Gandhi's do or die

Some 5 years ago, Modi in his 'Man ki baat' interaction with the Public paid a tribute to Yusuf Meherally, the Socialist firebrand Mayor of Bombay in 1942. It was this scion of a wealthy mill-owning family who coined the phrase 'Quit India' and published a pamphlet with that title. Sadly Meherally's health was broken by long spells of imprisonment and he died in 1950 at the young age of 47. The whole City came to a standstill as both the 'classes and the masses' expressed grief at the death of their idol. 

I suppose it was pressure from the Socialists- Aruna Asaf Ali etc- which pushed Gandhi to the last of his Himalayan blunders. 

 On 8/8/1942, Mahatma Gandhi issued this call

Here is a mantra, a short one, that I give you. You may imprint it on your hearts and let every breath of yours give expression to it. The mantra is : 'Do or Die'.

Sadly, neither was anything done nor did anybody die. Gandhi & Co went quietly off to jail for the duration of hostilities. This was a 'Freedom Struggle' in which no struggling, only some sulking, occurred. 2.5 million Indians fought for the Brits in theaters around the globe. Previously, there were about 130,000 Indians in the British Indian Army. About 90,000 Indian soldiers were killed in battle. 100,000 Congress wallahs at one time or other put in a bit of jail time for which they were amply rewarded. But it was Gandhi's financiers who made the real killing during the war. Struggling by not fighting was very profitable- at least compared to the alternative which involved showing genuine valor but often at the price of one's life.

We shall either free India or die in the attempt;

Gandhi & Co did neither. They went meekly to jail as they had previously gone meekly to jail only to accept whatever the Brits decided.  

we shall not live to see the perpetuation of our slavery.

There was no slavery. These guys had been running several provinces. Then they resigned and went off meekly to jail.  

Every true Congressman or woman will join the struggle with an inflexible determination not to remain alive to see the country in bondage and slavery.

But they remained alive in prison- which is a form of bondage- relishing the sight of Indian jailors working happily for British Prison Governors.  

Let that be your pledge. Keep jails out of your consideration. If the Government keep me free,

It jailed him the very next day 

I will not put on the Government the strain of maintaining a large number of prisoners at a time, when it is in trouble.

But that's precisely what he did. People who could have been useful to the war effort sat meekly in jail.  

Let every man and woman live every moment of his or her life hereafter in the consciousness that he or she eats or lives for achieving freedom and will die, if need be, to attain that goal.

Because sitting in jail has magic powers.  

Take a pledge, with God and your own conscience as witness, that you will no longer rest till freedom is achieved

surely these nutters had been taking such oaths for decades?  

and will be prepared to lay down your lives in the attempt to achieve it. He who loses his life will gain it; he who will seek to save it shall lose it.

Gandhi thought he was Jesus Christ. But Christ was actually Crucified. He didn't court arrest.  

Freedom is not for the coward or the faint-hearted.

According to Gandhi, it is for jailbirds. Meanwhile 80,000 Indian soldiers died in combat defeating Hitler and Tojo. Gandhi's rich pals inherited power from the British and then enriched themselves even further. Theirs was a 'stolen valor'. They did not fight but pretended that sitting quietly in jail is actually a very courageous type of fighting.