British rule in India, as seen through communications with one of its principal actors, M.A. Jinnah. The official letters provide a behind-the-scenes look at the diplomatic choreography and the British government's attempts to broker a unified India, culminating in the formal announcement of independence and partition. The ancillary correspondence demonstrates Jinnah's expanding stature, showing how he was approached not only as a communal leader but as a central authority on issues ranging from famine relief to the concerns of small, marginalized communities like the Britasians. This archive is indispensable for understanding the administrative and diplomatic history of the transfer of power and the complex political ecosystem of late colonial India. SCANNED BY: NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF PAKISTAN.

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