Ahmadiyyat - The Renaissance of Islam — Page 268
268 AHMADIYY AT In the early thirties of this century Sir Herbert Emerson was Governor of the Punjab. He was an able officer but had an exaggerated notion of his political acumen and foresight. He had looked askance at the activities of the Kashmir Committee, and felt that as a religious leader the Khalifatul Masih should not have identified himself with the Com- mittee. He was no doubt aware of the organization of the Ahmadiyya Community and misinterpreted it as a parallel government. He suspected that the Movement was a sort of state within a state and might one day become a danger for the government. He was, of course, not unaware of the hostility of the Ahrar towards the Ahmadiyya Movement and its Head. This was his frame of mind when the Ahrar made an application for permission to hold a propaganda conference at a place in the close vicinity of Qadian, in October 1934. It was a clumsily conceived plan as there could be no possible religious purpose that could be served by holding a conference so close to Qadian. At whom was the propaganda proceeding from the conference to be directed? The conference was proposed to be convened in an area the population around which, with the exception of Qadian, was mainly non-Muslim. If the purpose of the conference was to alienate the Ahmadis from their allegiance to the Khalifah, or to repudiate their belief in the claims of the Founder of the Movement, they knew and the government must have been aware that not a single Ahmadi would attend the conference or go anywhere near it, if for no other reason than to avoid all risk of friction or conflict. Yet the government granted permission to the Ahrar to hold the conference. The Secretary of the Khalifatul Masih whose duty it was to make arrangements for the security of Qadian against any possible ill designs of the organizers of the conference, sent letters to branches of the Movement within a reasonable distance of Qadian requiring despatch to Qadian of a speci- fied number of volunteers who would act as watch and ward units around Qadian for the purpose of ensuring the security of Qadianagainst any attempt to disrupt it. When the Super-