Shaukat Ali on Hindu-Muslim unity

IN the course of his forceful speech as President of the Patna District Khilafat Conference, Maulana Shaukat Ali made some interesting observations on the most burning of all Indian topics at the present time, the question of Hindu-Muslim unity. “The Mahomedans of India,” he said, “can never repay the deep debt of gratitude they owe to Mahatma Gandhi and their Hindu brethren for the splendid manner in which they have espoused their cause. I am proud to feel that with the advent of the Mussalmans in the national movement, they have been able to do for their country what could not be done during the preceding 40 years. But alas, disintegration has set in, and they have been looking backwards. As long as they were engaged in the great work they had been doing, the Hindus and Mussalmans of India were the object of admiration of the world. But the monster of deception was abroad. Could they not see that they were becoming impotent to save their holy places?” With much, if not all, of this, every patriotic Indian will go in hearty assent. There is not the smallest doubt that the national movement for freedom received a great accession of strength from the participation of the Mussalmans, even as the Muslims themselves gained immensely by their association with the national movement and from the rest of the country, particularly the Hindus, making common cause with them in the matter of the Khilafat. No well-informed person will deny that it would have been impossible for the Muslims of India to achieve the measure of success their Khilafat agitation did achieve, but for the association of the Mahatma and the Hindu community generally with it.