Lets Kill Gandhi

by Gandhi, Tushar A.

  In a statement released to the press that afternoon, Gandhi stated: "'Man proposes, God disposes" has come true often enough in my life, as it probably has in the case of many others. When I left Calcutta on Sunday last, I knew nothing about the sad state of things in Delhi. But since my arrival in the capital city, I have been listening the whole day long to the tale of woe that is Delhi today. I have seen several Muslim friends who have recited to me their pathetic story. I have heard enough to warn me that I must not leave Delhi for the Punjab until it has once again become its former peaceful self.

  'I must do my little bit to calm the heated atmosphere. I must apply the old formula, "do or die" to the capital of India. I am glad to say that the residents of Delhi do not want the senseless destruction that is going on. I am prepared to understand the anger of the refugees, whom fate has driven from West Punjab. But anger is short madness.... Retaliation is no remedy. It makes the original disease worse. I therefore, ask all those who are engaged in committing senseless murder arson and loot, to stay their hands.'

  At noon news came in that refugees were about to attack the tuberculosis hospital opposite the Kingsway refugee camp where a large number of Muslim patients were being treated. Dr. Sushila Nayyar, who had finally been evacuated from the Wah refugee camp along with the refugees, had reached Delhi a few days back. Gandhi asked her to rush to the hospital with the instructions: 'On your way stop at the Secretariat and inform the Sardar and Jawaharlal where I am sending you'.

  At the Secretariat, Sushila could not find Patel but she saw Nehru, who asked her to accompany him in his car. At Town Hall he asked the deputy commissioner to rush a guard to the hospital; however, the deputy commissioner expressed his inability to do so as all the guards were out on duty. Nehru turned to him and said, 'All right then, I shall send Sushila to guard them.' And with these words he sent Sushila away in his car. On her way to the hospital, she saw a mosque in flames. She stopped to see if anyone was injured or trapped in the fire. 'The flames prevented us exploring all the rooms. As I stood there, a shower of bullets came from the building opposite.' It was a stronghold of the RSS. The bullets were aimed at any Muslim who tried to escape the flames and to deter anyone attempting rescue.

  On reaching the hospital she found that the patients had been evacuated with the help of Lady Mountbatten who had taken them to Jama Masjid. The hospital was being looted by refugees from the Kingsway camp. Sushila chased some of the refugees who were carrying away cots, beddings and other hospital materials. She found a policeman standing by the door of the hospital watching the goingson. 'What are you doing here? Don't you see they are looting hospital property? Can't you stop it?' she shouted at the policeman. He shrugged and replied, 'Bigger men than I cannot stop this. What can I do?'

  Just then Nehru reached the hospital. When Sushila told him about the looting, he became extremely angry. Jumping into his car he headed straight for the Kingsway refugee camp. Just as he reached the camp, a group of refugees loaded with loot were entering. He confronted them, 'I thought we were helping our suffering brethren. I did not know we were sheltering thieves and dacoits.' The crowd was incensed, and someone asked him angrily if he knew what they had suffered. Nehru could not contain his anger any more and caught the man by the scruff of his neck. Sushila became anxious, fearing that the crowd could get out of hand. The young man then muttered, 'Yes, Panditji, go on. What better luck can I expect than to die at your hands?' At this Nehru's anger seemed to melt away. He said, 'This is not the time for me to tell you how much I feel for you all and how my heart aches at your suffering. But what I say to you is: have these Muslims done you any harm? If not, then you must not injure them. We must be just. If justice requires it and it is necessary, we can go to war with Pakistan and you can enlist. But this kind of thing is degrading and cowardly.'

  When Sushila later narrated the incident to Patel, he was upset: 'Is this the way an administrator should act? His safety is my charge. He should not take unnecessary risks like this.'

  From the next morning, less than a week after courting death with his fast in Calcutta, Gandhi set up a daily routine. He would visit the various Hindu and Muslim refugee camps and riot-affected areas of the city. He began with the Arab-ki-Sarai camp, near Humayun's tomb, where Meos from Alwar and Bharatpur states were awaiting their removal to Pakistan. The refugees told Gandhi that none of them wanted to leave India but had been driven out of their homes and were being forced to go to Pakistan. Gandhi promised to see what he could do for them. From Arab-ki-Sarai he went to Jamia Millia Islamia, the Muslim National University, at Okhla. A number of Muslim men and women from the neighbouring villages had taken refuge there. Pale, haggard and terrified, they had been living in constant fear of death for the last two days.

  When Gandhi met the vice-chancellor of the university, Dr. Zakir Hussain, the latter said he was hopeful of the situation improving. Just a few days back he had narrowly escaped a lynching at Jullundar station, where, while returning from Punjab, he had been surrounded by a hostile mob of Hindus and Sikhs. He was saved by the timely intervention of a Sikh captain and a Hindu friend who recognised and protected him at risk of grave personal danger. He reported the grim situation in Punjab and said he was sad but not bitter, adding that he was satisfied with the efforts of the government to try and bring the situation under control. He also said that Gandhi's arrival in the capital had galvanised the administration.

  At his next stop, the Devan Hall Hindu refugee camp, Gandhi was confronted by an angry crowd. The camp was overflowing with refugees from West Punjab, both Hindus and Sikhs, persecuted, hounded and driven out of their homes. Some of them accused Gandhi of hard-heartedness, of having more sympathy for the Muslims than for them. He was deeply grieved by these accusations but he said they had a right to be angry as they were the real sufferers. He then went to the Wavell Canteen transit camp near the railway station, which was teeming with Muslim refugees waiting to be evacuated to Pakistan. The last stop on his day's itinerary, which had covered a distance of forty-one miles, was the Kingsway refugee camp. Things there had considerably settled down since Nehru's visit the previous day.

  That evening, addressing the evening prayer meeting audience, Gandhi remarked that he was anxious to go to Pakistan and test for himself the reality of Jinnah's professions. The Hindus of Pakistan were their brothers, Jinnah had declared. Were these only empty words? But he could not go there owing to the disturbances in Delhi. Each dominion must bear full responsibility for the acts of those who lived in it. He declared that the same held true for the Indian Union. Were the Union ministers to declare their bankruptcy and shamelessly own to the world that the people of Delhi or the refugees would not voluntarily obey the rule of the land? It was in the hands of the people to send him to the Punjab by restoring normal conditions in Delhi. Why should there be curfew in Delhi? Why should Delhi be called 'the city of the dead'?

  An anti-Muslim paranoia had gripped the capital. The bulk of Delhi's police force had been Muslim but a number of them had deserted with uniforms and arms. With this, the integrity and loyalty of those remaining had immediately come under suspicion. Patel wired Bengal to send units of Gurkha policemen from West Bengal. The chief minister of Central provinces sent a contingent of 250 constables and sub-inspectors of police. There were rumours of a coup d'etat being planned by the Muslims to seize the administration. Searches of some Muslim homes by the police had revealed dumps of bombs, arms and ammunition. The Muslims claimed that arms had been planted in deserted Muslim homes to discredit the community and fan anger amongst the Hindus. In fact, similar caches of weapons had been found all over the country in Hindu homes and offices of the Hindu extremist organisations too. But in Delhi and Punjab, in some of the pitched battles fought between the Muslims and Hindus and in some of the attacks on Hindus by the Muslims, these very weapons had been used. Hindu communalists had instigated people with a systematic propaganda that exaggerated the amount of illegal arms, explosives and ammunit
ion that were found with Muslims. The Muslims were to be blamed as well; many of them had been storing illegal weapons. Even when the British prohibited Indians from possessing arms after the first battle for freedom in 1857, the Muslims had stored illegal arms. Gandhi had been pleading with the Muslims to surrender their arms, but his advice was ignored, and the Hindu fanatics had fuel to add to the fire.

  The Sikhs, on the other hand, were annoyed over the government's decision to prohibit, for reasons of security, the carrying of kirpans which were more than nine inches long. Their representatives met Gandhi and complained that any such restriction was an interference with their religion. 'But I do not see religion anywhere in evidence today,' replied Gandhi. 'And if it is a religious symbol, the restriction as regards its size should not matter.' The Sikhs were not satisfied and cited, in support of their argument, an old judgement of the Privy Council, which interpreted the kirpan as a sword of any size. Gandhi told them that it was wholly irrelevant and even improper to cite legal precedents to break up healthy restraints under which alone society could grow in a state of liberty. The kirpan, which the Sikh religion enjoined upon its votaries to carry was a symbol of purity and self-restraint. It was a weapon for the defence of innocent women, children and old and disabled persons against tyranny in the face of overwhelming odds; never a weapon of offence or to be used in retaliation against defenceless women and children. The kirpan had, of late, been used for totally indefensible purposes and he who used it wrongly forfeited the right to carry it.

  On 12 September, a Friday, Gandhi visited the Jama Masjid where nearly five thousand Muslims had taken refuge. Unmindful of the filth, Gandhi took off his slippers before entering. Thousands had gathered to offer the Friday namaaz. Gandhi met some of the refugees and reprimanded them for being so unconcerned about cleanliness.

  The same day the chief of the RSS came to meet Gandhi. It was common knowledge that it was the RSS that was behind the killings in the capital, in East Punjab and in those parts of the country where vicious anti-Muslim campaigns were being carried out. The RSS head flatly denied these allegations, saying that the organisation was set up to protect Hinduism, not to kill Muslims; they were not hostile to anyone, he said—the RSS stood for peace. This was a far-fetched claim, difficult to believe. But Gandhi, with the boundless faith that he had displayed when trusting claims of repentance from Muslim fanatics in Noakhali, felt that they should be given a chance to clear the air. The chief was asked to issue a public statement repudiating the allegations against them and openly condemning the killing and harassment of the Muslims that had taken place and that still was going on in the city. Not wanting to be pinned down to giving a statement, the chief suggested that Gandhi should do it and absolve the RSS of all the alleged wrongdoings. Gandhi agreed to this suggestion. Sushila Nayyar added that the RSS had done some good work at the Wah camp. They had shown discipline, courage and capacity for hard work, she said.

  While welcoming Gandhi to their rally, the RSS leader described him as 'a great man that Hinduism had produced'. Gandhi admitted that while he was certainly proud of being a Hindu, his Hinduism was neither intolerant nor exclusive. The beauty of Hinduism, as he understood it, was that it absorbed the best that was in all faiths. If Hindus believed that in India there was no place for non-Hindus on equal and honourable terms, and that Muslims, if they wanted to live in India, must be content with an inferior status, or if Muslims thought that in Pakistan Hindus could live only as a subject race on the sufferance of the Muslims, it would mean an eclipse of both Hinduism and Islam. He was glad, therefore, he said, to have their assurance that their policy was not of antagonism towards Islam. He warned them that if the charges against them were proved, it would come to a bad end.

  Purana Qila, the venue of the Asian Conference, had been converted into a transit camp for Muslim refugees. Almost seventy-five thousand Muslims awaited their removal to Pakistan. As the Hindu refugee camps had become infiltrated with Hindu fanatics, the Muslim camps too were infiltrated by Muslim Leaguers. They had established themselves as benefactors of their troubled co-religionists, while pilfering rations meant for the refugees, and selling them off on the black market for huge profits.

  Some of the Muslim policemen who had deserted with their weapons had taken refuge in these camps. Patel, at one time, almost ordered a battalion of the army to go into the camp to round up the unlicensed arms. On the 13th, when Gandhi visited the camp, hundreds of refugees rushed towards his car and surrounded it. Anti-Gandhi slogans were shouted and someone tried to pull Gandhi out of the car. The driver, panicking, pressed down on the accelerator and the car shot forward. Gandhi ordered him to stop, however, as he was determined to face the angry crowd. Gandhi then stepped out of the car and requested the crowd to settle down. Most of them were bewildered by this act of fearlessness by the unarmed and unprotected old man. Was he challenging them or did he trust them not to do him any harm? Some of Gandhi's comments elicited rude and angry rejoinders from the refugees. He entreated them to be calm and shed their anger and fear. On hearing the passion in his voice, and seeing his apparent grief, the refugees realised that unlike other 'leaders' and 'sympathisers', here was a man who shared their suffering. He listened to them with deep sympathy and promised to do all in his power to remedy the wrongs.

  That day Gandhi visited two more Muslim refugee camps, one at Idgah and the other at Motia Khan. Later Gandhi was informed that the daughter and son-in-law of Dr. Ansari, a nationalist Muslim, had been driven out of their home in Daryaganj. Gandhi had often enjoyed the hospitality of the Ansari family at their Daryaganj residence in the past. Some Sikh refugees, instigated by local leaders, had besieged the house and, under threat to kill, forced the couple to abandon it and shift to a hotel. At the prayer meeting that evening Gandhi said, 'Is it not a shame that the daughter of a pillar of the Congress and a ceaseless worker for Hindu-Muslim unity has been driven out of her house in such a manner? It hurts me that this historic city, where Indraprastha once stood, which has seen the rise and fall of so many dynasties and civilisations, where the Kauravas, Pandavas and the Moghuls once ruled, where the Muslims honoured Swami Shraddhananda by asking him to address them from the Jama Masjid and which the swamiji sanctified by his martyrdom, should have disgraced itself as it has today.'

  Some Muslims invited Gandhi to shift to a Muslim quarter in Delhi as he had done in Calcutta, saying if he stayed in their midst they would feel safe. Gandhi agreed to their proposal and decided to move into Asaf Ali's house, which was situated in a locality that had witnessed continuous rioting. That very morning Patel had told Gandhi how firing had continued all night long from the roof of a building quite close to Asaf Ali's residence. An armed police possé had unsuccessfully tried to storm the building four times. When finally they succeeded, the snipers escaped by jumping over the roofs of surrounding buildings. A large cache of arms and ammunition was found on the roof.

  The Muslim friends who had invited Gandhi were briefed about the situation. If a stray bullet killed Gandhi or even injured him, there would be a nationwide massacre of Muslims; were they willing to take the risk? The Muslims realised the gravity of the situation; for their protection, instead, they were offered an army contingent in their locality. Even though Gandhi decided against going to Asaf Ali's residence, he was dissatisfied with the alternative arrangement made to protect the residents. He had always reiterated that, if he had his way, he would withdraw the entire police and military from the city.

  Many in India felt that the best solution for the resettlement of refugees was to settle them in abandoned Muslim homes. The Hindu communalists openly advocated this option, and incited the incoming refugees to not only occupy the vacant homes of Muslims but to drive out those who had stayed back and take over these as well. The same lobby of Hindu communalists advocated a planned and compulsory transfer of population. Gandhi opposed this suggestion and warned that, once this principle was accepted, its application would not be confined to the tw
o Punjabs—it would be applied to both nations in their entirety. Then if no Muslim could live in India and non-Muslim in Pakistan, the estrangement between the two dominions would become permanent with a mutually destructive war as the inevitable result. He therefore suggested that the vicious circle of hate, murder and arson should be broken somewhere, the forced evictions of the Muslims by the non-Muslim refugees must stop and the homes of those who had temporarily fled and taken shelter in refugee camps should be protected. The government should become a trustee of such properties on behalf of their rightful owners, till such time as the owners might return or could be brought back.

  The Hindu and Sikh refugees argued, however, that since they had been driven out of Pakistan, no Muslim should be allowed to stay in India or at least in Delhi. Gandhi explained that he did not advise the Indian government to ignore the ill-treatment of Hindus and Sikhs in Pakistan. But for the Indian government to take up the cases of atrocities on minorities in Pakistan with the Pakistani government, they would be required to show that minorities in India were safe.

  Gandhi visited the majority Muslim quarter of Daryaganj on the evening of 18 September. The residents complained to him of the partisan behaviour of the police and military personnel, which might force them to flee their homes and the city of their birth. Gandhi advised them not to leave under any circumstances saying, 'Even if the police and military should open fire upon you, you should face the hail of bullets and bravely die but not flee from your homes.' Gandhi gave similar advice to the residents of Kucha Tarachand, a Hindu pocket surrounded on all sides by a large Muslim population. The residents claimed that thousands of Pathans, armed to their teeth, had been smuggled in to massacre the Hindus.

  All this while, Gandhi had been appealing to both the Hindus and Muslims to surrender their arms. The following day, some maulanas visited him and presented a few rusty arms claiming that Muslims had voluntarily surrendered these in response to his appeal. Gandhi told them that this was an insincere eyewash, and it did not suggest any change of heart on the part of their community. 'Do not deceive yourselves,' he sternly warned them. 'My stay here will avail the Muslims nothing if they do not thoroughly cleanse their hearts.'