The Nehru Report and Muslim Rights — Page 47
[ 47 ] overtures from the part of the Moslerns and their support, and Hindu opposition in the matter relating to Gurdwaras, the Sikhs are keeping hand-in-glove with the latter. Besides the Sikhs, among the Hindus themselves, there are martial classes, such as the Jats, the Rajputs, the Dogras, the Poorbees, the Mahrattas and many other tribes of Southern India. Even the Gurkhas who follow Buddhism, consider themselves a part of the Hindu religi our community. In face of these facts, i: is simply suicid- al to deceive ourselves by entertaining the idea that the Hindu population preponderates, it is only natural that pride in the fact that Muslim element is prepondering in the army. This is nothing but a diplomatic move on the part of the British Government. In a country where the Hindu population preponderates, it i3 only natural that the Government should in order to strengthen themselves follow the policy of enlisting a comparatively large num ber of the smaller communities in their army. But in a free India there will be no such necessity. On the con trary the majority community in order to strengthen their position will think of enlisting in the army a larger number of their own co-religionists. The Sikhs, the Oogras, the Rajputs the Mahrattas, the Gurkhas, the Poorbees and the Southerners number from 50 to 60 millions. These could easily furnish men for the army. The idea that we could secure our rights by force is a devilish misconcep tion of which the sooner we disabuse our minds the • better. One section of the Mussalmans is of opinion that the Moslems will win their object by non-co-operation. But it must be remembered that non-co-operation is a weapon, which only a big community can with advantage use against a smaller community, but not a small community against a larger body. A small community of men speci-