(2 of 2)
Hastily, Munshi ordered the book withdrawn from sale and tendered an official apology: "I have the greatest regard for the Prophet." But the wave of wrath rolled on through India's 36 million Moslems. From the Ganges to the Indus, Moslem villagers stabbed Hindus, looted Hindu shops, stoned Hindu temples. Hindu townspeople fought back. In industrial Jubbulpore seven Hindus, Moslems and police died and 50 were wounded in one sanguinary knifing melee. In Khamgaon rioting Hindus broke into Moslem shops and fought with police; when the police opened fire five died. Some Hindu extremists, organizing a boycott of Moslem rug dealers and lockmakers, shouted that Pakistani agents had "cooked up the whole thing" to embarrass Nehru on the eve of his departure to visit King Saud in the Moslem holy land. Police, some of them dressed as Moslem women, prowled the mosques and bazaars and arrested 500 Moslems.
Deck Him with Shoes! At week's end the trouble crossed into Pakistan. In Karachi, 15,000 students and hired stooges of Moslem League politicos recently fallen from power marched through the streets. "War with India," they shouted, and "Down with Nehru's Tyranny!" Students bore Nehru's picture through the city, garlanded with old shoes, an extreme sign of disrespect to Hindus. By noon the mob had forced shops to close. broken the windows of the Indian bank, stoned school buses and stopped all traffic in Bunder Road, Karachi's main street. The East Pakistan legislature, not content with Governor Munshi's apologies, demanded that the governments of India and the U.S. formally ban the book.
Calling a mass meeting in New Delhi, Nehru laughed off "the special honor I've been paid in Karachi," but warned gravely against rumors of "communal troubles" and "spy stories" spreading through the bazaars. "Our ears are too sensitive," he said, and announced that the government would speedily put through "legislation that will curb those opportunists who are fanning communal passions."
* This story jibes essentially with the earliest and standard account of Mohammed's life (by Ibn Ishaq—8th century), but the tone of the book's 16-page biography might well give offense to devout Moslems.