'Hindus and Mussalmans should learn to live together in peace and amity. Otherwise, I should die in the attempt'

Gandhi assures his listeners that freedom is theirs to grasp, if they will but take it. This is true, he argues, both at the government level and in the villages. At the top, he suggests that popular pressure can shape any existing provincial ministry into a true Indian government. To give emphasis to this point, he deals at governmental level just with League Premier Suhrawardy, whose politics, he opposes. Neither the British governor nor the British army commander found Gandhi willing to accept their help; all his requests go directly to the Muslim League ministry.

He entreats people to support this government because it is Indian, or to turn it out for a better Indian government. Let the ministry call its rule Pakistan or anything else, he urges with persuasive Gandhian argument; he would not oppose it so long as it protected the people's fundamental rights. (He always stipulates that Pakistan should not be sought until India is free and that it should assure friendliness to its Indian neighbours). This is his appeal to Muslims on the ideological level.

What progress has he made with this doctrine? Gandhi himself has never underestimated the task. Writing to a relative in December, he explained: "My present mission is the most complicated and difficult one of my life. I can sing with cent per cent truth: 'The night is dark and I am far from home; Lead Thou Me on.' I have never experienced such darkness in my life before. The nights seem to be pretty long. The only consolation is that I feel neither baffled nor disappointed. I am prepared for any eventuality. 'Do or die' has to be put to test here. 'Do' here means Hindus and Mussalmans should learn to live together in peace and amity. Otherwise, I should die in the attempt. It is really a difficult task. God's will be done."

I walked with Gandhi and sat at his feet during prayers in the twelfth week of his stay in East Bengal and the fourth week of his village-to-village pilgrimage. No difficult incidents had then occurred for many days. Carefully watching faces in the gathering of 700 villagers at the prayers, I thought I detected a spirit of neutrality mixed with curiosity. Some Muslims glared at the Ramdhun praise, but I saw none leave the open-air meeting. They stood passively during the ritual, listened quietly to the after-prayer talk and its translation, and then went away. But Hindus trailed along for the evening walk.

Even an advance from expressed opposition to neutral silence is progress. Given the months that Gandhi might be prepared to stay in the area, the process may go further. Gandhi's personality is strong and vibrant. By direct contact he can often win over the unfriendly and the uninterested.

He is unquestionably deriving from his present experience a fresh, sensitive responsiveness to village, mentality: this will stand him in good stead in judging the mood of the country for future action. Yet in the week-by-week degeneration of political prospects, one could wish with many of his followers that Gandhi might apply his mind and heart to a national settlement which would bring inter-party co-operation without incurring what he calls appeasement at the cost of honor.

Kind courtesy: New India Digest, a journal to promote a better understanding of modern India. Readers who wish to subscribe to New India Digest may write to India Digest Foundation, Sahaydri Sadan, Tilak Road, Pune 411030.