|
| |
Mohandas Gandhi
World War II and Quit India
Main article: Quit India Movement
Mahadev Desai (left) reading out a letter to Gandhi from the viceroy at Birla
House, Mumbai, April 7, 1939.World War II broke out in 1939 when Nazi Germany
invaded Poland. Initially, Gandhi had favored offering "non-violent moral
support" to the British effort, but other Congress leaders were offended by the
unilateral inclusion of India into the war, without consultation of the people's
representatives. All Congressmen elected to office resigned en masse.[12] After
lengthy deliberations, Gandhi declared that India could not be party to a war
ostensibly being fought for democratic freedom, while that freedom was denied in
India herself. As the war progressed, Gandhi increased his demands for
independence, drafting a resolution calling for the British to Quit India. This
was Gandhi's and the Congress Party's most definitive revolt aimed at securing
the British exit from Indian shores.[13]
Gandhi was criticized by some Congressmen and other Indian political groups,
both pro-British and anti-British. Some felt that opposing Britain in its
life-death struggle was immoral, and others felt that Gandhi wasn't doing
enough. Quit India became the most forceful movement in the history of the
struggle, with mass arrests and violence on an unprecedented scale.[14]
Thousands of freedom fighters were killed or injured in police firing, and
hundreds of thousands were arrested. Gandhi and his supporters made it clear
they would not support the war effort unless India was granted immediate
independence. He even clarified that this time the movement would not be stopped
if individual acts of violence were committed, saying that the "ordered anarchy"
around him was "worse than real anarchy". He called on all Congressmen and
Indians to maintain discipline in ahimsa, and Karo Ya Maro (Do or Die) in the
cause of ultimate freedom. Gandhi and the entire Congress Working Committee were
arrested in Bombay by the British on August 9, 1942. Gandhi was held for two
years in the Aga Khan Palace in Pune. It was here that Gandhi suffered two
terrible blows in his personal life — his 42 year old secretary Mahadev Desai
died of a heart attack 6 days later, then his wife Kasturba died after 18 months
imprisonment. He was released before the end of the war because of his failing
health and necessary surgery; the Raj did not want him to die in prison and
enrage the entire nation beyond control. Although the ruthless suppression of
the movement by British forces brought relative order to India by the end of
1943, Quit India succeeded in its objective. At the end of the war, the British
gave clear indications that power would be transferred to Indian hands, and
Gandhi called off the struggle, and the Congress leadership and around 100,000
political prisoners were released. In February 1944 Kasturbai Gandhi died in
prison and six weeks later Gandhi suffered a severe malaria attack. During this
time Gandhi's health continually deteriorated to the point that the government
on May 6, 1944 decided to release him.
Freedom and partition of India
Main article: Partition of India
Gandhi advised the Congress to reject the proposals the British Cabinet Mission
offered in 1946, as he was deeply suspicious of the grouping proposed for
Muslim-majority states — Gandhi viewed this as a precursor to partition.
However, this became one of the few times the Congress broke from Gandhi's
advice (not his leadership though), as Nehru and Patel knew that if the Congress
did not approve the plan, the control of government would pass to the Muslim
League. Between 1946 and 1947, over 5,000 people were killed in violence. Gandhi
was vehemently opposed to any plan that partitioned India into two separate
countries. Many Muslims in India lived side by side with Hindus and Sikhs, and
were in favour of a united India. But Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the leader of the
Muslim League, commanded widespread support in West Punjab, Sindh, NWFP and East
Bengal. The partition plan was approved by the Congress leadership as the only
way to prevent a wide-scale Hindu-Muslim civil war. Congress leaders knew that
Gandhi would viscerally oppose partition, and it was impossible for the Congress
to go ahead without his agreement, for Gandhi's support in the party and
throughout India was strong. Gandhi's closest colleagues had accepted partition
as the best way out, and Sardar Patel endeavoured to convince Gandhi that it was
the only way to avoid civil war. A devastated Gandhi gave his assent.
On the day of the transfer of power, Gandhi did not celebrate independence with
the rest of India, but was alone in Calcutta, mourning the partition and working
to end the violence. After India's independence, Gandhi focused on Hindu-Muslim
peace and unity. He conducted extensive dialogue with Muslim and Hindu community
leaders, working to cool passions in northern India, as well as in Bengal.
Despite the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947, he was troubled when the Government
decided to deny Pakistan the Rs. 55 crores due as per agreements made by the
Partition Council. Leaders like Sardar Patel feared that Pakistan would use the
money to bankroll the war against India. Gandhi was also devastated when demands
resurged for all Muslims to be deported to Pakistan, and when Muslim and Hindu
leaders expressed frustration and an inability to come to terms with one
another.[15] He launched his last fast-unto-death in Delhi, asking that all
communal violence be ended once and for all, and that the payment of Rs. 55
crores be made to Pakistan. Gandhi feared that instability and insecurity in
Pakistan would increase their anger against India, and violence would spread
across the borders. He further feared that Hindus and Muslims would renew their
enmity and precipitate into an open civil war. After emotional debates with his
life-long colleagues, Gandhi refused to budge, and the Government rescinded its
policy and made the payment to Pakistan. Hindu, Muslim and Sikh community
leaders, including the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and Hindu Mahasabha assured
him that they would renounce violence and call for peace. Gandhi thus broke his
fast by sipping orange juice.[16]
Assassination
Raj Ghat: Gandhi's Memorial in Delhi.See also: Attempts to assassinate Mahatma
Gandhi
On January 30, 1948, on his way to a prayer meeting, Gandhi was shot dead in
Birla House, New Delhi, by Nathuram Godse. Godse was a Hindu radical with links
to the extremist Hindu Mahasabha, who held Gandhi responsible for weakening
India by insisting upon a payment to Pakistan.[17] Godse and his co-conspirator
Narayan Apte were later tried and convicted, and on 15 November 1949, were
executed. Gandhi's memorial (or Samādhi) at Rāj Ghāt, New Delhi, bears the
epigraph, (Devanagiri: हे ! राम or, Hé Rām), which may be translated as "Oh
God". These are widely believed to be Gandhi's last words after he was shot,
though the veracity of this statement has been disputed by many.[18] Jawaharlal
Nehru addressed the nation through radio:
"Friends and comrades, the light has gone out of our lives, and there is
darkness everywhere, and I do not quite know what to tell you or how to say it.
Our beloved leader, Bapu as we called him, the father of the nation, is no more.
Perhaps I am wrong to say that; nevertheless, we will not see him again, as we
have seen him for these many years, we will not run to him for advice or seek
solace from him, and that is a terrible blow, not only for me, but for millions
and millions in this country."
[edit]
Gandhi's principles
See also: Gandhism
[edit]
Truth
Gandhi dedicated his life to the wider purpose of discovering truth, or Satya.
He tried to achieve this by learning from his own mistakes and conducting
experiments on himself. He named his autobiography The Story of My Experiments
with Truth.
Gandhi said that the most important battle to fight was in overcoming his own
demons, fears and insecurities. Gandhi summarized his beliefs first when he said
"God is Truth," but as typical of Gandhi, he evolved, later to correct himself
and state that "Truth is God." The first statement seemed insufficient to
Gandhi, as the mistake could be made that Gandhi was using Truth as a
description of God, rather than the summative definition of the entire essence
of God. Satya (Truth) in Gandhi's philosophy is God. It shares all the
characteristics of the Hindu concept of God, or Brahman.
Nonviolence
The concept of nonviolence (ahimsa) and nonresistance has a long history in
Indian religious thought and has had many revivals in Hindu, Buddhist, Jain,
Jewish and Christian contexts. Gandhi explains his philosophy and way of life in
his autobiography The Story of My Experiments with Truth. He was quoted as
saying:
"When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love
has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem
invincible, but in the end, they always fall — think of it, always."
"What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless,
whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the
holy name of liberty and democracy?"
"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind."
"There are many causes that I am prepared to die for but no causes that I am
prepared to kill for."
In applying these principles, Gandhi did not balk from taking them to their most
logical extremes. In 1940, when invasion of the British Isles by Nazi Germany
looked imminent, Gandhi offered the following advice to the British people
(Non-Violence in Peace and War):
"I would like you to lay down the arms you have as being useless for saving you
or humanity. You will invite Herr Hitler and Signor Mussolini to take what they
want of the countries you call your possessions.... If these gentlemen choose to
occupy your homes, you will vacate them. If they do not give you free passage
out, you will allow yourselves, man, woman, and child, to be slaughtered, but
you will refuse to owe allegiance to them."
Even in 1946, he said to biographer Louis Fisher:[19]
"The Jews should have offered themselves to the butcher's knife. They should
have thrown themselves into the sea from cliffs."
However, Gandhi was aware that this level of nonviolence required incredible
faith and courage, which he realized not everyone possessed. He therefore
advised that everyone need not keep to nonviolence, especially if it was used as
a cover for cowardice:
"Gandhi guarded against attracting to his satyagraha movement those who feared
to take up arms or felt themselves incapable of resistance. 'I do believe,' he
wrote, 'that where there is only a choice between cowardice and violence, I
would advise violence.'" [20]
"At every meeting I repeated the warning that unless they felt that in
non-violence they had come into possession of a force infinitely superior to the
one they had and in the use of which they were adept, they should have nothing
to do with non-violence and resume the arms they possessed before. It must never
be said of the Khudai Khidmatgars that once so brave, they had become or been
made cowards under Badshah Khan's influence. Their bravery consisted not in
being good marksmen but in defying death and being ever ready to bare their
breasts to the bullets."[21]
Vegetarianism
As a young child, Gandhi experimented in meat-eating. This was due partially to
his inherent curiosity as well as his rather persuasive peer and friend Sheikh
Mehtab. The idea of vegetarianism is deeply engrained in Hindu and Jain
traditions in India, and, in his native land of Gujarat, many Hindus were
vegetarian. The Gandhi family was no exception. Before leaving for his studies
in London, Gandhi made a promise to his mother, Putlibai and his uncle, Becharji
Swami that he would abstain from eating meat, taking alcohol, and engaging in
promiscuity. He held fast to his promise and gained more than a diet, he gained
a basis for his life-long philosophies. As Gandhi grew into adulthood, he became
a strict vegetarian. He wrote articles on the subject, some of which were
published in the London Vegetarian Society's publication: "The Vegetarian."
Gandhi became inspired by many great minds during this period and befriended a
chairman of the London Vegetarian Society, Dr. Josiah Oldfield.
Having also read and admired the work of Henry Stephens Salt, the young Mohandas
met and often corresponded with the vegetarian campaigner. Gandhi spent much
time advocating vegetarianism during and after his time in London. To Gandhi, a
vegetarian diet would not only satisfy the requirements of the body, it would
also serve an economic purpose as meat was, and still is, generally more
expensive than grains, legumes, and fruits. Also, many Indians of the time
struggled with low income, thus vegetarianism was seen not only as a spiritual
practice but also a practical one. He abstained from eating for long periods,
using fasting as a political "weapon." He refused to eat until his death or his
demands were met. It was noted in his autobiography that vegetarianism was the
beginning of his deep commitment to Brahmacharya; without total control of the
palate his success in Bramacharya would have been likely to falte
Back
| |
|
