DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4646#0009
-ii t iinrfTTTn-mriTTii------raTTTirntTflTmiinnnrirnirniiF""™ MatrWBHBff"™
9
The Judge : That would be so, where the trust was unmistakably
clear.
Mr. Howard : Yes, your Lordship will require to be satisfied
beyond all doubt that there is a clear trust, before you can decide
against the majority in possession. A community, like that of the\
Khojahs, is formed on the principles which regulate a club : it is
a voluntary association of persons, holding the same religious opinions.
It may be compared to the political clubs at home : for instance, the
Reform Club is entirely an association of persons holding Liberal
opinions, whilst the Carlton is composed of Conservatives. Such
establishments have necessarily the power to expel members of opposite
opinions. Your Lordship will recollect that Mr. Gladstone was com-
pelled to leave the Carlton on account of a Liberal vote he had given.
Lord Westbury, too, was turned out of the Conservative Club for
giving Liberal votes. Such expulsions are voted by the majority, (
and I repeat, it must be very clearly made out, that in this Khojah
community, the Plaintiffs, being a minority, have the right, by virtue
of their adherence to the old Khojah religion, to oust the Defendants,
before the Court will interfere to help them to do so.
As to the way in which the case against the principal Defendant has
been conducted, I much regret the tone of my learned friends. Your
Lordship remembers that Aga Khan has been called by a number of
hard names, some of them palpably untrue,and insulting, as "false pro-
phet" and the like, and some of them made so by irony, and that in a
way which however common before a Petty Jury, is happily very un-
usual in a Court of Equity. I much regret that Counsel should have
thought it proper to cast scorn and ridicule on the titles of Imam,
Murshid, and Pir, which are revered by these people and for ages have
been borne by Aga Khan and his ancestors : it has given much pain
unnecessarily. His position of Pir was inherited, and not assumed, by
him. By the Khojas and other Ismailies the Aga is looked upon and
reverenced as the living representative of the Imam Ali,the Saint whom
they most revere ; and it is not the Aga's fault that he is so reverenced.
It is not reasonable to suppose an Asiatic should of his own accord re-
ject the homage paid to him, as to a long line of ancestors before him,
by the followers of the Ismailia doctrines.
And what is the relief, as against him, that is prayed for 1 Why,
that he shall be deprived of all the benefits he derives from his sacred!
9
The Judge : That would be so, where the trust was unmistakably
clear.
Mr. Howard : Yes, your Lordship will require to be satisfied
beyond all doubt that there is a clear trust, before you can decide
against the majority in possession. A community, like that of the\
Khojahs, is formed on the principles which regulate a club : it is
a voluntary association of persons, holding the same religious opinions.
It may be compared to the political clubs at home : for instance, the
Reform Club is entirely an association of persons holding Liberal
opinions, whilst the Carlton is composed of Conservatives. Such
establishments have necessarily the power to expel members of opposite
opinions. Your Lordship will recollect that Mr. Gladstone was com-
pelled to leave the Carlton on account of a Liberal vote he had given.
Lord Westbury, too, was turned out of the Conservative Club for
giving Liberal votes. Such expulsions are voted by the majority, (
and I repeat, it must be very clearly made out, that in this Khojah
community, the Plaintiffs, being a minority, have the right, by virtue
of their adherence to the old Khojah religion, to oust the Defendants,
before the Court will interfere to help them to do so.
As to the way in which the case against the principal Defendant has
been conducted, I much regret the tone of my learned friends. Your
Lordship remembers that Aga Khan has been called by a number of
hard names, some of them palpably untrue,and insulting, as "false pro-
phet" and the like, and some of them made so by irony, and that in a
way which however common before a Petty Jury, is happily very un-
usual in a Court of Equity. I much regret that Counsel should have
thought it proper to cast scorn and ridicule on the titles of Imam,
Murshid, and Pir, which are revered by these people and for ages have
been borne by Aga Khan and his ancestors : it has given much pain
unnecessarily. His position of Pir was inherited, and not assumed, by
him. By the Khojas and other Ismailies the Aga is looked upon and
reverenced as the living representative of the Imam Ali,the Saint whom
they most revere ; and it is not the Aga's fault that he is so reverenced.
It is not reasonable to suppose an Asiatic should of his own accord re-
ject the homage paid to him, as to a long line of ancestors before him,
by the followers of the Ismailia doctrines.
And what is the relief, as against him, that is prayed for 1 Why,
that he shall be deprived of all the benefits he derives from his sacred!