On June 3, 1947, Attlee, the
British Prime Minister, announced the plan for partition. The Congress and the
Muslim League accepted it.
For Gandhi it was a spiritual
tragedy. With infinite sadness he said, “All India must accept Pakistan in loving
resignation. We have no choice. Hindus must lead the way to a friendly
settlement.”
Lord Mountbatten, the last British
Viceroy, was anxious not to delay the ushering in of Independent India and
Independent Pakistan. He shortened the time limit for the British to quit
India. The date for the declaration of Indian Independence was fixed for August
15, 1947.
On that day, India’s long struggle
and suffering for freedom was over. A new nation, although non- violence.’
Gandhi had never given his approval
to partition, but when it was done he accepted it and did everything possible
for the attainment of Hindu-Muslim friendship. Yet the tension between Hindus
and Muslims was on the rise.
As a result of partition over 7,
00,000 Hindus, Sikhs, and other non-Muslims in Pakistan, fearing the Muslims,
left their homes and set out towards India. From India about the same number of
Muslims, fearing the Hindus left their homes for Pakistan. The miseries
attendant on this mass migration, one of the greatest in history, were
manifold. Over 1, 50,000 people on the move were exposed to starvation, disease
and massacre on the way.
Gandhi was on his way o the Punjab
when he stopped in Delhi hoping to quell the riots that had broken out there.
He was very distressed at the inhuman way the Delhi Hindus were treating the
Muslims.
Gandhi’s gospel of forbearance and
forgiveness towards Muslims marked him as a traitor in the eyes of many Hindu
extremists. In the face of fanatical opposition, Gandhi redoubled his efforts
and the major disturbances in Delhi subsided, but there were still troubles
here and there.
Gandhi decided to do penance by
fasting which he thought would bring about a change in the attitude of the
Hindu fanatics. The fast began on January 13, 1948 there was gloom all over
India at the news of Gandhi’s fast.
People though that he would not be
able to survive another fast. The whole world watched as 78- year- old Gandhi
fasted to save his country from destruction.