Pickthall’s Islamic Politics 113
Has the nursery jingle brought us any nearer to a solution of the prob-
lem? On the contrary the vital issues have been obscured [...] the Govern-
ment’s communiqués [...] makes only one thing clear and it is that the
Government have not the will to peace. [...] The Government of India
now want more. Presumably they desire the dissolution of the Congress
and the Khilafat organisation. Did Mr. Lloyd George insist on the dissolu-
tion of Dáil Éireann and the disbandment of the Irish Republican army as
a preliminary to a peace conference with Sinn Fein?18The Congress’s working committee met in Bardoli in February 1922. Pickthall
may have been present, and responsible for the interview with Gandhi that
was published in the Chronicle, “From our Special Representative”. The report-
age and line of questioning was very much in Pickthall’s style, for example
raising the Khilafat question:
I interviewed Mahatmaji on Sunday morning. He was quite hale and
hearty and was about to begin in his daily round [the item] of spinning.
His son Ramdas brought him a spinning wheel and Mahatmaji as he went
on turning the wheel replied to my questions with his remarkable calm-
ness. At times his voice was lost in the music of the spindle, I begged him
to repeat [an] inaudible portion [...]
Q. What do you think of the suggestion made recently in the “Chronicle”
that an alliance of understanding [come about] with leaders of suffer-
ing subject nations like Egypt and Ireland to fight the imperialism of the
Western nation by Non-cooperation propaganda?
A. I should love to see such an alliance but that will come in its own time.
It is my humble opinion that we are not getting sufficiently advanced in
that direction to form a useful alliance. I do not believe in paper alliances.
They will come naturally when we are ready.[...]
Q. Do you believe the Muslims of India will stick to the irreducible mini-
mum of the Congress demands with the same zeal even after the Khilafat
question is settled to their satisfaction?
A. I have not a shadow of doubt in my mind about it, if only because
what is gained in the matter of the Khilafat can only be retained by a
self-governing India untrammelled by a dictation from Downing Street. 1918 The Bombay Chronicle, 7 February 1922.
19 Ibid.; the text states, “the imperialism of the Western nation” – “nation” in the singular.