Chapter 1
Communal politics And the British The tilt towards Muslim League
ALTHOUGH they long consider themselves as of the ruling stock, the
Muslims of India had lost effective power to the British. They were
crushed following the 1857 national bid to put the aliens in their
place. And neighbouring Afghanistan was brought under the heel
through Amir Abdul Rehman. Thus, if externally the path of Russia's
possible thrust had been blocked, internally no force had remained
that could challenge the British. Some six hundred princely states
had also through their rulers become subservient to them. Thus by
the beginning the 20th century London's grip over India had become
unshakable.
The British colonist was however an extremely canny, weather beaten,
modern-day pirate. It was not enough merely to establish the grip;
it was also necessary to maintain their firm holds. He was faced
with a country the size of a sub-continent and a population that was
numberless. He thought hard how he could keep these under his thumb.
He had fought Nemours battles, and even, by fair means and foul,
conquered countries. But he could not set a soldier on every Indian.
He had therefore to find a way that the Indians remained divided
amongst themselves. For if they joined hands the situation could
become, like the one caricatured by a Hindu humourist who said that
if all the Indians even pee' together these handful of British- hers
would all be flooded away.
The Englishman had seized power from the Muslim. He had driven out
the latter's delusion about his birth-right to rule. He also
realised that although Muslims had ruling India for centuries, they
were a minority of the population. So while earlier he was helping
the non-Muslims and making them fight the Muslims on his behalf and
himself benefiting from this mutual hostility, he decided that it
might not be sound strategy to keep lending strength to the Hindus
who were the country's preponderant majority. There was also another
consideration. There were no Hindus in other countries around India
whereas Muslims were spread in the four corners of the world from
North Africa the Balkans, and from Turkey to Afghanistan, the whole
hemisphere virtually belonged to them. Above everything else, the
Ottoman Empire constituted the Muslim caliphate. Thus the Muslims
were a strong and organised world force.
Against that here in south Asia the situation was as follows:-
- When the British won the Battle of Plassey in 1757 they took
Bengal, or eastern India, out of the Muslim hands.
- When they overran south in 1799 they routed Tipu sultan, the head
of a highly regarded Muslim dynasty.
- Central India they devoured in 1857, after an Indian bid for
independence in which Muslims played a prominent part.
- Northern India had shown some resistance, but that too was quelled
after the Balakot martyrs fell in 1831.
Nearby Afghanistan was another citadel of Muslim power. But it too
was eventually tamed following a treaty in 1893.
As a result of these triumphs, the Englishman became the undisputed
master of India. All kinds of internal and external dangers were
ended. So much so that he went and signed a pact even with Russia in
1907, making it pledge not to interfere this side of the borders,
inside Afghanistan. All doors thus secured, our English man settled
down to consolidating his position in India.
After divesting the Muslims of their passion about ruling and
putting them to one side, he started giving all his attention to the
Hindus. The latte began to be favoured with white collar jobs,
trading contracts and numerous other gestures of official support.
The educated Hindu section was endowed with influence and
respectability. However, when Hindus gradually began to draw
together the Englishman got worried. He weighted the possibility of
their uniting together and presenting a challenge to him. They were
after all a big majority in the country.
As for the Muslims, he had already broken their spine. There was no
one left among them, especially after their failure of 1857, who
could ever pose a threat to him. The prominent Muslims that there
were, only vied with one another to demonstrate their loyalty to the
British.
Reflecting on the Hindu numbers, however the British again turned to
the Muslims. The beginning was made from Bengal. The province was
spilt into two in 1905, so as to separate the Muslim majority
eastern half and give the Muslims a sense of self importance. That
was how the start was made to please the Muslims and try and win
them over.
As time passed the game of playing on alternative side of the
communal street began to look more and more interesting to the
foreign ruler. On the occasion of official functions and in the show
of official favours a tilt now infavour of the Muslims now of Hindus
seemed to offer good rewards.
Meanwhile, the British also began laying stress on the natives
acquiring education. Without that the routine official chores in the
vast country of their tutelage would not get done. But education
also started opening up the minds of the educated. As young people
began going abroad for higher education they noticed how the
governments there also involved the people in formulating policies
and running the country. Why shouldn't the Indians too share power
with the rulers, they began to wonder. Since the Hindus were in
greater number and they had a larger section of big merchants,
lawyers and other affluent people among them who could afford the
best education for their children with in the country and abroad,
the stir of the educated first occurred in their folds.
The Muslim leaders too had learnt a lesson from the 1857 debacle and
their effort was that all sections of the population should join
together to rescue the country from British imperialism. They laid
such stress on Hindu - Muslim unity that reading of it comes as a
surprise even today. I will give just one example, Sir Syed Ahmed
Khan (regarded by some of our political theorists as the father of
the two nation concept) spoke as follows in an address in Gurdaspur
on January 27, 1884.
We (that is, Hindus and Muslims) should try to become one heart and
soul and act in unison. In old historical books and traditions you
must have read and heard - and we see it even now - that all the
people inhabiting a country are designated as one nation. The
different tribes of Afghanistan are together termed a nation. The
miscellaneous hordes people Iran are distinguished by the term
Persian: though they abound in variety of though and religion, they
are still known as members of a nation …… Remember that the words
"Hindu" and "Mohammadan" are only means of religious distinction,
otherwise all persons whether Hindu or Mohammadan, or even the
Christians who reside in this country, all in this particular
respect belong to one and the same nation. (Syed Hassan Mehmood - A
nation is born, page 339).
In the same year, speaking to the India Association in Lahore, Sir
Syed repeated the theme:
In the word 'Nation' I include both Hindu and Mohammadan because
that is the only meaning I can attach to it.
Also
"These are the different grounds on which I call both these races
which inhabit India by one word, i.e. 'Hindu' - meaning to say that
they are the inhabitants of Hindustan".
Thus Sir Syed's argument is whoever is a citizen of India,
regardless of his faith, should be called a Hindu.
The point is, because the British were at the time favouring the
Hindus, granting them concessions and opportunities of social and
economics advancement, and enabling them to progress in education,
and the Muslim were being discriminated against, the latter saw
salvation only in Hindu - Muslim co operation. That was only how
they could rid themselves of the aliens.
The Englishman also knew this. He could see that if Hindus and
Muslims did join against him it would be impossible to face them.
That is why when he first set about introducing reforms and wished
to give powers to the Hindus in the local bodies and municipal
committees, he adopted the system of separate electorates. The first
installment of reforms, called Morely - Minto papers, came in 1909
and provided that Muslims will only vote for Muslims and Hindus for
Hindus. Thus was laid the foundation stone of religious belief being
made a factor of democratic institutions. That was the Englishman's
first blow against the concept that Sir Syed Ahmed Khan wished to
spread throughout the country. The seeds of dual nationhood were
soon to begin to contend with the belief in one nation. Hindus and
Muslims were as it were put on notice that if they wished to get
into representative bodies they had to set up separate parties on
the basis of their religion. That would make sure that the spirit of
a united nation would not take root.
The Englishman was very happy with the kind of game he was playing
and used it with variations to suit the need of the occasion. Thus
in 1912 he went back on the divisions of Bengal and once again
united the two parts of the province. Earlier he head thought it
wise to please the Muslim since they were spread all over the world
and were, especially with a movement like pan - Islamism in the air,
a political force to be reckoned with. The Hindus on the other hand
although a big majority in India, were only confined to their
country. Later, however, with the start of World War I and Britain
arraigned against the Ottoman Empire, the bridge head of Muslims, it
could not befriend the Muslims of India.
About that time another installment of reforms named after Montagu -
Chelmsford was brought in. Separate electorate remained a feature of
this one also.
When at the outbreak of the Ware the British attacked the Turks, the
Muslims in India were electrified and they began an open opposition.
However the British got worried only when Gandhiji and the Congress
joined with Maulana Mohammad Ali and Maulana Shaukat Ali in support
of the Khilafat movement.
The Englishman saw that the two - nation game, the game of divide -
and - rule might soon be up.
The Khilafat committee presented the Muslims with a four - point
action plan, asking them (1) to renounce all official awards and
titles, (2) to resign from government employment, (3) to resign from
the police and the armed forces, and (4) to refuse to pay taxes.
The British got worried about points 2 and 3. These were going to
hurt them and also bring a bad name to them. So they set about
undermining the national movement by giving it a sinister communal
angle. Their henchmen spread the word that the action plan was in
fact a Hindu conspiracy against the Muslims. Its purpose was that
the latter by defying the British and resigning their means of
livelihood should be utterly destroyed.
The obvious British game was to break the Hindu - Muslim unity
created by the Khilafat movement. Since Khilafat was purely a Muslim
concern, if a bipartisan movement on its behalf is torpedoed by the
Muslims themselves the Hindus would be bound to feel deeply
embittered and disgusted.
So it happened that the first salvo at the Khilafat movement was
fired by the Nizam of Hyderabad. On May 22, 1930 he issued a decree
saying that since the movement was against the interest of the
Muslims he was putting a ban on it.
During that period Gandhiji and the Ali brother had together visited
the Aligarh Muslim University. The British wished to dispel the
impact of that also. They set about making that institution an
instrument not just protective of Muslims but also one hostile to
the Hindus.
Similarly a member of the Viceroy's executive council, Sir Mohammad
Shafi, submitted a memo on Nov 2, 1921 which made two proposals.
First that, to undermine the unity of the developing movement in
India, it was important to separate the Muslims from it, and that
could happen only if the British signed an accord with the Turks.
Secondly, an association should be organised called
'Anglo-Mohammadan Union in the interest of the British Empire'.
Such thinking and activities occupied the British and their Muslim
loyalists over the next months, and on Sep 21, 1922 the Viceroy,
Lord Reading, wrote as follows to the Secretary of State for India.
"I have sent you a telegram which will show you how near we have
been to a complete break between Muslims and Hindus. I have been
giving the greatest attention to this possibility, and I have the
greatest assistance from Shafi in my council, who is a highly
respected Mohammadan." |
