Page 169 - DHIS204_DHIS205_INDIAN_FREEDOM_STRUGGLE_HINDI

Indian Freedom Struggle (1707–1947 A.D.)

Notes has been granted because you asked for it. The Congress never asked for it. But the Congress can
feel the pulse of the people. It realized that the Khalsa as also the Hindus desired it.’ It was the
Hindus’ and Sikhs’ desire for Partition that rendered him ineffective, blind, impotent. The Muslims
already considered him their enemy. What was a mass leader without masses who would follow
his call? How could he base a movement to fight communalism on a communalised people? He
could defy the leaders’ counsels, as he had done in 1942, when he saw clearly that the moment
was right for a struggle. But he could not ‘create a situation,’ as he honestly told N.K. Bose, who
asked him to do so. His special ability, in his own words, only lay in being able to ‘instinctively
feel what is stirring in the hearts of the masses’ and ‘giving a shape to what was already there.’ In
1947, there were no ‘forces of good’ which Gandhiji could ‘seize upon’ to ‘build up a programme’
— ‘Today I see no sign of such a healthy feeling. And, therefore, I shall have to wait until the time
comes.’ But political developments did not wait till a ‘blind man. . . groping in the dark all alone’
found a way to the light. The Mountbatten Plan confronted him and Gandhiji saw the inevitability
of Partition in the ugly gashes left by riots on the country’s face and in the rigor mortis the Interim
Government had fallen into. He walked bravely into the AICC meeting on 14 June, 1947 and asked
Congressmen to accept Partition as an unavoidable necessity in the given circumstances, but to
fight it in the long run by not accepting it in their hearts. He did not accept it in his heart and kept
alive, like Nehru, his faith in his people. He chose to plough a lonely furrow, walking barefoot
through the villages of Noakhali, bringing confidence by his presence to the Muslims in Bihar and
preventing riots by persuasion and threats of a fast in Calcutta. Ekla Cholo had long been his
favourite song — ‘if no one heeds your call, walk alone, walk alone.’ He did just that.
15th August 1947, dawned revealing the dual reality of Independence and Partition. As always,
between the two of them, Gandhiji and Nehru mirrored the feelings of the Indian people. Gandhiji
prayed in Calcutta for an end to the carnage taking place. His close follower, Mridula Sarabhai, sat
consoling a homeless, abducted 15-year-old girl in a room somewhere in Bombay. Gandhiji’s
prayers were reflective of the goings on in the dark, the murders, abductions and rapes. Nehru’s
eyes were on the light on the horizon, the new dawn, the birth of a free India. ‘At the stroke of the
midnight hour when the world sleeps India shall awake to light and freedom.’ His poetic words,
‘Long years ago, we made a tryst with destiny,’ reminded the people that their angry bewilderment
today was not the only truth. There was a greater truth — that of a glorious struggle, hard-fought
and hard-won, in which many fell martyrs and countless others made sacrifices, dreaming of the
day India would be free. That day had come. The people of India saw that too, and on 15 August
— despite the sorrow in their hearts for the division of their land danced in the streets with
abandon and joy.
10.5 Summary

• The programme of non-cooperation included within its ambit the surrender of titles and
honours, boycott of government affiliated schools and colleges, law courts, foreign cloth, and
could be extended to include resignation from government service and mass civil disobedience
including the non-payment of taxes. National schools and colleges were to be set up,
panchayats were to be established for settling disputes, hand-spinning and weaving was to
be encouraged and people were asked to maintain Hindu-Muslim unity, give up
untouchability and observe strict non-violence.
• The educational boycott was particularly successful in Bengal, where the students in Calcutta
triggered off a province-wide strike to force the managements of their institutions to disaffiliate
themselves from the Government. C.R. Das played a major role in promoting the movement
and Subhas Bose became the principal of the National Congress in Calcutta. The Swadeshi
spirit was revived with new vigour, this time as part of a nation-wide struggle. Punjab, too,
responded to the educational boycott and was second only to Bengal, Lala Lajpat Rai playing
a leading part here despite his initial reservations about this item of the programme. Others
areas that were active were Bombay, U.P., Bihar, Orissa and Assam, Madras remained
lukewarm.

164 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY