ALLAMA MASHRIQI’S ADDRESS TO ALL FAITHS CONFERENCE AT INDORE (1938)
During March
1938, Allama Mashriqi received invitation to preside over the All Faith
Conference (India section) scheduled at Indore from 18th to 21st
April 1938. Apart from his engagements in connection with the three demands
submitted to the Punjab Premier, he was also busy with the district level camps
being held all over the country. A three—day camp had been fixed at Rawalpindi
from 13th to 15th April. Another was being held on the
dates in Bannu and he was expected to attend both. In spite of this very busy
schedule he accepted the Indore Conference invitation because the issue was
very close to his heart.
There were 40
regular delegates representing all religions of India, including Dr. Moonje ex-President
of Hindu Mahasbha, attended the Conference also present were representatives of
organizations of America, England, Switzerland. The general participant
numbered four thousand. His address and the presence of contingents of Khaksars
from Indore and Berar had a telling effect. What he said was reflected in the
resolution adopted by the Conference on 21st April 1938. In his
Presidential Address on the opening day of the Conference he said:
“I feel not a little proud over
the fact that I have been asked to preside over your deliberations in this
distinguished assembly of people from all over the world who are going to put
their heads together in order to find a possible solution to the problem which
perhaps, nay undoubtedly, is most perplexing problem yet put before man for
solution. I fear not one man in this assembly will dare to say that Religion or
Faith, on which we are going to deliberate was an unnecessary a pertinent to
social or moral convenience of man. Most of us will say with awe and fear that
although we cannot definitely say what Religion really is, although we many not
be able to describe how or why it came to be an indispensable asset of man’s
most inward feelings, yes although we do not aver that all we believe and even
act upon comes within the province of rhyme and reason there indeed is an
intuitive and universal feeling everywhere that Religion is something
respectable and even dreadful, that it is a thing which cannot be ignored in
any sense and at any rate by mere man, that the more we go down to the lower
strata of human society, the more useful and more important it becomes for the
purpose of promotion of human and general happiness. Unless and until we
recognize this fact rigidly, I fear our deliberation for creating peace and
brotherhood though mutual understanding among people of all Faiths, races and
countries, l presume is the motive of our conference, will dead and to the
ground.
“There is another and more serious view of the case.
Religion, fortunately or unfortunately, has been claimed to be “the truth” the
entire world over. Now the slogan “what is truth” was what Pontus Pilate
exclaimed having Jesus himself before him in the witness box, and the cry has
remained unanswered all through. Every single individual who claims to profess
a religion calls it truth—yes, the only truth—and whatever the dictates of his
inner lice conscience be, he persists calling it so at all expense. And here is
a hopeless dilemma in which the whole world is involved to a man. Everyone knows
that even such a sane man as Carlyle had to offer apology to Christian readers
concerning Jesus in the very first paragraph of his “Hero as the Prophet”
before he started with his great subject, viz., Prophet Mohammad. And here is
the hopeless dilemma from which the whole world is suffering, the dilemma of
“Prejudice worship” before hero worship, truth worship or God worship. I am
positive that if this trait of sentiment worship were removed from human
character by some mysterious agency, all differences in religion would soon
disappear.
“But to turn to amazing fact of universal acceptance of
Religion by man as “Truth”! I feel the whole world has gone surprisingly wrong
in this particular direction of thought. To me, as to everybody else, “Truth”
has always been something on which every individual in the world has agreed
without demur. Any scientific truth, for instance, that fire burns, is accepted
by everybody to be true, and there can be no two opinion about it anywhere. Any
mathematical or even conventional truth, like two and two make four, has always
been judged by the same criterion. It is Religion and Religion, alone which
surprisingly enough is claimed to be true only by him who “professes” it, and
is discarded by everybody else.
“We may probe into the matter still further. All Truths
UNITE mankind as they are the same everywhere and everybody accepts them as
much as he sees their utility actually in practice at all times. Religion, on
the other hand, DIVIDES one man from the other, separates one country and one
nation from the others, and yet everybody claims his own religion to be true.
Shall we not say then that the whole of Mankind has gone hopelessly wrong in
viewing Religion as something only INDIVIDUALLY true without caring to prove to
the world that it is also UNIVERSALLY true? One may not have perhaps cared to
pay attention to such a paradoxical truth as ‘Dogmatic Religion’ under the
above circumstances, but there is a terrible and dreadful importance attached
to this entity which only world—wide and ages—long history can show in its
terrible and blood—stained pages. Is it mot mostly true that almost all
important battles in the world History have been fought and won or fought and
lost on the score of ‘Dogmatic Religion’? Is it not a fact that some of the
greatest international revolution and changes in political geographies had
their origin in the desire of one nation to “Out—Religion” the other? Most of
the sincerest bloodshed by man have been shed on account of the individualist
truth of ‘Dogmatic Religion’ which everybody else vehemently calls the greatest
falsehood of all falsehood, and it is equally true to say that even now Mankind
has not grown a bit wiser after all this ridiculous self—annihilation and “Much
Ado about Nothing”, extending over many thousand of year!
“There is yet another aspect of the case which is as
ridiculous and surprising as any of above. ‘Dogmatic Religion’ the so called
universal truth sent from Heaven by God Himself –has always been at daggers
drawn with Science, the generally admitted truth discovered from the Universe
by man. It looks as if the WORD OF GOD was sent down to belie the WORK OF GOD.
‘Dogmatic Religion’ in this world has always exacted, at any rate it has seldom
seemed to pay. Science has always paid—in fact much of what Man possesses now
in power and profit is due to science. One feels as if the old hack of the
God—sent ‘Dogmatic Religion’ which never gave anything substantial to the world
and played much havoc here, has grown jealous of the new and charming visitor
of science who pays as well as convinces and captivates. Shall we then
concluded after this full denunciation of Religion that its story is the sad
enough, that it proved a stumbling block in the way of human progress, that it
has grown too old and worthless now that it is positively dangerous and
ridiculously untrue, hence the best plan for this conference to propose in to
order to create amity and friendship between different nationalities is to let
it be discarded altogether from the consideration of man.
I fear this judgment, if given by this Conference, would
be the worst possible and most unfortunate judgment. To banish Religion, or in
other words Faith, away from human mind and then think of being at peace with
others is a far more difficult dream to realize than to entertain and uphold
Religion as the greatest benefactor of Human Race, and then either endeavor to
‘accommodate’ all Mankind to one Faith, or make every Faith ‘accommodating’ to
all Mankind. The world will become perhaps ten times miserable if we banish
Faith or even ‘Dogmatic Religion’ away from this earth to one of the nearest
planets by some scientific or supernatural agency. There is bound to be
interminable chaos all over this planet once Religion is found no more here.
The nearest planet may not benefit from expulsion but this earth will lose all,
and no amount of Science will recuperate all that will be lost. Faith is indeed
doing more Police work of controlling human mind than all imaginable worldly
Police put together, and if this world of ours has not yet gone over to the
Devil in spite of its having been existence these millions of years, it is
because Faith has played a most wonderful part in keeping the Devil at its
proper level. I doubt if there are alternatives to Faith half as good in this
world of flesh and blood.
“But to turn again to the problem for the solution of
which we have assembled this conference. We are told that we are here to devise
means to produce greater harmony and unity between the followers of all
Religions in India. A very great and interesting problem indeed. But does this
Conference know that Man, after the last two or three thousand years, in fact
years in which his sole aim has been to conqueror all natural obstacles of
SPACE and TIME has not even learnt yet to dispossess his mind from the
prejudices and obstacles of color, race, topographical barriers, rivers and
mountains, geographical gulf and channel? Nay, he has not yet proved himself
above the pettiest party prejudices worthy of name. Even much advanced
countries as England and France have not been able so far to bridge the gulf of
feeling created by the ENGLAND CHANNEL in spite of two thousand years of glib
talk about the brotherhood of man and the rights of neighborhood. How can then
one hope that the people of India will easily get over HEAVENLY barriers
created by Faith and other prejudices by the mere pious wishes and resolution
of this conferences.
“I am sure if this conference is determined to do
something real and practical in this direction and not only content it self
with passing magnificent paper resolution, we shall have to go into the subject
much more deeply and fully than what has hitherto been done, and try to
understand the matter of Religion from another point of view also. I have
already drawn your attention to the paradox that everyone in the world believes
his own religion to be true and insist on the falsity of all others. I have
also put forward the ‘truth’ being the one and the same everywhere.
Scientifically speaking, no religion can claim to be truth on this very ground.
The most obvious conclusion we arrive at is that either the messengers who
claim to have brought their messages from the One or Same God must have been
imposter of the worst type who deceived mankind, or if they were not so the One
message delivered by them from the Providence must have been hopelessly
misunderstood by man. Everybody now calls his own religion true because he
believes in absolute sincerity of the man who brought it, not caring to know
what the message actually and originally meant, and not minding whether the
message as understood by him now can withstand the scientific test applied
ordinarily to other truths.
I am sure world has now grown too serious and wise to
pronounce that these great Lawgivers, with the wonderful influence they wielded
and still wield, were imposters or were delude by the intensity of their own
imagination and convictions. This theory, as Carlyle says, must now be
discarded once for all. Such a decree is indeed too childish and unbecoming for
a world grown old with reason and experience to give. The immense influence
these extraordinary men wielded at the time they delivered their messages and
the great work they did afterward falsifies that belief about them. Enormous
weight of opinion of all the sages of the world put together points towards the
fact that they indeed brought only one message from the ONE Godhead above.
Internal evidence unprejudicially sifted and higher criticism faithfully
employed also point to the same fact. What that one message in essence was, we
are mot here to dilate on, but I believe I have succeeded in pinpoint in my
book “TAZKIRAH”, after a scientific application of Higher Criticism to the
Quran—the latest and the most undefiled Revelation in possession of man—that
this message is and shall ever remain, of monumental importance to Man.
The ESSENTIAL UNITY of Divine message and its unique and
scientific importance can indeed form a practical basis on which the future
union of man, or at any rate his future religious intertoleranace, can most
surely be based. But this, although logically a most exact and surely
successful operation, cannot in practice produce immediate or complete result.
Much water will flow in Tigris before the World at large can come see THE
ULTIMATE PUPORT of the One Divine message given, or can understand the
SCIENTIFIC SIGNIFICANCE behind the teaching of Religion. I realized this when I
began to write the above book, but this fact alone could not detain me from
performing this intensely useful operation.
There is yet another sure but quicker way to the solution
of our problem which has indeed worked wonders when put into practice and which
I shall presently explain. I have already said above that in order to create
permanent harmony and unity among the followers of all Faiths, we must either
‘accommodate’ all Mankind to one common and universally acceptable Faith in the
same way as any piece of science or mathematics is acceptable to everybody in
the world, or we must make every Faith ‘accommodating’ to all mankind so that
its existence is useful to all. In order to explain this second method one has
not to look very far. It is admitted on all hands that every religion
inculcates good deeds. In fact, there does not exist one single religion, which
enjoins its followers to commit ostensible wrongs. That alone, as a matter of
fact, is the basis on which every religion claims to be true one. Hence, in
order to make every Faith accommodating to all mankind, the follower of every
Faith in India must consider it a part and parcel of their religion to do every
possible good to the followers of every other religion. This, in fact, is
making every Faith accommodating to all Mankind. When people at large will
actually and practically see that every religion is useful to mankind, harmony
and unity will naturally result everywhere.
“I began this way of uplifting the people of India by
starting the Khaksar Movement some five years ago. Most wonderful result has,
in fact, been achieved in this short space of time. We have, by enjoining the
Muslim masses of India to do well to others, not only won golden opinion from
other communities about our work, but also have actually lifted up hundreds of
thousand from their habitual lethargy and inaction. We have elevate again the
ideals and points of view of this once powerful community, now torn up by
internal dissensions and degraded priest craft, with almost incredible
rapidity. A Muslim with whom, five years back, dogmatic Islam seemed no more
than a mass of miseries, lies and falsehoods intended to degrade him to the
lowest levels of wickedness, physical weakness, misery and slavery, now as sees
a Khaksar, sees in that Islam a real and practical heavenly message to remedy
all his secular and spiritual ills. Every dead word of the Quran is now
appearing to him brought again to life as if with an electric current. We in
fact electrified intention. We have visualized new ambitions. We have created
new ideals. Social service to all irrespective of caste and creed has proved
indeed a DIVINE MESSAGE in which welfare, not only of the few workers in
action, but of the entire community miraculously hidden.
“Our program of action, which is a daily one, is simple
enough. All Khaksar of the “Mohallah” (Community) after they have done their
day’s work, stand in one line before their houses in the street. This standing
of the rich and the poor, of the high and the low alike in a line, as Islam
originally demanded in the five prayers elevates everybody spiritually and
morally. The poor thinks that the rich man has done good to him by standing and
rubbing his shoulder in the same line with him, while rich believes in the
value of his sacrifice as calculate to encourage and uplift the poor. After
this holy and spiritual line of flesh and blood has come to existence daily
under the very eyes of those near and dear, as well as of those well—known to
him and well—acquainted with his previous weakness, a Khaksar is made to march
vigorously for half an hour under the command of a person styled as “Salar” and
invariable of the same “Mohallah “ and very frequently a man of moderate means.
This drilling and military obedience—again a prototype of the Islamic “Namaz”
enlivens the Khaksar daily to the fact that his unsalaried obedience to his
‘Salar’ against the dictates of his flesh is a spiritual food which strengthen
his, besides being of immense worldly value to his bodily health. Again the
word ‘Khaksar’ means a ‘humble one’ and this word also works on his mind constantly.
It actually produces live humility in the proud and poor alike and, in way, is
synonymous with the word Islam that literally means submission (of course to
God’s will). All Khaksars are clothed in Khaki dress and this color resembled
that of Earth—Quran says ‘Verily We created ye out of Earth and unto Earth ye
will return’! So Khaki dress besides being the usual vehicle of creating ESPRIT
DE CORPS, reminds the poor that he IS humble, and warns the rich that he IS TO
BE humble. The rich and the poor alike gladly and vehemently clothe themselves
in this EARTHLY color because the proud and paid soldiers of the British
Government are so clad; a Khaksar naturally loves to create in himself a sense
of equality with, or, rather, superiority to, anything that is proud and
powerful on the score of being an unpaid servant of God—the Highest of all High
Commanders and the most Heavenly of all Heavenly beings!
“We have SPADE as our symbol, and on this account the
movement is often styled the ‘SPADE MOVEMENT’ Spade is another sign of humility
and our carrying it on our shoulders show that we out to proclaim to the world
THE DIGNITY OF LABOR. Spade level up ground. We are here TO LEVEL UP ALL
SOCIETY! A rich man with a spade considers that he has come down a bit to meet
his poor brother. A poor man with a
Spade thinks that he has got a powerful weapon to strengthen him. Spade in this
Movement has worked wonders indeed!
“ After this brisk drill and marching in khaki with Spade
for about half an hour, a Khaksar is ordered to social service to all
irrespective caste or creed for one complete hour at the least. And here the
uplift takes place in more than one or two ways. The moral courage of
requesting unknown people to give them some service to do develops automatically
here. It elevates the servers and educates the served spiritually and a Khaksar
at once becomes Cosmopolitan in his sympathies in spite of his being aloof from
all! Those served entertain sweet ideas a MUSLIM, often about ‘over—religious’
or rather ‘over—communal ‘ India every good or bad deed of any person is at
once translated, like the “Hindu water” or the “Muslim water” of the Railway
Station, into HINDU virtue or MUSLIM virtue, HINDU vice or MUSLIM vice. Social
service, whatever from it takes, created mutual sympathies of the highest order
among all concerned. But the spiritual uplift of the person who serves and
especially his feeling of having done service in order to please his real
Master in Heaven makes him indeed fearless and formidable soldier has already
secured for himself no mean reputation for being a most well—disciplined and
hardy military, but not being a most well—disciplined and hardy military, but
not militant soldier. Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru, the past president of the Indian
National Congress, in a letter to one of the Khaksar officer in Sindh, remarked
two years ago that he was “quite wonderstruck at the remarkable discipline
shown by the Khaksar soldiers and the extremely good work they were doing as
public social servants.” The same gentleman reported to have remarked after a
well—arranged military salute given in his honor by the Punjab Khaksars that
“he wished this had been Congress,” and another person close to him added that
the Khaksars had achieved in the space of three or four years what Congress had
not been able to achieve in the space of fifty years. Matters have considerably
improved since then, so much so that Khaksars more recently have achieved
successes in point of military discipline and coherence the like of which is
seldom to be seen elsewhere, but all this only serves to show what immense turn
for good a movement can take provided it is run on religious and spiritual
lines and contains an element of social service to Mankind, without hope of any
earthly reward. We Khaksars now are out for almost any virtuous deed calculated
to benefit anybody anywhere. We hold camps of enormous sizes containing
sometimes two to five thousand Khaksar soldiers and people of all nationalities
and religions, including highly placed European and Indian officers of
Government, attend them with pleasure. We have convinced many who would not
indeed being POWERFUL but not necessary being HARMFUL. And here I have very
powerful convictions as regards the relations between EARTHLY POWER AND HEAVENLY
SPRIT. To me the one is synonymous with the other. My reading is that Jesus was
crucified because the Romans had become convinced of his formidable SPIRITUAL
power naturally ending with formidable Earthly power! His Sermon on the Mount
clearly being with the words; “Blessed are the HUMBLE IN HEART for they shall
INHERIT EARHT,” and these words meant a great deal indeed to the Roman at that
time and mean a great deal at all times! In fact people who are RELIGIOUS in
true sense cannot be anything but both USEFUL and POWERFUL.
“I feel this Conference will be well advised in devising a
practical program to be followed from day by day exactly or at any rate some
what on the lines indicated by Khaksar Movement. We are only five year old now,
but in another five years provided this speed continue, we shall have enveloped
literally the whole of India with our soldiers. We have at present something
like three thousand five hundred well-organized centers all over India from
Peshawar to Cape Comorin on the one side and from Karachi to Rangoon on the
other. We have on our rolls over one and half laces of well-drill soldiers and
sympathizers with out number. We do not take subscriptions in any form; in fact
a Khaksar is not permitted to take even a sip of iced water from anybody, as he
expected to do social service to all without the slightest hope of worldly
rewards. We have in our treasury, called the ‘Baitulmal’ property in moveable
and immoveable form as well as in hard cash amounting in all over two million rupees,
but Khaksar is mot permitted to spend one pice out of this on himself. This
‘Baitulmal’ is to be spent on matters calculated to do good to the community in
general. People have given us these things as voluntary and unsolicited gifts
and money all over India. We have all conceivable religious sects and
denominations included in our ranks, e.g. Hindus, Brahmans, Sikhs, Harridans,
Muslim, of all sects, Christians etc., etc. We have branches outside India in
Burma, in Persia, as well as in Arabia. Our Hindu and Sikhs Khaksars have done
some most remarkable and pleasing social services. Many Harridans, low castes
and members of the depressed and backward classes are amongst our best-drilled
soldiers.
“As I have suggested before, this Conference will indeed
be best advised if they take up our program and try it dependently on us or
independently. But whatever course the Conference may take up one thing is
almost certain. Our not inconsiderable experience in the matter of promoting
amity and friendship between the various communities in India points to the
fact that any movement with this end in view must IN THE FIRST PLACE BE
NON-POLITICAL. I am glad this Conference has already recognized this fact. ‘
Politics’ in India have taken such an inconsiderable and in some places even
contemptible turn of late years, and here I must add that the British way of
Government to overrule nation also has been so consistently—if I am permitted
to say the word deliberately—unormal and unspiritual, that much of the rancor
and hatred that now exists among the various communities and has persistently
increased since the beginning of this century, has been most sure due to the
political program, purposely put forwarded by the British statecraft as a
buffer to the POLITICAL aspirations of the Indian National Congress. This
Congress which\h originally did start with the impracticable, if not the
impossible idea of creating a homogeneous Indian Nation, as it were, with the
help of some Aladdin’s Lamps—not containing in it the oil of mutual good will
and inter—communal sympathy—has now become so hopelessly entangled in this
clever political move on the part of the rulers of India Nationhood that it has
become almost an impossibility for the Indian National Congress to create an
Indian nation out of this political legerdemain, much less to lead India to the
path of National Freedom. This Congress is now more a bigoted Religious Sect,
distinct from Hinduism, Islam, or Sikhism, in fact conglomeration of selfish
political zealots, of Religious, Socialist sectarian and Communist—communal
bigots cemented together with the bigotry of Bania Capitalism and
Pseudo—spiritual knavery. I repeat that this political jugglery must be
entirely absent from the present Conference.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, My address to you in this
Conference has taxed your patience quite enough, but I have still a few things
more to say. I submit that in order to organize three hundred and twenty
millions of people living under roof of different castes and communities, divergent
ambitions and aspirations, diametrically opposed creeds and cultures,
intensively diverse ideals and hopes, and various and extreme grades of
ignorance and education, into a tolerably homogeneous whole striving for a
common abode of bliss and happiness you must devise a unifying program
EXTREMELY SIMPLE and with a UNIVERSAL APPEAL Behind it. Again, in order to
promote amity and friendship between the various communities you must avoid
touching that sensitive flesh which goad people of communal temperament to
springing at each other’s throat. Further, friendship being necessarily a
natural and human sentiment, it cannot thrive or even take root unless HEARTS
AND HANDS and not merely LIPS are in action on both sides, and unless GOD, and
NOT DEVIL, takes possessions of these hearts on both sides. I concluded
therefore that in order to be practical and useful yours program must be
extremely simple, extremely non—communal and at the same time extremely Godly
and religious. Remember Devilish program or programs hidden under the grab of
Devilish communal sentiments cannot succeed in such a country as India. Any
program, which aims at the wiping out community at the expense of others must
fail here, nay must make matters worse for both. It is a glaring mistake to try
to transform oriental people into nations by employing European methods of
stamping out cultures, creed, and languages or by creating an atmosphere of
heresy and irreligion in order to uphold the cult of patriotism. Oriental
people must remain entirely religious in order that they may become entirely
patriotic and politically powerful, and the entire early history of Aryan,
Arabian, and Chinese and other oriental civilizations amply and unequivocally
proves this dictum. Some foolish so—called leaders of thought equipped with the
mere book—knowledge of European Revolution have lately attempted to build India
on these lines and have badly failed. If they will find it gifted with all the
above qualities and free from the above defects.
“I thank all present for the patience you have shown in
hearing my views. I had very little time at my disposal to come over so far
away from my headquarters and have lately excused myself more than once from
attending notable Conference and Congresses which in my estimation talk more
and do little. But in spite of much work being at hand I have come over see
what this well—meaning Conference means to do. I would therefore ask that
whatever is said may in this practical world of ours only if they produce
eloquent results.”
After three days of intense deliberations, the Conference
adopted nine resolutions, three of which directly embodied Mashriqi’s
philosophy. They said:
1) This Conference, after full consideration for three continuous days of
the real causes of tension between the various communities in India, consider
that the only way in which all the communities can be brought nearer and closer
to each other is to adopt the following measures: -
a) Social services in practical form should at once be started all over
India and centers established everywhere under the leadership of responsible
person in order to carry on this social service into effect daily.
b) The organization of this universal social service should be done on the
lines of the military discipline.
2) The Conference resolves that a book be compiled under the auspices of
this Conference, containing principles of broad Catholicism and fundamental
unity of teachings of all religious by a body of experts of respective
religions.
3) The Conference resolves that the birthday celebrations of founder and
Prophets of different faiths and religions be celebrated and should be
participated by followers of different religions with a view to show the spirit
of brotherhood and fellowship among followers of different religions and
faiths.
