13. Forms of Government

13. Forms of Government

 

“Let fools fight for the forms of government,” says Alexander Pope. I cannot agree with this political philosophy. To my mind, government, whatever its form, is one of the determining forces of a people’s character.

 

Loss of political power is equally ruinous to nations’ character. Ever since their political fall the Musalmans of India have undergone a rapid ethical deterioration. Of all the Muslim communities of the world they are probably the meanest in point of character. I do not mean to deplore our former greatness in this country, for, I confess, I am almost a fatalist in regard to the various forces that ultimately decide the destinies of nations. As a political force we are perhaps no longer required; but we are, I believe, still indispensable to the world as the only testimony to the absolute Unity of God – Our value among nations, then, is purely evidential.