so long account

It was a wet and windy September in London. The year was 1931.

MK Gandhi, aged about 62, went there to attend the Second Round Table Conference (RTC) as the sole representative of the Indian National Congress. The rift in the politics of India was visible in the conference convened by the British Government to discuss the possibility of political changes in India. Among the two other Indian barristers – MA Jinnah who led the Muslims at the conference and BR Ambedkar, the outspoken leader of the Depressed Classes – the division stood out.

The only political change needed for Gandhi and the Indian National Congress was complete independence. Jinnah, Ambedkar and the princes of India, representatives of the Sikhs, landlords and other ‘minority interests’ tried to debunk Gandhi’s claim that the Congress represented an inclusive India that wanted nothing more and could do nothing less than swaraj in equality for all Indians.

On 18 September, he wrote a statement for daily Mail Describing the origin and goal of the Indian National Congress: “The Indian National Congress is more than forty seven years old. It was conceived by an Englishman Alan Octavian Hume. In this apart from Hindus, Muslims, Parsis and Christians have also been presidents. It had two women as its president, Dr. Annie Besant and Mrs. Sarojini Naidu. It also has landlords as its members.

“The Indian National Congress … knows no distinction between classes or creeds or sexes. It has always supported the issue of the so called ‘untouchables’…

“But the undeniable and irresistible claim of the Indian National Congress is to represent millions of dumb paupers living in seven lakh Indian villages, which constitute more than 85% of the population.

“It is in the name of this great organization that I claim complete independence for India.”

An important session of the Minorities Committee was to be held on 8 October. Waking up at 3 o’clock that morning, after a very hard night and only half an hour’s sleep, he wrote a statement to the committee to read: “The Congress has established pure nationalism as its ideal since its inception. It has attempted to break down communal barriers. Congress assures Sikhs, Muslims and other minorities that in future no solution in any constitution will be accepted which does not give full satisfaction to the parties concerned.

fifty five years ago

It was a season of excitement. The year was 1937.

In elections held under the Government of India Act, 1935, the result of three Round Table Conferences, the Congress won resounding victories in eight provinces, either on its own or with allies. Freedom with protection of minority rights was its motto. The Muslim League failed to conquer any province, but it established the Krishak Praja Party of Fazlul Haq, the head of the Muslim coalition in Bengal. It did well in Muslim seats (reserved for the community) in Hindu-majority provinces. Its motto was: ‘Congress domination is Hindu supremacy’. Similarly, Ambedkar’s candidates did well in the Maharashtra region of Bombay. His issue was: ‘Congress domination is caste Hindu supremacy’.

In October that year, Jinnah was asking Muslims in Hindu-majority provinces to recognize ‘Hindu supremacy’. The Congress’ concept of Swaraj and ‘minority satisfaction’ was under pressure.

seventy five years ago

It was a hot and humid August. It was the year 1947.

Jinnah sided with Pakistan amidst unparalleled bloodshed, evictions and tragedy. He had stopped Hindu supremacy in his way according to his ideology. Ambedkar had reason to be happy that a good number of his supporters had made it to the legislatures. The Congress, assuming power in an independent India at the Centre, unveiled a secular democracy and was moving towards becoming a federal republic, where religion was separated from the state, caste was not going to be an obstacle to democratic representation. . Minority contentment was to be a sign of the new democracy.

75 years after independence, this most tumultuous August of 2022 Today, Jinnah’s Pakistan is in electoral trouble, Bangladesh loosening itself from its volatile yoke with Pakistan. India’s Dalits, now more appropriately called as the Depressed Classes of Ambedkar’s time, have achieved a visible political profile in India, although social and economic deprivation remains a pain.

But what about the ideals of pure nationalism, representative democracy and minority satisfaction of Gandhi and the Congress? That ideal is in trouble, in serious trouble. And it is not just because the Congress as a party today is a shadow of its past, or because Savarkar’s ‘warning’ of 1937 affects many more now than before. That ideal of pure nationalism is in crisis as majority domination, subtly adding caste supremacy to its terminology, is increasingly seen as natural, just and outright exception. ‘If democracy is not majority control, then what is democracy?’ His understanding of the political dynamics of our country seems to be there. That democracy is meant to reassure the smallest, the weakest and the weakest is seen as a form of nursery-rhyme idealism.

But who are the ‘minorities’? Not only religious minorities but communities living in the margins of ecological, ideological, linguistic, ethnic, fear, insecurity, uncertainty. But they are not alone. As well as those that are less culturally, lifestyles are singular, ‘different’, ‘distant’, ‘disagreeing’. Those who, for example, want equality in matters of gender and make the Indian woman feel that she is equal to the man, our courts completely free from executive influence, our media free, our economy free from monopolies To be done.

A religious majority is only one of the majority, albeit one that is politically deterministic. As Maneka Guruswamy has memorably said, India is a minority-majority country. Bharat is not about Hindu India and non-Hindu India. It is about the aspirations of Peninsular India, Himalayan India, Forest India, Desert India, Coastal India, Coastal India. and the India of two mountains that political geography has made distinct – Kashmiri India and Northeast India.

Gandhi spoke for all these Indias in London in 1931. As did his colleagues in the Congress of that time. Can Congress or any political party make this claim today? We have divided our thinking, we have divided our feelings. We have become a broken family. On this crucial anniversary, we have to face this bitter truth. And retrieve the ‘us’ in us as ‘we the people of India’, the life-course of the Constitution of India that protects us and, in turn, is protected by us. We must regain our unity in liberty and justice. The tricolor being flown from house to house today, with blue in the central circle of dharma, tells us that India is equally home to all Indians. ‘But how do we do that?’ What’s the question? ‘Who is our guide, our leader?’

‘Salt of the Earth’

I started this article in London in 1931 by quoting Gandhi. I will conclude by referring to him again in London in 1914. He and Kasturba Gandhi had visited South Africa on their way back home at the conclusion of the highly successful Satyagraha. Speaking to Indian audiences such as Lala Lajpat Rai, Sarojini Naidu and MA Jinnah, he said: ‘We got headlines in South Africa, but if we deserved any approval, how much more did those who went to the struggle be praised. without thought! Harbut Singh was 75 years old when he joined the struggle and entered the jail and died there. The young boy, Narayanaswamy, was exiled to Madras and upon his return, starved and died.

Another Tamil youth, Nagappan, was imprisoned and worked on the African Welt in the harsh winter cold and died. And Valliamma, an 18-year-old girl, went to jail and was only discharged when she became very ill and died shortly thereafter. Twenty thousand laborers left their tools and work and left with faith. Violence was completely avoided. On these men and women, who are the salt of the earth, the Indian nation will be built. We are poor mortals in front of these heroes and heroines.’

Those heroes and heroines have not disappeared. They are covered only by the dust of neglect and condescension. They are the salt of the soil of India, whom we must salute today with hope, faith and solidarity. It is they, as Gandhi put it, who led India to independence. It is they who will keep it free – and just.

Gopalkrishna Gandhi is a former administrator, diplomat and governor