[world-vedic] "MAHATMA"??? GANDHI

[Guest guest]

Aditi Chaturvedi

The Death of Delusion

 

This week as always, I sat down at my desk and started examining the

list of important media events over the last week, from which I usually

pick two or three to highlight in MediaWatch. But one event stood out

from the list and struck me immediately. It was a review of a new Hindi

film called "Hey Ram", which has been produced by Superstar

Kamalahasan. The movie according to the review, is set during Partition

times and revolves around a young Hindu archaeologist called Saket Ram.

The evolution of Saket Ram from a "normal" man (according to

KamalHasan's definition of course) to an "intolerant Hindu fanatic" is

the primary focus of the film. The film leads up to the climactic event

of Mahatma Gandhi's assassination at the hands of "Hindu fanatic"

Nathuram Godse. Watching it makes Saket Ram realize his mistake and he

denounces the "Hindu fanaticism" behind Gandhiji's death.

 

It was this that made me wince and this week I will depart from my

usual format and dedicate this entire MediaWatch to the questions and

turmoil that this topic elicits in my mind.

 

Like 99% of all Indians, I too have grown up thinking of Mahatma Gandhi

as the "Bapu" who represented the ultimate personification of peace and

non-violence. I admired his stubborn adherence to his principles and

would have lambasted anyone who dared to question Bapu's role in the

Independence Struggle of India. But as I grew up and had the

opportunity to read more about India's history and especially the

turmoil of Partition, I found myself increasingly bewildered by the

gray shades that had begun coloring my perception of the "Father of the

Nation". It slowly began to dawn on me that the actions of Mahatma

Gandhi, the sacred icon, had in truth been far from beneficial to the

Indian nation. But even then I nursed a soft spot for the Mahatma, and

found myself having to justify to my own conscience that, inherently

Gandhiji was not an evil man, but simply a misled one who had become a

vehicle for anti-Indian traitors.

 

Then one day as I was casually browsing through the web, I came across

a website called Soldiers of Hindutva (URL - http://www.geocities.com/C

apitolHill/Senate/7153/soh.html) and the revelations that I found there

forced me to overturn my woefully uninformed views about Mahatma Gandhi

and his contribution to India. As I found more and more information

about the actions of Gandhiji during the toughest period of Indian

history, it became self-evident that the Mahatma is nothing short of an

icon created by the Indian National Congress, who had suited that

organization's purpose for manipulating the Hindus during Partition.

His death was perhaps the greatest asset to the Congress, for they have

repeatedly extracted an incredible amount of sympathy by portraying the

incident as the martyrhood of their patron saint. And now that the

Hindus of India are becoming increasingly aware of the immense

injustices that were perpetrated on them by the extremely harmful

policies of the Indian National Congress, they are also waking up to

the fact that the Father of the Nation was nothing short of the Man who

ensured the Dismemberment of this Nation as well.

 

Therefore it has now become imperative to the Congress and the pseudo

secularists of India, to ensure that the Myth of the Mahatma be kept

alive at any cost. In this context it has become useful to the Congress

to sensationalize the "Hindu Fundamentalism" which led to Gandhiji's

death. This "Hindu Fundamentalist" stick is constantly used by the

pseudo secularist media to force Hindus to relive over and over again,

the guilt of bearing the burden of Gandhiji's murder. Whenever the

constructive work of the RSS starts making waves, immediately the next

day, there are rantings about the "role of the RSS in Gandhiji's

murder" in tomorrow's newspapers.

 

The sole purpose of this emotional blackmail is to make Hindus feel

torn against their own awakened need to reassert their Hindu identity.

The big bogey of "communalism" on the part of Hindus is taken to its

ultimate falsification with the guilt of the Mahatma's assassination.

And yet we are afraid to ask ourselves that unmentionable question, Why

was Mahatma Gandhi killed by a Hindu? After all wasn't he the ultimate

leader who was supposed to represent the interests and the needs of the

Hindus who idolized the Ahimsa preached by the diminutive Mahatma?

 

If you have the stomach for it then join me in learning the reality

behind this icon, by taking a long hard look at our true history. The

Soldiers of Hindutva website lists some of the poignant biographies of

the men who were instrumental in Gandhiji's death, and among them I was

particularly struck by the account of Madanlal Krishnalal Pahwa, the

man who had exploded the gun-cotton slab on January 20, 1948, in order

to give Gandhiji warning. Pahwa was a refugee from Pakistan during

Partition. He had witnessed first hand the horrifying unfolding of the

bestiality and savagery which was effected on Hindus and Sikhs by the

Muslims. Pahwa recounts the spectacle of the millions of Hindu and Sikh

refugee caravans, who wended their way across torturous landscapes in

order to reach the safety of a truncated India, after being subjected

to the worst form of butchery and cruelty by the Soldiers of Allah in

the "Pure Land of Islam". Madanlal stated his horrible experience thus:

 

" We walked night and day. There were men and women of all ages and all

conditions. Many could not stand the strain. They-mostly women and

children-were left on the road. I reached a place called Fazilka, in

Indian territory, and discovered that another refugee column in which

my father and other relatives had set out had fared much worse. They

had been attacked by Muslim mobs on their way: Only 40 or 50 had

survived out of 400 or 500 and even these were in hospitals. My aunt

had been killed, more than a hundred girls were abducted, and my father

rescued from a heap of the dead."

 

While in Fazilka, Pahwa saw other refugee columns coming in; one of

them he says was 'forty miles long', and in another marched " five

hundred women who had been stripped naked.......I saw women with their

breasts, noses, ears and cheeks cut........one of them told me how her

child was roasted and she was asked to partake of the same.....another

was ravished in the presence of her husband who was kept tied to a

tree."

 

By January of 1948, over seven million Hindu and Sikh refugees had been

forced to flee to India, and more than one million were concentrated in

Delhi. But instead of finding relief in the land of their brothers, the

Hindus and Sikhs were subjected to a humiliating and dehumanizing

experience. They were herded like cattle in barbed-wire enclosures, and

even these enclosures were so overcrowded that those who came after had

to live in street and under trees in cold winter. As they began to

wander the streets of Delhi in search of food and shelter, the refugees

were horrified to find that the Muslim citizens of Delhi were in

contrast being provided with rations, funds, jobs and shelter.

 

Depression from the abject starvation, freezing temperatures, lack of

shelter and disease on the part of the refugees gave way to a black

despair when they realized that the Indian government was not going to

raise a finger to aid them, at the special behest of "Bapuji"!

intention to give them shelter. Driven by sheer desperation, the Hindus

and Sikhs started occupying public places such as Mosques to escape the

torturous weather. And wonder of wonders, instead of assisting our

brothers, the Congress government deployed police violence, thrashing

and beating down the refugees to bar them from "offending Muslim

sensibilities"!! While Hindus and Sikhs by the millions suffered

unprecedented genocide and slaughter and were forced at swordpoint to

abandon their ancestral properties and flee, the Congress Government

was busy ensuring that these same refugees were treated like garbage in

contrast to the protection that Muslims in India were enjoying. It was

as though the floodgates of a dam broke open, and the desperate

refugees fought the Muslims to salvage their own survival.

 

Can one imagine a more shameful and outrageous situation than this?

 

And what was the "Father of the Nation", the apostle of peace, the

prophet of Ahimsa doing while millions of our Hindu and Sikh brothers,

sisters and children bled to death in their OWN land?? He was busy

exhorting "Hindu culprits" to maintain "communal harmony", the genocide

and massacre of Hindus and Sikhs at the hands of Muslims be damned!! On

January 12, 1948, the great Mahatma, announced an indefinite fast based

on seven conditions, one of which included a demand to pay Fifty Five

Crores to the very Pakistanis who had reduced millions upon millions of

Hindus and Sikhs to a pile of bones and burning, stinking flesh.

 

During Independence, the British had divided the assets and liabilities

between India and Pakistan. The British had sold bonds for raising

funds in the second world war. Therefore the government had that

liability and other loans worth Rs. 1680 crores on its accounts.

Natural justice would divide the liabilities and assets in equal

proportion, but the British were clearly biased in favor of Pakistan.

India was given 67 per cent of assets and Pakistan got 33 per cent. But

when it came to liabilities, India had to bear 82.5% of the loans and

only 17.5% went to Pakistan. It was agreed that India would pay back

Britain with interest for the war-time bonds when their period expires,

Pakistan was to give Rs. 300 crore to India. The deadline for Pakistan

to return this amount was before the beginning of new fiscal year i.e.

1 April 1948. When the currency of India and Pakistan was to be

separated, India was to pay Pakistan's share of that reserve. That

share was of Rs.75 crores, India paid 20 crores immediately after

partition. The rest of the 55 crores were due in 1948. But Pakistan of

course refused to pay its part of the warbonds, a sum of Rs. 300

crores! Quite naturally the Indian government was forced to hold back

the payment of 55 crores that it would give on behalf of Pakistan to

the British.

 

But "Bapuji" would have none of it, not only did he want India to

"forget" about the 300 Crores that Pakistan owed us, but over and above

that he wanted India to PAY 55 Crore Rupees to a nation that had

perpetrated ethnic cleansing of Indians on one of the largest scales in

history!! Every condition laid down by Gandhi for giving up his fast

was against the very nature of humanity. But this was not all, among

the other six conditions, yet another condition was that ALL the

Muslims who had left India, must be taken back, and all the mosques

which were occupied by the dying Hindu and Sikh would be vacated by

force. Not only this, each and every Muslim who would be brought back

from Pakistan would be provided food, clothing and shelter, EVEN if it

meant at the expense of evicting Hindus and Sikh residents!!!!

 

Imagine the shock, grief and utter disbelief that must have gripped

those dying refugees as they saw this insane version of "Bapuji's

justice" being perpetrated on their wounded and tattered beings! It is

a testament to the supreme self-control and humanity of those people,

that they did not tear Mahatma Gandhi to shreds, that very day. The

only protest they allowed themselves were angry shouts of "Gandhi-ko

marne do. Ham ko makan do". (Let Gandhi die, just give us shelter.)

Those refugees were not murderers, they were not plunderers and they

were certainly NOT "Hindu fanatics", they were the grandfathers,

fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters and children of today's Indians

like you and me.

 

By January 16th, the Congress leaders led by Nehru, and an extremely

reluctant Sardar Patel gave in to the Mahatma's demands. The Indian

cabinet decided to transfer the money "as a gesture of goodwill". An

inter-communal peace committee was set up under the direction of

Rajendra Prasad and Maulana Azad and by the 18th it could convince the

Mahatma that the necessary change of heart had taken place in Delhi to

enable him to break his fast. By the 20th evening he was back on the

lawns for "all-faith" prayer meetings. At that time, a bomb exploded,

shattering a wall and breaking a few window panes. Gandhi continued his

meeting, as if nothing had happened.

 

"Bapuji, a bomb exploded," someone cried. "Really? Perhaps some poor

fanatic threw it.", said the Father of the Nation. On January 30th, he

fell to the bullet of Nathuram Godse. Whether Godse was an assassin or

a savior, it is upto each of us to judge.

 

If Mahatma Gandhi were alive today, it would be the birthright of all

nationalistic Indians to ask this man, "Do you know what drove men

steeped in the tolerance of Hinduism to take on the mantle of

fanaticism?" Why do the history textbooks which still guide the

children of India today, not ask this question? Why do the newspapers

that spill over with headlines denouncing the "Hindu fundamentalists"

not ask this question?? And last but not least, why do we Indians who

have inherited the horror of knowing that millions upon millions of our

innocent antecedents were subjected to the most heinous form of

injustice by the actions of this man, still keep quiet when we hear

that insufferable phrase "Father of the Nation"????

 

It is hard, so hard to give up our scared icons, but it is truth alone

which deserves to be enshrined as an ideal, not flawed mortals like

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.