CHAP. XV.]
The pilgrimage to Mecca.
429
secure the ports from contamination and from being quarantined.
Only about ten per cent. of the pilgrims who sail from Bombay belong
to that presidency ; the great majority are natives of the north of India
and of countries lying beyond the frontier.
Further protests
from Madras and
Bengal.
The Government of Madras were not satisfied that these precautions
would suffice, and renewed their request that the embarkation of
pilgrims from Madras should be altogether prohibited. Similar protests
were received from the Government of Bengal and various public
bodies in the Lower Provinces. The Government of India were most
unwilling to forbid the pilgrimage, and thus interfere with an import-
ant religious duty of their Muhammadan subjects. But after consult-
ing the Governments of the territories in the north and centre of
Prohibition of
the pilgrimage
in the case of
persons who had
been in the
Bombay
Presidency or
Sind.
India, they issued a notification under the Epidemic Diseases Act,
on the 16th February, prohibiting all persons who resided in the
Bombay Presidency or Sind or who had entered those territories with
the object of proceeding on the pilgrimage, from embarking at any
port in British India with the object of making the pilgrimage to the
Hedjaz. The Government of Bombay also issued orders prohibiting
the sale of tickets to the Hedjaz anywhere in the Bombay Presidency
and Sind.
Muhammadan
traditional law
on the subject of
plague.
In issuing the prohibition the Government of India took account
of the fact that although it is the duty of pious Muhammadans to per-
form the pilgrimage, yet the traditional law asserts that if a person is
in a place where there is plague he should not leave that place, and
that if there is plague at the place where he desires to go, and his own
country is safe, then he should not leave his own country in order to
go to that place.
Precautions to be
taken in the case
of persons
desiring to go on
pilgrimage from
places outside the
Bombay
Presidency and
Sind.
Dissuasion.
At the same time instructions were issued to the Local Governments
and Administrations with a view to remove any risk of infection being
carried by intending pilgrims from parts of India outside the Bombay
Presidency and Sind. In the first place it was directed that all possible
efforts should be made through the Magistrates of Districts, the reli-
gious heads of the Muhammadans, pilgrim brokers, and in any other
way that occurred to the Local Governments, to dissuade intending
pilgrims from going to the Hadjaz during the current season. It was
stated that though by these means the number of pilgrims might be
materially reduced, it appeared likely that a considerable number
might still wish to go on pilgrimage from places other than the
Bombay Presidency and Sind. All who persisted in the desire to
Detention in
observation
camps away from
the ports.
make the pilgrimage were to be collected prior to departure in camps
of observation, distant from the ports, and situated in the province to
which they belonged, or, in the case of residents of Native States, in
the province nearest to the State. In these observation camps they
were to be detained at least seven days and until intimation was