For Global Peace with Social Justice in a Sustainable Environment

Indian National Army and Mahatma Gandhi

Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav

Senior Gandhian Scholar

Gandhi Research Foundation, Jalgaon, Maharashtra, India

Contact No. – 09404955338, 09415777229

E-mail- dr.yadav.yogendra@gandhifoundation.net;

dr.yogendragandhi@gmail.com

Mailing Address- C- 29, Swaraj Nagar, Panki, Kanpur- 208020, Uttar Pradesh, India

Indian National Army and Mahatma Gandhi

Subhas Chandra Bose (1897-1945); General Secretary of the Congress, 1927; President of the Congress, 1938 and 1939; resigned Presidentship and founded the All-India Forward Bloc; placed under house arrest but escaped to Germany in 1941, one of the organizers of Indian Independence League in South East Asia, organized and led the Indian National Army

Gandhiji told them that they could only follow the lead of the Congress and commended to their attention Capt. Shah Nawaz’s statement in which he had said that, whilst they had fought with arms for their country’s freedom when they were outside India, they would now serve India through non-violence. Lastly you should remember that it is unbecoming the dignity of a soldier to depend on anybody’s charity. As soldiers of freedom, you should earn your bread by your honest industry and disdain to look to others for support, even though you may have to suffer hardships and privations in consequence. 1

Gandhiji’s reply covered not only the I. N. A. but all Indian army men. Although the I. N. A. men had declared open rebellion under Netaji lead the spirit of rebellion was not confined to them.

Indian Army ranks. Some of the latter had seen him at Poona and sought his advice. Gandhiji had told them that it was open to them to give notice to the authorities that though they were in their pay their loyalty was mortgaged to India, not to the King of England. Hitherto they had yielded obedience to military orders and been prepared even to shoot down their countrymen to order. But now that the spirit of independence had taken possession of them they would do so no more under a foreign Government’s order. For the I. N. A. men therefore were two alternatives. They could serve free India as soldiers-in-arms or they could convert themselves into soldiers of non-violence if they were convinced that non-violence was the higher and the more efficacious way. They should make use of their training and discipline to introduce non-violent organization among the masses, learn spinning and become veteran constructive workers. If they did that, they would set a glorious example to the whole world. The I. N. A. men have shown great strength, heroism and resourcefulness. But I must confess that their achievements have not dazzled my eyes. To die without killing requires more heroism. There is nothing very wonderful in killing and being killed in the process. But the man who offers his neck to the enemy for execution but refuses to bend to his will shows courage of a far higher type. Troublous times lie ahead of us. Our non-violence has brought us o the gate of independence. Shall we renounce it after we have entered that gate? I for one am firmly convinced that non-violence of the brave, such as I have envisaged, provides the surest and the most efficacious means to face foreign aggression and internal disorder just as it has done for winning independence. The British were going to quit. What place would India have in the comity of nations? Would she be satisfied with being a fifth-rate power like China? China was independence only in name. India would have long to wait before she could become a first-class military power. And for that she would have to go under the tutelage of some Western power. A truly non-violent India will have nothing to fear from any foreign power nor will it look to British navy and air force for her defence. I know that we have not as yet the non-violence of the brave. 2

N. What would you have us do next?

G. You should give proof of the same courage and bravery here that you people displayed on the battlefield. There was perfect unity in the ranks of the I. N. A. Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Parsis; all communities were like blood brothers. There was no high or low, no untouchable. Demonstrate that unity here. But I am afraid you will not be able to do so.

N. Yes, we cannot, so long as the British power rules over us.

G. Well, there is a lot that can be done in spite of the British. I have voluntarily become a Bhangi. Who can prevent me from doing so? Shah Nawaz1 today is an Indian first and an Indian last. Nobody can prevent him from doing so. In fact, wherever he goes, he puts up with his Hindu friends. But even so, he realizes that he cannot achieve here what he could outside India. The I. N. A. men on returning to their homes take the complexion from their environment. They shed what they had learnt outside and it is difficult to prevent them from falling into the old rut. Again, if you expect India to spend lakhs on you, that is not right. You should be like Garibaldi’s soldiers who were promised by their leader only “blood, toil and tears”. They tilled the land and supported themselves when not engaged on the battle-field. No one paid them a salary. You have been trained by the British who spend lavishly. If you expect medals like Victoria Crosses and such prizes as the British can give, you will be disappointed. The starving millions of India cannot afford that. You have to become one with them and serve them. Today the man in the street is terrified of the military. The military man acts like a bully and there can be no appeal against his high-handedness. You have to prove that you are friends and servants of the people, so that they will not be awed by you. N. We befriend the people here as we did outside India.

G. That is good. But I tell you, your leaders are finding it difficult to control the I. N. A. men in India. There are petty jealousies and rivalries ‘If A can get something, why not I? ‘That is the kind of feeling coming uppermost. It was different abroad. You had a very capable leader in Netaji. In spite of our sharp differences I have always admired his burning patriotism, courage and resourcefulness.

N. You have no idea of the deep love and admiration he had for you. What should be our contribution in the next struggle for independence?

G. The struggle for independence is going on today. It has never stopped. But, if my will prevails, it will be a non-violent struggle. The lesson of the last 25 years of training in non-violence has gone home to the masses. They have realized that in non-violence they have a weapon which enables a child, a woman or even a decrepit old man to resist the mightiest government successfully. If your spirit is strong, mere lack of physical strength ceases to be a handicap. Per contra I have seen the Zulus in South Africa with Herculean bodies tremble before a white child. White soldiers could go into the the Zulu kraals and shoot men, women and children sleeping in their beds. There was no resistance in the Zulu and the physical strength could not make up for it. 3

Gandhiji agreed that the leaders had sunk to the lowest level, but not the common people. Their hearts were still sound. He added: Even in this village I have noticed some response. But, of course, I do not build upon it.

BOSE: We believe your attempt is to raise humanity from the lowest level. But we are skeptical as to whether you will succeed.

GANDHIJI: I myself am skeptical about it. I may succeed; I can perish in the attempt. Success or failure is not the final test. B. You are right.

GANDHIJI: And attempt up to the last is the only real test. Bose next asked Gandhiji if there was any change of mentality on the part of the authorities.

Gandhiji replied: There is a change in the Government policy for the better. But as for the change of heart, it is for you and me to make a contribution to that consummation. The interviewer remarked that it was painful to see how listless the Hindus had become.

GANDHIJI: It is no prerogative of the Hindus. Listlessness is common to us all. Even if I am the only one, I shall fight this listlessness that has come over the Hindus of East Bengal. I have not come here to do a good turn to this community or that. I have come to do a good turn to myself. Non-violence is not meant to be practiced by the individual only. It can be and has to be practiced by society as a whole. I have come to test that for myself in Noakhali. Has my ahimsa become bankrupt? If I fail here, it won’t be any proof that the theory is wrong. It will simply mean that my sadhana has been imperfect, that there is some fault somewhere in my technique.

BOSE: If the League leaders were to take the Noakhali situation as seriously as you and Jawaharlal took Bihar, order would be restored in a day. To make such comparisons is to degrade one. What are called for is introspection and more introspection. I have come here not only to speak to the Mussalmans but to the Hindus as well. Why are they such cowards? The Harijans, the Namashudras, have been relatively better so far as courage and physical prowess is concerned. They are brave. But the other Hindus must shed utterly the caste distinctions. If this calamity would open the eyes of the Hindus and result in eradicating untouchability root and branch, it will have served a good purpose. Narrating his earlier experiences in India he recalled how during the Champaran Satyagraha, in Rajendra Babu’s absence, he could only sit in the outhouse in Rajendra Babu’s house and how Rajendra Babu’s servant would not let the speaker bathe at the well. Things had improved, but much more remained to be done. The visitor agreed that Hinduism had still to go a long way to eradicate the evil. Talking of forced conversions in Noakhali, the interviewer remarked that unless those who had been converted were brought back to the Hindu fold quickly, the cleavage between the Hindus and the Muslims might become permanent.

GANDHIJI: Many had returned. But all must. The question was put to him whether by taking up an unbending attitude on conversion; he was not identifying himself with one particular community. How could his stand in this respect be squared with his claim that he regarded all religions as equal?

GANDHIJI: I have, of course, always believed in the principle of religious tolerance. But I have even gone further. I have advanced from tolerance to equal respect for all religions. All religions are branches of the same mighty tree, but I must not change over from one branch to another for the sake of expediency. By doing so, I cut the branch on which I am sitting. Therefore, I always feel the changeover from one religion to another very keenly, unless it is a case of spontaneous urge, a result of inner growth. Such conversions by their very nature cannot be on a mass scale and never to save one’s life or property or for temporal gain. He narrated his meeting with a South Indian Bishop who was a Harijan converted to Christianity and retained all his original weakness in spite of the change of religion. He had told the late Charlie Andrews that to his mind he was no bishop at all.

BOSE: There is no end to the monstrosities that have been committed here and that too in the name of religion. It is enough to fill one with blank despair.

GANDHIJI: I have met human monsters from my early youth. I have found that even they are not beyond redemption if we know how to touch the right chord in their soul. And he cited two instances within his recent experience of the milk of human kindness welling up in hard-boiled, sun-baked functionaries at the sight of stark human misery and devastation.

GANDHIJI: The whole thing is so ghastly. You do not need to exaggerate it. I have told the authorities I do not care for numbers. Has a single case of abduction, rape, forcible marriage, or forcible conversion occurred? If so, it is enough for me. It is admitted that such things have happened.

BOSE: What about the rescue of abducted women? It was complained that as soon as information was received about such cases and the rescue party with the military police set out on their assignment, the miscreants received intimation and removed the victim to some other place.

GANDHIJI: I have told our people: ‘Do not depend on military and the police help.’ You have to uphold democracy, and democracy and dependence on the military and the police are incompatible. You cannot say it is good in one place and bad in another. Military help will degrade you. In a democracy, if you set up a hooligan as the head of the Government, you lie in the bed you have made. The only remedy is to educate and convert the electorate by Satyagraha, if necessary. We should be consistent all along. If democracy is good in Bihar, it ought to be good in Bengal, too. I must, therefore, go to the popular, elected Ministers, for they are my Ministers. If they fail, public opinion must be created to replace them. That is democracy. Whether it is Bihar or Bengal, the people have to be brave and stand on their legs. I want everyone to die at his post like a brave man and not to leave his home or his village.

Another interviewer asked Gandhiji why Pandit Jawaharlal went to Bihar and took such an active part in putting down disturbances there while he did nothing for Bengal. If the Interim Government could not interfere in one Province because of provincial autonomy, how could it do so in another?

Gandhiji replied that they must not forget that besides being the Vice-

President of the Interim Government, Jawaharlal was the first servant of the Congress. As the Vice-President of the Central Cabinet, he must act within the four corners of the constitution. It does not permit interference with provincial autonomy. But in Bihar, Pandit Nehru and Rajendra Babu have a standing and responsibility as Congressmen. One of the interviewers remarked that Bengal was being used as a pawn on the political chess-board.

GANDHIJI: No. Bengal is in the forefront today because Bengal is Bengal. It is Bengal that produced Tagore and Bankim Chandra. It was here that the heroes of the Chittagong Armory Raid were born, however misguided their action might have been in my eyes. No, you must understand it. If Bengal plays the game, it will solve all India’s problem. That is why I have made myself a Bengali. I have seen enough of ravages in Noakhali to make me weep my eyes out but I am not going to shed a tear for what has happened. We have a long way yet to go. Why should there be cowardice in the Bengal of such men?

BOSE: Yes, when I see these desecrated places of worship, I ask, why did not every man, woman and child of the house die there before those places were touched.

Q. If they had done that, you would not have required any other help. Today Noakhali is bereft of its leading men. They refused to take the risk and have left their hearths and homes. Poor Manoranjan Babu is in a fix. Who is he to put on the Peace Committees? I have told him that the common man must rise to fill the vacuum. There is no such thing as a vacuum in nature. Nature abhors it. Let him write to them, I have told him If they come back, well and good. Otherwise, the common man must come forward. It is his day.

Q. Mahatmaji, tell us in one word, whether it is war or peace? Peace Committees or War Committees?

GANDHIJI: Peace Committees. War results when peace fails. Our effort must always be directed towards peace, but it must be peace with honour and fair security for life and property. On these two conditions alone will the refugees return? Of course, if they develop enough courage, they will return without any safeguards. Today I have suggested one Hindu and one Muslim standing surety for each village. If the people have the requisite courage, they would depend on none but God and their own strength of spirit for their defence. If they do that, all the goondas in Noakhali will feel the change in the atmosphere and behave decently. I know what I am saying. I come from Kathiawad, a Province notorious for its bandits. I know that they are not beyond redemption. Nor do I believe that goondas are responsible for all that had happened. A suggestion was next made as to why they should not have only Muslims in the Peace Committees as the Hindus had played no part in breaking the peace.

GANDHIJI: No. The Hindus must be there to play their part; else the Peace Committees will be a farce.

BOSE: was it not possible any control Bihar with non-violence? Why did the Congress Ministers resort to the free use of Military there?

GANDHIJI: Yes. But Bihar has been having a lesson in organized violence since 1942 and before. Our weakness for the goondas rose to the highest in 1942. I know the merits of 1942. The people were not cowed down. But all the same I cannot shut my eyes to our mistakes.

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