India -- Politics and government -- 1919-1947; Nationalism -- India
When men become obstinate, it is a difficult thing. If I pull one way,
my Moslem brother will pull another. If I put on a superior air, he will
return the compliment. If I bow to him gently, he will do it much more
so, and if he does not, I shall not be considered to have done wrong in
having bowed. When the Hindus became insistent, the killing of cows
increased. In my opinion, cow protection societies may be considered
cow-killing societies. It is a disgrace to us that we should need such
societies. When we forgot how to protect cows, I suppose we needed such
societies.
What am I to do when a blood-brother is on the point of killing a cow?
Am I to kill him, or to fall down at his feet and implore him? If you
admit that I should adopt the latter course, I must do the same to my
Moslem brother.
Who protects the cow from destruction by Hindus when they cruelly
ill-treat her? Whoever reasons with the Hindus when they mercilessly
belabour the progeny of the cow with their sticks? But this has not
prevented us from remaining one nation.
Lastly, if it be true that the Hindus believe in the doctrine of
non-killing and the Mahomedans do not, what, I pray, is the duty of the
former? It is not written that a follower of the religion of Ahimsa
(non-killing) may kill a fellow-man. For him the way is straight. In
order to save one being, he may not kill another. He can only
plead--therein lies his sole duty.
But does every Hindu believe in Ahimsa? Going to the root of the matter,
not one man really practises such a religion, because we do destroy
life. We are said to follow that religion because we want to obtain
freedom from liability to kill any kind of life. Generally speaking, we
may observe that many Hindus partake of meat and are not, therefore,
followers of Ahimsa. It is, therefore, preposterous to suggest that the
two cannot live together amicably because the Hindus believe in Ahimsa
and the Mahomedans do not.
These thoughts are put into our minds by selfish and false religious
teachers. The English put the finishing touch. They have a habit of
writing history; they pretend to study the manners and customs of all
peoples. God has given us a limited mental capacity, but they usurp the
function of the God-head and indulge in novel experiments. They write
about their own researches in most laudatory terms and hypnotise us into
believing them. We, in our ignorance, then fall at their feet.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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