I
Now we come to a very important chapter in the life of Savarkar. By now Rajaji, the whilom member of the All- India Congress Committee, released to the press his corres- pondence with Mr. Jinnah concerning his offer to the League leader which was fathered by Gandhiji during his fast at the Aga Kh^n Palace. Rajaji had now advanced to the far end of the proposed Pakistan scheme. Speaking on the birthday anniversary of the Prophet at Bangalore on April 12, 1943, Rajaji had said : “ I stand for Pakistan because I do not want that State where we Hindus and Muslims are both not honoured. Let Muslims have Pakistan. If we agree then our country will be saved.’’ ^ Mr. Jinnah in his press interview on July 30, 1944, referred to the correspondence with Rajaji and the proposal put forward by him and said : “ As regards the merits of the proposal, Mr. Gandhi is offering a shadow, a husk, a maimed, mutilated and moth-eaten Pakistan and thus trying to pass off as having met our Pakistan scheme and Muslim demand.” In one of his telegrams sent to Mr. Jinnah and now released to the press, Rajaji said : “ Mr. Gandhi,
though not vested with representative or special capacity in this matter, definitely approved of my proposals and autho- rized me to approach you on that basis. The weight of his opinion would most probably secure Congress acceptance.” ^
Mark the secret promise of the truth-seeker, Gandhiji, who abhorred secrecy in any matter. Read this further confession of Rajaji in his statement of July 16, 1944, issued from Panchgani in which he said : “ It is now two years since I started work, even though I had secured Gandhi ji’s unquali- fied support to the scheme and it conceded all that the Muslim
^ Dr. Pattabhi Silaramayya, History oj the Indian National Congress, Vol. II, p. 507.
2 The Times of India, Bombay, dated 31-7-1944,
FIGHT FOR AKHAND HINDUSTHAN 323
League ’lad ever demanded in its resolution of 1940.” ^ Mark the words ‘ two years Was Savarkar’s reading of the mind of Gandhiji and his satellites incorrect, his foresight blurring and the charges he levelled against them false ? Was Savarkar wrong in his devastating attack on Rajaji’s role and Gandhiji’s goal when they were actually hatching the secret move against the integrity of India ?
Rajaji’s new offer contained the following terms : That the Muslim League should endorse the Indian demand for Indian Independence and co-opei iie with the Congress in the forma- tion of a provisional Intc’in. Government and conceded that if the Muslim majority pro^•Ihces in the West and East decide by a plebiscite held on the basis of adult franchise in favour of a sovereign independent State separate from Hindusthan, the decision should be given effect to ; that in the event of separation a mutual agreement should be entered into for safe- guarding defence, commerce and communications and that transfer of population should be voluntary. In the meanwhile Gandhiji wrote a letter to Jinnah asking him for an interview. Mr. Jinnah, who was well drilled, like the German war machines, in conducting political negotiations, replied on July 24, 1944, from Srinagar to Gandhiji’s letter dated the 17th July from Panchgani that he would be glad to receive Gandhiji at his house in Bombay after his return. Mr. Jinnah saw his life’s opportunity. When the scheme was out, there was a flutter for a while among the Congress circles and press ; but they were stunned to see that their holy father, Gandhiji, himself was acting as the Godfather to the unholy scheme of partitioning their Motherland and thereafter kept a guilty silence on the treacherous move.
The Liberal leaders, Sir Chimanlal Setalvad and Sir V. N. Chandavarkar, described Rajaji’s offer as a danger to India’s security !
Savarkar who believed that India was a united whole through ages and whose concept and worship of the Mother- land were incomparable curtly stated ; “ It is really unjust to look upon Rajaji alone as the villain of this tragedy. His fault is that he allowed himself to play as a willing tool in the hands of Gandhiji.” Savarkar flew into a rage at this beginning
- The Times of India, Bombay, dated 31-7-1944.
324 8AVARKAR AMD HIS TIMES
of the end of the United India. He added that “ the Indian provinces were not the private properties of Gandhi ji and Rajaji so that they could make a gift of them to anyone they liked.” ^ Savarkar further declared that the Quit India Move- ment of the Congress did ultimately end in the Split India demand as foretold by him, issued an appeal to the Hindus in general and Hindu Sanghatanists in particular to denounce this nefarious proposal for Pakistan uncompromisingly and fundamentally, and asked the people to observe the first week of August 1944, as the Akhand Hindusthan and Anti- Pakistan week.
The tussle between the forces of Akhand Hindusthan led by Savarkar and the disruptive forces led by Jinnah and sup- ported by Gandhiji and Rajaji aroused keen interest among political observers abroad. The American papers sought Savarkar’s views regarding Gandhi-Rajaji proposal. So Savarkar cabled to the United Press of America, Washington, that the Hindu Mahasabha, the All-India representative body of the Hindus, condemned emphatically Gandhiji’s proposal to vivisect India allowing the Muslims to form separate inde- pendent States, and added that the Hindu Mahasabhedtes would never tolerate the breaking up of the unity of India, their Fatherland and Holyland.^ The same message was cabled by Savarkar to Mr. L. S. Amery, the then Secretary of State for India. The political situation was worsening. Meetings supporting Rajaji’s proposal at many places ended in pande- monium, huge demonstrations were held against his formula and dissatisfaction against it was expressed on a country-wide scale.
After a few days, as arranged between Gandhiji and Jinnah, the Pakistani special train guarded by the Khaksar Muslim Volunteers and protected by British soldiers who “ happened ” to travel in the same train, left Wardha for Bombay with Gandhiji inside. The nationalist opposition to him was demonstrated all the way. At several stations, black flag demonstrations were staged by Hindu Sanghatanists and other nationalists. And lo ! On his arrival in Bombay, Gandhiji and his commercialised press appealed to the cotmtry to observe restraint and the people were asked to pray for the
^ Statement dated 14-7-1944. ^ Cablegram dated 26-7-1944.
FIGHT FOR AKHAHD HINDUSTHAN 325
success of the very talks which were dangerous to the unity and integrity of India. Organs like the Times of India, Bombay, that change their minds with the change of their ma.sters, went a long way in welcoming the readiness on Gandhiji’s part to concede the principle of Pakistan as ‘ a constructive contribution towards the Congress-League settle- ment ’ though the proposal was an avowedly destructive contribution to the Indian nation and to the integrity of India.
Throughout this period Savarkar went on doing his duty of cautioning the nation against the tragedy. In a statement then issued he drew the at tn ion of the people to the sins and grievous political errors Gandhiji and the Congress were committing, and referred rather indignantly amid a bitter atmosphere to the part Gandhiji was playing : “ The mono- maniacal fit can hardly go further ; nor sin could be darker. But the darkest sin of vivisection of our Motherland and Holy- land is still going to crown his political career, and all this in the name of non-violence, truth and God ! ” ^
Even with the strong opposition the nation demonstrated to his formula, Rajaji was audacious enough to say that he found almost all important sections of the Indian people ready to support his Pakistani proposal except the Hindu Mahasabha which was determined to offer uncompromising opposition. He acknowledged publicly that the first spark of patriotism was lit in him in his youthful days by reading Savarkar ’s famous book. The Indian War of Independence of 1857. Rajaji further referred to Savarkar’s attitude to his formula and said : “ Mr. Savarkar has stated that it is the duty of every Hindu Sanghatanist to denounce the proposals. Mr. Savarkar may thus define the duty of the Hindu Sangha- tanists, but what about the duty of the Indian Sanghatanists whose aim is to be free and not only to be organized against the Muslims ? ” In his scathing and telling retort, Savarkar said : “ This was a case of Rajaji against Rajaji.” He added that Rajaji would bear witness to the undeniable truth that he who ushered the word Independence in poHtical currency for the first time in the recent history of India by proclaiming absolute political Independence of India, rose in revolt and in- vested the question of Indian Independence with international
1 Statement dated 13-8-1944.
326 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES
importance, must be knowing at least something of what that Independence, freedom, and Indian Sanghatan really im- plied ! ” Savarkar proceeded in his master hit : “ I do not know whether Rajaji’s acquaintance with Sanskrit is on a par with that of Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru, the knight-errant, who is now out to prove that the Arabianized and Persianized Urdu Language and the Urdu script are better entitled to be the national Language and national script of the Hindus than Sanskritized Hindi. But Rajaji is after all born in an Acharya family ; it would not be far from truth if I presume that he must be knowing this much that the word Sanghatan means pre-eminently consolidation, integi’ation, and unifica- tion and can never mean disintegration, dislocation, vivisec- tion or decentralisation.” He further asked Rajaji whether the latter who supported the principle of vivisection of India was an Indian Sanghatanist or those who opposed vivisection, and disintegration were Indian Sanghatanists ? Who could claim to be Indian Sanghatanists ? Tliose who led a butcher’s knife at the neck of the Motherland or those who wanted to ward off the murderous attack ? Never did Rajaji dare look at Savarkar again through the press. So smashing was the hit — a Savarkarian stroke, telling and crushing !
The talks of Gandhi ji with Jinnah in the palatial building of Jinnah at Mount Pleasant Road, Bombay, lasted for about three long weeks in September 1944. Jinnah was stubborn but shrewd, ruthless but realist in his own way in his demand for the vivisection of India. The underlining theme of Gandhiji’s arguments was that the British Government should be ousted first and then the right of self-determination would be given to the Muslims. Jinnah insisted that the settlement between the Hindus and Muslims should be first made. Gandhiji clearly agreed to the principle of Partition as be- tween brothers and promised that though he differed from Jinnah on the general basis, he would recommend to the Congress and the country the acceptance of the claim for separation as contained in the Muslim League resolution of Lahore of 1940. In a letter to Jinnah, Gandhiji said : “ If the vote is in favour of separation, it shall be agreed that those areas shall form a separate State as soon as possible after India is free from foreign domination and can therefore be
FIGHT FOR AKHAND HINDUSTHAN 327
constituted into two Sovereign Independent States.” Lastly, Gandhiji said : “ The League will however be free to remain out of any direct action to which the Congress may resort and in which the League may not be willing to participate.”
Thus the Muslim participation in the freedom struggle was nowhere guaranteed ; but the partition of India was guaran- teed by Gandhiji to Jinnah ! Gandhiji paid nineteen visits to Jinnah’s house without receiving a single in return, even observed his ‘ Mondays ’ on Sundays to facilitate the progress of the talks and returned ith an unpleasant face from Mount Pleasant. The master diplomat in Jinnah knew that now the British Government was required to sign his perfidious plot against the Indian integrity. Thus Gandhiji, who had regarded Pakistan as a sin, a patent untruth, a denial of God, and the undoing of the work of a good many ancestors agreed to lay the axe at the root of Hindusthan and to cut off the holiest part of India for the mere asking of the Muslims !
Savarkar’s heart was torn with anxiety ; his anguish was unimaginable. A true son of India, he was grappling to save the neck of his Motherland from the knife of the butchers, fighting against the colossal betrayal by great leaders, against the long purses of the multi-millionaires who sided with those leaders and the great guilty press that saw the treachery being enacted, but shed no tears, not to speak of offering any opposition to it. Savarkar shouted : “ Hark countrymen, the Indian National Congress, which was ushered into existence to consolidate the Indian Nation, has itself betrayed its sole mission, the very justification of its existence and falling a victim to the pseudo-nationalistic malady, has dealt the un- kindest cut of all at the Indian national integrity.” The keeper turned verily a poacher ! As balanced a statesman as Sri Srinivas Sastri said that it was impossible for a genuine nationalist to remain tongue-tied while the integrity of our Motherland was being bartered !
To all sensible politicians and the national-minded people in general who publicly protested against the Pakistani proposal, Savarkar fervently appealed in a statement to organize a whirlwind protest against the sinful Congress designs to break up the integrity of Hindusthan, and not to remain tongue-tied without raising a single word of protest against the political
328 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES
matricide of their Motherland. As a counter-move to the Gandhi-Rajaji formula Savarkar contemplated to hold an Akhand Hindusthan Leaders’ Conference on the 7 th and tUh of October 1944. He invited all those leaders to the Conference who had taken up a definite attitude to oppose any efforts aimed at breaking up the integrity of Hindusthan as a Nation and a State on any grounds whatsoever, whether religious, cultural, linguistic or economic.
The Akhand Hindusthan Leaders ’ Conference was held accordingly on the 7th and 8th of October 1944, at New Delhi as scheduled. More than three hundred leaders including Master Tara Singh from the Punjab attended the Conference. His Holiness Sri Shankaracharya of Puri was also present and blessed the Conference in a dignified Sanskrit speech. The Hon. Sir Jogendra Singh, Member for Education, the Hon. Dr. N. B. Khare, Commonwealth Relations Member of the Government of India, were also present. Inaugurating the Conference, Sri Jamnadas Mehta, denounced the concept of Pakistan and asserted in his briUiant style : “ As a Hindu,
I reject it ; as an Indian, I repudiate it, and as an inter- nationalist, I repel it.” Mehta further called for an unrelenting war on the enemies of Hindusthan which he said, were the British imperialism, Muslim fanaticism. Congress wobblings and our own apathy. In his brief brilhant speech, Savarkar explained the object of the Conference and dwelt on its representative character. He hoped that there would be no difference of opinion on the main resolution.
Dr. Radha Kumud Mookerji, a renowned authority on Indian History and Politics, presided over the Conference, and in his Presidential Address said : “ A crisis of the first magnitude has been created in our national history by some great leaders who have convinced themselves that it is impos- sible for our Mother Country to attain her independence and the status which is her birth-right except on the basis of Hindu-Muslim Unity.” ^ He lamented the misreading of the national history and politics on their part and asserted that the Homeland of the Hindus through millenniums of their history had been nothing short of the whole of India. The man of vast erudition further said that Pakistan was a totally
- The Times of India, Bombay, dated 9-10-1944.
FIGHT FOR AKHAND HINDUSTHAN 329
unacceptable scheme as a solution of the communal problem, as it sought to solve it at the cost of the unity of the Mother Coimtry.
Master Tara Singh declared at the Conference that the Sikhs were the gatekeepers of India. He said that he had not come to lend support, but to seek support for the Sikh determination to guard the Frontiers of Akhand Hindusthan, and sounded a warning that even if the majority of the Hindus agreed to Pakistan, they ’ ‘•d no right to force it upon the Sikhs. Seveial other leaci* r? from Bengal, Assam, Madras, Jaipur, Meerut, Barreillj a’ d Poona supported the main resolution which unambiguously declared its unflinching faith in the oneness and integrity of India and its firm con- viction that the partition of India would be fatal to the best interests of the country as a whole and to every community.
Among the three hundred sympathetic messages received, those from Sri Srinivas Sastri, Sir R. P. Paranjpe and Sri Ramrao Deshmukh exhorted the Hindus to value the interests of the country more than those of a passing political party and wished success for the Conference.
The Conference ended in a great enthusiasm and a deter- mination of the nationalists to oppose Pakistan. This was the greatest demonstration of the nationalist opposition to the scheme of Pakistan during this period.
In August 1944, Dr. Mookerjee visited Poona. Savarkar appreciated his “ recent condemnation of Provincial self- determination ” and desired in a telegraphic message to L. B. Bhopatkar that the crown of thorns of the Presidentship of the Hindu Mahasabha should be bestowed upon Dr. Mookerjee next year. In the second week of November 1944, Savarkar once again announced his irrevocable decision not to accept the Presidentship of the Hindu Mahasabha any more. Dr. Moonje, who could read the times with a clear foresight, appealed personally to Savarkar in all sincerity to reconsider his decision as he thought that there was no other force but Savarkar that could avert the coming disaster ! But Savarkar’s deteriorating health was now unequal to the strain and task and he told Dr. Moonje that his decision was irrevocable.
330 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES
In the second week of November 1944, Savarkar appealed to the Viceroy and to the Governor of Sind to lift the ban on the Satyartha Prakash and added that the proscription of the Satyartha Prakash was bound to result in a similar demand for the ban on the Koran all over India. In this connection he also saw the Viceroy, Lord Wavell, on November 27, 1944. But the Congress remained still unconcerned in spite of the suppression of the right of freedom of worship of the Arya Samajists. Not only that, but the Congressmen remained neutral when Bhai Parmananda moved an adjournment motion over the Satyartha Prakash ban in the Central Assembly and the motion failed for want of support !
Towards the end of the year the Hindu Mahasabha held its annual Session at Bilaspur. Savarkar inaugurated this session over which Dr. Shyama Prasad Mookerjee presided. In his brilliant and succinct address Dr. Mookerjee put before the people Savarkarism in a modified form although couched in the style of a brilliant university professor ! The main features of the Session were the elucidation of the economic policy of the Hindu Mahasabha and the adoption of a draft of the Future Constitution of India prepared by the Gokhale Committee and which was moved by Sri L. B. Bhopatkar.
At Bilaspur Savarkar also presided over the Satyartha Prakash Conference at the time of the Mahasabha Session and expressed his righteous indignation by declaring that had there been Hindu Sanghatanist ministries in all other pro- vinces, the Koran would have been instantly banned till the Satyartha Prakash was fully restored in Sind.
n
The year 1945 was a turning point in Savarkar’s life in many respects. Owing to a serious breakdown in his health, his constitution that stood the hardships of the Deathland, the strain of the social work in Ratnagiri and since 1937 the whirlwind propaganda from one end of Hindusthan to the other, was now refusing to stand the strain of active political life any more.
In the month of March 1945, Savarkar suffered a great
FIGHT FOR AKHAND HINDUSTHAN 331
bereavement. His elder brother Ganeshpant alias Babarao Savarkar passed away at Sangli after a prolonged and painful illness. Savarkar’s lifelong trusted elderly counsel, com- patriot and heroic brother thus passed away. No brothers in modern politics stood by their brother through thick and thin as did Babarao Savarkar and Dr. N. D. Savarkar loyally stand through fire and water by their beloved brother, Tatya. India’s pioneer devotee of revolution, Babarao Savarkar was a patriot of heroic enduring, endless sacrifice and silent selfless service. The younger brother. Dr. Narayanrao Savarkar, attended the sickbed of Babarao at Sangli. Savarkar had seen the ailing brother a few days before the latter’s death. His distant stay made him write in his anxious moments letters to his brother who was on his death-bed. Savarkar wrote to his dying brother : “ Our life work (i.e. the work of the three brothers) was one. In our generation we have tried to repay our spiritual debt to our forefathers. No historian of modern Hindusthan will fail to write in golden letters one separate chapter. Our political opponents have familiarized the title of that chapter as the Savarkar Epoch. By giving the countrymen two battle cries, “ Victory to the Goddess of Liberty ” and “ Hindusthan belongs to the Hindus,” we have thus been instrumental twice in bringing about a fundamental revolution in the nation’s ideology and active political life.”
“ The Lord of Death, who is now standing by your side, is meeting you, not like a foe, but like a friend. You have lived up to your life’s ideal. Never did even once you dream of abandoning the torch of freedom which in your boyhood you vowed to hold aloft. Great were your sufferings. Equally great have been your joys. You have bravely suffered the hardships of a political prisoner condenmed to a life sentence in the Andamans. In sufferings as in happiness, never did you drop down the banner of Revolution.”
The heroic fighter died thinking only of his country’s wel- fare. An anxious enquiry on his lips an hour or two before his last breath was about the Communist threat to Nepal ! For, Nepal was his beloved Hindu Kingdom from his boy- hood. Gandhi wrote a letter offering his condolences to Savarkar addressed to his Ratnagiri residence which Savarkar had left eight years ago. Gandhiji could send immediate
332 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES
condolence by a telegram to His Exalted Highness the Nizam of Hyderabad on his mother’s death, but he wrote a letter to Savarkar and that too to a wrong address. Can this wrong address on the letter be a mere slip of memory committed by the unfailing mind of Gandhiji ? Leaders, statesmen and newspapers from America, England, France, Germany and Japan knew that the residence of Savarkar was at Bombay. Be that as it may, Savarkar, however, thanked Shriman Gandhiji sincerely in fluent Hindi, ending his letter with an inquiry about the health of Gandhiji. What a geniality of a wronged soul !
The first quarter of the year 1945 witnessed a historic event. It was at this juncture that the late Bhulabhai Desai, the leader of the Congress party in the Central Assembly, who had seen the Viceroy, Gandhiji and Liaqat Ali during the early part of the year, made a secret pact with Mr. Liaqat Ali Khan, the Secretary of the League Party in the Central Assembly, with the secret consent of the truth-seeker, Gandhiji, who had always declared that there was no place for secrecy with him. This treacherous pact surpassed the Rajaji formula. It agreed to a percentage of fifty-fifty in all representations for the Hindus and the Muslims. The parity of the alliance of the Congress with the League in the Central Assembly now ripened into a reality. Shortly after this Lord Wavell, the Viceroy, flew to London on March 21, 1945, with these proposals for the formation of an Interim Government at the Centre. This was a further loss of Hindu rights. This pact was also supported by the Sapru Committee’s findings which were cabled to Lord Wavell in London simultaneously. There was a race, as it were, of betraying Hindu interests amongst all the Hindu leaders except the Mahasabha leaders ! Though the Sapru Committee stood for a Union of India as also for adult franchise and joint electorates, it conceded parity of representation in the Central Assembly and the Union Executive between Muslims and Hindus other than the Scheduled Castes. The Muslims pocketed the proposals of parity. The British Government as usual accepted the parity, the worst part of the proposals, and threw away the proviso for joint electorates ! The Hindu Mahasabha never hoped for any honourable settlement to come out of it. Dr. Moonje
FIGHT FOR AKHANO HINDUSTHAN 333
warned the Hindus not to expect too much of Wavell’s visit to London.
Though Savarkar was keeping indifferent health and was hardly out of his bereavement, he had to direct some impor- tant features of policy regarding the Hindu States. So in response to the fervent appeals from the States’ Hindu leaders like Sri Anand Priya of Baroda, he presided over the All-India Hindu States Conference at Baroda in April 1945. Then in the month of May, Savarkar’s only daughter Miss Prabhat was married at Poona <o Sri Madhavrao Chiplunkar, the grandson of the brother of Sri Vishnushastri Chiplunkar, the brilliant colleague of Tilak and eminent essayist of Maha- rashtra. During his stay at Poona Savarkar addressed the Hindu Rashtra Dal, — ^now outlawed — ^then a new semi- volunteer organization aiming at the spread and propagation of unalloyed Savarkarism for the consolidation and all-out social and political revolution in conformity with its ideal, which could not be principally preached in any other organization.
After a stay of nine weeks in London, Lord WaveU returned to India in the first week of June with the so-called Wavell Plan. At one stroke the three-year old deadlock was sought to be broken by the Viceroy through an announcement. In his broadcast His Excellency, the Viceroy, said he proposed, with the full support of His Majesty’s Government, to invite Indian leaders to take counsel with him with a view to the formation of a new Executive Council, more representative of organized political opinion. The proposed new Plan, he declared, would represent the main communities and would include an equal proportion of caste-Hindus and Muslims. There was no reference to the Indian States in the Plan, not to speak of Indian Independence. The Plan, however, pre- supposed full co-operation in the war against Japan by the leaders. Consequently, the erstwhile “ Quit India heroes ” were released to take part in the Simla Conference without even a shadow of success in their struggle. The Congress leaders were ready now to fight for British imperialism against the Japanese aggression and even against Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and his Indian National Army as openly declared by Pandit Nehru.
334 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES
With the blessings of the Mahatma and the betrayal of the nation sponsored by the Congress, Lord Wavell thus killed the last hope of democracy in India with his nefarious Plan. The Muslims who formed only 22 per cent of the total Indian population were given parity in representation with the caste- Hindus consisting of 54 per cent of the total Indian population. Hindus who formed nearly 75 per cent of the total Indian population were thereby divided between the caste-Hindus and the Scheduled Classes. The Congress represented the caste-Hindus through its Muslim President, Maulana Azad. The Muslims were represented through the League President, Mr. Jinnah, the parties in the Central Assembly were repre- sented through the leaders of their parties in the Central Assembly, and the Premiers of the Provinces were also invited to attend the Conference. The Sikhs and the Scheduled Classes were represented by their own leaders. The Hindu Mahasabha was the only political party that was deliberately ignored and dropped out of the Simla Conference. Even the mildest possible leader from the Hindu Mahasabha would not have stooped to agree to the anti-democratic, anti-progressive and unjust proposal of parity between the caste-Hindus and the Muslims.
The Conference met at Simla on June 28, 1945. Within the first few hours the Simla Conference agreed to the basic aspect of the Wavell Plan, namely the prosecution of war against Japan. But weeks of open and private negotiations thereafter failed to produce an agreement on the personnel of the Central Government Executive and the Simla Con- ference ended on the 14th July 1945, keeping on record the acceptance of the parity between the caste-Hindus and the Muslims. Thus the Wavell Plan failed according to plan, but assuring a further gain to the Muslims !
The Working Committee of the Hindu Mahasabha met in the meantime on the 24th and 25th of June at Poona. At a mammoth meeting attended by over seventy-five thousand people on the grounds of the S. P. College, Dr. S. P. Mookerjee under the presidentship of Savarkar made a very stirring speech condemning the Wavell Plan. A protest week was observed from July 1 to July 7, 1945, at the behest of the Hindu Mahasabha all over India. Accordingly thousands of
FIGHT FOR AKHAND HINDUSTHAH 335
meetings all over India simultaneously condemned the Wavell Plan as anti-Hindu, anti-national and anti-demo- cratic ! At a Bombay meeting during the protest week Dr. Mookerjee, the President of the Hindu Mahasabha, described the Simla Conference as a combination of conspirators comprising British imperialists, Muslim Leaguers and the Congress leaders.
There was a sense of embarrassment and shame in the general feeling and tone of the public for their nationalist leaders who had .stooped so low. Some of the Congress leaders were ashamed ir their heart of hearts for having supported the anti-national Wavell Plan. They had lost their face. Their Premiers, Pandit Govind Vallabh Pant and Sri B. G. Kher, were seized for a time with a feeling of perturbation at the permanent reduction of the Hindu majority to a minority and at the elevation of the Muslim minority to the majority. But their repentant awakening proved to be abortive and momentary. Perhaps their Mahratta blood must have boiled at the crushing humiliation meted out to the national majority of Hindusthan.
Savarkar called the parity between Hindus and Muslims as a negation of nationalism, and said that to honest thinking men, it was the pyre of Indian nationalism ! Where was the man of forward march and progress. Pandit Nehru ? This defender of democracy, the dreamer of the shape of things to come. Pandit Nehru, was all the while a party to this anti-national Wavell Plan. After some time the Congress leaders and papers, who always held the prestige of their High Command to be more precious than the interests of the nation in general, were callous enough to say that the Wavell Plan was an interim arrangement and so it could be tolerated. This face-saving argument of the leaders of the Congress evoked a crushing retort from Dr. Mookerjee who asked the Congress leaders : “ Can you ever commit an interim suicide ? If
not, then suicide once committed can never be undone ! ”
The country-wide protests against the parity proposals envisaged by the Wavell Plan were growing daily. The Hindu Mahasabha intended to launch direct action against the Wavell Plan. As a first step, eminent Mahasabha leaders like Sir Gokulchand Narang, Raja Maheswar Dayal and Rai
336 SAVABKAR AND HIS TIMES
Bahadur Harischandra renounced their titles. But unfortun- ately the Mahasabha President, Dr. S. P. Mookerjee, utterly failed to turn the boiling opposition to good account and to launch any direct action in defence of democracy and the rights of the national majority — the direct action which he once so much clamoured for inopportunely. Had the Hindu Mahasabha done this, it would have risen in the eyes of the public. It was here that the rudder of the ship of the Hindu Mahasabha broke down and the rudderless ship was swept down along with the inexperienced and vacillating captain into the trough of the popular estimation in the election held soon thereafter.
But the fact that the Hindu Mahasabha was the only political organization that stood stubbornly against the anti- national Wavell Plan will be recorded by history. Times needed a stronger action and efforts than they put in. Their protests were not powerful enough to bring down the prestige of the leaders of the Congress which had stooped to the anti-national, anti-democratic and anti-Hindu parity proposals as conceived by the Wavell Plan. Mere condemnation could not crush out the Congress misdeeds at the Simla Conference. It was thus that what Savarkar had won at Bhaganagar and Bhagalpur, Mookerjee lost at Simla. The Mahasabha really missed the bus !
After the failure of the Simla Conference, there were bickerings among Congressmen for a while. It was rumoured that Sardar Patel and Pandit Nehru were impatient of the moves taken by Rajaji and Bhulabhai Desai behind their back which had led to the proposals of the Wavell Plan. Sardar Patel was so indignant that at a meeting on the 9th August in Bombay he thundered : “ If such diplomatic efforts are
repeated, take it from me that I would be out of the Congress.” But the outcry and indignation was not the white heat, but a white-wash to save the party from an internal breakdown.
Savarkar was feeling the strain of the continuous whirlwind propaganda heavily. His health was fast deteriorating. With great efforts he could attend to important correspondence and allowed only important interviews in spite of medical advice. One of the most important interviews that took place in Augvist 1945 was with the representative of AUama Mishraki,
FIGHT FOR AKHAN0 HINDUSTHAN 337
the Chief of the Khaksars, regarding some scheme the Khaksars had issued for discussion.
At this time there was a move by some scheming brains in the Mahasabha to throw open the Hindu Mahasabha to the non-Hindus. Savarkar advised the Working Committee of the Hindu Mahasabha that they should keep the Hindu Mahasabha intact inasmuch as every political question in India was religious and every religious question was political. He further strongly affirmed that the Hindu Mahasabha must continue its mission evei after Hindusthan was politically free.
Ill
During the pendency of the Simla Conference Britain went to the polls and there was a landslide against the Conservative party and the Labour party was returned to office on July 10, 1945, with an overwhelming majority in Britain. Almost simultaneously Japan surrendered to the Allies in the East. World events moved with an electric rapidity. The Viceroy of India made a second trip to London in the latter half of August 1945, and returned to India after the middle of September 1945, to announce general elections to test the strength of the political parties, to break the ground for future political negotiations with the newly elected representatives, to hammer out a constitution and to negotiate a treaty with the Constituent Body.
Now all the issues, implications and intentions were to be clarified. Who represented the Muslims and who represented the Hindus ? The Congress with its gigantic political machinery plunged into the election campaign heart and soul. Supported by the ‘ Pakistan ’ purse, the Muslim League also entered the election arena with ‘ Pakistan or Perish ’ as its slogan. The Congress manifesto stressed the Quit India demand and the Congress leaders and the press swore by an undivided India. The Hindu Mahasabha with its meagre purse and scanty press entered the field with the slogans ‘ Independence and Integrity of India,’ ‘ By our way lies, O Hindus, your salvation, Congress way lies your destruction and ruin.’ The Mahasabha leaders announced with justifica-
22
338 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES
tion that ‘ a vote for the Congress was a vote for Pakistan ! ' Besides scanty press and a scanty purse, there was one more disadvantage from which the Hindu Mahasabha suffered. Throughout the election period the Hindu Mahasabha lacked the iron and dynamic leadership of Savarkar, for he was bed-ridden and made no move. As regards the Congress, it was the greatest political party in India, and had ruled over seven Provinces and had many opportunities to influence people as rulers. Besides, it had at its disposal a big press, big purses and big political wholetime machinery employed for the election campaign.
And on top of it all came the somersaults of the Congres.s leaders that allured the people. Sardar Patel inspired confidence in the Hindu electorates by his anti-Pakistan out- bursts and anti-League speeches. Congress was rapidly gaining confidence and the Hindu Mahasabha was swiftly losing its position. In the last week of September 1945, at a meeting of the All-India Congress Committee in Bombay, Sardar Patel even demonstratively chastised a Muslim member, one Mr. Mians, in these wox’ds : “ If you say that the Muslim League is a nationalist organization, why are you to be found in the Congress at aU ? Ever since the Congress abandoned unadulterated nationalism the mischief has grown. That was when the Congress accepted the separate communal electorates. There have since then been a series of mistakes. From minority representation we travelled to the fifty-fifty parity principle. Now it would never be repeated. Congres.s will never go to the Muslim League.” What a confession vindicating Savarkar’s charges against the Congress !
Pandit R. S. Shukla, Prime Minister of C.P. and Berar declared that if Pakistan was established, Muslims in Hindusthan would be treated as foreigners ! In Calcutta, at Deshbandhu Park Pandit Nehru thundered that there could be no truce with the Muslim League which had always opposed the Congress struggle. The Muslim League propaganda railed and rained. Mr. Liaqat Ali, the League Secretary, said at Delhi, “ The Muslim is a born fighter. He , may hesitate to cast a vote for Pakistan, but he would not hesitate to shed his blood.” Mr. H. S. Suhrawardy, another League Leader, now notorious for his outrageous unconcern
FIGHT FOR AKHANO HINDUSTHAN 339
at the Hindu deaths in the Calcutta killing, challenged Pandit Nehru to win a single Muslim seat in the Central or Provincial Assembly. And his challenge was unfailing, for not a single Muslim seat was won in the election by the Congress from the Muslim electorates. In this state, Savarkar persistently sighed from his sick-bed for Hindu wisdom. Ailing Savarkar said in a frantic and forlorn appeal to the Hindus that disaster would overtake India if Congressmen were elected to the Legislatures on mere promises. But oe Congress had hypnotized the Hindu masses with the . olen thunders and the borrowed Mahasabha slogans, and seer.ied to win.
The most unfortunate aspect of the election affair for the Hindu Mahasabha was that its President, Dr. Mookerjee, lost his grit and confidence in the nick of time. There was a sudden breakdown in his health. Pandit Nehru and Sardar Patel who never showed courtesy of inquiring after Savarkar’s health even during his serious illness, prepared the ground for further events when they all ran to Dr. Mookerjee to enquire after his health. The sudden rush and gush of their anxiety and interest in the health of Dr. Mookerjee was a pointer. He gave up the struggle even before he joined the battle ! What would be the fate of the organization led by a leader without unbending will and invincible faith ? That is what exactly happened in the case of the Hindu Mahasabha’s political life.
In the meanwhile, the question of the I.N.A. men’s trial came to the forefront. In the first week of December 1945, Savarkar urged Mr. Attlee, the Prime Minister of Great Britain, to release all the I.N.A. soldiers without any humiliating conditions as an act of grace by declaring a general amnesty in view of the general convention of inter- national treatment dealt out to war prisoners and in view of the very deep discontent aroused in the public mind. The Hindu Mahasabha had also observed an I.N.A. day, but the Congressmen who had styled the I.N.A. as “ rice soldiers ” earlier now took their very side, stole a march over the Hindu Mahasabha, and fully utilized the political sympathy and energy emanating from the I.N.A. trials for their own party ends. Savarkar was bed-ridden ; Bhopatkar and Moonje moved in the affair, but without response.
340 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES
The interest taken by top-ranking leaders of the Congress in the I.N.A. trials may have been with an eye to the elections, as was evinced from the very ungenerous attitude they adopted towards the I.N.A. men after they were firmly installed into power. Similarly, the imflinching oaths taken by the Congress leaders to stand by united India were shame- lessly betrayed afterwards and the Hindu Mahasabha slogans openly adopted as their own by Congress leaders like Sardar Patel, proved veritable bombshells on the popular support to the Mahasabha candidates, and the sentinels and defenders of Akhand Hindusthan were routed in their last ditch. But let it be recorded here that their heroic failure was more glorious than the pyrrhic success of the Congress candidates. The Hindu Mahasabha candidates, like Bhopatkar and Bhai Parmananda stood unflinchingly at the risk of their lives with an iron will as the sign-posts warning the Hindus : “ Our
way lies your salvation ; Congress way lies your ruin ! ”
The Hindu Mahasabha was in the end completely wiped out of the political picture of India, so far as the election results were concerned. And what about the Congress ? Oh ! it also met its Waterloo in the fields held by Muslim electorates. History repeats. The Rajputs fought Maha Rana Pratap for the Moguls, and they also fought the Mahrattas for the Moguls. Here the Congress fought the Hindu candidates with terrific ruthlessness and routed them.
But by securing all the thirty-two Muslim seats in the Central Assembly, the Muslim League routed all the Congress Muslim candidates so completely that had not Mr. Asaf Ali been elected by a joint electorate at Delhi, there would have been no Muslim left even for adoption purposes for the self- styled Indian National Congress which boasted of representing the Muslims also. The victory of the Pakistani forces was so complete and great that Mr. Jinnah declared in Delhi that his victory was the victory of a nation and the Leaguers achieved what Hitler could not. With the Congressmen playing the role of Chamberlain, his boast held much water.
One more point deserves attention. The Hindu Mahasabha was the only Hindu Organization that stood by its pledges to the Hindu Nation through fire and water. What were the Arya Samajists and the R.S.S. men doing ? Let it be said to
FIGHT FOR AKHAND HINDUSTHAH 341
the credit of the small per cent of those defenders of the Hindu Nation from these two organizations that they did help the Hindu candidates far-sightedly enough, but let it also be recorded that a good many persons from these two great institutions of Hindu hope and faith kept culpable neutrality over such a life and death struggle in which the Hindu Nation was involved, while the majority of them were reported to have voted for the Congress.
This colossal rout accelerated the deterioration in the health of Savarkar so much so ’hat in a telegram sent to Sri N. C. Chatterji he bewailed. “ My nerve system has been literally shattered for the last two years. It has now collapsed.” Savarkar now realized from his sick bed the implications of the success of the Congress in the elections at the hands of the Hindu electorates. He realized that the battle for Akhand Hindusthan was almost lost. So great was the nervous exhaustion that followed from this that at times in his bed he showed signs of blurred memory and soon on expert medical advice, he was removed on January 1, 1946, to Walchandnagar near Poona where the undivided devotion to the Hindu cause in Seth Gulabchand and his reverential affection for his leader looked after Savarkar’s health with great care and anxiety.