|34 A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

was no lack of firearms in the city at the time of the raid
and even that gun caused more casualties among the pub-
lic than among the raiders. He, however, agreed with
them in regard to what they had observed about the duty
of the majority community. Badshah Khan was trying to
prepare the Khudai Khidmatgars for discharging their
duty of protecting citizens against raids.

The deputationists discussed several other things with
Gandhiji, who told them they had better discuss them
with Maulana Abul Kalani Azad * and perhaps with Babu
Rajendraprasad, f who were deputed by the Working
Committee to visit the Frontier Province.

A few remarks in connection with the position of
these minority elements in the North-West Frontier Pro-
vince at the time of Gandhiji's visit would not be out of
place here. The total population of the North-West Fron-
tier Province was then 24.7 lakhs, out of which 22.5 lakhs
were Mussulmans, 1.5 lakhs Hindus, 47.9 thousand Sikhs,
16.4 thousand Christians, 62 Parsees, 11 Jews and 3 Bud-
dhists. Expressed in percentages the population of Mus-
sulmans varied from 95 per cent in the Hazara District
to 86 per cent in Dera Ismail Khan. Money-lending and
trade were predominantly in the hands of Hindus and
Sikhs, who in the past, owing to their better education,
held more than their share in public services. Of late,
they had been exposed to growing Muslim competition,
and competition had brought in its train the spjrit of
rivalry, which in its turn served further to provoke the
nemesis that inevitably follows success. The successful
Rai Bahadur who accumulated a vast fortune out of his
military contracts naturally excited the greed of the trans-
border Waziri and Mahsud raider, who justified to himself
his predatory activity by conveniently equating the rich
man with the agent who helped to equip the mili-
tary machine that led expeditions into tribal terri-

* The leader of the Nationalist Indian Muslims. He was later
elected President of the Congress.
f Member of the Congress Working Committee, at present Pre-
sident of the Indian Constituent Assembly.