Every Hindu a Rajpal

Among Muslims themselves there is not wanting an eccentric here or a matlabwala (selfish person) there who considers it originality or expediency to strike a note out of tune with the universal chorus of Muslim India. One such note raised by one Mr. M.H. Ismail of Bombay in the “Indian National Herald” has just been brought to our notice. Mr. Ismail condemns the general anti-Hindu attitude of the Muslims. Every Hindu, he argues, is not a Rajpal as every Muslim is not an Abdur Rashid. Both the statements, we are afraid, are based on a superficial reading of the situation. When Swami Shardhanand was shot dead (by Abdur Rashid), every Muslim Anjuman and Association, every Muslim individual leader of note, expressed his disapproval of the act in open in the public press not because, mind you, of any great regard of the victim who, with many, deserved perhaps no better fate, but because of their anxiety for Hindu Muslim Unity with which is bound up the true good of India. It was a highly patriotic and the statesmanlike gesture on the part of Muslim India. Thus, every Muslim was not inclined to be an Abdur Rashid. Things have however changed. Even a man of Gandhi´s Mahatmaic sympathies was so poisoned by anti-Muslim propaganda that he refused point-blank, when called upon by Maulana Mohammad Ali of Lahore, to express publicly his sorrow at the murder of that innocent wayfarer, an aged Muslim of over 80, in a Hindu Street of Delhi, at the hands of a Hindu Mob. He was not a man of note, pleaded the Mahatma, to the bewilderment of the whole of Muslim India. Then came the unprovoked, cold-blooded murder of unsuspecting Muslims in a Hindu lane of Lahore – again at the hands of Hindus and Sikhs. Again, not a word of condemnation from any public body or leader of Hindus. There actually ran a wave of suppressed satisfaction over Hindu circles of thought and leading. And on the top of it all and what was more painful to the Muslims than the murder of millions of their co-religionists what is known as the Rajpal affair. The Prophet ﷺ was scandalised in a most shameless and indecent manner and if there were the least of chivalry among the Hindus as a community, let alone any sympathy with the Muslims, they should have been the first to bring the man to book. But what was actually done? Funds were raised and the ablest men of the community came forward to defend the man, backed up by the community at large. What was it but aiding and abetting an affront of the vilest brand to one held in the highest esteem in the world of Islam? In view of all Hindu mentality which has of late sprung up, fanned by Arya Samaj and Sangathan Sabhas, a mentality which one that runs cannot fail to mark – in view of this dangerous mental outlook of modern Hindu, who but Mr.Ismail can venture the verdict that every Hindu is not Rajpal? We certainly do not mean to say that there are some amongst the Hindus who do not disapprove of it. But what after all is the number of such? Two hundred or even two thousand in a race of 220,000,000! A drop in the ocean! With all respect for such lofty souls, the fact remains that individuals do not count where communities are concerned. A fool of a Muslim alone can doubt that the average Hindu, barring a sprinkling here and there, is a potential Rajpal with the darkest of designs against Islam. A Ram Mohan or a Kashub are figures of the past and reflected in but a handful of the Brahmas who have not yet yielded to this general wave sweeping all before it and are true to the traditions of those great souls. Such being this Neo-Hindu mentality, small wonder that the Muslim should feel driven to the only position exemplified more or less in Abdus Rashid. An Abdul Rashid is the logical product of a Rajpal and Mr. Ismail and Muslims of his illusion must know that on a national scale, every Hindu to-day is a Rajpal and hence every Muslim must be an Abdur Rashid. A dragon is best met in his own den and even so this dragon of Rajpalism.