Mr. Andrews whose love for India is equalled only by his love for
England and whose mission in life is to serve God, i.e., humanity
through India, has contributed remarkable articles to the 'Bombay
Chronicle' on the Khilafat movement. He has not spared England, France
or Italy. He has shown how Turkey has been most unjustly dealt with and
how the Prime Minister's pledge has been broken. He has devoted the last
article to an examination of Mr. Mahomed Ali's letter to the Sultan and
has come to the conclusion that Mr. Mahomed Ali's statement of claim is
at variance with the claim set forth in the latest Khilafat
representation to the Viceroy which he wholly approves.
Mr. Andrews and I have discussed the question as fully as it was
possible. He asked me publicly to define my own position more fully than
I have done. His sole object in inviting discussion is to give strength
to a cause which he holds as intrinsically just, and to gather round it
the best opinion of Europe so that the allied powers and especially
England may for very shame be obliged to revise the terms.
I gladly respond to Mr. Andrew's invitation. I should clear the ground
by stating that I reject any religious doctrine that does not appeal to
reason and is in conflict with morality. I tolerate unreasonable
religious sentiment when it is not immoral. I hold the Khilafat claim to
be both just and reasonable and therefore it derives greater force
because it has behind it the religious sentiment of the Mussalman world.
In my opinion Mr. Mahomed Ali's statement is unexceptionable. It is no
doubt clothed in diplomatic language. But I am not prepared to quarrel
with the language so long as it is sound in substance.
Mr. Andrews considers that Mr. Mahomed Ali's language goes to show that
he would resist Armenian independence against the Armenians and the
Arabian against the Arabs. I attach no such meaning to it. What he, the
whole of Mussalmans and therefore I think also the Hindus resist is the
shameless attempt of England and the other Powers under cover of
self-determination to emasculate and dismember Turkey. If I understand
the spirit of Islam properly, it is essentially republican in the truest
sense of the term. Therefore if Armenia or Arabia desired independence
of Turkey they should have it. In the case of Arabia, complete Arabian
independence would mean transference of the Khilafat to an Arab
chieftain. Arabia in that sense is a Mussulman trust, not purely
Arabian. And the Arabs without ceasing to be Mussulman, could not hold
Arabia against Muslim opinion. The Khalifa must be the custodian of the
Holy places and therefore also the routes to them. He must be able to
defend them against the whole world. And if an Arab chief arose who
could better satisfy that test than the Sultan of Turkey, I have no
doubt that he would be recognised as the Khalifa.
I have thus discussed the question academically. The fact is that
neither the Mussulmans nor the Hindus believe in the English Ministerial
word. They do not believe that the Arabs or the Armenians want complete
independence of Turkey. That they want self-government is beyond doubt.
Nobody disputes that claim. But nobody has ever ascertained that either
the Arabs or the Armenians desire to do away with all connection, even
nominal, with Turkey.
The solution of the question lies not in our academic discussion of the
ideal position, it lies in an honest appointment of a mixed commission
of absolutely independent Indian Mussulmans and Hindus and independent
Europeans to investigate the real wish of the Armenians and the Arabs
and then to come to a _modus vivendi_ where by the claims of the
nationality and those of Islam may be adjusted and satisfied.
It is common knowledge that Smyrna and Thrace including Adrianople have
been dishonestly taken away from Turkey and that mandates have been
unscrupulously established in Syria and Mesopotamia and a British
nominee has been set up in Hedjaj under the protection of British guns.
This is a position that is intolerable and unjust. Apart therefore from
the questions of Armenia and Arabia, the dishonesty and hypocrisy that
pollute the peace terms require to be instantaneously removed. It paves
the way to an equitable solution of the question of Armenian and Arabian
independence which in theory no one denies and which in practice may be
easily guaranteed if only the wishes of the people concerned could with
any degree of certainty be ascertained.