Hindu-Muslim differences

Lahore, Sunday, September 21, 1924

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IT is too much to expect that in a country of more than 300 million human beings, some of whom have not yet risen above the communal point of view, there will be a complete cessation of communal troubles even as the result of the voluntary and vicarious suffering which the greatest and noblest of the country’s sons has imposed upon himself by way of penance. However, we do expect that this great act will lead to an immediate searching of heart on the part of all politically minded Indians who may have had anything in the past, either directly or indirectly, to do with such troubles, and to an immediate examination of the present conditions with a view to the elimination of all existing cause of tension. It is gratifying to note that first step in the process has been taken already. Three of the most representative men of the two communities have issued invitations to a large number of persons in all parts of India, including non-official Englishmen, to meet at Delhi on the 23rd with a view to discussing the situation created by the recent Hindu-Muslim riots. That the invitations will in most cases evoke a wholehearted response we have no doubt whatever. Even if the Mahatma had not taken the drastic step he has, the very fact that so many occurrences of the most deplorable kind have taken place in such quick succession in places so far away from each other as Delhi and Nagpur, Kohat and Lucknow, would have made a conference of all leading Indians who love their country and are anxious to see it free and self-governing an absolute and imperative necessity.