The Nehru Report and Muslim Rights — Page 117
[ 117 ] mutual relations are strained. We have a grievance that in every branch of life our rights have been disregarded. Why not try this remedy? India is a large sub-continent with such a diversity in tongues that in some cases the difference is much wider than between those of two in dependent states of Europe. !In certain provinces the Hindus happen to preponderate, and in some the Mus lims. Let us agree that in a province where a certain community preponderates it should be allowed to have the larger share in the Government. That would restore mutual confidence. Each community would feel inclined to reciprocate the trust placed on it by the other. And as a consequence all would peacefully co-operate towards promoting the weal of the country. '' There is nothing unjust or unwise in such a sugges tion. Why should it at all be interpreted to imply a threat that if a Hindu in the C. P. were to beat a Muslim in his province, a brother Hindu shall suffer punishment in the Punjab or vice versa, and justice would thus be maintained-through fear of retaliation. The demand has, in fact, its origin in the suspicion in the Muslim mind that the Hindus attempt to keep the Muslims under sub jection everywhere, and in places where he cannot reason ably do so, to invent such device as would afford him opportunities to come into power. This naturally sets the Muslim athinking that when India is going to be parti tioned into provinces, why are the Muslim� denied the opportunity for untrammelled progress :n those provinces, where they form the majority of the population. He sus pects some ulterior motive behind this denial, and whether his suspicion is right or wrong, nonetheless it stands in the way of mutual understanding. �t cannot be urged in this connection that the avenues of progress for minor communities have been left open