Ahmadiyyat - The Renaissance of Islam — Page 263
THE RENAISSANCE OF ISLAM 263 sibilities of the office. The members of the Committee, led by Dr Sir Muhammad Iqbal, refused to consider the suggestion of the Khalifatul Masih and unanimously urged him to continue his direction and guidance of the Committee and its workers, particularly in view of the very gratifying success that had already been achieved by the Committee contrary to all expectations. Reluctantly the Khalifatul Masih yielded to their request and agreed to carryon as President of the Committee for another year. In the meantime Sir Reginald Glancy, Political Secretary of the Viceroy, was appointed to make an inquiry into the causes of unrest in Kashmir and to recommend what action, if any, was needed for the restoration of peaceful conditions. in the State. Sir Reginald carried out his task with diligence in a sympathetic spirit, and in the report that he submitted to the Viceroy he tried in his recommendations to meet the princi- pal grievances of the people as far as he was able to persuade the Maharaja to agree with him. The people of Kashmir and the Kashmir Committee were not altogether happy and satisfied with Sir Reginald's report and the Committee sub- mitted a critical review of the recommendations of Sir Reginald Glancy to the Viceroy. Eventually the recommen- dations that were put into effect by the Maharaja brought considerable relief to the people of Kashmir who had suffered for so long under the tyranny of an oppressive regime. The attitude of the Maharaja might be judged from his obstinate resistance to some of the recommendations of Sir Reginald. For instance, one of the grievances of the Muslims of Kash- mir was that the slaughter of his own cow by a Kashmiri Muslim was prohibited in the State as a capital offence, punishable with imprisonment for life. This-imposed a severe. hardship upon an average Kashmiri who carried on a wretched existence in conditions of grinding poverty. For him even an old barren cow which had ceased to yield much milk was a valuable asset. Instead of letting it die of old age and decrepitude, he would wish to slaughter it in the autumn and preserve its meat as the principal source of protein for his