The Reminiscences of Zafrulla Khan — Page 45
45 REMINISCENCES OF SIR MUHAMMAD ZAFRULLA KHAN extra seats in the Muslim minority provinces, which implied that their representation in the Muslim majority provinces would not be reduced. In the case of the Punjab, no difficulty was raised and the Council agreed that the original recommendation should be adhered to. On Bengal, there was a good deal of discussion. In Bengal in the old Legislative Council, we had only 28 percent of the total number of seats, and that was because in the Bengal legislature quite a large proportion of the seats had been allotted to special interests. The European representation was 10 percent and it had to come out both of the Hindu and Muslim seats. Then there was the university representation, industry representation, representation for commerce, etc. in which the Muslim share was almost nil. Under the Lucknow Pact, the Muslims had been given 40 percent of the general seats. Thus with 40 percent only of the general seats, and failing to get more than a seat or two of the special seats, they ended up with 28 percent of the total house in a province in which they were a majority in the population. This position has to be corrected. Now that the principle was accepted that, as far as possible, communities were to be represented according to their population strength - some weightage to the minorities - Muslim representation had to be substantially increased and the change appeared very big. The Bengali Member of Council was Sir B. L. Milter. He was the Law Minister and a good personal friend of mine. We continued good friends right to the end of our association, not only in Council but also later when he became Attorney General and I went to the Supreme Court. Naturally, he put forward the Hindu case for Bengal and I put forward the Muslim case. The upshot was that the original recommendation, from which both Sir Fazle Hussain and Sir. B. L. Milter had dissented was adhered to, subject to Sir B. L. Milter's dissent on behalf of the Hindus and my dissent on behalf of the Muslims who, though a majority in Bengal, were to get only 48 percent representation. Thus the original proposals were sent back and His Majesty's Government agreed to them. This apportionment of seats in Provincial Legislatures became known as the Communal Award. This is an illustration of the type of despatches that were passing from the Government of India to the Secretary of State. Of course, they were not all so. . . controversial. I remember the very first day I arrived in Simla there was a Council meeting and the item on the agenda was