JUNE 30, 2019 • THE WEEK 51quer the West through love and truth.
In this age of democracy, in this age of
awakening of the poorest of the poor,
you can redeliver this message with the
greatest emphasis.
“You will complete the conquest of the
West not through vengeance because
you have been exploited, but with real
understanding.... Th is conquest will
be loved by the West itself (Collected
Works 87: 182-83, 190-93).”
‘Hate not,’ Gandhi was saying to Asians who
resented the European colonisation that was
approaching its end. Vengeance was folly. But
‘conquest’ of another kind was fair. Asians could
‘conquer’ the West with love and truth.
Frankness: In April 1947, compassion and truth
were needed within India as well, including in
Bihar, to which Gandhi returned. In March he had
gone there from Noakhali, an eastern district in
what then was India’s Bengal province.
In four months, East Bengal would be-
come East Pakistan. In 24 years, it would
become Bangladesh.
In 1947 and the previous year,
Gandhi’s mission was to impart courage
to victims (Hindus in Noakhali, Muslims
in Bihar), and to confront aggressors
with truth about ugly deeds recently
enacted (by Hindus in Bihar, Muslims in
Noakhali).
Meeting him in Kolkata in the summer
of 1947, an African-American scholar
visiting India, William Stuart Nelson,
asked Gandhi why killings had occurred
despite 30 years of teaching nonviolence.
Gandhi’s answer, in eff ect, was that while
many Indians had embraced his teach-
ing of ‘Fear not’, many had rejected his
teaching of ‘Hate not.’PEACE
MISSION
Gandhi at a ruined
house in Bihar in 1947PHOTO COURTESY:NAVAJIVAN TRUST