Lahore resolution

The Lahore Resolution (Urdu: قرارداد لاہور‎, Karardad-e-Lahore; Bengali: লাহোর প্রস্তাব, Lahor Prostab), written by Muhammad Zafarullah Khan and presented by A. K. Fazlul Huq, the Prime Minister of Bengal was a formal political statement adopted by the All-India Muslim League on the occasion of its three-day general session in Lahore on March 22–24, 1940. The resolution called for independent states as seen by the statement:

That geographically contiguous units are demarcated into regions which should be constituted, with such territorial readjustments as may be necessary that the areas in which the Muslims are numerically in a majority as in the North Western and Eastern Zones of (British) India should be grouped to constitute ‘independent states’ in which the constituent units should be autonomous and sovereign.

Although the name "Pakistan" had been proposed by Choudhary Rahmat Ali in his Pakistan Declaration, it was not until after the resolution that it began to be widely used.

According to Stanley Wolpert, this was the moment when Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the former ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity, totally transformed himself into Pakistan's great leader.

Lord Linlithgow, the Viceroy, told the leaders of the Muslim League that the Government of Great Britain intended to divide India into three dominions – among the Hindus, the Muslims, and the Rulers of Princely States. Within the Muslim League Working Committee, various sub-committees were established, numerous proposals were presented with the final decision resting with the British. However, when the British saw that their objectives could not be met, they unilaterally rejected all proposals submitted by the Muslims. At this point, Zafarullah Khan was asked to submit a proposal on the partition of India, about which the Viceroy wrote to the Secretary of State for India:

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