The Quit India movement accelerated political developments in India. With the Congress intent on gaining full independence it was imperative for Jinnah and the Muslim League to come to some agreement on the future political set-up of a united India or a divided India.

Muhammad Ali Jinnah (left) with Mohandas Gandhi.

(Source: Unknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

The 1944 Gandhi-Jinnah talks ultimately ended in a stalemate. Jinnah made the case that the creation of Pakistan had to be accepted by the Congress if the Muslim League were to come out in favour of outright independence. Gandhi’s position was that the Muslim League was come out in support of independence and once independence had been achieved, considerations on Pakistan could then take place. These two positions were completely incompatible. Jinnah was being asked to take Gandhi’s plan on faith, whilst Jinnah was demanding that Congress abandon its decades long position that India was a nation for all Indians. Congress felt that they were in a strong enough position to reject Jinnah’s proposal and go it alone.

Jinnah issues the following statement on the conclusion of talks:

“Mr. Gandhi from the very commencement of our talks made it clear that he had approached me in his individual capacity? and that he represented no one but himself. However, he assured me that he was really open to conviction and conversion to the Muslim League Lahore Resolution of March 1940.
Without prejudice to my objection that in order to reach any settlement, negotiations can only be carried on properly when the other side is also fully represented and vested with authority, in deference to Mr. Gandhi’s wishes I agreed to the task of persuading and converting him to the fundamentals of Lahore Resolution.
I have placed before him everything and every aspect of the Muslim point of view in the course of our prolonged talks and correspondence, and we discussed all the pros and cons generally, and I regret to say that I have failed in my task of converting Mr. Gandhi.
We have, therefore, decided to release to the press the correspondence that has passed between us.
Nevertheless, we hope that the public will not feel embittered, and we trust that this is not the final end of our effort.“

Source: ‘Statement by M. A. Jinnah & M. K. Gandhi’ (27 September 1944), Z. H. Zaidi (ed.), Jinnah Papers (Government of Pakistan: 2005), p. 195-6