Background: pre-Gandhi nationalism

The Indian National Congress was founded in 1885 by Western-educated Indians (mostly lawyers and journalists) and a few British liberals. For its first decades it was a moderate organization seeking greater Indian participation in British colonial administration. By the early twentieth century, more radical voices emerged. Bal Gangadhar Tilak called for swaraj (self-rule). The partition of Bengal in 1905 (a British administrative decision many Indians believed was designed to divide Hindus from Muslims) triggered widespread protests and a boycott of British goods. The British reversed the partition in 1911 but the nationalist movement had been radicalized.

The Muslim League was founded in 1906 to represent Muslim political interests. Its founders worried that Hindu numerical majority in a future independent India would marginalize Muslims.