Correspondence Regarding Muslim Student Flag Protest to M.A. Jinnah

Sub title : Muslim League Flag Dispute at Educational Institution (1938)

Subject: Muslim League Symbolism | Educational Institution Conflicts

Date of publication: 1938

Language: English

Page: 3 p.

Source: National Archives of Pakistan

Serial no: 27551

Keyword: M.A. Jinnah — Muslim League Flag — Student Protest | Educational Politics — Congress Flag | Religious Symbolism — Muslim Students — Colonial Education — Political Identity — Institutional Conflict

Abstract: This confidential three-page letter from 1938 details a sensitive situation involving Muslim students at an educational institution who sought to hoist the Muslim League flag alongside the existing Congress flag on college buildings. The principal refused permission, citing the college executive committee's policy of only allowing the tricolor flag. This decision angered the students, who approached political leaders including Nawab Muhammad Ismail Khan and the author. The correspondence seeks M.A. Jinnah's guidance on whether students should proceed with agitation despite upcoming examinations and their minority status within the student body (170 Muslim students versus 1100 total), or postpone action for more strategic timing.

Description: This confidential correspondence provides a fascinating glimpse into the micro-politics of religious and political identity in pre-Partition Indian educational institutions. The document reveals how symbolic acts like flag-hoisting became battlegrounds for larger political contests between the Muslim League and Congress. The letter demonstrates the careful strategic calculations being made by Muslim leaders - weighing the symbolic importance of asserting Muslim political identity against practical considerations like academic schedules and numerical disadvantage. It also shows how local Muslim leaders looked to Jinnah for guidance on managing grassroots political activism, underscoring his role as the central authority figure in the Muslim political movement. The situation captures the growing polarization in Indian society and the ways in which educational institutions became sites for negotiating competing nationalisms. SCANNED BY: NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF PAKISTAN.

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