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 Hakim Ajmal Khan and resolved to reprint the Fatwa for distribution and to repeat the Karachi resolution. Hundreds of meetings began to be held all over the country where the Karachi resolution was repeated, word by word, by each member of the audience. On the 4th of October, Mahatma Gandhi and about 50 other prominent Congressmen issued a manifesto asserting the right of every citizen to express his opinion regarding the propriety or otherwise of individuals joining or remaining in the Civil or Military service of the Government. It further proceeded to state it as their opinion that it was contrary to national dignity for an Indian to serve as a civilian and more specially as a soldier under a system of government which had brought about India’s economic, moral and political degradation and which had used the soldiery and the police for repressing national aspiration at home and for crushing the liberty of other nations, who had done no harm to India, abroad. It also expressed its opinion that it was the duty of every Indian soldier and civilian to sever his connection with the Government and find some other means of livelihood.

Their Trial and After.—The trial of the Ali brothers and others was held at Karachi and ended in the acquittal of Shree Shankaracharya on all the charges and the conviction and sentence of the other accused persons to two years rigorous imprisonment. The stand taken by the accused was that Muslims were forbidden by their religion from serving a state which had put itself in opposition to their religious injunction and it was the duty of every Mussalman to preach to his co-religionists to refrain from serving the Government. They were therefore bound by their religious creed to preach it, any secular or temporal laws to the contrary notwithstanding.

The Working Committee of the Congress met at