INDIAN SYMPATHY WITH THE TURKS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XII, Issue 58, 8 March 1877, Page 4

INDIAN SYMPATHY WITH THE TURKS.

The Times (Dec. 19) remarks that the framer of the petition of the Calcutta Mahommedane (o tbe Queen, calling upon ber to support tha integrity ot the Ottoman Empire, have evidently the most accurate acquaintance witb the arguments and representations of tbe Ministerialist speakers in England, and this, coupled withNhe style of the document, suggests something less purely and spontaneously Moslem than might be desired. While questioning the assertion contained in the petition that the Sultan is tbe recognised religious head of the Mitbommedans in India, the Times says it is yet undoubtedly the fact that the Maboncmedans throughout thu world, having been brought into closer relations with eicli other through (he completeness and rapidity of modern communication, are attaining to a certain sentiment of unity, and that this tentiment suggests a general deference to the ruler of Constaniinople. It- is nof, therefore, to be argued that because historically or cannoically the Sultan has no authority ovor the Indian Mahomrnedans he will therefore never have any. It would be still bolder to set limits to the sympathy which the chief Mahommedan Scvererign might excite in tbe mindß of fellow-believers, who have the opportunity of learuiug what are tbe threatß directed against him. Though the Times is inclined to think that there is something unreal and artificial in the present movement, it does not wish to deny either the possibility of a sympathy in India with the Turks or the right of the Indian Mahommedans to express that sympathy. But the promoters of theae meetings must not expect any special success as Mahommedane in moving the British people or influencing the policy of the British Empire. If the Christians on the banks ot the Danube were governed as the 20,000,000 Mahommedans in Bengal, we should hear nothing of insurrections, however numerous might be the promoters of 1 disaffection.