Lets Kill Gandhi

by Gandhi, Tushar A.

  Two daughters of the Chowdhury family were abducted by a gang of ruffians. They were taken to the Shahpur high school and repeatedly gang-raped. One of them was then taken to the still burning Shahpur Bazaar, murdered and her body thrown into the raging inferno. The other one escaped, lost her way, and after pleading with strangers for help was directed by a kind Muslim shopkeeper to Rajbadi in Shahpur, where she took refuge with a Hindu family. Her abductors surrounded the home and threatened them with death if they did not hand over the girl. The terrified hosts pushed the girl out into the hands of her abductors. Finally one of them, a Muslim teacher, showed mercy and took her away. He betrayed her later, however, and kept her confined. She was taken out in a boat into a flooded rice field and murdered near Khalispara, a village about half a mile from Shahpur Rajbadi. The corpse was thrown into the water to rot.

  The attack on the Chowdhurybadi resulted in the deaths of twenty-four people, sixty-nine were wounded and ninety-three were reported missing, feared dead. A five-year-old girl of the Chowdhury family, who had miraculously escaped, was presented before Gandhi when he took up residence in Dattapara refugee camp.

  The mysterious Trayambakananda, according to his own version, escaped from Chowdhurybadi after the first attack and hid in the surrounding forests. Making his way through the khals and jungles he reached Ramganj, and with a police escort reached Noakhali and then onwards to Calcutta. There he became an instant hero, revelling in the attention showered on him while revealing details of his escape.

  The charred barrel of Kali Prasanna Raut's muzzle-loader was picked up from the debris of the Chowdhurybadi by one of the looters and was used to create mischief two years later in 1948, after Gandhi's murder. One of Ghulam Sarwar's men planted the barrel in the camp run by the Gandhi Peace Mission, which was under the charge of Pyarelal Nayyar. The idea was to spread the news that a weapon used to massacre Muslims was found in the camp, thus pressurising the authorities to close down the camp and drive out the Gandhians. The allegations against the Gandhi Peace Mission were investigated by a minister of the East Bengal government. A local Muslim revealed the plot.

  A day after leading the massacre at Shahpur Bazaar and Chowdhurybadi, Sarwar sent a report to the authorities that 'goondas from outside' were responsible for the carnage and that the lives of people were in danger. He provided relief from the loot accumulated by his gangs to his victims, who having been forcibly converted to Islam, were now considered a part of his flock. Sarwar was finally arrested by the military on 22 October.

  A notable case of forced conversion was that of Harendra Ghosh, secretary of the Congress Committee of Raipur. After escaping the attack on his village, Harendra took refuge with two Muslim workers who agreed to spare him if he converted to Islam. When Harendra finally consented, a pamphlet was produced and he was made to sign it. On 15 October, Harendra was taken to a mosque at Raipur and confined there. Here he was made to sign another pamphlet, which was printed in the local press and circulated amongst Hindus to convince them to convert. He was confined in the mosque for twelve days. In his written statement to Gandhi later, Harendra recounted his days of horror: 'My daily food was beef and rice, which I was forced to eat. I was taught namaz and had to give lectures on Fridays in front of thousands of Muslims on Islamic creed and culture. Among the leaders who took part in this barbarity and met daily in the mosque morning and evening to issue directions to the gangs of murderers and arsonists were a local member of the Legislative Assembly, secretary of the Thana Muslim League, two secretaries of the Union Peace Committee, two presidents of Union Boards and a zamindar, landowner'.

  The local Harijans too were not spared, even though Jinnah tried to win them over by successfully getting the Congress classified as a 'caste Hindu' organisation and then nominating a Harijan from Bengal as a member of the interim government from the Muslim League's quota. In Noakhali, only those who converted were spared.

  However, there were instances of the two communities helping each other. At Bhatialpur, a Muslim stood between a Hindu doctor and a mob out to kill him. He finally managed to save Dr Chandrashekhar Bhowmik, who later joined the Gandhi Peace Mission and served as a translator for Pyarelal Nayyar. The same Muslim later saved Pyarelal Nayyar, who was once waylaid by a gang while he was rushing to diffuse a volatile situation in a village under the jurisdiction of his peace camp.

  In Delhi, Gandhi was troubled by the events in Bengal and the repercussions it would have all over the country. He knew that India would only survive if Hindus and Muslims lived amicably. Day after day he pleaded for sanity to prevail, first from Sevagram and then from his camp in New Delhi. On 24 October, just as the evening prayers were about to commence in the courtyard between Valmiki temple and the rooms occupied by Gandhi, a band of RSS workers disrupted the meeting and refused to allow verses from the Koran to be recited. They pushed through the audience and advanced towards the spot where Gandhi was sitting, holding anti-Muslim placards and shouting slogans. It was later revealed that Narayan D. Apte and Nathuram Godse were part of this group.

  In consultation with Nehru and Patel, Gandhi decided to leave for Calcutta en route to Noakhali on 28 October. At the prayer meeting on the 28th, Gandhi said he was going to Bengal to try and bridge the gap between the two communities. He wanted to console the women and children. He also wanted to try and meet the governor and the chief minister, and then proceed to Noakhali. The next morning he left with a small band of handpicked followers.

  PEACE PILGRIM

  Gandhi was travelling on this route after a gap of thirteen years and thousands of people thronged the stations to catch a glimpse of him. The railway authorities tried every means at their disposal to disperse the crowds, even using improvised water cannons to drive them away.

  While he was journeying towards Calcutta, Bihar erupted. Hundreds of refugees from East Bengal had reached the north-eastern parts of Bihar. Stories about the plight of Hindus in Noakhali incited the Biharis and fanatical Hindus from all over India, who chose to inflict their revenge on the Muslims in Bihar. Bihar was a predominantly impoverished agrarian state; villages and settlements are systematically divided on lines of religion and caste. The Hindu hordes identified isolated Muslim settlements and villages and efficiently annihilated scores of such settlements, not sparing even a single inhabitant. The violence rapidly spread to the larger towns, and finally to the capital Patna, within a week.

  On reaching Calcutta, Gandhi and his group were taken directly to Satish Chandra Dasgupta's Khadi Pratishthan Ashram at Sodepore. A gathering of several hundred people had been patiently waiting for Gandhi. Addressing them, he said that he had come with a blank mind to do God's will.

  Suhrawardy suffered from delusions of grandeur. He had styled his office on the lines of the private courts of Mughal emperors, and received guests into his court, stretched out on a mattress. He made no exception for his meeting with Gandhi. 'How is it Shaheed Saheb, everybody calls you the chief of the criminals? Nobody seems to have a good word to say about you!' Gandhi said. In response, he had replied with impudence, 'Mahatmaji, don't people say things about you, too, behind your back?'

  'That may be,' replied Gandhi laughing. 'Still there are some who call me Mahatma. But I have not heard a single person calling you, Shaheed Suhrawardy, a Mahatma!' Suhrawardy shamelessly replied, 'Mahatmaji, don't believe what people say about you in your presence!'

  With this opening the two sat down to hammer out a peace plan for Bengal. The document that emerged envisaged a peace maintained by mutual cooperation and trust without the fear of external force or under duress of the British. The Muslims and Hindus would be equally responsible. The government of Bengal would guarantee the peace, 'a peace not imposed from without by the aid of the military and the Police but by spontaneous heart-felt effort... it is our certain conviction that Pakistan cannot be brought about by communal strife nor can India be kept whole through the same means. It is also our conviction that there can be no conversion or marri
age by force; nor has abduction any place in a society which has any claim to be called decent or civilised.' A committee comprising an equal number of Hindus and Muslims would be formed under the chairmanship of the chief minister, who gave a guarantee that his government would implement the decisions of the Peace Committee.

  Meanwhile, Nehru, Patel, Liaquat Ali Khan and the infamous Sardar Abdur Rab Nishtar rushed to Patna to take stock of the situation and defuse it at the earliest. They assured Gandhi that they would bring Bihar back to normalcy, but their assurances proved to be futile; the poison had spread rampantly. It could only be countered by Gandhi's methods. Before leaving for Noakhali, Gandhi informed his associates and the people of India that he would henceforth consume only the barest minimum food necessary to survive and if things did not change in Noakhali and Bihar he would give up food totally until peace was established. To Nehru he wrote: 'The news from Bihar has shaken me. My own duty seems to be clear.... Although I have striven hard to avert a fast, 1 can do so no longer.... My inner voice tells me, 'you may not live to be a witness to this senseless slaughter. If people refuse to see what is clear as daylight and pay no heed to what you say, does it not mean that your day is over? The logic of the argument is driving me irresistibly towards a fast. I, therefore, propose to issue a statement that unless this orgy of madness ceases, I must go on a fast unto death.... You can strive with me, if you think differently. Whatever you say will carry weight with me. But knowing as you do my temperament, I am sure you will approve of my proposed step. In any event, you will go on with your work without a moment's thought about my possible death and leave me to God's good care. No worry allowed.'

  Before leaving for Noakhali he issued an appeal addressed to the people of Bihar, entitled: 'To Bihar': 'Bihar of my dreams seems to have falsified them.... It is easy enough to retort that things under the Muslim League Government in Bengal were no better, if not worse, and that Bihar is merely a result of the latter. A bad act of one party is no justification for a similar act by the opposing party.... Is counter communalism any answer to the communalism of which Congressmen have accused the Muslim League? Is it nationalism to seek barbarously to crush the fourteen per cent of the Muslims in Bihar?

  'I do not need to be told that I must not condemn the whole of Bihar for the sake of the sins of a few thousand Biharis ... I am afraid, if the misconduct in Bihar continues, all the Hindus in India will be condemned by the world. I am in no way ashamed of my Ahimsa.... But I do not want in this letter to talk of Ahimsa to you. I do want, however, to tell you that what you are reported to have done ... is worse than cowardice. It is unworthy of nationalism, or any religion.... What you have done is to degrade yourselves and drag down India.'

  On 6 November, Gandhi and his band of peacemakers, accompanied by representatives of the Bengal government, left by a special train for Noakhali. Accompanying him were the Bengal government's minister for labour, Shamshuddin Ahmed, two parliamentary secretaries, Nasrullah Khan and Abdur Rashid; they were entrusted with ensuring the cooperation of the local officers during Gandhi's peace mission to Noakhali. Initially the daughters of both Suhrawardy and Nasrullah Khan were to accompany Gandhi, but the plan was abandoned after Suhrawardy was 'advised' that two unveiled Muslim girls travelling through Noakhali would 'offend' the sensitivities of the fanatical mullahs of Noakhali.

  Large crowds greeted Gandhi at Khustia and Goalando, where he told the crowds that the Hindu-Muslim unity that was achieved during the Khilafat Movement of the early 1920s would reawaken in Bengal due to his visit. Goalando was the last stop on the railhead, the onward journey of over a hundred miles would be made by boats down the Padma river. They reached Chandpur late at night where a telegram from Patel was handed over to Gandhi. He wanted to reply to it immediately but none of the phone or telegraph lines were working. The night was spent on the boat anchored in midstream. The next morning the entourage alighted to continue the journey by train to Chaumuhani in Noakhali. Before they disembarked, two delegations waited on Gandhi; one Muslim, the other Hindu. The Muslim delegation comprised prominent Muslim Leaguers who were very resentful about the peace delegation. Their contention was that the news about the happenings in Noakhali were hugely exaggerated and that it was a motivated campaign to tarnish and discredit the Muslim League. They claimed that, in the districts of Noakhali and Tipperah, only fifteen Hindus had been killed, whereas in the indiscriminate firing by the largely Hindu Army, more than thirty innocent Muslims had been killed.

  The district magistrate of Noakhali, Mclnerny, had issued an official notice, which was shown to Gandhi. The notice said that, unless, proved to the contrary, he would assume 'that everyone who accepted Islam after the disturbances was forcibly converted and in fact remained a Hindu'. Reading the notice Gandhi said that if all the Muslims endorsed the notice it would go a long way to settle the question. Why should there be a public show of it, if anybody genuinely felt inclined to recite the kalima? The members of the Muslim delegation had come with prejudiced minds. Thinking that Gandhi would severely reprimand and accuse them they had come prepared with strategies of counter-attacking every accusation and condemnation. But although Gandhi was severe, he did not condemn the entire community. He even objected to the use of the military and police to enforce peace and was critical of the exodus and large scale immigration of the Hindus.

  The second delegation that morning was a group of about twenty Hindus, which comprised eminent Congress workers of the area and former revolutionaries who had taken part in the famous Chittagong Armoury Raid. They demanded that the Muslim police officers, constabulary and Muslim members of the military be removed and replaced by Hindus. To this Gandhi said: 'I come from Kathiawad—the land of petty principalities. No woman's honour is safe in some of these principalities and the chief is no hooligan but a duly anointed one.'

  And so they argued. The Hindus wanted all sorts of protection. They maintained that since they were in a minority in Bengal, they were not in a position to defend themselves. Gandhi replied that, even if there was only one surviving Hindu in Bengal, he wanted him to possess the confidence and courage to live in the midst of Muslims and die, if he must, like a hero.

  'The proportion of Muslims and Hindus here is six to one. How can you expect us to face such heavy odds?'

  'When India was brought under British subjugation, there were only 70,000 European soldiers against 330 million Indians.'

  'We have no arms. The hooligans have the backing of government bayonets.'

  Describing the satyagraha in South Africa, Gandhi gave the example of a minute Indian community rising to demand equal rights from an overwhelming armed European community with all the might of the government. 'The Europeans had arms. We had none. So we forged the weapon of satyagraha. Today an Indian is respected by the White man in South Africa, not so the Zulu with all his fine physique.'

  'Would you permit Hindus to take the offensive?'

  'The people of Bihar did that and brought disgrace upon themselves and India. I have heard it said that the retaliation in Bihar has "cooled" the Muslims down. They mean it has set the clock of Indian independence backwards. The independence of India is today at stake in Bengal and Bihar. The British government entrusted the Congress with power at the Centre not because they were in love with the Congress but because they had faith that the Congress would use it wisely and well. Today Pandit Nehru finds the ground slipping from under his feet. But he will not let that happen. That is why he is in Bihar. Use your arms well, if you must, but do not ill use them. Bihar has not used its arms well.... The best succour that Bihar could have given to the Hindus of East Bengal would have been to guarantee with their own lives the absolute safety of the Muslim population living in their midst.'

  At the next railway station, Laksham, a large crowd of refugees had gathered to plead their case with Gandhi. He assured them that he would not leave Bengal till peace was restored and added, 'Why should you be afraid of the cry of Allah-o-Akbar} The Allah of Isl
am is the same as the Rama of Hindus. To run away from danger instead of facing it is to deny one's faith in man and God and even oneself. It were better far to drown oneself than live to declare such bankruptcy of faith.'

  Gandhi and his entourage reached Chaumuhani on the afternoon of 7 November. Sucheta Kripalani, who had come to the area as a relief provider along with the advance party had extensively travelled in the region, now reported her findings to Gandhi and was disconsolate at what she had witnessed in the interiors. She told him that the peacemakers' task was not going to be easy. There was rot all around; water sources had been polluted due to the rotting cadavers and there was an acute shortage of food grains. Due to the rift in the two communities it was difficult to find casual labourers to do menial tasks. Kripalani reported that a new way of creating mischief had begun to discredit the volunteers—rumours had been spread that he was bringing an army of Hindu criminals, and that the military and police personnel accompanying Gandhi were going to harass and persecute the 'innocent' Muslims. But the rumours did not work. More than 15,000 people came to hear Gandhi speak—and the crowd largely comprised Muslims.