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The Seeds of Pakistan . . . !

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Mother India: “By the pricking of my thumbs,

Something wicked this way comes.”

Hi, Everyone! In 1937, the Congress came right out and revealed its goal of total control in the governing of India. They had the Hindus in their pocket, and were under the impression that the Muslims would also happily crawl in there. Well, they certainly had a rude awakening!

In his book, History of the Freedom Movement in India, vol. III (hence forth in all the posts to be called HFMI, vol. III) page 551-552, R. C. Majumdar, a noted historian, writes:

“The result of the elections held in 1937 belied the claims of both the Congress and the Muslim League. . . . It was a clear indication that the Congress organization had no contact with the Muslim masses and had very little influence over them. The Congress could not therefore advance any reasonable claim to represent the Muslims. . . .

It is not a little curious that the Muslim League had a specially bad record of election success in those Provinces like Bengal, the Punjab, Sindh and North-West Frontier Province where the Muslims formed the majority community, and fared much better in the Provinces which had a strong Hindu majority with a significant and vocal minority.”

[Point to note:

· the Muslims of the very provinces which went to Pakistan in 1947 had happily voted for nationalist Muslim parties in 1937. . . !

A Central Federation at this time would have bound them to a united India.]

“The reason is that the Muslim League had no special positive programme which distinguished it from the other parties and had no local influence in any Province. It throve only on its assumed character as a bulwark of defence against Hindu attack. The Provinces with a Muslim majority had no genuine fear of such an attack, and were not therefore susceptible to the propaganda of the League.

It is only when the Muslim masses learnt to look upon the problem from an all-India perspective that the Muslim League emerged as the most powerful Muslim organization. . . .

The credit of Jinnah lies in the fact that he succeeded in developing this political consciousness among the Muslims within an incredibly short time. . . .”

And to do that, he too brought religion into politics.

“He touched the chord of religious feelings of the Muslims which have always proved a potent factor in Muslim politics. ‘The Mullahs of the countryside were soon up in arms against the Congress propagandist . . .’ The Congress mass contact movement, which had made some headway, collapsed under the attack of the Mullahs.”[1]

To continue (HFMI, vol. III, page 551-552):

“The intransigence of the Congress high command helped its growth. They took their stand on the theory that the Congress represented the whole of India . . . They ignored the Muslim League as having no influence over the masses and only representing a ‘microscopic minority’ of the Muslims . . . But they discounted the idea that there may be a national urge among the Muslims limited to their own community . . . and though a nationalist may disapprove such a development, a Statesman can ignore it at his peril.

Jawaharlal Nehru in particular, among the Congress leaders must be held highly guilty in this respect. . . .

It [Congress] did not learn the obvious lesson of coming to terms with the Muslim League till by its [Congress’s] folly the League had attained a position when it could dictate its own terms, and demanded Pakistan as the only basis of settlement.”

This is how R. C. Majumdar wraps it up in a nutshell:

· “In 1937 his [Nehru’s] outright rejection of Jinnah’s offer of Congress-League Coalition Ministry ruined the last chance of a Hindu-Muslim agreement.”

So much for the much-touted Congress Hindu-Muslim unity demand of the Congress. . . !

· As I said, making a demand is one thing but without follow-up by action it is just so much hot air.

But what exactly was it that Congress and Nehru did?

Find out tomorrow!

Anurupa

[1] HIFM, vol III, R. C. Majumdar, page 568.

Tilling the soil for the Pakistan Plant, Part II

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“I am concerned for the security of our great Nation; not so much because of any threat from without, but because of the insidious forces working from within.”

-General MacArthur

Hi, Everyone! Jinnah had been truly secular and nationalist in his early political days. But besides the Congress there was no other national party of substance at the time. Once Jinnah left the Congress, he had no nationalist party to join.

Being Muslim, there was no way Jinnah was going to able to charm the Hindu majority—so bedazzled by the Mahatma that it was—away from the dangerous and self-serving politics of the Congress by himself.

To counteract the Congress, Gandhi, and Nehru—and that had become the ruling passion of his life—his only option was to build a strong Muslim party. And in doing so he sacrificed his secular and nationalist principles.

He sacrificed India.

So in 1937, we have Jinnah of the political acumen par excellence full of animus against Gandhi and Nehru and extremely suspicious of their intentions.

On the other side we have Gandhi and Nehru (he too bore ill-will to Jinnah)[1]who were riding high with the Congress being the only national party of substance and the tremendous support of the Hindu majority. Congress was bound to be the ruling party in free India.

· If only they had been satisfied with that much.

But no, Gandhi and Nehru’s lust for power knew no bounds.

Within the Congress itself they brooked no opposition and ruled with total control and power (we have seen examples of it in earlier posts,) and they sought to throw that mantle over the whole of India.

Hindu-Muslim power struggle

The Constitution of India being communal—and the responsibility for that can be unambiguously laid at the Congress door—as Penderel Moon, I.C.S., puts it in his Strangers in India, ( page 101):

“In essence the struggle [Hindu-Muslim communal struggle] is one for posts and political power between two communities distinguished by religion and culture.”

And how was this power distributed in India in 1937?

· Congress was the only national Indian party of substance

· Jinnah and the Muslim League with no clout as yet

· Savarkar, only just released from bondage in 1937, not quite yet on the political field.

This was the moment for the Congress to embrace the Federation plan of the British, and tie the whole of India—Hindus, Muslims, Princely States et al—into one unified force. The Viceroy Linlithgow was pushing heavily for it.

Did the Congress do that? No!

What did they actually do?

They sabotaged the Federation plan—

· by antagonizing the Princely States and the Muslim League

And they also set about duping the Hindus with words that were not backed up by actions.

At this moment in Indian politics Savarkar was released from bondage. He swept upon the political scene and roused the Hindus into full awareness of the treacherous goal of the Congress.

· With the communal electorate, the only avenue for Savarkar to check the Congress was to build up a solid Hindu party. Which he did.

This is the background of Indian politics in 1937. From the next post on, I am going to show you—in detail with documentation—how the Congress actually went about bludgeoning India’s chances of a united freedom.

Anurupa

[1]Jinnah’s wife had been (she died in 1929, and was separated from Jinnah at the time) close friends with both Nehru’s sister, Nan, and Padmaja Naidu who later became Nehru’s lover (from Alex Tunzelmann’s Indian Summer, page 81.) Who can say what kind of personal differences these two may have had arising from this situation?

But they should not have allowed it to come into Indian politics.

Tilling the soil for the Pakistan Plant, Part I

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“History is not history unless it is the truth.”

-Abraham Lincoln

Hi, Everyone! Before going into the political situation in India in 1937, it is necessary to give some background into the Jinnah-Nehru-Gandhi situation.

· The tragedy of India was the undercurrents and clashes between Jinnah and Gandhi-Nehru; none of them looked beyond their own petty egos and aspirations to power and consider what was right for the motherland.

In her book Indian Summer (page 80-81), Alex Von Tunzelmann has captured the essence of the situation.

“Jinnah had begun his political career in Congress. He made himself a figurehead for Hindu-Muslim unity and was acclaimed as such by Hindu Congress luminaries. He joined the Muslim League in 1913, confident that he could act as a bridge between the political parties. But it was the emergence of Gandhi as the spiritual leader of Congress in 1920 that began to push Jinnah out. “I will have nothing to do with this pseudo-religious approach to politics,” Jinnah had said, rejecting the call for satyagraha. . . .

There was a profound and deadly clash of personality between Jinnah and the other English gentleman of Congress, Jawaharlal Nehru. . . .”

In case anyone has any objections to Nehru being referred to as the “other English gentleman,” check out this little snippet from an interview of John Kenneth Galbraith by Arun Venugopal:

“While the pace of his day has slowed down, John Kenneth Galbraith’smind remains vibrant and unrelenting. He also talks of his close friendship with Nehru, who figures in his book Name-Dropping. “You realise, Galbraith,” Nehru had once told him, “I am the last Englishman to rule in India.”

Read the whole interview @

http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?212952

What a tragedy for India . . . ! To be freed from the British Raj only to be “ruled” by an Englishman passing himself off as an Indian . . . ?

Isn’t democracy a government of the people, by the people, for the people?

· Was Nehru supposed to “rule” India? Is that what he believed?

On an aside: was it this delusion that made him trample upon the rights of so many Hindus and unleash a Reign of Terror in the aftermath of Gandhi’s murder . . . ?

To continue with Alex Von Tunzelmann’s account:

“After the Conference [Round Table Conference, 1931], he [Jinnah] returned to private life—until a friend reported to him a comment made by his archrival, Jawaharlal Nehru. In conversation at a private dinner party, Jawahar had remarked that Jinnah was ‘finished.’ Jinnah was so furious that he packed up and headed back to India immediately, with the stated intent to ‘show Nehru.’”

And “show Nehru” he did indeed . . . !

From that moment on, Jinnah pitted his considerable political skills against the Gandhi-Nehru-led Congress, whose fumbling and bumbling in their thirst for total power was no match for “one of the most brilliant politicians of his day.”

The scene is now set for the beheading of India.

Anurupa

The Pakistan Plant, Part II

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“History is not history unless it is the truth.”

-Abraham Lincoln

Hi, Everyone! The last three years plus I have spent doing some intensive research in the Freedom Movement of India. There was no getting away from it for me. Understanding that was an essential part of writing my novel.

I meandered through a forest of words, which at first appeared to me like a lot of “abbledy-gabbledy.” Even as a kid, when studying the history of the Indian freedom movement I had many moments of perplexity. So many things just didn’t make sense! And now I was back there again. But I gritted my teeth, and sternly told myself to only focus on what actually happened, and not on the yak-yak that was surrounding the facts. Let the facts reveal themselves, I told myself.

And then, I had many moments of: “Ah!” and “O-o-oh!” and “Oh my God!”

The landmarks in the pathway to Partition in the Freedom Movement of India:

Khilafat Movement

Gandhi attached the Indian Freedom movement to the Khilafat Movement, leading directly to religion entering the politics of India.

Indians were now Indians no more, but Hindus and Muslims. Or rather, as they were referred to in Transfer of Power days, Non-Muslims and Muslims . . . !

Noncooperation Movement, 1921
The Communal Award in 1931

Instead of sending the 16 delegates to the Round Table Conference, Gandhi went as the sole representative of Congress. Congress made no effort to oppose the Communal Award.

Religion now entered the Constitutionof India . . . !

Hindus could only vote for Hindus, Muslims for Muslims and so on.

To gain a clear cut majority in the elections, Congress needed to woo the Muslims to gain their votes. Muslim appeasement reached new heights from here onwards.

Congress attitude in forming ministries in 1937
Congress policy of boycott and resignation from ministries to (unsuccessfully) twist the British arm

This led to tremendously strengthening Jinnah’s position in Indian politics!

Rajaji and Pakistan, 1942-1944
Bhulabhai-Liaquat Pact, 1944
Elections in 1945
Cabinet Mission, 1946
Nehru’s Press Conference, 1946, leading directly to Muslim League Direct Action and partition.
Partition and Freedom, 1947.

From tomorrow, I shall elaborate on these bullet points and lay bare the skeleton in the closet of Indian history.

Anurupa

The Pakistan Plant

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Hi, Everyone! I have now reached the point of putting before you the most sensitive, and probably the most unacceptable-to-all and difficult-to-believe, facts of the Freedom Movement of India.

In the next series of posts I shall outline—always with documentation—how the Congress, Gandhi, and Jawaharlal Nehru planted the seed of Pakistan, nurtured the plant tenderly, and then plucked the fruit. There is a truckload of documentation, beginning as early as 1938.

They did this in two ways:

· actively, by promoting the Pakistan scheme; and

· passively, by taking several wrong political decisions in their quest for total power in free India.

Indians (and indeed the accepted version of Indian history) do so love to put the responsibility of Partition on the shoulders of Jinnah or the British. They make verygood and obvious scapegoats.

They are certainly not without responsibility in partitioning India. But one must keep in mind that:

· The British were serving the British Raj. When they schemed to keep power, they were working for their country.

And they did try to preserve the unity of India in the latter years.

· Jinnah was not claiming India as his Motherland. When he fought for partition—horrendous, inhuman, barbarous depths though he sank to—he was fighting for his country. He was loyal to his Pakistan.

· The Congress, on the other hand, claimed to be Indian nationalists. Their actions in promoting Pakistan can only be considered as treachery to India and Indians.

The Congress High Command was so busy scheming to get control and power in free India, they didn’t care what cost India and Indians would have to pay.

· Having come to power they have orchestrated one of the most successful cover-ups in world history.

But I shall remind you of Abraham Lincoln’s words:

“History is not history unless it is the truth.”

And so I seek to set the record straight.

My maxim in life is:

If someone was not ashamed to do the deed, I shall not be ashamed to talk about it.

I do want to make one point very clear. Making a demand for Pakistan is one thing—anyone can demand anything—to actively promote the Pakistan scheme, give the demand body and shape in the politics of India, especially while screaming for Hindu-Muslim unity, is quite another.

Note also:

· Jinnah demanded Pakistan, vociferously and propounded many agendas too.

But in actual fact, he always managed to side step taking any decision re it, even when Pakistan was being handed on a platter—until the very end.

Burying heads in the sand is an easy thing to do; it is so much more comfortable than facing the stark, horrendous reality.

But those of you who are willing to face reality, hang on to your seats and follow my posts from tomorrow.

Anurupa

Shenanigans of Gandhi, Part VI

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“Double, double toil and trouble,

Fire burn and cauldron bubble.”

Hi, Everyone! This story will be the last in this series. Not only does it expose the back-stabbing that Gandhi apparently routinely indulges in to keep his power, but it also exposes the stab in the heart he gave to Mother India.

“Gandhi’s observance of a prolonged silence was partly due to his physical weakness and partly to his secret involvement in a serious plan. . . .

Gandhi made him [Dr. Syed Mahmud in October 1944] write a letter to Bhulabhai Desai requesting him to see Liaquat Ali, the leader of the Muslim League in the Central Assembly, and discuss with him the formation of a composite Government consisting of the Congress and the Muslim League. After waiting for a fortnight or so, Gandhi himself wrote a letter in Gujarati to Bhulabhai urging him to expedite the matter.

Bhulabhai met Liaquat Ali in Delhi and prepared a draft which was later known as the Bhulabhai-Liaquat Ali Pact. Liaquat Ali was to get Jinnah’s approval and Bhulabhai Gandhi’s. Bhulabhai met Gandhi with the draft and Gandhi made some changes in it, approved the draft secretly and asked Bhulabhai to meet Lord Wavell, the Viceroy. Bhulabhai met Wavell and handed over the draft to him for consideration and action.[1]

This secret Pact surpassed the Rajaji formula in the harm it did to the national majority. It agreed to a percentage of fifty-fifty in all representations for the Hindus and the Muslims.”

[It was not just an agreement of fifty-fifty Hindu-Muslim representation (which in itself was a colossal betrayal of the Hindu majority, going as it was—in leaps and bounds—ahead of weighted electorates.)

· It was an agreement of fifty-fifty representation of the Congress and the League.

· There would be no general elections either at the Centre or in the provinces.

· Democracy was given the go-by!

That wiped out the chance of either the Hindu Mahasabha (for Hindu seats) or any other Muslim party (for Muslim seats) representing the Indians and forming a Government in free India.]

“The demand for parity in the alliance of the Congress with the Muslim League in the Central Assembly had ripened to a reality. . . .

Meanwhile, news of the secret Pact leaked out and the members of the Working Committee, who were interned at Ahmednagar, were indignant at it. They expressed their anger and displeasure in a resolution about the pact.

Dr. P. C. Ghosh, one of the members of the Working Committee, met Gandhi at Sevagram after his release from Ahmednagar and gave him a copy of the resolution of the Working Committee. Gandhi took the cue and sent a female messenger to Delhi to contact Bhulabhai Desai. She told him that Gandhi would not bless a Government formed by Bhulabhai and Liaquat because he did not like the agreement. In a fit of anger Bhulabhai shouted: ‘Let Bapu go to hell. I will stand by what I have done!’ . . .

Azad, Patel and Nehru called Bhulabhai Desai and censured him for having mooted the Bhulabhai Desai-Liaquat Ali Pact. According to them it amounted to treachery.”

[It was not the parity they objected to, per se, for they were agreeable with parity only a short time later in the Simla Conference proposals. It was the fact that Bhulabhai had approached the Viceroy going over the heads and intended to be in charge of the free Indian government that incensed them!]

“Bhulabhai told them that they were blaming him unnecessarily as he had done the bidding of the Mahatma. Upon this they furiously pounced upon him and said they would decide later what to do about the Mahatma, but he should not expect any important assignment in future from the Congress!

Humiliated, Bhulabhai met Gandhi and pleaded for removing the injustice done to him. Instead of protecting him from threats and attacks, Gandhi told Bhulabhai that he had wealth, reputation and position; he should not covet a post in the Viceroy’s Executive Council.

Not only that, Gandhi asked him as he had done in the case of Dr. Khare, to give him a statement in writing to this effect: ‘I, Bhulabhai Desai, consider myself incompetent to be a member of the Viceroy’s Executive Council and also declare that I will never accept such a job even now or at any time in the future.’

Bhulabhai was stunned! He said to Gandhi angrily, ‘You use a person as an instrument for your purpose and as soon as that purpose is served, you bury that individual. No one should expect justice at your hands.’”

Bhulabhai should certainly have known better than to have played Gandhi’s games! But schemes and power plays were the order of the day in the Congress Camp—quite commonplace!—and certainly the Mahatma was a master at that game.

Anurupa

Mahatma Gandhi Facts: Gandhi Revealed

[1] “There can hardly be any doubt that Desai had in fact reached an understanding with Liaquat Ali Khan on the formation of a national government at the centre . . . Gandhiji himself admitted later that the Desai-Liaquat pact had received his blessing.” Transfer of Power, V. P. Menon, page 178

Shenanigans of Gandhi, Part V

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“Double, double toil and trouble,

Fire burn and cauldron bubble.”

Hi, Everyone! In 1939 Gandhi was not a member of the Congress. As we shall see in the passage from Keer’s biography given below, that did not prevent him from drawing resolutions for the A.I.C.C. and throwing tantrums if they were not passed as is!

“Dr. Rammanohar Lohia had a tussle with the Mahatma on the South Africa resolution at the All-India Congress Committee in Bombay in June 1939. Dr. Lohia suggested two amendments to Gandhi’s draft resolution. One described Indians in South Africa not as “British Indians” but as “Indians” and the other recommended that Indians had better make a common front with the oppressed communities like the Negroes, the Zulus, and the Arabs and even the poor whites.

This enraged Gandhi and he said he would have the All-India Congress Committee pass his resolution without amendments or not at all. Nehru who had supported Dr. Lohia’s amendments faltered at this stage. He persuaded Dr. Lohia to respect the opinion of Gandhi and withdraw his amendments which had been duly passed! . . .

Gandhi vetoed a resolution of the Congress which it had passed four hours earlier!

When it suited his views Gandhi upheld democratic ideals and when the democratic vote of the Congress went against him he flew into a fury!”[1]

Gandhi’s issues in South Africa were all about getting the Indians there recognized as citizens of the British Empire. Apparently, so many years later in 1939, that had remained unchanged!

Anurupa

Mahatma Gandhi Facts: Gandhi Revealed

[1]Mahatma Gandhi, Political Saint and Unarmed Prophet, by Dhananjay Keer; page 667.

Shenanigans of Gandhi, Part IV

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“Double, double toil and trouble,

Fire burn and cauldron bubble.”

The Ousting of Netaji Subhas Bose, Part II

Hi, Everyone! Subhas Bose was put in a very precarious position now that the Working Committee had shown their true colors. The Tripuri Congress session was coming up. Though seriously ill, Bose would have to attend or be a pushover for the Gandhian Congress members so determined to oust him.

At this time, Gandhi began a two-pronged fast on March 3, 1939, just days before the Tripuri Congress session. One goal of the fast was to compel the Thakore of Rajkot to buckle under and redeem his pledge made to the people, and the other was to divert the attention from the Congress session and keep it riveted on his health.

He had used his “poor” health and fasts countless times before to get his way!

Keer writes in Mahatma Gandhi, Political Saint and Unarmed Prophet (page 661-663):

The Tripuri Congress was held from March 10 to 12, 1939, under the presidency of Subhas Bose who was seriously ill. . . . On the eve of the session, Gandhi had sent a message asking Subhas not to defy the medical advice and desiring him to regulate the proceedings from Calcutta!

By his fast unto death, Gandhi had riveted the Congress workers’ attention on him, created consternation among his opponents and anguish in his sympathizers and followers.

In his presidential address, Bose desired the Congress to give an ultimatum to the British Government. Although seriously ill, Bose tried in vain to control the Congress, but at the eleventh hour the socialists, Royist and other leftists did not support him.”

[All the Congress members knew very well what was the fate of one who opposed the will of the Mahatma. We have seen it too, in the last so many posts. And so no one wanted to reveal their identity while voting.]

“A large number of All-India Congress Committee members said that if they openly voted against the wishes of Ministers [most of whom were Gandhist] they would get into trouble. So they wanted a secret ballot.

The suggestion was turned down. The result was that the Congress expressed its confidence in the members of the Working Committee who had resigned.

It [Working Committee] stifled Subhas Bose and resolved, overruling its constitution, that Subhas Bose, the President, must form his Working Committee in accordance with the wishes of the Mahatma. . . .

Subhas Bose returned to Calcutta with body and hopes shattered.

Bose thereafter wrote to Gandhi and tried to win his support in forming the Working Committee, but Gandhi did not respond to his appeals. Nehru tried half-heartedly to bring about a compromise between Gandhi and Bose. He wrote to Gandhi: ‘You should accept Subhas as President. To try push him out seems to me to be an exceedingly wrong step.’

Yet the Mahatma was ruthless. It was Gandhi’s dictum that however you repair it, a rift is a rift. Another of his dictums was that to forgive is not to forget. . .

Bose had to resign. He was the first Congress President to do so.”

There are many more tales to tell of Gandhi and Congress machinations, the most relevant being the ruthless way—discarding all principle of nonviolence and truth—the Congress annihilated any chance the Hindu Mahasabha had of winning the 1945 elections. That saga is given in detail in my novel Burning for Freedom. I shall not be posting on it just yet.

Tomorrow we shall see how Gandhi overturned the decisions of the Working Committee of the Congress that did not suit him!

Anurupa

Mahatma Gandhi Facts: Gandhi Revealed

Shenanigans of Gandhi, Part III

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“Double, double toil and trouble,

Fire burn and cauldron bubble.”

The Ousting of Netaji Subhas Bose, Part I

Hi, Everyone! Gandhi’s scheming had no limits. He was the virtual dictator of the Congress and brooked no opposition. This is an interesting and illuminating account of his machinations to prevail despite an apparent “defeat.”

Subhas Chandra Bose, the President of Congress in 1938, had displeased the Mahatma on several counts by showing a tendency of strong leadership and taking decisive stands on several issues against the Mahatma’s wishes. He had a large following in the Congress. There was a real potential danger of the power slipping from the hands of the Mahatma into the hands of the dynamic Bose!

Keer writes in his biography of Gandhi (pages 658-661):

“The National Committee had been set up by Bose to draw up a comprehensive plan of industrialization and of national development. This meant a threat to Gandhi’s ideology and his ideas about village uplift. He discussed the question of the presidency with Sardar Patel . . . ‘I feel it would be better if we consider Pattabhi Sitaramayya.’ Gandhi and Patel always took the decision and the Gandhi group said ditto to it. . . .

Subhas Bose had already decided to contest the election a second time, and the Gandhi group knew it. Bose wanted to give an ultimatum to the British Government if he succeeded. . . . But on January 19, 1939, Gandhi wired from Bardoli requesting him to withdraw in favor of Dr. Pattabhi Sitaramayya. Bose refused . . . The next day seven Gandhi leaders . . . issued at the instance of Gandhi, a joint statement from Bardoli which declared that the Congress President’s position was analogous only to that of a chairman and the policies and programmes were determined by the Working Committee. . . .

Subhas Bose replied to the joint statement fearlessly and spiritedly but without counting the cost. . . . He then leveled charges against his Gandhian colleagues that ‘it is widely believed that there is a prospect of compromise on the federal scheme between the Right wing of the Congress and the British Government, during the coming year. Consequently the Right wing do not want a Leftist president who may be a thorn in the way of compromise.’ . . .

Subhas Bose would have done well to stop at this affront; but he added fuel to the flames. He added that it was also generally believed the prospective list of ministers for the Federal Cabinet had been already drawn up. This was a most damaging statement against the Gandhists. . .

The Gandhi wing through which Gandhi controlled the Congress organization began canvassing to secure votes for Dr. Pattabhi . . .”

Even so the Leftists and the progressive-minded voters enthusiastically voted for Bose on January 29. This was a shocking reversal for Gandhi and his power in the Congress. A defeat indeed!

Gandhi’s reaction to this defeat:

“He asked his followers to quit the Congress because he was defeated. This was how his mind, method and democracy worked!

‘Those, therefore, who feel uncomfortable in being in the Congress, may come out, not in spirit of ill-will, but with the deliberate purpose of rendering more effective service.’ . . .

Gandhi not only asked his men to come out of the Congress but also took a drastic step to corner Bose so that there would be a major crisis.

He wrote to Jawaharlal Nehru on February 3, 1939: ‘After the election and the manner in which it was fought, I feel I shall serve my country by absenting myself from the Congress at the forthcoming session. Moreover my health is none too good. . . .’”

[Gandhi’s health was as effective a blackmailing tool as were his fasts . . . ! We have seen how he used it in Nariman’s case already. Bose realized that he was now up against the wall. He had a very good idea of the Mahatma’s capacity for intrigue.]

“Bose tried to patch up the differences with Gandhi at Wardha on February 15, but it worsened the situation. . . . Bose could not attend the meeting of the Working Committee on February 22 which was called to discuss the agenda for the Tripuri Congress. It was unfortunate that Bose was taken ill on his return journey to Calcutta from Wardha.

He later wrote in an article in Modern Review, ‘My strange illness,’[1]which added to the suspicion about the mystery of his illness.

He requested the members of the Working Committee to postpone the meeting, which they construed as lack of confidence in the Working Committtee. So twelve of them, on the advice of Gandhi, resigned . . . Only Subhas Bose with his brother Sarat Chandra Bose remained as members of the Working Committee.

So the battle was joined to depose Bose.”

The field was now set for the downfall of Subhas Bose.

Read in tomorrow’s post how the final axe-chop was delivered on Subhas Bose . . .

Anurupa

Mahatma Gandhi Facts: Gandhi Revealed

[1]There was a strong and recurring whisper that Bose had been deliberately made ill in Wardha, to orchestrate the coup that followed.

Shenanigans of Gandhi, Part II

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“Double, double toil and trouble,

Fire burn and cauldron bubble.”

Gandhi’s Democracy

Hi, Everyone! In 1938, Dr. Khare was the Premier of the Congress Ministry in the Central Provinces of India. He was a strong leader and had definite goals and acted upon them. He did not blindly follow the dictates of the Mahatma, for which, of course, he had to pay the price.

Keer tells us:[1]

“A crisis had been brewing since May 1938 in the CP [Central Province]. Three Congress Ministers, Mishra, Shukla and Mehta submitted their resignations to Dr. N. B. Khare, leader and Prime Minister, as he had brought charges of nespotism and bribery against them. But the charges were found to be only errors of judgment, and Gandhi said in Harijan of June 4 that they were made recklessly and spitefully. There was a compromise and the crisis was averted.

As Dr Khare found it impossible to pull on with those three Ministers, he went to Gandhi at Segaon on June 29 and sought his advice in the matter as he had done on two previous occasions. But Sardar Patel had met Gandhi on June 21 and briefed him against Dr. Khare. So this time Gandhi reprimanded Dr. Khare for troubling him now and then and added that he was not even a four-anna member of the Congress. Dr. Khare, while taking leave of the Mahatma, said that he would act according to the message of his own inner voice.

This was indeed an affront to Gandhi.

[The only “inner voice” allowed to exist in the realm of Congress was that of the Mahatma!]

Dr Khare then demanded resignations from his rebel colleagues as he wanted to submit resignations of all the Ministers to the Working Committee. But the three members at the instance of Dr. Rajendra Prasad had stubbornly refused to do so. Dr. Khare, therefore, in a desperate mood, instead of referring the matter to the Parliamentary Sub-Committee, resigned on July 20 with two of his colleagues. . . .

According to parliamentary conventions, as soon as the Premier resigns the other Ministers automatically cease to be Ministers. Naturally, under article 51 of the 1935 Act the Governor had to dismiss the three rebel Ministers who refused to resign. In doing so the Governor observed parliamentary conventions and used no special right. . . .

[Dr. Khare had neatly out-maneuvered the ministers and Gandhi! Upon the Governors invitation, on July 21 Dr. Khare formed a new ministry which included an “untouchable” Minister. No way was Gandhi going to put up with this “insubordination.”]

On July 22 Dr. Khare was called by the Congress bosses to Wardha [in Gandhi’s ashram] to explain his position. There he was treated as a criminal and a conspirator, and his colleagues were reprimanded. The Parliamentary Subcommittee asked him to submit his resignation and also the resignation of his colleagues. In the resignation he was made to admit: “I have come to realize, in submitting my resignation and forming a new cabinet I acted hastily and committed an error of judgment.” He was marched to the phone in a building near-by and Subhas Bose made him read out the text of his resignation to the Governor. . . .”

There were more pressures applied to Dr. Khare to make him yield, but he did not buckle under.

“As he did not yield, he was taken to Segaon in a car to Gandhi who had left Wardha that evening before Khare reached that place.

Maulana Azad, Sardar Patel, Subhas Bose and Rajendra Prasad put pressure on Dr. Khare in the presence of Gandhi who reprimanded Dr. Khare for his betrayal of the Congress and the country by entering into a conspiracy with the Governor. He said that Dr. Khare was untrustworthy and unreliable and guilty of gross indiscipline.

Dr. Khare had evoked the Mahatma’s anger by issuing licenses for Rifle classes, an unforgivable sin from the viewpoint of the Mahatma. And Patel had previously a tussle with Khare over the selection candidate at the All-India Parliamentary Board in Faizpur. They whispered against him and dictated the content his resignation.

Dr. Khare admitted in the resignation that he had acted hastily, but Gandhi added to the draft nearly a page and a half containing humiliating and damaging admissions. As a result Dr. Khare refused to sign his death warrant. . . .

He was brought back from Segaon to Wardha and asked to inform the Congress leaders of his decision by 3 p.m. the next day. . . .

On July 26 Dr. Khare conveyed to the Congress leaders his firm refusal to sign the draft prepared by them. So the Congress Working Committee declared: ‘By all these acts, Dr. Khare has proved himself unworthy of holding positions of responsibility in the Congress organization. He should be so considered till by his services as a Congressman he has shown himself well-balanced and capable of observing discipline and discharging the duties that may be undertaken by him.’ . . .

In the statement Gandhi issued on July 30, 1938, he said that he simply made corrections and additions to the statement which Dr. Kharehad prepared. The suggestion that Dr. Khare was made to sign a prepared draft, Gandhi added, was baseless! When Dr. Khare published the photo-block of the draft, the people were dumbfounded!

A bitter attack was made in the press on Patel and Gandhi, characterizing their actions as fascist. Gandhi replied that his critics ‘forget that fascism is the naked sword. Under it Dr. Khare should ‘lose his head.” . . .

Dr. Khare was bitter and sometimes unbalanced, but he was a man of truth and of an unimpeachable character.”

And so ends another saga of Gandhi’s scheming . . . !

Subhas Bose, who played his part in this sordid business, was himself shortly maneuvered out of his Presidentship (and even the Congress) by Gandhi. Nor was Sardar Patel left untouched. In 1947, Gandhi usurped him from the seat of Prime Ministership and installed his favorite, Jawaharlal Nehru!

Follow the Ousting of Subhas Bose in tomorrow’s post . . .

Anurupa

Mahatma Gandhi Facts: Gandhi Revealed.

[1] Mahatma Gandhi, Political Saint and unarmed Prophet, Dhananjay Keer, pages 649-52.

A Note on Gandhi’s attitude to Harijans, “untouchables”:

“Towards the end of August 1938 some Harijans did a strike at Gandhi’s Ashram at Segaon to compel him to instruct the CP. Ministry to take up a Harijan Minister. Gandhi replied that it was not in his power. It was Dr. Khare’s charge that Gandhi disapproved of the appointment of a Harijan Minister, as in the Mahatma’s opinion it raised absurd ambitions in the minds of Harijans! Gandhi had also opposed the appointment of any Harijan on the Harijan Sevak Sangh.” Ibid, page 652.