RAS question
Allama Iqbal's presidential address at the Muslim League session (1930) proposed:
Correct answer: (D) A consolidated Muslim state in northwestern India.
Allama Iqbal's 1930 presidential address to the Muslim League proposed a consolidated Muslim state in northwestern India, conceived within a larger Indian framework rather than as an immediately separate country.
Explanation
At the Muslim League's Allahabad session in 1930, Sir Muhammad Iqbal argued that Muslims needed political safeguards because they feared being submerged as a minority. NCERT records that he defended separate electorates and described the Muslim demand for a "Muslim India within India" as justified. Britannica's account of the same address states that he said Muslims of northwestern India should demand separate-state status. That is why option D is the best answer: the proposal was for a consolidated Muslim state in northwestern India. It later became an intellectual foundation for the Pakistan demand, but the 1930 formulation was not simply an immediate call for partition into two sovereign nations.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) Iqbal's 1930 address did not demand two separate nations immediately; his proposal belonged within a larger Indian federation, not as instant partition.
- (B) He did not propose abolishing separate electorates; NCERT says he reiterated their importance as a safeguard for Muslim minority political interests.
- (C) Complete integration with India misses the point of his address, which argued for a distinct Muslim political unit and safeguards rather than full political absorption.
Concept
This tests communal politics and constitutional debates in late-colonial India, especially the shift from minority safeguards to territorial claims. RAS repeats this theme because it links the Muslim League, separate electorates, federal ideas and the later Pakistan demand.