A truer tribute to Gandhi on 150th anniversary
WE DNESDAY marked the 150th anniversary of the birth of Mahatma Gandhi. Interestingly, his was one name that sprang up in the speeches of both the Indian and Pakistani prime ministers at the UN last week.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi indicated to the august assembly that he was a devotee of India’s apostle of peace.
However, US President Donald Trump, ignorantly or perhaps perversely, described him as the “Father of the Indian Nation”, a sobriquet reserved by tradition for Gandhi.
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, on his part, said that a follower of Modi’s ideology of Hindutva had assassinated “the great Mahatma Gandhi” in 1948.
To call Gandhi great was an unusually generous epithet from a Pakistani leader, so unusual that a Pakistani paper, which produced the full text of Khan’s UN speech, deleted the word from its version of the address.
Be that as it may, what will happen when the curfew is lifted in Kashmir and people come out on the streets?
An equally noble tribute to Gandhi for this landmark anniversary would be to do everything possible to dismantle the prospects of war breaking out between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan over Kashmir.
This all seems a far cry from the day in early August 1947 when Gandhi arrived in Kashmir to verify for himself what the people of the erstwhile princely state desired for itself with Partition imminent.
Following a warm reception in Srinagar, where he had to take the boat to cross the Jhelum River because a cheering throng had blocked the bridge, Gandhi felt that only the people of the state could determine the future of Kashmir.
Peaceful way out
Sheikh Abdullah, who the ruler Hari Singh had put in prison, had ensured the goodwill of all Kashmiris – Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs – for India, Gandhi concluded.
In the absence of her jailed husband, Abdullah’s wife escorted Gandhi to his meetings during the threeday trip to Srinagar followed by two days in Jammu.
These are humane points beyond the grasp of ordinary politicians on both sides of the Pakistan-India border.
Things didn’t go the way Gandhi expected, and the tribal raid, which he concluded was possible only with Pakistan’s help, saddened him. approach to the UN as a desperate way to avert war between the two countries, both of which he felt emotionally close to.
“Today there is talk of war everywhere. Everyone fears a war breaking out between the two countries. If that unifier of Kashmiris of different religions, always a sacred mission for him.
Talking of “raids from outside the frontier of Kashmir”, Gandhi said in the speech: “Whatever might have been the attitude of Pakistan, if I had my way I would have invited Pakistan’s representatives to India and we could have met, discussed the matter and worked out some settlement.”
A last message from Gandhi to Pakistani leaders can yet be given new life by both sides as possibly the finest tribute he would want.
“They keep saying that they want an amicable settlement but they do nothing to create the conditions for such a settlement,” he said.
“I shall, therefore, humbly say to the responsible leaders . . . that though we are now two countries – which is a thing I never wanted – we should at least try to arrive at an agreement so that we could live as peaceful neighbours.”