The Nehru Report and Muslim Rights — Page 36
[ 36 ] Government aid and to conform to Government rules, the constitutional law does in no way forbid its enactment, -if such a legislation is passed, then it will mean that the Muslims will be gradually estranged from their reli. . gion. Every religion and every religious institution is entitled to make religious education compulsory for its own followers, and this does by no means amount to compulsion. 'It would be compulsion if one were to com pel people of other p�rsuations to follow instructions in one's religion. In fact, this law could in several respects be made an instrument for hampering Muslim reli gious education. To say that it will operate equally against the Hindus would amount to a betrayal of utter ignor ance of religions. Islam, unlike Hinduism, is a religion that has definite restrictions, a knowledge of which can be obtained only through proper education. Hinduism, on the other hand, is a political religion. A man alto gether unfamiliar even with the A. B. C. of the Vedas and its teachings, and following son-ie peculiar views of his own, may claim to be as good a Hindu as the most erudite master of the Vedas. VII. -AMENDMENT OF THE CONSTITUTION. The seventh demand is that questions growing out of mutual communal distrust, and solution whereof is essential in the interest of the minorities should be in corpora ted in the constitutional laws, so that their revi sion might not be easily effected. I am not aware whether any community other than our own has urged this demand. Nevertheless it is a most important de mand. But the Nehru Committee has chosen to ignore it. The demand was implied in the Lucknow Pact but was not embodied in legal language. The wordings were rather vague.