With American help and Soviet strength, Britain won the war. India admired the brave British, admired the way they stood against Nazi onslaughts. But the Empire was coming to an end. A frail and fitful man, Gandhi, who had cremated his beloved wife, also a prisoner, in his prison yard, who sought the Truth, but was un-understood, sought his truth in his meditation and service of his fellow man. His sorrow was great not only because the British were so cruel but his countrymen, the Indians, were behaving with such irresponsibility outside. This was not the India he wanted. Freed from prison he faced a divided India. The Muslims, his brethren, wanted their own country. He had fought for an India where the Hindu and the Muslim would live as brothers. His old friend and remarkable politician Jinnah, succeeded in having India divided. Jinnah was going to have his Pakistan.

The Muslims now mercilessly killed the Hindus. The Hindus, roused, killed the Muslims even more ruthlessly. In prayer and sorrow, Gandhi was walking among the murderous villages of Bengal, by rice fields and over palm bridges trying to show that this was not the India he wanted. When India became free—Britain having sent Mountbatten, a cousin of the queen, to make a noble end to their Empire—Gandhi and Mountbatten became friends. When the queen was crowned, Gandhi gave Mountbatten a hand-spun and handwoven cloth, as gift. But the violence of the Punjab was so terrifying, Gandhi came to Delhi to quell the violence of the Hindus against the Muslims. He fasted because despite all the harm Pakistan had done to India, India should behave in a gentlemanly way with Pakistan. Truth transcends frontiers. The Hindus were tired of Gandhi pleading for the Muslims, for Pakistan. A Hindu anarchist, who admired Gandhi but thought him no politician, shot him, as the Mahatma was going to his prayer meeting. Hé Ram, Lord, Lord, cried Gandhi, and was dead.

He died a saint having brought India freedom. But was this freedom: ‘Government over self is the finest swaraj, it is synonymous with Moksha or liberation.’ Was Gandhi defeated? When Gandhi died, Smuts, his old adversary, said: ‘A prince among men is dead.’ And Einstein remarked: ‘It is hard to believe such a one has walked the earth in our time.’

Was Gandhi defeated? The proper answer would be to ask back: Was Socrates defeated. For without Socrates there would be no modern world. And without Gandhi, there can be no world of tomorrow. ‘It can already be forecast with some confidence,’ wrote Arnold Toynbee, ‘that Gandhi’s effect on human history is going to be greater and more lasting than either Stalin’s or Hitler’s.’6 Truth alone is victorious: Satyameva jayate.

6

The Silence of Mahatma Gandhi