The Hindus and Mohamedans have been waging a common war with
non-violence as the fundamental creed. It has to be noted however, that
there is a party led by the Maulana that advocates violence for the
achievement of their object. Suppose to-morrow that party takes to
violence and the other remains non-violent, what will be the fate of
the non-violent party if Maulana's views are pushed to their logical
conclusion? Is freedom worth having if in the attainment of it you have
to loot, murder and outrage your innocent neighbour who does not agree
with you or approve of your methods and is Swaraj possible of
achievement and the Khilafat likely to be righted by such means?
Maulana's views make those who have absolutely no faith in violence to
think over these facts deeply and anxiously.
The Indian Non-Mahomedans, did not trouble themselves about the Khilafat
claims. Mr. Gandhi and his followers took it up as an anti-British
movement to secure Mahomedan support to his non-co-operation movement.
Even that non-Mahomedan sympathy with the Khilafat movement, has
vanished. That movement acquired its strength on account of such
unfortunate statements that the Secretary of State and the Government of
India are in hearty sympathy with the Moslim demands; statements like
those reported to have been made by His Highness Aga Khan that Mr.
Montagu is doing as much as it is possible to support the Mahomedan
claim and Gandhi himself could not have done more. I doubt whether any
influential newspaper or any publicist in America, England or the
continent support the Khilafat claim as advanced by Indian Mahomedans or
by Gandhi. However, the reputed sentiments of Mr. Montagu and the
Government of India have influenced even moderate Mahomedans and Hindus
to support them against the cabinet in starting and supporting an
agitation, which has now assumed dangerous proportions.
The Khilafat movement does not want, and Mr. Gandhi is not for, any
reasonable settlement of the Mahomedan grievance or for Home Rule. They
wish to get rid of the British Government. Such being the objective
naturally the Khilafat Indian agitators have put forward demands which
the Turks themselves recognise as outside practical politics. They have
hampered the efforts of their friends for a revision of the treaty of
Sevres. Everybody now realises that this attitude of the Khilafat
movement under the guidance of Gandhi and Mahomed Ali stood in the way
of any reasonable settlement. It is a futile endeavour of the Indian and
British Governments to satisfy Mr. Gandhi or the Khilafat agitators led
by the Ali brothers. Gandhi and his followers have greatly encouraged
the growth of Indian Pan Islamism which will in future be always opposed
to other Religions and civilizations. I can well understand the adherent
of large numbers of Mussulmans to the idea of Pan-Islamism. It must
naturally have a fascination for devotees of Islam by reason of the
splendour of its promise that Mussulmans the world over shall one day be
united under one flag, but we have to take the world as it is and to
take into the consideration the forces actually at work in
reconstruction. The world has passed the stage of religious empires. It
has gone beyond the stage of religious crusades. We are on the threshold
of an era of a brotherhood transcending religious differences,
transcending even national differences and of which one of the dominant
notes is a unity of purpose in which religious differences of race and
customs are to be merged and harmonised. Pan-Islamism or
Pan-Christianity or Pan-Budhism--one can hardly speak of
Pan-Hinduism--belong to the world that is dead and not to the world that
is living. They mean destruction, proselytisation, the assertion of
superiority the world war was waged to destroy. This also shows the
dangerous foundation on which the Gandhi movement rests. Home Rule or
Swaraj is claimed not as an end in itself but for the purpose of
righting the alleged wrongs sustained by foreigners. We know Gandhi's
principles which I have set forth above. Swaraj or political
independence is not what he really wants. It is not the Caliph
grievances that have led him to claim political independence. He wants
to destroy the British Government, as a hater of all Governments.
The attitude of the Government towards the people of the Punjab and the
Punjab officials is stated in the Congress Resolution as the second and
the only other reason for this non-co-operation campaign against the
Government.