Lord Minto's invitation to Muslim leaders
When the Congress started demanding independence of the country, the British bureaucrats decided to take advantage of the concerns of the Muslims. Smith, the personal secretary of the Viceroy Lord Minto (E.1905-10), wrote a letter to Archibald, the principal of Aligarh College, stating that- 'If a delegation of Muslims would speak to the Muslims about the upcoming reforms Demand separate rights and if he meets the Viceroy for this, the Viceroy will be happy to meet him.'
The separatist-Muslim leaders blossomed on receiving this invitation. On 1 October 1906, a delegation of 36 Muslim leaders under the leadership of Sir Aga Khan met Lord Minto in Shimla and submitted an application to him in which mainly the following demands were made-
(1) Muslims should get proper proportion of seats in government services.
(2) There should be an end to the competitive element in the jobs.
(3) Muslims should also get the post of Judge in every High Court and Chief Court.
(4) In the municipalities, both the communities should get the same facility to send their representatives, as in some cities of Punjab.
(5) Elections to the Legislative Council shall be made up of electors consisting of prominent Muslim landlords, lawyers, businessmen, representatives of other important interests, Muslim members of Zilla Parishads and Municipalities and Muslim graduates who are five years old or of a similar period.
In this application, special emphasis was laid on the fact that in any future constitutional changes, not only the number of Muslims, but also their political and historical importance should be kept in mind. Viceroy Minto praised the application of the Muslim delegation and justified their demands.
Minto said- 'Your claim is absolutely right that your place should be estimated not only on the basis of your population, but on the basis of the political importance of your society and the service rendered by it to the empire. .' Minto also assured that the rights and interests of Muslims would be protected in future administrative reorganization.
Thus the British bureaucracy worked to entrap the Muslims in its trap and widen the communal gap. Seeing the excitement of this delegation, the British bureaucrats knew very well that they had been able to separate the 6.2 crore Muslims of India from the national movement. This is confirmed by the diary of Mary Minto herself. It can be said that the Muslim delegation of October 1906 was a rehearsal for the formation of a Muslim political party, as soon as it was realized that there was a wave of happiness in the British bureaucratic class.
The same evening a British officer wrote a letter to the Viceroy's wife, Mary Minto, informing – ‘I will inform you in short that a very big thing has happened today. Today such a political act took place, which will have an impact on India and its politics for a long time. We have stopped 6 crore 20 lakh people from joining the rebel side.'
The newspapers of England also called it a great victory and praised the wisdom of the Muslims. This was the first time that Muslims from different parts of India had gathered at Shimla on the invitation of the Viceroy. When they returned to their respective homes, they had become a full-fledged politician. Now the responsibility of spreading the politics of Aligarh was on his shoulders.
On 16 October 1906, Lord Marley, the Secretary of India, congratulated the Governor General Lord Minto for this work of pitting the Muslims against the Hindus. The British government fulfilled its assurance and under the Indian Councils Act of 1909, for each Legislative Assembly of British-India, Muslims were allowed to elect their representatives from the electoral circles based on their community, in a ratio far greater than the proportion of their population. given the right. Thus, Muslim communalism was encouraged.
Muslimization of Police
In order to suppress the majority Hindus associated with the national movement being carried out by the Congress, the British began to recruit Muslims in large numbers in the police department so that the majority Hindu population could be kept under strict control. According to the confidential report of the Home Department of the Government of India of December 1909, as on 1 April 1908, there were 2 Hindu Superintendents of Police in the Government of India as against 2 Sikhs and 11 Muslims and there were 20 Hindu Police Inspectors as against 18 Sikhs and 59 Muslims.
Similarly, against 120 Sikhs and 408 Muslims, there were only 211 Hindu Sub Inspectors. On 1 January 1909, 15,529 police personnel of the lowest rank were taken by the Government of India. Of these, 1,078 Sikhs (7 percent), 10,164 Muslims (65 percent) and 4,287 Hindu (28 percent) police personnel were taken. It is clear that the British government was working to suppress the majority-Hindus through the Muslim-police.
Due to this unequal treatment of the government, the distance between Hindus and Muslims increased. Unequal treatment of people on the basis of religion has been done by the government in every region of the earth and in every age, this was not the first time. Even under the rule of Muslims, Hindus were looked upon with suspicion and now the British also adopted the same policy.