Khilafat Centenary Souvenir 1908-2008 — Page 67
regions, more particularly in Africa. The Madrissah Ahmadiyyah which had been established for religious instruction was raised to the status ofJamiah (Higher Seminary) designed to train scholars to serve as missionaries of Islam in different parts of the world. An Islamic solar calendar was introduced supplementing the current lunar calendar, for facilitating the comparative study of the history and progress of Islam. During the lifetime of the Promised Messiah as the Talimul Islam High School had been raised to an Intermediate College, but in consequence of a set of new regulations of the University of the Punjab, compliance with which was beyond the resources of the Community, the College classes had to be closed in 1905. The need of a college had, however, progressively become more insistent and eventually the Talimul Islam College was restarted on 4 June 1944, but this time the College was not limited to Intermediate classes. It was designed as a Degree College. The College continued at Qadian for 3 years and had then, on partition of the country, to be transferred to Lahore pending the construction of the necessary buildings for its accommodation at Rabwah, the new Headquarters of the Movement. In the course of time, the College started postgraduate classes in higher physics and became the only institution in the Province, apart from the Punjab University itself, which provided instruction in higher physics at the Master's level. The last phase of the struggle for the independence of India began in London in the spring of 1945. In the Commonwealth Relations Conference in Chatham House, StJames's Square, the Indian delegation was led by the President of the Indian Institute of International Relations, who was a zealous member of the Ahmadiyya Movement. In his two speeches on the opening day of the Conference, 17 February, he put forward so strong and well reasoned a plea urging Britain to move forward realistically towards the independence of India. . . The immediate reaction of His Majesty's Government was to invite the Governor General of India, Lord Wavell, to London for consultations. Lord Wavell returned to India armed with a formula for the independence of India. He announced his scheme over the All-India Radio on 14 June 1945. On 22 June 1945 Khalifatul Masih rr r a, in his Friday sermon, urged Indian political leaders to take full advantage of the British offer. He concluded his address with a strong plea that Indian political leaders should arrive speedily at an understanding among themselves which should enable India to achieve independence I 67