Lucknow Pact
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Lucknow Pact refers to an agreement between Indian National Congress and Muslim League. In 1916, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, a member of the Indian National Congress negotiated with the Muslim League to reach an agreement to pressure the British Government to have a more liberal approach to India and give Indians more authority to run their country. This was a considerable change of policy for the Muslim League, as it was established that to preserve Muslim interests in India, they needed to support British rule in India. After the unpopular partition of Bengal, the Muslim League was confused about its stand and it was at this time that Jinnah approached the League. Jinnah was the mastermind and architect of the pact. Even though Jinnah was a member of the Indian National Congress then, he later became leader of the Muslim League.
The Lucknow Pact also marked the establishment of cordial relations between the two prominent groups of the Indian National Congress - the bold, fierce leaders or the garam dal led by Bal Gangadhar Tilak, and the moderates or the naram dal led by Gopal Krishna Gokhale.