DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.68024#0345
337
Muhammadans of the lettered classes represented in Government employment is by no means
so inadequate as at first sight appears when we deal with the large aggregates which compose
the total body of Muhammadans.
There is no doubt a good deal of truth in what is said as to the causes of the depression
of this class of people. Their profession in former days was that of the sword, not of the pen.
The sword has passed to us, and the pen is wielded, as it ever was, by the Hindus. They were
the rulers, and they have lost the rule. They had endowments, many of which must have been
swallowed up in the resumptions of 1828 and the following years; but the education obtained,
in the institutions which these endowments supported, though I am the last to undervalue it,
was not the education which satisfies the needs of administrative employment. In short, they
lived upon the people as masters, and, now that their mastery has passed away, it is impossible
that their state should not be marked by decay.
I do not myself agree with Mr. Johnson's estimate of the religious causes which he thinks
contribute to their depression. I believe it is almost -entirely a question of social position.
In the North-Western Provinces we have a complete reversal of the state of things in Bengal.
There the Muhammadans are vastly outnumbered by the Hindus; but, inasmuch as the un-
lettered multitudes are mainly Hindu, while the Muhammadans as a class belong to the middle
and higher strata, the latter possess much more than the share of Government employment
which their mere numbers would give them, and are comparatively a thriving and energetic
element in society. It is, I think, very important to keep in view this aspect of the question,
since it at once reduces the controversy to its proper proportions, very different from those
which it assumes in the memorial : and, when thus considered, I think that it will be found
that, so far from having dealt unjustly with the Muhammadans, and favoured at their expense
the Hindus, we have held the balance strictly even, and have done our best to bring forward,
those of the Muhammadans, equally with those of the Hindus, who were willing to accept our
standard of fitness for Government service. I cannot see how we can possibly now take any
backward step. We cannot resuscitate Muhammadan law as the Code of our Criminal Courts;
we cannot resuscitate Persian as the official language, and if we could, the evidence all goes
to show that the Hindus would again, as of old, beat the Mussalmans as munshis and diwans
using that language. Nor do the memorialists suggest any such retrogression. What they
ask for is eleemosynary assistance to enable them to qualify themselves to take a place side
by side with the Hindus in public employment. Such assistance is already given, but the
difficulty is to find people willing to accept it, and to make the best use of it when they do
accept it; and no people will ever be lessoned into manliness by having that done for them
which they should do for themselves. Nothing could be further from the truth than the
statement that the Muhammadans of Eastern Bengal are impoverished. Their social status
is not high, but for that status their wealth is great. It is for those who claim to represent
them to induce them to take the step towards self-help which was so successfully taken by the
far less numerous Muhammadan community of the North-Western Provinces, when they
founded the Aligarh College.
I do not think that Mr. Johnson's picture of the Muslim as a self-pleaser is true, or borne
out by the experience of other parts of India where the religion of the Mussalmans is the same,
but their social position different. There is nothing in the religious education of Muslims
which need interfere with worldly success; and the religion itself, from its greater definiteness
of moral teaching and its elaborate and far-reaching system of religious duty, has always
seemed to me to foster a stronger character than the plastic, incongruous, inconsistent aggre-
gate which we call Hinduism.
I think that, so far as regards Assam (i.e., Sylhet, Cachar, and Goalpara), the allegations
of the memorial are fully answered. The first is untrue when it asserts the existence of gene-
ral impoverishment of the Muhammadan population ; and the exclusion of professors of that
religion from Government employment is due mainly to the fact that the classes which among
the Hindus supply clerks and other Government officials are very sparingly" represented among
the Muhammadans.
As regards the second, there is no evidence that the resumption proceedings of 1828-1816
had any serious effect on Muhammadan education in Sylhet, Cachar, and Goal para.
As regards the third,—that the Muhammadan law is badly administered,—the question
may be left to the High Court, who seem to me to have fully answered it.
With reference to the prayers, I think that Mr. Johnson shows that he already does all
that is possible to obtain Muhammadans to fill offices in his district. Fitness can be the only
qualification, and when a Muhammadan is fit and efficient, there is little danger of his merits
being overlooked.
As regards the second, the High Court's letter shows that the rules already permit
of selection otherwise than by University examinations of candidates for the office of Munsif.
43
Muhammadans of the lettered classes represented in Government employment is by no means
so inadequate as at first sight appears when we deal with the large aggregates which compose
the total body of Muhammadans.
There is no doubt a good deal of truth in what is said as to the causes of the depression
of this class of people. Their profession in former days was that of the sword, not of the pen.
The sword has passed to us, and the pen is wielded, as it ever was, by the Hindus. They were
the rulers, and they have lost the rule. They had endowments, many of which must have been
swallowed up in the resumptions of 1828 and the following years; but the education obtained,
in the institutions which these endowments supported, though I am the last to undervalue it,
was not the education which satisfies the needs of administrative employment. In short, they
lived upon the people as masters, and, now that their mastery has passed away, it is impossible
that their state should not be marked by decay.
I do not myself agree with Mr. Johnson's estimate of the religious causes which he thinks
contribute to their depression. I believe it is almost -entirely a question of social position.
In the North-Western Provinces we have a complete reversal of the state of things in Bengal.
There the Muhammadans are vastly outnumbered by the Hindus; but, inasmuch as the un-
lettered multitudes are mainly Hindu, while the Muhammadans as a class belong to the middle
and higher strata, the latter possess much more than the share of Government employment
which their mere numbers would give them, and are comparatively a thriving and energetic
element in society. It is, I think, very important to keep in view this aspect of the question,
since it at once reduces the controversy to its proper proportions, very different from those
which it assumes in the memorial : and, when thus considered, I think that it will be found
that, so far from having dealt unjustly with the Muhammadans, and favoured at their expense
the Hindus, we have held the balance strictly even, and have done our best to bring forward,
those of the Muhammadans, equally with those of the Hindus, who were willing to accept our
standard of fitness for Government service. I cannot see how we can possibly now take any
backward step. We cannot resuscitate Muhammadan law as the Code of our Criminal Courts;
we cannot resuscitate Persian as the official language, and if we could, the evidence all goes
to show that the Hindus would again, as of old, beat the Mussalmans as munshis and diwans
using that language. Nor do the memorialists suggest any such retrogression. What they
ask for is eleemosynary assistance to enable them to qualify themselves to take a place side
by side with the Hindus in public employment. Such assistance is already given, but the
difficulty is to find people willing to accept it, and to make the best use of it when they do
accept it; and no people will ever be lessoned into manliness by having that done for them
which they should do for themselves. Nothing could be further from the truth than the
statement that the Muhammadans of Eastern Bengal are impoverished. Their social status
is not high, but for that status their wealth is great. It is for those who claim to represent
them to induce them to take the step towards self-help which was so successfully taken by the
far less numerous Muhammadan community of the North-Western Provinces, when they
founded the Aligarh College.
I do not think that Mr. Johnson's picture of the Muslim as a self-pleaser is true, or borne
out by the experience of other parts of India where the religion of the Mussalmans is the same,
but their social position different. There is nothing in the religious education of Muslims
which need interfere with worldly success; and the religion itself, from its greater definiteness
of moral teaching and its elaborate and far-reaching system of religious duty, has always
seemed to me to foster a stronger character than the plastic, incongruous, inconsistent aggre-
gate which we call Hinduism.
I think that, so far as regards Assam (i.e., Sylhet, Cachar, and Goalpara), the allegations
of the memorial are fully answered. The first is untrue when it asserts the existence of gene-
ral impoverishment of the Muhammadan population ; and the exclusion of professors of that
religion from Government employment is due mainly to the fact that the classes which among
the Hindus supply clerks and other Government officials are very sparingly" represented among
the Muhammadans.
As regards the second, there is no evidence that the resumption proceedings of 1828-1816
had any serious effect on Muhammadan education in Sylhet, Cachar, and Goal para.
As regards the third,—that the Muhammadan law is badly administered,—the question
may be left to the High Court, who seem to me to have fully answered it.
With reference to the prayers, I think that Mr. Johnson shows that he already does all
that is possible to obtain Muhammadans to fill offices in his district. Fitness can be the only
qualification, and when a Muhammadan is fit and efficient, there is little danger of his merits
being overlooked.
As regards the second, the High Court's letter shows that the rules already permit
of selection otherwise than by University examinations of candidates for the office of Munsif.
43