ІНДІЙСЬКИЙ МУСУЛЬМАНСЬКИЙ ОБЩИННИЙ РУХ НА ЗАКЛЮЧНОМУ ЕТАПІ НАЦІОНАЛЬНО-ВИЗВОЛЬНОЇ БОРОТЬБИ (1937–1947 рр.)

The article analyzes the situation in the liberation movement of the peoples of the Indian subcontinent in the last ten years of fighting with the British colonial regime, considers the political course of the Muslim League of India, who was the leading pan-Indian Muslim mass organization advocating the formation of an independent Muslim state of Pakistan in South Asia, shows its attitude to Indian National Congress (INC), who led the liberation struggle of the peoples of Hindustan, as well as to the policies of England in its greatest colony. The author notes that on the eve of the Second World War Muslims in India, which was the largest English colony, comprised about a quarter of the country's population. Their leading religious and communal organization was the Muslim League, created in 1906. After a crushing defeat in the elections to the provincial legislature in 1937, the League, under the leadership of its outstanding leader M. A. Jinnah, put forward its main goal not to participate in the struggle for national independence, led by the Indian National Congress (INC), but exclusively to protect the interests of the Muslim community. Supported by other Muslim parties and organizations, it radically changed its attitude towards the INC, moving from a policy of establishing uneasy relations with congressists to actively fighting with them for the formation of an independent Islamic state of Pakistan in South Asia. The author came to the conclusion that the failure of the Muslim League in the provincial elections significantly strengthened its communalist, separatist and anticongressional sentiments. This was largely facilitated by the policy of the then left-wing leadership of the INC, who considered any cooperation with the League of M.A. Jinnah, who lost the election and lost her former influence among the Muslim masses of British India, is unpromising. Overestimating the forces of the INC and underestimating the outstanding organizational abilities of M. A. Jinnah, the congressist leaders on the eve of the Second World War lost the last opportunity to achieve Hindu-Muslim unity on the Indian subcontinent. After the war, this led to the division of India and the formation of Pakistan