Indian Union Muslim League

The first Muslim political agency in the region was the Kerala Muslim Majlis formed in 1931. It joined the federal setup of All-India Muslim League later.

After the partition of India in 1947, the All-India Muslim League was virtually disbanded. It was succeeded by the Indian segment of the Muslim League in the new Dominion of India (first session on 10 March 1948 and constitution passed on 1 September 1951). M. Muhammad Ismail, the then President of the Madras unit of the Muslim League was chosen as the Convener of the Indian segment of the party. The Travancore Muslim League (the States' Muslim League) was merged with the Malabar League in November 1956.

Indian Union Muslim League contests General Elections under the Indian Constitution. The party is normally represented by two members in the Indian Lower House (the Lok Sabha). B. Pocker, elected from Malappuram Constituency, was a member of the First Lower House (1952-57) from the Madras Muslim League. The party currently has four members in Parliament.

Apart from Kerala and West Bengal, the League had Legislative Assembly members in Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, Maharastra, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, and Assam. In West Bengal, the League had won Assembly seats in the 1970s, and A. K. A. Hassanussaman was a member of the Ajoy Mukherjee cabinet.

Indian Union Muslim League first gained a ministry in Kerala Government as part of the Communist Party of India Marxist-led United Front in 1967. The party switched fronts in 1969 and formed an alliance with the Congress in 1976. It later became a chief constituent in a succession of Indian National Congress-led ministries.

Early years

• First Council of the Indian segment of the Muslim League was held on 10 March 1948 at the south Indian city of Madras (now Chennai).
• On 1 September 1951, the 'Indian Union Muslim League' came into being in Madras (constitution was passed).
• B. Pocker Sahib, elected from Malappuram Constituency, was a member of the first Lok Sabha (1952-57).
• K. M Seethi Sahib served as the Speaker of the Kerala Assembly from 1960 to 1961.

From the 1960s to the 80s

• The League gained a ministry in Kerala Government in 1967 (C. H. Mohammed Koya and M. P. M. Ahammed Kurikkal).
• The League oversaw the creation of the University of Calicut, the second university in Kerala, in 1968.
• Contribution to local government, the League oversaw the creation of Malappuram District in 1969.
• Death of M. Muhammad Ismail (1972) and Bafaqy Thangal (1973). Syed Ummer Bafaqy Thangal rebels against the leadership.

With the Congress Party

• Muslim League formed an alliance with the Congress in 1976.
• C. H. Mohammed Koya served as the Chief Minister of Kerala from 12 October to 1 December 1979.
• Muslim League joined the Congress (Indira)-lead United Democratic Front in 1979/80.
• The 'rebel' Muslim League formed 'All India Muslim League' and joined the Left Front in 1980.
• C. H. Mohammed Koya and K. Avukaderkutty Naha served as Deputy Chief Ministers of Kerala in the 1980s.

In the 1990s

• All India Muslim League (AIML) quit the Left Front and merged with the Muslim League in 1985.
• Demolition of the Babri Masjid (1992). Panakkad Syed Mohammed Ali Shihab Thangal made a passionate plea to all the Muslims in Kerala to remain calm. Kerala remained peaceful throughout.
• Ebrahim Sulaiman Sait, then National President, rebelled and formed the Indian National League (INL) in 1994.
• Minister of Education (E. T. Mohammad Basheer) decided to establish the University of Sanskrit (1993) in Kerala.

From the 2000s

• Atal Bihari Vajpayee dispatched E. Ahamed to the United Nations (Geneva) to represent India (2004).
• Mid-2000s witnessed the Manjeri (2004) and the Kuttippuram-Mankada (2006) defeats.
• The League first gained a ministry (E. Ahamed) in Indian Government (Manmohan Singh Ministry) in 2004.
• Panakkad Syed Mohammed Ali Shihab Thangal died in 2009.
• The League won a record 20 out of the contested 23 seats in the 2011 Assembly Elections.
• The League remains in the Opposition for two consecutive terms (2016 and 2021)
• The League achieves its best-ever result and moves back into government (2026)

National President of Indian Union Muslim League

The [Indian Union Muslim League] party...has shown strands of identity politics, but largely remained communitarian; it has at times been conservative, but never communal. It has furthered Muslim aspirations without antagonising any other segment, and hence has retained its centrality in the larger Kerala polity.

,  Outlook

The distinctive feature of the [Indian Union] Muslim League in Kerala is that it strove to keep the [Muslim] community at the centre of the [Kerala] state's politics, unlike other Muslim political formations elsewhere in India that revelled in confessional isolationism. As a result, the Kerala Muslims emerged as probably the only community of that faith in India that achieved genuine political empowerment on the one hand and, on the other, lived out the promise of equal citizenship enshrined in the [Indian] Constitution.

,  Outlook

If organising a religious community politically on the basis of antagonism to another is communalism, the IUML has never mobilised its cadre nor used its political and often administrative clout to create religious divides. On the contrary, whenever the state faced a communally sensitive situation, the party rose to the occasion and played a stellar role in dousing the flames....By practicing a brand of politics that could be termed communitarian rather than communal, the IUML succeeded in actualising the constitutional guarantee of equal citizenship for the Muslims in the state.

,  The Indian Express

Organizational structure

• Youth Wing: Muslim Youth League (the Youth League)
  • National President: Asif Ansari (New Delhi)
  • National Secretary: Najma Thabsheera (Kerala)
  • National Council Secretary: Faisal Babu (Kerala)
  • National vice President Mufeeda Thesni (Kerala)
  • National Secretary: Ch. Ajrudin Advocate (Haryana)
  • Kerala State President: Sayyid Munavvar Ali Shihab Thangal
  • Kerala State secretary: Fathima Thahiliya
  • Kerala State General Secretary: P. K. Firoz
• Students' Wing: Muslim Students Federation (M. S. F.)
  • National President: P.V. Ahamed Saju
  • National General Secretary: S. H. Muhammed Arshad
• Scheduled Caste Wing: Indian Union Dalit League
• Women's Political Wing: Haritha and Muslim Women's League
• Trade Union Organization (Kerala): Swatantra Thozhilali Union (S.T.U)
• Peasants' Union (Kerala): Swathanthra Karshaka Sangam (Independent Peasants Union)
• Advocates: Lawyers Forum
• Expatriates: Kerala Muslim Cultural Centre (K. M. C. C.)

Source: http://www.ceo.kerala.gov.in/electionhistory.html Archived 11 November 2021 at the Wayback Machine

Early years (1957-1979/80)

With the United Democratic Front (1979/80-present)

Current members

Kerala

Tamil Nadu

Lok Sabha Members

Rajya Sabha Members

Women rights

In 2013, the party demanded Muslim women to be excluded from the Child Marriage Act which prescribes 18 as women's legal marital age and 21 for men, in Supreme court stating its contradictory to Muslim Personal laws. Similarly in 2021, the party was against the Union Cabinet's suggestion to change the minimum marriage age of women from 18 to 21 years.

The party when in control of the local self-government department, issued a circular which legalised marriage for Muslim women between ages of 16 and 18 and Muslim men below age 21. The circular was later amended after backlash. In 2021, ten female leaders from the disbanded Haritha state committee lodged a police complaint against the state president of the Muslim Students Federation (MSF) and the Malappuram district general secretary, accusing them of making sexual remarks and sexual harassment charges. Following this Fathima Thahiliya, vice-president of MSF, who supported the women leaders was removed from her post.

The Muslim League has opposed the Supreme Court of India verdict regarding entry of adult women to Sabarimala temple.

LGBT rights

It is also at odds with several LGBTQ rulings from the Supreme Court. The party also supports the primacy of Muslim Personal Law among Indian Muslims.

IUML opposes implementing gender neutrality and comprehensive sex education in school curriculum saying that it promotes homosexuality, leads to sexual anarchy and is part of an atheist-liberal conspiracy to destroy religious values. In 2022, IUML leader Abdurahiman Randathani made statement that the co-educational schools teach homosexuality and masturbation. In 2023, IUML leader K. M. Shaji made controversial statement that the LGBT members are the 'worst humans'. He made similar statement in 2026 too. Similarly in 2023, another IUML leader M.K Muneer made controversial comment on a trans man who gave birth.

Conservatism & Violence

An article by the current president of the Muslim League, on Hagia Sophia, seemed to support the views of political Islam. Muslim League generally presents itself as a conservative political party in Kerala. The Catholic Church has also criticized the IUML for organizing solidarity programs in support of Hamas, arguing that such actions downplay or obscure the terrorist attacks carried out by the group. A controversy occurred in 2015, when the Islamic symbol of Crescent moon and a star appeared in a Board Exam question paper when IUML's P.K. Abdu Rabb was Kerala's Education minister.The Kerala School Teachers Association (KSTA) alleged that the IUML was exerting influence over the state's education system.

The party leaders were also involved in the Marad massacre, which involved the killing of 8 Hindu fishermen. Eight party workers were also convicted in 2024 for the killing of a DYFI activist.

In July 2023, following the Manipur violence where a woman was paraded naked in public, members of the Muslim League raised anti Hindu slogans in Kanhangad, located in the Kasaragod district of Kerala. The following day, Kerala Police arrested five of those members. Upon criticism over the incident, the State President of IUML Panakkad Sayyid Sadiq Ali Shihab Thangal responded on 28 July, saying no one has the right to hurt the sentiments and faith of others. In 2025, an FIR was filed against IUML leader Basheer Vellikoth for provocative remarks on television on Pahalgam terrorist attack. In 2025, the BJP criticised IUML MP of Navaskani for eating non-veg in the Tiruparankundram temple premises.

Casteism

In 2021, the IUML leaders made casteism remarks on the Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan and his daughter's marriage as 'prostitution'. In 2023, the Kerala Women Commission booked cased against IUML leader K. M. Shaji over his comments on minister Veena George in a speech involving alleged casteist remarks. In 2025, case has been filed against IUML workers for using casteism slurs and conducting "purification ritual" after a Scheduled caste man was relieved from a local government body position.