276 1. i n t r o d u c t i o n
- Accepting the UN resolution continues to remain the main bone of conten-
tion between the mainstream Fatah and the militant Islamic group Hamas.
- Eytan to Shiloah (August 11, 1949), ISA, 2441/2.
- Abba Eban to B. N. Rau (December 8, 1950), ISA, 71/14b.
- As ahl al- kitab (“Possessors of the Scripture” or “People of the Book”), Islam
guarantees certain protections to followers of Judaism, Christianity, and, in
the Ira ni an context, Zoroastrianism. Bernard Lewis off ers a sympathetic
portrayal in his The Jews of Islam. For a more critical depiction of Dhimmi
life, see Ye’or, The Dhimmi and Islam and Dhimmitude.
- According to the historian Mushirul Hasan, Jazirat- al- Arab included “Con-
stantinople, Jerusalem, Medina and above all Mecca, with its Baitullah, the
focal point of daily prayers and the annual Haj.” Nationalism and Communal
Politics in India, 1885– 1930, 112– 113.
- Young India (April 6, 1921), in Gandhi, The Collected Works of Gandhi, 19:530.
- For the text of the resolution adopted at the Gaya Congress of 1922, see Zaidi
and Zaidi, eds., Encyclopedia INC, 8:542. In subsequent years, the Islamic
rationale never fi gured formally in the pronouncement of Indian national-
ists. Even these earlier pronouncements were explained within the context
of the need to support the Muslims of India. Thus, in the mid- 1920s, sup-
port for the Arabs of Palestine was depicted as part of the larger anticolonial
and anti- imperial struggle and support for national liberation.
- UNSCOP Report, 2:42, 2:45.
- Thus, for some the disintegration of Pakistan and the formation of Bangla-
desh in 1971 vindicated India’s stand against the rationale of Pakistani na-
tionalism and partition along communal lines.
- “Memorandum on India Before the United Nations, 1950” (September 16,
1950), ISA, 2413/28.
- Statement of M. R. Masani, Hindustan Times (June 5, 1967). Meaning “mes-
senger,” the expression has the derogatory connotation of being unimportant.
- The Jan Sangh lawmaker M. L. Sondhi in parliament, Debates LS, series 4,
vol. 4 (June 8, 1967), 3937.
- Iftar is the eve ning meal for breaking the daily fast during the holy month
Ramadan and is normally or ga nized as a community event. In India, vari-
ous non- Muslim po liti cal leaders host Iftar parties for both Muslim and
non- Muslim invitees.
2. Mahatma Gandhi and the Jewish National Home
The epigraph to this chapter is taken from a statement given by Mahatma Gan-
dhi to Kallenbach on Zionism in July 1937, CZA, S25/3587. Emphasis added.
- Harijan (November 26, 1938), in Gandhi, The Collected Works of Gandhi,
68:137.
