Demon of Communal Discord Breaks out as Result of Gandhi Campaign: Underlying Apprehensions of Moslems Fuow Our Owx Calcutta, June 3. cetis Quel iting In Daze (East Bengal) and the crow: meetings which are being held by Moslems throughout the country give an indication of the sort of Trouble that India. is likely to" experience if the British people agree! to. give Indians Swara) before Hindus and Moslems can arrive at 1 satisfactory solution of communal questions, There are people, specially in Congress circles, who hold that the difference between the two communities will, as a matter of course, be settled as' soon as India is given the authority for adjusting questions fof internal administration. There is still another school of thought which maintains that the Mussalmans are! now making extravagant demands under incitement of the "Third Party" and the object of the "Thi Party" is to perpetuate the present system of British Rule by. keeping the Hindus and Moslems divid "Those who have carefully studied the political history of India and the mentality and tradition of the! Ize, creed and colours in this vast country, will have no difficulty realizing the fact that none of the above ideas is true. It is asserted that as the Hindus and Moslems have been living in India side side in peace for centuries, there is no reason to believe that they will not. do. so when Swaraj is granted to India. In the first place the a sertion is untrue. Hindus and Moslems never lived as neighbours peace before the consolidation of Foa the British Rule in India.
"Dhe /Mosiems came to India as conquerors: many centuries ago sind ruled ¢he country by farce. The good will of the Hindus was never extended towards Moslem rule from beginning Yo-end._ In fact a continuous period of even twenty years cannot be Singled out during the whole of the Moslem rale when Hindus here and tore did not manifest the spirit of antagonism. The fact that, Hindus wid. Moslems did. not, live in India as friends during the whole period. of Moslem rule is undisputed.
\As to the British period since Jems have been living in peace and as friends to some extent, Two! Feasons account for the peace and the friendly spirit, The first is the fear of the much abused "Third Party" and second is the depressed) condition of the Moslem community. order that British rule! keep their spirit of suppressed. It has been that the impartial "Thi would not tolerate breaches of the} peace, and law-breakers, be they] Hindus or Moslems, would be hand-
This is the first reason which has been inducing both the communities to live in pence. The second reason is that the downfall of the Mussal-mans of India, socially, intellectually, economically and politically was complete during the first century of] the British Rule in India, The whole community was seized with inertia and it remained almost} in a lifeless condition for over one hundred years, The natural sequence was the predominance of the Hindus lover the Moslems in all walks of life, "In fact the Moslems of the eighteenth and the greater portion fof the nineteenth century never! ventured to think themselves in any way equal to the Hindus.of that} period and had to remain satisfied with the position assigned to them.
The tables have been turned, Sir! Syed Ahmed was the first Moslem! to realize the degraded condition of] the people of his own community. He felt that education was the only thing which could uplift the condition of the Moslems socially, morally, intellectually, economically and politically. He undertook the great' task almost singlehanded and {for a number of years spared nothing to extend the call of education to his coreligionists all over India. He made Aligarh his centre of activities but his call penetrated] every Moslem home in India and worked wonders within a short} period of fifty years. The Moslems) Phroughout India have wonderfully improved all round. Education has} enabled them to shake off their lethargy, it has imbued them with] self-respect and it has. prompted! them to lose the sense of inferiority imposed upon them for a century and a belt. They have now come into the open to square their account with those who kept them almost under surveillance. As a matter of course the first and foremost desire of @ people fit.in all respects to stand side by side with other peoples of the world, is to protect the rights and privileges of all communities. There would have been ternal peace in the world if'that was not the ease, for no nation would take its stand against another if it were not, jealous of its own rights' and privileges, 'The clash between the Hindus' and Moslems in every nook and comer India is the unevitable result of the birth of the new spirit in" the latter, There may be excesses here and there, but it will not do to ind forget that suth excesses the unavoidable consequence of the assertion of the rights and privileges of a people who are inspired by a now spirit, The Moslem demands may be extravagant in some places, but such extravagance is the out Jcome of the injustice that has been done to them for years, So far as "the number of concerned Rangoon and Bombay may be the lekest spots on the map; but Dacea, is the worst of all.
Tadeed, the commun} rioting Decea is the gravest '.appening vee Mr. Gandhi embarked on, his civil disobedience eampaisgn.
Everybody who knew India knew that a claim for independence unde which the Hindts would be the supreme governors of India must be followed by a sheep challenge' from the Moslems. Mr. Gandhi knew it better than anybody; hence his early declaration that he personally, would be content to seo the Govern ment of India ip the hands of minority. No. Mohammedan swal Towed the sop because every Mohammedan knew that in this matter Mr. Gandhi did not speak for the men who have been urging him on from behind, and that in the minds of these there was no thought of,,0n India governed by anybody bit themselves, The prospect of any such outcome of the present politic movement has stirred nearly Moslem in the country to unca: and men in that state of mind easily pass to lawlessness, The Mightest incident may give rise to violence, and once violence is com mitted the history of India tolls in ig [countless pages*how nothing but the intervention of a "Third Party" can bring the populace under ¢ontrol, What has occurred at Dacca with its big death-roll and list of injured—may be mazely the forerunner of disturbances elsewhere that will have a character far more serious than those which Congress: men have started and encouraged.
The situation in Dacca during the week-and took a turn very much for the worse, the rioting was followed by those quiet and Yemote with which the police have always Yound it s0 dificult to deal. Mobs, armed with brickbats and lath and facing each other la a ma street, cane dispersed by the application of force by the police who fan be rushed up before much mitthief has been done. The case is very different. where assassinations dre concerned, "Solitary individuals belonging to the opposite community are clubbed to death in a remote corner by x group which disperses of its own accord immediately after the wickedness has been accomplish. fed, or some unfortunate is, marked down and stabbed through the heart with dagger by a nian who emer-zee out of a lane, delivers the blow, fand then disappears. Cly the time the police leer of these affairs there is no evidence, beyond that afforded by the corpses in the street, that can be produced in a court of law. "It is almost impossible the guilt upon, anybody.
"This form of communal crime, the "statesman" (Calcutta) points out, made its. first appearance in atts, and later spread to tities. The enormity of it can ha
ory that the murders are com-expressed: in wores, Tha mitted by. a small desperate gang that move from one quarter of a city to the other is possibly cor eet, but it does not help the police to trace the criminals, for always those who might help' keep their
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.