On the morning of 19 January, just as the party was to leave Badalkot for Atakora, they realised that heavy dew had rendered the footpaths very slippery. The path was narrow and they could only walk in a single file. Twice, Col. Jiwan Singh nearly lost his footing. Even as he was struggling to get up, Gandhi offered him the end of his walking stick to pull himself up. Atakora was only two miles from Badalkot but it took them a whole hour to reach. The next day the party left for Sirandi where Bibi Amtus Salam, a devout Muslim follower of Gandhi, had been working. She had been on a fast for the past twenty-five days to protest against some local Muslims. Bibi was a strict Muslim and held the unity of the two communities as the supreme goal of her life. During the recent riots she had rushed to many troubled spots in Delhi, Calcutta and Dacca and tried to bring the situation under control. Gandhi arrived at Sirandi where a large gathering of local Muslims met him and pleaded with him to convince Bibi Amtus Salam to give up her fast. Gandhi was aware that she only craved for peace between the Hindus and Muslims, and if that was guaranteed she could be convinced to end her fast. Gandhi prepared a declaration for their signatures, which was signed by eleven leading Muslims from four villages. The twelfth member, who had first spoken on behalf of the Muslim assembly, did not sign. He had gone to 'attend a meeting' several miles away. He was made to sign the declaration the following morning. Gandhi then explained the significance of the signed pledge to Bibi Amtus Salam and after the recitation o(Al-Fateha Bibi Amtus Salam broke her fast by having three ounces of orange juice from a glass held by Gandhi.
After Sirandi, Gandhi moved to Kethuri on 22 January. He was exhausted both physically and mentally, and spiritually drained after the hectic activities at Sirandi. The next morning, while going through a sheaf of papers after the morning prayers, he dozed off. It was time to leave on the day's journey and a large number of people were waiting outside, but Manu dared not wake him up. Finally, when Gandhi woke up, he was annoyed with himself that, due to a moment's weakness, the day's schedule had been delayed by a few minutes. He had always believed that every moment of one's time was a sacred trust from God to be used strictly in His service. 'When people have been told we are to start at seven, it must be at the stroke of seven. Unpunctuality is a sin.'
During the march to Paniala, the next halt, Manu sang a new Ramdhun, which she had heard as little girl, while attending a religious service in a Vaishnava temple in Porbandar, her hometown. It had stayed with her and spontaneously surfaced that morning.
A large number of survivors attended that evening's prayer meeting. After the prayer at Paniala, Gandhi was subjected to a barrage of angry questions from a group of Muslim League hecklers, which he had to handle deftly to pacify their tempers. Although politiking and negotiations were happening in Delhi, in the backwaters of Bengal Gandhi was often approached by aggrieved people. There was a constant onslaught of leaders and delegations chasing Gandhi for advice.
Assam was in a dilemma; being clubbed with the Muslim League-ruled Bengal and majority Muslim East Bengal, would prevent it from having any say in which side it would remain with and in the drafting of the constitution. Gandhi's advice to them was to walk out of the Section in the Constituent Assembly unless there was a guarantee that a constitution unacceptable to Assam's representatives would not be sought to be forced upon it by the representatives of the other provinces in the Section. This caused a great deal of anger in the Muslim League and Gandhi was accused of having double standards. He was asked how he could give such advice if he was working towards Hindu-Muslim unity; also, after this advice to Assam, how could the Muslim League join the Constituent Assembly? He replied that he had given no advice to Assam beyond what was implied in the Cabinet Mission's plan and was inherent in the character and tradition of the Congress organisation. There was nothing in it that was incompatible with his aim of realising communal unity or which could make it impossible for the Muslim League to enter the Constituent Assembly.
The hecklers also brought up the situation of Muslim trespassers in Assam. The Muslim League government of Bengal had launched an invasion of Assam to alter the communal ratio of the state's population. Muslim immigrants, and specifically Muslim League National Guards styling themselves as Khilji dastas or columns, were infiltrating Assam in groups of seventeen. They were imitating the thirteenth century invader Bakhtiar Khilji who had invaded Gaur, present day Bengal, with a troupe of seventeen horseriders, who swooped down on the capital Navadip, present day Nadia, shouting Allah-o-Akbar'. The modern-day Khilji dastas took illegal possession of vacant government lands in Assam and refused to vacate them. This forced the Congress government there to forcefully evict the illegal encroachers. This decision had been taken in consultation with Muhammad Sadullah, the leader of the Muslim League party in the Assam Legislative Assembly. It was purely an administrative issue and the measures taken by the Assam government were well within the purview of maintaining law and order, but the Muslim League used the issue to whip up communal frenzy and accuse the Congress government in Assam of perpetrating atrocities on the Muslim population. Gandhi was accused of remaining silent on this by the Muslim League's hecklers in Paniala. He calmly replied that illegal trespassers, merely because they happened to be Muslim or Bengalis, could not claim exemption from the operation of the common law. The Muslim League used this to insinuate that Gandhi was partial towards Hindus.
Gandhi's next stop was the village of Muraim. Some of the women there were veiled, but the village maulvi gently rebuked them saying: 'We are blessed today to have a man of God like him in our midst. Our community today suffers from the stigma of shedding the blood of our Hindu brethren. He has come to free us of this stain. It is absurd to observe purdah in his purifying presence.' The next day the maulvi walked half-way with Gandhi to Hirapur. In Hirapur there were only two Hindu families. The prayer gathering that evening was the biggest during Gandhi's entire pilgrimage.
On 26 January, which had been celebrated as independence day for the past seventeen years since the Congress had taken the pledge of swaraj and pledged to drive out the British on 26 January 1930, Gandhi and his tiny entourage reached Bansa. Even during his last imprisonment, Gandhi had defied the British authorities by hoisting the Tricolour. After stopping in Palla, the party headed towards Panchgaon. The hostility that gripped the Hindus and Muslims was illustrated by an incident that happened there. As was her practice, Manu went to visit the Muslim women in their homes. This time she was refused entry and doors were slammed in her face. An old Muslim woman came out and, pressing a roti in her hands, asked Manu to eat it. To her horror Manu saw that she had been given a piece of fish also; she told the old woman that she was a strict vegetarian. The woman exclaimed bitterly, A Hindu is after all a Hindu', referring to the practice of orthodox Hindus not eating food with a Muslim, 'how can we then believe that Gandhi has come here to establish Hindu-Muslim unity!' To reassure her Manu tore off a piece of the roti without touching the fish and ate it. Only after this did women from other homes step out and meet Manu. When Manu reported the incident to Gandhi, he was shocked at the extent to which distrust had spread.
The campaign continued at Jayag. The new Ramdhun, which was revived at Paniala, underwent further modifications.
'Thou art the purifier of the fallen,
Ishawar and Allah are Thy names,
Do Thou grant right understanding to all men,
Krishna and Karim are Thy names,
So are Rama and Rahim,
Do thou grant right understanding to all men.'
The new version gave the Muslim hardliners another excuse to attack Gandhi. They objected to the clubbing together of the names of Hindu gods with Muslim prophets. They warned him not to recite ayats from the Koran, saying that as he was not a Muslim, he had no right to do so.
Gandhi reached Amki on 30 January. His faith in the name of the Lord was put to a severe test here. As goat's milk was not available, he agreed to have coconut milk and also for coconut oil to be su
bstituted for goat's butter. Accordingly he had eight ounces of coconut milk; however, this change in diet brought on a severe bout of diarrhoea. By the evening he was totally drained and exhausted. Manu noticed that he was perspiring profusely. As he sank down, she called out to Prof. Nirmal Bose for help. Together they lifted and carried him to his bed. She hurriedly scribbled a note summoning Dr. Sushila Nayyar and was about to give it to Prof. Bose when Gandhi opened his eyes. 'I did not like your calling Nirmal Babu,' he said to her. 'You are yet a child. I can, therefore, excuse you. But what I had really expected of you was that on an occasion like this, you would do nothing but take the Lord's name. I was chanting his name all this while. Do not inform anybody about it, not even Sushila. Rama alone is my true doctor. He will keep me alive so long as He wants to take work from me, otherwise he will take me away.' Manu tried to hide the note she had scribbled for Dr. Nayyar but Gandhi noticed it. 'So, you have already written?' he asked and Manu nodded. He said, 'Today God has saved both you and me. Sushila would have left her work in her village and rushed to me. It would have made me angry with myself and with you. I have today been put to the test. If His name has really established dominion over my heart I shall not die of illness. And this law holds good not only in respect of me but that of everybody.'
At his next stop, Amishapura, a large crowd greeted him. An ex-airman, who had deserted from the Air Force and had taken on an assumed identity, had joined Gandhi's entourage. Many deserters and ex-revolutionaries had thus been welcomed by Gandhi. Some of them became his most trusted co-workers. The man had been accepted into the 'family' on the condition that he was to remain with Gandhi and work under his direct supervision. However, on reaching Amishapura, the ex-airman broke away and declared that he would work independently of the peace workers. Gandhi immediately alerted the authorities as the man was from Malabar and his unsupervised activities could be dangerous both for him and the district.
In the midst of this, there were growing fears that, while Gandhi supported agrarian reforms through non-violent movements, vested interests might selectively exploit his support to launch a violent movement. Wouldn't it therefore be incorrect of him to support a movement which would result in the utter ruination of the entire Bengali middle class? Would this not ultimately affect the common villagers, too, by depriving them of the services which were being rendered to the village economy by the landlords? Pyarelal writes: 'Gandhiji answered that he was not in a position to deliver a verdict on the actual merits or demerits of the local issues of which he had not made sufficient study. He could only speak in terms of general principles. The landlord's land was not to be confiscated; only his share was to be reduced. Surely that could not spell his "utter ruin". It was wrong to allow themselves to be obsessed by the communal aspect of the question. "It might be that in Noakhali the landlords were mostly Hindus. But if the legislation itself is sound it should not matter whom it affected". They should examine every problem strictly on its merits. His advice to the landowners, therefore, was that they should accept the principle underlying the demand for the reduction of the owner's share and work for solid amendments. "I see a time coming when all land will belong to the State, i.e., the tiller of the soil. For years past India has lived through confiscation. Why invite the risk of confiscation by resisting moderate reduction? For, much as I would like it, there is no guarantee that under independence, the state would be conducted on wholly non-violent lines". He concluded: "It goes without saying that the utter ruin, i.e., the liquidation of the landowners brought through violence would ultimately involve the cultivators, too, in ruin. If the landowners act wisely, neither party will lose in the end".'
Gandhi arrived at his next destination, Sadhurkhil, on the morning of 3 February. It was now one month since Gandhi had embarked on his barefoot peace pilgrimage through riot-torn Noakhali. His pilgrimage had instilled confidence in the riot-affected community and had, to a large extent, helped to rid fear. He was convinced that if he really possessed the innate purity, which he claimed for himself, his labours would bear fruit and endure.
With a day's halt at Dharampur and another at Prasadpur, Gandhi reached Nandigram on 8 February where he was welcomed by a large crowd. 'What hospitality can we offer you?' asked a Muslim whose house Gandhi visited.
'The hospitality of giving me a place in your love and affection,' Gandhi replied.
The next day Gandhi reached Bijoyanagar after walking for an hour and a half. Relief and peace workers who had accompanied Gandhi to Noakhali, and were now working in various villages in the district, were faced with a dilemma. He had given strict instructions that they were to involve local workers in their relief work and keep away from local politics and factions. However, every village seemed divided. Gandhi's message was emphatic though: 'I have not known a single village which is devoid of an honest worker. I would go so far as to say that even a few years' experience of residence in a single village, trying to work through local workers, should not be regarded as a conclusive proof that work could not be done through and by local workers. I can categorically say to the principal worker: "If you have any outside help, get rid of it. Work singly, courageously, intelligently, with all the local help you can get and if in the end you do not succeed, blame yourself only and no one else and nothing else".'
Raipur had witnessed the worst carnage in the area, next only to Shahapur. Gandhi found plenty of evidence that trouble was still brewing in the districts. A Muslim who had come all the way from Punjab to meet Gandhi had been robbed of all his belongings on the way. Another Muslim from Gujarat had been threatened by some local Muslims for wanting to meet Gandhi. There were two jama masjids in Raipur. The imam in charge of one took him around to see the mosque, but the other refused saying that he needed written permission from the trustees of the mosque. While returning to his camp after the evening prayer, Gandhi visited a temple which had been seized by the local Muslims during the riots and converted into 'Pakistan Club'. It still bore that tell-tale signboard, four months after the event. The local Muslims assured Gandhi that they would take all the necessary steps for its early restoration.
While on his pilgrimage, Gandhi had not forgotten about the impending independence of his land. Pyarelal describes his vision of a truely independent India in Mahatma Gandhi: The Last Phase Vol. 10 Book Two, Part I: 'To those provinces who had the self confidence, strength and will to declare themselves independent from the British Raj and take their destiny in their own hands he advised the course he would wish them to follow. On his pilgrimage from Dharampur onwards the post prayers dialogue centered around his vision of the independence that was to be realised in the free provinces so as to serve as a model for the rest of India. What began to emerge was a picture of the India of his dreams. A picture of a casteless and classless society, in which there were no vertical divisions only horizontal; no high, no low; all service has equal status and carries equal wages; those who have more use their advantage not for themselves but as a trust to serve others who have less; the motivating factor in the choice of vocation is not personal advancement but self-expression and self-realisation through the service of society.
'It was put to Gandhiji that Government was introducing schemes of industrialising the country for the maximum utilisation of the country's natural resources and raw materials instead of its abundant man-power which was being allowed to run waste. Could this be called national development in the true sense? It was obvious, Gandhi had replied, that any plan which exploited raw materials of the country and neglected the potentially more powerful man-power would never bring about human equality or make the nation really happy and prosperous. In the west they had neglected the universal man-power and concentrated power in the hands of the few who rose to power and fortune at the expense of the many. The result was that their industrialisation had become a doubtful boon to the poor in those countries and a menace to the rest of the world. If India was to escape such a disaster, she had to adopt and assimilate what was best in
western countries and leave aside their attractive looking but destructive economic policies. So far as India was concerned, real planning should consist in the best utilisation of the whole of her man-power and distribution of her raw products to her numerous villages for being manufactured into goods instead of being sent out of the villlages or exported from the country to be repurchased as finished articles at a high premium.'
Meanwhile, the Karachi resolution of the Muslim League had put an end to any hope of the Muslim League joining the Constituent Assembly. On 9 February Nehru wrote to Gandhi: 'The League resolution was about as bad as it could be. Perhaps there was a virtue in it for it makes the position quite clear. After this resolution it is even more difficult than before for us to carry on in the old way in the Interim Government. We are moving in the matter'. He wrote again the next day: 'We have informed the Viceroy that in view of the Muslim League resolution passed at Karachi, the League members cannot continue in the Government. There is really no answer to our charge and demand and the Viceroy realises it. He is awaiting instructions from London'. The London Times commented: 'The League, while apparently relying on the British declaration that a constitution framed by the Constituent Assembly, not fully representative, cannot be enforced upon unwilling parts of India, may perhaps have lost from sight the not less significant undertaking that a minority cannot be suffered indefinitely to impede the progress of the majority'.
In a press interview on 15 February, Patel revealed that the Congress members of the interim government had asked HMG either to implore the Muslim League to share in drafting a new constitution or to leave the Cabinet. If they didn't, he said, the Congress would. The step, which had been contemplated for a long time, precipitated by the refusal of the Muslim League members in the interim government, who sat in the Lower House, to support the government on an important decision. The issue was a delicate one of taking punitive action against some trouble making elements in the NWFP. To deal with such a vital issue of law and order upon purely communal lines was a danger signal which no responsible body could ignore. Even the conservative London Times was forced to observe that the behaviour of the two ministers was 'in fact indefensible'.
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