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Simla Deputation
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This article is about the 1906 deputation of

Indian Muslim leaders for greater political
representation. For the 1914 Tibetan-British-
Chinese convention, see Simla Convention. For
the 1972 India-Pakistan peace treaty, see Simla
Agreement. For the 1945 Indian self-government
meeting, see Simla Conference.

The Simla Deputation was a gathering of

35[note 1] prominent Indian Muslim leaders
led by the Aga Khan III at the Viceregal
Lodge in Simla in October 1906. The
deputation aimed to convince Lord Minto,
then Viceroy of india, to grant Muslims
greater representation in politics.

Aga Khan III, Lord Minto, Governor-

facilitator of the General of India in 1906
Simla Deputation

The deputation took advantage of the liberal

values of the newly-appointed Minto and his
Secretary of State, John Morley, following
the election of the Liberals in the 1906
United Kingdom general election, as well as
the willingness of the British and the Indian
Muslims to cooperate – the British wanted to
use Indian Muslims as a bulwark against the
Indian National Congress and Hindu
nationalism, while the Muslims, based in
Aligarh Muslim University, wanted to use the
opportunity to secure more political
representation for themselves.

Minto, finding himself sympathetic to the

demands of the Muslims, put many of them
into law through the Indian Councils Act
1909, granting the wishes of the deputation.
The deputation also led indirectly to the
creation of the All-India Muslim League in
December that year, as the leaders of the
Simla Deputation had taken the time to draft
the constitution of the Muslim League to
present at the All India Muhammadan
Educational Conference.

Background

During the 19th century, Muslim political

activism came to be centered on Aligarh
Muslim University. The university and its
associated Aligarh Movement began to push
for Muslim social and educational reform. Its
leader, Syed Ahmad Khan, strengthened the
Muslim community in northern India by
drawing them to his pro-British writings and
gatherings.[6] However, his death in 1898 led
to the university becoming dormant.
However, in the 1900s, the university
became heavily involved in politics again,
starting with the Hindi-Urdu controversy.[7]
The beginning of the 20th century gave rise
to the impetus for a Muslim political
organization to advocate for Muslims
throughout India, much as the Indian
National Congress did for India as a whole.[8]

In 1905, Lord Curzon, then Viceroy,

reorganized the Bengal Presidency through
the Partition of Bengal, splitting the region
into East and West Bengal. The partition
enraged Hindus,[9] but Muslims, who had
become a majority in the newly-formed East
Bengal, found themselves opposed to the
Hindus. The Muslims of East Bengal, led by
Syed Nawab Ali Chowdhury, found an
increased power and voice to be used to
push for better employment opportunities,
education, and political representation. The
British found in this Muslim opposition a
bulwark against Hindu dominance and
nationalism and supported the Muslims.[10]

In late 1905, the government of Britain came

under the Liberals following the 1906 United
Kingdom general election. This coincided
with the appointment of Lord Minto, who was
more sympathetic to Indian desires for
autonomy than his predecessor Lord Curzon,
to the position of Vice-Roy following the
resignation of Curzon. John Morley, a Liberal
MP, was appointed Secretary of State for
India in the Liberal government of the UK.
Morley made a speech in the UK Parliament
in July 1906 hinting at an increase of
representation of native Indians in legislative
councils for both moderate members of the
Indian National Congress as well as Muslims.
[11]

Hearing Morley's speech, Muhammad Ismail

Khan, a member of the legislative council of
the United Provinces, as well as other
notable people within politics,[12] wrote to
Mohsin-ul-Mulk, successor of Syed Ahmad
Khan, suggesting an effort to increase
Muslim representation in local councils.
Mohsin-ul-Mulk formed a committee to
possibly meet the new Viceroy and asked
the Principal of Aligarh Muslim University,
W.A.J. Archibold, who was in Simla at the
time, to pass the committee's request for a
meeting on to the Viceroy.[13] The Viceroy
agreed, and Syed Hussain Bilgrami drafted
the deputation's address with help from
Mohsin-ul-Mulk.[12] The address was signed
by more than 1182 people and was sent to
the Viceroy on 6 September, a month before
the deputation itself.[2][note 2]

Historian Peter Hardy argues that the

deputation knew that Lord Minto would be
somewhat receptive to their requests, or at
least that he would not be openly hostile
towards them. He argues that this influenced
the demands they made towards him.[14]

Deputation

The Viceregal Lodge in Simla,

where the deputation gathered
to meet with Lord Minto

The committee, led by Aga Khan III,[4] went

to Simla to meet with Lord Minto on 1
October.[2] The address which had been
sent beforehand contained the desires of the
deputation – that Muslims, based on their
population within India ("numerical
strength"), should have a proportionate
share of the vote and separate electorates,
supported by the idea that having been the
rulers of India during the period of the
Mughal Empire, Muslims had a higher
amount of "political importance".[15][16]

Any kind of representation, direct or

indirect, and in all other ways
affecting their status and influence,
should be commensurate not merely
with the numerical strength but also
with their political importance.[15]

They also argued that:

Muslims are a distinct community

with additional interests [...] which
are not shared by other
communities and these [...] have not
been adequately represented.[4]

Additionally, the deputation did not criticize

British rule and only praised it. The
deputation also presented the idea that they
were satisfied with how things currently
were, and that a change was not necessary.
[14]

Minto found himself agreeing with the

deputation and consenting to many of their
demands. He stated that his beliefs aligned
with the deputation's members, saying that:

any electoral representation in India

would be doomed to mischievous
failure which aimed at granting a
personal enfranchisement
regardless of the beliefs and
traditions of the communities
composing the population of this
continent.[4]

Aftermath

The Simla Deputation managed to convince

Lord Minto to create better representation
for Muslims within Indian politics – the Indian
Councils Act 1909, known as the Morley-
Minto or Minto-Morley Reforms, which
created non-official Indian majorities in
provincial councils, put many of the main
demands of the deputation such as separate
electorates and separate provincial council
seats for Muslims into law.[17][18]

Within the politically active Muslims

themselves, the Simla Deputation led to the
creation of the All-India Muslim League in
December 1906.[19] The Muslim political
leaders had previously, while drafting the
address to Lord Minto in September, used
the opportunity before the next All India
Muhammadan Educational Conference later
in the year to draft a constitution and set up
the foundation of what was to become the
Muslim League.[20]

In historiography, the Simla Deputation is

referred to by some (such as Hussain) as a
landmark within Muslim history in India, as it
was the first time Muslims had raised their
demands against Hindus on a constitutional
level towards the British.[21] Scholarly
consensus used to be that the Simla
Deputation was something engineered by
the British as a way to turn Muslims and
Hindus against each other; however, the
research of Wasti attempted to show that the
deputation had its origins within the Muslim
political leaders, and that the British had
nothing to do with the address to Lord Minto
and the organizing of the deputation.[22]

Notes

1. ^ Sources differ – Some claim the number

present was 70,[1] 32,[2] or 30[3] (as well as
various other claims), but the most used
number among sources is 35 people.[4][5]

2. ^ Sources differ – The address may have been

sent after 15–16 September, the date ascribed
to the finishing of the draft by a council of
political leaders at Lucknow.[12]

References

Citations
1. ^ Purohit 2011, p. 767.

2. ^ a b c Akhtar 2017, p. 767.

3. ^ Lal 1986, p. 73.

4. ^ a b c d Metcalf & Metcalf 2012, p. 160.

5. ^ Rahman 1970, p. 8.

6. ^ Jones 1989, p. 64.

7. ^ Akhtar 2017, p. 765-6.

8. ^ Malik 2012, p. 171.

9. ^ Metcalf & Metcalf 2012, p. 156.

10. ^ Metcalf & Metcalf 2012, p. 159-60.

11. ^ Akhtar 2017, p. 766-7.

12. ^ a b c Malik 2012, p. 172.

13. ^ Wasti 1976, p. 49.

14. ^ a b Akhtar 2017, p. 768.

15. ^ a b Panigrahi 2004, p. 45.

16. ^ Akhtar 2017, p. 764.

17. ^ Metcalf & Metcalf 2012, p. 161.

18. ^ Hussain 2010, p. 67.

19. ^ Chaudry 1978, p. 174.

20. ^ Malik 2012, p. 173.

21. ^ Hussain 2010, p. 66.

22. ^ Voigt 1965, p. 73.

Bibliography

Books

Chaudry, K. C. (1978). Role of Religion in

Indian Politics, 1900–1925 . Sundeep
Prakashan.

Jones, Kenneth W. (1989). Socio-Religious

Reform Movements in British India .
Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-
521-24986-7.

Lal, Ramji (1986). Political India, 1935-1942:

Anatomy of Indian Politics . Ajanta
Publications (India). ISBN 978-81-202-0160-
6.

Metcalf, Barbara D.; Metcalf, Thomas R. (24

September 2012). A Concise History of
Modern India . Cambridge University Press.
ISBN 978-1-107-02649-0.

Panigrahi, Devendra (19 August 2004).

India's Partition: The Story of Imperialism in
Retreat . Routledge. ISBN 1-135-76812-9.

Rahman, Martiur (1970). From Consultation

to Confrontation: a Study of the Muslim
League in British Indian Politics, 1906-
1912 . Luzac. ISBN 978-0-7189-0148-6.

Wasti, Syed Razi (1976). The Political

Triangle in India, 1858-1924 . People's
Publishing House.

Articles

Akhtar, Shamim (2017). "Aligarh and Muslim

Politics: The Chequered Road to Simla 1875–
1906" . Proceedings of the Indian History
Congress. 78: 762–769. JSTOR 26906150 .
Retrieved 25 May 2021.

Hussain, Mahboob (2010). "Muslim

Nationalism in South Asia: Evolution Through
Constitutional Reforms" (PDF). Journal of
Political Studies. 1 (2): 65–77. Retrieved
25 May 2021.[dead link]

Malik, Nadeem Shafik (2012). "Formation of

the All India Muslim League and Its Response
to Some Foreign Issues - 1906-1911"
(PDF). Journal of Political Studies. 19 (2):
169–186. Retrieved 25 May 2021.

Purohit, Teena (May 2011). "Identity Politics

Revisited: Secular and 'Dissonant' Islam in
Colonial South Asia" . Modern Asian
Studies. 45 (3): 709–733.
doi:10.1017/S0026749X10000181 .
JSTOR 25835696 . S2CID 147171086 .
Retrieved 25 May 2021.

Voigt, Johannes H. (April 1965). "Review of

Lord Minto and the Indian Nationalist
Movement, 1905 to 1910 by Syed Razi
Wasti" . The Journal of the Royal Asiatic
Society of Great Britain and Ireland. 1 (2):
72–74. doi:10.1017/S0035869X00123895 .
JSTOR 25202832 . S2CID 163860478 .
Retrieved 25 May 2021.

Last edited 9 months ago by Smason…

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