Malabar Hill, Bombay, Aug. 2, 1938
Dear Mr Bose,
I placed your letter, dated the 25th of July 1938, before the meeting of the Executive Council of the All India Muslim League.
The Executive Council gave its earnest attention and careful consideration to the arguments which were urged in your letter for persuading it not to claim the status it has done in its resolution No. 1 already communicated to you.
I am desired to state in defining the status the Council was not actuated by any motive of securing an admission, but had merely stated an accepted fact.
The Council is fully convinced that the Muslim League is the only authoritative and representative political organisation of the Mussalmans of India. This position was accepted when the Congress-League Pact was arrived at in 1916 at Lucknow and ever since till 1935 when Jinnah-Rajendra Prasad conversation took place, it has not been questioned. The All India Muslim League, therefore, does not require any admission or recognition from the Congress, nor did the resolution of the Executive Council at Bombay. But in view of the fact that the position — in fact the very existence
— of the League had been questioned by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the then President of the Congress, in one of his statements, wherein he asserted that there were only two parties in the country, viz., the British Government and the Congress, it was considered necessary by the Executive Council to inform the Congress of the basis on which the negotiations between the two organisations could proceed.
Besides the very fact that the Congress approached the Muslim League to enter into negotiations for a settlement of a Hindu-Muslim question, it presupposed the authoritative and representative character of the League and
as such its right to come to an agreement on behalf of the Mussalmans of India.
The Council are aware of the fact that there is a Congress coalition Government in NWFP and also that there are some Muslims in the Congress organisations, in other provinces. But Council is of opinion that these Muslims in the Congress do not and cannot represent the Mussalmans of India, for the simple reason that their number is very insignificant and that as members of the Congress, they have disabled themselves from representing or speaking on behalf of Muslim community. Were it not so, the whole claim of the Congress alleged in your letter regarding its national character would fall to the ground.
As regards “the other Muslim organisations” to which reference has been made in your letter, but whom you have not even named, the Council considers that it would have been more proper if no reference had been made to them. If they collectively or individually had been in a position to speak on behalf of the Mussalmans of India, the negotiations with the Muslim League, for a settlement of the Hindu-Muslim question would not have been initiated by the President of the Congress and Mr Gandhi.
So far as the Muslim League is concerned, it is not aware that any Muslim political organisation has ever made a claim that it can speak or negotiate on behalf of the Muslims of India. It is, therefore, very much to be regretted that you should have referred to “other Muslim organisations” in this connection.
The Council is equally anxious to bring about a settlement of “the much- vexed Hindu-Muslim question,” and thus hasten the realisation of the common goal, but it is painful to find that suitable arguments are being introduced to cloud the issue and retard the progress of the negotiations.
In view of the facts stated above, the Council wishes to point out that it considers undesirable the inclusion of Mussalmans in the Committee that might be appointed by the Congress, because it would meet to solve and settle the Hindu-Muslim question and so in the very nature of the issue
involved, they would not command the confidence of either Hindus or the Mussalmans and their position indeed would be most embarrassing. The Council, therefore, request you to consider the question, in the light of the above negotiations.
With reference to the third resolution, it was the memorandum of the Conference referred to in your letter dated the 15th of May 1938, in which mention of other minorities was made and the Muslim League expressed its willingness to consult them if and when it was necessary in consonance with its declared policy.
As regards your desire for the release of the correspondence including this letter, for publication, the Council has no objection to your doing so.
Yours sincerely,
MA Jinnah