Fazl-e-Umar — Page 160
Fazle Umar 160 with the safeguards that he considered essential to the interests of the Muslims. This booklet was published under the title The Solution of the Political Problem of India. It was given wide publicity both in India and in Britain and was much appreciated in thoughtful circles. It proved of great assistance to the Muslim representatives in the series of Round Table Conferences that were held in London in 1930,1931 and 1932. E F F ORT S TO R E C A L L M U HA M M A d A L I j I n n A H TO I n d IA Mr Muhammad Ali Jinnah was one of the Muslim representatives in the First and Second Round Table Conferences, but he was so disgusted with what he considered the lack of reality in the discussions of the Conferences that at the end of the Second Conference he decided to withdraw from politics and settle down in London with the intention of carrying on his practice as an advocate before the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. In his own words: “I received the shock of my life at the meetings of the Round Table Conference. In the face of danger the Hindu sentiment, the Hindu mind, the Hindu attitude led me to the conclusion that there was no hope of unity. I felt very pessimistic about my country. The position was most unfortunate. . . I began to feel that I could neither help India, nor change the Hindu mentality; nor could I make the Muslims realise their precarious position. I felt so disappointed and so depressed that I decided to settle down in London. Not that I did not love India but I felt so utterly helpless. ” 101 The Hindus of the Congress and the Congress-led Muslim leaders were very jubilant over Mr Jinnah’s decision. The Muslims were now in the hold of those who believed in Gandhi as a potential prophet. A very prominent and powerful Muslim leader, the so called “Amir-e-Shari’at” Sayyad Ata Ullah Shah Bukhari, once declared, “I believe that Gandhi has in him the makings of a prophet. ” 102