1 Dr. Muhammad Iqbal Chawla Assistant Professor, History Department, University of the Punjab, Lahore Pakistan. chawlaiqbal@hotmail.com chawla_iqbal@yahoo.com Wavell and Muslim Politics in Punjab—Expulsion of Khizar Hayat Tiwana from the Muslim League (1944) Abstract This paper attempts to analyze the Lord Wavell’s response to the Muslim politics in Punjab during the decade of the 1940’s. Wavell, an old India-hand, upon his appointment as the Viceroy in 1943, had already formed a clear vision of India, which he wanted to pursue with all his will and the resources at his disposal. The central theme of his vision of a future India was as a single geographic entity. This brought him into a direct clash with the rising tide of Muslim nationalism throughout India as represented by Jinnah and the Muslim League. The result was that several battleground areas emerged of which the leading one was the Punjab. Therefore, this paper analyzes Lord Wavell’s policy of attempting to shape, and, some would say, dictate, the Muslim politics in Punjab during his tenure as the viceroy of India between October 1943 and March 1947. The events leading to the resignation of Khizar Tiwana have been taken as an exemplar of the policy pursued by the British in the Punjab towards the Muslim League’s demand of an independent and separate, Muslim- majority state, of Pakistan We begin with the most significant psychological change that had taken place in the minds of the Indians from the pre-war years of the late 1930s, to the point in time, when Wavell took over the viceroyalty of India in 1943. The change was in the Indian perception, based on evolution of global politics since the rise of Hitler in Europe and the highly aggressive Japanese posture in Asia, coupled, later on, with their stunning victories over the British everywhere at the beginning of the Second World War that Great Britain would depart, sooner than later, from the Indian shores. Introduction Quite sometime before Wavell’s assumption of the viceroyalty in India in 1943, the Muslim League had clearly outlined its idea for a separate and independent Muslim-majority state of Pakistan of which the state of Punjab formed the geographical and political backbone. So, Wavell’s vision of a united India 1 was a bit late for the Muslim League to change its political course and a clash was inevitable. In fact by the time Wavell assumed the chief executive’s job in Delhi the Muslim League had already made serious efforts to establish itself in the hearts and minds of the Muslims in the Punjab on the basis of its demand for a separate state of Pakistan. And one can safely say that nearly all the history of the Punjab during Wavell’s viceroyalty was shaped by the clash generated by these irreconcilable and conflicting visions of a post-British India. Wavell, no matter how strong he was at the center, needed allies in the Punjab to further his aim of keeping India geographically united and he found two people who earnestly shared this aim. The first one, a government functionary, was B.G. Glancy, the governor of Punjab, who was one with Wavell in this aim; and secondly, Khizar Hayat Khan Tiwana, although a Muslim landowner, who was the premier of Punjab and also the head of 1 Wavell was a politically genius and military officer who started making plans for political changes in India even before he had assumed the top office in India. His first plan is known to history as the ‘Wavell Plan’. He was concerned about the tense political relationship then existing between the British government and the Indians and wanted to change that with a pro-active approach. Ronald Lewin, The Chief Field Marshal Lord Wavell Commander-In-Chief and Viceroy, 1939-1947(London: Hutchison & Co., 1980), 224.