2002: A sad odyssey

I share with you the following reminiscences of encounters with Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru. I found these in the A.P. Benthall papers at the Centre for South Asian Studies, Cambridge. Scene One: In the autumn of 1947 Gandhi arrived in Calcutta and stayed in a tumble-down house on the outskirts of Calcutta, near one of the scenes of the worst Hindu-Muslim riot. Soon, he realised that one of the principal causes of the rioting was the poverty of the people and the terrible conditions under which some of them lived. Hundreds of thousands of people had no roof over their heads at all, and millions lived in slums of the worst description. He therefore summoned leading businessmen of all descriptions in order to rebuild Calcutta. He wanted the project to be completed within two years.

Benthall, vice-president of the Bengal Chamber of Commerce, set off to the rendezvous, but on the way encountered a riot. “Bombs were exploding and guns were being fired, and the streets were littered with glass and stones,” he wrote. When he reached the house, he found Gandhi sitting at a low wooden platform, spinning, and wearing only a loincloth. A small girl was sitting on the platform near him, apparently learning to spin, or perhaps ministering to his needs. Twenty minutes after the Gandhi-Benthall meeting, a mob of young Hindus broke into the house. They were furious because the Mahatma’s influence had prevented them from organising a general massacre of Muslims throughout Calcutta. They demanded that he immediately withdraw his opposition — and if he did not, they would kill him. The Mahatma did not stop spinning. One of the young men then aimed a blow at his head with a lathi. The little girl sitting beside him caught the blow on her arm. Gandhi continued to spin.

Nobody else in the crowd then had the courage to strike the Mahatma again. They merely vented their fury on the building, pulled the window frames out of the walls, smashed the doors, and reduced the scanty furniture to matchwood. And yet, from the moment when the little girl saved the Mahatma’s life, the rioting in Calcutta ceased, and nothing of the sort occurred in the city for a good many months.

Scene Two: From 1947 to 1950 Benthall represented on numerous occasions the Bengal Chamber of Commerce and the Associated Chambers of Commerce of India. In these capacities he had numerous meetings with Nehru, sometimes in company with others, and sometimes tete-a-tete. He recalled his visit to Calcutta, soon after Independence, to combat the rioting and massacres that were taking place in Bengal. The prime minister sat at a desk which had on it a large inkpot, some pens and pencils, and the weighty volume of Thacker’s Indian Directory.

A discussion took place about how best to combat the communal ill feeling. It proceeded on sensible lines for some time, but after a bit some Marwaris made an impassioned appeal for the Indian army to go into East Pakistan to rescue the Hindus, who, it was alleged, were being massacred there.

Nehru listened for a short time, but then suddenly appeared to lose his temper. He picked up the directory, raised it to the full length of his arms above his head, and brought it smashing down on the desk. This action he repeated three or four times, with greater and greater force. The ink-pot, pens, etc, bounded on to the floor. He accused the Marwaris of deliberately planning a war and a massacre of Muslims, though they themselves were prevented by their Jain religion from taking up arms or even crushing a mosquito. He continued with extraordinary eloquence until the Marwaris slunk out of the room, leaving only people from other communities to listen to the prime minister. Shortly after that the discussion returned to a minor key, and the meeting dispersed.

In fact, added Benthall to his description, no Hindus were massacred in East Bengal at that time, though hundreds of thousands were driven out to take refuge in West Bengal. Nehru was of course right in refusing to send the army across the new frontier, and his violent reaction to such a suggestion was typical of the man.

Scene Three: This is a brief glimpse into what happened in Calcutta after Independence and Partition, and the long downward spiral since. Gujarat 2002 is different. The nature of the times, of leadership, and of communal riots itself, has changed. Narendra Modi, who has virtually written the script of murder, death and destruction, holds the reins of office in that state. The targets have been so utterly ordinary. A pregnant Muslim woman. School children. A housing colony. Worst of all, the very idea of inter-community peace has been destroyed by the chief minister and his VHP-Bajrang Dal goons. Their narratives, inspired by the evil-minded ideologues of the RSS, continue to feed hatred and prejudice. His presence is the greatest threat to Gujarat’s well being. Already, the fact of the violence permeates daily life in its cities. Hence, his return to the shakhas in Delhi as an ordinary swayamsevak may be the only way back to hope.

While the print and electronic media broadcast a steady stream of reports on Muslims under fire, their homes and commercial establishments destroyed, their children killed, the prime minister chooses to holiday. He should have been in Ahmedabad providing the healing touch, and not in Nainital. The attitude of his lieutenant, George Fernandes, continues to be opportunistic. Having given Modi the clean chit (remember how he shamelessly exonerated the administration after the murder of Staines) he now deserves not a knighthood or an OBE, but a pair of khaki shorts from the RSS headquarters. He has the unique distinction of presiding over the liquidation of what little is left of Ram Manohar Lohia’s legacy.

Meanwhile, the RSS diatribe against the Muslims goes on, with its chief asking them to fall in line. His is an ominous warning. What if they don’t? A repeat of the Gujarat carnage? I hear Ariel Sharon saying the same sort of nasty things in Tel Aviv. Clearly, there is a residue of the old fascist attitudes that spawned the RSS policies in the 1930s and ’40s that ultimately led to the assassination of the Father of the Nation. The silver lining in this otherwise dismal picture is the role of the media and the activism of the secular forces, led by left-wing parties and groups. The Congress, too, has given up its lazy habits, and the Italy-born Sonia Gandhi is, indeed, perceived as the guarantor of secular peace in this country.

Earlier Columns