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 Mussalmans think otherwise. The flight of the Mussalmans 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 were cheered en route. They were presented with cash, edibles and other things, and were joined by more Muhajarins on the way. No fanatical preaching by Shaukatali 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 Communique dated 10th July 1920:--
An unfortunate affair in connection with the Mahajarin occurred on
the 8th instant at Kacha Garhi between Peshawar and Jamrud. The
following are the facts as at present reported. Two members of a
party of the Mahajarins proceeding by train to Jamrud were detected
by the British military police travelling without tickets.
Altercation ensued at Islamia College Station, but the train
proceeded to Kacha Garhi. An attempt was made to evict these
Mahajarins, whereupon the military police were attacked by a crowd of
some forty Mahajarins 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 Mahajarin for
making murderous assault on the British officer. One Mahajarin was
killed and one wounded and three arrested. Both the military and the
police were injured. The body of the Mahajarin was despatched to
Peshawar and buried on the morning of the 9th. This incident has
caused considerable excitement in Peshawar City, and the Khilafat
Hijrat Committee are 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 Mahajarins 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 Mahajarin was the result. Has British prestige been enhanced by the episode? Why have 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 Mussalman world around, will not doubt be unconsciously and even consciously exaggerated in the passage and the feeling bitter as it already is will grow in bitterness. The Communique says that the Government are 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 disorganised subterranean upheaval whose effect no one can foresee and whose spread it would be impossible to check or regulate?