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"I feel confident that the Muslims throughout India fully realize the paramount and vital importance of the resolution passed by the full session of the All India Muslim League at Lahore on the 24th of March, 1940. It was a red-letter day in the future history of Muslim India and of the subcontinent of India. The Lahore resolution has, after the fullest and most careful considerations, defined our goal in the clearest possible manner.
"It is to explain and confirm this resolution that the Muslim League has fixed 19th April 1940 so that all the provincial, district and primary Leagues should hold public meetings throughout the country to express their opinion so that no doubt should be left in the minds of anyone as to the verdict of Muslim India. I, therefore, appeal to every Muslim throughout India, with all the earnestness 1 can command, to observe 19th April 1940 as the day confirming the declaration of 'Muslim Self-Determination' and 'Muslim Independence Day'.
Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah had predicted that the March 1940 session of the Muslim League was going to be a landmark in the History of Muslim India as they had defined their goal. This resolution which was described as the Pakistan Resolution figures prominently in almost all the books published on Muslim Nationalism in South Asia. There is a category of authors, who have concluded that this resolution was inspired by the British Authorities with the aim to divide the freedom struggle and Indian nationalism from within and to promote British interests in India. According to these writers the British Government with a good deal of success widened the gulf between Congress and Muslim League. It is also argued that this resolution was presented with the intention to reduce the impact of Congress resolution of independence. Another argument is that, that the viceroy had pressed Jinnah to present this resolution as an answer to Congress policies of pressurizing the British Government.
Some say that this resolution was only a "bargaining chip" or a "tactical move" on the part of the Muslim League and Quaid-i-Azam Jinnah. That the resolution did not announce several specifics such as that the Muslims wanted one state or more than one states. That there was no mention as...