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PREFACE
The Government of Sir Francis Mudie in Sind has done us
an
honour by banning in that Province the pamphlet entitled
The
Sind Ban on Satyartha Prakash,
written by me and published
in March,
1945,
by the Arya Pradeshik Pratinidhi Sabha,
Lahore. We thank him and his Government for it—not for
the honour so much as for the instruction it imparts.
The pamphlet was a rational exposition of the writings of
Rishi Dayananda in his
Satyartha Prakash,
and contained
absolutely nothing which by any sttetch of imagination be
construed as, amounting to, an infraction of any rule of
law in any sphere whatsoever.
Thousands of copies of it were printed and published by
the Sabha at the instance of its President, Mahatma.
Khushhal Chand Anand, and it enjoyed wide and unfettered
circulation in Sind during the governorship of Sir Francis
Mudie's predecessor-in-office. But it was banned sometime
i after he took over the reins of that Provi.leial Government.
For all that we know from the several letters of approval and
appreciation received from certain representatives of public
opinion, including well-kmitnOsaders.;like Dr. (then, also,
Sir) Gokal Chand diStiniuished scholar
or author, the .7 pamplila was a convincing and
unanswerable argument, whirls,- . it :kept the
so-called religiods susceptibilities of ...the thlusalmais
in tact, defended Dayatimda's writings in the',
Satyartha
Prakash,
opposed the ban and demanded its immediate
removal, if it all fair deiilings were inIsiticd by the
Provincial Government. And it was .s.hrin substance an
appeal to H.
E
the Viceroy for his peifional intervention and
exercise of his special responsibility in order to effect the
removal of the ban. Because it was a clear case of
jeopardising vital interests of an important minority com-
munity in that Province through wanton misuse of the
centrally controlled Defence of India laws.