The Nehru Report and Muslim Rights — Page 34
[ 34 ] lost. Even assuming that it was an uni,riportant matter, the importance attached to it by the party interested cannot be lost sight of. If the Muslims attach to the question of Urdu so serious an importance and consider it to be a question of life and death for the community it does not behove others to treat it lightly. Elsewhere II propose to show that the question of language is not a minor question and that it is not peculiar to India, also that in other countries a very great importance has been attached to this question and special laws have been en acted relating to it which have been incorporated in the constitution of the land. • Vl. -fREEDOM OF RELIGIOUS BELIEF AND PROPAGANDA. The sixth demand relates to non-interference in matters both religious and economic. The Nehru--Report is not clear on this point also. The importance and magnitude of this question have been obscured in a mass of words. The Report states under the heading '' Funda mental Rights '' :-'' Freedom of conscience and the free profession and practice of religion are, subject to public order or morality, hereby guaranteed to every person. " These words hardly embrace the Mus1im demand. The Hindus always create disturbance over cow-slauethter. 0 According to this rule their disturbance may prov!de justi- fication to prohibit cow-sacrifice. • Similarly nothing occurs in the Report about • Tab ligh, i. e. , preaching of religion. This law gives every citizen a right to proclaim his religion but it does not give him the right to preach it to others with freedom. The law may at any time be interpreted to mean that, as ' Tabligh • leads to a disturbance of the ccuP. try' s