At the end of 1916, thanks to the efforts of several including Tilak, Besant and Jinnah, who was now forty-one, the Congress and the League, meeting in Lucknow at the same time for their annual sessions, agreed to ask for ‘early self-government’ based on direct elections, separate electorates for Muslims and Sikhs and weightage for minorities, e.g. for Muslims in UP and for Hindus and Sikhs in Punjab. For the first time since 1857, Muslims and Hindus had jointly asked for the same thing.
