Sir Chhotu Ram Champion of Communal Harmony
Keywords:
Communalist, ConflictedAbstract
An internal conflict was going on in Chhotu Ram’s mind about this time between sectarianism, communalism and nationalism. This he resolved in the following manner; “In the beginning I was a fairly Bigoted Arya Samajist and as a natural corollary a communalist. This conflicted with my aspiration for a united front among zamindars (in the Punjab sense of the term) regardless of caste and creed. I was definitely a bigoted zamindar and thus a sectarian. This conflicted with the orthodox requirements of nationalism. I was a Congressman both inwardly and outwardly and thus anti-Government. This conflicted with my conviction that a backward class- the class to which I belonged was admittedly a backward class- could not afford to fight against Government. This inner conflict set me a difficult problem to solve.
References
Tika Ram, Sir Chhotu Ram : A Biography, P. 50-51
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The triline, 16 Aug, 1944
R.S. Shastri, (tr) Op. Cit., p. 344
The triline, Jan 9, 1945
