Discussion on Communal Award and Mahatma Gandhi

[Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav]

Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav

Gandhian Scholar

Gandhi Research Foundation, Jalgaon, Maharashtra, India

Contact No. – 09415777229, 094055338

E-mail- [e-mail];[e-mail]

 

 

Discussion on Communal Award and Mahatma Gandhi

 

 

 Mahatma Gandhi discussed on communal award with Mahadev Desai in August 1932. He said that constitution was worse than the Montagu-Chelmsford reforms. “Certainly”, replied Bapu. “Those reforms were based on the Lucknow agreement between Congress and the Muslim League. But this constitution seeks to create such divisions in the country that it can never again stand up on its own legs.” Just before the evening prayer he said to me, “Well, you and the Sardar think over the situation and tell me whatever you feel like saying. The letter to Samuel Hoare details the steps I should take in order to deal with the present situation. I have therefore to serve the British Government with a notice.” and then Bapu began to write the letter to MacDonald.

After finishing it in the morning Bapu said, “You stop spinning for a while and go through this letter so that it may be sent at once.” The Sardar and I read it. Then he Sardar said, “There is no reference in the letter to other parts of the decision. May not this be misinterpreted to mean that they are approved by you?” “No”, replied Bapu. “My views are well known. Still if you wish, I will insert one paragraph, although I would then have to enter into argument. In this letter I propose to leave out all argument, this having been included in the letter to Samuel Hoare.” I suggested that Bapu should only say his soul rebelled against the decision as a whole, but part of it was so vicious that he would lay down his life in the attempt to get it annulled. “No”, said Bapu. “No such comparison may fairly be instituted. If it were, they would say that I wanted to get the decision annulled in its entirety and had seized upon a certain part of it as a pretext. I do want the whole decision to go. But at night I thought for a moment over the question whether other points should be included and decided against their inclusion.” The same subject was discussed in the evening. Bapu observed, “I cannot put in other things at all, for that would be tantamount to mixing politics with religion. The two questions are in fact distinct from each other.” He then continued, “I have rehearsed everything in my own mind. Everything you have suggested was considered by me before I reached the decision. Separate electorates for the Muslims and the rest are fraught with danger. They will combine with the British to suppress the Hindus. But I can think of methods by which the combination can be dealt with. When once the outsider who foments quarrels is gone, we can tackle our problems with success. But as regards the so-called untouchables I have no other remedy. How possibly am I to explain things to these poor fellows? To draw suffering on oneself when misfortune dogs one’s footsteps is no novelty. How did Sudhanva fall into the pan full of hot oil and how did Prahlad embrace a pillar of red-hot iron? There will be many Satyagraha movements even after the attainment of swaraj. I have often had the idea that after the establishment of swaraj I should go to Calcutta and try to stop animal sacrifice offered in the name of religion. The goats at Kalighat are worse off even than untouchables. They cannot attack men with their horns. They can never throw up an Ambedkar from their midst. My blood boils when I think of such violence. Why do they not offer tigers instead of goats?” In the morning we discussed the possible repercussions of Bapu’s step. I said, “It will be misinterpreted in a variety of ways. Here in India there will be senseless imitation of it while in America they will say Gandhi obtained his release by his fast.” “I know”, replied Bapu. “In America they will swallow anything, and there are British agents ready to help them to do so. Many will even say that I am now a bankrupt, that my spirituality is not paying dividends; therefore, I committed suicide like cunning insolvents. And in this country there will be blind imitation, and misinterpretation. The Government will perhaps release me and let me die outside prison, or perhaps they will let me die in jail, as in the case of Macs winey. Our own men will be critical. Jawaharlal will not like it at all. He will say we have had enough of such religion. But that does not matter. When I am going to wield a most powerful weapon in my spiritual armory, misinterpretation and the like may never act as a check.”

The Superintendent came and asked why Bapu was going to take such a drastic step. He replied there was no alternative. The Superintendent suspected that Hoare had perhaps not even informed the British Cabinet. Bapu said, “I believe he must have informed them. But your suspicion is not ill-placed. Hoare is a man of such a type that he might not inform them. And when the Cabinet comes to know of it, he will say he did not think he should worry them with the case of a man who was ready to die for such a trifle. But I think if he did not inform the Cabinet, he would lose his career as well as reputation.” The Superintendent asked what effect Bapu’s fast would have in England. “None”, replied Bapu. “Even if all the untouchables in a body ask for joint electorates, the British can say that in the case of a minority which has been suppressed for centuries they alone can decide what is good for it; the suppressors cannot understand its needs.” He then continued, “My whole life has been passed that way. This last step of mine is the crown of my career. I had no idea that I would have to give up my life for this. But it is a noble object. The beginning was made 50 years ago, when as a child I began to smoke and then felt I was doing the wrong thing and must make a clean breast of it. Since then I have made continuous progress in the knowledge and the practice of truth.” The Collector came in the afternoon and said: “What can they do if they are not to give such a decision? There must be some solution. In matters like this you cannot insist upon absolute justice and right.” “No”, replied Bapu. “The solution may be unreasonable but it must be acceptable to all. But there is no agreement at the back of this decision. They asked us for a solution in England but they did not see that they were addressing a packed house, and therefore their demand could never be satisfied.” In the morning Bapu said, “It is a law of Satyagraha that when a man has no weapon in his hands and when he cannot think of a way out, he should take the final step of giving up his body. What did the Rajputs women do? What did Kamalavati about whom we were reading the other day do? She had resolved that she would not fall alive into the hands of the enemy. She therefore embraced death as a dear friend.”

The Sardar and I thought today that the news of Bapu’s impending fast should be passed on to the outside world by some means or other. But that was impossible without a breach of Bapu’s promise. He has promised that he on his part would never send the news out. And we could not be disloyal to him. The Sardar was very much worried.

People will tell us”, said the Sardar, “that we were here with you and should have somehow or other sent the information outside, say, through Dahyabhai who sees me every week. “That is not to be thought of”, replied Bapu. “Can we tell them that we would now inform the outside world of this by some means or other? We have promised to maintain absolute secrecy from our side, and that is the end of the matter so far as we are concerned. You must have noticed that in the letter I have addressed to MacDonald I have said with perfect indifference that if he made it possible, I wanted public opinion to be affected by my letters. What can they do, supposing Malaviyaji and Rajagopalachari come to know about the impending fast this very day? It is a matter of only a few days. I think it is necessary to give a slight shock even to these two leaders. Rajaji is a clever man and will at once understand why I was driven to take this step. The shock will help him to understand it. Don’t you see that I have advanced no argument in this letter? Could I not have framed a long indictment? But I restricted muse lf to this one point for which I would gladly sacrifice my life. I had reserved my life for a nobler purpose, but meanwhile this occasion has arisen. What can I do now? The Satyagraha is directed not against Congressmen who are in jail, but against non-Congressmen in order to make them understand what they are doing.

Don’t you see none of them is at all perturbed by the British Government’s proposals as regards untouchability? This inertia is sickening, and it cannot be dealt with in any other way. The possible consequences of separate electorate for Harijans fill me with horror. Separate electorate for all other communities will still leave room for me to deal with them, but I have no other means to deal with untouchables. These poor fellows will ask why I who claim to be their friend should offer Satyagraha simply because they were granted some privileges; they would vote separately but vote with me. They do not realize that the separate electorate will create division among Hindus so much so that it will lead to bloodshed. Untouchable hooligans will make common cause with Muslim hooligans and kill caste Hindus. Has the British Government no idea of all this? I do not think so. And to cap it all, they have brought in Irwin. The Archbishop of Canterbury said they could not do without Irwin’s co-operation. And now the Christian Irwin is a party to this nefarious scheme.” “No, no, Vallabhbhai. Previous publication of the news will only does harm; sudden shock is the treatment required. It would be different if you felt that this was a serious blunder. You are both associated with it; and therefore you are responsible to some extent, but the final responsibility rests with me alone, for I have done what suggested itself to me. This is a case in which no one else’s consent is necessary. When I fasted during the Bombay riots, C. R. Das and Motilal Nehru insisted that I should have consulted them before undertaking it. But I explained that the fast was undertaken by me not as a Congressman but as a man. I observed a certain religion and I fasted in accordance with its doctrine. I said the same thing to Hakim Ajmal Khan as regards the fast connected with Hindu-Muslim tension. Now too it is for me a religious and not a political question.”

Answering Mahadev Desai, Gandhiji said : “The suppressed classes are in great peril today. The pity of it is that no one else is aware of it. It may be that when I am released, the situation might have deteriorated to such an extent that it cannot be retrieved. Numerous untouchables might have been converted to Islam or else the caste Hindus might have crushed them into submission. This part of the British Government’s decision seems so dangerous to me that even if all other parts had been acceptable, I would have been compelled to take such a step in order to combat it.”