On 1 October 1906 a deputation of thirty-five Muslim notables, led by the Aga Khan, presented an address to the Viceroy, Lord Minto, at Simla. The Liberal Secretary of State, John Morley, had signalled that the elected element in India's councils would be enlarged, and the deputation wanted Muslim interests secured before any scheme was settled. The text includes the editor's account of how the deputation was arranged, the address itself in numbered paragraphs, and Minto's reply. Leaders from the deputation founded the All-India Muslim League at Dacca that December, and the reforms of 1909 gave Muslims separate electorates.
The address argues that Muslims' place in any system of representation "should be commensurate not merely with their numerical strength, but also with their political importance, and the value of the contribution which they make to the defence of the Empire." It asks for a fixed share of seats on municipal and district boards, more Muslims in public service and the courts, and Muslim members of the legislative councils chosen by Muslims, adding that they "should never be an ineffective minority." Minto's reply welcomes the deputation, agrees that their position should be judged by "the political importance of your community," and assures them that "the Mohammadan community may rest assured that their political rights and interests as a community will be safe-guarded."
[p. 59] [In connection with the Secretary of State's (Mr. Morley) speech in the House of Commons on the Indian Budget, Maulvi Syed Mahdi Ali Khan (Mohsin-ul-Mulk), Honorary Secretary of the M. A. O. College, Aligarh, addressed a request through the Principal of the College asking His Excellency the Viceroy to receive a Deputation and address on behalf of the Indian Mohammadans, to draw the attention of Government to their rights.
His Excellency having consented, the Deputation were received at Viceregal Lodge in the Ball Room on the 1st October 1906. The Deputation numbered 35 and were seated in a horse-shoe facing the Viceroy's chair. His Excellency went round and was personally introduced to each member of the Deputation. The Khalifa from Patiala having asked for permission to present it, His Highness Aga Sir Sultan Muhammad Shah, Aga Khan, G.C.I.E., of Bombay, who headed the Deputation, read the address which is as follows: —
"May it please Your Excellency,—Availing ourselves of the permission accorded to us, we, the undersigned nobles, jagirdars, talukdars, lawyers, zemindars, merchants, and others, representing a large body of the Mohammadan subjects of His Majesty the King-Emperor in different parts of India, beg most respectfully to approach Your Excellency with the following address for your favourable consideration.
"2. We fully realise and appreciate the incalculable benefits conferred by British rule on the teeming millions belonging to divers races and professing divers religions, who form the population of the vast continent of India; and have every reason to be grateful for the peace, security, personal freedom, and liberty of worship that we now enjoy. Further, from the wise and enlightened character of the Government, [p. 60] we have every reasonable ground for anticipating that these benefits will be progressive, and that India will, in the future, occupy an increasingly important position in the comity of nations.
“3. One of the most important characteristics of British policy in India is the increasing deference that has, so far as possible, been paid from the first to the views and wishes of the people of the country in matters affecting their interests, with due regard always to the diversity of race and religion, which forms such an important feature of all Indian problems.
“4. Beginning with the confidential and unobtrusive method of consulting influential members of important communities in different parts of the country, this principle was gradually extended by the recognition of the right of recognised political or commercial organisations to communicate to the authorities their criticisms and views on measures of public importance; and, finally, by the nomination and election of direct representatives of the people in Municipalities, District Boards, and—above all—in the Legislative Chambers of the country. This last element is, we understand, about to be dealt with by the Committee appointed by Your Excellency, with the view of giving it further extension; and it is with reference mainly to our claim to a fair share in such extended representation and some other matters of importance affecting the interests of our community that we have ventured to approach Your Excellency on the present occasion.
“5. The Mohammadans of India number, according to the census taken in the year 1901, over sixty-two millions, or between one-fifth and one-fourth of the total population of His Majesty's Indian dominions; and if a reduction be made for the uncivilised portions of the community enumerated under the heads of animists and other minor religions, as well as for those classes who are ordinarily classified as Hindus, but, properly speaking, are not Hindus at all, the proportion of Mohammadans to the Hindu majority becomes much larger. We therefore desire to submit that, under any system of representation, extended or limited, a community in itself more numerous than the entire population of any first class European power, except Russia, may justly lay claim to adequate recognition as an important factor in the State. We venture, indeed, with Your Excellency's permission, to go a step further, and urge that the position accorded to the Mohammadan community in any kind of representation, direct or indirect, and in all other ways, affecting their status and influence, should be commensurate not merely with their numerical strength, but also with their political importance, and the value of the contribution which they make to the defence of the Empire; and we also hope that Your Excellency will, in this connection, be pleased to give due [p. 61] consideration to the position which they occupied in India a little more than a hundred years ago, and of which the traditions have naturally not faded from their minds.
“6. The Mohammadans of India have always placed implicit reliance on the sense of justice and love of fair dealing that have characterised their rulers, and have, in consequence, abstained from pressing their claims by methods that might prove at all embarrassing; but earnestly as we desire that the Mohammadans of India should not in the future depart from that excellent and time-honoured tradition, recent events have stirred up feelings, especially among the younger generation of Mohammadans, which might, in certain circumstances and under certain contingencies, easily pass beyond the control of temperate counsel and sober guidance.
"7. We, therefore, pray that the representations we herewith venture to submit, after a careful consideration of the views and wishes of a large number of our co-religionists in all parts of India, may be favoured with Your Excellency's earnest attention.
“8. We hope Your Excellency will pardon our stating at the outset that representative institutions of the European type are new to the Indian people. Many of the most thoughtful members of our community, in fact, consider that the greatest care, forethought, and caution will be necessary if they are to be successfully adapted to the social, religious, and political conditions obtaining in India; and that, in the absence of such care and caution, their adoption is likely, among other evils, to place our national interests at the mercy of an unsympathetic majority. Since, however, our rulers have, in pursuance of the immemorial instincts and traditions, found it expedient to give these institutions an increasingly important place in the government of the country, we Mohammadans cannot any longer, in justice to our own national interests, hold aloof from participating in the conditions to which their policy has given rise. While, therefore, we are bound to acknowledge with gratitude that such representation as the Mohammadans of India have hitherto enjoyed has been due to a sense of justice and fairness on the part of Your Excellency and your illustrious predecessors in office, and the Heads of Local Governments by whom the Mohammadan members of Legislative Chambers have almost, without exception, been nominated, we cannot help observing that the representation thus accorded to us has necessarily been inadequate to our requirements, and has not always carried with it the approval of those whom the nominees were selected to represent. This state of things was probably, under existing circumstances, unavoidable; for while, on the one hand, the number of nominations reserved to the Viceroy and Local Governments has necessarily been [p. 62] strictly limited, the selection, on the other hand, of really representative men has, in the absence of any reliable method of ascertaining the direction of popular choice, been far from easy. As for the results of election, it is most unlikely that the name of any Mohammadan candidate will ever be submitted for the approval of Government by the electoral bodies as now constituted, unless he is in sympathy with the majority in all matters of importance. Nor can we, in fairness, find fault with the desire of our non-Moslim fellow-subjects to take full advantage of their strength and vote only for members of their own community, or for persons who, if not Hindus, are expected to vote with the Hindu majority, on whose good-will they would have to depend for their future re-election. It is true that we have many and important interests in common with our Hindu fellow-countrymen, and it will always be a matter of the utmost satisfaction to us to see these interests safe-guarded by the presence, in our Legislative Chambers, of able supporters of these interests, irrespective of their nationality. Still it cannot be denied that we Mohammadans are a distinct community with additional interests of our own, which are not shared by other communities, and these have hitherto suffered from the fact that they have not been adequately represented. Even in the provinces in which the Mohammadans constitute a distinct majority of the population, they have too often been treated as though they were inappreciably small political factors that might, without unfairness, be neglected. This has been the case, to some extent, in the Punjab; but in a more marked degree in Sind and in Eastern Bengal.
“9. Before formulating our views with regard to the election of representatives, we beg to observe that the political importance of a community to a considerable extent gains strength or suffers detriment, according to the position that the members of that community occupy in the service of the State. If, as is unfortunately the case with the Mohammadans, they are not adequately represented in this manner, they lose in the prestige and influence which are justly their due. We, therefore, pray that Government will be graciously pleased to provide that, both in the gazetted and the subordinate and ministerial services of all Indian provinces, a due proportion of Mohammadans shall always find place. Orders of like import have, at times, been issued by Local Governments in some provinces, but have not unfortunately, in all cases, been strictly observed, on the ground that qualified Mohammadans were not forthcoming. This allegation, however well-founded it may have been at one time, is, we submit, no longer tenable now; and wherever the will to employ them is not wanting, the supply of qualified Mohammadans, we are happy to be able to assure Your Excellency, is equal to the demand. Since, however, the number of [p. 63] qualified Mohammadans has increased, a tendency is unfortunately perceptible to reject them on the ground of relatively superior qualifications having to be given precedence. This introduces something like the competitive element in its worst form, and we may be permitted to draw Your Excellency's attention to the political significance of the monopoly of all official influence by one class. We may also point out in this connection that the efforts of Mohammadan educationists have, from the very outset of the educational movement among them, been strenuously directed towards the development of character, and this, we venture to think, is of greater importance than mere mental alertness in the making of a good public servant.
"10. We venture to submit that the generality of Mohammadans in all parts of India feel aggrieved that Mohammadan Judges are not more frequently appointed to the High Courts and Chief Courts of Judicature. Since the creation of these Courts, only three Mohammadan lawyers have held these honourable appointments, all of whom have fully justified their elevation to the Bench. At the present moment there is not a single Mohammadan Judge sitting on the Bench of any of these Courts, while there are three Hindu Judges in the Calcutta High Court, where the proportion of Mohammadans in the population is very large; and two in the Chief Court of the Punjab, where the Mohammadans form the majority of the population. It is not therefore an extravagant request on our part that a Mohammadan should be given a seat on the Bench of each of the High Courts and Chief Courts. Qualified Mohammadan lawyers eligible for these appointments can always be found, if not in one province then in another. We beg permission further to submit that the presence on the Bench of these Courts of a Judge, learned in the Mohammadan Law, will be a source of considerable strength to the administration of justice.
"11. As Municipal and District Boards have to deal with important local interests, affecting to a great extent the health, comfort, educational needs, and even the religious concerns of the inhabitants, we shall, we hope, be pardoned if we solicit, for a moment, Your Excellency's attention to the position of Mohammadans thereon before passing to higher concerns. These institutions form, as it were, the initial rungs in the ladder of self-government, and it is here that the principle of representation is brought home intimately to the intelligence of the people. Yet the position of Mohammadans on these Boards is not at present regulated by any guiding principle capable of general application, and practice varies in different localities. The Aligarh Municipality, for example, is divided into six wards, and each ward returns one Hindu and one Mohammadan Commissioner; and the same principle, we understand, is adopted in a number of Municipalities [p. 64] in the Punjab and elsewhere, but in a good many places the Mohammadan tax-payers are not adequately represented. We would, therefore, respectfully suggest that local authority should, in every case, be required to declare the number of Hindus and Mohammadans entitled to seats on Municipal and District Boards, such proportion to be determined in accordance with the numerical strength, social status, local influence, and special requirements of either community. Once their relative proportion is authoritatively determined, we would suggest that either community should be allowed severally to return their own representatives, as is the practice in many towns in the Punjab.
“12. We would also suggest that the Senates and Syndicates of Indian Universities might be similarly dealt with: that is to say, there should, so far as possible, be an authoritative declaration of the proportion in which Mohammadans are entitled to be represented in either body.
“13. We now proceed to the consideration of the question of our representation in the Legislative Chambers of the country. Beginning with the Provincial Councils, we would most respectfully suggest that, as in the case of Municipalities and District Boards, the proportion of Mohammadan representatives entitled to a seat should be determined and declared with due regard to the important considerations which we have ventured to point out in paragraph 5 of this address; and that the important Mohammadan landowners, lawyers, merchants, and representatives of other important interests, the Mohammadan members of District Boards and Municipalities, and the Mohammadan graduates of Universities, of a certain standing, say 5 years, should be formed into electoral colleges, and be authorised, in accordance with such rules of procedure as Your Excellency’s Government may be pleased to prescribe in that behalf, to return the number of members that may be declared to be eligible.
"14. With regard to the Imperial Legislative Council, whereon the due representation of Mohammadan interests is a matter of vital importance, we crave leave to suggest :—
“(1) That, in the cadre of the Council, the proportion of Mohammadan representatives should not be determined on the basis of the numerical strength of the community, and that, in any case, the Mohammadan representatives should never be an ineffective minority.
“(2) That, as far as possible, appointment by election should be given preference over nomination.
“(3) That, for purposes of choosing Mohammadan members, Mohammadan landowners, lawyers, merchants, and [p. 65] representatives of other important interests of a status to be subsequently determined by Your Excellency's Government, Mohammadan members of the Provincial Councils and Mohammadan Fellows of Universities should be invested with electoral powers to be exercised in accordance with such procedure as may be prescribed by Your Excellency's Government in that behalf.
"15. An impression has lately been gaining ground that one or more Indian Members may be appointed on the Executive Council of the Viceroy. In the event of such appointments being made, we beg that the claims of Mohammadans in that connection may not be overlooked. More than one Mohammadan, we venture to say, will be found in the country fit to serve with distinction in that august chamber.
"16. We beg to approach Your Excellency on a subject which most closely affects our national welfare. We are convinced that our aspirations as a community and our future progress are largely dependent on the foundation of a Mohammadan University, which will be the centre of our religious and intellectual life. We therefore most respectfully pray that Your Excellency will take steps to help us in an undertaking in which our community is so deeply interested.
"17. In conclusion, we beg to assure Your Excellency that, in assisting the Mohammadan subjects of His Majesty, at this stage in the development of Indian affairs, in the directions indicated in the present address, Your Excellency will be strengthening the basis of their unswerving loyalty to the Throne and laying the foundation of their political advancement and national prosperity, and Your Excellency's name will be remembered with gratitude by their posterity for generations to come; and we feel confident that Your Excellency will be gracious enough to give due consideration to our prayers."
His Excellency replied to the address in the following terms :—]
Your Highness and Gentlemen,—Allow me before I attempt to reply to the many considerations your address embodies to welcome you heartily to Simla.
Your presence here to-day is very full of meaning. To the document with which you have presented me are attached the signatures of nobles, of ministers of various States, of great landowners, of lawyers, of merchants, and of many other of His Majesty's Mohammadan subjects. I welcome the representative character of your Deputation as expressing the views and aspirations of the enlightened Moslim community of India. I feel that all you have said [p. 66] emanates from a representative body, basing its opinions on a matured consideration of the existing political conditions of India, totally apart from the small personal or political sympathies and antipathies of scattered localities; and I am grateful to you for the opportunity you are affording me of expressing my appreciation of the just aims of the followers of Islam and their determination to share in the political history of our Empire.
As your Viceroy, I am proud of the recognition you express of the benefits conferred by British rule on the diverse races of many creeds who go to form the population of this huge continent. You yourselves, the descendants of a conquering and ruling race, have told me to-day of your gratitude for the personal freedom, the liberty of worship, the general peace, and the hopeful future which British administration has secured for India.
It is interesting to look back on early British efforts to assist the Mohammadan population to qualify themselves for public service. In 1782 Warren Hastings founded the Calcutta Madrassah with the intention of enabling its students “to compete on more equal terms with the Hindus for employment under Government.” In 1811 my ancestor, Lord Minto, advocated improvements in the Madrassah and the establishment of Mohammadan colleges at other places throughout India. In later years the efforts of the Mohammadan Association led to the Government Resolution of 1885, dealing with the educational position of the Mohammadan community and their employment in the public service, whilst Mohammadan educational effort has culminated in the College of Aligarh, that great institution which the noble and broadminded devotion of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan has dedicated to his co-religionists. It was in July 1877 that Lord Lytton laid the foundation stone of Aligarh, when Sir Syed Ahmed Khan addressed these memorable words to the Viceroy:—
"The personal honour which you have done me assures [p. 67] me of a great fact, and fills me with feelings of a much higher nature than mere personal gratitude. I am assured that you, who upon this occasion represent the British rule, have sympathies with our labours, and to me this assurance is very valuable, and a source of great happiness. At my time of life it is a comfort to me to feel that the undertaking which has been for many years, and is now, the sole object of my life, has roused, on the one hand, the energies of my own countrymen, and, on the other, has won the sympathy of our British fellow-subjects and the support of our rulers; so that when the few years I may still be spared are over, and when I shall be no longer amongst you, the college will still prosper, and succeed in educating my countrymen to have the same affection for their country, the same feelings of loyalty for the British rule, the same appreciation of its blessings, the same sincerity of friendship with our British fellow-subjects as have been the ruling feelings of my life."
Aligarh has won its laurels. Its students have gone forth to fight the battle of life strong in the tenets of their own religion, strong in the precepts of loyalty and patriotism, and now, when there is much that is critical in the political future of India, the inspiration of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan and the teachings of Aligarh shine forth brilliantly in the pride of Mohammadan history, in the loyalty, commonsense, and sound reasoning so eloquently expressed in your address.
But, Gentlemen, you go on to tell me that sincere as your belief is in the justice and fair dealing of your rulers and unwilling as you are to embarrass them at the present moment, you cannot but be aware that “recent events” have stirred up feelings amongst the younger generation of Mohammadans which might “pass beyond the control of temperate counsel and sober guidance.” Now I have no intention of entering into any discussion upon the affairs of Eastern Bengal and Assam, yet I hope that, without offence to any one, I may thank the Mohammadan community of the new [p. 68] Province for the moderation and self-restraint they have shown under conditions which were new to them, and as to which there has been inevitably much misunderstanding, and that I may at the same time sympathize with all that is sincere in Bengali sentiment. But above all, what I would ask you to believe is that the course the Viceroy and the Government of India have pursued in connection with the affairs of the new Province, the future of which is now I hope assured, has been dictated solely by a regard for what has appeared best for its present and future populations as a whole, irrespective of race or creed; and that the Mohammadan community of Eastern Bengal and Assam can rely as firmly as ever on British justice and fair-play for the appreciation of its loyalty and the safeguarding of its interests.
You have addressed me, Gentlemen, at a time when the political atmosphere is full of change. We all feel it. It would be foolish to attempt to deny its existence. Hopes and ambitions new to India are making themselves felt. We cannot ignore them. We should be wrong to wish to do so. But to what is all this unrest due? Not to the discontent of misgoverned millions, I defy any one honestly to assert that; not to any uprising of a disaffected people; it is due to that educational growth in which only a very small portion of the population has as yet shared, of which British rule first sowed the seed, and the fruits of which British rule is now doing its best to foster and to direct. There may be many tares in the harvest we are now reaping; the Western grain which we have sown may not be entirely suitable to the requirements of the people of India, but the educational harvest will increase as years go on, and the healthiness of the nourishment it gives will depend on the careful administration and distribution of its products.
You need not ask my pardon, Gentlemen, for telling me that "representative institutions of the European type are [p. 69] entirely new to the people of India," or that their introduction here requires the most earnest thought and care. I should be very far from welcoming all the political machinery of the Western world amongst the hereditary instincts and traditions of Eastern races. Western breadth of thought, the teachings of Western civilisation, the freedom of British individuality can do much for the people of India. But I recognise with you that they must not carry with them an impracticable insistence on the acceptance of political methods.
And now, Gentlemen, I come to your own position in respect to the political future—the position of the Mohammadan community for whom you speak.
You will, I feel sure, recognise that it is impossible for me to follow you through any detailed consideration of the conditions and the share that community has a right to claim in the administration of public affairs. I can at present only deal with generalities. The points which you have raised are before the Committee which, as you know, I have lately appointed to consider the question of representation, and I will take care that your address is submitted to them. But at the same time I hope I may be able to reply to the general tenor of your remarks without in any way forestalling the Committee's report.
The pith of your address, as I understand it, is a claim that, in any system of representation, whether it affects a Municipality, a District Board, or a Legislative Council, in which it is proposed to introduce or increase an electoral organisation, the Mohammadan community should be represented as a community. You point out that in many cases electoral bodies as now constituted cannot be expected to return a Mohammadan candidate, and that, if by chance they did so, it could only be at the sacrifice of such a candidate's views to those of a majority opposed to his own community, whom he would in no way represent, and you justly claim that your position should be estimated not [p. 70] merely on your numerical strength, but in respect to the political importance of your community and the service it has rendered to the Empire. I am entirely in accord with you. Please do not misunderstand me; I make no attempt to indicate by what means the representation of communities can be obtained, but I am as firmly convinced, as I believe you to be, that any electoral representation in India would be doomed to mischievous failure which aimed at granting a personal enfranchisement regardless of the beliefs and traditions of the communities composing the population of this continent. The great mass of the people of India have no knowledge of representative institutions. I agree with you, Gentlemen, that the initial rungs in the ladder of self-government are to be found in the Municipal and District Boards, and that it is in that direction that we must look for the gradual political education of the people. In the meantime I can only say to you that the Mohammadan community may rest assured that their political rights and interests as a community will be safe-guarded in any administrative reorganisation with which I am concerned, and that you and the people of India may rely upon the British Raj to respect, as it has been its pride to do, the religious beliefs and the national traditions of the myriads composing the population of His Majesty's Indian Empire.
Your Highness and Gentlemen, I sincerely thank you for the unique opportunity your Deputation has given me of meeting so many distinguished and representative Mohammadans. I deeply appreciate the energy and interest in public affairs which have brought you here from great distances, and I only regret that your visit to Simla is necessarily so short.
[The Deputation then withdrew.]
Speeches by the Earl of Minto, Viceroy and Governor-General of India (Calcutta: Superintendent Government Printing, India, 1908), pp. 59–70. Includes the editor's bracketed introduction.