Page 33 - Swatantrata to Atmanirbharta : Lokmanya Tilak’s legacy

distribution of legislative representation to both Muslims and
Hindus. It catered to a basic principle that weightage given in
numbers of representatives would not be necessarily linked
to the percentage of population of both communities and
wherever either community has lesser percentage there would
be a balancing increase in the number of representatives. For
example, in Bengal where the Muslims constituted almost 53%
of the population, their legislative representation would be
reduced to 40% and in Punjab where they were almost 55%, the
representation would be limited to 50%. On the other side, in
Bihar and Orissa, Muslims constituted 11% of the population
but got 25% of the seats in legislature and in Bombay province,
where they constituted 20% of the population, got 33%
legislative seats. Similar situation existed in almost all other
provinces like Madras, UP and Central Provinces. Similar was
the case for Hindus in every area.
The impact of this understanding needs to be seen beyond
just numbers. It was rather sad that only Tilak`s own newspaper
hailed it and called it “Worthy of being written in golden letters”.
On his part Jinnah, man of no mean ability as a speaker, took
it strongly to Muslim masses. While doing so he described
himself as “a Congressman” who was beyond a sectarian
thought and positions. His speech was so powerful that when
he appealed “Do you think that the intelligent Hindu statesmen
will ever think of enforcing anti-Muslim measures by the ballot
box when we get self-rule?” he was responded with resounding
cries of NO. If this was not enough. In his address to a meeting
in November 1917 in Shantaram Chawl, Bombay he said “My
message to the Mussalmaans is to join hands with your Hindu
brethren. My message to Hindus is to accept that hand and to
lift your backward brother up.”
All this goes on to establish that the Lucknow Pact of 1916
was in sync with spirit of the time and with best of intentions
to unite efforts for eventually snatching rule from the British.
It also had strong seeds of communal unity and trust which
was necessary for making the self-rule successful. The critics of
Lokmanya Tilak invariably overlook these aspects of the pact.

If it was so ideal, why the pact failed? In the words of Mr.
31 Swatantrata to Atmanirbharata