56 THE WEEK • JUNE 30, 2019
about Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram, Ishwar
Allah Tere Naam.” Th e lines were sung to
me by Sirajul, not recited. “My grandfather
protected Hindus on his roof,” he added.
Recorded in Mohandas (my Gandhi
biography), these interviews in Noakhali
with Sirajul and others indicated that with-
in months of traumatising events, a degree
of trust between Muslims and Hindus had
been restored by Gandhi and his small
team.
Th ere may be a major lesson here for
India and for every nation where walls or
distances have grown between commu-
nities. Persons who empathise, listen and
speak frankly may restore relationships.
Right to dissent: From an early age, Gan-
dhi was clear that India’s independence
would mean little if it did not also mean
the independence of every Indian. Writtenin 1909, his Hind Swaraj
underlined this. More than
30 years later, while launch-
ing Quit India in Mumbai on
August 7, 1942, Gandhi told
the Indian people:
“I have read a good deal
about the French revolution.
Carlyle’s works I read while
in jail. I have great admira-
tion for the French people.
Pandit Jawaharlal has told
me all about the Russian
revolution. But I hold that
though theirs was a fi ght for
the people, it was not a fi ght
for real democracy, which I
envisaged.”
“My democracy means
every man is his own master
(CW 76: 380-81).”
Quit India shook the
empire, but it also brought
imprisonment and death to
fi ghters for liberty. Among
those who died in detention
was Gandhi’s wife, Kasturba.
In the summer of 1945, three
years after Quit India, most
of the jailed were released,
and freedom was near.
In the following year (February 1946), a short-
lived yet signifi cant mutiny by Indian ratings in
ships of the Royal Indian Navy created consider-
able animation in Mumbai, Karachi and Vizag.
Although no Indian offi cer joined the mutiny,
thousands of workers in Mumbai struck work in
sympathy. Excited mutiny supporters demanded
participation by everyone they came across in
the streets of Bombay, forcing many to shout the
popular cry, ‘Jai Hind.’
Responding from Pune, where he was at the
time, Gandhi said: “Inasmuch as a single person
is compelled to shout “Jai Hind”, or any popular
slogan, a nail is driven into the coffi n of Swaraj in
terms of the dumb millions of India (CW 83: 171).”
In Gandhi’s Swaraj, the weakest Indian had the
right to dissent. In his view, bullies were Swaraj’s
annihilators.
Fighting and praying: In the heated climate of
1946-48, Gandhi’s daily prayer-meetings, whichAVID
READER
Gandhi reading
a letter in Calcutta,
in 1946DINODIA