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Article on the First Annual General Meeting of the London Muslim League - 1909-06-24

Date: 
Thursday, 1909, June 24
Location: 

The Times, London, June 24, 1909 printed the speech that Sir Sultan Mohamed Shah, Aga Khan III had given at the First Annual General Meeting of the London Muslim League. In this speech, Sir Sultan Mohamed Shah, Aga Khan III mentioned the numerical strength of the Muslim population in India, their welfare and progress as seen in the entire Islamic world, the Muslim loyalty to Britain and the Muslim demand for equal constitutional privileges as those being granted to the Indians and other such related topics.
He mentioned, ' .The measures which the Government of India as about to take fell far short of the promises given. At Oxford the other day, Lord Morley claimed to have fulfilled the pledges given to the people of India; but unhappily this could not be said to be the case so far as the special pledges to the Mahomedans were concerned.

Speaking with a full sense of responsibility as president of their (All India Muslim) League, and after fully weighing his words, he said, unhesitatingly, that if in the final shaping of the plans of the Government those pledges were not carried out to the full, in the spirit as well as in the letter, the Indian reforms were doomed to failure. (Loud cheers)

It was impossible any where, and least of all in a country like India, to work a constitutional scheme satisfactorily with one large and important section of the people disappointed and left without real representation, and another section exultant and triumphant because they had been permitted to attain a virtual monopoly of political representation. (kk.a p300)


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