§ 94. Mr. Hector Hughesasked the Under-Secretary of State for India if he will state the number of Muslims in India; the proportion they bear to the total population of India; and if he has any information as to the division of opinion among Muslims on the suggested partition of that country.
§ The Under-Secretary of State for India (Mr. Arthur Henderson)The Muslim community in 1941 numbered about 92,000,000, or approximately one-quarter of the all-India total population. For detailed figures I would refer my hon. Friend to the India census figures for 1941 published in Command Paper 6435 of 1943. The only guidance for forming an estimate of the division of Muslim opinion on the Pakistan issue of partition is such as can be derived from the returns of the Provincial elections. In the five Provinces (Assam, Bihar, North-West Frontier Province, Punjab and Sind) for which complete results are so far available, it appears that there were elected 185 candidates of the Muslim League which advocates Pakistan as against 48 other Muslim candidates, but I am not in a position to say how many of these 48 favour or are opposed to partition.
§ Mr. HughesAre those who are in favour of partition a very small minority, and is the President of the Congress Party himself a Muslim?
§ Mr. HendersonAs regards the second part of the supplementary question, Dr. Azad, the President of Congress, is a Muslim.
§ Mr. Godfrey NicholsonAre not questions and answers of this sort extremely dangerous at the present juncture, and likely to be prejudicial to the success of the Mission?