Towards the end of 1946, the anti-Hindu massacres at #Noakhali, Bengal, were matched by anti-Muslim butcherings in #Bihar. #Gandhi, fresh from his walking tour of the ravaged districts of Bengal, came to Bihar. He was told that the orgies had seen Congressmen participating in it. Some Congressmen said this was untrue. Others said it was true. Speaking at a Congress gathering at #Bir, Bihar, on March 19, 1947, Gandhi said (Source : Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi): “Is it or isn’t it a fact that quite a large number of Congressmen took part in the disturbances? I ask this question because people are making this allegation. But the Congressmen assembled here can themselves tell the truth. How many of the 132 members of your Committee were involved? It would be a very great thing if all of you assert that none of you was involved. But this assertion cannot be made...I wish to ask you, how could you live to see an old woman of 110 years being butchered before your eyes? How could you tolerate it? I do not wish to talk about anything else. I have vowed to do or die. I will not rest nor let others rest. I would wander all over on foot and ask the skeletons lying about how all that had happened. There is such a fire raging in me that I would know no peace till I have found a solution for all this…” The excerpt given above is a translation. Gandhi was speaking in Hindustani. The original, which is a hundred times more powerful, has a line which the translators have skipped. Gandhi asked the Congressmen “Mein apse puchhna chahta hun…Ap zinda kyun rahe?” (I want to ask you… how could you watch all this and remain alive?). And then he added: “Sab baaten chhor kar mein yahi saval utthana chahta huun” (Leaving all other things, I want to raise just this question). “Ap zinda kyun rahe?” (MK Gandhis grandson Gopalkrishna Gandhi in his Hindustan Times article When a part of you dies dated May 17, 2013). Today all the political opportunists who are trying to adopt #Gandhi (Mohandas rather than Mohanlal) should ask themselves , “ Hum zinda kyun rahe jab hamari hukumat ke naak tale begunahon ka qatl e aam hua , jab choote chhote bachchon ko yateem kiya gaya, jab ghareebon ke gharon ko jalaya gaya “. Self introspection to understand where we have gone wrong and how we have deviated ourselves from the path of the founding fathers of the Indian democracy can be the best tribute to that great Man of Peace, the “sant” from the Sabarmati. Today does any party chief has the enough courage to ask his fellow party men , “ Aap zinda kyun rahe?”
Posted on: Wed, 01 Oct 2014 02:34:35 +0000
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