Date: 16 December 1931
Location: Antibes
Speaker: Aga Khan III
Source: Speeches of Aga Khan III – K K Aziz
Full Text
Developments in the Muslim world – their influence on the Muslims of India – nationalism – preservation of Muslim individu ality and culture – Muslims are united – All India Muslim League and All India Muslim Conference should reach the masses – the Muslim press – provincial autonomy – the next two years.
The position of the Moslems of India calls for examination now that the second session of the Round-Table Conference has closed and the statement of the National Government thereon has been fully debated and approved in both Houses of Parlia ment. A survey of the kind is the more desirable since India, unhappily, is faced with the prospect of a revival of the subversive non-cooperation movement, at least in the United Provinces and Bengal.
Moslem India is now at the parting of the ways. It cannot be oblivious to the fact that Moslem countries are undergoing a process of spiritual and political reconstruction. Islam is in a ferment, and Moslems all over the world are awake and con scious of the need for adaptation to the requirements of modern life. It was neither possible nor desirable for the Moslems of India, kept in touch with modem currents of thought by the close contact of their country with Great Britain and the Western world in general, to remain uninfluenced by these new con ditions. On the one hand, they are profoundly affected by that current of nationalism which has swept over India with a momentum and force that would have seemed impossible a few years ago. On the other hand, they are conscious of a need which in the past was but dimly comprehended: that of the preservation of their political individuality and cultural existence.
If Moslem India has not yet attained the level of political knowledge or economic influence which would qualify it to play a leading part in the shaping of the new Constitution, it has made progress at a pace surprising even to those who had formed the most sanguine estimates of its political capacity. We are now a compact and homogeneous body, united by a programme which has brought Moslems of different Provinces and varying interests on to a common platform, and has provided them with an instrument for united political expression.
The All-India Moslem League, founded a quarter of a century ago, did a most useful service by training our young men in political work, and inculcating in them a deep and abiding purpose to assist the development of their community. It focused the attention of the Moslem intelligentsia on matters of crucial importance to our people, and developed among them a desire for constitutional advance on sound lines. A later organization, constituted on a different basis and doing useful work, is the All India Moslem Conference.
Conflict between the two bodies has been avoided hitherto by the good sense, tact, and reasonableness of the leading members of both organizations. But I am confident that it is not in the best interests of the community to maintain two organizations.
They should be amalgamated and together form an organization to be called the United Moslem League Conference. I have pressed this view in a manifesto sent to India by the last air mail for publication.
The proposed amalgamation should serve to focus Moslem political thought and concentrate within itself the energy, ability, wealth, and influence of the community throughout India. I have written to my fellow Moslems that we cannot afford to dissipate our energies at a time so critical in our history: that division and disunion may ruin the prospects of a lasting settlement of the claims of Indian Moslems. I may here quote textually from the manifesto:Islam in India can exist and advance only if and when all its sons are willing and eager to follow the lead of their political organizations. I am therefore most strongly of the opinion that Moslem leaders should immediately hold a joint meeting of the working committees of the two bodies, frame rules for a common organization, and organize branches in every part of India. Unless we do this, we shall never be able to achieve what we have been striving so anxiously to realize. So far as the programme is concerned, there is, in my opinion, no material difference in the political purpose of either body. .
The amalgamated political organization of which I have written must not be content with a central executive committee.
The work of organizing branches should be taken in hand, and every effort should be made to keep in constant touch with the feeling and desires of the masses. In these days of extended franchise, work among the intelligentsia is not in itself sufficient. A centre, and possibly two or three centres, should be established for training young men for political work. There is urgent need also for the improvement and extension of the Moslem Press.
I have expressed very decided opinions in the manifesto on a great question of procedure, of which much was heard in the closing weeks of the Round-Table Conference. I have urged that the Moslems, while not abating in any way their desire for Govern ment to implement their pledges regarding federal responsibility, should uphold the absolute necessity for provincial autonomy as an intermediate stage. Provincial autonomy was envisaged in the dispatch of Lord Hardinge’s Government on the changes to he announced by the King-Emperor at the Delhi Durbar. The provinces have waited 20 years; they can wait no longer than may be required for the necessary adjustments to be made. Indian Moslems should press for this advance with all the influence at their command. Other political parties in India have been clamouring for it since the early days of the introduction of the Montagu-Chelmsford reforms. It should be emphasized, of course, that there should be no slackening of the measures to which Government is pledged for the establishment of an All India Federation with central responsibility.
I believe the next two years will be the most critical in the history of India that we of the present generation have known.
If Moslems remain solid and well organized, if they act as disci plined soldiers and follow the policy of their main organization with cheerful zeal, they will succeed in maintaining their due position in the Indian body politic, and will play a part in the development of their country that is consonant with their great past and their present importance as by far the largest of the Indian minorities.
Source: The Times, London, 18 ·D ecember 1931.
The letter was written from Anti.bes, France.