Date: 16(?) January 1930
Location: Antibes
Speaker: Aga Khan III
Source: Speeches of Aga Khan III – K K Aziz
Full Text
Sind as a separate province – reforms in the North-West Frontier Province and Baluchistan.
In his letter published on January 14 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, complaining of lack of effort to counter the Indian National Congress agitation for independence, suggests inter alia that the Mohamedans of India should say what they want. Those who follow closely Indian affairs will not have forgotten that the wishes of the community were expressed clearly and emphatically at the All-India Moslem Conference held at Delhi under my presidency on December 31, 1928, and the following day. The Conference was composed of an overwhelming majority of the elected rep resentatives of the community in the Central and Provincial Legislatures and the leaders and influential men of every section from the extreme Left to the extreme Right. In the words of The Annual Register, 1928, the gathering was “remarkably represen tative.”
A manifesto, in the form of a long resolution passed unani mously, states the full case of the Indian Moslems. Postulating a federal system for India, it insists on the necessity for the continu ance of separate Moslem electorates as essential, under existing conditions, for the evolution of really representative democratic government. It asks that Sind should be constituted a separate province, and that constitutional reforms should be introduced in the North-West Frontier Province and Baluchistan. The minimum safeguards required against communal legislation and unfavourable amendment of the Constitution are indicated. The final paragraph declares that no Constitution, by whomsoever proposed or devised, will be acceptable to the Moslems unless it conforms to the principles laid down in the resolution.
The events of the past 12 months have strengthened rather than weakened Moslem adherence to this considered declar ation. It was reaffirmed again and again in evidence submitted to the Joint Free Conference under Sir John Simon’s chairman ship, and is the basis of a closely reasoned minute of dissent to the Report of the Indian Central Committee signed by two Moslem members.
Source: The Times, London, 18 January 1930.
The letter, written from Antibes in France, is undated. It is reasonable to assume that it was written on 16 January, received by the journal on the 17th and published in the issue of the 18th.