Page:Sketch of the Non-cooperation Movement by Babu Rajendra Prasad.pdf/36

 tion of the Swadeshi programme which it regarded as a test of the measure of influence attained by the Congress and a guarantee of the stability of non-violent atmosphere. It, however, authorised the Working Committee to sanction Civil Disobedience in any place or the province.

The Arrest of the Muslim Leaders.—The 31st July witnessed the burning of a huge pile of foreign-cloth at 25 Bombay by Mahatma Gandhi. The following day was the death anniversary of the great Lokamanya Tilak and was celebrated all over the country. Mahatma Gandhi and Maulana Mahomed Ali started on a tour through Behar, Assam and Madras. It was in the month of August that the Moplah out-break which was not suppressed for several months broke out. The Mahatma and Maulana Mahomed Ali were going from Calcutta to Malabar to pacify the rioters, but they were not allowed and Maulana Mahomed Ali was arrested in the train at Waltair on the 14th September, 1921, under a warrant of the District Magistrate of Vizagapatam to show cause why he should not be bound over to keep the peace under sec. 107 or 108 Cr. P. C. On the 17th, he was however rearrested under a warrant from Karachi and taken by special train. Maulana Shaukat Ali was arrested at Bombay, Dr. Kitchlew at Simla, and Pir Gulam Mujadid in Sindh, while Maulana Nisar Ahmed, Hassan Ahmed and Shree Shankaracharya were also brought under arrest. It became known that the arrests had been made on account of the resolution passed at the Karachi Khilafat Conference regarding the duties of Muslims not to serve the army which had been based on a Fatwa given by five hundred of the most respected Moslem Divines. On the 21st September, the Central Khilafat Committee and the Jamiat-ul-Ulema met at Delhi under the presidency of