Gandhi- A Great Betrayal

Bikash Choudhury



If Mohammed Ali Jinnha, Pundit Nehru and Sardar Patel were alive today; then, they would have regretted their decision of Balkanizing the country to gain independence from British Empire against the express wishes of Gandhi. Keeping in view of current precarious security situation of South Asia; mature political analyst would agree that Gandhi’s vision for the region and his apprehension about two nation theories was on the bull’s eye. Unfortunately, a few imperialist were able to sell the balkanization theory to these three distinguished individuals of eminence of their times. Apparently, Jinnha was first to regret the separation of the country as he deeply missed his personal life in Mumbai and was saddened to be the principal sponsor of “moth eaten Pakistan” in his own words. The two nation theory came to naught in 1971 with the birth of Bangladesh. I wish if Nehru and Patel would have agreed to Gandhi’s formula of sharing power with Muslim league then today we could have enjoyed the benefit of living in secular and united India. Now, after over sixty years of independence; we are in a position to confirm, partition of the country then, has created more problem than could probably solve; as the last sixty years history of violence, communal tension, wars and current problem of global terrorism bear us out. May be, 9/11 would have never happened; if India was left alone as single country in 1947. Gandhi was the only person who has actually foreseen the current eventuality; but, he was sadly over ruled by his own followers for which our generation is paying a stiff price day in and day out inside our homes and on the street. The current turmoil in Kashmir and loss of life of innocent boys on the street of valley is just the recipes of that historic mistake of our leaders which is now, almost irreversible; at least, sensible people at the helm of affairs, in both sides of the borders must be aware of our common history. That would give a semblance of scope for policy makers not to be intransigent and stop empty and often repeated rhetoric in either side. We Indians mostly fail to comprehend; why Pakistani Army holds and exercises disproportionate amount of power unlike Indian Army which is answerable to civil administration all the time. This is precisely because of insecure mindset of Pakistani ruling elite; in their perception Pakistani Army remain the sine quoa none of Pakistani State which is far from truth and reality; though, creation of Bangladesh has reconfirmed their nominal perception. Why India and Pakistan peace talks invariably fails? Indians don’t know how to deal with the insecure mindset of Pak ruling elites and what exactly would satisfy Pakistanis to sign on the dotted line for peaceful co-existence. Pakistanis now know that India does not have any evil design but refuse to believe and sadly Pak army won’t let them believe even if they wish; to keep the strangle hold over power. Unless and until India and Pakistan are in the same page over Kabul; peace in Afghanistan would be illusive. India is building the infrastructure of war torn country at great cost to its public exchequer; however, Pakistan continue to sabotage the presence of Indians in Kabul as WikiLeak exposure now confirm; the insecure mindset of Pak Army.

If Gandhi would have reigned in his protégé, then undivided India would have been a reality. What would have been the pay off? We could have avoided the holocaust of the partition, four wars between India & Pakistan, save hugely on the cost of two additional defense forces, China would not have dared to attack an united India and therefore, Tibet would have still remained an independent buffer country, India would have climbed to a seat in the UN security council without much effort and Indian currency would have retained its value by twenty five times, approximately, of current value against sterling. And, instead of three cricket teams we would have just one super India cricket team and serial bomb blast wouldn’t have entered into our lexicon.

It is easy for us to say now that our leaders made a wrong call; but, we need to examine what other alternative could have been explored in that given situation. Pundit Nehru and Sardar Patel were privy to the mindset of Muslim League and their top leaders Mr. Jinnha and Liaquat Ali Khan. Muslim League’s contention was they would not like to live under Hindu majority country with ‘first past post’ system of election which Muslims feared could have gone against their representation. In my opinion, that was a reasonable argument and Congress Leaders could have conceded in favor of a proportional representation with a ‘Federal Constitution’ much the same way as United States of America which has been able to hold a continent in a single political union. Now, we know most of the top leaders passed away within two years from Independence; therefore, leadership would not have been an issue before Pundit Nehru’s towering personality in the sub-continental India and Gandhi would have lived longer to see the fruits of Independent country reaching to the masses on the strength of Gandhian model of sustainable development which has now caught Global attention. It was, indeed, a great betrayal to this country.