Today That Day - 04-02-1947 Gandhiji’s Advice to Muslim League – Noakhali

Gandhiji’s Advice to Muslim League – Noakhali – 04-02-1947
The Hindustan Times – 06-02-1947

Addressing the prayer gathering here yesterday Mahatma Gandhi referred to the Karachi resolution of the All-India Muslim League on the Constituent Assembly and said that he would plead with the Muslim League that they should go to the Assembly and state their case and influence the proceedings.

As regards the British Government he said that they were bound to act according to the State Paper, and he hoped that they would not forfeit all credit for honest dealing with India.

Gandhiji thought that the League did not mean what it said when it characterized the Congress resolution to be dishonest. He pleaded that there should be no imputation of dishonesty by one to the other. It was not good, he thought, for great organizations to regard one another as enemies. That practice would not lead them to independence.

If the elections and proceedings were illegal, the legality should be challenged in a court of law. Otherwise, he said, the charge had no meaning. If they did not wish to recognize the courts as, Gandhiji said, he did in 1920 and later then the talk of illegality should cease.

Gandhiji said that he would plead with the League that they should go to the Assembly and state their case and influence the proceedings. But if they did not, he would advise them to test the sincerity of the Assembly and see how it dealt with the Muslim problem. It was due to themselves and the rest of the country unless they wanted to rely upon the law of the sword which Gandhiji was sure, they did not wish to do.

Assembly Representative

Then the League had said he continued, that the Assembly represented only the Caste Hindus. Surely there were in the Assembly Scheduled Castes, Christians, Parsis, Anglo Indians and all those who considered themselves sons of India. Dr Ambedkar was good enough to attend the Assembly not to mention other large number of the Scheduled Castes. The Sikhs too were still there. It was open to the League to put up their fight within the Assembly.

As to the British Government who the League contended should dismiss the Assembly, Gandhiji remarked that he entertained the hope, though he admitted it was somewhat shaken, that they would honestly carry to the end the voluntary document. He submitted that the British Government was bound to act according to the State Paper even if a few provinces chose to establish their independence in accordance with the Paper, Gandhiji hoped that the British would not forfeit all credit for honest dealing with India.

Concluding he said, that whilst he felt obliged to refer to League politics, he would warn the audience against inferring that Hindus and Muslims were to regard each other as enemies. —API

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