04-10-2004, 08:42 PM
VI
Must there be Pakistan because otherwise Swaraj will be a Hindu Raj ? The Musalmans are so
easily carried away by this cry that it is necessary to expose the fallacies underlying it.
In the first place, is the Muslim objection to Hindu Raj a conscientious objection or is it a political
objection If it is a conscientious objection all one can say is that it is a very strange sort of
conscience. There are really millions of Musalmans in India who are living under unbridled and
uncontrolled Hindu Raj of Hindu Princes and no objection to it has been raised by the Muslims or
the Muslim League. The Muslims had once a conscientious objection to the British Raj. Today not
only have they no objection to it but they are the greatest supporters of it. That there should be no
objection to British Raj or to undiluted Hindu Raj of a Hindu Prince but that there should be
objection to Swaraj for British India on the ground that it is Hindu Raj as though it was not
subjected to checks and balances is an attitude the logic of which it is difficult to follow.
The political objections to Hindu Raj rest on various grounds. The first ground is that Hindu society
is not a democratic society. True, it is not It may not be right to ask whether the Muslims have
taken any part in the various movements for reforming Hindu society as distinguished from
proselytising. But it is right to ask if the Musalmans are the only sufferers from the evils that
admittedly result from the undemocratic character of Hindu society. Are not the millions of
Shudras and non-Brahmins or millions of the Untouchables, suffering the worst consequences of
the undemocratic character of Hindu society ? Who benefits from education, from public service
and from political reforms except the Hindu governing classâcomposed of the higher castes of the
Hindusâwhich form not even 10 per cent. of the total Hindu population ? Has not the governing
class of the Hindus, which controls Hindu politics, shown more regard for safeguarding the rights
and interests of the Musalmans than they have for safeguarding the rights and interests of the
Shudras and the Untouchables ? Is not Mr. Gandhi, who is determined to oppose any political
concession to the Untouchables, ready to sign a blank cheque in favour of the Muslims ? Indeed,
the Hindu governing class seems to be far more ready to share power with the Muslims than it is to
share power with the Shudras and the Untouchables. Surely, the Muslims have the least ground to
complain of the undemocratic character of Hindu society.
Another ground on which the Muslim objection to Hindu Raj rests is that the Hindus are a majority
community and the Musalmans are a minority community. True. But is India the only country
where such a situation exists ? Let us compare the conditions in India with the conditions in
Canada, South Africa and Switzerland. First, take the distribution of population. In Canada 5[f.5]
out of a total population of 10,376,786 only 2,927,990 are French. In South Africa 6 [f6] the Dutch
number 1,120,770 and the English are only 783,071. In Switzerland 7[f.7] out of the total
population of 4,066,400 the Germans are 2,924,313, the French 831,097 and the Italians 242,034.
This shows that the smaller nationalities have no fear of being placed under the Raj of a major
community. Such a notion seems to be quite foreign to them. Why is this so? Is it because there is
no possibility of the major nationality establishing its supremacy in those centres of power and
authority, namely the Legislature and in the Executive ? Quite the contrary. Unfortunately no
figures are available to show the actual extent of representation which the different major and
minor nationalities have in Switzerland, Canada and South Africa. That is because there is no
communal reservation of seats such as is found in India. Each community is left to win in a general
contest what number of seats it can. But it is quite easy to work out the probable number of seats
which each nationality can obtain on the basis of the ratio of its population to the total seats in the
Legislature Proceeding on this basis what do we find? In Switzerland the total representatives in the
Lower House is 187. Out of them the German population has a possibility of winning 138, French
42 and Italians only 7 seats. In South Africa out of the total of 153, there is a possibility of the
English gaining 62, and the Dutch 94 seats. In Canada the total is 245. Of these the French 8 [f.8]
have only 65. On this basis it is quite clear that in all these countries there is a possibility of the
major nationality establishing its supremacy over the minor nationalities. Indeed, one may go so far
as to say that speaking de jure and as a mere matter of form in Canada the French are living under
the British Raj, the English in South Africa under the Dutch Raj, and the Italians and French in
Switzerland under the German Raj. But what is the position de facto ? Have Frenchmen in Canada
raised a cry that they will not live under British Raj ? Have Englishmen in South Africa raised a cry
that they will not live under Dutch Raj ? Have the French and Italians in Switzerland any objection
to living under the German Raj ? Why should then the Muslims raise this cry of Hindu Raj ?
Is it proposed that the Hindu Raj should be the rule of a naked communal majority ? Are not the
Musalmans granted safeguards against the possible tyranny of the Hindu majority ? Are not the
safeguards given to the Musalmans of India wider and better than the safeguards which have been
given to the French in Canada, to the English in South Africa and to the French and the Italians in
Switzerland? To take only one item from the list of safeguards. Haven't the Musalmans got an
enormous degree of weightage in representation in the Legislature ? Is weightage known in
Canada, South Africa or Switzerland ? And what is the effect of this weightage to Muslims ? Is it
not to reduce the Hindu majority in the Legislature? What is the degree of reduction? Confining
ourselves to British India and taking account only of the representation granted to the territorial
constituencies, Hindu and Muslim, in the Lower House in the Central Legislature under the
Government of India Act, 1935, it is clear that out of a total of 187, the Hindus have 105 seats and
the Muslims have 82 seats. Given these figures one is forced to ask where is the fear of the Hindu
Raj ?
If Hindu Raj does become a fact, it will, no doubt, be the greatest calamity for this country. No
matter what the Hindus say, Hinduism is a menace to liberty, equality and fraternity. On that
account it is incompatible with democracy. Hindu Raj must be prevented at any cost. But is
Pakistan the true remedy against it ? What makes communal Raj possible is a marked disproportion
in the relative strength of the various communities living in a country. As pointed out above, this
disproportion is not more marked in India than it is in Canada, South Africa and Switzerland.
Nonetheless there is no British Raj in Canada, no Dutch Raj in South Africa, and no German Raj in
Switzerland. How have the French, the English and the Italians succeeded in preventing the Raj of
the majority community being established in their country ? Surely not by partition : What is their
method ? Their method is to put a ban on communal parties in politics. No community in Canada,
South Africa or Switzerland ever thinks of starting a separate communal party. What is important to
note is that it is the minority nations which have taken the lead in opposing the formation of a
communal party. For they know that if they form a communal political party the major community
will also form a communal party and the majority community will thereby find it easy to establish
its communal Raj. It is a vicious method of self-protection. It is because the minority nations are
fully aware how they will be hoisted on their own petard that they have opposed the formation of
communal political parties.
Have the Muslims thought of this method of avoiding Hindu Raj. Have they considered how easy it
is to avoid it ? Have they considered how futile and harmful the present policy of the League is ?
The Muslims are howling against the Hindu Maha Sabha and its slogan of Hindudom and Hindu
Raj. But who is responsible for this ? Hindu Maha Sabha and Hindu Raj are the inescapable
nemesis which the Musalmans have brought upon themselves by having a Muslim League. It is
action and counter-action. One gives rise to the other. Not partition, but the abolition, of the
Muslim League and the formation of a mixed party of Hindus and Muslims is the only effective
way of burying the ghost of Hindu Raj. It is, of course, not possible for Muslims and other minority
parties to join the Congress or the Hindu Maha Sabha so long as the disagreement on the question
of constitutional safeguards continues. But this question will be settled, is bound to be settled and
there is every hope that the settlement will result in securing to the Muslims and other minorities
the safeguards they need. Once this consummation, which we so devoutly wish, takes place nothing
can stand in the way of a party re-alignment, of the Congress and the Maha Sabha breaking up and
of Hindus and Musalmans forming mixed political parties based on an agreed programme of social
and economic regeneration, and thereby avoid the danger of both Hindu Raj or Muslim Raj
becoming a fact. Nor should the formation of a mixed party of Hindus and Muslims be difficult in
India. There are many lower orders in the Hindu society whose economic, political and social needs
are the same as those of the majority of the Muslims and they would be far more ready to make a
common cause with the Muslims for achieving common ends than they would with the high caste
of Hindus who have denied and deprived them of ordinary human rights for centuries. To pursue
such a course cannot be called an adventure. The path along that line is a well trodden path. Is it not
a fact that under the Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms in most Provinces, if not in all, the Muslims,
the Non-Brahmins and the Depressed Classes united together and worked the reforms as members
of one team from 1920 to 1937 ? Herein lay the most fruitful method of achieving communal
harmony among Hindus and Muslims and of destroying the danger of a Hindu Raj. Mr. Jinnah
could have easily pursued this line. Nor was it difficult for Mr. Jinnah to succeed in it. Indeed Mr.
Jinnah is the one person who had all the chances of success on his side if he had tried to form such
a united non-communal party. He has the ability to organize. He had the reputation of a nationalist.
Even many Hindus who were opposed to the Congress would have flocked to him if he had only
sent out a call for a united party of like-minded Hindus and Muslims. What did Mr. Jinnah do ? In
1937 Mr. Jinnah made his entry into Muslim politics and strangely enough he regenerated the
Muslim League which was dying and decaying and of which only a few years ago he would have
been glad to witness the funeral. However regrettable the starting of such a communal political
party may have been, there was in it one relieving feature. That was the leadership of Mr. Jinnah.
Everybody felt that with the leadership of Mr. Jinnah the League could never become a merely
communal party. The resolutions passed by the League during the first two years of its new career
indicated that it would develop into a mixed political party of Hindus and Muslims. At the annual
session of the Muslim League held at Lucknow in October 1937 altogether 15 resolutions were
passed. The following two are of special interest in this connection.
Must there be Pakistan because otherwise Swaraj will be a Hindu Raj ? The Musalmans are so
easily carried away by this cry that it is necessary to expose the fallacies underlying it.
In the first place, is the Muslim objection to Hindu Raj a conscientious objection or is it a political
objection If it is a conscientious objection all one can say is that it is a very strange sort of
conscience. There are really millions of Musalmans in India who are living under unbridled and
uncontrolled Hindu Raj of Hindu Princes and no objection to it has been raised by the Muslims or
the Muslim League. The Muslims had once a conscientious objection to the British Raj. Today not
only have they no objection to it but they are the greatest supporters of it. That there should be no
objection to British Raj or to undiluted Hindu Raj of a Hindu Prince but that there should be
objection to Swaraj for British India on the ground that it is Hindu Raj as though it was not
subjected to checks and balances is an attitude the logic of which it is difficult to follow.
The political objections to Hindu Raj rest on various grounds. The first ground is that Hindu society
is not a democratic society. True, it is not It may not be right to ask whether the Muslims have
taken any part in the various movements for reforming Hindu society as distinguished from
proselytising. But it is right to ask if the Musalmans are the only sufferers from the evils that
admittedly result from the undemocratic character of Hindu society. Are not the millions of
Shudras and non-Brahmins or millions of the Untouchables, suffering the worst consequences of
the undemocratic character of Hindu society ? Who benefits from education, from public service
and from political reforms except the Hindu governing classâcomposed of the higher castes of the
Hindusâwhich form not even 10 per cent. of the total Hindu population ? Has not the governing
class of the Hindus, which controls Hindu politics, shown more regard for safeguarding the rights
and interests of the Musalmans than they have for safeguarding the rights and interests of the
Shudras and the Untouchables ? Is not Mr. Gandhi, who is determined to oppose any political
concession to the Untouchables, ready to sign a blank cheque in favour of the Muslims ? Indeed,
the Hindu governing class seems to be far more ready to share power with the Muslims than it is to
share power with the Shudras and the Untouchables. Surely, the Muslims have the least ground to
complain of the undemocratic character of Hindu society.
Another ground on which the Muslim objection to Hindu Raj rests is that the Hindus are a majority
community and the Musalmans are a minority community. True. But is India the only country
where such a situation exists ? Let us compare the conditions in India with the conditions in
Canada, South Africa and Switzerland. First, take the distribution of population. In Canada 5[f.5]
out of a total population of 10,376,786 only 2,927,990 are French. In South Africa 6 [f6] the Dutch
number 1,120,770 and the English are only 783,071. In Switzerland 7[f.7] out of the total
population of 4,066,400 the Germans are 2,924,313, the French 831,097 and the Italians 242,034.
This shows that the smaller nationalities have no fear of being placed under the Raj of a major
community. Such a notion seems to be quite foreign to them. Why is this so? Is it because there is
no possibility of the major nationality establishing its supremacy in those centres of power and
authority, namely the Legislature and in the Executive ? Quite the contrary. Unfortunately no
figures are available to show the actual extent of representation which the different major and
minor nationalities have in Switzerland, Canada and South Africa. That is because there is no
communal reservation of seats such as is found in India. Each community is left to win in a general
contest what number of seats it can. But it is quite easy to work out the probable number of seats
which each nationality can obtain on the basis of the ratio of its population to the total seats in the
Legislature Proceeding on this basis what do we find? In Switzerland the total representatives in the
Lower House is 187. Out of them the German population has a possibility of winning 138, French
42 and Italians only 7 seats. In South Africa out of the total of 153, there is a possibility of the
English gaining 62, and the Dutch 94 seats. In Canada the total is 245. Of these the French 8 [f.8]
have only 65. On this basis it is quite clear that in all these countries there is a possibility of the
major nationality establishing its supremacy over the minor nationalities. Indeed, one may go so far
as to say that speaking de jure and as a mere matter of form in Canada the French are living under
the British Raj, the English in South Africa under the Dutch Raj, and the Italians and French in
Switzerland under the German Raj. But what is the position de facto ? Have Frenchmen in Canada
raised a cry that they will not live under British Raj ? Have Englishmen in South Africa raised a cry
that they will not live under Dutch Raj ? Have the French and Italians in Switzerland any objection
to living under the German Raj ? Why should then the Muslims raise this cry of Hindu Raj ?
Is it proposed that the Hindu Raj should be the rule of a naked communal majority ? Are not the
Musalmans granted safeguards against the possible tyranny of the Hindu majority ? Are not the
safeguards given to the Musalmans of India wider and better than the safeguards which have been
given to the French in Canada, to the English in South Africa and to the French and the Italians in
Switzerland? To take only one item from the list of safeguards. Haven't the Musalmans got an
enormous degree of weightage in representation in the Legislature ? Is weightage known in
Canada, South Africa or Switzerland ? And what is the effect of this weightage to Muslims ? Is it
not to reduce the Hindu majority in the Legislature? What is the degree of reduction? Confining
ourselves to British India and taking account only of the representation granted to the territorial
constituencies, Hindu and Muslim, in the Lower House in the Central Legislature under the
Government of India Act, 1935, it is clear that out of a total of 187, the Hindus have 105 seats and
the Muslims have 82 seats. Given these figures one is forced to ask where is the fear of the Hindu
Raj ?
If Hindu Raj does become a fact, it will, no doubt, be the greatest calamity for this country. No
matter what the Hindus say, Hinduism is a menace to liberty, equality and fraternity. On that
account it is incompatible with democracy. Hindu Raj must be prevented at any cost. But is
Pakistan the true remedy against it ? What makes communal Raj possible is a marked disproportion
in the relative strength of the various communities living in a country. As pointed out above, this
disproportion is not more marked in India than it is in Canada, South Africa and Switzerland.
Nonetheless there is no British Raj in Canada, no Dutch Raj in South Africa, and no German Raj in
Switzerland. How have the French, the English and the Italians succeeded in preventing the Raj of
the majority community being established in their country ? Surely not by partition : What is their
method ? Their method is to put a ban on communal parties in politics. No community in Canada,
South Africa or Switzerland ever thinks of starting a separate communal party. What is important to
note is that it is the minority nations which have taken the lead in opposing the formation of a
communal party. For they know that if they form a communal political party the major community
will also form a communal party and the majority community will thereby find it easy to establish
its communal Raj. It is a vicious method of self-protection. It is because the minority nations are
fully aware how they will be hoisted on their own petard that they have opposed the formation of
communal political parties.
Have the Muslims thought of this method of avoiding Hindu Raj. Have they considered how easy it
is to avoid it ? Have they considered how futile and harmful the present policy of the League is ?
The Muslims are howling against the Hindu Maha Sabha and its slogan of Hindudom and Hindu
Raj. But who is responsible for this ? Hindu Maha Sabha and Hindu Raj are the inescapable
nemesis which the Musalmans have brought upon themselves by having a Muslim League. It is
action and counter-action. One gives rise to the other. Not partition, but the abolition, of the
Muslim League and the formation of a mixed party of Hindus and Muslims is the only effective
way of burying the ghost of Hindu Raj. It is, of course, not possible for Muslims and other minority
parties to join the Congress or the Hindu Maha Sabha so long as the disagreement on the question
of constitutional safeguards continues. But this question will be settled, is bound to be settled and
there is every hope that the settlement will result in securing to the Muslims and other minorities
the safeguards they need. Once this consummation, which we so devoutly wish, takes place nothing
can stand in the way of a party re-alignment, of the Congress and the Maha Sabha breaking up and
of Hindus and Musalmans forming mixed political parties based on an agreed programme of social
and economic regeneration, and thereby avoid the danger of both Hindu Raj or Muslim Raj
becoming a fact. Nor should the formation of a mixed party of Hindus and Muslims be difficult in
India. There are many lower orders in the Hindu society whose economic, political and social needs
are the same as those of the majority of the Muslims and they would be far more ready to make a
common cause with the Muslims for achieving common ends than they would with the high caste
of Hindus who have denied and deprived them of ordinary human rights for centuries. To pursue
such a course cannot be called an adventure. The path along that line is a well trodden path. Is it not
a fact that under the Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms in most Provinces, if not in all, the Muslims,
the Non-Brahmins and the Depressed Classes united together and worked the reforms as members
of one team from 1920 to 1937 ? Herein lay the most fruitful method of achieving communal
harmony among Hindus and Muslims and of destroying the danger of a Hindu Raj. Mr. Jinnah
could have easily pursued this line. Nor was it difficult for Mr. Jinnah to succeed in it. Indeed Mr.
Jinnah is the one person who had all the chances of success on his side if he had tried to form such
a united non-communal party. He has the ability to organize. He had the reputation of a nationalist.
Even many Hindus who were opposed to the Congress would have flocked to him if he had only
sent out a call for a united party of like-minded Hindus and Muslims. What did Mr. Jinnah do ? In
1937 Mr. Jinnah made his entry into Muslim politics and strangely enough he regenerated the
Muslim League which was dying and decaying and of which only a few years ago he would have
been glad to witness the funeral. However regrettable the starting of such a communal political
party may have been, there was in it one relieving feature. That was the leadership of Mr. Jinnah.
Everybody felt that with the leadership of Mr. Jinnah the League could never become a merely
communal party. The resolutions passed by the League during the first two years of its new career
indicated that it would develop into a mixed political party of Hindus and Muslims. At the annual
session of the Muslim League held at Lucknow in October 1937 altogether 15 resolutions were
passed. The following two are of special interest in this connection.