Date: 13 February 1914
Location: Rangoon
Speaker: Aga Khan III
Source: Speeches of Aga Khan III – K K Aziz
Full Text
Communities of Burma Rangoon: 13 February 1914 National awakening in India – co-operation among different com munities and races should be permanent – conditions for political progress – steps towards national development – need for social clubs and associations – the Indian Question in South Mrica.
Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, allow me first of all to thank you most sincerely for this splendid address and for the very kind terms in which you have referred to me. The kindness of my countrymen in this province is really boundless. It is impossible for me – words fail me – to express to you my deep sense of gratitude, and how touched I have been by the kindness you have simply showered on me. The fact that my countrymen appreciate to this great extent any services, howsoever humble, that I have or may have rendered towards our beloved mother land is not only a source of great pride and gratitude for me, but will, I am sure, encourage many others to make still greater efforts, for it proves that the nation is waking up and realising what are the broad lines of its future development and pro gression, and realises also which paths will lead to salvation. (Applause.) The fact of national wakening is proved by many signs, one of which is the fact that all sections and races are joining each other more and_ more on public occasions for a common cause or a common purpose. (Applause). But, gentlemen, may I make a humble suggestion. Such a spirit of union and co-operation should not be like a mirage, to appear now and disappear tomorrow, or to appear on occasions and ~–r·i·?f ‘/~’:-:. .?
I disappear shortly after, but we should begin by starting clubs and associations for social, charitable, political, educational and general welfare in which all communities should co-operate. (Cheers.) Gentlemen, our political progress depends in its broadest and widest principles on three essential sound con ditions. First and foremost unconditional and absolute loyalty and devotion towards the person and Government of our beloved King-Emperor and his Majesty’s dynasty. (Cheers.) Secondly, co operation of all races and religions on a basis of each respecting the special characteristics of all the others, and also of co-opera ting for the welfare of each by all. (Applause.) Thirdly, gentlemen, on a thorough standard of efficiency in whatever we are responsible for, so that nobody may ever show the finger towards us and show that we are inefficient in our actions. (Applause.) Gentlemen, these three are the cardinal principles and the cardinal needs, but in order to make these ideals general we have certain immediate and near duties of a humbler nature, but still necessary steps towards our higher ideals. These neces sary steps I may describe as co-operation and mutual help in education, in social service, in trade, in economic development. (Applause.) I fully agree with you, [and] have ever since I have thought held the view, that by India and Indian we do not mean men of this race or of that religion, men of one sort or of another, but of all who live in Asia under the dominion or protection of His Majesty our gracious King-Emperor. (Cheers.) As you have been so kind in your references towards me, may I venture to make some practical suggestions for what I consider might be useful steps towards national development? Social clubs for all races, for all communities, I think should be started according to the general importance of the place, not only in capital cities like these splendid cities of Rangoon and Mandalay, but throughout Burma. (Applause.) But in addition to such social clubs I think associations should be started that would constantly meet and regularly meet and encourage regularly courses of lectures by reformers and by experts. They should invite people from various parts of India to come and deliver courses of lec tures, courses of public meetings, giving advice on various questions, making suggestions, and requiring discussion after lecture has been delivered, as on similar lines associations in Europe are formed for various purposes ~nd lectures are deliv ered and discussions then take place, a process that must lead to national awakening and to national education. (Applause.) Such lecturers should be asked to lecture in different languages, but various translations should always be ready so that all present may understand. Such social clubs and associations will not only remove misunderstandings but will prevent them from arising.
Gentlemen, the greater the discussion, the greater the occasions on which people meet each other on a common platform, the surer will be the work of the cause and its permanent beneficial results. I thank you again warmly for referring to my work in connection with South Mrica, work undertaken I may say in co operation and in support of the splendid work done by my dear friend the Hon. Mr. Gokhale (applause) and by my lifelong friend, for I have known him since I was a boy, Sir Pherozeshah Mehta (applause.) Gentlemen, I am glad to say that the latest news from South Mrica is a little more hopeful, and it is possible that some form, if not entirely satisfactory, still a compromise, may take place. This is not saying much, but the outlook is a little less cloudy than it was a short time ago. Gentlemen, in this relation I think I am but doing my duty, and a pleasant duty for myself, and what I am sure is also the opinion of every one of you who has thought about or studied the question, in stating that the thanks of India are due first and before all to his Excel lency the Viceroy who has been a true father and champion of the cause of India in South Mrica (cheers.) In this question, as in everything else in this country, the needs are the same. It is the old old story, fairness, co-operation and renunciation of individuals towards the benefits, not the individual benefits but the communal benefits, to further the welfare of the whole of this great nation, which consists of many nations. I thank you again very much, and I assure you that it has been a source not only of pride but of great pleasure to come and see you here and thank you personally. (Loud applause.) Source: The Rangoon Gazette, Rangoon, 16 February 1914.
The leaders of the Indian and other communities residing in Burma hosted a reception welcoming the Aga Khan to Rangoon at the Jubilee Hall at about 5 p.m. The Honourable U. Hpay was voted to the chair, and he started the proceedings with the following words: “Ladies and gentlemen, I thank you heartily for the trouble you have taken to come here this evening to join us in welcoming our illustrious guest. It is hardly necessary for me to say anything by way of introducing to you His Highness (applause), who has taken a most prominent part in the uplifting of his fellow-beings living side by side in this vast empire of ours, and whose opinion has great weight in the United Kingdom (applause). As His Highness comes to Burma practically on an official visit, he must be welcomed by all the citizens of Rangoon in a manner fitting the occasion (applause). With these few words I call upon U May Oung to read the address of welcome.”
The address of welcome was then read out by U. May Oung; it ran as follows: “To his Highness Sir Sultan Mohammed Shah Aga Khan, G.C.S.I., G.C.I.E., LL.D., etc. “May it please your Highness – We, on behalf of the Indian and other communities residing in Burma, beg to express our sense of happiness in enjoying the privilege of approaching your Highness on your visit to this province once again. In the first place we ask to be permitted to heartily congratulate the Indian and allied communities in as much as in your Highness India has come to possess a leader of progressive enlightenment and catholic views who had declined to subordinate the general good of a vast continent to the narrow aspirations of any one particular sect or community. Cut off as this province may appear from the mainland of India, Burma is linked to India by more than commercial or even material ties. We watch, albeit at a distance, nevertheless with intense keenness the efforts made by our brethren in India in the direction of political advancement and it is exceedingly gratifying to us to observe that in the grave councils of the dominions not less than in smaller assemblies devoted to communal interests your Highness’s voice is raised with that vigour of manliness which sincerity lends to statesmanly sagacity, for the welding of the different communities of the Indian Empire into a united whole.
We have not, your Highness, missed to observe the emphasis rightly laid by you on the continuance of benign British paramountcy as an indispensable con dition of the fulfilment of those lofty aims for the future of India which your Highness has from time to time foreshadowed. A new spirit of advancement in which we hope humbly to participate is animating the millions of India and it is a fortunate circumstance that the new epoch coincides with the realisation of the beneficence of the British rule as indicated by your Highness and your Highness’s political compeers like the Hon. Mr. Gokhale, the Hon. Sir Pherozeshah M. Mehta and others. “The weighty counsel given to our Moslem brethren from time to time, though it may not have enabled all men of divergent views in the three conti nents where your Highness has numerous admirers like ourselves, to see eye to eye with your Highness, has left no doubt in our minds that in your High ness’s public utterances, and doubtless in private admonitions, the one dominating thought has been the unity and its concomitant the strength of an undivided India. When we speak of India we refer not merely to the Indian communities but to all the communities comprised within the nomenclature Indian as well as allied peoples of Asia who aim at political unity under the British suzerainty and already enjoy amity and concord. For as your Highness is aware, the relationship between the Burmans, the sons of the soil, and the Indians proper is not merely one of cordiality and mutual good-will found on a community of interests; no ethnic or other difference prevent the peoples of the two neighbouring countries, sharing a common civilisation, from forming the closest ties of kinship. From the largest cities to the remotest hamlets, unapproachable by rail or water-way, Burma abounds in neighbourhoods where Burman, Indian and Chinaman, whether official, tradesmen or cultivator, live in harmony unmarred by racial animus. It is in this field, of fusing the sister communities, subjects of one Great King, that your Highness’s efforts will have to be especially chronicled by the future historian. Many well-wishers of India have before now endeavoured to remove the great gulf assumed to have been fixed by nature between the various communities in British India. It was given to your Highness to give concrete and solid shape to his happy movement of unification. Of your many and invaluable services to ybur country and King we take occasion only to allude to one more. Perhaps not the least obligation conferred on us has been your exertion to expose the inhuman treatment of Indians in South Mrica, and your Highness’s spirited appeal to the powers to ameliorate their condition. We pray to God you be spared long in health to see realised that noble ideal which your benign political prescience has set before a generated Indian nation. “We have the honour to be, your Highness’ most obedient servants, Abdul Karim Jamal, U. Hpay, P. C. Sen, Ahmed Moolla Dawood, Lim Chin Tsong, Moolla Abdur Rahim, U Ba Thein, Yacoob Abdul Ganny,]. R. Das, Mohamed Goolam Hoosein Soorty, W. F. Noyce, B. Cowasjee, Mohamed Hajee Solayman Mall, P.]. Mehta, V. N. Sivaya, S. A. Rahman, U Po Oh, Alibhoy Hakimjee, Mahomed Israel Khan, U May Oung, V. M. Abdur Rahman, S. S. Agabob, Mahomed Ebrahim Moolla, G. K Nariman, Ahmadulla (alias Ko Ba Oh), K B. Banerjee, Mohamed Kalamya, Esmail Mohamed Hoosein Patel, Shamjee Gopaljee, Mansukhlal Dawlatchand, Jeewabhoy Bhanjee, A. M. Pillay, V. Mad anjit, Premjee Chanda, Ismail Ebrahim Atta, S. Ramnath Reddiar.”
The address, enclosed in a beautiful Burmese carved silver casket surmounted by a golden peacock, was then presented to the distinguished guest by Mr.
Agha Khan (no relation to the Aga Khan). Mter this, the Aga Khan was garlanded and presented with a bouquet of flowers by Haji Ahmad Mulla Daud.
The Haji also proposed a vote of thanks to the chair, which was seconded by J.
B. Das and carried unanimously. Three hearty cheers for the Aga Khan called for by Mr. Madanjit brought the proceedings to a close.