30 January – Mahatma Gandhi Assassinated

Remembering the Mahatma – Sri Prakasa

MAHATMA GANDHI – my first meeting

It was in my home-city of Kashi (Banaras or Varanasi) and the occasion was the laying of the foundation stone of the Banaras Hindu University. The then Viceroy, Lord Hardinge, had come to perform the Ceremony. At the invitation of Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya, the founder, a large number of dignitaries from all over the country including Mahatma Gandhi, had come to participate in the functions. The foundation was formally laid by the Viceroy on Feb. 4, 1916.

....Mahatma Gandhi was invited to be the speaker on one of the evenings. I happened to be in charge of the arrangements at the meetings. That was where I saw Mahatma Gandhi….

          ….Mahatmaji got up to speak. It seems that he had gone just before then to worship at the temple of Vishwanath, the presiding deity of the ancient city of Kashi or Varanasi. He was appalled at the dirt that he saw in the precincts of the temple. He began by castigating all those who allowed such filth in their cities and round their temples.

 Then he spoke of the poverty of the people, contrasting it with the splendour of the few rich. He then turned at the princes and said: “Princes, go and sell your jewels and use your riches for the poor”. At this there was some commotion on the platform, and whispering among those who sat in front. The audience cheered Mahatmaji loudly; and when the President asked him to stop, the audience asked him to continue….

          ….Mahatma Gandhi referred to the official arrangement made for the supposed safety of the Viceroy and expressed great unhappiness at the form it had taken. And then he said: “It were better that the Viceroy had been shot than that the people of a whole city should be so terrorised”.

 The commotion that then took place can be easily imagined. High local civil officers were present at the meetings. They all got up to leave. The princes stood up also to go. The audience went on shouting asking Mahatmaji to continue as he stood unruffled on the platform. Then he also came down and left. I accompanied him to the portico. He seemed surprised at all that had happened and said to the people around him; “What did I say? I said nothing improper”. Some persons in the crowd were heard to say: “We have been to many meetings. We had known the audience leaving. We had seen speakers asked to sit down. We have, however, never seen the President departing from his seat”.

 In any case the meeting ended in confusion. Pandit Malaviya anxious about the upshot, went up to the Commissioner in the evening, and found him preparing a note for the district magistrate asking him to issue an order for Gandhiji to leave the city at once. Pandit Malaviya was able to induce him not to issue any such order. He said he would himself see to it that Gandhiji left the town.

            ….This took place in 1916…. To me this speech of Mahatmaji’s in my own old Central Hindu College where I had studied for ten years, marks the beginning of the new age when the fight for freedom was started in true earnestness. During these decades I had occasions to meet Mahatmaji scores of times in different situations and at different places; but this incident stands out most prominently before all others, [even though I] may have reason to be unhappy at the shape our freedom finally took having been accompanied by the tragic partition of the land. Mahatma Gandhi himself was most unhappy at it. I saw him for the last time on January 3, 1948, twenty seven days before his cruel assassination. Obviously referring to Hindu Muslim hostility which was the basis of the partition of the country, he said to me:“The whole work of my life has gone down the drain (MERI ZINDAGI KA SARA KAM MITTI MEN MIL GAYA)”.

 We for ourselves may also be unhappy at various things that we see around us which may make us despair, but there is no doubt that a light was lit that evening in Banaras by Mahatmaji which was to lead us to Freedom; and if we are not able to utilise the opportunities to the best purpose, that Freedom has given us, and if we are mis-using the power that has come in our hands surely no fault lies with the great Master, who led us to freedom; who for himself, told us that the means should be as pure as the end; who himself wanted us never to accept partition but to come away from Government and keep the country one, whoever the rulers might be; who always exhorted us to follow the path of righteousness in all circumstances, and whom even when we prove unworthy ourselves of him, rightly and reverently call

THE FATHER OF THE NATION

Source: Sri Prakasa Papers, MSS, NMML