Lets Kill Gandhi

by Gandhi, Tushar A.

  In a letter written in December 1946 Gandhi had said: 'In my opinion for the British not to leave India till there is perfect peace in the land seems to me to be an impossible dream. What they can and must do is to transfer the whole power to the willing and capable party and at the earliest moment to withdraw the British part of the army and disband the rest. They should not think of keeping any part for the protection of the British interests. These must be left to the goodwill of the people of India. This is the royal road to peaceful transfer and no other.'

  The British Government was driven to very nearly the same conclusion. On the 20th of February, 1947, Attlee made a statement in Parliament that it was HMG's definite intention to take necessary steps to effect the transfer of power to responsible Indian hands by a date not later than June 1948. Under the State Paper of 16 May 1946, they had agreed to recommend to Parliament the adoption of a constitution that might be framed by the Constituent Assembly. But if a constitution in terms of the Cabinet Mission plan was not worked out by a 'fully representative Constituent Assembly by that time', Attlee went on to say, 'HMG will have to consider to whom the powers of the Central Government in British India should be handed over on the due date, whether as a whole to some form of Central Government for British India, or in some areas to the existing Provincial Governments or in such other way as may seem most reasonable and in the best interest of the Indian people'.

  Simultaneously, the British prime minister announced the termination of Lord Wavell's appointment as the 'war-time' viceroy and the appointment of Lord Mountbatten as his successor and last viceroy of India. Although formal compliments were paid to him on the termination of his services, Lord Wavell was being dismissed for his inept handling of the situation. The prime minister had realised as early as December 1946 that Wavell had to go if his government's Indian policy was not to become a complete disaster. Wavell was leaving behind a political deadlock worse than ever, communal violence which threatened to turn into a raging inferno, organised lawlessness which had already taken over three provinces and threatened to convert the entire country into a battlefield, a vertically split Central Secretariat divided between the viceroy's personal staff and the gora sahibs of the British Administrative Service, and a crumbling administrative service into which communalism had infiltrated. As Mr. Attlee himself put it, 'nothing more constructive than a Military evacuation plan'.

  Giving his first reaction to HMG's announcement, Gandhi wrote to Nehru on 24 February: 'Evidently I had anticipated practically the whole of it. My interpretation of [Attlee's] speech is this— Independence will be recognised of those parts which desire it and will do without British protection;

  (1) The British will remain where they are wanted;

  (2) This may lead to Pakistan for those Provinces or portions which may want it. No-one will be forced one way or the other. The Congress Provinces, if they are wise, will get what they want;

  (3) Much will depend upon what the Constituent Assembly will do and what you as the Interim Government are able to do;

  (4) If the British Government are able to remain sincere the declaration is good. Otherwise it is dangerous.

  In other words, the future would depend on India's capacity to take up the challenge of independence in terms of the Quit India resolution for which Gandhi had been trying to prepare them, and the British Government's willingness to retire unconditionally, leaving India to its fate, and its capacity to get the services to implement that decision loyally and impartially in letter and in spirit.

  Devipur, the last village in Noakhali district where Gandhi would camp for the night, was very scenic. The path leading to the village meandered along the Dakatia river. Later, he sent for the principal worker as he was unhappy with the excess money that had been spent on decorating his route. Where did they find all the material? Surely it could not be from the village! The poor worker tried to explain: they had raised a subscription to accord him a fitting welcome. Gandhi said, 'Did you realise that by indulging in this vain display you would acerbate communal passions? This display means nothing to me ... but it will leave a legacy of ill-will behind which will continue to poison the communal relations in this village for a long time to come. You are a Congressman. Did not it occur to you, knowing my strong views on Khadi, that ribbons and buntings made of mill cloth would only hurt me?' Gandhi personally supervised the unravelling of the garlands and wreaths and had every yard of yarn rewound so that it could be reused to weave cloth. He salvaged almost twenty cones of yarn. 'While he was pouring out his soul like this,' recorded Manu in her Diaries from Noakhali, 'he looked the very picture of a volcano in eruption. But there was no trace of anger or reproach in his voice. From his face one might as well have thought that it was some terrible lapse of his own that he was confessing. And, indeed, he has often told us that a lapse on the part of his men should be regarded as his failure—the failure of his teachings'.

  On 18 February, Gandhi crossed into the adjoining district of Tipperah, reaching the first village in the district, Alunia, at 8.30 in the morning. The district was marked by a considerable change in the scenery and nature of the soil. It was soft alluviam in Noakhali, loam in Tipperah. The arecanut gardens were there but the coconut groves grew scarcer. The verdant stretches of emerald green rice fields which abounded in Noakhali were missing here. In order to simplify his meals, Gandhi concocted some very strange and unappetising dishes at Alunia. Pyarelal writes: 'As part of his midday meal, he had a thick sticky stew of lady's fingers [okra], bitter gourd and greens, without spice or salt. Into this he poured boiled goat's milk and took it after stirring it with a spoon. As I watched him I wondered how on earth anybody could swallow that horrible stuff! I had to pay dearly for it. Guessing perhaps what was passing in my mind he twitted me, "What do you know of these things! When you feel really hungry whatever is set before you is a treat!" Out of his overflowing affection, he offered me two spoonfuls of the decoction which I swallowed with as brave a face as I could!'

  Although his mind and body was exhausted, Gandhi was far from being spent. The 19th of February was Mahashivratri, a festival of Lord Shiva and Gandhi was in Birampur that day. For him the festival brought back painful memories as he had lost his wife Kasturba on that day three years ago in the Aga Khan Palace Prison Camp. Since then he had observed Kasturba's death anniversary by fasting and praying. To all outward appearances, it was like any other day, which began as usual at four in the morning and continued without a break. The only allusion to the event which meant so much to him personally is contained in a solitary sentence in his diary: 'On this day, and exactly at this time (7.35 p.m.) Ba quitted her mortal frame three years ago'.

  At 7.35 pm the party gathered around a tiny oil lamp burning in front of a portrait of Kasturba, which had a garland made of yarn, spun by Gandhi. The yarn would later be re-twisted and sent for weaving. Gandhi sat through the recitation of the first six chapters of the Gita, then due to fatigue, he lay down to rest. He later mentioned that, while he lay listening to the rest of the recitation, he felt at one with his dear departed partner. 'During the Gita recitation, the whole scene of Ba's last moments three years ago came back and stood before my mind's eye in all its vividness. I felt as if her head was actually resting in my lap. This was particularly so after the sixth chapter, when I laid myself down to rest and for a moment fell into a gentle sleep. I must own,' he wistfully remarked, 'without her, I could not have suceeded in my striving for Ahimsa and self-discipline. She understood me better than anyone else. Her loyalty was matchless. On the last day, I did not know, till the very end, in whose lap she would close her eyes. But she sent for me just before the end and breathed her last in my lap. That was Ba. We can fittingly observe her shraddha [Hindu death rites observed every year on the anniversary] by recalling her virtues and trying to cultivate them in ourselves. I have not known another instance of such guileless faith, selfless devotion and service as hers. Ever since our marriage, she stood by me in all my life's s
truggles, with an unwavering fidelity and dedicated herself to my life's mission—body, soul and all—in a manner that has few parallels.'

  Birampur was situated on the banks of the river Meghna, a mercurial river which often changed its course. It now flowed almost six kilometres away from the village. The fishermen had also suffered greatly due to the riots. Looking at their plight, it was for the first time that Gandhi mentioned that the only option for them was a voluntary and total translocation.

  Muslim opposition and the Muslim League's campaign against Gandhi reached a crescendo at the next village, Bishkatali. This small village had a Hindu population of 306 people in the midst of an overwhelming Muslim majority of 4,694. The Hindu survivors had left the village and none of them had returned. Many posters had been pasted on the trees on both sides of the path leading to Bishkatali warning Gandhi:

  'Remember Bihar

  And leave Tipperah immediately.

  We have warned you many times

  Still you are here.

  Go back; otherwise it would be the worse for you.'

  Another bore the message:

  'Go where you are wanted.

  Give up your hypocrisy and

  accept Pakistan.'

  'Muslim League zindabad.

  Quaid-i-Azam zindabad.

  Let there be Pakistan and

  Down with the Congress',

  declared yet another.

  Gandhi left from Kamalapur the next day for Char Krishnapur, in the heart of the Char region. Char literally means an island formed in the riverbed due to the shifting of the river. The Char area in Noakhali and Tipperah is a gift of the river Meghna—its lazy, silt-laden, ever shifting flow contributing to the formation of a network of Chars. The bulk of the population of Char Krishnapur consisted of Namashudras, Harijans, while the Muslims numbered only two hundred. The Namashudras had suffered terribly during the riots and the reign of terror had continued long after other parts had been relieved. As a local Muslim who was to host Gandhi backed out due to immense pressure by his community, an improvised shed was erected using charred and blackened corrugated sheets, salvaged from the burnt-down remains of a homestead.

  Gandhi had begun to get reports from his workers spread out over the two districts, about how Hindus were being intimidated. Muslims, especially those aligned to the Muslim League and to the perpetrators of the recent violence, were secretly meeting to plan a new campaign of terror. The Hindus were being threatened with further attacks unless they withdrew their complaints. A large number of Hindu fishermen, betel-leaf growers, weavers, petty shop keepers, etc., who had for generations served both communities, were being reduced to penury by the boycott of their services and businesses. The Hindu agriculturists were facing a similiar boycott. Muslim agricultural labourers who had worked their fields for centuries were not being allowed to work in Hindu farms, a situation that could possibly cause an acute shortage of food grains. As Gandhiji moves along,' wrote Dr. Chakravarty, 'a new dynamic touches the entire area. Tomorrow the road leads further into the Char area. The Namashudra communities who have suffered are waiting for the healing touch of Gandhiji, surrounded by villages languishing in desolation. The stage is set for Haimchar where urgent issues will converge.'

  The aim of the organisers of this campaign of isolation was the enforced exodus of the Hindus from the district and then from East Bengal. Unless the government stepped in and took some stringent steps to ensure an end to the economic persecution, the situation would soon become volatile, warned Gandhi repeatedly. Already the survivors of the riots and the victims of the boycott campaign had started talking in despair about an impending partition of Bengal. Gandhi said, 'Those who talk of separation must know where we stand. If boycott is the policy of the Government, we must know about it. A community cannot take action by itself. Bengal as well as other Provinces must understand this. Even if I fail, truth will not have failed. I must strive and carry this issue towards light. I may live or perish in the attempt. Noakhali and Tipperah are not an isolated problem, but it is a problem which India must solve for herself and humanity. Fortunately or unfortunately, I have had success in the most difficult ventures of my life. But I do not know what will happen this time. The greatest trial is given to us but it is never beyond our power to overcome it.'

  Meanwhile, the continued hardship to which Gandhi was subjecting his body had begun to take its toll. Pyarelal describes Gandhi's condition in Mahatma Gandhi: The Last Phase, Vol. 9 Book Two, Part I:' "The dead-set at me is growing fiercer", ran a letter by Gandhiji. "But to face such attacks joyously and unflinchingly has been my business in life. My present yajna is one of utmost purification. It may be my last". In the course of a conversation with a friend, who had come with some important despatches from New Delhi, he remarked: "I do not want to die ... of a creeping paralysis of my faculties—a defeated man. An assassin's bullet may put an end to my life. I would welcome it. But I would love, above all, to fade out doing my duty with my last breath". One of his letters to a friend described him as "trekking over unfurrowed tracks in stormy weather". He might have in this way gone on forever. But flesh and blood have their limits and nature has put a wise check on man's striving. For some time past he had been complaining of a "drumming sound" in the ears—a red signal of high blood pressure to which he was prone. Under the advice of friends at last he agreed to make a prolonged halt at Haimchar to recoup himself.' The rest at Haimchar lasted for six days, which gave Gandhi the much needed energy for his task ahead.

  Thakker Bappa, who was conducting the relief and rehabilitation operations in Haimchar, had briefed Gandhi about the situation in the Char areas. The destruction of the Namashudra villages in the Char area had been on an unprecedented scale. The recently launched mass economic boycott of non-Muslims had further worsened their situation. The plight of the Harijans of Noakhali debunked Jinnah's assurance to the Indian Harijans that they would be better off throwing their lot in with the Muslim League. Thakker Bappa also informed Gandhi about the ill practices of child marriage, widow remarriage and promiscuity prevalent amongst the Namashudras.

  Nuruddin Chowdhary, the relief commissioner of Chittagong Division, had outlined a grand plan to rehabilitate and uplift villages, in an elaborate speech delivered at a meeting of the local peace committee. He had declared that he wanted 'to live and work for the establishment of the Kingdom of God'. Gandhi reacted by saying that, to him, they seemed like grand words with no substance, since the plan ignored the 'issue of issues' which stared all of them in the face, namely the worsening relations between the Hindus and the Muslims of Noakhali. The test of a good worker was not in the grandness of the plans he formed on paper, but whether he knew how to match his work to the human material and the resources available at the moment and to fit his particular role into the larger plan. A sound rule was to pick out a few items that were within one's reach and capacity and work them out in full while keeping the whole in view. Personally, Gandhi concluded, he would give top priority to the establishment of unity between the two communities, the lack of which had vitiated the entire atmosphere so that even in the meeting of the peace committee, where the relief commissioner had unveiled his ambitious plan, very few non-Muslims were to be seen.

  Speaking at the first prayer meeting at Haimchar, attended by a large number of Namashudras, Gandhi said that they should not regard themselves as fallen or as 'untouchables'. He referred to what the late Madan Mohan Malaviya used to say—'children of God should be content to earn an honest penny, and eat what it could procure. That would bring them true happiness'. Referring to the British prime minister's statement, he observed that whatever might have been in the history of British rule in the past, there was not a shadow of doubt that the British were going to quit India in the near future. The prime minister's statement put the burden on the various parties of doing what they thought was appropriate. It was upto them to make or mar the situation. Nothing could overturn their united wish. So far as he was concern
ed, he was emphatically of the opinion that if the Hindus and the Muslims closed their ranks and came together without external pressure, they would not only effect the future of India but probably the whole world. The alternative was a civil war which would only serve to tear the country to pieces.

  On 24 April itself Nehru wrote to Gandhi: 'You must have seen my statement on the new declaration made by the British Government. The statement was considered carefully by all our collegues in the Interim Government minus, of course, the Muslim Leaguers.... Mr. Attlee's statement contains much that is indefinite and likely to give trouble. But I am convinced that it is in the final analyses brave and definite statement. It meets our oft-repeated demand for quitting India.... Matters will move swiftly now or at any rate after Mountbatten comes.... The Working Committee is meeting on the 5th March.... Your advice at this critical moment would help us greatly. But you are too far away for consultation and you refuse to move out of East Bengal. Still if you could convey to us your ideas on the subject, we would be grateful'. On 28 February Nehru wrote: 'The Working Committee is meeting here soon and all of us were anxious to have you here on the occasion. We considered the question of sending you a joint telegram appealing to you to come. But we decided ultimately not to send it. We felt sure you would not come at this stage and our telegram would be an embarrassment. But though we are not sending the telegram we feel very strongly that your advice during the coming critical weeks is most necessary. It is possible for one or two of us to visit you but that is not a satisfactory way of doing things. It is a full discussion among all of us that we would have liked to have. At present it is exceedingly difficult for any of us to leave Delhi even for two or three days. For several to go together would upset work completely. There is the budget in the Assembly, the Committees of the Constituent Assembly, the negotiations with the Princes, the change in Viceroys and so many other things that demand constant attention. So we cannot go away and if you will not come how are we to meet?'