Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle With India (67 page)

1
   “
Congressmen, barring individual
”:
CWMG
, vol. 70, pp. 113–14.

2
   
As early as 1939
: Ibid., p. 114.

3
   
To a bluff British general
: Wavell,
Viceroy’s Journal
, p. 236.

4
   “
My life is entirely
”: Tendulkar,
Mahatma
, vol. 6, p. 156.

5
   
It’s the first time
:
CWMG
, vol. 70, p. 113.

6
   
Ten months later
: Rajmohan Gandhi,
Gandhi
, p. 436.

7
   
Through all his ins and outs
: Tendulkar,
Mahatma
, vol. 6, p. 125.

8
   
On August 8, 1942
: Mansergh and Lumby,
Transfer of Power
, vol. 2, p. 622.

9
   “
the biggest struggle
”: Tendulkar,
Mahatma
, vol. 6, p. 153.

10
   “
Mob violence remains
”: Mansergh and Lumby,
Transfer of Power
, vol. 2, p. 853.

11
   
Indian nonviolence had always been
: Tendulkar,
Mahatma
, vol. 6, p. 129.

12
   
In 1942, days before
: Jaswant Singh,
Jinnah
, p. 308.

13
   “
Give your blessings
”: Tendulkar,
Mahatma
, vol. 6, p. 271.

14
   “
I thought you had come
”: Pyarelal,
Mahatma Gandhi: Last Phase
, vol. 1, p. 88.

15
   
Not only had the Congress
: Jaswant Singh,
Jinnah
, p. 540.

16
   
Putting it in writing
: Ibid., p. 541.

17
   “
I am amazed
”: Pyarelal,
Mahatma Gandhi: Last Phase
, vol. 1, p. 88.

18
   
His aim, Gandhi remarked
: Ibid., p. 91.

19
   “
I have failed
”: Tendulkar,
Mahatma
, vol. 6, p. 276.

20
   “
Though I represent nobody
”: Ibid., p. 279.

21
   
This is so, at least
: See, for instance, Jalal,
Sole Spokesman
.

22
   “
I could not make any
”: Fischer,
Life of Mahatma Gandhi
, p. 437.

23
   “
Is there any reason
”: Narayan Desai,
My Life Is My Message
, vol. 4,
Svarpan
, pp. 225–26.

24
   “
In that hour of decision
”: Pyarelal,
Mahatma Gandhi: Last Phase
, vol. 1, p. 239.

25
   “
India is not with me
”: Fischer,
Life of Mahatma Gandhi
, p. 424.

26
   “
I’m not going to discuss
”: Pyarelal,
Mahatma Gandhi: Last Phase
, vol. 1, p. 252.

27
   “
Sword will be answered
”: Ibid., p. 464.

28
   
The district, known even then
: Gandhi’s first involvement in the affairs of Noakhali district came in 1940 when he was approached by Hindus there who represented themselves as being threatened by Muslim violence. He urged them to defend themselves by nonviolent means but then added what was for him an unusual but not unprecedented piece of advice: “If the capacity for nonviolent self-defense is lacking, then there need be no hesitation in using violent means.” Tendulkar,
Mahatma
, vol. 5, p. 249.

29
   
Hindus had been beheaded
: Scores of Hindu women were said to have been forced into marriage with Muslim men, but when
Phillips Talbot caught up with Gandhi there, so he reported, just two cases of abduction and marriage had been proved. Talbot,
American Witness to India’s Partition
, p. 203.

30
   “
Shaheed sahib, everyone
”: Pyarelal,
Mahatma Gandhi: Last Phase
, vol. 1, p. 358.

31
   
The impression he retains
: Interview with Barun Das Gupta, Kolkata, Oct. 2009.

32
   
Before it burned out
: The
Muslim League claimed that fifty thousand Muslims had been slaughtered in Bihar. The official figure put the toll at under five thousand. The American Friends Service Committee estimated ten thousand, a tally Gandhi accepted on at least one occasion.

33
   
Suhrawardy didn’t press
: Pyarelal,
Mahatma Gandhi: Last Phase
, vol. 1, pp. 387, 397.

34
   “
If Noakhali is lost
”: Ibid., p. 405.

35
   
The answers, though Gandhi
: Ibid., p. 356.

36
   
At his first large prayer
: Ibid., pp. 370, 373.

37
   
Within a week, he found
: Ibid., p. 378.

38
   “
If India is destined
”: Ibid., pp. 379, 383.

39
   “
If the Hindus could live
”: Ibid., p. 381.

40
   
In an analogous quest
: Nirmal Kumar Bose,
My Days with Gandhi
, p. 47.

41
   “
I find myself in the midst
”: Ibid., pp. 46–47.

42
   
But four days after
: Ibid., p. 63.

43
   “
Hardly a wheel turns
”: Talbot,
American Witness to India’s Partition
, p. 202.

44
   
If the size of the Hindu population
: The figure generally given for the number of
Hindus remaining in Bangladesh as a whole is on the order of 12 million, which would be about 10 percent of the country’s total population. In Pakistan, a country with a population nearly half again larger—about 170 million—only about
3 million Hindus remain. India’s Muslim population of 140 million—out of a total of 1.2 billion—is exceeded by those of only Indonesia and Pakistan.

45
   “
That’s due to lack
”: Interview with Abdue Wahab, Joyag, Bangladesh, Oct. 2009. The chairman of the local Jamaat was not necessarily expressing a heretical view in speaking well of Gandhi. Faisal Devji notes that the movement’s founder, Abul Ala Mawdudi, “sang the Mahatma’s praises.” Devji,
Terrorist in Search of Humanity
, p. 133.

46
   
According to Narayan Desai
: Narayan Desai,
My Life Is My Message
, vol. 4,
Svarpan
, p. 271;
CWMG
, vol. 86, p. 162.

47
   “
My unfitness for the task
”: Pyarelal,
Mahatma Gandhi: Last Phase
, vol. 1, p. 431.

48
   “
I can see there is some
”: Ibid., p. 470.

49
   
The telegram to her father
:
CWMG
, vol. 86, p. 215.

50
   “
Manu’s place can be nowhere
”: Narayan Desai,
My Life Is My Message
, vol. 4,
Svarpan
, p. 303.

51
   
It soon became obvious
: Nirmal Kumar Bose,
My Days with Gandhi
, pp. 73–75.

52
   
A perfect brahmachari
: Pyarelal,
Mahatma Gandhi: Last Phase
, vol. 1, p. 591.

53
   
None of this would go on
: Gandhi’s yajna with Manubehn has been discussed in varying degrees of detail in Nirmal Kumar Bose,
My Days with Gandhi
; Narayan Desai,
My Life Is My Message
, vol. 4,
Svarpan;
Pyarelal,
Mahatma Gandhi: Last Phase
, vol. 2; Mehta,
Mahatma Gandhi and His Apostles
. It can also be followed in the correspondence in Gandhi’s
Collected Works
, especially vol. 86.

54
   “
I don’t want to return
”:
CWMG
, vol. 86, p. 224.

55
   “
Of course she knows her art
”: Ibid., vol. 96, p. 295.

56
   “
a deeply anguished
”: Nirmal Kumar Bose,
My Days with Gandhi
, pp. 95, 101.

57
   “
Stick to your word
”: Narayan Desai,
My Life Is My Message
, vol. 4,
Svarpan
, p. 304.

58
   “
I like your frankness
”: Nirmal Kumar Bose,
My Days with Gandhi
, p. 118.

59
   
Pyarelal was also drawn
:
CWMG
, vol. 85, p. 221.

60
   “
I can see that you will not
”: Ibid., vol. 94, p. 337.

61
   “
After a life of prolonged
”: Nirmal Kumar Bose,
My Days with Gandhi
, p. 135.

62
   
He’d read Havelock Ellis
: Pyarelal,
Mahatma Gandhi: Last Phase
, vol. 1, p. 588.

63
   “
What is Freudian philosophy?
”: Nirmal Kumar Bose,
My Days with Gandhi
, p. 158.

64
   
Bose’s basic point
: Ibid., pp. 150–51.

65
   “
I do hope you will acquit me
”: Ibid., p. 153.

66
   “
I saw your strength come back
”: Ibid., p. 161.

67
   
Given that the Congress
: Rajmohan Gandhi,
Gandhi
, p. 551.

68
   
According to one account
: Maksud,
Gandhi, Nehru, and Noakhali
, p. 41.

69
   “
I can never be disillusioned
”: Rajmohan Gandhi,
Gandhi
, p. 554.

70
   “
I feel a little out of my depth
”: Brown,
Nehru
, p. 169.

71
   “
Jawaharlal is the only man
”: Hingorani,
Gandhi on Nehru
, pp. 12–13.

72
   
his heir would never score high
: Gandhi and Nehru had exchanged letters laying out their differences in October and November 1945. See Nehru,
Bunch of Old Letters
, pp. 509–16. Also see Tendulkar,
Mahatma
, vol. 8, pp. 302–6.

73
   “
He says what is uppermost
”: Hingorani,
Gandhi on Nehru
, p. 12.

74
   “
He has made me captive
”: Pyarelal,
Mahatma Gandhi: Last Phase
, vol. 2, p. 251.

75
   “
My voice
”:
CWMG
, vol. 86, p. 295.

76
   
Basically, it said Gandhi
: Pyarelal,
Mahatma Gandhi: Last Phase
, vol. 2, p. 483.

77
   
When a member asked
: See
Amrita Bazar Patrika
, Jan. 6, 1946.

78
   “
I suggest frequent consultations
”: Pyarelal,
Mahatma Gandhi: Last Phase
, vol. 2, p. 482;
CWMG
, vol. 86, p. 286.

79
   “
Remember Bihar
”: Pyarelal,
Mahatma Gandhi: Last Phase
, vol. 1, p. 557.

80
   “
You don’t know the joy
”: Ibid., p. 509.

81
   “
It failed miserably
”: From the diary of Nirmal Kumar Bose, p. 991, archive of the Asiatic Society, Kolkata.

82
   “
What in your opinion
”: Fischer,
Life of Mahatma Gandhi
, p. 451.

83
   
Twice in nine weeks
: Pyarelal,
Mahatma Gandhi: Last Phase
, vol. 1, p. 380.

84
   
He could only demonstrate
: From the diary of Nirmal Kumar Bose, p. 887, archive of the Asiatic Society, Kolkata.

85
   “
Our community today suffers
”: Pyarelal,
Mahatma Gandhi: Last Phase
, vol. 1, pp. 518, 520.

86
   
Early on he talked
: Ibid., pp. 386, 372.

87
   “
There will be no tears
”: Ibid., p. 321.

88
   “
If some ruffian
”: Ibid., p. 505.

89
   
Speaking to dispossessed
:
CWMG
, vol. 86, p. 305.

90
   “
He had told us
”: Pyarelal,
Mahatma Gandhi: Last Phase
, vol. 1, p. 417.

91
   “
Giving equality
”: Fischer,
Life of Mahatma Gandhi
, p. 436.

92
   “
If they still went on
”:
CWMG
, vol. 86, p. 305.

93
   
The next week he twice urges
: Ibid., pp. 348–50, 459.

94
   “
He has not always held
”: From the diary of Nirmal Kumar Bose, p. 1251, archive of the Asiatic Society, Kolkata.