1929
1929
— 53 —
February 12, 1929
Dear Mr. Vakíl,[pg 51]
Shoghi Effendi wishes me to acknowledge the receipt of your letter dated January 11th
He was very glad to bear of the success of the Convention. He hopes that such gatherings will become yearly and, like in other countries, lead to a better understanding among the friends. It is surely true that as the Cause progresses differences will more and more arise. So unless there be a meeting place where the different views are thrashed true unity of purpose and activity will not be obtained…
Shoghi Effendi wishes you to express his loving greetings to the members of your family as well as to the Bahá’ís. He hopes that when you come you will have some good news to bring with you.
My dear and precious co-worker:
Your subsequent letter dated January 24 has also reached me. I will specially remember our dear and valued co-worker Prof Pritam Singh when I visit the sacred Shrine that the spirit of Bahá’u’lláh may inspire, guide and sustain him in his great task. Regarding your last Convention[pg 52] and the non-participation of the Burma delegates, I feel that the utmost effort must be exerted during the coming elections in April to elect those who are best fitted for this supreme and responsible position, and once elected, resignation is not to be accepted. The members must meet and consult in person. Persia is preparing for the holding of national elections, and for India and Burma to revert to a system that is being abandoned by the Persian believers would be a decidedly retrograde step. We must at all costs maintain and strengthen the unity of the National Assembly.
Everything must be subordinated to this end. I will supplicate our Beloved to enable you to achieve His purpose.
Shoghi
— 54 —
March 2, 1929
My Dear Mr. Vakíl,
I am directed by the Guardian to thank you for your welcome letter of February 8th with enclosures, and he will be pleased to read the paper clippings with pleasure.
It gives him much satisfaction to learn of your proposed journey with your family to Haifa this May, and he wishes me to assure you of his heartfelt welcome…
He sincerely trusts and prays that as a dear and devoted brother and fellow worker, our beloved Master may always bless your efforts richly both spiritually and materially and may render you a great and growing asset to the progress of the Bahá’í Faith in India.
My dear and valued co-worker:
I trust that by now a better understanding and more substantial cooperation has been attained by the friends of India and Burma. It is for the delegates who are to be chosen by them this year, to elect those whom they think are best qualified for membership of the National Spiritual Assembly, and once elected, the unity and efficiency of this body must at any cost be maintained. I cannot but pray that they may be guided in this choice, and discharge honorably their functions. For yourself I shall offer with a grateful heart my fervent prayers.
Your true brother,
Shoghi
— 55 —
March 9, 1929
My Dear Mr. Vakíl,[pg 53]
I am directed by the Guardian to thank you for your letter of February 22nd with enclosures. He was much pleased with the letter of Prof. Pritam Singh and his valued endeavours at the Conference on Religions, and he wishes you please to convey to him the expression of his sincere gratitude and appreciation and the assurance of his prayers.
Shoghi Effendi is much pleased with the prospect of your visit with Mrs. Vakíl and children this spring, and aside from the pleasure of renewing his personal friendship with you, he welcomes the opportunity of discussing with you the best means for the progress of the work in India.
My dear and precious co-worker:
Please assure our dear Pritam Singh of my heartfelt appreciation, profound affection and fervent prayers. His distinguished and constant services have endeared him to is all, and I pray that he may render still more distinguished services in the days to come. I will also supplicate for you that you may increasingly contribute, by your self-sacrificing labours, to the progress and consolidation of the Faith both in India and Burma.
Your true brother,
Shoghi
— 56 —
March 12, 1929
My Dear Mr. Abbasally,
I am directed by the Guardian to thank you for the copy of your circular which you sent him.
He read it with pleasure and he wishes me to assure you as much as ever of his increasing interest in the permanent establishment and development of “Kaukab-i-Hind,” whose potential influence in the spread of the teachings in India and Burma, he feels he cannot overrate.
As an evidence of his hopes for your journal, he is sending enclosed the sum of £9 — as his contribution towards its upkeep.
With the expression of his warm appreciation of your efforts.[pg 54]
— 57 —
APRIL 4, 1929
CABLE FOLLOWING SECRETARY GENERAL LEAGUE OF NATIONS: ADHERENTS OF BAHÁ’Í FAITH IN INDIA AND BURMA ASSOCIATE THEMSELVES WITH BAHÁ’ÍS WORLD OVER IN ACKNOWLEDGING THE RECOGNITION BY THE LEAGUE OF THE JUSTICE OF BAHÁ’Í CASE IN ‘IRÁQ.
SHOGHI
— 58 —
June 20, 1929
My Dear Mr. Badri,
I am directed by the Guardian to thank you for your communication of June 7th and to express his pleasure over the results of your National Assembly elections. It is his sincere hope and desire to seethe newly elected National Assembly, during its term of office, infuse a new and fresh spirit into every Bahá’í activity both in India and Burma, and while establishing perfect unity and harmony within its own ranks and the entire body of the believers, should take vigorous steps to teach the Cause and to establish a progressive and representative Bahá’í community in both countries.
Please assure them one and all of the Guardian’s affection and prayers.
With the assurance of my keen appreciation of your sustained and unsparing efforts for the spread of our beloved Cause, and of my continued prayers in your behalf.
Your true brother,
Shoghi
— 59 —
July 8, 1929
My Dear Mr. Badri,[pg 55]
I am directed by the Guardian to thank you for your letter of June 26th with enclosures.
He wishes me to express his satisfaction over the results of your election and of his appreciation of your endeavours to fulfil the various duties of the secretary despite lack of sufficient leisure and other difficulties.
With regard to your proposal that the National Spiritual Assembly should meet once in Burma and once in India, the Guardian wishes me to record his hearty approval and to even suggest that if it should be feasible they should meet even more often than that in both places.
It is his sincere hope that in this manner and through the individual effort of every member the misunderstandings existing between India and Burma will be wiped out altogether and that a fresh start will be made in a spirit of true and whole-hearted accord.
With the assurance of my keen appreciation of your efforts and of my fervent and continued prayers in your behalf.
Your true brother,
Shoghi
— 60 —
August 20, 1929
Dear Mr. Vakíl,
Shoghi Effendi wishes me to acknowledge the receipt of your letter dated July 18th 1929, and to assure you and the members of your family, of his earnest love and prayers.
He hopes that the new National Assembly will do its utmost to bring about unity in its group and among the friends. For, as he has often stated, the work of the Cause will remain cramped unless that unity is obtained. The petty differences that do exist are the result of misunderstandings and these can surely be eliminated.
We enjoyed meeting Dr. Kaushal and we hope that from now on he will play an active part in spreading the Cause. His training is surely a great asset. He has promised us much and we hope he will fulfil them…
With the assurance of my brotherly love and constant prayers for you and your dear family.
Your true brother,
Shoghi[pg 56]
— 61 —
September 19, 1929
[To Mr. N. Badri]
My Dear Friend,
I am directed by the Guardian to thank you for your letter of August 15th and for copies of letters sent on August 10th.
Your frank expression of the situation in India and your energetic desire to see things moving after years of practical stagnation, is gladly welcomed by the Guardian, and he is refreshed to see a feeling of dissatisfaction with present conditions and a desire for fresh endeavours along enlightened lines, evident among a good many of our friends in India and Burma.
It is specially gratifying to see you realize the fact that when the world has developed and been enlightened enough through the unseen Powers of the Almighty, to be led to the teachings and spirit of the Cause, it will be our shameful task to go round proclaiming such principles as we were taught so many years before and none of which we had lived up to. Concerning Ḥuqúq, the Guardian wishes me to inform you that at present it is not obligatory for the friends to pay, but that they should be urged to contribute to the local and national funds.
With the assurance of my best wishes and prayers for yeti.
Your true brother,
Shoghi
— 62 —
December 15, 1929
URGENT
The National Spiritual Assembly of India and Burma.[pg 57]
Dear Friends,
I write in behalf of the Guardian to remind you that the next issue of the “Bahá’í World” will soon appear and its editors are already busy compiling material. He has been asked by the editors in America to request you please to make a special effort to contribute as much material as you possibly can in the form of photographs, reports, accounts, and individual articles; and to send them as soon as possible to America in order that a work which the Guardian considers our foremost Bahá’í publication in the world, may be as representative of the many countries and specially Eastern peoples as we would all wish it to be.
He would also want you to encourage contributions in the form of well-written and interesting articles by all those of the friends whom you think capable.
This work will be presented in the final form for the Guardian’s approval sometime next March, so he would wish your material to reach the Guardian a month before that date…
— 63 —
December 17, 1929
My Dear Mr. Vakíl,
I am directed by the Guardian to thank you for your good letters of September 4th, November 12th and 29th with enclosures.
He was very glad that your National Spiritual Assembly meeting in Bombay was such a success and he is extremely happy of your decision to hold your next meeting in Burma, for he shares your hope that by meeting the friends in Burma and ventilating in a spirit of goodwill all past misunderstandings and problems, a new and enduring unity of purpose and effort may prevail and the Cause may make afresh start. He sincerely hopes that the illness of Siyyid Jenab ‘Alí of which he has just heard by wire will not prevent him from attending your meetings.
He is much gratified of your efforts in connection with an official recognition of the Faith and its laws by the Government. When[pg 58] that is accomplished it will mark a great and material progress of the Cause in India and Burma.
Shoghi Effendi himself and the family all join in loving greetings to yourself, your wife and the children.
My dear and precious co-worker:
I trust and pray that your gathering in Rangoon may prove a landmark n the history of the Cause in India and Burma and may lend afresh and unprecedented impetus to the onward march of the Cause in those lands. May the Beloved strengthen you and guide you and enable you to consolidate the foundations of His Faith.
Your true brother,
Shoghi
— 64 —
The proposed Declaration of Trust and By-laws of the National Assembly of India and Burma should follow closely, in subject matter, arrangement and form, the text of the American Bahá’í Constitution. I urge you to examine it carefully before you draw your own.
Shoghi
— 65 —
December 19, 1929
Dear Friend Mr. Badri,
I am directed by the Guardian to thank you for your letter of October 17th which he read with interest.
He was pleased with your many endeavours and activities and he hopes that they will lend to good results.
He corroborates your decision with regard to “Kaukab.”
It is not necessary for any National Spiritual Assembly to send a delegate to the Religion’s Peace Conference as Mr. Mills represents all the friends at their council.
With regard to the American teacher for Bombay, Shoghi Effendi will inform you when a suitable person is found…
With the assurance of my deep appreciation of your strenuous endeavors in the path of service and of my fervent prayers for your success and spiritual advancement.
Your true brother,
Shoghi