Historians such as Shashi Tharoor maintain that Britain's divide-and-rule policy aimed at spreading communal discord between Hindus and Muslims after they united together to fight against British rule in India during the Indian Rebellion of 1857. The demand for the creation of Pakistan as a homeland for Indian Muslims, according to many academics, was orchestrated mainly by the elite class of Muslims in colonial India primarily based in the United Provinces (U.P.) and Bihar who supported the All India Muslim League, rather the common Indian Muslim.