Hindu Muslim Questions in Bihar- Mahatma Gandhi

[Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav]

Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav

Senior Gandhian Scholar

Gandhi Research Foundation, Jalgaon, Maharashtra, India

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Hindu Muslim Questions in Bihar- Mahatma Gandhi

 

From Patna we went to Bhagalpur. At Bhagalpur there was a very great public meeting at which I was obliged to make a somewhat lengthy reference to the Hindu-Muslim question. Though my influence over those who are agitating the question is gone, they continue to discuss with me the various problems arising from it. I felt, therefore, that I should redeclare my views for what they might be worth. Apart from merits I must confess that I have not liked this constant reference to the Government by both the parties on matters which they by mutual settlement or appeal to the sword can adjust. I, therefore, told the audience that since neither party was prepared to compromise and each was afraid of the other, the best way would be without seeking the intervention of the Government to settle the matters in dispute by the method of the lathi. Retreat out of fear was cowardice and Cowardice would not hasten a settlement or the advent of non-violence. Cowardice was a species of violence which it was most difficult to overcome. One could hope to persuade a violently inclined person to shed his violence and take up the superior force of non-violence, but since cowardice was negation of all force, it was impossible to teach mouse non-violence in respect of a cat. He would simply not understand what non-violence could be, because he had not the capacity for violence against the cat. Would it not be a mockery to ask a blind man not to look at ugly things? Maulana Shaukat Ali and I were at Bettiah in 1921. The people of a village near Bettiah told me that they had run away whilst the police were looting their houses and molesting their womenfolk. When they said that they had run away because I had told them to be non-violent, I hung my head in shame. I assured them that such was not the meaning of my non-violence. I expected them to intercept the mightiest power that might be in the act of harming those who were under their protection, and draw without retaliation all harm upon their own heads even to the point of death, but never to run away from the storm centre. It was manly enough to defend one’s property, honour or religion at the point of sword. It was manlier and nobler to defend them without seeking to injure the wrongdoer but it was unmanly, unnatural and dishonorable to forsake the post of duty and in order to save one’s skin to leave property, honour or religion to the mercy of the wrongdoer. I could see my way of successfully delivering the message of ahimsa to those who knew how to die, not to those who were afraid of death. I told the audience further, that those like me who deliberately did not want to fight and were powerless to effect a settlement might follow the example of those Mussalmans who, during the time of the first four Caliphs, sought the refuge of the cave when brothers began to fight one against the other. The mountain cave in these days was a practical impossibility but they could retire to the cave which each of us carried within himself. But such could be only those who had mutual regard for one another’s religion and customs.