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Unravelling the Mahatma Radha Rajan
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Had Gandhi made half the effort to reach out to Aurobindo and Savarkar, Ambedkar and Subhash Bose, to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Hindu Mahasabha as he made to the British and to Muslims, Khilafat Committee and the Muslim League, had Gandhi consistently sought the advice and blessings of Hindu religious leaders in his political and social mission instead of allowing Christian missionaries and foreigners to influence his personal and political philosophy, had Gandhi approached Hindu maharajas and princes and made common cause with them, as much as he went out of his way to make common cause with Muslims ignoring in the process, the political interests of the scheduled castes, perhaps all sections of the Hindu community could have been organized in a powerful show of strength and solidarity which would not only have checked the unchallenged growth of the Muslim League but would also have made the British government exceedingly nervous and cautious about implementing their diabolic agenda at the time of transfer of power.
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Gandhi, for his part, had the matchless ability to mobilize ordinary people to participate in his passive resistance campaigns; we can only rue Gandhi’s colossal failure as a leader to take along with him all these leaders and their vast following with their diverse strengths and abilities.
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As early as 1909 when Gandhi wrote the Hind Swaraj, Gandhi spoke and wrote bitterly against the Nationalists and Indian rulers and indicated that he was not in favour of the British quitting India if this meant that rulership would revert to maharajas and princes or if it meant that the Nationalists who were votaries of armed resistance would rule over India. Gandhi instead expressed his preference for anarchy and chaos, which he equated with God.
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We are forced to come to the conclusion that it was probably Gandhi’s English ‘liberal’ education in London and the pervasive presence of foreigners in his life which influenced his attitude
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In all these small kingdoms Gandhi precipitated a crisis either in the name of civil liberties or temple entry for harijans. Needless to say the Congress meddled only in those states ruled by Hindu princes and kings.
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There was no longer even a polite pretence that the Congress was a democratic organization. It was either Gandhi or Nehru who unilaterally decided all policies. Gandhi may have used the phrases “While I am still alive”, “In Jawaharlal’s scheme of free India”, “Jawaharlal considers” very naturally but it was an ominous portent of more dangerous things to come.
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In short, Gandhi put all major sections of the Hindu community on the defensive with his bulldozing social reform methods. Let us have no doubts on the score, Gandhi’s intent to force social changes was alien to Hindu tradition which had other ways of doing it while Indians may be bamboozled into believing that his methods which included fasting, self-suffering and non-violence, were essentially Indian or Hindu in character.
