Lets Kill Gandhi

by Gandhi, Tushar A.

  That night the League minister Shamshuddin Mohammad, accompanied by his colleagues and representatives of local Muslims, came to meet Gandhi to discuss ways of bringing about peace in the area. On the morning of 9 November, Gandhi started on his journey into the interior villages of the district of Noakhali. He was accompanied by the two parliamentary secretaries, the district magistrate and the superintendent of police. A majority of the farmers had been killed in these districts, while others had fled to refugee camps. A fatwa had been issued ordering Muslims not to work for Hindus. A social, cultural and economic boycott of Hindus was enforced in the two districts. In the midst of a bountiful harvest, the districts were faced with a man-made scarcity of food.

  Gopairbag was the first village they visited. Here amidst thick groves of arecanut and betelnut palms, were five clusters of huts of Hindu families surrounded by nearly fifty times as many Muslim families. One of the Hindu homes belonged to a rich patwari who had an estate valued at several hundred thousand rupees. This had been the scene of one of the most barbarous massacres, rape, pillage and arson. The patwari's family had been singled out for 'special treatment'; twenty-one male members of the twenty-three had been rounded up and butchered during the first attack. The two survivors who escaped were eyewitnesses to the entire episode. The perpetrator and leader of the massacre was a neighbour, Qasim Ali, an ex-Royal Air Force man, who had been absconding since the attack and no one dared to testify against him.

  The next day Gandhi shifted his camp from Chaumuhani to Dattapara, to be able to visit more affected villages in the interiors. That evening he addressed the prayer gathering, where over eighty percent of the people present were Muslims. He said, 'I want to assure you that I am a servant of both the Hindus and the Muslims. I have not come here to fight Pakistan. If India is destined to be partitioned, I cannot prevent it. But I wish to tell you that Pakistan cannot be established by force.... I ask my Muslim brethren to search their hearts and if they do not wish to live as friends with the Hindus, say so openly. The Hindus must in that case leave East Bengal and go somewhere else. The refugees cannot stay on as refugees forever. But even if every Hindu of East Bengal goes away, I shall still continue to live amidst the Muslims of East Bengal. If, on the other hand, you want the Hindus to stay in your midst, you should tell them that they need not look to the military for protection but to their Muslim brethren instead.'

  The effects of the partial fast were telling on the seventy-seven-year-old Gandhi. His diet was less than six hundred calories per day. Finally, to conserve his strength, after much deliberation, he allowed himself to be carried to and from the prayer grounds on a chair slung on a bamboo pole and carried by two members of his party. His voice had become feeble and his face was deeply lined with anguish. But when he spoke there was no trace of anger nor did he become impatient. His speeches were brutally honest, hiding nothing, holding back nothing, suppressing nothing. On 11 November, Gandhi visited Noakhola, Sonachak and Khilpara, all of them under Ramgunj police station. They travelled by car and then by small dugout boats that were poled through the waterways. Noakhola had witnessed the murder of eight members of a Hindu household, including a fifteen-year-old boy. At Sonachak, Gandhi saw that a settlement of more than a hundred households had been systematically looted, burnt and partially razed. The next day, while he was addressing a prayer meeting attended mostly by refugees, a maulvi declared that the Muslims were feeling 'unhappy and even frightened' by the prospect of their Hindu brethren leaving East Bengal. He assured the gathering that the Muslims 'in their thousands' would welcome them back in their midst. Gandhi reminded him that he wanted only sincerity and not empty talk. The return of the refugees was not an easy task, he said, and added that no scheme of repatriation would work unless the Muslim League sincerely cooperated.

  After visiting Gomatoli and Nandigram, the first phase of the pilgrimage through Noakhali was completed. The next phase was to be a new experiment in the armoury of ahimsa and its most dexterous exponent. The same devastation greeted Gandhi at Nandigram: a village of nearly six hundred homes, a school, hostel and hospital had been reduced to ashes. On 14 November, Gandhi shifted his camp from Dattapara to Kazirkhil, moving into the heart of the devastated areas. On the way he stopped at Shampur, the epicentre of the violence. Shampur was the stronghold of the self-styled supreme commander, Mian Ghulam Sarwar. Before Gandhi's arrival, Sarwar had spread a rumour that the Mahatma was accompanied by a large posse of police and his entourage comprised plainclothes police who would utilise the planned public meeting to identify and arrest Muslims. This lead to a semi boycott of the meeting by the local Muslims.

  At Kazirkhil, Gandhi's camp was set up in the partially destroyed home of a prosperous local Hindu. An advance party of volunteers had cleaned the place and made it habitable. Speaking after the evening prayers, Gandhi observed that he found peace around him but not on the faces of the people around. He had carried on a grim struggle against the government for twenty years in South Africa and for the past thirty years in India. But he had resolved not to leave Bengal empty-handed. Four miles to the south-east of Kazirkhil was the village of Dasgharia. Bibi Amtus Salam, a devout Muslim woman follower of Gandhi and an inmate of his ashram, had established a relief camp here. Practically all the abducted women who had been forcibly converted to Islam had been rescued due to her efforts. One positive transformation that Gandhi's peace mission brought about in Noakhali was that, before long, all those who had been forcibly converted were able to revert to his or her original faith. Gandhi then decided that he would disperse his band of peacemakers. Each one would be sent to one village where they would establish camps for rehabilitation and peacemaking. He told them that this was the supreme test of his faith in ahimsa. 'Either ahimsa is the law of life or it is not.' He recalled how a friend used to argue with him about his belief in ahimsa. He would say that the ahimsa sutra in Patanjali's Yoga Sutra—Ahimsa pratishthayam tatsannidhau vairatyagah (all enmity vanishes in the presence of perfect ahimsa)—was wrong and needed to be amended; and the saying ahimsa paramodharmah (non-violence is the highest religion) ought to read ahimsa parmo-adharma, (nonviolence is the height of irreligion). Gandhi believed that if at this crucial moment he lost his faith in non-violence, he must accept the amendment, adding that if 'ahimsa disappears, Hinduism disappears.'

  One of the members of his party remarked, 'The issue is not religious but political. It is not a movement against the Hindu but against the Congress.'

  Gandhi replied saying, 'Don't you see they think that the Congress is purely a Hindu body? And do not forget that I have no watertight divisions such as religious, political and others. Is the tangle to be solved violently, or non-violently—that is the question.' In a letter to a friend he wrote: 'The work I am engaged in here may be my last act. If I return from here alive and unscathed, it will be like a new birth to me. My ahimsa is being tried here through and through as it was never before.' Gandhi declared that for the duration of his stay in East Bengal he would live in the home of a Muslim, preferably a Muslim Leaguer approved by the Bengal ministry. During his talks with Abdul Gofran he made the request, but the minister was taken aback. How would he live in the house of a complete stranger? Who would look after him? 'I will look after myself; I shall need nobody's attention,' Gandhi replied.

  'Then, I am afraid,' Gofran replied, 'no Muslim family will be prepared to receive you!' But Gandhi's mind was made up. He knew that if the Hindus saw him living alone with a Muslim League friend; it may bring about a change of heart. The Muslims, too, would be able to examine him from close quarters. 'When I was in detention in the Aga Khan Palace,' he remarked, 'I once sat down to write a thesis on India as a protagonist of non-violence. There are, as we know, two aspects of Hinduism. On the one hand is the historical Hinduism with its untouchability, superstitious worship, animal sacrifice and so on. On the other hand, we have the Hinduism of the Gita, the Upanishads and Patanjali's Yoga Sutra, which is the acme of ahimsa, oneness of al
l creation, pure worship of one Immanent, formless, imperishable God. Ahimsa, I believe, is the way of life and India has to show it to the world.'

  On 20 November, Gandhi took leave of his entourage. Accompanied by his stenographer and Professor Nirmal Kumar Bose, who doubled as his interpreter, they embarked in a canoe made out of split bamboos. In a statement Gandhi said: 'I find myself in the midst of exaggeration and falsity. I am unable to discover the truth. There is a terrible mutual distrust. Truth and ahimsa by which I swear, and which have to my knowledge sustained me for sixty years, seem to fail to show the attributes I have ascribed to them. To test them, or better to test myself, I am going to a village called Srirampur, cutting myself away from those who have been with me all these years, and who have made life easy for me.... The other workers, whom I have brought with me, will each distribute themselves in other villages of Noakhali to do the work of peace, if it is at all possible, between the two communities.... Many friends from outside Bengal have written to me to allow them to come for peace work but I have strongly dissuaded them from coming. I would love to let them come if and when I see light through this impenetrable darkness. In the meantime.... I have decided to suspend all other activities in the shape of correspondence, including the heavy work of Harijan and the allied weeklys....'

  After travelling for two and a half hours down the khal, the canoe docked at Srirampur, a tiny village falling under the Ramgunj police station. Gandhi alighted from the craft and carried his personal effects to the small tin hut that had been arranged for his stay. The hut was an abandoned dwelling of a Hindu family that had fled during the riots. Before the violence, Srirampur had been home to 382 Muslim and 200 Hindu families. Now only three Hindu families remained, the rest had fled in terror. Gandhi spread his mattress on a wooden plank, which was to be his bed at night and office during the day for the next six weeks. He arranged his books and writing material and other personal paraphernalia neatly in the room. The hut was in the midst of a clearing, surrounded by pools and lush green paddy fields.

  For the past few years Abha, Gandhi's grand-niece-in-law, had been taking care of him, and he had come to depend on her services. She had accompanied him to Noakhali too, but he had assigned her to work in a rehabilitation camp established by Thakker Bappa in the Char Mandal area of Noakhali district. 'I must own that I was getting accustomed to her service almost as a matter of habit,' he wrote. 'But the habit of taking service from a particular individual is inconsistent with austerity.' His daily diet here consisted of a pound of goat's milk diluted with an equal volume of vegetable soup as the mid-day meal. For dinner he had the same combination with the addition of a grapefruit.

  We can get an idea of his daily activities in Srirampur from his diaries which have excerpted from Pyarelal's book.

  Srirampur, 21st November, 1946

  Conducted the Morning Prayer myself with the exception of the Gita chapters. After prayer wrote letters to X.Y. and Z.A Maulvi attached to the Howrah Mosque [Noakhali] had a talk with me during the morning walk. A. and B. [two Hindu workers] came afterwards and had a long talk. Told them that people had to take their courage in both hands and return to their villages, especially where there is a good Hindu with a good Muslim to give guarantee of safety and protection....

  Massaged the body with my own hands but had to forgo a shave [for lack of time]. Had curdled milk with vegetable soup for mid-day meal. Some Muslims... saw me before the evening prayer; some more followed after the prayer. Made enquiries about local Muslims.... Had a two hour talk with M. and his friends. Diet the same as yesterday but without the Grapefruit.

  Srirampur, 22nd November, 1946

  Rose at 4 am. The Gita recitation took two hours. Pronunciation of the reciter was very unsatisfactory.

  Wrote to R. that his son [who recently lost his wife] should not remarry, or marry a widow if he must.

  Visited a Muslim badi at 7.30 am. The way was long. It took a full 20 minutes to get there—55 minutes coming and going.

  Gave myself massage like yesterday.... At 10.30 a number of visitors came. After they had gone, had a short nap with mud-pack on the abdomen. Spun for one hour. Abdullah [the superintendent of police] with some others came for the meeting at Ramgunj in the evening. Started at 4 pm with them for Ramgunj. Reached Ramgunj at 5.20 pm. The meeting continued till 10.30 pm. Addressed a few words at the end.... Had evening prayer on the boat on the return journey and then some sleep. Had milk while proceeding to Ramgunj; hot water on return. Reached Srirampur at midnight.

  Srirampur, 23rd November, 1946

  Recited the Gita chapters [during the morning prayer] also myself. In future R is to recite the Gita only when he has sufficiently mastered the pronunciations. Had an English hymn sung at the prayer.

  Completed the statement on the death of Malaviyaji. Visited a Muslim house at 7.30 am talked about the Koran to the inmates. Later they sent a present of Coconuts and Oranges.

  Massage was given by N. so that I was able to have a forty minute nap on the massage table. Leafy vegetable served at mid-day was very bitter. Took it with 1 oz. of coconut milk ... next unsuccessfully tried to have a doze of sleep—nausea and griping. Dozed off with mud-pack on the abdomen while proceeding to Ramgunj.... Had to stop the boat on account of violent diarrhoea and vomiting ... felt relieved.... Reached Ramgunj at 5 pm. Had another motion during the recess but was able to address the meeting at the end without difficulty. Started on the return journey at 8.15 pm. ... Reached Srirampur at 11 pm.... Completed the daily quota of spinning, partly on the boat while proceeding for the meeting and partly at the meeting itself.

  After a day's gruelling work on 1 December, Gandhi wrote: 'The back aches. Revised an article for Harijan lying in bed. Dozed off in the middle.' Gandhi was ambidextrous; and the entry for 2 December reads: 'Must stop. Even the left hand now aches and has struck work. To bed 9.30 pm'.

  On 8 December, his diary records the following with reference to a slip in the observance of his weekly silence: 'I see my discipline of silence is only skin deep. Silence is a great art, not easy to master'.

  On 20 December, Gandhi completed one month at Srirampur. 'He is [now] a friend of both the communities here', ran a press despatch. 'Muslims and Hindus of the village do not hesitate to come to him to seek his help. He is their friend, philosopher and guide.... In his lonely life he tries to do everything himself ... cooking his own food ... arranging his own things, massaging his own body and acting as his own doctor'. 'Mahatma Gandhi is spending most of his time in attending the poor and the sick', ran another despatch. 'Yesterday morning he visited a Muslim's house where he saw patients treated by Dr. Sushila Nayyar. In the afternoon he visited another Muslim's house to give medical aid. In the evening he paid a visit to the Press camp and attended to a bed-ridden journalist'. 'He walks fast', said one report. 'Last Saturday he walked with excellent speed through the narrow village road, crossing two precarious bridges and covering about 2 miles in 40 minutes. He has also increased his evening and morning walks....' Another report said: 'Gandhiji does not like to be surrounded by workers or other people. None is allowed to stay in his camp for the night except in cases of emergency. One man travelled all the way from Nagpur but he was immediately sent back after his special job here was finished. One woman who had been on fast came here yesterday and broke her fast before Gandhiji.... She also was sent back straightaway.'

  On a visit to a local maulvi's house, Gandhi learnt that of a total population of 1,400, there was only one matriculate, and only 40 could read and write. One thousand of them could recite the Koran, but none of them could understand what they were reciting. And yet the maulvi claimed that there had been a large number of 'voluntary' and 'natural' conversions to Islam. Gandhi noted in his diary: 'It is awful to keep them [Muslims] in darkness as to the meaning of their scripture.' Thereafter, whenever he spoke to Muslims, he discussed the Koran with them and explained the meanings of the ayats, to the best of his ability. This angered many of the mullahs
as they felt he was encroaching on their territory. Gandhi now decided to learn Bengali so that he wouldn't have to depend on an interpreter. Like everything else, he took to learning the language diligently. A note in the diary of one of his contemporaries proves Gandhi's earnestness: To practice Bengali character writing, he drew squares in his exercise book like a lower form schoolboy. When I twitted him for it, he replied, "That is how my teacher used to teach us to draw characters of the alphabet. It is an excellent method. People think that one ceases to be a student when his schooldays are over. With me it is the other way about. I hold that so long as I live, I must have a student's inquiring mind and a thirst for learning". After having his fruit juice he began to pore over his Bengal primer. While doing so, he dozed off for about ten minutes, waking up at 7.15 am. At 7.25 am we started on our day's march, reaching ... at 8.25 am after full one hour's walk. Immediately on his arrival there, he again sat down to do his Bengali lesson'. This diligence continued till the last day of his life. The last exercise was done a few hours before his murder on 30 January 1948.

  A conference comprising thirty Hindus, Muslims and government representatives was held at the Ramgunj Dak Bungalow on 22 November. A plan for the establishment of peace according to the suggestions submitted by the Bengal government was hammered out; and a nucleus for a peace committee for Ramgunj Police Station was formed. The peace committee, according to the unanimously adopted formula, comprised an equal number of Hindus and Muslims. Peace committees, village unions and a police station were also formed for the villages. In the case of any disagreements, the district magistrate would be the final arbiter with full powers. The peace committee was to work extensively to restore confidence amongst the victims. They were to restore the dwellings of returning refugees; provide food, provisions and clothing to the refugees; draw up lists of criminals and activate their arrest.