MOHAMMED IQBAL’S STATEMENT ON GANDHI

[Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav]

Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav

Gandhian Scholar

Gandhi Research Foundation, Jalgaon, Maharashtra, India

Contact No. – 09415777229, 094055338

E-mail- [e-mail];[e-mail]

 

 

MOHAMMED IQBAL’S STATEMENT ON GANDHI

 

 

Mr. Mohammed Iqbal gave statement on December 6, 1933. It is here. “The offer made by the Aga Khan to Mr. Gandhi in London in 1931 still holds good. If under Pandit Jawaharlal’s leadership, the Hindus and the Congress agree to the safeguards which the Muslims think necessary for their protection as an all–India minority, the Muslim community will still be ready to serve as camp followers of the majority community in India’s political struggle” says Sir Mohammed Iqbal in a statement issued today referring to Pandit Jawaharlal’s charges against the communalist Muslim leaders. Sir Mohammed Iqbal observes that the Aga Khan made a similar offer to Mr. Gandhi in 1932 but Mr. Gandhi would not guarantee acceptance of his position by the Congress and also the Hindu and Sikh delegates did not endorse Mr. Gandhi’s position and further Mr. Gandhi wanted the Muslims not to support the untouchables’ claims. After explaining the Muslim attitude towards nationalism and democracy, Sir Mohammed Iqbal puts the straight question to Pandit Jawaharlal, “How is India’s problem to be solved if the majority community neither concedes the minimum necessary safeguards to the minority community, nor accepts a third party’s award? The position can admit of two alternatives only. Either, India’s majority community must accept for it the permanent position of an agent of British imperialism in the East or India should be redistributed on the basis of religious, historical and cultural affinities so as to do away with the question of electorates and the communal problems in its present form.”