10th September 1947
Is it not our shame as a nation that there should be any refugee
problem at all? Qaid-e-Azam Jinnah, Liaquatsaheb and other Pakistan leaders
have proclaimed in common with Pandit Nehru and Sardar Patel that the
minorities will be treated in the respective dominions with the same
consideration as the majorities. Was this said by each to tickle the world with
sweet words, or was it meant to show to the world that we mean what we say and
that we will die in the attempt to redeem the world. If so, why are the Hindus
and Sikhs and the proud Amils and Bhaibunds driven to leave Pakistan which is
their home? What has happened in Quetta, Nawabshah and Karachi? The tales one
hears and reads from western Pakistan are heart-breaking. It will not do for
either party to plead helplessness and say it is all the work of goondas. Each
dominion is bound to take full responsibility for the acts of those who live in
either dominion. 'Theirs is not to reason why; theirs but to do and die.' No
longer do we work willy-nilly under the crushing weight of imperialism. But
this does not mean that there will now be no rule of law if we are to face the
world squarely in the face. Are the Union ministers to declare their bankruptcy
and shamelessly own to the world that the people of Delhi or the refugees will
not cheerfully and voluntarily obey the rule of law? I would like the ministers
to break in the attempt to wean the people from their madness rather than bend.
12th September 1947
Anger breeds revenge and the spirit of revenge is to-day
responsible for all the horrible happenings here and elsewhere. What good will
it to do the Muslims to avenge the happenings in Delhi or for the Sikhs and the
Hindus to avenge cruelties on our co-religionists in the Frontier and West
Punjab? If a man or a group of men go mad, should everyone follow suit? I warn
the Hindus and Sikhs that by killing and loot and arson they are destroying
their own religions. I claim to be a student of religion and I know that no
religion teaches madness. Islam is no exception. I implore you all to stop your
insane actions at once. Let not future generations say that we lost the sweet
bread of freedom because we could not digest it. Remember that unless we stop
this madness the name of India will be mud in the eyes of the world.
15th September 1947
During the night as I heard what should have been the soothing
sound of gentle life-giving rain, my mind went out to the thousands of refugees
lying about in the open camps in Delhi. I was sleeping snugly in a veranda
protecting me on all sides. But for the cruel hand of man against his brother,
these thousands of men, women and children would not be shelter-less and in
many cases foodless. In some places they could not but be in knee-deep water.
Was it all inevitable? The answer from within was an emphatic No. Was this the
first fruit of freedom, just a month-old baby? These thoughts have haunted me
throughout these last twenty hours. My silence has been a blessing. It has made
me inquire within. Have citizens of Delhi gone mad? Have they no humanity left
in them? Have love of the country and its freedom no appeal for them? I must be
pardoned for putting the first blame on the Hindus and Sikhs. Could they not be
men enough to stem the tide of hatred? I would urge the Muslims of Delhi to shed
all fear, trust God and discover all the arms in their possession which the
Hindus and Sikhs fear they have. Not that the former too do not have any. The
question is one of degree. Either the minority rely upon God and His creature
man to do the right thing, or rely upon their firearms to defend themselves
against those whom they must not trust.
My advice is precise and firm. Its soundness is manifest. Trust
your Government to defend every citizen against wrong-doers, however well armed
they may be. Further, trust it to demand and get damages for every member of
the community wrongfully dispossessed. All that neither Government can do is to
resurrect the dead. The people of Delhi will make it difficult to demand
justice from the Pakistan Government. Those who seek justice must do justice,
must have clean hands. Let the Hindus and Sikhs take the right step and invite
the Muslims who have been driven out of their homes to return. If they can take
this courageous step worthy from every point of view, they immediately reduce
the refugee problem to its simplest terms. They will command recognition from
Pakistan, nay from the whole world. They will save Delhi and India from
disgrace and ruin. For me, transfer of millions of Hindus and Sikhs and Muslims
is unthinkable. It is wrong. The wrong of Pakistan will be undone by the right
of a resolute non-transfer of population. I hope I shall have the courage to
stand by it, even though mine may be a solitary voice in its favour.
19th September 1947
I visited the Hindu pocket in Kucha Tarachand surrounded on all
sides by Muslims. The spokesman recited in highly exaggerated language the woes
of the Hindus and ended by saying that the whole of the locality should be
denuded of all the Muslims who were mostly Leaguers and who had carried on a
wild agitation against the Hindus. He maintained that the Hindus should do
exactly as the Muslims in Pakistan were reported to be doing.
I replied that I could not associate myself with the contention
that India should drive out all its Muslim population to Pakistan as the
Muslims of Pakistan were driving out all non-Muslims. Two wrongs cannot make
one right. I therefore invited my audience to listen to my advice and act
bravely and fearlessly and be proud to live in the midst of a large Muslim
population.
I then went to the Anathalaya in Pataudi House and advised the
responsible parties to bring back the orphans who had been removed out of
fright. I was told that there was a shower of bullets from the adjoining Muslim
houses killing one child and wounding another. This was about the 7th of
September. Maulana Ahmad Said and other Muslim friends who were accompanying me
said that the neighbouring Muslims would see to it that no harm befell the
inmates. The next place was near the house of Shri Bhargava who is the sole
Hindu living in the midst of Muslims. It was packed with Muslims. I hope that
the Muslims will fulfil my dream as a lad of twelve that the Hindus, Muslims
and the other Indians will live together as brothers and friends. And finally I
ask you to join me in a prayer that God will fulfil that dream, or take me away
and save me from witnessing the awful tragedy of one part of India being
inhabited by the Muslims only and the other part by the Hindus.
21st September 1947
I am not going to argue with this objector. I realize the anger
that rages in people's hearts to-day. The atmosphere is so surcharged that I
think it right to respect even one objector, but by no means does this mean
that I give up God or His worship in my heart. Prayer demands a pure
atmosphere. One thing that everyone should take to heart from such objections
is that those who are anxious to serve must have endless patience and
tolerance. One must never seek to impose one's views on others.
The Hindus greet me with Mahatma Gandhi ki Jai, but they little
know that to-day there can be no victory for me, nor do I wish to live if the
Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs cannot live at peace with one another. I am doing my
level best to drive home the truth that there is strength in unity and weakness
in disunion. Just as a tree that does not bear fruit withers, so also will my
body be useless if my service cannot bear the expected fruit. Whilst this is
true, it is equally true that one is bound to work without attachment to fruit.
Detachment is more fruitful than attachment. I am merely explaining the logic
of facts. A body that has outlived its usefulness will perish giving place to a
new one. The soul is imperishable and continues to take on new forms for
working out its salvation through acts of service.
23rd September 1947
I am told that there are still left over 18,000 Hindus and Sikhs
in Rawalpindi and 30,000 in the Wah Camp. I will repeat my advice that they
should all be prepared to die rather than leave their homes. The art of dying
bravely and with honour does not need any special training, save a living faith
in God. Then there will be no abductions and no forcible conversions. I know
that you are anxious I should go to the Punjab at the earliest moment. I want
to do so. But if I failed in Delhi, it is impossible for me to succeed in
Pakistan. For I want to go to all the parts and provinces of Pakistan under the
protection of no escort save God. I will go as a friend of the Muslims as of
others. My life will be at their disposal. I hope that I may cheerfully die at
the hands of anyone who chooses to take my life. Then I will have done as I
have advised all to do.
26th September 1947
There was a time when India listened to me. To-day I am a back
number. I have been told I have no place in the new order, where we want
machines, navy, air force and what not. I can never be a party to that. If you
can have the courage to say that you will retain freedom with the help of the same
force with which you have won it, I am your man. My physical incapacity and my
depression will vanish in a moment. The Muslims are reported to have said
hanske liya Pakistan, larke lenge Hindustan. If I had my way, I would never let
them have it by force of arms. Some dream of converting the whole of India to
Islam. That will never happen through war. Pakistan can never destroy Hinduism.
The Hindus alone can destroy themselves and their faith. Similarly, if Islam is
destroyed, it will be destroyed by the Muslims in Pakistan, not by the Hindus
in Hindustan.
3rd October 1947
To-day I am getting news of satyagraha being started in many
places. Often I wonder whether the so-called satyagraha is not really
duragraha. Whether it is strikes in mills or railways or post offices or
movement in some of the states, it seems as if it is a question of seizing
power. A virulent poison is leaving society to-day and every opportunity for
attaining their object is seized by those who do not stop to consider that
means and ends are convertible terms.
I would like to refer to the fact that I am even getting letters
asking me to bless people's work or the starting of movements. In my opinion
every good work carries within it its own blessings and does not need mine or
anyone's backing. A good man who was doing good work and who came to me
understood my proposition at once. Truth is always self-evident and it is
everyone's duty to abide by it all costs. But those who resort to satyagraha
should search their hearts and find out whether it is Truth they are seeking.
If not, then insistence becomes a mockery. I affirm that those who are seeking
to get what is not in reality theirs cannot possibly abide by ahimsa, and Truth
cannot be found without it.
7th October 1947
Many people come and talk to me and leave literature with me to
the effect that the popular ministers are acting in an autocratic fashion like
their British predecessors. I have not talked to the ministers in this
connection. But I am quite clear that nothing for which you have criticized the
British Government shall happen in the regime of responsible ministries. Under
the British rule the Viceroy could issue ordinances for making laws and
executing them. There was hue and cry against the combination of judicial and
executive functions. Nothing has happened since to warrant a change in the
opinion. There should be no ordinance rule. Your legislative assemblies should
be your only law-makers. Ministers are liable to be changed at will. Their acts
should be subject to review by the courts. They should do all in their power to
make justice cheap, expeditious and incorruptible. For that purpose Panchayat
Raj has been suggested. It is not possible for a high court to reach lakhs and
lakhs of people. Only extraordinary situations require emergency legislation.
Legislative assemblies, even though the procedure may entail some delay, must
not be superseded by the executive. I have no concrete example in mind. I have
based my remarks upon the correspondence I have received from various
provinces. Therefore, while I appeal to the people not to take the law into
their own hands, I appeal to the ministers to beware of lapsing into the old
ways which they have condemned.
20th October 1947
It is my painful duty to draw attention to another menace, if it
be one. A Britisher writes in an open letter: 'To whom it may concern':
'Several of us are living in a lonely spot in a disturbed area. We
are pure British and for years we have devoted ourselves at great personal
sacrifice to the welfare of the people of this country�..We now find that a secret word
has gone out that all the British left in India are to be murdered. I read in
the newspapers Pandit Nehru's assurance that the Government will protect the
persons and property of all loyal citizens of the State. But there is no
protection for persons living in little country places or almost none. None at
all for us. It is a physical impossibility.'
There is much else in this open letter which can be quoted with
advantage. I have reproduced enough to warn us of the lurking danger. Of
course, it may be only a scare and there may be nothing beyond it. There may be
no secret circular.
There is, however, prudence in not disregarding such warnings. I
am hoping that the writer's fears are wholly groundless. I agree with him that
all promise of protection by authority in isolated places is vain. It simply
cannot be done, no matter how efficient the military and police machine may be,
which, it must be admitted it is not at present. Protection must come first
from within, i.e. from rock-like faith in God and secondly from the goodwill of
the neighbouring population. If neither is present, the best and the safest way
is to leave India's inhospitable shore. Things have not come to such a pass.
The duty of all of us is to regard with special attention all the Britishers
who choose to remain in India as its faithful servants. They must be free from
every kind of insult or disregard. The Press and public bodies have to be
circumspect in this as in many other respects if we are to render a good
account of ourselves as a free and self-respecting nation. Those who respect
themselves cannot make god the claim if they will not respect their neighbours
however few of insignificant they may be.
21st October 1947
I have heard of another sad incident. It is not a communal murder.
The victim is a Hindu government officer. A soldier shot him dead, because he
would not act as he was directed. This tendency to use a gun on the slightest
pretext is a grave portent. There are barbarous people in the world, to whom
life has no value. They shoot dead human beings as they would shoot down birds
or beasts. Is free India to be in this category? Man has not the power to
create life, hence he has no right to take it. Yet the Muslims murder the Hindus
and Sikhs and vice versa. When this cruel game is finished, the blood lust is
bound to result in the Muslims slaughtering the Muslims, and the Hindus and
Sikhs slaughtering themselves. I hope they will never reach that savage state.
That is their fate unless both the states pull themselves together and set
things right before it is too late.
30th October 1947
This evening when as usual before the prayer meeting the audience
was asked if there was any objector to the Koran verses being recited as part
of the prayer, one member spoke up and persisted in his objection. Gandhiji had
made it clear that if there was such object on, he would neither have public
prayer nor the after-prayer speech on current events. Consequently, he sent
word that there would be neither prayer nor speech before the public. But the
gathering would not disperse without seeing Gandhiji. He, therefore, went to
the rostrum and said a few words on the reason for abstention and the working
of ahimsa as he understood it.
It is unseemly for anyone to object to the prayer, especially when
it is on a private lawn. Nevertheless, my ahimsa warns me against disregarding
even one objector when an overwhelming majority are likely to overawe one
person into silence. It would be otherwise if the whole audience objected. It
would then be my duty to have the prayer even at the risk of being molested.
There is also the further consideration that the majority should not be
disappointed for the sake of one objector. The remedy is simple. If the
majority restrain themselves and entertain no anger against, or evil design on,
the solitary objector, it will be my duty to hold the prayer. The possibility,
however, is that if the whole audience is non-violent in intention and action,
the objector will restrain himself. Such I hold to be the working of
non-violence. I further hold that truth and non-violence are not the monopoly
of a few adepts. All universal rules of conduct known as God's commandments are
simple and easy to understand and carry out if the will is there. They only
appear to be difficult because of the inertia which governs mankind. Man is a
progressive being. There is nothing at a standstill in nature. Only God is
motionless for He was, is, and will be the same yesterday, to-day and
to-morrow, and yet is ever moving. We need not, however, worry ourselves over
the attributes of God. We have to realize that we are ever progressing. Hence,
I hold that if mankind is to live, it has to come growingly under the sway of
truth and non-violence. It is in view of these two fundamental rules of conduct
that I and you have to work and live.
3rd November 1947
If two quantities of poison mix together, who will decide which
was first on the field, and if such a decision could be arrived at, what end
would it serve? We know this, however, that a virus has spread throughout the
western Pakistan area and that it has not as yet been recognized as such by the
powers that be. So far as the Union is concerned, it has been confined to a
small part of it. Would to God that the virus would remain under isolation and
control! There would then be cause for every hope that it would be expelled in
due time and that soon from both parts.
In view of the fact that Dr. Rajendraprasad has called a meeting
of the Premiers or their representatives and others to help and advise him in
the matter of food control, I feel that I should devote this evening to that
very important question. Nothing that I have heard during these days has moved
me from the stand I have taken up from the beginning, that the control should
be entirely removed at the earliest moment possible, certainly not later than
six months hence. Not a day passes but letters and wires come to me, some from
important persons, declaring emphatically that both the controls should be
removed. I propose to omit the other, i.e. cloth control, for the time being.
Control gives rise to fraud, suppression of truth, intensification
of the black market and to artificial scarcity. Above all, it unmans the people
and deprives them of initiative, it undoes the teaching of self-help they have
been learning for a generation. It makes them spoon-fed. This is a tragedy next
only, if indeed not equal, to the fratricide on a vast scale and the insane
exchange of population resulting in unnecessary deaths, starvation and want of
proper residence and clothing more poignant for the coming inclement weather.
The second is certainly more spectacular. We dare not forget the first because
it is not spectacular.
This food control is one of the vicious legacies of the last world
war. Control then was probably inevitable because a very large quantity of
cereals and other foodstuffs were exported outside. This unnatural export was
bound to create a man-made scarcity and lead to rationing in spite of its many
drawbacks. Now there need be no export which we cannot avoid if we wish to. We
would help the starving parts of the world, if we do not expect outside help
for India in the way of food.
I have seen during my lifetime covering two generations several
God-sent famines, but have no recollection of an occasion when rationing was
even thought of.
To-day, thank God, the monsoons have not failed us. There is,
therefore, no real scarcity of food. There are enough cereals, pulses and oil
seeds in the villages of India. The artificial control of prices, the growers
do not, cannot understand. They, therefore, refuse willingly to part with their
stock at a price much lower than they command in the open market. This naked
fact needs no demonstration. It does not require statistics or desk-work
civilians buried in their red-tape files to produce elaborate reports and
essays to prove that there is scarcity. It is to be holed that no one will
frighten us by trotting out before us the bogey of over-population.
13th November 1947
Freedom without equality for all, irrespective of race or
religion, is not worth having for the Congress. In other words, the Congress
and any government representative of the Congress must remain a purely
democratic, popular body, leaving every individual to follow that form of
religion which best appeals to him without any interference from the state.
There is so much in common between people living in the same state under the
same flag owing undivided allegiance to it. There is so much in common between
man and man that it is a marvel that there can be any quarrel on the ground of
religion. Any creed or dogma which coerces others into following one uniform
practice is a religion only in name, for a religion worth the name does not
admit of any coercion. Anything that is done under coercion has only a short
lease of life. It is bound to die. It must be a matter of pride to you, whether
you are four-anna Congress members or not, that you have in your midst an
institution without a rival which disdains to become a theocratic state, and
which always believes and lives up to the belief that the state of your
conception must be a secular, democratic state having perfect harmony between
the different units composing the state. When I think of the plight of the
Muslims in the Union, how in many places life has become difficult for them and
how there is a continuing exodus of the Muslims from the Union, I wonder
whether the people who are responsible for creating such a state of things
could ever become a credit to the Congress. I therefore hope that during the
year which has just commenced, the Hindus and Sikhs will so behave as to enable
every Muslim, whether a boy or a girl, to feel that he or she is as safe and
free as the tallest Hindu or Sikh.
14th November, 1947
I am taking the bhajan of the evening as my text for my discourse.
When I was fasting in the Aga Khan Palace which was converted into a prison to
accommodate Devi Sarojini Naidu, Mirabehn, Mahadevbhai and myself, this bhajan
gripped me. I do not wish to go into the causes of the fast. Its relevance
simply is that I was sustained throughout the twenty-one days not by the
quantity of water I drank, or for some days by the quantity of orange juice I
took, or by the extraordinary medical care and attention I was receiving, but
by enthroning in my heart God whom I know as Rama. I was so much enamoured of
the lines of the bhajan, but whose words I had then forgotten, that I asked my
associates to send a telegram for the exact words of the bhajan. To my joy I
received the full text of the bhajan in the reply telegram. Its refrain is that
Ramanama is everything, and that before it the other gods are of no
consequences. I wish to recall this instructive episode from my life in order
to emphasize to my audience the fact that the momentous session of the A.I.C.C.
which is to meet in New Delhi to-morrow, i.e. Saturday, should carry on their
deliberations with God in their hearts. This they are bound to do as they are
representative of Congressmen, and as such they would not be worth their
chiefs. The Congressmen, had God in their hearts instead of Satan.
16th November 1947
It is the fashion nowadays to use the word satyagraha for any kind
of resistance, armed or otherwise. This looseness harms the community and
degrades satyagraha. If, therefore, you understand all the implications of
satyagraha and know that the living God of Truth and Love is with the
satyagrahi, you will have no hesitation in believing that it is invincible. I
am sorry to say what I do about the Hindu Mahasabha and the Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh. I would be glad to find that I am wrong. I have seen the
chief of the Rashtriya Swyamsevak Sangh. I have attended a meeting of the
members of the R.S.S. Since then I have been upbraided for having gone to the
meeting and have had many letters of complaints about the organization.
17th November 1947
A man becomes what he thinks'. Says an upnishad mantra. Experience
of wise men testifies to the truth of the aphorism. The world will thus become
what its wise men think. An idle thought is no thought. It would be a serious
mistake to say that the world will become as the unthinking multitude act. They
will not think. Independence should mean democracy. Democracy demands that
every citizen has the opportunity of receiving wisdom as distinguished from a
knowledge of facts so-called. South Africa has many wise men and women as it
has also many able soldiers who are equally able farmers. It will be a tragedy
for the world if they do not rise superior to their debilitating surroundings
and give a proper lead to their country on this vexed and vexing problem of
White supremacy. Is it not by this time a played-out game?
I must keep you for a moment over the much-debated question of
control. Must the voice of the people be drowned by the noise of the pundits
who claim to know all about the virtue of controls? Would that our ministers
who are drawn from the people and are of the people listened to the voice of
the people rather than of the controllers of the red tape which, they know, did
them infinite harm when they were in the wilderness! The pundits then ruled
with a vengeance. Must they do so even now? Will not the people have any
opportunity of committing mistakes and learning by them? Do the ministers not
know that they have the power to resume control wherever necessary, if
decontrol is found to have been harmful to the people, in any instance out of
the samples, by no means exhaustive, that I am giving below? The list before me
confounds my simple mind. There may be virtue in some of them. All I contend is
that the science, if it is one, of controls requires a dispassionate
examination and then education of the people in the secret of controls in
general or specified controls. Without examining the merits of the list I have
received I pick out a few of the samples given to me: Control on Exchange,
Investment, Capital Issues, Opening branches of Banks and their investments,
Insurance investments, All Import and Export of every kind of commodity,
Cereals, Sugar, Gur, Cane and Syrup, Vanaspati, Textiles, including Woolens,
Power Alcohols, Petrol and Kerosene, Paper, Cement, Steel, Mica, Manganese,
Coal, Transport, Installation of Plant, Machinery, Factories, Distribution of
cars in certain provinces and Tea plantation.
21st November 1947
A member of the audience asks me: What is a Hindu? What is the
origin of the word? Is there any Hinduism?
These are pertinent questions for the time. I am no historian, I
lay claim to no learning. But I have read in an authentic book on Hinduism that
the word 'Hindu' did not occur in the Vedas but when Alexander the Great
invaded India, the inhabitants of the country to the east of the Sindhu, which
is known by the English-speaking Indians as Indus, were described as Hindus.
The letter 'S' had become 'H' in Greek. The religion of these inhabitants
became Hinduism and as they knew it, it was a most tolerant religion. It gave
shelter to the early Christians who had fled from persecution, also to the Jews
known as Heni-Israel, as also to the Parsis. I am proud to belong to that
Hinduism which is all-inclusive, and which stands for tolerance. Aryan scholars
swear by what they call the Vedic religion and Hindustan is otherwise known as
Aryavarta. I have no such aspiration. Hindustan of my conception is
all-sufficing for me. It certainly includes the Vedas, but it includes also
much more. I can detect no inconsistency in declaring that I can, without in
any way whatsoever impairing the dignity of Hinduism, pay equal homage to the
best of Islam, Christianity, Zoroastrianism and Judaism. Such Hinduism will
live as long as the sun shines. Tulsidas has summed it up in one doha: 'The
root of religion is embedded in Mercy, whereas egotism is rooted in love of the
body. Tulsi says that Mercy should never be abandoned, even though the body
perishes.'
Finally I feel bound to refer to a case of persecution of the
Roman Catholics near Gurgaon, which was brought to my notice. The village in
question where it took place is known as Kanhai, about twenty-five miles from
Delhi. One of my visitors was an Indian Roman Catholic chaplain and the other
was a catechist belonging to a village. They produced to me a letter from the
Roman Catholics in the village relating the story of persecution at the hands
of the Hindus. This was curious enough in urdu. I understand that the
inhabitants of that part of the country, whether they are Hindus or others, can
only speak Hindustani and write in the urdu script. The informants told me that
the Roman Catholics there had been threatened if they did not remove themselves
from their village. I hope that it was an idle threat and that these Christian
brothers and sisters will be left to follow their own faith and avocation
without let or hindrance. Surely, they are not less entitled to their freedom
than they were under the British regime, now that there is freedom from
political bondage. That freedom can never be confined to the Hindus only in the
Union and the Muslims only in Pakistan. I have in one of my speeches already
told you that when the mad fury against the Muslims has abated, it is likely to
be vented on others; but when I made the remark I was not prepared for such an
early verification of my forebodings. The fury against the Muslims has not yet
completely abated. So far as I know, these Christians are utterly inoffensive.
It is suggested that their offence consists in being Christians, more so
because they eat beef and pork. As a matter of curiosity I asked the chaplain
whether there was any truth in the remark, and I was told that these Roman
Catholics, of their own accord, have abjured beef and pork not only now, but
long ago. If this kind of unreasoning prejudice persist, the future for
independent India is dismal. The chaplain himself has recently had his bicycle
taken away from him when he was at Rewari, and narrowly escaped death. Is this
agony to end only with the extinction of all the non-Hindus and non-Sikhs?
I have no desire to live to witness such a dissolution of India,
and I would ask you to join me in the wish and prayer that good sense will
return to the Hindus and Sikhs of the Union.
24th December 1947
To-morrow, Christian Day, is a festival for the Christians as
Deepavali is for the Hindus. I do not think that either festival is meant for
indulgence in drinks, dances and merry-making. These are holy days making one
examine oneself and do better next year. I offer greetings to all Christian
friends in India and outside and hope that they will enforce in their own lives
the teachings of Jesus Christ. I warn the Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs against
entertaining any ill-will towards the Christians, who are a minority in India.
Nor should they entertain any wish about converting them to Hinduism, Islam or
Sikhism. I do not believe in such conversions. I want the Christians to be good
Christians, the Muslims to be good Muslims, the Sikhs to be good Sikhs and the
Hindus to be good Hindus under all circumstances. That to me is real
conversion.
I have seen in the newspapers that in view of the fact that State
patronage to Christianity or any other religion will not be given, 75 per cent
of the churches in India will have to be closed down. Religion can never be
served through money. The Christians should rejoice that an artificial prop is
being removed. God is Omnipresent. Our bodies are the real temples rather than
buildings of stone. The best place for congregational worship for any religion
in my opinion is in the open with the sky above as the canopy and mother earth
below for the floor. Every individual is the protector of his own religion
against the whole world.
27th December 1947
The Panchayat should now see to cattle improvement. They should
show steady increase in the milk yield. Our cattle have become burden on the
land for want of care. It is gross ignorance to blame the Muslims for cow slaughter.
I hold that it is the Hindus who kill the cattle by inches through
ill-treatment. Slow death by torture is far worse than outright killing. The
Panchayat should also see to an increase in the quantity of foodstuff grown in
their village. That is to be accomplished by properly manuring the soil. The
Compost Conference recently held in Delhi under the inspiration of Shrimati
Mirabehn has told us how the excreta of animals and human beings mixed with
rubbish can be turned into valuable manure. This manure increases the fertility
of the soil. Then they must see to the cleanliness of their village and its
inhabitants. They must be clean and healthy in body and mind.
I hope that they will have no cinema house. People say that the
cinema can be a potent means of education. That may come true some day, but at
the moment I see how much harm the cinema is doing.
6th January 1948
With reference to the news from Bombay that dock labourers and
others are thinking of going on strike, I appeal to all concerned, whether they
belong to the Congress, the Socialist Party - if the latter can be counted
apart from the Congress - or the Communist Party to desist. This is no time for
strikes. Such strikes are harmful to all concerned and to the country as a
whole.
7th January 1948
I have received a note in which the writer says he has undertaken
a fast which will be continued. I consider the fast to be wrong. I am of the
opinion that during my lifetime those who undertake such fasts should consult
me.
I have seen in the newspapers that the students in Delhi propose
to organize a strike on the 9th instant. I told them yesterday that this is no
time for strikes. Strikes by students I consider generally to be wrong. I have
conducted many strikes during my life, more or less successfully. But I can
tell you that all strikes are not right and certainly not non-violent. If the
students will listen to me, they will give up the idea of the proposed strike.
12th January 1948
One fasts for health's sake under laws governing health, fasts as
a penance for a wrong done and felt as such. In these fasts, the fasting one
need not believe in ahimsa. There is, however, a fast which a votary of
non-violence sometimes feels impelled to undertake by way of protest against
some wrong done by society and this he does when he as a votary of ahimsa has
no other remedy left. Such an occasion has come my way.
When on September 9th I returned to Delhi from Calcutta, it was to
proceed to the west of Punjab. But that was not to be. Gay Delhi looked a city
of the dead. As I alighted from the train I observed gloom on every face I saw.
Even the Sardar, whom humour and the joy that humour gives never desert, was no
exception this time. The cause of it I did not know. He was on the platform to
receive me. He lost no time in giving me the sad news of the disturbances that
had taken place in the Metropolis of the Union. At once I saw that I had to be
in Delhi and 'do or die'. There is apparent calm brought about by prompt
military and police action. But there is storm within the breast. It may burst
forth any day. This I count as no fulfillment of the vow to 'do' which I alone
can keep me from death, and incomparable friends. I yearn for heart friendship
between the Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims. I subsisted between them the other day.
To-day it is non-existent. It is a state that no Indian patriot worthy of the
name can contemplate with equanimity. Though the Voice within has been
beckoning for a long time, I have been shutting my ears to it, lest it may be
the voice of Satan, otherwise called my weakness. I never like to feel
resource-less; a satyagrahi never should. Fasting is his last resort in the
place of the sword - his or other's. I have no answer to return to the Muslim
friends who see me from day to day as to what they should do. My impotence has
been gnawing at me of late. It will go immediately the fast is undertaken. I
have been brooding over it for the last three days. The final conclusion has
flashed upon me and it makes me happy. No man, if he is pure, has anything more
precious to give than his life. I hope and pray that I have that purity in me
to justify the step.
I ask you all to bless the effort and to pray for me and with me.
The fast begins from the first meal to-morrow. The period id indefinite and I
may drink water with or without salts and sour limes. It will end when and if I
am satisfied that there is a reunion of hearts of all the communities brought
about without any outside pressure, and from an awakened sense of duty. The
reward will be the regaining of India's dwindling prestige and her fast-fading
sovereignty over the heart of Asia and thereby, the world. I flatter myself
with the belief that the loss of her soul by India will mean the loss of the
hope of the aching, storm-tossed and hungry world. Let no friend, or foe, if
there be one, be angry with me. There are friends who do not believe in the
method of the fast for the reclamation of the human mind. They will bear with
me and extend me the same liberty of action that they claim for themselves.
With God as my supreme and sole counselor, I felt that I must take the decision
without any other adviser. If I have made a mistake and discover it, I shall
have no hesitation in proclaiming it from the house-top and retracting my
faulty step. There is little chance of my making such a discovery. If there is
clear indication, as I claim there is, of the inner voice, it will not be
gainsaid. I plead for all absence of argument and inevitable endorsement of the
step. If the whole of India responds or at least Delhi does, the fast might be
soon ended.
But whether it ends soon or late or never, let there be no
softness in dealing with what may be termed as a crisis. Critics have regarded
some of my previous fasts as coercive and held that on merits the verdict would
have gone against my stand but for the pressure exercised by the fasts. What
value can an adverse verdict have when the purpose is demonstrably sound? A
pure fast, like duty, is its own reward. I do not embark upon it for the sake
of the result it may bring. I do so because I must. Hence, I urge everybody
dispassionately to examine the purpose and let me die, if I must, in peace
which I hope is ensured. Death for me would be a glorious deliverance rather
than that I should be a helpless witness of the destruction of India, Hinduism,
Sikhism and Islam. That destruction is certain if Pakistan ensures no equality
of status and security of life and property for all professing the various faiths
of the world and if India copies her. Only then Islam dies in the two Indians,
not in the world. But Hinduism and Sikhism have no world outside India. Those
who differ from me will be honoured by me for their resistance however
implacable. Let my fast quicken conscience, not deaden it. Just contemplate the
rot that has set in in beloved India and you will rejoice to think that there
is an humble son of hers who is strong enough and possibly pure enough to take
the happy step. If he is neither, he is a burden on earth. The sooner he
disappears and clears the Indian atmosphere of the burden the better for him
and all concerned.
I would beg of all friends not to rush to Birla House nor try to
dissuade me or be anxious for me. I am in God's hands. Rather, they should turn
the searchlights inwards, for this is essentially a testing time for all of us.
Those who remain at their post of duty and perform it diligently and well, now
more so than hitherto, will help me and the cause in every ways. The fast is a
process of self-purification.
13th January 1948
I must warn you against being surprised that I have walked to the
prayer ground as usual. A fast weakens nobody during the first twenty-four hours
after a meal. It generally does good to those who fast occasionally for
twenty-four hours.
Tomorrow it may be difficult for me to walk the prayer ground. But
if you are eager to attend the prayers all the same, you can come and the girls
will recite the prayers with you even though I am not present.
You ask me whom I consider blameworthy for the fast. I blame no
individual or community. I do believe, however, that if the Hindus and Sikhs
insist on turning out the Muslims from Delhi, they will be betraying India and
their own faiths. And that hurts me.
If Delhi becomes peaceful in the real sense of the term, I will
then break the fast. Delhi is the Capital of India. The ruin or downfall of
Delhi I would regard as the ruin of India and Pakistan. I want Delhi to be safe
for all Muslims, even for one like Shaheed Suhrawardy, who is looked upon as
the chief of goondas. Let all proved goondas be rounded up. But I am witness to
the fact that Shaheedsaheb has worked for peace in Calcutta in all sincerity.
He has pulled out the Muslims from Hindus' houses which they had forcibly
occupied. He is living with me. He will willingly join the prayer, but I will
not expose him to the risk of being insulted. I want him, as I do every Muslim,
to feel as safe in Delhi as tallest of you.
I do not mind how long it takes for real peace to be established.
Whether it takes one day or one month, it is immaterial. No one should say or
do anything to lure me into giving up my fast prematurely. The object should
not be to save my life. It should be to save India and her honour. I shall feel
happy and proud when I see that India's place is not lowered as it has become
by the recent happenings which I have no wish to recall.
14th January 1948
I have come to the prayer meeting in spite of the doctor's
objections. But from to-morrow I shall probably not be able to walk to the
prayer ground. I have the strength to-day and I use it though the doctors have
advised me to conserve it. I am in God's hands. If He wants me to live I shall
not die. I do not want my faith in God to weaken.
Before I ever knew anything of politics in my early youth, I
dreamt the dream of communal unity of the heart. I shall jump in the evening of
my life, like a child, to feel that the dream has been realized in this life.
The wish for living the full span of life, portrayed by the seers of old and
which they permit us to set down at 125 years, will then revive. Who would not
risk sacrificing his life for the realization of such a dream? Then we shall
have a real Swaraj. Then, though legally and geographically we may still be two
states, in daily life no one will think that we were separate states. The vista
before me seems to me to be, as it must be to you, too glorious to be true. Yet
like a child in a famous picture, drawn by a famous painter, I shall not be
happy till I have got it. I live and want to live for no lesser goal. Let the
seekers from Pakistan Help me to come as near the goal as it is humanly
possible. A goal ceases to be one, when it is reached. The nearest approach is
always possible. What I have said holds good irrespective of whether others do
it or not. It is open to every individual to purify himself or herself so as to
render him or her fit for that land of promise. I remember to have read, I
forget whether in the Delhi Fort or the Agra Fort, when I visited them in 1896,
a verse on one of the gates, which when translated reads: 'If there is paradise
on earth, it is here, it is here, it is here.' That fort with all its
magnificence at its best, was no paradise in my estimation.
But I should love to see that verse with justice inscribed on the
gates of Pakistan at all the entrances. In such paradise, whether it is in the
Union or in Pakistan, there will be neither paupers nor beggars, nor high or
low, neither millionaire employers nor half-starved employees, nor intoxicating
drinks or drugs. There will be the same respect for women as vouchsafed to men,
and the chastity and purity of men and women will be jealously guarded. Where
every woman except one's wife will be treated by men of all religions as
mother, sister or daughter according to her age. Where there will be no
untouchability and where there will be equal respect for all faiths. They will
be all proudly, joyously and voluntarily bread labourers. I hope everyone who
listens to me or reads these lines will forgive me if stretched on my bed and
basking in the sun, inhaling life-giving sunshine, I allow myself to indulge in
this ecstasy. Let this assure the doubters and sceptics that I have not the
slightest desire that the fast should be ended as quickly as possible. It
matters little if the ecstatic wishes of a fool like me are never realized and
the fast is never broken. I am content to wait as long as it may be necessary,
but it will hurt me to think that people have acted merely in order to save me.
I claim that God has inspired this fast and it will be broken only when and if
He wishes it. No human agency has ever been known to thwart, nor will it ever thwart
the Divine Will.
16th January 1948
I did not expect I would be able to speak to you to-day but you
will be pleased to learn that if anything, my voice is less feeble to-day than
yesterday. I cannot explain it except for the grace of God. I have never felt
so well on the fourth day of a fast in the past. If all of you continue to
participate in the process of self-purification, I shall probably have the
strength to speak to you till the end. I am in no hurry to break the fast.
Hurry would spoil matters. I do not want anyone to come and tell me that things
have been set right while the process is incomplete. If Delhi becomes peaceful
in the real sense of the term, it will have its repercussions all over the
country. I have no wish to live unless peace reigns in the two Dominions.
It is never a light matter for any responsible Cabinet to alter a
deliberate, settled policy. Yet our Cabinet, responsible in every sense of the
term, has with equal deliberation yet promptness un-settled their settled fact.
They deserve the warmest thanks from the whole country, from Kashmir to Cape
Comorin and from Karachi to the Assam frontier. And I know that all the nations
of the earth will proclaim this gesture as one which only a large-hearted
Cabinet like ours could rise to. This is no policy of appeasement of the
Muslims. This is a policy, if you like, of self-appeasement. No Cabinet worthy
of being representative of a large mass of mankind can afford to take any step
merely because it is likely to win the hasty applause of an unthinking public.
In the midst of insanity, should not our best representatives retain sanity and
bravely prevent a wreck of the ship of state under their management? What,
then, was the actuating motive? It was my fast. It changed the whole outlook.
Without the fast, they could not go beyond what the law permitted and required
them to do. But the present gesture on the part of the Government of India is
one of unmixed goodwill. It has put the Pakistan Government on its honour. It
ought to lead to an honourable settlement not only of the Kashmir question but
of all differences between the two Dominions. Friendship should replace the
present enmity. Demands of equity supersede the letter of the law. There is a
homely maxim of law which has been in practice for centuries in England that
when common law seems to fail, equity comes to the rescue. Not long ago there
were even separate courts for the administration of law and equity. Considered
in this setting, there is no room for questioning the utter justice of this act
of the Union Government. If we want a precedent, there is a striking one at our
disposal in the form of what is popularly known as the MacDonald Award. That
award was really the unanimous judgment of not only the members of the Second
Round Table Conference. It was undone overnight as a result of the fast
undertaken in the Yeravda prison.
I have been asked to end the fast because of this great act of the
Union Government. I wish I could persuade myself to do so. I know that the
medical friends who, of their own volition and at considerable sacrifice,
meticulously examine me from day to day are getting more and more anxious as
the fast is prolonged. Because of defective kidney function they dread not so
much my instantaneous collapse as permanent after-effects of any further prolongation.
I did not embark upon the fast after consultation with medical men, be they
however able. My sole guide, even dictator, was God, the Infallible and
Omnipotent. If He has any further use for this frail body of mine, He will keep
it in spite of the prognostications of medical men and women. I am in His
hands. Therefore, I hope you will believe me when I say that I dread neither
death nor permanent injury, even if I survive. But I do feel that this warning
of medical friends should, if the country has any use for me, hurry the people
up to close their ranks. And like brave men and women, that we ought to be
under hard-earned freedom, we should trust even those whom we may suspect as
our enemies. Brave people disdain distrust. The letter of my vow will be satisfied
if the Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs of Delhi bring about a unison, which not even
a conflagration around them in all the other parts of India or Pakistan will be
strong enough to break. Happily, the people in both the Dominions, seem to have
instinctively realized that the fittest answer to the fast should be a complete
friendship between the two Dominions, such that members of all communities
should be able to go to either Dominion without the slightest fear of
molestation. Self-purification demands nothing less. It will be wrong for the
rest of the two Dominions to put a heavy strain upon Delhi. After all, the
inhabitants of the Union are not superhuman. In the name of the people, our
Government has taken a liberal step without counting the cost. What will be
Pakistan's counter gesture? The ways are many if there is the will. Is it
there?
17th January 1948
I repeat what I have said before - nothing is to be done under
pressure of the fast. I have observed before that things done under pressure of
a fast have been undone after the fast is over. If any such thing happens, it
would be a tragedy of the highest degree. There is no occasion for it at any
time. What a spiritual fast does expect is cleansing of the heart. The
cleansing, if it is honest, does not cease to be when the cause which induced
it ceases. The cleansing of a wall seen in the form of a whitewash does not
cease when the dear one has come and gone. This material cleansing is bound to
require renovation after some time. Cleansing of the heart once achieved only
dies with one's death. Apart from this legitimate and laudable pressure, the
fast has no other function which can be described as proper.
18th January 1948
I embarked on the fast in the name of Truth whose familiar name is
God. Without living Truth God is nowhere. In the name of God we have indulged
in lies, massacres of people, without caring whether they were innocent or
guilty, men or women, children or infants. We have indulged in abductions,
forcible conversions and we have done all this shamelessly. I am not aware if
anybody has done these things in the name of Truth. With that same name on my
lips I have broken the fast. The agony of our people was unbearable.
Rashtrapati Dr. Rajendrababu brought over a hundred people representing the
Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, representatives of the Hindu Mahasbha, the Rashtriya
Swayam -sevak Sangh and representatives of refugees from the Punjab, the
Frontier Province and Sind. In this very representative company were present
Zahid Hussainsaheb, the High Commissioner for Pakistan, the Chief Commissioner
of Delhi and the Deputy Commissioner, General Shah Nawazkhan, representing the
Azad Hind Fouj (I.N.A). Pandit Nehru, sitting like a statue, was of course
there, as also Maulanassaheb. Dr. Rajendrababu read a document in Hindustani
signed by these representatives, asking me not to put any further strain on
them and end the agony by breaking the fast. Telegrams after telegrams have
come from Pakistan and the Indian Union urging me to do the same. I could not
resist the counsel of all these friends. I could not disbelieve their pledge
that come what may, there would be complete friendship between the Hindus,
Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Parsis and Jews, a friendship not to be broken. To
break that friendship would be to break the nation.
As I write, comforting telegrams are deluging me. How I wish that
God will keep me fit enough and sane enough to render the service of humanity
that lies in front of me! If the solemn pledge made to-day is fulfilled. I
assure you that it will revive with redoubled force my intense wish and prayer
before God that I should be enabled to live the full span of life doing service
of humanity till the last moment. That span according to learned opinion is at
least one hundred and twenty-five years, some say one hundred and thirty-three.
The letter of my vow has been fulfilled early, beyond expectation, through the
great goodwill of all the citizens of Delhi, including the Hindu Mahasabha
leaders and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. The result could not be otherwise
when I find that thousands of refugees and others have been fasting since
yesterday. Signed assurances of heart friendship have been pouring in upon me
from thousands. Telegraphic blessings have come from all over the world. Can
there be a better sign of God's hand in this act of mine? But beyond the letter
of fulfillment of my solemn vow lies its spirit without which the letter
killeth. The spirit of the vow is sincere friendship between the Hindus,
Muslims and Sikhs of the Union and a similar friendship in Pakistan. If the
first is assured, the second must follow, as sure as day follows night. If
there is darkness in the Union, it would be folly to expect light in Pakistan.
But if the night in the Union is dispelled beyond the shadow of a doubt, it
cannot be otherwise in Pakistan, nor are signs wanting in that direction.
Numerous messages have come from Pakistan, not one of dissent. May God, who is
Truth, guide us as He has visibly guided us during all these six days.
19th January 1948
In this age of senseless imitation my warning is that it would be
foolish for anybody to embark on such a fast expecting identical results in an
identically short space of time. If anyone does, he will face severe
disappointment and will discredit what is a hoary and infallible institution.
Two serve qualifications are necessary - a living faith in God and a felt
peremptory call from Him. I am tempted to add a third, but it is superfluous. A
peremptory call from God within presupposes the rightness, timeliness, and
propriety of the cause for which the fast is taken. It follows that a long
previous preparation is required. Let no one, therefore, lightly embark on such
a fast.
21st January 1948
I am going to speak about yesterday's bomb explosion. I have been
receiving anxious inquiries and praise for being unruffled at the accident. I
thought it was military practice and therefore nothing to worry about. I did
not realize until after the prayers that it was a bomb explosion and that the
bomb was meant against me. God only knows how I would have behaved in front of
a bomb aimed at me and exploding. Therefore, I deserve no praise. I would
deserve a certificate only if I fell as a result of such an explosion and yet
retained a smile on my face and no malice against the doer. What I want to say
is that no one should look down upon the misguided youth who threw the bomb. He
probably looks upon me as an enemy of Hinduism. After all, has not the Gita
said that whenever there is an evil-minded person damaging religion, God sends
someone to put an end to his life? That celebrated verse has a special meaning.
The youth should realize that those who differ from him are not necessarily
evil. The evil has no life apart from the toleration of good people. No one
should believe that he or she is so perfect that he or she was sent by God to
punish evil doers, as the accused seems to flatter himself he is.
26th January 1948
This day, 26th January, is Independence Day. This observance was
quite appropriate when we were fighting for Independence we had not seen nor
handled. Now! We have handled it and we seem to be disillusioned. At least I
am, even if you are not.
What are we celebrating to-day? Surely not our disillusionment. We
are entitled to celebrate the hope that the worst is over and that we are on
the road to showing the lowliest villager that it means his freedom from
serfdom and that he is no longer a serf born to serve the cities and towns of
India, but that he is destined to exploit the city dwellers for the
advertisement of the finished fruits of well-thought-out labours, that he is
the salt of the Indian earth, that it means also equality of all classes and
creeds, never the domination and superiority of the major community over a
minor, however insignificant it may be in number or influence. Let us not defer
the hope and make the heart sick. Yet what are the strikes and a variety of
lawlessness but a deferring of the hope? These are symptoms of our sickness and
weakness. Let labour realize its dignity and strength. Capital has neither
dignity nor strength compared to labour. These the man in the street also has. In
a well-ordered democratic society there is no room, no occasion for lawlessness
or strikes. In such a society there are ample lawful means for vindicating
justice. Violence, veiled or unveiled must be taboo. Strikes in Cawnpore,
coal-mines or elsewhere mean material loss to the whole society not excluding
the strikers themselves. I need not be reminded that this declamation does not
lie well in the mouth of one like me who has been responsible for so many
successful strikes. If there be such critics they ought not to forget that then
there was neither independence nor the kind of legislation we have now. I
wonder if we can remain free from the fever of power politics or the bid for
power which afflicts the political world, the East and the West. Before leaving
this topic of the day, let us permit ourselves to hope that though
geographically and politically India is divided into two, at heart we shall
ever be friends and brothers helping and respecting one another and be one for
the outside world.1
1. Extracts from Delhi Diary (Prayer Speeches from 10.9.47 to
30.1.48), by M. K. Gandhi, Navajivan Publishing House, Ahmedabad, March 1948.
Pp.4, 7-8, 15-16, 22-3, 27-8, 33-4, 40-1, 58-9, 70-1, 101-3, 123-4, 133-5,
168-70, 174-5, 178-9, 193-4, 195-6, 281-2, 289-90, 314, 316, 330-3, 335, 336,
338, 339, 341-3, 348-52, 356-8, 359-60, 365-6, 380-1.