Mohandas: True Story of a Man, His People

by Gandhi, Rajmohan

  F: Would you wish President Roosevelt to be informed about your attitude?

  G: Yes. I do not wish to appeal to anybody. But I would want Mr Roosevelt to know my plans, my views, and my readiness to compromise. Tell your President I wish to be dissuaded.129

  Precautions. On 14 June Gandhi wrote to Chiang kai-Shek: ‘To make it perfectly clear that we want to prevent in every way Japanese aggression, I would personally agree that the Allied Powers might, under treaty with us, keep their armed forces in India and use the country as a base for operations against the threatened Japanese attack.’130 To Gandhi’s disappointment, the Chinese leader expressed the fear that a Quit India campaign would hurt China’s defence.

  On 21 June Gandhi publicly aired his views on the hopes of Subhas, who would reach Japan via German and Japanese submarines in the following year:

  I have no desire whatsoever to woo any power to help India in her endeavour to free herself from the foreign yoke. I have no desire to exchange the British for any other rule. Better the enemy I know than the one I do not… There can therefore be no question of my approval of Subhas Babu’s policy. The old difference of opinion between us persists. This does not mean that I doubt his sacrifice or his patriotism.131

  A week later he defended C.R.’s right to dissent and praised his colleague’s deportment at a Bombay meeting where demonstrators had thrown tar at him:

  The report of hooliganism at Rajaji’s meeting in Matunga makes painful reading. Has Rajaji lost every title to respect because he has taken what seems to be an unpopular view?..

  Those who did not share his views might have abstained from attending the meeting… They might have cross-questioned him. Those who tarred him and created a disturbance have disgraced themselves and have harmed their cause…

  The calmness, good humour, presence of mind and determination that Rajaji showed at that trying time were worthy of him… Rajaji has never lacked the qualities that go to make a hero.132

  To Roosevelt. On 1 July Gandhi wrote a frank and prescient letter to President Roosevelt:

  Dear Friend: I twice missed coming to your great country. I have the privilege [of] having numerous friends there both known and unknown to me. Many of my countrymen have received and are still receiving higher education in America… I have profited greatly by the writings of Thoreau and Emerson. I say this to tell you how much I am connected with your country.

  Of Great Britain I need say nothing beyond mentioning that in spite of my intense dislike of British rule, I have numerous personal friends in England whom I love as dearly as my own people. I had my legal education there. I have therefore nothing but good wishes for your country and Great Britain.

  You will therefore accept my word that my present proposal, that the British should unreservedly and… immediately withdraw their rule, is prompted by the friendliest intention. I would like to turn into goodwill the ill will which, whatever may be said to the contrary, exists in India towards Great Britain and thus enable the millions of India to play their part in the present war…

  Under foreign rule however we can make no effective contribution of any kind in this war, except as helots… I venture to think that the Allied declaration that the Allies are fighting to make the world safe for freedom of the individual and for democracy sounds hollow so long as India and, for that matter, Africa are exploited by Great Britain and America has the Negro problem in her own home.

  But… in my proposal I have confined myself only to India. If India becomes free, the rest must follow, if it does not happen simultaneously.

  In order to make my proposal foolproof, I have suggested that, if the Allies think it necessary, they may keep their troops at their own expense in India, not for keeping internal order but for preventing Japanese aggression and defending China…

  Mr Louis Fischer is carrying this letter to you… I hope finally that you will not resent this letter as an intrusion but take it as an approach from a friend and well-wisher of the Allies. I remain, Yours sincerely, M.K. Gandhi133

  Churchill persuaded Roosevelt not to respond to Gandhi, and British propaganda painted Gandhi in America as a pro-Axis defeatist. Found in documents seized by the Raj when the Congress office in Allahabad was raided, Nehru’s comment in April on Gandhi’s draft was used to support the allegation.

  When, early in August, the Raj publicized these documents in India, Jawaharlal answered that the remarks quoted were no more than disjointed, unrevised, and out-of-context jottings by an assistant secretary.134 Gandhi observed:

  I have never even in the most unguarded moment expressed the opinion that Japan and Germany would win the war… I have, therefore, nothing to withdraw and nothing to be ashamed of about the draft I had the privilege of sending to the Working Committee.135

  On 17 July, well before the seizure of the supposedly damaging documents, Frederick Puckle, director-general of information, Government of India, had asked chief secretaries of all provincial governments to mobilize public opinion against the proposed campaign, and suggested the use of a cartoon showing ‘Hitler, Mussolini, Tojo, each with microphones saying, “I vote for the Congress Resolution.”’136

  Communists aside, not many Indians were influenced by the Raj’s publicity. Criticisms of the Quit India call from the Muslim League, the princes, and other non-Congress elements stressed domestic, not international, considerations. Treating Muslims and not the British as the Hindus’ principal foe, the Hindu Mahasabha and the RSS asked Hindus to stay clear of Quit India and use Britain’s war to gain expertise for a future clash with Muslims.

  Working Committee decides. On 14 July, after a series of meetings in Wardha, the Working Committee resolved in favour of Quit India. Noting ‘a rapid and widespread increase of ill will against Britain and a growing satisfaction at the success of Japanese arms’, the Committee added:

  [A]ll aggression must be resisted, for any submission to it must mean the degradation of the Indian people and the continuation of their subjection. The Congress is anxious to avoid the experience of Malaya, Singapore, and Burma and desires to build up resistance to any aggression on or invasion of India by the Japanese or any foreign power.

  The Congress would change the present ill will against Britain into goodwill… This is only possible if India feels the glow of freedom.

  On the withdrawal of British rule in India, responsible men and women of the country will come together to form a provisional government.

  In making the proposal for the withdrawal of the British rule from India, the Congress has no desire whatsoever to embarrass Great Britain or the Allied powers in their prosecution of the war, or in any way to encourage aggression on India or increase pressure on China by the Japanese or any other power associated with the Axis group…

  The Congress is, therefore, agreeable to the stationing of the armed forces of the Allies in India, should they so desire, in order to ward off and resist Japanese or other aggression and to protect and help China.

  Should, however, this appeal fail… the Congress will then be reluctantly compelled to utilize all the non-violent strength it might have gathered since 1920…137 (83: 445-7)

  To ratify the resolution, the AICC was summoned for meetings in Bombay on 7 & 8 August. Meanwhile Gandhi asked Mira to inform the Viceroy that while he ‘would do his very utmost to ensure nonviolence’, this time he ‘would not feel justified in calling the movement off’ if ‘cases of violence occurred’.138 Though Linlithgow refused to see her, Mira conveyed (on 17 July) Gandhi’s message to Sir Gilbert Laithwaite, the Viceroy’s secretary.

  ‘To Every Japanese’. On 18 July Gandhi wrote a forthright letter ‘To Every Japanese’. At least three newspapers in Japan reproduced the appeal:139

  Ever since I was a lad of eighteen studying in London… I learnt… to prize the many excellent qualities of your nation. I was thrilled when in South Africa I learnt of your brilliant victory over Russian arms. After my return to India from South Africa in 1915, I came in close tou
ch with Japanese monks who lived as members of our ashram from time to time…

  I grieve deeply as I contemplate what appears to me to be your unprovoked attack against China and, if reports are to be believed, your merciless devastation of that great and ancient land.

  It was a worthy ambition of yours to take equal rank with the great powers of the world. Your aggression against China and your alliance with the Axis powers was surely an unwarranted excess of the ambition…

  You will be sadly disillusioned if you believe that you will receive a willing welcome from India. The end and aim of [our] movement for British withdrawal is to prepare India… for resisting all militarist and imperialist ambition, whether it is called British Imperialism, German Nazism, or your pattern.

  [Do not be] misled into feeling that you have but to step into the country that Britain has vacated… [I]f you cherish any such idea and will carry it out, we will not fail in resisting you with all the might that our country can muster. I am, Your friend and well-wisher, M.K. Gandhi140

  On the Hindu-Muslim question, Gandhi backed two proposals made by Azad, one proposing Congress-League talks and the other, addressed to Britain, suggesting that ‘simultaneously with the declaration of independence’ the British should hand over power either to the Congress or the Muslim League. Any party obtaining power would be obliged to share it with others, wrote Gandhi, for ‘in free India government must depend wholly upon the willing consent of the people’.141

  Action plan? Despite thinking over it for much of July, Gandhi could not prepare an action plan for Quit India satyagrahis. He knew that this time each participant would have to be a leader unto himself or herself, for all known leaders—Gandhi above all—would be behind bars before long. Gandhi hoped to delay arrests by asking, as in the past, to meet the Viceroy, but would Linlithgow really wait for an interview in Viceroy’s House where Gandhi formally asked the British to quit?

  However, he presented a few ideas to the Working Committee in Wardha on 15 July.142 One, those who believed in violence or hated the British or Indians of another faith should stay out of Quit India. Two, jail was not the goal this time: arrest cannot be sought from those you are asking to quit. Three, courageous students should leave government colleges and not return there until India was free.

  Four, there should be widespread stoppages of work and business. Five, the brave should withhold salt tax and land revenue and refuse orders to vacate a field or house. Six, government servants should resign rather than implement harsh orders. Seven, the defence of China and Russia should not be hampered.

  But point seven seemed at odds with points four, five and six, and point one with point two. How was one to defy laws or bans and evade arrest without lying, concealing or using violence?

  Between the Working Committee meetings that ended in Wardha on 14 July and the AICC sessions set for 7 & 8 August in Bombay, the leaders strove to prepare their regions. Though weary and ill (in June the Raj thought him to be near death),143 Patel worked up Bombay and Gujarat. According to an intelligence report, this is what Patel said in Ahmedabad on 26 July:

  If all the leaders are arrested tomorrow and there is no time to meet again, [let me say to you], die but do not fall back. This time if a railway line is removed or an Englishman is murdered, the struggle will not be stopped… Congressmen of course must act strictly within the limits of nonviolence, even if Gandhiji and the other leaders are arrested before the AICC meeting.144

  Whether on his own behalf or for the Working Committee and Gandhi as well, Patel also said in Gujarat:

  Let the railwaymen refuse to work on behalf of the railways. Let the post and telegraph men go on strike. Let Government servants give up their service. Let teachers and students keep away from schools and colleges and thus cooperate in bringing to a standstill the entire administrative machinery.145

  On 2 August Patel addressed a mammoth meeting in Bombay and again asked for ‘a complete standstill’. The next morning he received Gandhi, Kasturba, Mahadev and Pyarelal at Bombay’s Dadar station. Gandhi and party went to Birla House; Patel was staying in his son’s Marine Drive apartment.

  From the 4th to the 8th the Working Committee met daily, and there were numerous smaller meetings. On 6 August Gandhi said in a public statement:

  I have definitely contemplated an interval between the passing of the Congress resolution and the starting of the struggle… [A] letter will certainly go to the Viceroy, not as an ultimatum but as an earnest pleading for avoidance of a conflict. If there is a favourable response, then my letter can be the basis for negotiation (83: 180).

  BOMBAY, 7-8 AUGUST 1942

  The Gowalia Tank grounds in central Bombay bore an electric atmosphere and an immense throng when, on 7 August, the AICC began its two-day session there. Azad presided, a converted Jawaharlal moved the Quit India resolution, and Patel seconded it. Said Vallabhbhai:

  The object this time is to free India before the Japanese come and be ready to fight them if they come.

  They will round up the leaders, round up all. Then it will be the duty of every Indian to put forth his utmost effort—within nonviolence. No source is to be left untapped, no weapon untried. This is going to be the opportunity of a lifetime.146

  In his speech on 7 August, Gandhi spoke first of nonviolence:

  I must tell you that there is no change in me. I stick to the principle of non-violence as I did before. If you are tired of it then you need not come with me.

  He touched on the princely states, and sought to enlist rulers and subjects alike:

  Their number may be 600 or more… Whatever the Princes may say, their people will acclaim that we have been asking for the very thing that they want. If we carry on this struggle in the way I want it, the Princes will get more through it than they can ever expect [from the British].

  Power, he said, would come to Indians, not necessarily to the Congress or to Hindus:

  Our object is to achieve independence and whoever can take up the reins may do so. It may be, you decide to place it in the hands of Parsis… Maybe that power may be given to those whose names had never been heard of in the Congress. It will be for the people to decide.

  He addressed the issues of hate and violence:

  If there is the slightest communal taint in your minds, keep off the struggle. We must remove any hatred for the British from our hearts. At least in my heart there is no such hatred.

  At a time when I am about to launch the biggest fight in my life there can be no hatred for the British in my heart. The thought that because they are in difficulties I should give them a push is totally absent from my mind. It never has been there…

  [I]n a moment of anger they might do things which might provoke you. Nevertheless you should not resort to violence and put nonviolence to shame. When such a thing happens… [m]y blood will be on your head. If you don’t understand this it will be better if you reject this resolution.

  I do not want to be the instrument of Russia’s defeat nor of China’s. If that happens I would hate myself.

  And he claimed there could be an Indian revolution greater than the French or the Russian:

  When I raised the slogan ‘Quit India’ the people in India who were then feeling despondent felt I had placed before them a new thing. If you want real freedom you will have to come together and… create true democracy—democracy the like of which has not been so far witnessed…

  I have read a good deal about the French revolution. Carlyle’s works I read while in jail. I have great admiration for the French people. Pandit Jawaharlal has told me all about the Russian revolution. But I hold that though theirs was a fight for the people it was not a fight for real democracy which I envisaged.

  My democracy means every man is his own master. I have read sufficient history and I did not see such an experiment on so large a scale for the establishment of democracy by non-violence (83: 181-85).

  At a dinner in London that night, Prime Minister Churchill and General Smuts
from South Africa were joined by Lord Moran, Churchill’s physician. According to Moran,

  Smuts spoke of Gandhi: ‘He is a man of God. You and I are mundane people. Gandhi has appealed to religious motives. You never have. That is where you have failed.’ PM (with a great grin): ‘I have made more bishops than anyone since St Augustine.’ But Smuts did not smile. His face was very grave.147

  On 8 August Gandhi took time to confirm to a friend of Jinnah’s that if the Muslim League joined in the Quit India call, Gandhi and the Congress would ‘have no objection to the British Government transferring all the powers it today exercises to the Muslim League on behalf of the whole of India’.148

  Later that day, before Gandhi was to leave Birla House for Gowalia Tank, Desai said to Kalelkar: ‘This evening’s is the most important meeting of his life. He has decided to pray before setting forth.’ Vaishnava Jana was sung before a praying group of eight or ten persons, and Kalelkar thought that Gandhi’s face during the singing ‘shone with the pure radiance of trust in God, a firm resolve and gentleness’.149 Ratifying the Working Committee’s decision, the AICC authorized,

  for the vindication of India’s inalienable right to freedom and independence, the starting of a mass struggle on nonviolent lines on the widest possible scale, so that the country might utilize all the nonviolent strength it has gathered during the last twenty-two years of peaceful struggle. Such a struggle must inevitably be under the leadership of Gandhiji and the Committee requests him to take the lead and guide the nation in the steps to be taken…

  A time may come when it may not be possible to issue instructions or for instructions to reach our people, and when no Congress committees can function. When this happens, every man and woman who is participating in this movement must function for himself or herself within the four corners of the general instructions issued.