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CERTAIWAMTAL PACTS. EXAMINED
33
men." The rational implication of this innate voluntary
disposition and effort, supported also by their candid
admissions, is that the personal honour and safety of their
distin
g
uished guest, who was not one of "their own men,".
not
a Musalman,
but a Hindu, and a caste-Hindu at that,
were
with them matters of subordinate importance. The con-
, sideration of their having been together, worked together,
• suffered together, glorified and exalted each other, journyed
together and delighted together for many years in the past
as members of the same Indian National Congress was
simply irrelevant. It was not at all a question of right or
wrong, of virtue (or vice, of God or satan, but was of
Musalman or non-Musalman, right or wrong, fair or foul,
true or false. Of course, we do not mean that there are no
exceptions. We
know
really there are very noble exceptions.
But they are
exceptions,
which do not find their 'proper place
in the actual scheme of things at the present day. That is
really a most unfortunate situation, which has unnecessarily
entangled the whole of Indian humanity in many mazes of
complex and complicated political, social and national pro-
blems and conflicts, which otherwise need not have, and
would not have, arisen at all.
Who is primarily responsible for this deep misfortune of
India ? Not the Quran which preaches the principle of
the One God and One Religion, of course ; not the, Prophet
who pleads in the Quran for large-hearted human sympathy,
for catholicity of outlook and a spirit of human forbearance
on the part of every one of his true followers : no, not even
the British Government, as some people seem to
maintain. The primary responsibility for it rests with
the than who, though he is a most degraded man, thinks
that he is, by the mere fact of his being a formally enlisted
member of the Musalman community, a much better than
and superior to the saint who, though he leads a life of
devotion to God and service of humanity, is not a member
of that community. , And his number is legion. Therein lies
the primary seeds of all the countless pursuits, struggles
and
fights of profanation, destruction, communal supremacy
and
domination.