My Science School

            Aung San Suu Kyi is the politician and activist from Myanmar, who unfolded a rally of protests against the brutal rule of the dictator, Ne Win.

            She spoke out against him, and initiated a non-violent movement toward achieving democracy and human rights.

            In 1989, the government placed Suu Kyi under house arrest, and she spent fifteen years in custody. In 1991, her efforts won her the Nobel Prize for Peace, and she was finally released from house arrest in November 2010.

            In March 2016, Suu Kyi became the State Counsellor, a position above the presidency that allows her to direct the country’s affairs. She believed that values like love and compassion should be a part of politics, and justice should always be tempered by compassion.

            Aung San Suu Kyi has often said that the greatest influences on her life were her father, Aung San, and India’s greatest leader, Gandhiji. She drew her commitment to non-violence from Gandhiji.

            Once entrenched in the fight for democracy in Myanmar, Suu Kyi embraced many of Gandhi’s protest techniques in her own resistance movement against military rule. 

            Nelson Mandela was the great leader, who fought for ending apartheid, a system that separated whites from non-whites in South Africa.

            Mandela travelled throughout South Africa, and encouraged people to take part in non-violent demonstrations against the racial segregation policies of the government. He was arrested for anti government activities and eventually, sentenced to life in prison in 1964. Protests against this were held not only in South Africa, but around the world. On February 11th 1990, South African president F.W. de Klerk released Mandela from prison, and the two worked together to end apartheid. Later, they won the Nobel Prize for their efforts.

             In 1994, for the first time in history, non-whites were allowed to vote in the elections. In that election, Mandela was elected President by a huge majority.

            Mandela was a true follower of Gandhian philosophy. He grew up in the land where Satyagraha was born, and Gandhi’s legacy was still very strong there. In short, there were many parallels between the life of Gandhiji and Mandela. Mandela was no doubt an ‘African Gandhi’.

 

            Gandhiji was very famous world-wide for his non-violent movements, including indefinite fasts and marches. He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize about five times throughout his life. His life and teachings have inspired many revolutionaries and liberationists of the 20th century, and Martin Luther King Jr. of the United States was one of them.

            Martin Luther King Jr., the key figure in the Civil Rights Movement in the USA, was greatly inspired by the thoughts and actions of Mahatma Gandhi. He acknowledged this fact many times himself.

            From his schooldays in Pennsylvania, Martin Luther King Jr. was drawn towards Gandhiji’s philosophy and actions. When he was leading the struggle for achieving civil liberty for African-American citizens, he incorporated Gandhian principles. To fight for liberty, he declared his two weapons as faith in God, and non-violence. His incorporation of non-violence started with the famous ‘Bus-Boycott Movement’ in the country.

            King Jr. had claimed that “the spirit of passive resistance came to me from the Bible and Jesus. But the techniques of execution came from Gandhi”.

            Many Gandhian ideals like love, non-violence, and self -sacrifice did go into the formulation of the philosophy and technique of King’s social protest movement. 

Mahatma Gandhi’s funeral procession took place on January 31st. The Mahatma had specified before he died, that he did not want his body preserved, but instead, wanted a traditional cremation.

Gandhi’s body was placed upon a flower bedecked military weapons carrier, which was pulled, using ropes, by two hundred men from the Indian Army, Navy and Air Force. The vehicles had their engines switched off. It took four and a half hours for the procession to cover eight kilometres, beginning at the Birla House and proceeding to the banks of the Yamuna River.

Ramdas, the third son of Gandhiji, lit the funeral pyre. People shouted the slogan ‘Mahatma Gandhi Ki Jai’. The next day, the second service was held by his friends and relatives by collecting the ashes in a Khadi bag and then, the bag was placed in a copper urn. Ashes of Gandhiji were carried through the streets of Allahabad in procession.

After thirteen days of mourning, Gandhiji’s ashes were sprinkled in seven sacred rivers of India.

On his death, Nehru remarked, “the light has gone out of our lives and there is darkness everywhere...” Gandhiji’s monument at Raj Ghat attracts visitors from around the world, as well as noted personalities who wish to pay their respects to the father of the nation.

 

          Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated on 30th January 1948, by Nathuram Godse at Birla House in New Delhi.

          At 5:17 pm on 30th January 1948, Gandhiji walked to the prayer grounds. His grandnieces held his arms, as he had trouble walking alone. Gandhiji was weakened by fasting. Hundreds of people had assembled for the prayers.

          Gandhiji reached the stage, and greeted the audience. Suddenly, a young man rushed forward. He kneeled before Gandhiji, and then rose to pull out a pistol and fired three bullets. Everything finished within minutes. Gandhiji fell down dead. His last words were “Hey Ram”.

          The assassin was Nathuram Godse. He was an extremist who believed that Gandhiji was associating with Muslims, against Hindus. Nathuram Godse was seized immediately. Godse had planned the murder along with Narayan Apte, another extremist, and six others. Both Godse and Apte were executed in 1949. The other conspirators were sentenced to life imprisonment. 

          Gandhiji began his last fast on 13th January 1948. He announced his intention to fast till death. He was then aged 78 and it was his eighteenth fast.

          Gandhiji’s health declined very quickly during this time. On 18th January, after five very difficult days, political and religious leaders came to assure Gandhiji that attacks would end. They promised to restore communal peace and friendship by every possible effort. Gandhiji broke his fast on the sixth day. But, without giving time for his body to recover from the fast, he again started working.

          But, there was a fraction of a society that disliked Gandhi, and slowly, their number was growing. On one of his evening prayer meetings, a bomb was thrown. It didn’t injure anyone. But it was clearly a warning sign that Gandhiji’s life was under threat.

          Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the then minister of home affairs, was fearful that Gandhiji would be killed. He wanted to search everyone attending the prayer meeting. But Gandhi refused to agree to this proposal. 

          On 15th August 1947, when the day of independence finally arrived, it was celebrated with gusto everywhere in the country. Jawaharlal Nehru, who had become the first Prime Minister of India, hoisted the Indian national flag at the Red Fort in Delhi.

          But in Calcutta, disturbed by the partition, Gandhiji was on his tireless pursuit to end the violence that had torn the nation apart. Gandhiji refused to participate in any merriment along with his protégé Abdul Ghaffar Khan, who was the last person to fight partition till the very end. He believed that the kind of freedom India had got contained the seeds of future conflict between India and Pakistan.

          Gandhiji’s fears came true at the time of partition. Many people lost their lives. India and Pakistan witnessed fifteen crores of its citizens migrating from one place to another. Soon communal riots broke out. On 9th August, Gandhi reached Calcutta ready to move on to Noakhali, a place torn by communal riot. Gandhiji decided to stay at Hyderi Manzil, adjacent to a Muslim dominated slum called Miabagan. There, he held prayer meetings. 

            Shortly after his arrival in India on 24th March 1947, Lord Mountbatten took part in discussions with Indian political leaders. He had free and frank discussions with Sardar Patel, Maulana Azad, Jawaharlal Nehru, Gandhiji, and other prominent leaders. He had talks with the members of Muslim League too.

            Mountbatten worked sincerely with the goal of persuading the Congress and the League to agree to an acceptable plan, to end the rule of the British Raj, and to work out the modalities for the withdrawal of the British.

            He also wanted to keep India in the Commonwealth of Nations. The time was also favourable for his plans. India was tormented by communal wars. Brutality and human sacrifice were spiraling beyond human endurance.

            Being the last British Viceroy in India, Mountbatten got abundant freedom to solve the prevailing issues without any interference from Britain. Since the time at his disposal was very short, he wanted to prepare for the transfer of power without wasting time.

            Mountbatten knew the art of dealing with the political leaders of India in a dignified way. Gandhiji alone opposed the idea of partition among the leaders. But ultimately, he too accepted the decision with a deep sense of sorrow. 

           The violence between Hindus and Muslims swept India in the late 1940s. A situation close to a civil war prevailed in north, north-west, and north-east India.

          It appeared as if the Congress leaders had become fed up with the communal violence, and the British policy of inactivity. The only way out of this communal and constitutional deadlock was the acceptance of the Muslim League’s demand in some form or the other. Gandhiji was disappointed at the response of the members of the League.

          Gandhi started his journey to Noakhali, Bengal, on 6th November. For four months, he stayed in Noakhali and visited all the areas of dispute to restore peace and communal harmony. He held prayer meetings, and he preached courage, forgiveness, and truth. Gandhiji moved from Bengal to Bihar later.

          Gandhiji appeared as a peacemaker in the villages of Bihar. The killings lasted for one month. Gandhiji’s charismatic presence calmed the people, but the demand for a separate nation-state was heard from all parts of the country. 

            During the second half of the nineteenth century, when the British dominance had been firmly established throughout the Indian subcontinent, some novel trends were in the making. Colonialism boosted a spirit of nationalism, but at the same time, also caused feelings of communalism to rise up. Thus, the colonial rule had a dubious role in the making of India. The flare-up of the communal issue ultimately resulted in the partition of the subcontinent into India and Pakistan. In fact, the Congress opposed the partition up to 1945, but it had to accept it subsequently, as a remedial measure.

            Nationalist historians blame this on the colonial policy of divide and rule, but imperial ideologues maintain that the Indian socio-cultural milieu caused it. The demand of the Muslim League and Jinnah for a separate nation was found unreal by Congress leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru. But when the League rejected long term provisions of the Cabinet Mission plan and announced the ‘Direct Action’ from 16th August 1946, the Congress leaders were compelled to reconsider their approach towards the demand.

            The League envisaged the Congress as a Hindu elitist group, and was fearful of the Hindu Swaraj. This led to the partition of India, despite all of the peacemaking efforts of the Congress Party. 

          The Interim Government of India was formed on September 2nd, 1946, to help the transition of India from British rule to independence.

          In August 1946, the Congress decided to join the Interim Government in response to the call of the British Government to facilitate the process of transfer of power. The Interim Government was headed by the Viceroy, Lord Wavell. Jawaharlal Nehru was the Vice-President of the Council, with the powers of a Prime Minister.

          Leaders like Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, Jagjivan Ram, C. Rajagopalachari etc. also held prominent positions.

          This government was entrusted with the mission of assisting the transition of India and Pakistan from British rule to independence as two separate nations. The Interim Government was in place till 15th August 1947, when the nations of India and Pakistan received independence from colonial rule.

          Until August 15th 1947, India continued under the rule of the United Kingdom and the Interim Government set out to establish diplomatic relations with other countries, such as the United States of America.

          For the time being, the Constituent Assembly, from which the Interim Government was created, had the challenging task of drafting the Constitution for Independent India.

 

            One of the most devastating incidents in Gandhiji’s personal life was the demise of his wife, Kasturba Gandhi in 1944.

            Kasturba was an unlettered woman when she entered Gandhiji’s life in 1883. It was Gandhiji who gave her the first lessons in learning how to read and write. She respected the ideals of her husband, though she had disagreements with him on many grounds.

            Kasturba, an ardent supporter of Gandhiji throughout his life, was affectionately called ‘Ba’ by Gandhiji. Kasturba worked alongside her husband.

            When Gandhi became involved in the agitation to improve the working conditions of Indians in South Africa and gave them the power to represent themselves, Kasturba eventually decided to join the struggle. In September 1913, she was arrested, and sentenced to three months, imprisonment with hard labour.

            After Gandhiji’s return to India, Kasturba took Gandhiji’s place when he was under arrest, and was always closely associated with the freedom struggle of India, giving encouragement to women volunteers.

            Kasturba was active in supervising the activities of the ashram and lived like a satyagrahi. She joined the Quit India Movement along with Gandhi.

             Gandhiji was arrested during the Quit India Movement in 1942. Later, Kasturba too got arrested along with many followers of Gandhiji. She was confined in the Aga Khan Palace in Pune.

            Kasturba Gandhi spent her last hours in the prison and she breathed her last in the lap of Gandhiji on 22nd February 1944. After her death, Gandhi indeed lost a pillar of strength in his life.

            “I cannot imagine life without Ba... her passing has left a vacuum which will never be filled”, Gandhi wrote. 

            The Quit India Movement was a civil disobedience movement launched by Mahatma Gandhi on 8th August 1942, at the Bombay Session of the All India Congress Committee.

            A resolution was passed demanding an immediate end to the British rule. A mass non-violent struggle was organized on the widest scale possible. Gandhiji’s slogan of ‘Do or Die’ inspired millions of Indians and strengthened their determination to die, rather than give up the goal of freedom. The British response to the movement was quick. The Congress was banned and most of its leaders were arrested before they could start mobilizing the people.

            The people, however, were unstoppable. They attacked all the symbols of the British government such as railway stations, law courts and police stations. Railway lines were damaged and telegraph lines were cut. In some places, people even formed alternative governments. The British responded to this with terrible brutality. However, though they could oppress the people, they could not suppress the people’s demand that foreign rulers should quit India. 

          Winston Churchill’s declaration in the British Parliament to send Sir Stafford Cripps to India seemed a good decision.

          Sir Stafford Cripps arrived in Delhi on 22nd March1942 and immediately started his discussions with the Governor General and the counsellors.

          The leaders of different parties met him and consultations and discussions went on for twenty days. Nehru and Maulana Azad represented the Congress. Mohammed Ali Jinnah represented the Muslims and B.R. Ambedkar represented the socially backward classes. Leaders from all the communities of Indian society were represented.

          Cripps had prepared a draft declaration for Indian leaders which included terms like the establishment of dominion status for India, introduction of a constitutional assembly and the granting of rights to the provinces to make separate constitutions. These offers would be granted only after the conclusion of the war. The Congress committee rejected the proposals because they were related primarily to the future.

          Cripps proposals were suddenly withdrawn on 11th April 1942. The whole drama of the Cripps Mission to India seemed to be only a propaganda move, without any intention of acceding to India’s demands.

          Cripps Mission’s proposals were unacceptable to Gandhiji and the Congress. Commenting on this, Gandhiji said, “It is a post-dated cheque on a crashing bank”. 

            The British tried to lure India with the promise of a free state in return of their valuable support during war time. But the Indians were rebuffed when they were asked for Independence. Gandhiji did not accept this offer as he firmly believed in non-violence. 

            The period of the Second World War was a not only a period of external tensions, but also internal conflicts. The great famine of Bengal of 1943 was one of the many disasters India faced during the war.

            Despite the disastrous effects of World War II, it brought about a golden age in the colonies of Britain. The age of anxiety paved the way for the age of hope and freedom. Despite its many aftermaths, the end of the imperialistic era was glorious. The repercussion of the war occurred in all its colonies. India lost the lives of many army men. The cries for self-government and the loss of faith in the ruling imperialists were heard everywhere.

            Although Mahatma Gandhi works for India’s freedom from the British Empire since 1915, it was not until Britain was embroiled in World War II that the goal of Indian independence finally came within reach.

            In August of 1942, the All India Congress Committee gathered in Bombay, to formally endorse the Quit India movement, which called for an immediate end to British imperialism.