Date: 27 September 1931
Location: London
Speaker: Aga Khan III
Source: Speeches of Aga Khan III – K K Aziz
Full Text
Numerical strength of Muslims in India – how they differ from Hindus – dreadful events at Cawnpore and the Muslim anxiety Muslims and usury – Indian Muslims are patriotic – they want their interests to be safeguarded – Muslims will join Hindus for achieving a democratic government.
He pointed out that the Muslims – more numerous than the 62,000,000 people of Germany – number 78,000,000 of India’s population of 335,000,000. Fifty years ago the Muslims were one fifth of the population of India, but they have been steadily increasing until today, His Highness said, they are one-fourth; “they will be one-third before our children are middle-aged men”. “Do not think”, the Aga Khan continued, “that the Indian Muslims are aliens in India. For centuries they have been there, and nine-tenths have been in India at least as long as the Normans have been in England. But the Muslims of India differ from the Hindus in most matters which can divide one set of people from another. They differ in customs, in habits, in laws, and, above all, in their food and in their clothes. They also differ in cultural and economic ideals. In India there is such a thing as the untouchable. The Muslim religion teaches that all men are created equal. To them it is a sin to consider any human being as untouchable. We believe that one man has as good a right to walk erect on God’s earth as any other man. Our religion gives equal rights to both men and women – in this world as in the next … [ … in the original-Ed.] The difference between the Muslims and the Hindus of India is, therefore, more than religious. It is greater than the difference of Protestant and Cath olic in Ireland, or even of French Canadians and English Canadians in Canada.
We all regret that India should be a house divided against itself. Alas! recent events in India show that some people fly at the throats of others on the least excuse. The dreadful events of Cawnpore and elsewhere in India in March of this year made the Muslims more than ever nervous as to their future.
The Muslim religion forbids usury. The rule was made to save the poor man from economic enslavement by the rich. In India the Hindu is permitted to take interest on capital, while in most cases Muslims still do not. The result is that in the course of ages the Hindu has become the capitalist and the Muslim the labourer or the tiller of t)ie soil.
So there has been an unfortunate wrangle between the “haves” and the “have nots” for a place in the sun, particularly where there is an overwhelming majority of Hindus, as majorities are likely to tyrannize and oppress the minorities unless proper safe guards are provided. We have been accused of looking beyond the frontiers of India and not concentrating all our political patriotism on our Motherland. This is an unfounded accusation.
While we are a world-wide brotherhood, while we share the joys and sorrows of Muslims throughout the world, while our spiritual brotherhood is complete with therri, politically we have no other country and no other patriotism except that of India. We would resent any intervention in Indian affairs from any outside Muslim as much as any other Indian would. Politically we have no other loyalty except as Indian members of the British Commonwealth of Nations.
But the Muslims want such a Federal Constitution for India as will safeguard their legitimate interests. They want something that will save them [sic] their ideals from being submerged. They ask for an adequate share in the Federal Legislature, as also in the Federal administration of India, and they claim self-determi nation, as well as fully autonomous administrations, for all racial and linguistic areas – and particularly for those areas which have a majority Muslim population. They want to decide freely for themselves whether they will keep the institution of separate electorates for their protection or not. They do not want this right, borrowed by India from the experience of some European Constitutions, to be forcibly taken from them. They will resist to the last any attempt which, under colour of democracy, places them at the mercy of any other section.
The Muslims will, however, fight shoulder to shoulder with their Hindu brothers for a Constitution which will give India a stable Government of the people, by the people, for the people, for the equal good and advancement of all – and not for the advantage of any particular caste or creed, which would hold the others in its grasp.
Source: The Times, London, 28 September 1931.