Story of 5 such questions arising on Gandhi

If Gandhiji wanted, the hanging of Bhagat Singh could have been stopped, if he had tried, he could have stopped the partition of India and Pakistan.

There are many such allegations, which have often been thrown at Gandhiji. Today is Gandhi Jayanti. That is Bapu’s birthday. We thought why not verify the truth of the allegations against Gandhi? So let’s start…

• The new President was to be elected at the Congress Working Committee meeting on 29 April 1946. This election was most important because the Congress President was decided to be the Prime Minister of the coming interim government of India.
• All prominent leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Patel, Acharya Kriplani, Rajendra Prasad, and Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan were present at the meeting of the Congress Working Committee. For the post of president, 12 out of 15 provincial committees proposed the name of Sardar Patel. According to Gandhi’s wish, Nehru’s name was also proposed for the post of President.
• There were two names in the fray for Congress President – Patel and Nehru. Nehru could be elected president unopposed only if Patel withdrew his name. Kripalani wrote a withdrawal application in Patel’s name and forwarded it to Patel for signature. Patel did not sign the paper and forwarded the application to Gandhi.
• Gandhi pointed him towards Nehru and said, ‘Jawahar, apart from the working committee, no provincial committee has suggested your name. what do you say?’ But Nehru remained silent here.
  Gandhi handed the paper back to Patel and this time Patel signed his withdrawal.
• Immediately Kriplani announced the election of Nehru unopposed as the Congress President. (Reference: Kripalani’s book Gandhi-His Life and Thoughts) In his book ‘India: From Curzon to Nehru and After’, Durgadas, a prominent journalist of that time, wrote, ‘Rajendra Prasad told me that Gandhiji sacrificed his trusted companion for the glamorous Nehru.’
• Gandhi had said in an interview – Jawahar would never be ready to come to the number two position. There will be two bullocks to pull both government vehicles. Among them would be Nehru for international affairs and Patel for the work of the nation.
• Gandhi had said on another occasion that even when the government is being taken from the hands of the British, no other person can replace Nehru. He, being a student of Harrow, a graduate of Cambridge, and a barrister in London, could handle the British better.
• Patel’s aggressive attitude and old age could also be the reason for this attitude of Gandhi. Patel was only 6 years younger than Gandhi, while Nehru was about 15 years younger than Patel. When the country became independent in 1947, Sardar Patel was 71 years old and Nehru was only 56 years old.

• In the Haripura session of the Congress held in 1938, Subhash Chandra Bose was elected the President. He surprised everyone with his energy. However, by then his differences with Gandhi had started to emerge.
• Subhash Chandra Bose wrote to their wife Emily Schenkel (Netaji Sampoorna Vangmay Khand 7, 04 April 1939), “It is doubtful that I will be able to become the President of the party again next year. Some people are pressurizing Gandhiji that this time A Muslim should become the president, this is what Gandhiji also wants. But I have not spoken to him till now.”
• In this atmosphere, elections for the post of Congress President were held in Tripuri on 29 January 1939. Mahatma Gandhi’s first choice for this post was considered to be Abul Kalam Azad. After Kalam refused, Gandhi nominated Pattabhi Sitaramayya. Subhash got 1580 votes and Sitaramayya got 1377 votes. He could not win even after putting all the efforts of Gandhiji and Patel.
• Gandhiji publicly acknowledged this as his defeat. At the same time, Gandhiji left the Congress Working Committee. After this Patel and many other members also resigned from the working committee. After this, it became very difficult for Subhash to remain in his post.
• In April 1939, at the Calcutta meeting of the All India Congress Working Committee, Subhash resigned. Rajendra Prasad took his place. Bose formed his own party Forward Bloc within the Congress.
• JP Mishra wrote in ‘Itihaas’, a research journal of the Indian Council of Historical Research, that after the formation of Bose’s Forward Bloc, the Congres’ high command had made up its mind to completely eliminate Bose’s influence politically. Although Subhash was still the President of the Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee, he was removed from that post in July 1939 and he was also disqualified for any other post for three years.

• On April 8, 1929, Bhagat Singh along with his partner Batukeshwar Dutt threw two bombs in the Central Assembly in Delhi and was also arrested on the spot. Bhagat Singh’s motive was not to kill anyone. With the opposition to the Public Safety Bill and the Trade Dispute Act, the voice of freedom was to be taken to the world.
• Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru were sentenced to death on 7 October 1930 and hanged in Lahore Jail on 23 March 1931, a day before the due date.
• On March 5, 1931, 17 days before the execution, there was an agreement between the Viceroy Lord Irwin and Mahatma Gandhi, which is known as Gandhi Irwin Pact.
• The key terms of the agreement included the release of all political prisoners except those accused of violence. In addition load, These included the right to make salt on the seashore, the restoration of those who resigned during the movement, and the return of the property confiscated during the movement. In return, Congress suspended the Civil Disobedience Movement and agreed to go to the Second Round Table Conference.
• Historian AG Noorani, in his book The Trial of Bhagat Singh’s 14th chapter, Gandhi’s Truth, says that Gandhi made half-hearted efforts to save Bhagat Singh’s life. He did not strongly appeal to the Viceroy to commute Bhagat Singh’s death sentence to life imprisonment.
• Historian and author of many books on Gandhi, Anil Nuria, says that Gandhi had sent Tej Bahadur Sapru, MR Jayakar and Srinivas Shastri to the Viceroy to reduce the hanging of Bhagat Singh.
• Herbert William Emerson, who was Home Secretary in the British Government from April 1930 to April 1933, wrote in his memoirs that Gandhi’s efforts to save Bhagat Singh and his companions were honest and to call them improvised is an insult to the messenger of peace.
• According to Gandhiji, ‘Had I had a chance to speak with Bhagat Singh and his companions, I would have told them that the path they had chosen was wrong and unsuccessful. Keeping God as a witness, I want to express the truth that Swaraj cannot be attained by following the path of violence. Only difficulties can come.

• Date: June 3, 1947, Time: 4 PM. Ghulam, the last Governor General and Viceroy of India comes on the radio, Louis Mountbatten. He also announces the partition of the country on the day of India’s independence i.e. 15th August 1947. This was called the Mountbatten Plan.
• With this, the world’s largest exodus began. Between August 1947 and March 1948, 4.5 million Hindus and Sikhs had to leave Pakistan. Similarly, from this side of the border, about 60 lakh Muslims left India and went to that side. Altogether more than one crore people had to leave their homes. During this riots and starvation killed one million people.
• Today, even after 75 years of independence, the question is asked why this horrific partition happened. Was Mahatma Gandhi responsible for this? Although the partition of India took place on 14 August 1947, it had started much earlier. The plan for the partition of India was approved by the British King on 18 July 1947, when he signed the Indian Independence Act.
• The truth was that till this time there were only two leaders who were against the partition of India. The first was Mahatma Gandhi and the second was Khan Ghaffar Khan. Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Patel along with other Congress leaders accepted Mountbatten’s plan for partition on 3 June itself.
• Mahatma Gandhi had come to meet Mountbatten on April 1, 1947, very upset. His motive was that the partition of India should be stopped by any means. For this, he offered to make Mohammad Ali Jinnah the Prime Minister.
• According to the Viceroy’s diaries published in the name of Mountbatten Papers, Gandhi told the new Viceroy – Jinnah should be asked to immediately form a Central Interim Government with the comrades of the Muslim League.
• On this Mountbatten told Gandhi that he wanted to talk to Jawaharlal Nehru about this matter. When Nehru met the Viceroy, he also reiterated Mahatma Gandhi. Nehru said – he has no problem with this, but Jinnah has already rejected this offer.
• After this Jinnah was again offered the post of Prime Minister of India, so he again rejected it. Jinnah said – The views of Mr Gandhi about independent India are fundamentally different from ours.
• Educationist Syed Ahmed Khan and linguist Raja Shiv Prasad, who were loyal to the British government, first spoke of the two nations in 1876. He had said in an event in Banaras (now Varanasi) that the lifestyles of Hindus and Muslims are completely different from each other, so they can never become one nation. This principle later became the reason for the partition of India-Pakistan.
• The All-India Hindu Mahasabha was formed in the year 1915. It was made by Madan Mohan Malviya. Vinayak Damodar Savarkar and Lala Lajpat Rai were also among its founders.According to the BBC report, in 1937 in Ahmedabad, Savarkar said that Hindus and Muslims are two different nations. The rights of both are not equal on this land.

• It is on 20 August 1947. The Pakistani army, which came into existence five days ago, started plotting to capture Kashmir in the name of Operation Gulmarg. According to the plan, on October 22, armed tribesmen attacked Muzaffarabad. By 26 October, the situation became such that Raja Hari Singh signed the letter of accession of Jammu and Kashmir to India. Immediately the Indian Army, which reached Kashmir via airlift, started expelling the Pakistani army along with the tribals.
• Here, during the partition, it was decided that India being a big country would give Rs 75 crore to Pakistan. India had given the first instalment of 200 crores to Pakistan, during which Pakistan attacked Kashmir. In India, from the government to the army, it was known that if the remaining 55 crore rupees were given to Pakistan, then it would be used in the war against India. As a result, the Indian government stopped the second instalment of Pakistan.