Bihari Muslims opposed the Partition & Muslim League
The Struggle of Bihari Muslims Against the Muslim League and the Partition of India
The history of Bihar’s Muslims during the freedom struggle is often overshadowed by the narrative of the Muslim League and the Pakistan Movement. However, a significant section of Muslim political leaders, scholars, ulema, students, and social organisations from Bihar strongly opposed the Muslim League’s demand for Pakistan, rejected the Two-Nation Theory, and worked for a united and independent India.
One of the important forces was the All India Momin Conference, which represented a large section of Muslim weaver and artisan communities. Its Bihar leaders, particularly Abdul Qayyum Ansari and Ahad Muhammad Noor, played an active role in the nationalist movement and opposed the Muslim League’s claim to represent all Indian Muslims. They participated in the Azad Muslim Conference, convened by Sindhi nationalist leader Allah Bakhsh Soomro, which sought to present an alternative Muslim political voice against Jinnah’s Two-Nation Theory. During the 1946 elections, nationalist Muslim organisations and their leaders also contested Muslim League candidates, often in cooperation with the Congress.
Another prominent nationalist Muslim leader was Maghfoor Ahmad Ajazi of Muzaffarpur, who founded the All India Jamhur Muslim League to challenge the political influence and separatist programme of the Muslim League. The organisation campaigned against the Pakistan Movement and sought to mobilise Muslims around the idea of a united India. It later merged with the Indian National Congress.
Bihar was also an important centre of religious and intellectual opposition to the demand for Pakistan. Maulana Abul Mohasin Muhammad Sajjad, a leading Islamic scholar associated with Bihar’s nationalist Muslim movement, strongly rejected the political argument behind the Lahore Resolution of March 1940. Within a short period of its adoption, he issued a detailed rebuttal challenging the idea that Hindus and Muslims constituted two separate nations and that India therefore needed to be divided.
Maulana Sajjad was also associated with the establishment of Imarat-e-Shariah in Patna, together with other leading scholars and nationalist Muslims such as Qazi Ahmad Husain and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. The organisation developed into an important socio-religious institution in Bihar and continues to have considerable influence in the region.
The Muslim Independent Party, associated with Maulana Abul Mohasin Muhammad Sajjad and Barrister Muhammad Yunus, represented another strand of Muslim politics in Bihar that stood apart from the Muslim League. Under the later leadership of figures including Maulana Abdus Samad Rahmani, Barrister Muhammad Yunus, and Maulana Usman Ghani, its members participated in the wider nationalist Muslim mobilisation and the Azad Muslim Conference. In the 1946 elections, nationalist Muslim candidates challenged the Muslim League with the support of the Congress and other anti-League forces.
The Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind also remained firmly opposed to the Partition of India and the Two-Nation Theory. In Bihar, leaders such as Syed Jalaluddin Shah and Nurullah Rahmani helped sustain the organisation’s nationalist political position. Its members participated in the political struggle against the Muslim League and contested the 1946 elections as part of the broader anti-League coalition.
Bihar’s nationalist Muslim movement was not confined to established political parties. Choudhury Mohammad Abul Hasnat of Arrah was a founding member of the Azad Muslim Students’ Federation, an organisation established to provide a nationalist alternative to Muslim League-affiliated student politics. The participation of students demonstrated that opposition to the Pakistan Movement extended beyond established political leaders and into the younger generation.
Maulana Ataullah Shah Bukhari, born in Patna and one of the leading figures of the Majlis-e-Ahrar-e-Islam, also belonged to the strong anti-Partition tradition within Indian Muslim politics. The Ahrar movement opposed the Muslim League’s separatist politics and advocated a united India.
Another noteworthy nationalist Muslim voice emerged from Arwal, Bihar, where Shah Mohammad Umair called for the formation of a Progressive Bloc of nationalist Muslims to counter what he regarded as the divisive politics of the Muslim League and its leader, Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Figures such as Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, Maulana Noorudin Bihari and Asaf Ali were among the broader nationalist circles associated with this political outlook.
Dr. Syed Mahmood, Prof Abdul Bari, Abdus Sami Nadvi, Shah Ozair Munemi, Saeed Ul Haq, Ahmad Ghafoor, Abul Hayat Chand, Manzoor Ahmad Ajazi, and others were leading Congressmen who opposed the Muslim League. The Muslim League opposed Dr. Syed Mahmood so strongly that they even boycotted the funeral of his mother-in-law, who was the sister of Maulana Mazhar-ul-Haq, a senior Congress leader. They also troubled leaders of different anti-Muslim League groups in Bihar. But no one was afraid of them.
Shah Waheeduddin Minhaji, Qayyum Khizr, and Rafiq Alam Hindustani formed their own organisation to counter Muslim League propaganda.
The nationalist Muslim movement in Bihar therefore represented a significant alternative to the Muslim League. Its leaders did not accept the claim that the League represented the political aspirations of all Indian Muslims. Instead, they argued for a common Indian nationhood in which Muslims could preserve their religious, cultural, and political identity while remaining part of a united India.
The history of Bihar during the final decade before independence consequently reveals a much more complex Muslim political landscape than the simple narrative of “Muslims versus Congress” or “Muslims demanding Pakistan.” From the Momin Conference and Muslim Independent Party to the Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind, Majlis-e-Ahrar, Azad Muslim Conference, student organisations, and independent nationalist leaders, numerous Muslims actively opposed the Pakistan Movement.
Their struggle demonstrates that the demand for Pakistan was contested within Indian Muslim society itself. Bihar, in particular, produced a powerful tradition of nationalist Muslim politics that rejected the Two-Nation Theory, participated in the anti-colonial movement, challenged the Muslim League electorally and politically, and continued to advocate a united India until Partition.
