Why the Mahatma was lonely in 1947-48

Raghuvendra Tanwar

MOST of us remember Mahatma Gandhi as the principal architect of India’s freedom from colonial rule. He lived to see his hopes slip away.  That he died lonely and disillusioned is therefore understandable.

“India today seems an inferno of madness and my heart weeps to see our homes set on fire by ourselves… I find today darkness reigning over India and my eyes vainly turn from one direction to another to see light…" (Gandhi cited in Pyarelal, Mahatma Gandhi The Last Phase, p. 658)  In a letter to Asaf Ali, he wrote: “Freedom has come but it leaves me cold… so far as I can see I am a back number…” (Tushar A. Gandhi, Let's Kill Gandhi, p.427).

Corruption in public life
Gandhi's post-prayer addresses is where he usually spoke his mind out.  He often read out letters written to him.  On January12, 1948, for example, he read out one such letter from his old friend Deshbhakata Konda Venkatappayaguru: “The one great problem… is the moral degradation into which the men in Congress circles have fallen…  The taste of political power has turned their heads.  Several of the MLAs and MLCs are following the policy of making hay while the sun shines, of making money by the use of influence, even to the extent of obstructing the administration of justice in the criminal courts… A strict and honest officer cannot hold his position…  The people have begun to say that the British Government was much better…” (Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, Vol. 90, p.410)
Gandhi shared his anguish with his post-prayer audience again on June 3: “Democracy cannot be run if you leave your thinking to be done by those who live in palaces, whether they be the British or our own countrymen.  'The imposing array of bodyguards and liveried servants moving about in palatial buildings… (of ministers etc.) when the people are starving for want of food and employment”. (June 3, 1947, Post Prayer Meeting).
On July 28, 1947 Gandhiji wrote yet again to Jawaharlal Nehru, advising him on the urgent need for austerity and simplicity.  In this letter, he urged Nehru to convince the Viceroy to vacate the Viceregal Palace (Rashtrapati Bhavan) and shift to a more humble building. The last viceroy did not shift from Rashtrapati Bhavan. In fact, Nehru himself, after Gandhiji, was no more, chose for his own residence New Delhi's second most elegant and grand building (now Teen Murti Bhavan), the residence of the former British Commander-in-Chief in India.

Felt sidelined
From about the end of 1946 Gandhi found himself increasingly out of the loop in matters of crucial importance.  For example, following the large-scale violence in the Punjab in the first week of March (1947) a view emerged in the Congress Working Committee (CWC) that the Partition of Punjab was the only solution to the crisis. Gandhi, who was then touring the riot hit areas of Bihar, learnt of this from newspaper reports. Pyarelal notes: “… as if the abyss had suddenly opened under his (Gandhi's) feet, he had not even been consulted or forewarned”.  On March 20, Gandhi wrote an angry letter to Jawaharlal Nehru: “… I think I do not know the reason behind it”.  He also wrote to his daughter-in-law Sushila: “What is going on in the country in connection with the transfer of power is putting a heavy strain on me.  I have therefore, lost confidence in my capacity to live for long”. (Tushar Gandhi, p.428). June 2, 1947 was a Monday, as such Gandhi's weekly day of silence.  The British plan to leave India was to be announced by the Viceroy the following day ( June 3). The Viceroy knew he had the support of Jawaharlal Nehru and Mohammad Ali Jinnah.  There remained, however, the possibility that Gandhi would disagree and might rally the country against the plan of dividing India.  To gauge his mind, the Viceroy's staff arranged an informal meeting.  Gandhi was aware that he had been kept out of the discussions on the plan and was virtually isolated in his opposition to it.  At the same time he did not want to embarrass his old friends and colleagues.  He wrote to the Viceroy: “I am sorry I cannot speak.  When I took this decision about the Monday silence, I did reserve two exceptions — speaking to high functionaries on urgent matters or attending to sick people.  But I know (now) you do not want me to break my silence…” (Tushar Gandhi, p.400)
Dr. Rajendra Prasad was with Gandhi for his morning walk on June 3.  Sensing that the plan (that was to be announced by the Viceroy later in the day) also included a partition component, Gandhi told Rajendra Prasad: “It hurts me to think that I can see only evil in the plan…”  He also said that: “he was beginning to lose his patience, the first sign that he was not going to live for long…”.

Angry with the June 3 plan
The Viceroy announced details of the plan at the press conference that was so important, that, Sardar Patel himself sat by the side of the Viceroy to conduct it.  Just as the conference ended Krishna Menon, a close confident of Jawaharlal met the Viceroy and informed him that Gandhi was shocked and angry on hearing the details.  Obviously, Gandhi had been taken by surprise.  Worried that Gandhi might speak up against the scheme in the post-prayer address the same evening, the Viceroy desperately sought to meet Gandhi.  He was able to meet Gandhi at 6 pm that day (MN Das, Fateful Events of 1947: Secret Games…, p.75). The Tribune, which was covering Gandhi at length in those days reported the prayer meeting on June 6.  Reacting to a question as to whether he (Gandhi) would undertake a fast to prevent partition, Gandhi replied: “If the Congress commits to an act of madness does it mean I should die”. 
A few days earlier Gandhi had observed to someone (also during his morning walk): “… I am being told to retire to the Himalayas.  Everybody is eager to garland my photos and statues.  Nobody really wants to follow me…” (Tushar Gandhi, p.396). Likewise, responding to a letter written to him from Kathiawar, Gandhi wrote: “I have repeatedly said that I have neither any part nor any say in many things that are going on in the country today.  It is no secret that the Congress willingly said goodbye to nonviolence when it accepted power…” (Collected Works, Vol. 89)

Lohia’s recording at the CWC
The Congress Working Committee met in mid-June to resolve on the plan announced by the Viceroy.  Dr Rammanohar Lohia and Jaiprakash Narain were specially invited.  Lohia's recording of this historic meeting is engrossing:    
“Gandhi… turned to Mr. Nehru and Sardar Patel in mild complaint that they had not informed him of the scheme of partition before committing themselves to it… Before Gandhiji could make out this point fully, Mr. Nehru intervened with some passion to say that he had kept him fully informed.  On Mahatma Gandhi's repeating that he did not know of the scheme of partition, Mr. Nehru slightly altered his earlier observation…” (Guilty Men of India's Partition, pp.8-10).
What is interesting is that between the period of the CWC and the AICC — just a few days, senior Congress leaders had prevailed upon Gandhi to soften his stand and support the resolution. Gandhi spoke in favour at the AICC: “… the settlement was an evil thing but it had been accepted on behalf of the Congress.” Of the 400 members of the AICC, only 218 were present.  Of this, 159 voted in support of the partition plan and 29 voted against it. Even though Gandhi supported the resolution, yet his heart was never in it. Later, when he read from a press report that the Indian Independence Bill was to be tabled in the House of Commons (British Parliament), he raised the issue in the post-prayer address (June 23) and also wrote to Sardar Patel the same day: “If you have not given your consent to it, you can still prevent this crime against the nation, after the Bill is passed nobody is going to listen to you…” (Tushar Gandhi, pp.418-419).

On August 15
Gandhi was in Calcutta in mid-August 1947, struggling to contain the violence.  As Delhi and other parts of the country celebrated freedom in the midnight of August 14-15, Gandhi was in sleep.  He woke up at 2 am that morning, an hour before his usual time, because it was the fifth death anniversary of his old friend and Secretary Mahadev Desai.  He started August 15, by reciting from the Bhagavadagita followed by a day-long fast. Gandhi returned to Delhi on September 9. As he alighted at the railway station he was surprised to note that only Sardar Patel was there to receive him.  The usual crowds and other Congress leaders were missing.

This is not Swaraj
About a month before his assassination (December 31, 1947), Gandhi wrote: “We used to find the struggle against the British a hard task.  But today it seems to me that the fight was a comparatively simple matter… Today we are cutting at our own roots… we have deserved the present regime because we have not purified our self. 
This in my view, is not Swaraj…" (Collected Works, Vol. 90, p.331) 

— The writer is Senior Professor of Modern History, Kurukshetra University.