Lets Kill Gandhi

by Gandhi, Tushar A.

  During a visit to the Muslim locality of Pul Bangash, Bada Hindu Rao, Khari Baoli and Chandni Chowk—some of the most congested localities of Delhi—Gandhi noticed that they were now nearly deserted. The Muslims gave him a rousing reception wherever he went, while some young Hindu men staged a hostile demonstration and tried to attack the car he was travelling in. The police later informed Patel that the young men were storm troopers of the local Hindu Mahasabha unit.

  The ceaseless physical strain was now beginning to take its toll on Gandhi's health. He had developed whooping cough and was unable to sleep. He said he dreamt of a crowd of Hindu young men rushing into his room. One of them started abusing him, and it seemed, wanted to assault him. 'I began chanting Lord Ram's name to calm them down.' On another occasion when his sleep was similarly disturbed, he said he had been dreaming that he was surrounded by a Muslim crowd and was trying to bring home to them their duty. 'Waking or sleeping I can think of nothing else,' he added. He instructed the doctors that he was not to be administered any alcohol or injections of any forbidden drugs. 'I will refuse to cooperate with life if anybody tries to do this. I do not wish to be kept alive anyhow. It would please me to die with my faith intact.'

  The 2nd of October 1947 was Gandhi's first birthday in independent India, and also his last. From early morning a continuous stream of visitors trooped into his room. He observed his birthday, as always, by fasting, prayer and extra spinning. The fast, he explained was for self-purification, and the spinning a token of the renewal of his covenant to dedicate his being to the service of the lowliest and least in God's creating. He had turned his birthday celebration into a celebration of the rebirth of the spinning wheel, and it is remembered as 'rentia baras' (according to the Hindu calendar, Gandhi was born on the twelfth day of the full moon period). The spinning wheel, for him, stood as a symbol of non-violence.

  As he emerged from his bath, a small party of dear friends comprising Patel, Nehru, Ghanshyamdas Birla, his host, and the members of the Birla family in Delhi were all present. Mirabehn had decorated his seat by improvising an artistic cross, 'Ram' and the sacred syllable 'Om' made of flowers. Lady Mountbatten arrived with a sheaf of letters and telegrams addressed to him from England. He requested all to pray that 'either the present conflagration should end or He should take me away. I do not wish another birthday to overtake me in an India still in flames'. Manibehn, Patel's daughter, noted in her journal: 'His anguish was unbearable. We had gone to him in elation; we returned home with a heavy heart'.

  One of the messages from the high commissioner for Pakistan in India, Zahid Hussain, said: 'Today the people of India—in which I include Pakistan—are suffering untold miseries and privation resulting from hatreds and conflicts. All eyes are turned to Mahatma Gandhi in the unparalleled crises, which has overtaken the country. India is in many ways a key to the future of the human race and we all hope and pray that inspired by the ideals of Mahatma Gandhi she will play her part truly and well'.

  Gandhi was disturbed by the fact that, although a number of rioters, looters and murderers had been apprehended, records showed that a majority of them had been released under one pretext or the other. It was argued that the popular government which had displaced the British administration lacked 'steel'; they did not instil fear in the common people who considered the government as 'our own, not to be feared'. Gandhi felt that this was only partly true, as the popular government wielded a moral force infinitely superior to the physical force wielded by the foreign ruler.

  Gandhi made the refugee problem his special concern. Although he had cut down on his entourage and was now accompanied by the barest minimum staff, Gandhi sent Dr. Sushila Nayyar to organise medical relief for the refugee camp at Kurukshetra and also to educate, inculcate and implement proper sanitary practices. The Kurukshetra camp housed one of the biggest concentrations of refugees from West Punjab.

  'For method, planning and almost perfect sanitation, give me a military camp. I have never recognised the necessity of a military. But that is not to say that nothing good can come out of it. It gives valuable lessons in discipline, corporate existence, sanitation and an exact time-table with due provision for every useful activity. There is almost pin-drop silence in such camps. It is a city under canvas brought into being inside a few hours. I would like our refugee camps to approach that ideal. These camps can be made inexpensively, provided all the work including building up these canvas cities was done by the refugees themselves. You must be your own sweepers, cleaners, road-makers, trench-diggers, cooks, washer men, etc. Then no refugee will be a burden to others wherever he went.'

  Since winter was approaching, Gandhi appealed to the public for blankets and woollens for the refugees and gave precise instructions of how these were to be sent. 'The clothes and blankets should be washed and mended if necessary before they are sent. Quilts have this advantage: they can be stripped, the cloth washed, the cotton hand loosened and the quilts refilled'. The response was immediate and overwhelming. Blankets, woollens, eiderdowns, satins and furs, costly rugs, silks, expensive shawls, embroidered stuff, silken curtains and bed covers poured in from as far as Kashmir, Ceylon and Burma.

  Till this time, Sind had remained comparatively quiet and peaceful, but the troubles in both the Punjabs were beginning to have their repercussions here, too. 'The Marwaris and Gujaratis have all gone back to their respective homes outside Sind; where shall the poor Sindhi Hindus and Sikhs go?' Acharya Kripalani asked Gandhi. 'If I were asked, I would say, no-one should leave his hearth and home. This will put Pakistan on its trial'. N.R. Malkani, a Congress leader from Sind, declared his creed after the establishment of Pakistan, thus: 'I do not reject Pakistan. I shall live in Sind and Pakistan, for Sind is my homeland. I shall, therefore, not be disloyal to Pakistan. I shall try and make it a good and strong state. I shall not try to weaken it and in no case shall I be its saboteur.... Being a Sindhi and a Pakistani, I shall claim the full rights of citizenship for I have become a Pakistani as anyone else. If necessary I shall fight for these rights as a Pakistani in Pakistan and a Sindhi in Sind.... I shall no more hoist the Indian flag old or new. I shall roll it up and keep it as a sacred memory in the secret recess of my heart. I shall accept the Pakistan flag as the State flag. But I will not hoist a flag on my house until it endears itself to me.... If I am refused full rights of citizenship, I shall resist openly and when I find my resistance vain and life here dishonourable then I will leave Pakistan and my Sind and induce others to do the same. I hope that evil day will never come'.

  But circumstances proved too strong for them.

  In a penetrating analysis of the Muslim aspirations embodied in the Pakistan slogan, R.G. Casey, in his book An Australian in India, wrote: '...the political leadership of the Muslim League ... had raised the demand for Pakistan only with one goal to acquire political supremacy, prosperity and for the creation of personal fiefs. The minority community in their provinces were the easy targets. Where open communal flare-ups could be engineered they did so in West Punjab and East Bengal and successfully killed or drove out the minorities and then divided the booty left behind amongst themselves. But the situation in Sind was different, the local Muslim was not prepared to act against his fellow Sindhi Hindu or Sikh, so no "popular" outburst could be engineered but a systematic campaign of terror was unleashed with the help of refugees from East Punjab. Non- Muslim homes and properties were selectively requisitioned as requirement of the state. Refugees were encouraged to forcibly occupy non-Muslim homes and throw out the home owners. Threats, hooliganism and molestation were carried out systematically against the minorities with the administration turning a blind eye. Till the spirits of the minority community was at its nadir. Then the influx of the refugees from East Punjab did the trick'.

  A large number of refugees from East Punjab were forcibly sent for resettlement to Sind. These refugees were seething with anger at first having been driven out of their ancestral homes in East Punjab and then not having been a
ccommodated in West Punjab. They were kept in pitiable conditions and were told that, since there were a number of non-Muslims in Sind, the government was finding it difficult to settle them. This provided the spark required to ignite passions there. The refugees decided to take things in their own hands and, assisted by the administration, attacked non-Muslims with brutal fury. There were massacres in Karachi and Hyderabad. A group of Sikhs who had taken refuge in a gurudwara were smoked out and killed to the last person. A large number of Hindus who had taken refuge in an educational institution in Hyderabad were also slaughtered. Non-Muslim businesses and commercial properties were torched. The houses were spared but their inhabitants were butchered. Those who survived fled with whatever they could salvage to India. This new wave of refugees reached India in October.

  The worst off were the Harijans in Sind. They were required to wear symbols of their caste on their persons. This was for their own safety they were told, so that their Muslim protectors could identify them. It only made them identifiable targets. Many were butchered and there were reports of their forcible conversions. It was soon apparent that the stigma of their caste was carried forward into Islam too. In Pakistan too they were treated as inferior.

  And so began an exodus of Sikhs and Hindus from Sind, carrying with them fresh stories of persecution and terror. The plight of these refugees was again exploited by the Hindu Right wing to instigate retaliation against the Muslims who refused to move to Pakistan; and so a fresh wave of violence against Muslims swept India. As Hindus were mercilessly persecuted and massacred in Muslim-dominated Pakistan by the thugs of the Muslim League, so were Muslims in India by the storm troopers of the Hindu Right-wing. The Hindu princely states were some of the strongholds of these Hindu extremist organisations. In many places they enjoyed the patronage of the princes; Gwalior was one such. Several offshoots of Hindu militant groups found refuge here.

  Madanlal Pahwa, one of the accused in Gandhi's murder, had settled down in Gwalior after migrating from West Punjab with the first wave of refugees. He joined a gang of fanatic avengers headed by Dr. Sadashiv Parchure. This gang was involved in the massacres of many Muslims in the villages in British India close to the border of Gwalior state. But their favourite hunting grounds were the trains carrying Muslims from the east and south towards Pakistan. These trains would pass through Gwalior territory; one of the gang members would get into the train, identify the Muslims, and then mark the wagons they were in. At a pre-arranged place, preferably as the train passed through unpopulated jungles, the emergency breaks would be pulled by the gang member, many times in collusion with railway staff. Armed members of the gang would enter the train, go to the marked compartments and pull out the Muslims travelling inside. The Muslim men would be ordered to remove their lungis or pyjamas to confirm if they had been circumcised. Then they would be hacked or shot to death. But the most gruesome method of murdering these victims, was to first stab them and then set them on fire. The plight of the women was similar to that of the Hindu women in Pakistan, the only difference being that in Pakistan they were claimed as trophies of war and taken into the families of their captors. Muslim women who fell prey to Hindu fanatics were raped and then killed.

  Shaheed Suhrawardy had joined Gandhi soon after he came to Delhi to act as an emissary between him and members of the Muslim League government in Pakistan. He intended to initiate a dialogue which would ensure peace between the two states and the security of the minorities in both. Due to his old association with the Pakistan leaders, Suhrawardy possessed an advantage which he could exploit in the quest for peace. Gandhi warned him not to act in haste. He was categorical that Suhrawardy should only go to Karachi if his heart was free of all prejudice. His usefulness would depend upon his ability to get his old colleague, the Qaid-i-Azam, to face up to his own declaration respecting the minorities. If Shaheed himself lacked conviction, or if his mind was clouded, his visit would do more harm than good.

  Only after Gandhi was convinced did he send Suhrawardy to Karachi. Suhrawardy sent six despatches from Karachi to Gandhi, reporting on his dialogues with the Muslim League leaders: 'Both (Sir) Ghulam Mohammed and Liaquat Ali Khan agree with my draft. It now remains to promote a conference (after I have seen the Quaid-i-Azam) with him and Mountbatten, Nehru and Liaquat Ali, Baldev Singh, Tara Singh and Kartar Singh, Patel and yourself (Ghulam Mohammad thinks I should be there too) to draft the terms and condition and future conduct.... I am glad to find that the two agree with the "contrition", no interchange of population (except for the Punjab where it has taken place, and no power on earth can stop it—I shall write later about it, as I think Hindus and Muslims can get together, the Sikhs appear to be impossible), and a determined effort to get back the refugees (except for the Punjab Sikhs)'.

  A few days later, in the first week of October, Suhrawardy made another trip to Karachi to meet Jinnah with his draft proposal which Gandhi had approved. At the meeting, Jinnah did a volte-face, telling Suhrawardy that he (Jinnah) had allowed himself to be bamboozled by Gandhi. Suhrawardy reported this to Gandhi on his return; Gandhi replied that he was incapable of deceiving anybody or wishing anybody ill. Suhrawardy mentioned that Jinnah thought very highly of Nehru.

  Gandhi said, 'May be. He has never done so in public. But that is neither here nor there. Neither Pandit Nehru nor the Sardar cares for praise or blame. If only you could get Jinnah to do the right thing, peace between the two Dominions might return.'

  Suhrawardy replied, 'Jinnah says he never asked the Hindus to go out of Pakistan.'

  Gandhi said, 'You surprise me. Why do you not speak out to Jinnah and Liaquat Ali? You know the facts. Does not your "peace mission" require you to uphold truth and justice fearlessly and courageously at any cost?'

  Suhrawardy replied, 'You do not know how unpopular with the masses the Pakistan government has become. Some are even abusing Jinnah and Liaquat Ali.' To this, Gandhi said that that didn't concern either of them. He reminded Suhrawardy that his mission to Karachi was not to report who was abusing whom but to put the facts as he knew them before Jinnah and ask him what he proposed to do to implement the agreements into which the two Dominions had entered. 'The minorities on both sides should be able to live in their original homes. The main thing is to get the Pakistan Government to square their declarations with their performance,' he added.

  In a letter to Jinnah on 11 October, Gandhi said: 'Shaheed Saheb has reported to me your reactions to my endorsement on the suggestions drafted by him. I am sorry to learn about it.... In my opinion some such agreement as suggested by Shaheed Saheb should precede any move for hearty cooperation between two States. What is wanted no doubt is like mind, like word and like action between the two'. Jinnah did not bother to acknowledge or reply.

  While Gandhi, due to his influence, strove to bring about a rapprochement between the communities and ensure the safety of the Muslims in the Indian dominion, the leaders in Pakistan were still trying to derive political mileage from the situation. A statement issued by Jinnah seeking funds for rehabilitation exposed his and the entire Pakistani leadership's attitude: 'Sufferings that have been inflicted on our people in ... various ... parts of the Dominion of India have few parallels in their extent'. Jinnah did not express a word of regret or remorse for what the non-Muslim subjects of Pakistan had suffered and continued to suffer at Muslim hands. The leadership of Pakistan continued to use language which did not indicate friendliness towards the Indian Union. Pyarelal sums up the situation in Mahatma Gandhi: The Last Phase Vol. 10 Part II: 'Quaid-i-Azam was already showing symptoms of that deep physical and spiritual ailment which within three months of the founding of Pakistan had robbed him of his debonair self-assurance and stamped him with a "paralysing inability to make even the smallest decision ... sullen silences ... striped with outbursts of irritation...a spiritual numbness concealing something close to panic underneath." He found himself at the mercy of self-seeking opportunists and reactionaries who having helped him to bring Pakistan into b
eing now demanded their pound of flesh. The logic of his past actions, however, drove him to suppress those whose character and integrity he valued, and which could have helped him to set his own house in order but, who, on account of their very integrity, could not bring themselves to join his political organisation. A liberal and progressive by temperament and conviction, he was fated to conform to the ways of orthodox fanatical Mullahs and political obscurantists about whom he used to confide to the elder Pandit, Pandit Nehru's father, Motilal: "Pandit, I believe in none of their nonsense but somehow I have to carry these fools along!" On all accounts, Jinnah in the winter of 1947–48 was a very sick man—a prisoner of the passions and forces which he had himself raised and could no longer control. "Far from happy", essentially a frightened man "trying to exorcise his fears by nourishing his hatreds" were some of the descriptions given of him by those who met him soon after he became the Governor- General of Pakistan'.

  Suhrawardy failed in his peace mission due to his inability and unwillingness to stand up to Jinnah. After one of his abortive visits to Karachi in the last week of October, Gandhi on his day of silence scribbled this: 'I am at a loss to understand what Pakistan really wants to do—whether they want the Hindus to stay there or not.... Please remember that to the minorities this is a life and death question. Fine phrases or impressive declarations on paper will not help. If you can get the Pakistan authorities to implement its declarations in action, you will have rendered the greatest service to the Indian Muslims. It is my claim that though many heinous things have happened in the Indian Union, the Union Government has spread no effort to ensure complete security and protection to the Muslims.... The Sardar and Pandit Nehru have worn themselves out in putting down lawlessness.... You do not know how ill the Sardar is. Yet he carries on by his iron will. I do not know what the policy of the Pakistan Government is, but I know what is happening to the minorities in Pakistan—in the Punjab, in Sind and in the Frontier Province.... But I have faith. I have thrown myself entirely on HIM, so I am at peace'.