A Message of Peace — Page 27
M ESSAGE OF P EACE 27 and virtuous behaviour, I do not expect that after this treaty they would permit their tongues to wag. It should be manda- tory that to make the contract binding, ten thousand adult representatives from both parties should sign it. My dear ones, there is nothing like peace and compromise. Let us unite with the blessing of this treaty and be one nation. You know full well that denial 17 on both sides has thrown us apart and that our country is suffering greatly. Visualise how blessed it could prove to testify to each other’s truth. Come, give this a try now. This is the best course for achieving peace. Pursuing any other course would be like ignoring a dangerous abscess merely because it looks clear and shiny, while, in reality, it contains rotten and putrid matter. I need not elaborate on the ever-increasing, mutually hypocritical, attitude and discord between the Hindus and Muslims. This is rooted not in religious differences alone, but has also secondary causes which pertain to worldly ambitions. For instance, the Hindus have always shown their desire to have more say in the affairs of government and country. They have been demanding that they should, at the very least, always be consulted in such affairs and that the government should always pay special attention to their demands. They also desire that they be posted at the higher ranking offices as the British are. The Muslims made the blunder of not joining this campaign of Hindus out of fear that they were small in numbers. They were afraid that whatever benefit was to be had from such campaigns would be drawn by the majority Hindu community and not the Muslims. So they not only 17. i. e. denial of each other’s holy personages. [Publisher]