The Nehru Report and Muslim Rights — Page 99
[ 99 ] or the people undertook to bear the burden. Here is another obstacle. For, it is possible that the financial commission deputed to make enquiries might decide that the province is utterly unfit financially for a separate Government. And, if the people volunteered to bear the responsibility, a costly form of Government might be proposed, which it would be beyond their means to carry on. In fact, the Commissioners have already turned down their joint Hindu-Muslim prayer " to cut their coat according to their cloth. " ( Ibid. p. 69. ) From the above, it is clear that every effort will be made to prevent separation of Sindh, and these assur ances are a mere eye�wash. Let me not be accused of undue suspicion. As it is not a private affair, but a national settlement, it is of paramount importance to scan and consider every word and phrase. One, who does not do so, is a traitor to his people. Turkey, Arabia, Persia and Egypt have suffered serious losses through their sheer folly of not scrutinising the terms of pacts, and treaties, and it will be really unfortunate if lessons of the past were lost on the Muslims. The third point, to which the committee has hinted at, is that it is not necessary to grant full autonomy to Sindh ; for autonomy does not necessarily imply a separate economic life, nor does it mean a duplication of all the organs of Government. II fail to understand how a pro vince, without fiscal autonomy, can be called independ ent, while the very object of autonomous Governments is the attainment of economic and civic freedom,-poli tical freedom being only a means to the end. As without the latter, there is neither economic nor civic freedom, peoplo naturally agitate for their political emancipation. To make a province economically dependent on another province means that there is no real autonomy for it.