54 THE WEEK • JUNE 30, 2019
united resistance against the empire. But his was not
the only voice reverberating across the subcontinent.
Opposing cries, anti-Muslim from one direction,
anti-Hindu from another, were also being raised.
Th ese negative cries were passionate. At times they
were successful. Alliances were therefore made and
unmade. Fervour rose and fell. Moreover, political
alliances were seldom translated into ground-level
partnership in India’s villages and towns.
In the last two years of his life, Gandhi reverted to
becoming the fi eld worker he was 50 years earlier,
soon after arriving in South Africa as a 23-year-old.
From 1946 onwards, Gandhi left most aspects of
summit-level politics to Nehru, Patel and compa-
ny and became a pilgrim for reconciliation on the
ground. Taking with him a small band of fellow-pil-
grims, he worked in East Bengal, Bihar, Kolkata and
Delhi.
He did something else. In November 1947, he
successfully insisted that the Congress Working
Committee and the All India
Congress Committee reiter-
ate the freedom movement’s
commitment to an India of
equal rights to ALL. Nehru
and Patel backed him, and
free India was launched as a
nation where in law at least
there was equality.
Th is pledge was soon
enshrined in the Constitu-
tion, in creating which, as
everyone knows, a central
role was played by Dr Bhim-
rao Ambedkar. Although the
Congress and Ambedkar
had been involved in bitter
disputes from 1931 to 1946,
the coming of independence saw a change. Gandhi,
Nehru and Patel invited Ambedkar to steer Consti-
tution-making, and Ambedkar showed his love for
India by accepting the invitation.
In India’s angry climate of 1946 and 1947, when
Pakistan was secured in an atmosphere of mutual
hatred and violence, and strident calls were raised to
make Pakistan an Islamic state, there was no certain-
ty that India would choose to be a secular state with
equal rights for all. A Hindu state in India seemed
natural to many.
Th ough immersed in seeking reconciliation on
the ground, Gandhi saw to it that toxicity did notinfl uence India’s leaders, who rejected a Hindu
state. In some ways, ensuring equal rights at
free India’s birth was a feat more impressive
than attaining independence.
Th at the new India was going to be for all
Indians was also indicated by the composition
of independent India’s fi rst cabinet, chosen by
Nehru and Patel with inputs from Gandhi.
Its 14 members included two Muslims
(Maulana Azad and Rafi Ahmed Kidwai), two
Christians (John Matthai and Rajkumari Amrit
Kaur), two Sikhs (Baldev Singh and Amrit
Kaur), a Parsi (C.H. Bhabha), two dalits (Dr
Ambedkar and Babu Jagjivan Ram), one Hindu
Mahasabha member (Dr Syama Prasad Mook-
erjee), and one former empire loyalist (R.K.
Shanmukham Chetty). Nehru, Patel, Rajendra
Prasad and Pune’s N.V. Gadgil completed the
team.
Trust on the ground: Let me return, however,
to the question of fi eld work for peace.
Contrasting trust between communities,
for which Gandhi strove, with bids by a
government to win the trust of an individual
or a community, poet-academic Manash Firaq
Bhattacharjee observes that “trust, in the
Gandhian sense, is an endearing and enduring
state of confi dence between people and
communities (thewire.in).”
Bhattacharjee argues that for Muslims and
Hindus to trust each other is more important
in India than for either community to trust
a government. Mutual trust among a people
builds democracy. Distrusting your neighbour
while trusting the government is the road to
dictatorship.
More than 53 years after Gandhi’s trek
there, I twice visited Noakhali, in April and
November 2000, and spoke to its Muslim and
Hindu villagers. Th ey did not know that I was
Gandhi’s grandson. Th e old among them were
in their teens when, during the 1946-47 winter,
they had seen Gandhi. Others had heard of
Gandhi’s doings on their soil from their elders.
Interestingly, many residents spoke of these
doings as if they were describing recent
happenings.
Th us, when I encountered Sirajul Islam Ma-
jumdar of village Kamalpur, who was in his late
fi fties and the son (he told me) of Dr Khaleelur
Rahman Majumdar, he said, “My father told usIn the last two years
of his life, Gandhi
reverted to becoming
the fi eld worker he
was 50 years earlier,
soon after arriving
in South Africa as a
23-year-old.