Replies

> Gandhi was a worse appeaser than Neville Chamberlain IMO, and was the main reason
> Pakistan was allowed to happen as a religion based country.

Excerpt begins:

Who Created Pakistan?

By Khushwant Singh, The Hindustan Times, Saturday, April 10, 1999

The generally accepted view is that by the 1940s the majority of Indian Muslims felt uncomfortable about their future in a state dominated by non-Muslims. They had earlier rejected the idea of a Muslim State put forward by Chaudhri Rahmat Ali as hare-brained nonsense and Allama Iqbal’s dream of an Islamic haven as utopian unreality.

But then it became apparent that the British would soon hand over the reins of government to the Indians, Muslims rejected appeals by Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Nehru, Sardar Patel, Maulana Azad and other Congress leaders to stay in a united India and instead supported Jinnah and his Muslim League to opt for an independent, sovereign Muslim State, Pakistan. As the pressure mounted and savage Hindu-Muslim riots, broke out all over northern India extending from the North-West Frontier Province to East Bengal, Congress leaders except for a few notable exceptions reluctantly decided to yield to the Muslim demand. The most notable exception was Mahatma Gandhi. Nevertheless we have a new breed of Indian pseudo-historians who subscribe to the belief that Gandhi was chiefly responsible for the vivisection of India and perhaps Godse was justified in killing him.

Godse was convinced that the Mahatma was anti-Hindu and pro-Muslim. He asserted during his trial that the Mahatma was a hypocrite, his contribution to the freedom struggle was negligible and he was “the greatest supporter and advocate of Pakistan”. The Marathi drama Mee Nathuram Godse Boltoy revived the charge of Gandhi being the creator of Pakistan. Amongst propagators of Godse’s falsehood was India Today. In its issue of August 3, 1998 it wrote that “Gandhi had no right to vivisect the country”. Nirad Chaudhury described Gandhi as “the most successful humbug”. May the good Lord forgive these traducers of the most saintly man of our times.

Gandhi was a devout Hindu and worshipper of Shri Raam —not as a historical figure, son of Dashrath, King of Ayodhya, but as another name for God “Eternal, Unborn, the one without a Second,” When partition became inevitable, he distanced himself from politics and instead went on a one-man peace mission to riot-affected areas: Noakhali, Calcutta, Bihar and Delhi. He refused to attend the Independence Day celebrations. Single-handed he brought peace to riot-torn Delhi and forced the Indian Government to honour its commitment to the new-born State of Pakistan. Even leaders of Pakistan like Raja Ghazanfar Ali and Choudhary Zafarullah Khan paid him handsome tributes. Feroze Khan Noon said, “No country in the world has produced such a great man.” Only Jinnah was unable to say anything kind about him.

In his recently published book Gandhi & The Break-up of India (Bharatiya Vidya Bhawan), Rafiq Zakaria has convincingly nailed the lie that the Mahatma in any way supported the move to divide India. The truth of the matter is that the majority of Muslims in areas that eventually went to Pakistan wanted to break away from India. They had every right to do so. We wish them well. However both Indians and Pakistanis must realise that abusing the Mahatma is like spitting at the sky; those who do so only soil their own faces.

Excerpt ends.