Date: 2 July 1933
Location: London
Speaker: Aga Khan III
Source: Speeches of Aga Khan III – K K Aziz
Full Text
Islam and commerce – economic dominance of Muslim countries up to the 16th century – decline thereafter – post-First World War situation – absence of cheap transport in Muslim countries consequences of the transport revolution, particularly for trade new geo-political situation – public debt in Muslim countries Britain’s relations with the Islamic world – pivotal position of Muslims of north-western India – importance of insurance business – the younger Britons working in India should learn Oriental languages – need for an efficient corps of commercial travellers Muslim desire to co-operate with the British in all fields.
It is perhaps not generally known that our Holy Prophet started life as a trader and merchant, and up to the moment when he received the divine call he was active as one of the leading merchants of Mecca. In numerous passages of the Koran not only the vital importance but the blessedness of commerce, industry, and trade are impressed upon the faithful. Many pas sages deal with trade by sea and land, with agriculture, with mining, with all the wonders that Nature has placed at the dis posal of man for his material comfort and enjoyment.
In the golden age of Islam’s civilization, reaching down to the sixteenth century, the Muslim countries were in the van of all that we consider the world’s economic life. But a great change came with the discovery of the Americas and the Cape route to the East. Sea-borne trade to the Far East and India replaced trade through the Muslim countries. It developed and became the great source of wealth for the world in general. This process went on with ever-increasing momentum till the outbreak of the Great War. The vast millions of China and India were brought into touch with the advanced countries of Western Europe and America by direct communication. What can be conveniently called the big Muslim square from Samarkand to Sind and from Egypt to Constantinople diminished in economic importance for the world in general and for Europe in particular. This process went so far that, although here and there attention was paid to those countries by houses that had hereditary and historic connection with them, they were ignored by the general trend of commercial enterprise in Great Britain.
Then came the War with its immediate reaction of fictitious prosperity, but with its present consequences of worldwide depression and economic languor. The old and familiar sources of trade and commerce are proving themselves insufficient to meet the productive activity of the post-war world. New sources must be found; new economic worlds must be conquered. It is fortunate that, now the opening-up of the economically backward Muslim countries is most needed, science has placed at our disposal means and methods by which that end can be achieved.
We have only to consider the conditions which have led to the World Economic Conference to see that the fulfilment of the task is imperative for the welfare, not only of Islamic countries, but of the world at large.
One of the main causes of the diminished economic import ance of Muslim lands before the war was the absence of cheap means of transport. They were essentially land-locked continental areas with – here and there – a window to the sea. Bays and channels and inland seas were rare, if not wholly absent. The great rivers such as the Nile, the Indus, and the Euphrates were far apart and were separated by vast continental areas. When railways came in other countries the initial cost of that form of communication made it difficult, if not impossible, to build and equip sufficient lines to give Islam a due share in the nineteenth century prosperity of the West.
Today new and cheap forms of communication have revolu tionized the outlook upon the geographical and economical conditions of these undeveloped lands. Motor traffic – for which vast amounts of petrol can be found in the very heart of the land of Islam, in Persia, and Arabia – has made it possible, with the development of roads, once more to bring commercial prosperity to the furthest interior of these countries.
The aeroplane is replacing the camel as “the ship of the desert,” and cheap aviation will make every part of these countries easy of access. Overland travel from Europe to the heart of Asia is far quicker, safer, and more convenient, and is held to be much more pleasant and interesting than the sea voyage.
Thus the process started after the sixteenth century is being reversed, and once more the great and populous lands of Eastern and Southern Asia can communicate with Europe over land rather than by sea. The immense importance of this transform ation to all concentrated and quick forms of trade is obvious.
The world depression, which has shown the insufficiency of markets for West and East alike, will lead every manufacturing country to turn its eyes to this new world of Islam which again, after 400 years, takes its place among the great markets of the world.
Political and territorial adjustments that followed the war have placed Great Britain and her Empire in a peculiarly advantageous position to benefit to the full from these developments. The old bureaucratic Ottoman Empire has been broken up and replaced by the nationalistic States of Iraq and Arabia and by Turkey.
Persia has been freed from the political dominance of Russia.
The old Empire of the Czars which – with the help of protective tariffs – hoped to dominate the markets of Western Asia with dumped goods has disappeared. The new Communist Socialist Soviet Republic has not so far shaped an industrial and economic system by which it can seriously compete with the export trade of a highly organized and experienced commercial community such as exists in this country.
It may be argued by some of my readers that the countries of Western Asia are poor. But I would point out that since the war there has been a radical change in this respect. Afghanistan has no public debt. The capital debt of Persia is less than the receipts of the Shah’s Government in one year from the Anglo-Persian Oil Company. Arabia has no external debt, and in Iraq the debt commitments are very small. The bearing of these facts on the question of trade relations is obvious. The countries I have named are not among the nations which must export goods for the purpose of paying debt and interest charges. Consequently they can buy our British and Indian goods by the mutually beneficial method of exchange of commodities.
Great Britain has today very friendly relations with Egypt, and her moral influence in that part of the world is greater than ever in the past. I think this can be said with equal truth about all Arab lands, and I have every hope that a fair and equitable adjustment of conflicting claims will be made in Palestine. With the new kingdom of Iraq and her ruler this Empire is happily not only on terms of friendship, but of intimate co-operation.
There are no serious political differences with Persia or Afghani stan. Of the 80 millions of Indian Muslims a large proportion inhabit the borders of these very States, and thus come within the geographical limits of the solid Muslim economic block to which I have referred. The Muslims of North-Western India can become the great bridge-head for further trade development, economic improvement, and healthy, peaceful, commercial rivalry both for the manufacturers of this country and for the producers of India and Burma.
There used to be a saying when I was young that “trade fol lowed the flag.” Today we can go further and say “Trade follows friendship.” The Muslims of India are happily placed in being the link alike in friendship and in trade between the people of Great Britain on one side and those of Islamic lands on the other, and also between the vast Hindu population of India and Muslim countries to their west. But this friendship can hardly grow as quickly as the economic needs of the world require today, nor can it be built without a full and complete understanding of each other’s mentality.
I desire to place some practical suggestions before you as my British fellow-subjects for expediting the process which we should all welcome. It is urgent because it will go far towards the eco nomic regeneration of Muslim countries on the one hand and the improvement of export trade and employment in this country on the other.
I could give many practical illustrations in respect of the oppor tunities for business which are available. But I will mention only one of these. We all know how great a place insurance fills in modern business life. The development of this branch of business in South America enured to the benefit of well-established insurance companies in Great Britain and the United States. But it does not seem to be realized that in the Islamic countries to which I have referred the insurance business is non-existent. In all these lands there is hardly a house, or life, or packet of merchandise owned by the inhabitants which has been insured.
In this field alone there are enormous possibilities which have never been touched. It is not an over-estimate to put the potential capital value of insurances to be effected in these countries at £200,000,000.
Some years ago it was usual to hear fathers of families of nearly all classes in Britain say that they would like their children to learn Spanish and Portuguese so as to be prepared to take advan tage of the economic development of South America then in sight. But the Muslim countries to which I refer have potential wealth and trade possibilities which can favourably compare with those vast regions of South America, the development of which has proved insufficient for the business enterprise of the people of this country. Might it not be possible for at least some of the younger English people to learn Persian, or Arabic, or Urdu? In addition to the stimulus knowledge of these languages would give to mental and spiritual understanding between East and West, the practical and commercial advantages would be great.
Incidentally, anyone with a knowledge of one of these languages can easily familiarize himself with the other two, since they are intimately related. As a knowledge of Spanish is necessary for those who go out for trade in South America, so for trade with Islamic countries a knowledge of at least one of the three prin cipal languages there spoken is essential for the realization of all the possibilities.
Another thing which has so far been neglected in Muslim lands (perhaps through the want of cheap and easy communications hitherto) is the supply of commercial travellers suited to the conditions of today. Such men ought to be able to sell the goods that are required and for which markets are needed and, on the other hand, to buy the local goods for this country.
Many of you know the regular commercial traveller on the Continent and in America. I have seen him in wayside inns all over Europe and found him both modest and efficient. A great many not only sell, but also buy, and a number bring back news as to the kind of material needed and the kind of manufacture required. The same methods applied to Muslim countries by an efficient corps of commercial travellers would, I am sure, give most satisfactory results. In this great work the Muslims of India can become coacljutors and partners, they can become the help mates of their British fellow-subjects of the King as well as of their co-religionists throughout the rest of the Middle and Near East.
There is no wish on our part for exclusiveness, and no jealousy, but an intuitive yearning after an understanding and co-oper ation for mutual benefit. I know very well the feelings and sentiments not only of my Muslim countrymen, but of Muslims generally. Everywhere they show not only willingness, but a sincere desire for political, cultural, and, above all, financial, economic, and commercial co-operation with the people of this land.
Source: The Asiatic Review, London, Vol. 29, pp. 633-7.
The article is based on an address delivered on 2 July 1933 at a meeting of members of both Houses of Parliament and visitors convened by the National League at the House of Commons during the sittings of the Joint Select Committee on Indian Reforms.
The meeting at which this speech was delivered was organized by Miss Margaret Farquharson, the President of the National League, to enable members of the House of Lords and the House of Commons to hear the Muslim delegates to the Joint Select Committee on Indian Constitutional Reform on the subject of an Islamic solution of world problems. Lord Derby presided. The meeting was very well attended. The Aga Khan was·the principal speaker.
After the Aga Khan’s address, Zafrullah Khan outlined the Islamic principles which brought about an equal distribution of wealth, making millionaires rare but spreading prosperity generally. The purification tax (presumably the zakat ) helped the rich to give their support to the poor. It was not charity, but the right of the poor to be supported out of the income of the rich, especially as the ultimate source of man’s wealth was land and nature’s gifts were meant for the whole community. Islam recognized individual effort, but the portions of God’s free gifts were fairly divided.
Dr. Shafa’at Ahmad Khan was the next speaker, and he emphasized the stability that Islam brought to a society and also the democracy that it empha sized. Then Sir A. K. Ghuznavi gave a discourse on Islam and the world’s economic problems.
Among the Indian Muslims present on the occasion were Malik Sir Umar Hayat Khan Tiwana, Abdullah Yusuf Ali, Nawab Mehdi Yar Jang, and Begum Abbas Ali Baig.
This account of the meeting is taken from the Star of India of 17th July 1933, the same date on which it published the Aga Khan’s address.