were
never before. An incident occurred nearer Delhi and the same influence
worked successfully to avoid what might have become an explosion.

But Hakimji Ajmal khan cannot be everywhere appearing at the exact hour
as an angel of peace. Nor can Maulana Shankat Ali or I go everywhere.
And yet perfect peace must be observed between the two communities in
spite of attempts to divide them.

Why was there any appeal made to the authorities at all at Agra? If we
are to work out non-co-operation with any degree of success we must be
able to dispense with the protection of the Government when we quarrel
among ourselves. The whole scheme of non-co-operation must break to
pieces, if our final reliance is to be upon British intervention for the
adjustment of our quarrels or the punishment of the guilty ones. In
every village and hamlet there must be at least one Hindu and one
Muslim, whose primary business must be to prevent quarrels between the
two. Some times however, even blood-brothers come to blows. In the
initial stages we are bound to do so here and there. Unfortunately we
who are public workers have made little attempt to understand and
influence the masses and least of all the most turbulent among them.
During the process of insinuating ourselves in the estimation of the
masses and until we have gained control over the unruly, there are bound
to be exhibitions of hasty temper now and then. We must learn at such
times to do without an appeal to the Government. Hakimji Ajmal Khan has
shown us how to do it.

The union that we want is not a patched up thing but a union of hearts
based upon a definite recognition of the indubitable proposition that
Swaraj for India must be an impossible dream without an indissoluble
union between the Hindus and the Muslims of India. It must not be a mere
truce. It cannot be based upon mutual fear. It must be a partnership
between equals each respecting the religion of the other.

I would frankly despair of reaching such union if there was anything in
the holy Quran enjoining upon the followers of Islam to treat Hindus as
their natural enemies or if there was anything in Hinduism to warrant a
belief in the eternal enmity between the two.

We would ill learn our history if we conclude that because we have
quarrelled in the past, we are destined so to continue unless some such
strong power like the British keep us by force of arms from flying at
each other's throats. But I am convinced that