page_title: Islam in South Asia
section_title: Colonial rule and freedom movement
hierarchical_section_title: Islam in South Asia / History / Colonial rule and freedom movement
caption_attribution_description: English: Census of British India by religion, 1921
context_page_description: Islam is the second largest religion in South Asia with about 600 million Muslims, forming about one third of South Asia's population. South Asia has the largest population of Muslims in the world in the world, with about one-third of all Muslims being from South Asia. Islam is the dominant religion in half of the South Asian countries. In India, Islam is the second-largest religion while in Sri Lanka and Nepal it is the third-largest religion.
  Islam existed in South Asian communities along the Arab coastal trade routes in Sindh, Gujarat, Kerala, Ceylon, and Bengal as soon as the religion originated and had gained early acceptance in the Arabian Peninsula, though the first incursion through sea by the new Muslim successor states of the Arab World occurred around 636 CE or 643 AD, during the Rashidun Caliphate, long before any Arab army reached the frontier of India by land. The Barwada mosque in Ghogha, Gujarat built before 623 CE and Cheraman Juma Mosque in Methala, Kerala are two of the first mosques in South Asia which were built by seafaring Arab merchants. The connection between the Sind and Islam was established by the initial Muslim missions during the Rashidun Caliphate.
context_section_description: British Bengal was divided for administrative reasons. The new province contained a Muslim majority. Dismayed Bengali Hindus agitated against this move, political terrorism characterizing their agitation. The Muslim leadership, disturbed by Hindu behavior, sought security in the new province. The formation of the Muslim League was the most significant outcome of the partition. It was founded by the Muslim elite in Dhaka in 1906 to safeguard Muslim interests. The League sent a deputation to Lord Minto in 1906 to ask for parliamentary representation for Muslims reflecting their political importance. The Minto-Morley Reforms in 1909 introduced the separate electorates system which reserved seats for Muslims.
  In 1919, prominent ulama campaigned to defend the Ottoman caliphate in what became known as the Khilafat Movement. They were backed by Gandhi, partially out of principle and partially to block the reuse of Muslims to support British authority. By the time Gandhi was released from imprisonment in 1924 Hindu Muslim relations had deteriorated. Jinnah, once ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity and member of both the Congress and Muslim League felt isolated and was unwanted by the Congress. While in London he encountered and rejected Rahmat Ali's proposal of a Muslim state called Pakistan.
  He returned to India and in the 1936 elections the Muslim League won only a quarter of the Muslim vote, the Congress 6 percent while the remaining 69 percent was won by regional parties in the Muslim majority provinces. The results demonstrated that neither the League nor the Congress represented Muslims, whose politics were provincially oriented. Jinnah turned his attention to the Muslim majority provinces and proposed a separate Muslim state at a Muslim League session in Lahore in 1940.
  In the ensuing years of the Lahore resolution Jinnah and the League 's power gradually consolidated. By the end of World War II the League was a mass movement and went into the 1945–1946 elections solely over its Pakistan campaign. It was victorious and won most provincial and all central Muslim seats; winning the majority of Muslim seats in Bengal and the Muslim minority provinces and a plurality in Punjab. Many middle class Muslims had voted for the League to escape Hindu competition while others had voted for ambitions about Islamic law and moral authority. Some ulama, including Deobandi, also backed the Pakistan demand to live under the law of Islam.
  After the election victory Jinnah had gained a strong hand to negotiate with the Congress and the British. The British Cabinet Mission proposed a three-tiered form of government for the Indian Union. Effectively, the League would have two large semi-autonomous territories inside a loose federation. Both the League and Congress accepted the plan but on 10 July Nehru spurned the notion of provincial groupings which comprised the plan. To break the impasse British Prime Minister sent the last Viceroy Lord Mountbatten. Frustrated with sharing power with the League in the interim government the Congress agreed to a partition of Punjab and Bengal. Mountbatten presented the partition plan on 2 June 1947 to the Indian leadership. For Jinnah it was a bitter pill and a disappointment for the League leaders who were embittered with the British and Congress for not granting them six whole provinces.
caption: The  1921 Census of British India shows 69 million Muslims, 217 million Hindus out of a total population of 316 million.
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