ALL-INDIA MUSLIM LEAGUE: A STUDY OF ITS CONSTITUTION WITH AMENDMENTS (1907-43)

Abstract

The constitution of a political party is a written document embodying the basic principles and rules. The League was founded in December 1906 at the culmination of a meeting of the Muhammadan Educational Conference founded in 1886 by Muslim reformist and modernizer, Syed Ahmad Khan (1817-98). Like other national political parties, most notably the Indian National Congress founded in 1885, the League developed an organizational structure and a written constitution. During its inaugural session a group of Muslim leaders not only resolved to establish a new party, the All-India Muslim League, but also decided to enunciate certain principles and devise certain rules on which the party would be based and organized. These basic principles and rules became the constitution of the League. This Constitution was unanimously ratified during the first annual meeting of the League in December 1907. It was first revised and modified in March 1908. However, the Constitution was not a completed document and proved to have many flaws as political conditions and personnel changed. As a result it was refined and upgraded with numerous modifications and amendments in the form of additions, substitutions and rectifications. This research paper mainly focuses on the 1907 Constitution of the League with a detailed account of major changes incorporated upto 1943. In addition, it lists minor adaptations incorporated on other occasion. This is done through an examination of both primary and secondary sources.