Fazl-e-Umar — Page 159
Fazle Umar 159 a penetrating analysis of the report which was published in seven instalments in the Al-Fazl, and was subsequently issued in the form of a book entitled Muslim Rights and the Nehru Report. At the beginning the reaction of an important section of Muslim leaders and the Muslim press was, on the whole, in favour of the Nehru Report. But the analysis of the Report by the Khalifatul Masih alerted Muslim leadership to the dangers to which the Muslims would be exposed in case those proposals were accepted. It was then freely acknowledged that the keen intellect and the political foresight of Hadhrat Khalifatul Masih II [ra] had served to rescue the Muslims of India from the serious hazard to which their fortunes had been exposed by the Nehru Report. R E AC T IO n TO T H E S I M O n C OM M I S SIO n R E P ORT A n d T H E R OU n d T A b L E C O n F E R E n C E The report of the Simon Commission proved most disappointing and was univer- sally condemned in India as a reactionary document. His Majesty’s Government was so impressed by the force of this reaction that it authorised the Governor General, Lord Irwin (later Lord Halifax) to announce on 31 October 1929 that Dominion status for India was the immediate objective of His Majesty’s Government and for the purpose of ascertaining Indian public opinion on the future constitution of India it proposed to invite the representatives of British India and of Indian states for consultation and advice to a Round Table Conference to be held in London. This announcement was followed on 12 May 1930 by the intimation that the Round Table Conference would be called together on or about 20 November 1930. On this occasion also Hadhrat Khalifatul Masih II [ra] prepared and published a well-reasoned analysis of the report of the Simon Commission and put forward his suggestions with regard to the shape of the future constitution of India together