Khuda Bakhsh, Hindu Muslim unity & cow protection movement
Religion, Khuda Bakhsh thought, was a matter between man and his God, and a thing too sacred and too holy to be dragged into the details of life. On more than one occasion he allayed passions and smoothed difficulties between Hindus and Mohammedans, and in 1893 he took a prominent part in bringing that hateful cow-killing question—the fruitful sources of so many disturbances in India—to a happy and peaceful settlement. It was on that occasion that Sir Antony Macdonell, the then Lieutenant-Governor, addressed to him a letter, a copy of which I give below :—
LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR’S CAMP, BENGAL
August 7th, 1893
DEAR KHAN BAHADUR,
I thank you for your letter of the 3rd instant, and for the valued and loyal promise of your assistance in removing the feelings of irritation which here and there have arisen between Mohammedans and Hindus in connection with the slaughter of Cows. I think that there has been some misappropriation of the meaning of the Maharajah of Durbhanga. His wishes and object, he assures me, was not to make any imputations, which, in the circumstances in which he spoke, would be altogether out of place, but to indicate the points on which friction might possibly occur between Hindus and Mohammedans, and so, by anticipation, to gaurd against its occurrence.
This explanation will, I am sure, be accepted by Mohammedans and others in the conciliatory spirit in which it has been offered to me. Please convey to your many Mohammedan friends my best thanks for the marked courtesy and friendliness with which they received me at Patna, and believe me to be.
Yours sincerely,
A.P. MACDONELL
