Date: 2 November 1913
Location: Paris
Speaker: Aga Khan III
Source: Speeches of Aga Khan III – K K Aziz
Full Text
Tribute to Sayyid Ameer Ali – reasons for his own resignation wish to belong to the League Council – historical background to the formation of the League – the principle of separate represen tation for Muslims – the League should become a national organization – different schools of thought within the League Muslim representation on municipalities and local boards primary education and the language question – importance of the London League.
From the remarks I made at the committee meeting of the London All India Muslim League on Wednesday and our pre vious conversations, you are well aware how profoundly I regret the turn of events leading to your resignation of the president ship, which you have held with so much wisdom and devotion since the establishment of the League, and for which, I am sure, the overwhelming majority of Musulmans and I, for one~ are deeply grateful … [ … in the original – ed.]. I wish you· could have seen your way to withhold your resignation until the opinion of the Central Committee in India had been definitely ascer tained. I cannot think that the committee would endorse any suggestion which you could look upon as making your position here untenable, for there is on the part of all men in India, both young and old, the strongest sense of indebtedness for your great and unique services to the community.
I am unable, for many reasons, to continue as president of the Central [All India Muslim] League. I have come to an absolutely irrevocable decision to retire therefrom, and I have written !
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already my resignation to the council of the League in India through its honorary secretary. My reasons are numerous, both personal and public. As you are aware, I have had many personal grounds for wishing to take this course for some time past, and your resignation now gives me a golden opportunity of retiring.
I will venture to tell you some of my reasons, and I am placing these reasons before Mr. S. W. Hasan, the honorary secretary, to be communicated by him to his council. I am so circumstanced that I am compelled to be out of India for considerable periods every year (next year, for instance, I have to spend six months in Mrica), and I have to be very often in Europe, where I have considerable private interests and where I am financially interested in some corporations. Thus, I cannot carry out the duties of president in the way I should like. But I do not propose to sever my connexion with the League; far from it – I indeed wish to belong to its council, and I believe that as an active member of its council, free from the necessarily ‘judicial” character that attaches to the presidency, I can more effectively contribute my share to the service of the community. In addition to this, I have other minor personal reasons of a purely domestic and family nature. However, all these personal reasons together would not have made me retire from the presidentship if I thought that my continuance would serve the welfare of the community. But I have come to the conclusion that, for reasons which I will now give to you, it is essential for our communal welfare that I should retire.
In order to explain this clearly, I will have to go back to the history of the foundation of the League in India. When in the spring of 1906 I was at Aligarh, foreseeing the coming political movement in India, I suggested to the late Nawab Mohsin-ul-Mulk the formation of a federation or league. in order to give our people a political platform and also to prevent their disappearance as a national entity and unity. He immediately agreed, and in the months previous to the formation of the deputation to the Viceroy, he was occupied in preparing the ground. At that time the Musulman community in India, owing to long neglect. of all organized interest in politics, had unfortu nately fallen into a state of absolute chaos and political non existence. In these early stages, the foundation of a league in India, with a large number of leaders from the aristocracy and men of strong social and financial position, was absolutely neces sary in order to give the organization its weight and its status in the eyes of our Government and the Hindu community. The post of president was necessary so that our organization in India might not die stillborn by too early struggles between different schools of thought in our community. Then came the long and memor able struggle to win the principle of separate representation on Councils, Imperial and Provincial. I, for one, never looked upon the principle of separate representation as a policy but as a necessity for awakening our people to the importance of political life and organization, and, in fact, to give them a platform and the sense of self-reliance. For me, separate representation in the Imperial and Provincial Councils was not a policy but the neces sary way of awakening our people from the state of coma and neglect into which they had fallen. In its early stages the League in India had as much need of high-sounding names amongst its officers as a newly-formed company in the city has need of high sounding titles on its board of directors. Happily, the League has passed through that stage. Thank God, I have lived and seen the infant reach the stage of early manhood. I am profoundly convinced that in India at this stage a permanent president, an official spokesman, a recognized leader, will hamper the natural evolution and development of our community, even if he be always on the spot and fully worthy of such a position.
The League in India must become more and more not a political party but a national organization of the loyal and devoted Moslem community of India, the organization in which all parties must be represented and all schools of thought given due voice. In future, the League cannot have a leader but leaders of parties representing different schools of thought and each trying to convince the community that its policy is the best for India. I do not wish to give these parties question-begging names by calling them Conservative or Liberal, but I will give you two instances of questions on which there must be differences and discussion, and I could easily give you tweQty similar examples.
In these discussions and differences I, for one, mean to take part and, God willing, I may be the leader of those who agree with me from conviction. One of the two instances is the question of separate representation on municipalities and local boards.
There must necessarily be two, or even, three, ways of dealing with this question, and there must be two or three parties to a discussion that will ultimately settle our policy. Another question that must arise is that of primary education and its relation to the local vernaculars and the Urdu language. As these questions arise, there must be differences and discussion, before a settle ment can be reached, and I, for one, heartily welcome the fact that our organization in India can now, thanks to the awakening of our people, be freed from the trammel of my presidentship.
Of course, the future of our community in India and of this League depends on the people. This is a truism, but the time has come for our people to realize the truism and its responsibilities. I am convinced that my retirement will help to develop this sense of responsibility and also that my experience will be of greater service on the free bench of the League’s council than in the cramped chair of the President. I still think that after the question of the relation of the central and of the London League has been discussed afresh in India, there may be some possibility of reconstruction of the London League on sound lines, but I should not myself be prepared to join the London League as one of its officers on any fresh basis unless I was assured of the sympathy and help, not only of yourself, but also of our wise and elderly friends of weight and standing, who have so well served as its principal officers, and who now retire with you. I cherish this hope of reconstruction because the London League, under wise guidance in the future as in the past, can be made an instrument of the greatest advantage, not only to our community, but to the people of India generally. Therefore, there must be an effort to save it from collapse.
Source: The Times, London, 8 November 1913.
On 31 October 1913 The Times had announced that Sayyid Ameer Ali was retiring from the presidentship of the London branch of the All India Muslim League, and that the Aga Khan had decided to resign the leadership of the Muslim League in India as soon as practicable upon his return to that country.
Now, on 2 November, the Aga Khan wrote to Ameer Ali from Paris giving his reasons for the decision. Passages from this letter were published in The Times on 8 November, and these are reproduced here.
The Times of this date also published the following closing passage from the Aga Khan’s letter addressed to Sayyid Wazir Hasan, the Honorary Secretary of the All India Muslim League: · “Nearly two years ago, for these very reasons, I tendered my resignation.
Unfortunately, just before that time there had been a difference of opinion between me and large numbers in India on the question of the second Partition of Bengal and the Durbar changes. The motive of my resignation was misunder stood, and the community imagined that I was hurt at the criticisms passed on me, and very graciously refused to accept my resignation, which was simply and solely for the reasons I have now told you and from a sense of duty. Then came the Turkish War and all its anxieties and sorrows. I could not go at such a time of pain and distress, and our community’s efforts had to be devoted to the single purpose of relieving the distress of the poor Muslims in the Balkans. But now the time has come when the community must wake up and re-organize the League on a popular and sound basis, or it will disintegrate into a self appointed society of leaders without a following. If I continue longer in the chair of President I shall not be doing my duty, and my conscience compels me to take this step. If you or any other office-bearer of the League wishes to consult me on any matter, whether privately or publicly, my advice is at your disposal. With this explanation, I place in your hands my resignation.”
On Ameer Ali see K K Aziz, Ameer Ali: His Life and Work, Lahore, 1968; and M. Yusuf Abbasi, Muslim Politics and Leadership in South Asia, 1876-1892, Islam abad, 1981, and The Political Biography of Syed Ameer Ali, Lahore, 1989.