Date: 23 February 1909
Location: London
Speaker: Aga Khan III
Source: Speeches of Aga Khan III – K K Aziz
Full Text
Representation of elements with a steadying effect on Indian poli tics – members of “Constitutionalist Party” could take a broad and dispassionate view of public questions – Indian advice to the Governor should not be one-sided.
The Chairman, in giving the toast of “The Aga Khan”, read a letter from His Highness, written in the event of his being pre cluded from attending the luncheon, stating that he desired to supplement the views he had already expressed by calling atten tion to the abnormal conditions which had come into existence in India of late. They made it necessary in the vital interests of empire that the elements which exercised a steadying effect on Indian politics should be strongly represented on the new Councils. “We all know,” continued His Highness, “that ideas incon sistent with British rule have recently gained ground among the people. There can be little doubt under such circumstances that the members who would be returned will not all belong to the party of Moderates. The exaggerated criticism to which the policy and measures of [the] Government would in all probability be subjected at the hands of the very advanced sections would have a most mischievous effect on the population. This can be counter acted only if the Constitutionalist Party among the non-official members of Councils is sufficiently strong to represent matters in their proper light, and to take a broad and dispassionate view of public questions. With regard to the Executive Council of the Viceroy and of the provincial Governors, I wish to make ·one observation in addition to what I have already said – namely, that Indian advice on the governing bodies, to be of practical value, should not be one-sided.” (Cheers).
Source: The Civil and Military Gazette, Lahore, 19 March 1909.
The London Muslim League gave a luncheon to meet the Aga Khan on 23 February at the Westminster Palace Hotel, London. But the guest, who had been in indifferent health for many past months, had been ordered to take a period of complete rest in a nursing home. Yet, he planned to leave the home for a few hours to attend and speak at the luncheon. But his doctors advised against it, and Sayyid Ameer Ali, the president of the London Muslim League, read out to the assembled guests a letter from the Aga Khan’s medical adviser regretting that he was not in a fit condition to come to the party. Ameer Ali, in giving the toast to the Aga Khan, read out a letter which the latter had sent from the nursing home. This brief letter is reproduced here.
Among those present at the luncheon were Lord Avebury, Lord Ronaldshay, Sir Raymond West, Sir Charles Crostwaite, Sir George Birdwood, Sir Henry Cotton, Sir George Mackenzie, Sir A. T. Arundel, Sir William Bigge, Sir Percy Bunting, Sir M. M. Bhownaggree, J. D. Rees, T. Hart Davies, T. J. Bennett, C.
E. Buckland, Major Syed Hasan, C. A. Latif and Ibn-i-Ahmad.
Ameer Ali’s speech on the occasion is worth reproducing. He said that at this important epoch in Indian administration the Mahomedans felt that neglect to keep their claims before Government and the public might permanently and seriously prejudice their interests. They had cordially welcomed the principle of the projected reforms in the conviction that their legitimate rights would be adequately and substantially guarded in applying details. He held that they had not put forward any undue claims or made any demand which could be looked upon as encroaching on the just rights of any other community. (Cheers).
Although the Viceroy had admitted the justice of their claim to a share in political privileges commensurate not only with their numbers but with their historical and political importance, it had been assailed from many not alto gether uninterested quarters. He would remind them that the East India Company acquired its rights to three of the richest provinces under a grant of a Mussulman sovereign- (cheers)-and today the Mahomedans of India were connected by ties of race, religion, and traditions with the whole of Western Asia and North,ern Africa right away to the Atlantic. Throughout those vast regions England occupied an unchallenged position as the champion ofJ ustice and fair play. (Hear, hear). He went on to observe that the Mahomedans supplied soldiers to the British-Indian Army to a larger extent than the com munities who expected to profit most by these reforms. In the social economy of the country their upper classes occupied an acknowledged position ofweight and influence beyond their actual numbers.
Repudiating the suggestion that the Mahomedan attitude towards the reforms had been inspired by racial or religious antagonism, the Chairman declared that their educated men were anxious to live in harmony and work in concord with their fellow countrymen, co-operating with them, as with the servants of the Crown, for the common good. At the same time they could not shut their eyes to the divergences which had divided and still divided the rank and file of Hindoos and Mahomedans – divergences which ramified in all directions, entered into all the minutiae of life, and made of them, in fact, two distinct nations. These two absolutely antithetical systems had existed side by side for ten centuries, with, on the whole, great toleration from each to each without amalgamation. It was quite erroneous to liken the differences between them to those between Roman Catholics and Protestants. Hindus and Mahomedans were not the followers of two sects or communions, but of two wholly distinct systems – distinct not only in their religion and institutions, rites, and observ~ ances, but even in their food and dress. Hinduism was a vast conservative federation, hedged round by stringent rules of caste. Mahomedanism was dem~ cratic, tending towards Socialism, and opening the door to all comers. So long as there was no fancied or real encroachment on either side th~re was much good will among the lower strata, and among the better minds and educated classes there was real friendship. But any attempt to drive the smaller into the bigger camp would only lead to discord and strife. (Cheers). It was only by recognizing the differences between the two nations and their equal importance as factors in the administration of the country, and by not allowing the interests of the one to be subordinated to the interests or ambitions of the other that the impending reforms could be made successful. (Cheers). The proposals as they originally stood caused much dismay among the Mahomedans in all parts of the country, it being felt that unless there were substantial modifications the Mahomedans would be placed in a state of permanent subordination to their fellow-countrymen, a position they could not accept. (Cheers). Lord Morley’s courteous reception of the recent Moslem deputation had unquestionably eased the situation, and there was now an expectant attitude.
Proceeding to urge that a system of proportional representation would be wholly unsuited to the conditions of Indian life, the Chairman said that vast masses of low-caste tribes and communities who either disclaimed the desig~ nation or were nominally Hindus were included in the Hindu figures, ami the claim was made that the proportion of representation should be based upon these figures. The transparent injustice of the suggestion did not seem to strike the partisan mind. Mter giving illustrations of the difficulty of fixing representation in India on the bases of numerical proportions, Mr. Ameer Ali said that, irrespective of the question of balance of parties important for the even working of the State machinery, it was only just and equitable that the representation of the two communities should be determined on consider ation of policy and local circumstances. (Cheers). For his part he could not conceive how separate electorates or adequate representation of the Mahome dans in the Councils could possibly prejudice the interests of the other communities. Both patriotism and policy, it might be supposed, would impel their fellow-countrymen in general to concede such reasonable demands as some of their best men, he believed, were inclined to do. In regard to the Viceroy’s Executive, the Mahomedans thought that the introduction of one Indian alone, however capable and qualified, who must necessarily belong to one or the other community, would not, in the absence of a thorough spirit of compromise among the population at large, prove satisfactory. It would give rise to frequent complaints of unfairness and prejudice, and would be detrimental to the interests of the State. When the deputation raised this point, Lord Morley gave them a friendly admonition meant to show their mistake in mooting a question that might make difficult the carrying out of a generous resolve. But in stating the Mussulman view the deputation had no arriere pensee, no ‘tactics’ in mind, ‘dubious’ or otherwise. (Laughter and cheers). On the contrary, they sought to assist the Government, so far as lay in their power, in the solution of a great problem. An Eastern sage had said that ‘It is treason to keep the truth from the King’. They would have been false to their sovereign and their people if they had refrained, on account of timidity or ‘tactics’, from stating clearly and explicitly the feelings and opinions of the Mussulmans. (Loud cheers). (The Civil and Military Gazette, Lahore, 19 March 1909.) The Right Honourable Sayyid Ameer Ali (1849-1928), was the fourth son of Sayyid Saadat Ali of Mohan, Oudh. Educated at Hoogly College. Called to the bar at Inner Temple, 1873. Lecturer in Muhammadan Law, Presidency College, Calcutta, 1873-8. President, Committee of Management, Mohsin Endowment, 1876-1904. Member, Committee of Inquiry into the affairs of the ex-King of Oudh, 1879. Magistrate and Chief Magistrate, 1878-81. Member, Bengal Legislative Council, 1878-83. Tagore Law Professor, University of Calcutta, 1884.
President, Faculty of Law, University of Calcutta, 1891-2. Member, Imperial Legislative Council, 1883-5.Judge, Calcutta High Court, 1890-1904. Member, Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, 1909-28. Honorary LL D, University of Cambridge. Honorary Doctor of Laws, University of Calcutta. Honorary D.Litt., University of Aligarh. Author of Critical Examination of the Life and Teachings ofM ohammed, Spirit ofI slam, Ethics ofI slam, A Short History of the Saracens, Personal Law of the Muhammadans, Muhammadan Law (2 vols), Students’ Handbook of Muhammadan Law; joint author of The Law of Evidence Applicable to British India, Commentary on the Bengal Tenancy Act and The Code of Civil Procedure. Wrote several articles on Islari::t and India in British journals.
On Ameer Ali, see K K Aziz, Ameer Ali: His Life and Work, Lahore, 1968; Badruddin Ahmad Bogra, The Bengal Musalmans or a Short Sketch of Muhammadan Life in Bengal, Calcutta, 1885; C. E. Buckland, Bengal Under the Lieutenant Gover nors: Being a Narrative of the Principal Events and Public Measures During their Periods of Office from 1854 to 1901, Calcutta, 1901, 2 vols; Marquess of Dufferin and Ava, Speeches Delivered in India, 1884-1888, London 1890; Eminent Musal mans, G. A Natesan, Madras, n.d.; J. N. Farquhar, Modern Religious Movements in India, New York, 1915, rev. edn, 1919; Almeric Fitzroy, Memoirs, London, n.d., 2 vols; Julius Germanus, Modern Movements in Islam, Calcutta, 1932; H. A. R.
Gibb, Modern Trends in Islam, Chicago, 1947; Indian Judges: Biographical and Critical Sketches (with Portraits), G. A. Natesan, Madras, n.d.; Viscount Morley, Indian Speeches (1907-1909), London, 1909; John R. Mott (ed.), The Moslem World of Today, London, 1925; Wilfred C. Smith, Modern Islam in India: A Social Analysis, Lahore, 1943, London edn, 1946; Murray T. Titus, Indian Islam, London 1930; Felix Valyi, Spiritual and Political Revolution in Islam, London, 1925; S. R. Wasti, Lord Minto and the Indian Nationalist Movement, 1905 to 1910, Oxford, 1964; Samuel G. Wilson, Modern Movements among Muslims, New York, 1916; and S. M. Zwemer, E. M. Wherry and J. L. Barton, The Muhammadan World Today: Being Papers Read at the First Missionary Conference on behalf of the Muhammadan World Held at Cairo, April4-9, 1906, London, 2nd edn, 1906.
There is no study in existence in any language and of any size of Ameer Ali’s religious ideas. And he still awaits a biographer.