§ 5. Lieut.-Colonel JAMESasked the Secretary of State for India whether the Sheikh-ul-Islam, of the Deobund Arabic School, in the Saharunpur district, has recently been arrested and deported from India on account of the subversive and anti-Government propaganda in which he has been engaged; whether, for many years past, the Deobund Arabic School, originally inaugurated with the intention of grounding trans-frontier Pathans in the principles of Islam, has, in fact, been a centre of seditious propaganda; and whether, in view of this, the school will now be closed?
§ Mr. MONTAGUI presume the hon. Member refers to one of the doctors of the school in question, who had mixed himself up in seditious intrigues before leaving for Mecca in September, 1915. His conduct in Arabia led to his arrest by the Hedjaz authorities. He was removed to Egypt and eventually interned at Malta. Neither before these intrigues nor since the departure of the particular doctor has there been, to my knowledge, complaint of seditious propaganda at Deobund, and there appears to be no reason for the suggestion that the school should be closed.