The Pakistan Movement (also called Tehrik-e-Pakistan, Urdu: تحریکِ پاکستان) was a political movement which was active during the first half of the 20th century. At that time, British India belonged to the British Empire. In British India, most people were Hindu, or Muslim. The people in the Pakistan Movement feared that they would lose their liberty when the British left and so wanted to create a separate state.

The struggle was organised by the All India Muslim League and resulted in the Partition of British India. The movement was led by Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Other important leaders were Nawab Muhammad Ismail Khan, Raja Amir Ahmed Khan of Mahmudabad, Sir Sikandar Hayat Khan, Nawabzada Liaquat Ali Khan, Fatimah Jinnah, Amjadi Bano Begum, Sir Abdullah Haroon, Khawaja Nazimuddin, Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, Sardar Shaukat Hayat Khan, Chaudhry Khaliquzzaman, A.K. Fazlul Huq, Aurangzeb Khan, Qazi Muhammad Isa and Abdur Rab Nishtar.

Lesser known members of the Pakistan Movement were Hassanally Abdul Rahman, father of Pakistani politician Sherry Rahman.

The first person with the idea of a separate state was not Allama Iqbal, as is generally thought. He publicized the theory onlt in his speech in 1930.^[1] It was a prevailing idea that has its origins in the United Provinces of Indian. People like Sir Syed Ahmed Khan and others had thought about a separate state there much earlier.

In 1901 onwards, many other Muslim scholars had also been proposing the idea of a separate Muslim state within the subcontinent. Choudhary Rahmat Ali later proposed the name Pakistan in his Pakistan Declaration in 1933.^[2]

People like Muhammad Ali Jinnah maintained their belief in religious unity.^[3] Religious hostilities between Hindus and Muslims gave the movement a stronger backing.^[4]

In 1940 during its meeting in Lahore, the Muslim League passed the Lahore Resolution, also known as Pakistan Resolution, which asked for an independent state of Pakistan. Soon after World War II, the United Kingdom became convinced that it could not keep its colonies in South Asia, as the British Empire had suffered very badly from the war. By 1947, British India was divided into two countries, a Muslim-majority Pakistan and a Hindu-majority India. Bangladesh split from Pakistan in 1971.

• History of Pakistan