Correspondence to M.A. Jinnah: Appeals for Unity and Political Negotiations

Sub title : From an American Plea for a United India to Rejecting Token War Cooperation

Subject: Indian Unity vs. Partition | Hindu-Muslim Relations | World War II - Indian Cooperation

Date of publication: 1941

Language: English

Page: 3 p.

Source: National Archives of Pakistan

Serial no: 27817

Keyword: M.A. Jinnah -- Indian Partition -- Hindu-Muslim Unity -- Muslim League -- World War II | India -- Political Cooperation -- Idgah Dispute -- American Missionaries -- Two-Nation Theory -- C.M.G. Ogilvie.

Abstract: This collection features three distinct letters from the 1940s addressed to or from M.A. Jinnah. It includes a poignant 1946 appeal from American missionaries, using U.S. history as an analogy to argue for a single, unified India over partition. The other two letters from 1941 show Jinnah in his political role: first, resolving a local communal dispute regarding an Idgah in Burhanpur, and second, firmly rejecting a government request for the Muslim League to tour military installations, asserting that meaningful cooperation requires real political power-sharing, not merely symbolic association.

Description: This collection presents contrasting perspectives on India's future and M.A. Jinnah's political stance during the 1940s. The first document is a heartfelt letter from American long-term residents making a philosophical and historical case against partition, urging Jinnah to be a leader for a united India. The subsequent letters reveal Jinnah's practical leadership, dealing with a specific religious issue and, more significantly, articulating the Muslim League's fundamental political principle: a refusal to lend support to the British war effort without being granted substantive political authority, marking a key stance in the negotiations for India's future. SCANNED BY: NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF PAKISTAN.

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