Gandhi's game of tag

Behind every great man is a greater Mom who taught him the simple secret of greatness- consistency. Stick with what works. If it aint broke don't fix it.

What did the Mahatma's Mum teach him? Let us see-

Did Gandhi's mother believe that the touch of a Dalit transferred some evil to her child? If he returned home with it, would he would endanger the whole family? If such were the case, the best thing would be for him to pass the evil onto a Muslim who, for religious reasons, could not be kith or kin.

No doubt, this advice of hers saved her the trouble of having to bathe the little fellow before he could carry pollution into the house and perhaps infect his elder brothers or, God forbid, the breadwinner of the family with it.

What Gandhi's mother was telling him to do was immoral but pragmatic. Suppose I come home and say 'Mummy some other boy swiped my pencil case. Could you buy me another?' She might be tempted to rely, 'if someone swipes your pencil case, swipe someone else's.'

What is curious about the way Gandhi tells this story- which is about an endogamous community practicing a primitive type of 'pathogen avoidance' strategy to safeguard itself- is that he says he obeyed his mother out of regard for her. He didn't think it was a religious obligation- like saying your prayers. But what does this amount to? The answer is he thought there really was some evil which was being disposed of in a manner convenient to his mother. Nevertheless, as in the game of tag, or pass the parcel, the thing was not wholly innocent of spite and shadenfreude.

Why does Gandhi tell this story? Is he wryly commenting on the backwardness, stupidity, and ethical heteronomy of the very backward and stupid- but cunning and commercially successful- caste to which he belonged? No. The fucker had been touching a lot of Muslims to gain power. But no power had been gained. So to cancel out the pollution, the stupid shithead had decided to touch a lot of Dalits coz that would cancel out the pollution caused by cuddling with meat eating Mlechhas.

This is the strategy India's Left-Liberals still pursue. If you are in touch with Muslims, cancel it out by passing on that pollution to the Dalits. Ideally the two should end up hugging each other- like Jogendra Nath Mandal getting the Namasudras to support the Muslim League in East Bengal- so that you can get shot of both. Mandal and the Namasudras had to come running back to India where, predictably, they got short shrift. The only state sponsored pogrom of Dalits since Independence was the Marichjhapi massacre carried out by the same Communist party which had invited the Namasudras to settle in the Sunderbans.

It is easy to condemn J.N Mandal- or his ally Ambedkar for that matter- as cretins. Yet when we look at what Gandhi was saying and doing at that time- or indeed had been saying and doing for the previous 20 years- we have to sympathize with them.

Consider the following excerpt from a book about Gandhi detailing, in his own words, his response to the persecution of Hindus in what is now Bangladesh. Why has Scroll.In chosen to highlight it?

Talk to Relief Workers, Chandpur, November 7, 1946
Gandhiji: What goes against my grain is that a single individual can be converted or a single woman can be kidnapped or raped. So long as we feel we can be subjected to these indignities, we shall continue to be so subjected. If we say we cannot do without police or military protection, we really confess defeat even before the battle has begun. No police or military in the world can protect people who are cowards.
Today you say thousands of people are terrorising a mere handful, so what can the latter do? But even a few individuals are enough to terrorise the whole mass, if the latter feel helpless. Your trouble is not numerical inferiority but the feeling of helplessness that has seized you and the habit of depending on others. The remedy lies with you. That is why I am opposed to the idea of your evacuating East Bengal en masse. It is no cure for impotence or helplessness. 

So what this cretin is saying is either fight back by forming a paramilitary Hindu organization, in which case you will get slaughtered, or get slaughtered anyway under my banner. A superior alternative was to migrate to a Hindu dominated area, join a paramilitary outfit there and kill Muslims and grab their property. Gandhi could not endorse this because then Muslims would disappear and thus being in touch with Dalits could not be cancelled out by passing on the pollution to those meat eating Mlecchas.

A worker: East Bengal is opposed to such a move. 

Gandhiji: They should not leave. 20,000 able-bodied men prepared to die like brave men non-violently might today be regarded as a fairy tale, but it would be no fairy tale for every able-bodied man in a population of 20,000 to die like stalwart soldiers in open fight...I will proclaim from the housetops that it is the only condition under which you can live in East Bengal.

So, the men should get killed and the women should remain to be raped and to work as slaves. This is like Gandhi's advise to the German Jews- just fucking die already.

You have asked for Hindu officers, Hindu police and Hindu military in the place of Muslim. It is a false cry. You forget that Hindu officers, Hindu police and Hindu military have in the past done all these things – looting, arson, abduction, rape. I come from Kathiawar – the land of petty principalities. I cannot describe to you to what depths of depravity human nature can go. No woman’s honour is safe in some principalities and the chief is no hooligan but a duly anointed one.

Don't come to India. We will rape your women. At least, the good people of Kathiawar will do so. Trust me on this. My Daddy and his Daddy before him worked for Kathiawari Rulers. They lived to rape.

Worker: These are cases of individual depravity. Here we have got this on a mass scale.
Gandhiji: But the individual there is not alone. He is backed by the machinery of his little State.

Kathiawaris are beasts. Their little States exist solely for the purpose of facilitating rape.  Please don't ask us to do anything for you. We are rapists. But we are sedentary in our habits. We can't come all the way to you for the purpose of raping your women. Also don't come to us. At least not to Kathiawar coz of all the extra raping our 'duly anointed' rulers will have to do.

Worker: He is condemned even by his compeers. Here such acts are not condemned by the Muslims.
Gandhiji: I have heard nothing but condemnation of these acts from Shaheed Suhrawardy [the Chief Minister of Bengal] downwards since I have come here. Words of condemnation may tickle your ears, but they are no consolation to the unfortunate women whose houses have been laid desolate or who have been abducted, forcibly converted and forcibly married. What a shame for Hindus, what a disgrace for Islam!
No, I am not going to leave you in peace. Presently you will say to yourself, “When will this man leave us and go?” But this man will not go. He did not come on your invitation and he will go only on his own, but with your blessings, when his mission in East Bengal is fulfilled.

Predictably, he left a few months later when the Muslims told him to fuck off.

Worker: It is a part of their plan for Pakistan.
Gandhiji: It is midsummer madness and they [the Muslim League] have realised it. They will soon sicken of it. They have already begun to.

Is Scroll.In trying to show Gandhi was a false prophet?

Worker: Why do not they come here then and set this right?
Gandhiji: That stage will come. Sickness only marks the crisis. Convalescence must precede cure. You see I am a nature-curist....There is not a man, however cruel and hard-hearted, but would give his admiration to a brave man. A goonda is not the vile man he is imagined to be. He is not without his noble traits.

A liar is not the vile man he is imagined to be. Tell a big enough lie and you will win the admiration of cruel and hard-hearted people because your lie absolves you of all obligation. Suppose I ask you to repay a loan. You reply, 'money is a curse. I will never be responsible for your incurring the pollution of receiving money. This is the true debt I owe to you.' I beat you and take my money. You whimper about having been robbed. I return and kick your head in. You mutter that I'm being unreasonable.

Worker: A goonda does not understand reason.
Gandhiji: But he understands bravery. If he finds that you are braver than he, he will respect you.

It does take courage of a certain sort to stick to a lie.

You will note that for the purposes of our present discussion I have not asked you to discard the use of arms. I can’t provide you with arms. It is not for me to provide arms to the Chittagong Armoury Raid men [Bengali militants who raided a government armoury during the 1930s; they were part of the crowd that Gandhi addressed]. The most tragic thing about the Armoury Raid people is that they could not even multiply themselves. Their bravery was lop-sided. It did not infect others.

This cretin does not get that those who were infected were killed or incarcerated.

Worker: ...I am myself an Armoury Raid man.
Gandhiji: You are no Armoury Raid man or, you should not have been here to tell these things.

Gandhi was lying. Unlike kamikaze pilots, Armoury Raid men- and women- lived to tell the tale because the Brits didn't kill them all. Some were sent to Jail but released later on. A few went underground. This guy may have been an Armoury Raid man. Or, like Gandhi, he may have been bullshitting.

That so many of them should have remained living witnesses of the things that have happened is in my eyes a tragedy of the first order.

Gandhi was very sad that some Revolutionaries weren't killed. For him this was the greatest tragedy.

If they had shown the same fearlessness and courage to face death in the present crisis as they did when they made that raid, they would have gone down in history as heroes.

Not if Gandhians got to write the history books.

As it is, they have only inscribed a small footnote in the page of history.

Coz books stuffed with stupid lies are the only things which matter. Gandhi got what he wanted. Stupid, lying, history books praising him for fucking over the Independence movement and then holding back independent India's ability to feed and defend itself.

You will see I am not, as I have already said, asking you just now to unlearn the use of arms or to follow my type of heroism. I have not made it good even in my own case. I have come here to test it in East Bengal.

A test he failed. He left a few months later when the Muslims told him to fuck off.

I want you to take up the conventional type of heroism. You should be able to infect others – both men and women – with courage and fearlessness to face death when the alternative is dishonour and humiliation.

Again with the 'infection' metaphor! What is going on here? The answer is that if Hindus develop martial qualities then they become 'untouchable'. So if you are in touch with them, you should cancel the pollution by tagging the Muslims. Hopefully they will kill off these new 'Dalits'.

Then the Hindus can stay in East Bengal, not otherwise. After all, the Mussalmans are blood of our blood and bone of our bone.

But have become untouchable coz they eat meat.

Worker: Here the proportion of Mussalmans and Hindus is 6 to 1. How can you expect us to stand against such heavy odds?

Gandhiji: When India was brought under British subjection, there were 70,000 European soldiers against 33 crores of Indians.

Nonsense! Gandhi himself had blamed his own ancestors for siding with the Brits. These Hindus were saying 'side with us. Then we'd have a chance.' Gandhi is saying 'fuck off. If, like the Brits, you succeed then we will come under your rule and complain about you and go to jail to protest your hegemony. We will demand poorna Swaraj from you.

Worker: So we are to fight with arms anyhow?
Gandhiji: Not anyhow. Even violence has its code of ethics. For instance, to butcher helpless old men, women and children is not bravery but rank cowardice. Chivalry requires that they should be protected even at the cost of one’s life. The history of early Islam is replete with such instances of chivalry and Islam is all the stronger for them.

Why butcher people whom it would be more profitable to enslave? Even an old guy may have skills. We are speaking of a depreciating, but still fungible, asset.

Worker: Would you permit the Hindus to take the offensive?
Gandhiji: The people of Bihar did and brought disgrace upon themselves and India. They have set the clock of India’s independence back. I have a right to speak about Bihar. In a sense I feel closer to Bihar than to Bengal as fortune enabled me to give a striking demonstration of the non-violence technique in Champaran.

This cretin was providing camouflage for the anti-cow slaughter offensive in Bihar which was highly organized and which the Brits were powerless to stop. The Bihari Muslims accepted cow protection as a quid pro quo for Khilafat a short while later. But Khilafat was mere hypocrisy. By contrast, Cow Protection (which Gandhi supported) prevailed. It is a Directive Principle in the Indian Constitutions. Hundreds of Muslims and Dalits have been killed in the name of Cow Protection in every decade since 1917.

I have heard it said that the retaliation in Bihar has “cooled” the Muslims down. They mean it has cowed them down for the time being. They forget that two can play at a game.

Sheer idiocy. The minority can't play a game in which they are immediately stomped to death.

Bihar has forged a link in the chain of our slavery.

Unlike Kathiawar where Rulers kept raping every woman in the vicinity.

If the Bihar performance is repeated or if the Bihar mentality does not mend, you may note down my words in your diary: Before long India will pass under the yoke of the Big Three with one of them probably as the mandatory power.

Scroll.In wants its readers to understand that Gandhi was a cretin.

The Independence of India is today at stake in Bengal and Bihar.

This cretin knew that the Brits were keen to bring forward the date of their departure. He also knew that neither America nor Stalin wanted to take charge of a shithole. Why? Because its people were very shitty- at least this was Stalin's impression of the Indian Communists who kept turning up to lick his arse.

The British Government entrusted the Congress with power not because they are in love with the Congress but because they had faith that the Congress would use it wisely and well, not abuse it.

Nonsense! Congress won elections in some provinces. Then, in 1946, the Muslim League won elections in some provinces. The Brits passed on power to whoever commanded popular support and could form a Government they could do a deal with. This strategy was very successful in India but failed in Burma.

Today Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru finds the ground slipping from under his feet. But he won’t let that happen. That is why he is in Bihar. He has said he is going to stay there as long as it may be necessary. Biharis have behaved as cowards.

Nehru threatened to send air-planes to bomb the Biharis! He was a deeply silly man. The High Caste, Hindu dominated, Congress Party was content with establishing its hegemony in Bihar. Henceforth Muslims would wield no power and act as a pliant vote bank.

Use your arms well, if you must. Do not ill-use them. Bihar has not used its arms well. If the Biharis wanted to retaliate, they could have gone to Noakhali and died to a man.

Gandhi does not get that a retaliation fails if it ends with your death, not any injury to the adversary.

But for a thousand Hindus to fall upon a handful of Mussalmans – men, women and children – living in their midst is no retaliation but just brutality.

Brutality is a retaliation for brutality.

It is the privilege of arms to protect the weak and helpless. The best succour that Bihar could have given to the Hindus of East Bengal would have been to guarantee with their own lives the absolute safety of the Muslim population living in their midst.

This was Jinnah's 'hostage theory'. It was foolish. Biharis had no great love for Bengalis. Nor, for that matter, did Kathiawaris like Gandhi.

Their example would have told. And I have faith that they will still do so with due repentance when the present madness has passed away. Anyway that is the price I have put upon my life if they want me to live. Here ends the first lesson.

So this guy thought he was the Messiah. But Christ actually died on the Cross. He didn't leave Jerusalem after Caiaphas dropped a polite hint that he should make himself scarce.

Harijan, 1-12-1946 (93: 1-4)
Not entirely sure if he had managed to heal divisive hearts, Gandhi left Bengal and travelled to Bihar. He had resisted visiting that site of violence, since he had heard that the Congress government that was in power there was handling matters rather well. When reports to the contrary reached him, he immediately set out for Bihar.

He'd outstayed his welcome in Bengal, so he left. He would soon leave Bihar as well. In Delhi, Sardar Patel was responsible for his security. Yet he got shot. An American grabbed the assassin. Even in death, Gandhi proved the superiority of the WASP over the wog.

Speech at Prayer Meeting, Patna, March 5, 1947
... This Bihar of ours has today committed a heinous crime. The atrocities perpetrated on a handful of Muslims have no parallel, so say the Muslims, in the annals of history. I too have read some history. I know that the world has witnessed greater brutality by man on man. But it is no use repeating them here. We must not compete in doing evil and that too against whom? Those who cry for avenging Noakhali in Bihar do not know the meaning of vengeance. Is it manliness to return barbarism for barbarism?
We ought to overcome violence by love...It had been reported to me that some Congressmen had a hand in these crimes. It would be wrong even today to say that there was not a single Congressman involved in the mad upheaval. In India the Congress has to accept the responsibility for the misdeeds of all communities and all individuals. I had claimed in London on your behalf that the Congress represented the whole of India by right of service. Hence any sin committed by India comes to the door of the Congress.

Why did the fucker not demand that Congress politicians responsible for the violence be prosecuted- or at least be expelled from the Party.

You who are listening to me may not have done any evil, yet you have to accept the responsibility.

Yes, if you listen to a cretin you have to accept responsibility for encouraging that imbecile to talk worthless shite.

I have become hard-hearted now. I have not come here to shed tears or to make you cry. I would rather wish to steel your hearts. I could make you cry if I chose. But I do not wish to do so. We should not disown responsibility by saying that our hands are clean. India consists of many communities…The way to achieve independence consists in all Indians saying with one voice that unless they gave to the whole world all that was good in them, their survival would be meaningless. Are we going to compete in [making] atom bombs? Are we going to match barbarism with even more barbarous acts?

Yes. Peace has achieved by having a sufficient threat point. Talking shite helps nobody.

India has placed before the world a new weapon...

Nonsense! Gobshittery is nothing new.

We have been insisting that we will attain independence through nonviolence.

In a thousand years- sure. Sadly, Hitler & Tojo made Imperial Defense unaffordable for war-weary, bankrupt, Britain. So they did a deal to protect their investments and keep India within the Sterling Zone. This enabled Britain to recover from the War more rapidly.

I do not claim that all Indians have accepted non-violence as a matter of creed. But even when we accept anything as a matter of policy, it becomes our duty to act upon it...

Then why was this stupid cretin telling the Hindu Bengalis to fight? Why he did not promise to bring tens of thousands of Satyagrahis to sacrifice their lives? Why did he himself not die but rather quietly leave when the Muslims lost patience with him?

Those who are under the illusion that Bihar has saved other people by committing these barbarities are talking nonsense.

But it was equal nonsense that Gandhi had saved anybody.

This is not the way to attain freedom.

Yet freedom came nonetheless. Gandhian methods may have retarded the process by twenty years. But it could not prevent the calamity Gandhi dreaded. He was killed soon after.

If Muslims believe that they would annihilate the Hindus or if Hindus believe that they would annihilate the Muslims, I should like to ask them what they would gain thereby? Muslims will not serve Islam if they annihilate the Hindus; rather they would thereby destroy Islam.

Muslims annihilated whatever 'pagan', polytheistic, religion had existed during 'Jahiliyat'. So did Christianity and Buddhism and, to a lesser extent, Gandhi's own 'Sanatan Dharma'.

And if the Hindus believe that they would be able to annihilate Islam it means that they would be annihilating Hindu dharma...

The way Islam had been annihilated at the moment of its inception.

All religions are equal and they are founded on the same faith...

All people wear the same pair of underpants. Titties are many, Nipple is one. If one man wanks, all men jizz in their pants. Yea, I say unto you, if you suck off the cock of the least of my bretheren, you swallow my jizz and owe me money coz my jizz is much sought after- or ought to be.

Scriptures have said that one who condemns other religions, condemns one’s own religion…

No they haven't. Gandhi is just making this shit up.

We should not gloat over the massacre of Muslims by Bihar Hindus…

Nor should we sleep naked with our great-nieces coz that will sure help all those vulnerable innocents.

The Hindus of Bihar have committed a grave sin.

Some Hindus had committed cognizable offences. Did this ex-barrister try to get those fuckers prosecuted? No. That is why the Bihari Muslim had no confidence in Congress Raj. India lost smart, skillful, people to Pakistan who enabled that country to grow rapidly. The Brits had some pi-jaw merchants. Their Churches were packed on Sundays. But the rest of the time they did their jobs and upheld the law. That is why India has followed the lessons of its Victorian Governess save when it didn't give a shit- as for example when Muslims or, under Congress, S.Cs or S.Ts, were involved- in which case it contented itself with Gandhian gobshittery.

But this is the old story of cancelling out the polluting touch of one despised group by tagging another such group.

They will raise the head of Bihar much higher if they do honest reparations, greater in magnitude than their crimes...

But what will raise the head of Gandhi-giri? In any case what would be the point of it shitting yet higher than its arsehole?

Gandhijike Dukhe Dilki Pukar: I, pp. 1-6, and Harijan, 23-3-1947 (94: 74-75)

Gandhi held several public meetings during his stay in Bihar, as he had done in Bengal, where he spoke of matters that had been brought to him, or of letters he had received with regard to the rioting and violence.

So, he wasn't really doing anything helpful. He was just camping in a place, receiving adulation and donations, and giving shite sermons of an increasingly manic sort.

Consider the killing of the great Trade Unionist, Prof Abdul Bari, on March 28 1947. According to Afshan Khan, writing in the Wire,

Gandhi, in a speech on March 29, 1947, mentioned that he was struck by Bari’s simplicity and honesty. Gandhi added that he was planning to be more closely associated with Bari, and make an appeal to keep his short temper in check as it was not befitting of the highest office in Bihar. Gandhi referred to Bari in the same speech as “a very brave man with the heart of a fakir”. He declared that Bari’s death was the result of an altercation that had ensued between Bari and one Gurkha member of the anti-smuggling force, who was a former member of the Indian National Army.

The author mentions in this book that Bihar’s first Prime Minister (Premier) Barrister Muhammad Yunus had disclosed in an interview to the Orient Press of India that Bari had threatened to disclose the names of some prominent Congress leaders who were involved in the Bihar carnage – just three days before he was killed.

Yunus also said that Gandhi’s statement was given in haste. In his speech, Gandhi had told the audience that there was no politics of any kind in the death, and that it would be unjustified to associate the whole Indian National Army with Bari’s killing just because of one man’s actions.

According to another Muslim writer-

In 1947 riot spread in Patna, on request of Mahatma Gandhi he was coming to Patna by car from Jamshedpur, he was shot dead near Fatuha Railway crossing on 28 March 1947. After Prof. Abdul Bari’s gruesome murder Gandhi ji visited his native place ‘Koelwar’ and met the bereaved family. Gandhi ji was visibly moved at the pathetic sight of abject poverty of this great freedom fighter’s family. There was no money with the family even for Prof. Abdul Bari’s burial. His killer never got punished because it is said that he was being killed by fellow congressmen in Power struggle for BPCC President and Chief Ministerial Candidate.

The official Indian Government version of events- which however only appeared after Independence- was that a local constable had accidentally shot Bari. However, it does not appear that a proper inquiry into the matter was held. Naturally, the Muslims of the Magadha region were terrified. The project of 'muttahidah qaumiyat' had been well and truly derailed. What followed was 'Forward Caste' Hindu hegemony. 

Speech at Prayer Meeting, Patna, March 8, 1947
... I have received a telegram from a Hindu brother. It says that I must not condemn the Hindus in Bihar. It warns me that due to my influence over them I may mislead them and prevent them from taking revenge. Look at the cheek of this gentleman who is trying to teach me my duty! He calls himself a Hindu but does not act like one...

Look at the cheek of this politician, who is trying to teach duty to the subjects of a Ministry formed by the Party he presides over,  but who refuses to do his own duty which was to purge his Party of the people he himself says he knows were responsible for heinous crimes.

We have committed a dirty crime and I have come here to cleanse the dirt and brighten the image of Hinduism.

No. Gandhi's party had committed a dirty crime. It was ruling Bihar. It had not caught and prosecuted the criminals, because as Gandhi says, it was itself responsible.

Did Gandhi 'cleanse the dirt'? No. He moved on in his usual style to fresh pastures so as to talk yet more stupid shite without accomplishing anything.

Am I going to flinch from my duty if someone beats me up or abuses me for doing it?

Yes. Gandhi got out of East Bengal sharpish as the mood towards him changed. He was soon to leave Bihar. In Delhi, Life left him. Ambedkar reflected the popular mood when, in a letter to his wife, he said he thought that, politically, the thing was providential. It didn't hurt that some innocent Pune Brahmans paid for the crime of a Chitpavan nutter.

It is my duty to speak out the truth and if I withhold it, I shall be disloyal to Hindus, to Muslims and to India. I shall therefore advise you not to listen to those who incite and misguide you. I wish to tell you one thing more.

Gandhi had done nothing incite and misguide Indians since his return from South Africa.

…The Hindus in Bihar…should do their duty by contributing to a fund for the relief of Muslims by way of repentance.

Did Gandhi cut down expenditure on his money-pit Ashrams and other crackpot schemes in order to help Refugees? Of course not. Don't be silly.

No one should think that he need not lift his little finger since there is already a Congress ministry with a Congress majority here, which will do everything that needs to be done…I did not beg for money in Noakhali because I received unsought about three lakh rupees.

Aha! Now we know why he went there. Like other charlatans of his sort, the man would move on once money stopped coming in.

Today I thought I should hold out the begging bowl here and awaken the conscience of the people…I can only remind you of your duty. I cannot perform your duty. Hence you must contribute generously to the Bihar fund.

So 'duty' means 'give me money'. But I won't do anything in return. My duty is to simply talk shite and collect money.

A Muslim child must feel entirely safe in a Hindu locality and the Muslims should be convinced of this change of heart. A friend came to me and asserted that there was a time in Bihar when Hindus and Muslims lived together and called each other uncles. Today it is no longer like that. We must atone for this ...

By giving this fucker money. If Muslim kids are unsafe somewhere, Gandhi turns up with his begging bowl. There is a well known story in Hindi by Bhagvaticharan Verma called 'Prayaschit' (Repentance).  It concerns the daughter-in-law of a wealthy family who throws a utensil at a thievish cat. The cat dies. Immediately, crooked Pundits turn up demanding huge sums of money for a ceremony of expiation. Luckily, the cat wasn't really dead. It got up and ran away.

Gandhi was essentially a crooked Pundit. He wanted people to believe they had been 'polluted'. They must give him money as 'Prayaschit'. But, the truth is, pollution isn't a real thing. It is shite only a fucking cretin from Kathiawar- where Rulers spend their time raping all and sundry- would believe, or pretend to believe.

Gandhijike Dukhe Dilki Pukar: I, pp. 136, and Harijan, 30-3-1947 (94: 85-86)
Speech at Prayer Meeting, Patna, March 12, 1947

... Today I visited a village where Hindus had caused great damage. An old Muslim showed me his own house and those of his relations with broken door-frames where bricks were removed from the doorsill. I was shocked and shaken to see that the Hindus had caused these depredations.

Gujeratis have always been prejudiced against Biharis. They don't think a Bihari ceases to have Bihari proclivities just because his name is Ram not Rahim. The truth, however, is Kathiawar could show plenty of door-frames broken by the minions of Rulers who were rounding up women for him to rape.

I had wept when I saw the ruins caused by Muslims in Noakhali. Today also I might have wept. But my tears cannot render any succour to the sufferers. What I witnessed today does not behove human beings. We are all responsible for this vandalism so close to the city of Patna. Even if you did not participate personally in the loot, you cannot escape the charge of abetting the marauders. A mosque was also damaged in the village Kumarahar…Those who desecrated the mosque were not men but devils; because mosques, temples or churches are all houses of the Lord.

Nonsense! They were criminals. By saying they were devils or beasts, Gandhi was evading his responsibility as the Leader of the Party ruling the Province to uphold the Law and catch and prosecute criminals. Gandhi himself says he knows Congressmen were guilty. Why did he not initiate proceedings against them?

I have come here today to convey to you my grief. You may perhaps be smiling and thinking that whatever happened was all very good. But I assert that this is potent injustice. I am grieved when I hear that Muslims have desecrated a temple. Should I retaliate by damaging a mosque? How can such damage save the temple or benefit the Hindu religion?

Gandhi's duty was to get his Party to 'retaliate' by capturing and prosecuting the criminals. Turning up with sermons and a collection plate was the act of a scoundrel.

If Muslims are about to desecrate a temple, it becomes my duty to prevent them from their vandalism, irrespective of my not being an idol-worshipper. I should hug the idol and request them not to demolish the temple.

Then why did the imbecile not actually do so?

I should lay down my life to protect the idol but refuse to hand it over to them.

This cretin also said Hindus should lay down their lives for 'Khilafat'? Why did he not himself die

My entreaties will impress them, they will realise that I mean no harm to them and then they will become my friends...
Gandhijike Dukhe Dilki Pukar: I, pp. 23-5, and Harijan, 30-3-1947 (94: 102-03)

They will also give you their grand-daughters to sleep naked with.

Discussion with Relief Committee Members, March 15, 1947
Will you advise Muslims to return to their villages in the prevailing disturbed conditions?

Remember this question is being asked of the leader of the Ruling Party. It was his duty to say- 'yes. I have ordered that any Congress Member who doesn't help in this will be summarily expelled from the party. Their political career will be over. Criminals will be rounded up and prosecuted. Known troublemakers will be placed under Preventive Detention. The provisions of DORA will be applied. 'Iron Man' Sardar Patel will transfer and demote any police official or magistrate who drags his feet in this matter'.

Did Gandhi do his duty? No. He was acting as though he could still shift all blame to the Brits. But now his own bunch of Brown Men were in charge. Yet his tune had not changed.

If you have the courage and if you have the requisite faith in God, I shall advise you to return to your villages.

But if you have faith in God, you won't listen to a stupid charlatan.

I do realise that it is a difficult task. If I had under gone such harrowing experience, perhaps I myself would not have been able to go back; it would have made me a raving lunatic. The memory of murdered men and women would have haunted me. But I aspire to reach a stage when I shall have such abiding faith in God that I would go and stay in the midst of people who had become my enemies.

But you'd still ask them for money and would move on if they didn't give it to you.

If there is no change of heart in the majority community, what should the suffering minority do? Should they live in small pockets or leave the province forever?

Hearts don't matter. What matters is whether the Law is upheld. You run away from an area where you are deeply loved but where everybody keeps raping and robbing you and the police say 'have faith in God. Submit cheerfully to having your ass pounded. Over the course of decades, your tormentors may experience a change of heart. At the very least, they may transfer their attentions to a younger person with a tighter anal sphincter'.

If you do not return and since it was the fault of the Hindus, the Government is bound to compensate you for the loss of your property.

A blatant lie. Indian law had no such provision.

But I do not understand your demand that the Government should allot land somewhere else.

Because the guy was a shite lawyer. It is perfectly proper for an exchange of assets between two collectives to be mediated by the Courts and the Administration.

Well, if you can arrange mutual exchanges, no one can prevent you. But if the Government arranges this, it will not lead to a purification of hearts.

Lawyers may not be nice people but they can be useful. Shitheads who want money to bring about 'purification' are useless. Anyway, everybody already knew how the thing would work. If Muslims touch your heart, immediately pass that pollution on to the Dalits. Start gassing on about their suffering. If they protest against being massacred, turn the conversation to the plight of the Muslims. In the old days, how this would all end would be in a shower of abuse directed at the British. But those guys had escaped the shithole.

Many people are talking of pockets. I simply do not understand this. If those villages where the Muslims are in majority welcome you, who can prevent you from going there? Similarly, no one can prevent you from leaving the province if you decide to go in spite of my promises of affection…

Land was scarce so Hindus would turn on any locality where Muslims were becoming concentrated. In any case, Muslims in Muslim majority areas were bound to own land. So they were a target worth going after. Of course, ethnic cleansing was an inefficient solution if you could collect protection money instead. This was more particularly true if you couldn't gain legal title to the land of those you hack to pieces. Your labor wasn't properly recompensed. It was this realization which disincentivised ethnic cleansing by Hindus. You do the work and some fucking Kayastha or Bania gets the property. On top of that, to add insult to injury, they talk Gandhian shite and collect lots of money as 'prayaschitam' payments.

Should or should not those who have committed murder, rape, arson and other heinous crimes receive appropriate punishment? If you think they should, how will you advise the Government of Bihar?
Of course, those responsible for devilish deeds must be punished. The Government of Bihar has not abjured the principle of punishment. There is no such government anywhere in the world today. When such a government comes into being, I shall listen to their argument. But a government which believes in the theory of crime and punishment but does not punish the criminal has no right to call itself a government…

This is the crux of the matter. Gandhi's Congress had no right to call itself a government. But Gandhi did not care. That is why he took no action.

How will it be possible to make good the historical, cultural, social and religious damage done by the madness of the majority?
This has been a cruel and terrible tragedy. Such holocausts have shaken the world earlier and will do so even in the future. Only when we are reformed and tolerant enough to realize that all religions lead to the same God called by various people by various names, will the world change for the better.

Why had there been no such 'holocaust' in countries under the rule of law where people had violent religious differences? The clue is in the phrase 'rule of law'.

Till then the earth not be a habitable place. Till that change comes about, it is impossible to prevent such barbarity and the irreparable losses resultant from it.

Yet, everywhere we look, the earth is increasingly habitable precisely because it is easy to 'prevent barbarity'. You pay your taxes and call the police if you see or hear of anything untoward. That's it. That's the whole story. You don't need Mahatmas doing Satyagraha or Maharishis teaching 'yogic flying' which causes 'peace rays' to permeate the global atmosphere and thus prevent Nuclear Holocaust.

What should be done with those officers who openly helped the rioters and deliberately helped one side against the other?
Those officers against whom such charges can be proved can have no place in the government.

Proved by whom? The Government. But Gandhi's Congress Government had no interest in doing this. Gandhi wasn't even pretending to bring his rogue party members to book. Any ordinary politician would say 'we have ordered an inquiry. Steps are being taken.'

What do you propose to do to prevent the repetition of riots at places where the Muslims have suffered? Even now the houses and properties of Muslims are being damaged.
I am doing my best to prevent a repetition. I shall continue to stay here till I succeed in my effort. I have already declared that I shall do or die.

But he had a long history of saying that and then neither dying nor doing anything useful.

God will either grant me success or put an end to my life.

So Gandhi's God was Godse.

I believe that a change of heart is essential if I am to succeed. As I have been telling the Hindus in Noakhali, this is not a work where the army or police can be of much help. You must gather courage and fear no one except God. I shall advise the Ministers to frame a law making Hindus responsible for the safety of the Muslim minority. Such laws will not in fact be needed where hearts have been purified.

So, instead of useful laws which mean something, you will have useless laws which mean nothing.

Can the cruelties and injustices meted out to us detain you for long in Bihar? Your prolonged presence is needed for the help of the refugees.
You need not worry on that account. I shall not leave Bihar so long as Hindus and Muslims do not jointly allow me to do so on the basis of their brotherly feelings.

By April, Nehru had conceded Pakistan. Bihari Muslims could stay as second class citizens. Many continued to leave. A few were killed. What had begun with the cow agitation in 1917, when Gandhi was in Champaran, ended in 1947 with the final defeat of not just the Muslims, but the Rule of Law. Barrister Gandhi can't be blamed for this. But the Kayastha lawyer politicians and Firangi Mahal type Ulema fucked up that part of the world to lasting effect.

Will you call them Congressmen who organised and led the recent riots? If not, what action will be taken against them to preserve the prestige of the Congress?
How can those who participated in riots be called Congressmen?

Because they were members of the Indian National Congress. Some held high office in consequence.

Before condemning them, I must listen to their versions of the story. I am a devotee of truth and shall lay down my life in serving truth.

Gandhi was always laying down his life for one lie or another. This helped him sleep easier with naked little girls. 

Gandhi called Congress workers to a meeting, where he interrogated their alleged role in the rioting.
Discussion with Congress Workers, Bir, March 19, 1947

... Is it or isn’t it a fact that quite a large number of Congressmen took part in the disturbances? I ask this question because people are making this allegation. But the Congressmen assembled here can themselves tell the truth. How many of the 132 members of your Committee [district Committee of the Congress party] were involved? It would be a very great thing if all of you assert that none of you was involved.
But this assertion cannot be made…I wish to ask you, how could you live to see an old woman of 110 years being butchered before your eyes? How could you tolerate it? I do not wish to talk about anything else. I have vowed to do or die. I will not rest nor let others rest. I would wander all over on foot and ask the skeletons lying about how all that had happened. There is such a fire raging in me that I would know no peace till I have found a solution for all this.

But he fucked off to Delhi and the comforts of the Birla Mansion soon enough.

You know what happened when I reached Sodepur [in Bengal, where Gandhi was until he hurried to Bihar]…I had not gone there for rest. I proceeded to Srirampur. It was a predominantly Muslim area with only a sprinkling of Hindu houses which had been burnt down. The Muslims welcomed me. Even then I hurried from there and wandered from village to village. I am afraid I will have to go through the same ordeal in Bihar. If I find that my comrades are deceiving me, I will be furious and I shall walk barefoot on and on through hail or storm.
...When Muslims in Noakhali taunted me to go to Bihar, I used to feel hurt. Some Muslims look upon me as an enemy of Islam. Some people expressed doubts whether I could achieve what I wanted to in Noakhali. But I had no doubts…The work in Bihar this time is far more difficult and significant. This time it seems I will have to strive to the utmost to prove that Hinduism and Islam can exist side by side.

The British upheld the Rule of Law. Hindus and Muslims lived happily side by side. They do so in any country with competent rulers are interested in getting richer and more secure.

This is being put to the test today. Many people believe that they cannot and one will have to remain subordinate to the other.

Everyone has to be subordinate to the Law which itself may reflect the preferences of the hegemonic majority. The alternative is Lebanon.

I do not think so…There are people today who declare that I am out of date and that I should give up all politics. I do not agree with this. This region is teeming with Hindus. We will not rely upon the police for our work although they are our police. We must do this work ourselves...

Gandhi had said he would set up a parallel system of Nationalist Courts and Colleges on the Sinn Fein model. This initiative failed as did his Khaddar and Nai Talim and so forth. After his death, Vinobha Bhave had an even more useless 'Bhoodhan' movement. Suppose the INC had done some worthwhile 'grassroots' work. It would never have turned into a dynastic shambles.

The Government here have also deployed the police. I ask them, what is the police for? Muslims are not going to kill me here; the Hindus may probably think of doing so. That is why I wish that the task of establishing peace should be undertaken by you all and not only by the Government although it is our Government. You should either achieve success in your mission or die in the attempt.

Dying is not a problem. We all do so and the thing is perfectly legal. Killing crazy nutjobs however is illegal unless you are a policeman going about your duties in a lawful manner. Gandhi's 'voluntarism' was simple stupidity.

Gandhi felt that one could not talk enough about forgiveness and repentance. His Bihar prayer meetings are singular in this respect.
Speech at Prayer Meeting, Chorhuan, March 21, 1947

... You should go to the Muslim brethren and tell them to forget the past, that it will never be repeated and persuade them to return and live peacefully as before. Tell them that their misery is your misery, that you are their brothers, that both Hindus and Muslims are sons of the same soil, both eat and drink from the same source and breathe the same air, hence there should be no ill will between them. Tell them that you will not get any peace of mind until they return to their homes.
It is possible that the Muslims may turn round and ask how they can go back and live in the houses where their kith and kin have been done to death. They will be justified in saying so. But if the guilty persons go to the Muslims with truly penitent hearts, I am sure, they will be persuaded. Human hearts melt before love. When the murderers themselves go to them in sackcloth and ashes and promise them never to repeat such deeds, even a stony heart will melt.

But, after moving back, they may still get killed by militants. That's what happened to the Kashmiri Pundits. Unless your neighbors have a reputation for shooting nutters, you aren't any safer just because they too get killed when the mobs come.

By contrast, you can live safely among people who hate you provided the Rule of Law is upheld and 'the smack of firm Government' is always in evidence.

You should not depend on the Government to do this work. The Government will of course lend a hand. But it is mainly your task. The Government can give you tools and materials; but the cleaning has to be done by you.

Cleaning can be done by hired cleaners. The Law can only be upheld by the Government.

Amidst this mad upheaval there were some Hindus, like oases in a desert, who risked the wrath of the violent mobs and saved the lives of many Muslims and gave them shelter.

How were they able to do so? The answer is that they had a ferocious reputation. The mobs moved on to find easier targets.

They deserve congratulations though they do not need any…Since we have become strangers to human sentiments these days, we are impelled to congratulate any evidence of human love. Those who gave shelter to Muslims did not do so from any selfish motives.

That may be, but it is also the case that it had a reputational benefit. It showed you and your sept were mean motherfuckers.

If I have not gone to meet them, let them not think that I have no regard or respect for them. I would love to meet them and know how they saved the lives of Muslims. I have been unable to go to them in spite of my admiration because I have come here like a physician who goes only to those who are suffering. I have come to lighten the sufferings of Muslims in Bihar.

And collect money and then move on once again without fixing anything.

I have been told that the Hindus have also suffered in the riots at some places. If there are any such Hindus, they too will be given relief. But I pay more attention to Muslims because there are quite a few of them here who are willing to help the Hindus...

Gandhi also claimed to pay special attention to Dalits. What he didn't pay special attention to was the thing he had gone to England to study. The Rule of Law. If India had developed indigenous institutions for conflict resolution and contract enforcement and the punishment of torts and crimes then it would not have needed British officials to keep the peace. Gandhi's methods prevented India developing this indigenous capacity. Thus Independence was a gift from the British and, in so far, as it did not descend into anarchy, it was thanks to a somewhat unimaginative use of the Institutions which the British had left behind.

Why did Gandhi fail so badly? The simple answer is that he had bizarre beliefs. One of the most mischievous of these beliefs is that pollution incurred by being touched by the plight of the untouchables must be quickly transferred to any Muslim in the vicinity. This was the Congress Party's game of tag. Your family is protected at the price of letting 'infection' burgeon everywhere.