E-Book - Mahatma Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi – His Life & TimesRajagopalachari rushed to the jail and explained the new arrangement toGandhi.Will you repeat it?'Rajagopalachari repeated it.'Excellent,' Gandhi murmured; he may not have understood precisely whatRajagopalachari was saying; he was faint. But he had acquiesced.That Saturday, the Yeravda Pact, as Indian history knowss it, was drafted andsigned by all the chief Hindu and Harijani negotiators except Gandhi.On Sunday it was ratified in Bombay at a full conferences of the negotiators andothers.But the pact was no pact and Gandhi would not abandon- his fast unless theBritish government consented to substitute s it for the MacDonald Award. Itsverbatim text had been, telegraphed to London where Charles Andrews, Polakand. other friends of Gandhi laboured to get quick action from the government.It was Sunday and ministers had' left town, and Ramsay MacDonald was inSussex attending a funeral.On hearing of the agreement in Poona, MacDonald hurried back to 10 DowningStreet; so did Sir Samuel Hoare and Lord Lothian who had helped to formulatethe MacDonald Award. They pored over the text until midnight on Sunday.Gandhi's life was fast ebbing away. He told Kasturbai who should get the fewpersonal belongings that lay around his cot. Early Monday, Tagore arrived fromCalcutta and sang a selection of his own songs to the Mahatma. They soothedGandhi. Friends from Poona were admitted to play on musical instruments andchant devotional hymns. He thanked them with a nod and a faint smile. Hecould not speak.A few hours later, the British government announced simultaneously in Londonand New Delhi that it had approved the Yeravda Pact. Gandhi could break hisfast.www.mkgandhi.org Page 357