Fazl-e-Umar — Page 184
Fazle Umar 184 requested two or three members of the Committee to try to persuade two outstanding leaders of the Ahrar to join the Committee. They declined on the ground that they would like to work on their own for the achievement of the purposes for which the Committee had been formed. The Khalifatul Masih, suspecting that their refusal to join the Committee might have been prompted by their opposition to him and the Movement, told the intermediaries that if the refusal of the Ahrar leaders to join the Committee was due to his presidency of the Committee, he would be prepared to resign the presidency in order to conciliate them, but even this self-denying gesture failed to overcome their reluctance to join the Committee. The Committee, however, was already fully representative of all types of political thinking and religious beliefs and doctrines among the Muslims. During the first year of the working of the Committee the Ahrar leadership mani- fested little interest in the purpose, objective, or activities of the Committee, probably out of a feeling that the Committee would not be able to achieve any notable success and might only draw upon itself the opposition and hostility of the non-Muslims of the State and of the Punjab. The Ahrar were anxious to enjoy the goodwill of the non- Muslims on account of their political accord with the All India National Congress. However, when they observed that the Committee was advancing steadily towards the achievement of its objective and had established a standing both with the Viceroy, the Maharaja and the authorities of the State, the leadership of the Ahrar felt it was time for them to set up a front of their own on the Kashmir question. They tried to win the support of Muslim opinion by the utterly false representation that the President of the All India Kashmir Committee was seeking to promote the interests of the Movement in Kashmir behind the screen of the Committee. Their hostility to the Movement and their jealousy of the Khalifatul Masih were the real factors that motivated their actions in connection with the situation in Kashmir, and not any real desire to serve