Road To Freedom

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• For God and Country
• The Empire Builders
• Tribal Uprisings
• Sepoys on the Move
• British Authority Collapses
• The Empire Strikes Back
• Roll of Honour
• The Trial of the Last Emperor
• English Education
• The Blue Mutiny
• Perishing in Peace
• ‘Rani Ka Hookum’
• Barbarous Britannia
• Return to Swadeshi
• The Delhi Durbar
• Hunger Deaths
• The One-Man Army
• Mamool Raj
• The British Raj in Black and White
• Europeans Take To The Street!
• Pressing On !
• The Battle For A Free Press
• The Battle Lines are Drawn
• Women : Crossing the Threshold
• An Old Man's Dream
• Father of Indian Unrest
• The Monk Who Shook The Nation
• The Battle is Taken to the Legislature!
• Partition of Bengal
• The Great Divide
• The New Spirit of India
• Swadeshi Enterprise
• From Swadeshi to Swaraj
• Gandhi in South Africa
• Heroes and Martyrs
• Revolutionaries Outside India
• Carrot and Stick
• Gandhi in Champaran
• The Gentle Satyagrahi
• Massacre at Jallianwala Bagh
• Jallianwala — The Aftermath
• A People Reject Their Rulers
• The Himalayan Blunder
• Gandhiji Withdraws from Political Activities
• Bardoli
• Saga of Indian Revolutionaries
• A Pinch of Salt!
• Gandhi and Ambedkar
• Leave India to God… or to Anarchy
• Quit India
• The Last War of Independence
• Apostle of Peace
• India Wins Freedom
• The Light Has Gone Out
• Under One Flag

Apostle of Peace

Apostle of Peace

When the Second World War ended in Europe, people in India hoped that Britain would soon grant freedom to the country. Their hopes rose when in June 1945 the government released Congress leaders from jail and lifted the ban on the Congress. Prospects of gaining independence brightened when the Labour Party came to power in Britain in mid-July. The Labour Party was sympathetic to the Indian cause. General elections were held in 1945 and the Congress swept the polls winning over 90 per cent of votes in the general constituencies. The Muslim League improved dramatically on its performance in the 1937 elections by capturing 75 per cent of the Muslim votes in the country. The party formed governments in Bengal, Assam and Sind. The Congress formed governments in all the other provinces except Punjab where a coalition that included Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus, took over. Meanwhile, Viceroy Wavell had come to the conclusion that Britain could no longer hold India. He made it known to London that if Congress were to launch another agitation on the lines of the 1942 Quit India movement, Britain would not be able to control the situation. The police were demoralised because men whom they had ill-treated and put behind bars during the 1942 agitation were now ministers and could take action against them; the army had too few soldiers — only about 50,000 to maintain internal security and Britain could not spare any more British troops. In March 1946, a team of three British ministers, sometimes known as the 'Cabinet Mission' arrived in India to work out a formula for the transfer of power to India. The Muslim League put forward the demand for a separate sovereign state of Pakistan to safeguard what it called the Muslim interests. This was vehemently opposed by the Congress. Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad, a renowned Islamic scholar, and the then president of the Congress came out strongly against the formation of Pakistan. He pointed out that in an undivided India there would be 90 million Muslims and though they would be outnumbered they would still be strong enough to hold their own, whereas if the country were divided, the Muslims remaining in India would number only about 35 million, making them a weak minority.

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In the Northwest and the Eastern provinces where Muslims were in a majority there was no enthusiasm for a separate Muslim country at first. The people in these provinces felt that it would be enough if the provinces were given more autonomy.
If the Muslim League was finally successful in winning over a large number of Muslims to its cause it was because it preyed on and exploited the natural fears of a minority community. The irresponsible utterances of the Hindu Mahasabha only served to increase the sense of insecurity of the Muslims.
The British who until 1942 had not hesitated to use the 'Divide and Rule' policy were apparently smitten by conscience. They were now in favour of one strong united India. The Cabinet Mission came out with several schemes which visualised the formation of one federation in which Muslim interests would be protected. Several rounds of talks were held between the Muslim League and the Congress but neither side was prepared to see the other's point of view or concede that some of the other's fears may be genuine. When the talks failed to produce results, the Muslim League gave a call for direct action.
The hartal on 16 August 1946 passed off peacefully all over the country except Calcutta where Muslims clashed with Hindus. Ten thousand people died and a lakh were rendered homeless.
Communal riots then broke out in Noakhali in Bengal. Here Hindus were at the receiving end and thousands of them fled to Bihar. The Hindus of Bihar were enraged and turned on the Muslims in their province. When the communal fire threatened to engulf the whole nation, a one-man peace army descended on Noakhali, in the person of Mahatma Gandhi.
In Noakhali, Gandhiji walked from village to village knocking at the doors of Muslims and asking to be allowed to stay with them. If the door was slammed in his face, he would move on to the next house. He would stay in each village until the Muslims agreed to protect their Hindu neighbours. Others who had come with him scattered over the district and each one, following Gandhiji's example, stayed in a village till peace was restored there.
In the meantime an interim government was formed at the centre with Jawaharlal Nehru at its head.
Freedom was imminent but the dark clouds of communalism had gathered over the subcontinent and now more than ever the country needed Gandhiji's healing touch and guidance.