E-Book - Mahatma Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi – His Life & Timesblamed England. It was an atmosphere in which work and life were becomingincreasingly unsatisfactory for the British.Englishmen whose families had made India their career for more than a centuryknew that there was no future for them here. India did not want them and theysensed it and were sad. Sir Gilbert Laithwaite, the Viceroy's private secretary,and Major-General Molesworth, Assistant to Wavell as Commander-in-Chief,bicycled to and from work under the hot Indian sun to save petrol though theyhad cars and drivers. Many of the British were good men, but India preferred tobe ruled by bad Indians. Governing unwilling India was no longer 'fun'; theBritish officials were as sick of India as India was of them. Twenty years ofGandhi's non-violence had destroyed their faith in the future of the Empire.A typical New Delhi university student delivered a passionate diatribe againstBritan. I said to him, “Tell me, since you dislike the British want Japan toinvade and conquer India?”'No', he replied, "but we Indians pray that God may give the British enoughstrength to stand up under the blows they deserve.'Some Indians went to the length of preferring Japan to England.No Indian party or group was supporting the war except the Communists. AfterHitler invaded Russia in June 1941, they supported Britain, and the Britishimperialists in India supported them but did not relish the unnatural liaison.I heard Nehru address a hundred thousand in Bombay. The Communists formeda heckling island in the vast ocean of brown faces and white clothes. 'This is apeople's war,' they chorused.'If you think it is a people's war go and ask the people,' Nehru shouted. That andthe public's hostile reaction silenced them. They knew he told the truth and theBritish knew it too.'I would fight Japan sword in hand,' Nehru declared, 'but I can only do so as afree man.'www.mkgandhi.org Page 412