Hijrat and its meaning- Mahatma Gandhi

[Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav]

Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav

Senior Gandhian Scholar, Professor, Editor and Linguist

Gandhi International Study and Research Institute, Jalgaon, Maharashtra, India

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Hijrat and its meaning- Mahatma Gandhi

 

India is a continent. Its articulate thousands know what its inarticulate millions are doing or thinking. The Government and the educated Indians may think that the khilafat movement is merely a passing phase. The millions of Mussulmans think otherwise. The flight of the Mussulmans is growing apace. The newspapers contain paragraphs in out-of-the-way corners informing the readers that a special train containing a barrister with sixty women, forty children including twenty sucklings, all told 765 have left for Afghanistan. They are cheered en route. They were presented with cash, edibles and other things, and were joined by more muhajarin on the way. No fanatical preaching by a Shaukat Ali can make people break up and leave their homes for an unknown land. There must be an abiding faith in them. That it is better for them to leave a State which has no regard for their religious sentiment and face a beggar’s life than to remain in it even though it may be in a princely manner.

Nothing but pride of power can blind the Government of India to the scene that is being enacted before it. But there is yet another side to the movement. Here are the facts as stated in the following Government communiqué dated 10th instant: An unfortunate affair in connection with the muhajarin occurred on the 8th instant at Kacha Garhi between Peshawar and Jamrud. The following are the as at present reported. Two members of a party of the muhajarin proceeding by train to Jamrud were detected by the British military travelling without tickets. Altercation ensued at Islamia College station, but the train proceeded to Kacha Garhi. An attempt was made to evict these muhajarin, whereupon the military police were attacked by a crowd of some forty muhajarin and the British officer who intervened was seriously wounded with a spade. A detachment of Indian troops at Kacha Garhi thereupon fired two or three shots at the muhajarin for making murderous assault on the British officer. One muhajarin was killed and one wounded and three arrested. Both the military and the police were injured. The body of the muhajarin was dispatched to Peshawar and buried on the morning of the 9th. This incident has caused considerable excitement in Peshawar city, and the Khilafat Hijrat Committee is exercising restraining influence. Shops were closed on the morning of the 9th.

A full enquiry has been instituted. Now, Peshawar to Jamrud is a matter of a few miles. It was clearly the duty of the military not to attempt to pull out the ticketless muhajarin for the sake of a few annas. But they actually attempted force. Intervention by the rest of the party was a foregone conclusion. An altercation ensued. A British officer was attacked with a spade. Firing and a death of a muhajarin was the result. Has British prestige been enhanced by the episode? Why has not the Government put tactful officers in charge at the frontier, whilst a great religious emigration is in progress? The action of the military will pass from tongue to tongue throughout India and the Mussulman world around, will no doubt be unconsciously and even consciously exaggerated in the passage and the feeling bitter as it already is will grow in bitterness. The communiqué says that the Government is making further inquiry. Let us hope that it will be full and that better arrangements will be made to prevent a repetition of what appears to have been a thoughtless act on the part of the military. And may I draw the attention of those who are opposing non-co-operation that unless they find out a substitute they should either join the non-co-operation movement or prepare to face a disorganized subterranean upheaval whose effect no one can foresee and whose spread it would be impossible to check or regulate?

 

Reference:

Young India, 21-7-1920