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200 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
II
It is true that in the month of April 1940 a Conference of Muslims was held in Delhi under the grandiloquent name of “The Azad Muslim Conference.” The Muslims who met in the Azad Conference were those who were opposed to the Muslim League as well as to the Nationalist Muslims. They were opposed to the Muslim League firstly, because of their hostility to Pakistan and secondly because they did not want to depend upon the British Government for the protection of their rights.* They were also opposed to the Nationalist Musalmans (i.e. Congressites out and out) because they were accused of indifference to the cultural and religious rights of the Muslims.†
With all this the Azad Muslim Conference was hailed by the Hindus as a Conference of friends. But the resolutions passed by the Conference leave very little to choose between it and the League. Among the resolutions passed by the Azad Muslim Conference the following three bear directly upon the issue in question.
The first of these runs as follows:—
“This conference, representative of Indian Muslims who desire to secure the fullest freedom of the country, consisting of delegates and representatives of every province, after having given its fullest and most careful consideration to all the vital questions affecting the interest of the Muslim community and the country as a whole declares the following:—
“India will have geographical and political boundaries of an individual whole and as such is the common homeland of all the citizens irrespective of race or religion who are joint owners of its resources. All nooks and corners of the country are hearths and homes of Muslims who cherish the historic eminence of their religion and culture which are dearer to them than their lives. From the national point of view every. Muslim is an Indian. The common rights of all residents of the country and
*Mufti Kifayat Ullah, a prominent member of the conference, in the course of his speech is reported to have said: “They had to demonstrate that they were not behind any other community in the fight for freedom. He wished to declare in clear terms that they did not rely on the British Government for the protection of their rights. They would themselves chalk out the safeguards necessary for the protection of their religious rights and would fight out any party, however powerful, that would refuse to accept those safeguards as they would fight the Government for freedom” (Prolonged cheers.) Hindustan Times, April 30, 1940.
† See the speeches of Maulana Hafizul Rehman and Dr. K. M. Ashraf in the same issue of the Hindustan Times.