Page:The Pilgrims' March.djvu/84

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WARNING AGAINST VIOLENCE

Moulana Abdul Bari’s Manifesto

Lucknow, Nov. 25.

We do not at all desire to inflict any insult or bodily harm on the Prince of Wales. We only wish to save him from being deceived by official prestige and to show him the real feelings of India and its people. The means we have adopted is to declare a hartal from which all violence should be excluded. We have adopted the doctrine of non-violence after great deliberation. We believe that it is the only way of success. Unfortunately there is a party which does not believe in this and is apparently working with us. We request this party to adopt our principles while it works with us or to wait till our methods have proved futile before it puts its own principles into practice. I was very much grieved to hear the troubles in Bombay. The only result was to mitigate the effect of calm and self-control, displayed by the people on the arrest of our renowned leaders. We consider the Bombay Riots to be opposed not only to our political creed but also to our Sharah. By our religious law a Muslim is forbidden to destroy the wine of a Non-Muslim, is bound to compensate the party aggrieved. If