Book: Gandhi`s Passion

Author: Stanley Wolpert
Publisher:

'He aimed his gun point blank at the Mahatma`s bare chest and fired three bullets as fast as he could press the pistol`s trigger. 'The atmosphere was charged with smoke and the sky resounded with the boom. Bapu still seemed walking on...'Hei Ra...ma! Hei Ra...!' On his lips.' Mahatma Gandhi`s passionate heart poured its crimson blood out onto his white shawl. His gentle body collapsed and stopped breathing at 5.17 P.M.'

No set of bullets could have changed the future of so many human beings as the ones fired by Nathuram Godse on that fateful evening.

There were a handful of leaders who could have led India into freedom. There may have only been one or two that could have lead Pakistan to freedom. But there was definitely only one who could have ensured the coming post-independence decades would be filled with peace and prosperity and not with war and poverty. If the death of Jinnah was the biggest tragedy for an infant Pakistan, then the assassination of Gandhi ranks a close second. Amongst the big, 'what if`s' of the world, one the biggest will always be, 'what if Gandhi had not been assassinated and had lived out a full life of his desired, '125 years?'

Having heard his name my whole life, through comments in passing, I was first introduced to Gandhi two years ago in an article written by the famous Pakistani-American author Bapsi Sidhwa. It referenced the following series of comments made by Gandhi, at various different occasions, regarding Kashmir,

'I am not going to suggest to the Maharaja to accede to India and not to Pakistan....The real sovereign of the State are the people of the State. If the ruler is not a servant of the people then he is not the ruler...now the power belongs to the people.....The people of Kashmir should be asked whether they want to join Pakistan and India. Let them do as they want. The ruler is nothing. The people are everything.....If the people of Kashmir are in favour of option for Pakistan, no power on earth can stop them from doing so. But they should be left free to decide for themselves.....No one listens to me...I have never abandoned my non-violence....if I could have my way of non-violence and everybody listened to me, we would not send our army as we are doing now. And if we did send it, it would be non-violent army to Kashmir or Pakistan or any place.....But when can I hope for such an occasion?....Today I am helpless...Today I have become bankrupt. I have no say with my people today.....I have been severely reprimanded for what I said concerning Kashmir.'

I was fascinated by this, and by a series of other remarks by Gandhi regarding an issue on which even the most humane of Indians have opted to follow inhumane policies. What separated Gandhi from all the other Congress leaders, who were bent on ensuring no plebiscite was ever held in Kashmir? What separated his thought process on South Asian issues and forced him to go against the grain? I was even more fascinated at the extent to which Gandhi was willing to go to pursue his goal for self-determination of Kashmiris - eventually angrily confronting his political heir Jawaharlal Nehru on this issue - to the point of Nehru refusing to appoint Gandhi as India`s governor-general, fearing Gandhi would hand over Kashmir to its people.

It was obvious that I needed to get a better understanding of Gandhi`s philosophy. The first book I picked up was Wolpert`s, 'Gandhi`s Passion - The life and legacy of Mahatma Gandhi.' Since then, my interest in the short, barely one hundred pound, Mahatma has only increased.

As the Distinguished Professor of South Asian History Emeritus at UCLA and as an author of twenty books on South Asia, Stanley Wolpert needs no introduction. He maybe the premier South Asian biographer of our time. One would think that such a distinguished author would have chosen Gandhi as the center of his first book on South Asia, and not his last - specially when he himself admits,

'...the day I first set foot on Indian soil, February 12, 1948, the day one-seventh of Mahatma Gandhi`s ashes were immersed in waters off Bombay, I have been fascinated by the remarkable life and tragic death of the man Indians call 'Great Soul' (Mahatma) and 'Little Father' (Bapu)...The many questions raised by what I saw and heard that day changed the course of my life from marine engineering to Indian history.'

Yet, deciding he had nothing new to add to the, 'open book' of Gandhi`s life, Wolpert concentrated on introducing the world other lesser known South Asians like Jawaharlal Nehru, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, and Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. However, the May 11, 1998 nuclear tests carried out by India - 'a departure from everything Mahatma Gandhi believed in and had tried to teach throughout his mature life,' as well as a new attitude of aggressiveness shown by the, 'newly militant, prideful heirs' of India, changed Wolpert`s mind. Thus, “Gandhi`s Passion” is as much a biography of Mohandas K. Gandhi, as an attempt to highlight the distance between the teachings of Gandhi and the direction India is currently taking.

Wolpert starts his book a few days before the Partition of India and Pakistan, with a dejected and disappointed Gandhi disparately trying to stem the Hindu-Muslim riots, 'Who listens to me today'...And why should anyone?...What is there to celebrate?' This “vivisection of the Mother.' So much so, that he would be completely uninterested in the most important moment in the history of a new India - a moment that could not have come about without his efforts - as he, 'Awoke at 2. A.M. on August 15, having slept through Nehru`s 'Tryst with Destiny' speech at midnight.”

Since the chronological layout of Gandhi`s life has been discussed in many books, not to mention in an award winning movie, this book cannot offer anything new, nor should it be read for these purposes alone. What this book does offer is Wolpert`s well-established international credibility and objectivity. And through Wolpert, a view into the historically important issues related to the final decades before freedom and Partition.

Wolpert introduces the reader to the early days of Gandhi`s life, born on October 2, 1869, as the son of of Karamchand Gandhi and his the fourth '(the previous three had died)' wife Putlibai. Gandhi was the youngest, with three elder sisters and two elder brothers. Gandhi`s life is traced through his affluent childhood, as the son of an adviser to one of Gujrat`s princes, through his education as a barrister in London. This is followed by Gandhi`s experiences in South Africa as a lawyer for a Muslim client, his coming of age as a political leader there, and the beginnings of the formation of his philosophies on non-violent protests and resistances through suffering. Wolpert then quickly moves onto more subjective topics:

What was Gandhi`s relationship with Nehru and Valabhbhai Patel - his two heirs to the leadership of the Congress? Did he prefer one over the other? Were his ideas of non-violent struggles accepted voluntarily by the Congress leadership? Did he like Jinnah? Did Jinnah like him? Was Gandhi a hypocritical divider of peoples on the basis of religion, or a pacifier attempting to find ways for different religions to coexist in a cut-throat environment? Was he a, 'fraud,' a, 'scoundrel,' and a, 'half-naked faqir' as Churchill referred to him? Or was he, 'a truly great man of the age,' as Martin Luther King would describe him? What were Gandhi`s views on Kashmir? Why did he so passionately, as passionately as Nehru, oppose the creation of Pakistan? Yet, why were his views regarding the infant new Muslim nation, opposite to those of Nehru, once Pakistan had been created? What was Nehru`s and the Congress leadership`s view of Gandhi, after India had gained independence? Did he die a happy man, or did he die frustrated, dejected and disheartened?

On a more personal level: Why did he have so little time for his wife and kids? Why did he disown his son Harilal, who would later convert to Islam? Why was he so against even married couples having sex and producing children? Why was he obsessed with living till the age of 125? Was he a good lawyer? Did his experience in the military change him in any significant way? Why did he sleep naked with young girls - young enough to be his granddaughters - including his own granddaughter? Why did he, a upper-cast Brahman, feel the most comfortable in the company of lower-cast Shudars? Why was he so obsessed with spinning cloth?

Wolpert`s personal admiration of Gandhi is openly noticeable in his book. He paints the picture of a man, who was simultaneously a shrewd politician, an original philosopher, a humanitarian, yet a below-average family man. One gets the feeling as if Wolpert is writing about his own mentor, his hero, and is thus somewhat unwilling to get into the details of the more controversial aspects of Gandhi`s` personal life – this being the book`s only shortcoming.

Wolpert describes, contrary to popular belief, Gandhi`s and Jinnah`s relationship with each other, as one of professional respect, 'Despite the ever-growing gulf that divided their ideologies, Gandhi and Jinnah deeply respected each other`s virtues and remarkable strengths.' However, throughout the book, Wolpert presents a borderline negative view of Nehru, with Gandhi trying to convince Nehru to make moral political decisions, and Nehru doing his best to resist - much like an experienced father trying to advise an over-enthusiastic son.

''I have described Jawaharlal as the uncrowned king,' Gandhi told his prayer meeting on June 3...'One who lives in a palace cannot rule the Government.' He said it directly to Nehru as well, every time they met...But none of Delhi`s rulers listened any longer to the, 'ravings' of an old 'fool,' though not so long before most of them had considered a, 'saint.'...Some old friends, seeing how disgusted and distressed Gandhi was, urged him to launch Satyagraha against Nehru`s Raj, but he refused...'I would not carry out any agitation against that Institution.'”

Wolpert highlights the creation of Pakistan as one of the biggest tragedies of Gandhi`s life. Gandhi opposed it tooth and nail, from the time the idea was first floated in 1940. He was willing to accept any other comprise - the solution of a united federated India presented by the Cabinet Mission of 1946, to offering Jinnah the right to form the first government of a united India - in each case, trying hard to somehow or the other keep all the religious communities from going into a state of violence. The Cabinet Mission`s solution found Gandhi, the British and Jinnah on the same page, but was vetoed by the, 'president-elect of Congress...prime minister in waiting of India' Nehru as being, 'too generous to Jinnah`s demands.' The second proposal wasn`t received enthusiastically by Mountbatten, and it outright frustrated Nehru.

In this sense, Wolpert describes Gandhi`s views as proving both prophetic and disastrous. The arguments between Nehru opposing the creation of Pakistan for the wrong reasons, Gandhi opposing it for the right reasons, and Jinnah fighting hard to create it, led to a state of confusion that did not allow any time for the concerned parties to properly plan out the Partition. This lead to Gandhi`s worst fears of communal deaths coming true, despite his genuine efforts to stop them. Yet, for his own lack of foresight, from 1940 onwards in realizing that Pakistan was inevitable, many of those deaths may have been avoided.

However, after the creation of Pakistan, Gandhi ended up being the sole top-level leader in India, who proposed dealing with the new country on the basis of principles. The last of his now world-famous fasts was started on January 12, 1948, partially 'about Pakistan`s share of British imperial sterling assets.” “Since mid-August, Nehru and Patel had continued to resist releasing Pakistan`s 550 million rupees owed from partitioned British imperial balances. These were to have been released by India three months earlier but remained locked inside New Delhi`s treasury vault.” Within a few days of the fast, the Indian government, fearing Gandhi`s failing kidneys, would release the funds to Pakistan, with Patel offering to resign, 'if that would end Gandhi`s fast. Gandhi refused to break his fast until 'complete friendship between the two Dominions.'

Unfortunately, this would be Gandhi`s final fast.

With his eyes firmly set on a just solution for Kashmir, and his heart set on a peaceful South Asia, Gandhi had shown interest in becoming the governor-general of India. Wolpert writes,

'Though he never sought conventional power or any job in India`s` government, Gandhi had waited within earshot of Nehru and Patel, hoping that they might invite him to replace Lord Mountbatten. It seemed gallingly inappropriate to Gandhi for this British royal naval person to remain the ceremonial head of independent India....Were Gandhi India`s governor-general now, he could easily have launched another summit with his old friend Jinnah. Together they might have been able to agree on a formula to stop the slaughter - Gandhi`s most passionate aspiration.....Mountbatten was quite ready to let the old man....take over as India`s governor-general.....But Nehru...rejected the idea of having Gandhi as his governor-general even more vehemently than he`s vetoed Gandhi`s Jinnah 'scheme' a year earlier.'

What if Gandhi had not been assassinated?

We must answer this question. Wolpert does not elaborate. But after reading his book, the reader can form a good basis for an extrapolation: Gandhi was readying himself for a trip to Karachi, when he was assassinated. His final fast clearly indicated he would continue fasting, till death if required, if the Congress leadership did not solve the issue of Kashmir, according to the wishes of the Kashmiris. Despite disregarding his advice after independence, none of the Congress leaders, specially Nehru and Patel, could ignore his fasts till death. Thus, the history and destiny of South Asia was to be decided by the one fast that never occurred. And unfortunately, for both Indians and Pakistanis, Gandhi - the man who said, 'the rest of my life is going to be spent in Pakistan...maybe in East Bengal or West Punjab, or perhaps, the North-West Frontier Province,' never even made it to Karachi.