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| Mahatma Gandhi (image source: Getty Images) |
In 1931, when Mahatma Gandhi went to London to attend the Round Table Conference, King George V invited him to tea at Buckingham Palace. The British people were stunned to see Gandhi arrive at the palace in dhoti and chappals even on this formal occasion.
Later, when asked if it was appropriate to appear in front of the king in this dress, Gandhi replied with a smile, "The clothes the king was wearing were enough for both of us."
Even six months earlier, when Gandhi went to Government House to meet Viceroy Lord Arun, he wore the same clothes.
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| Winston Churchill (image source: Getty Images) |
Winston Churchill, the leader of the Conservative Party, condemned him and said that it was dangerous and abominable that a barrister from the province should now become a traitorous pauper and walk half-naked on the steps of the Viceroy's palace and the British government. Despite the movement of civil disobedience against him, he is going there and sitting on an equal footing with the emperor's representative and negotiating a compromise.'
Gandhi was arrested within a month of meeting the King.
When Gandhi arrived in Bombay from London after attending the Round Table Conference, thousands of people lined up at the harbor to welcome him
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| Mahatma Gandhi in london (image source: Getty Images) |
Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins write in their book 'Freedom at Midnight' that 'Gandhi told the people standing to welcome him, I have come back empty handed.India must again adopt the path of civil disobedience. Not even a week has passed that the man who was the guest of the emperor at the tea party was made a royal guest again, but this time in Pune's Yeroda Jail.
Gandhi was in and out of jail for the next three years. In London, on the other hand, Churchill roared that 'Gandhi and everything he stands for must be crushed.'
When Churchill was pressed to liberate India, he famously said, 'The Emperor has not made me Prime Minister to dissolve the British Empire in India.'
When Stafford Cripps arrived in Delhi as his representative in 1942, Gandhi gave his verdict on his proposal, saying: 'The scheme is a post-dated check drawn in the name of a failing bank.'
He told Cripps: 'If you have no other proposition, go back to your country on the next ship.'
The words Gandhi spoke at the Congress convention on August 8, 1942 were so angry that they seemed strange coming out of his mouth. Gandhi said: 'I want freedom immediately. Tonight. If possible, before dawn.'
Freedom did not come before dawn, but Gandhi was definitely arrested.
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| Mahatma Gandhi (image source: Getty Images) |
Gandhi was kept at the Aga Khan Palace in Pune
This time the British did not keep Gandhi in jail but kept him in the Aga Khan Palace in Poona. The Aga Khan Palace was five miles from Pune. It was a two-storied building with nine large bedrooms. Surrounding the main building was a 70-acre courtyard in which 12 gardeners worked.
After Gandhi's arrest, Ardashir Edulji Kaitli was put in charge of the palace jail.
Kaitley was also the jailer of Yeroda Jail in 1932 when Gandhi was lodged there. 76 police personnel were also deployed to assist Kaitli.
Meanwhile, Mahadev Desai, Gandhi's secretary for years, died suddenly in jail. On his death, Gandhi's wife Kasturba Gandhi expressed grief and said: 'His death left Bapu's right and left hand.'
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| Mahatma Gandhi (image source: Getty Images) |
Gandhi decided to fast for 21 days
Gandhi was deeply disturbed by the news published in the newspapers, in which some official statements said that he was meeting with countries hostile to the British. The government also held itself responsible for the violence that followed Gandhi's arrest.
Saddened by these accusations, Gandhi wrote to Viceroy Linlithgow that he wanted to observe a 21-day upavas (a kind of fast) from 9 February.
Linlithgow wrote back, "I look upon starvation for political reasons as political blackmail which can never be justified on moral grounds."
Whenever Gandhi went on hunger strike before, he was immediately released from jail. But this time Linlithgow and Churchill had different intentions.
Churchill sent a notice to Delhi that if Gandhi wants to die of hunger, he has full freedom to do so.
Arthur Harman in his book 'Gandhi and Churchill: The Epic Rivalry That Destroyed the Empire and Forged Our Age' writes: 'Two days before Gandhi's hunger strike, the government offered him release from prison. The Viceroy had told them that they could go wherever they wanted with whomever they wanted. But they will have to go back to the Aga Khan Palace after the apawas are over. Gandhi rejected this offer.
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| Winston Churchill (image source: Getty Images) |
Gandhi's Upwas was a play in Churchill's eyes
Gandhi started his hunger strike on February 10 instead of February 9. Mirabean writes: 'On the third day, Gandhi started vomiting. By the fifth day he began to look very weak and tired. He also stopped reading the Gita.
Some Indian members of the Viceroy's Executive Council pressured him to release Gandhi, but Linlithgow refused to agree.
In the second week of Gandhi's hunger strike, MS Annie, Sir Homi Modi and Nalini Ranjan Sarkar resigned from their Executive Council posts in protest.
Churchill was in Casablanca at the time to attend the Allies Conference. He was kept informed about every activity of Gandhi.
Arthur Harman writes: 'Churchill was convinced that Gandhi's hunger strike was a street raid. The Indians might respect him for his virtues, but in Churchill's eyes he was only a spiritual semi-sage. But South African President Field Marshal John Smits warned him about Gandhi. Churchill had great respect for Smits. Their views were very similar. But their views on Gandhi were different. Smits had been associated with Gandhi before. He had clearly told Churchill not to take Gandhi lightly. But Churchill scoffed at his warning
Gandhi's condition began to deteriorate
On February 19, Sushila Nair wrote in her diary: 'Yesterday, the eighth day of Upwas, was very bad for Gandhi. He had a severe headache throughout the day. He felt as if his head would explode. He should speak, answer questions. Everything was stopped to see and hear.
The next day, Gandhi took interest in his surroundings until noon, but then his headache, earache returned, and he lay in bed with his eyes closed. His voice turned into a whisper. They no longer had the strength to turn over in bed or stretch their legs.
When the Surgeon General of the Bombay Presidency came to see him on February 20, he said that Gandhi's end was near.
On February 21, a meeting of important people of Delhi was held. He appealed to the Viceroy and said that 'we are sure that if Gandhiji lives, the way will be paved for the promotion of peace and goodwill, but his death as a British prisoner is a sign of the bitterness of the people towards the British Government. will increase further.'
This proposal was sent to British Prime Minister Winston Churchill through a telegram.
Churchill immediately responded by writing: 'The reasons for the arrest of Gandhi and other Congress leaders have been explained to them and they understand it. Mr. Gandhi himself is responsible for these situations.
suspect taking glucose with water
On February 13, Churchill wrote a letter to Linlithgow: 'I have heard that Gandhi drank glucose with water when he pretended to do Apwas. Can you confirm this?'
After investigating, Linlithgow replied that 'That is not true.' It was also a strange coincidence that around the same time that Gandhi's health was deteriorating, Churchill also fell seriously ill.
A week after his return from Algeria, he caught a severe cold. On February 16, he developed high fever. When an x-ray was taken the next day, it was found that there was a spot in his lung and he had developed pneumonia.
Pneumonia was a very serious disease for a 70-year-old person at that time. From February 19 to February 25, Churchill was in no condition to work.
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| Winston Churchill (image source: Getty Images) |
But when the British ambassador in Washington, Lord Halifax, told him about President Roosevelt's concern about Gandhi, he sent Roosevelt a telegram, saying: 'The British Government will in no case take action against Gandhi. will not change its course.
Churchill had his eyes on Gandhi even in his illness
On the 13th day of Apwas i.e. 23 February, Gandhi's kidney was answered.
Sushila Nair wrote in her diary of that day: 'Gandhi felt nauseous at the sight of the water. His pulse is irregular and he is almost unconscious.
On the other hand, Churchill was keeping an eye on Gandhi's upawas even in his illness. From time to time a question was rising in his mind that when will Gandhi's death happen?
On February 25, he wrote a long letter to the King, concluding that "the old hypocrite Gandhi is still around, perhaps more than I was told." I doubt that his apawas was real?'
On February 24, Churchill's fever subsided. On the same day, he wrote a letter to the American leader, Harry Hopkins, in which he said, "I am certainly feeling better and so is Gandhi."
Martin Gilbert writes: 'He also wrote to Linlithgow that 'Bulletins suggest that Gandhi may have survived. Surely some Hindu doctor must have added glucose or something similar to their water.
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| Winston Churchill (image source: Getty Images) |
Churchill not happy about Gandhi's ending of Upwas
On February 26, Churchill wrote to Field Marshal Smits: 'I do not think that Gandhi has any intention of dying now.'
By then, Gandhi had lost 20 pounds. But the next day Gandhi slept a little more peacefully.
Sushila happily wrote in her diary: 'Gandhi is feeling a little better since morning. His voice is slightly raised. He seems to have rested and is looking somewhat happy.
After a full 21 days, Gandhi ended his hunger strike.
On March 3, Kasturba gave him a glass of orange juice mixed with water. Even after drinking only salt water and a drop or two of lemon or seasonal juice for 21 days, Gandhi's spirit did not break.
They had to endure the tortures they had imposed on themselves. Churchill was not at all happy with the news.
He telegraphed to Viceroy Linlithgow: 'Looks like the old rascal will come out better than ever after his so-called apocalypse.'
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| Mahatma Gandhi (image source: Getty Images) |
Millions died in Bengal due to drought
The irony was that while Gandhi was playing with death by voluntarily placing apawas, at the same time millions of people were dying of drought in Bengal.
In the month of October 1942, a huge cyclone hit the coastal region of East Bengal, killing thousands of people and completely destroying paddy crops up to 40 km inland.
Christopher Bailey and Tim Harper in their book 'Forgotten Armies Fall of British Asia 1941-45' write: 'By mid-October the death rate in Calcutta had reached 2000 per month. The situation was that when the British and American soldiers came out of the cinema hall after watching the movie, they would see the dead bodies of people dying of hunger on the road, which were being eaten by vultures and crows.
But this did not seem to affect Churchill.
Bengal drought ignored
When Viceroy Wavell called for more grain to be sent to the famine-stricken districts of eastern India, Churchill deliberately decided to divert the grain from starving Bengal to British soldiers fighting in World battle II.
India's own surplus grain was sent to Ceylon (present-day Sri Lanka). Ships laden with wheat from Australia did not stop at Indian ports and were sent to the Middle East
The US and Canada offered to send food aid to India but that too was rejected.
Churchill did not bother to respond to the Viceroy's urgent telegram about the famine.
When the authorities drew his attention to the deaths caused by his decision, he angrily sent a telegram asking 'Why is Gandhi not dead yet?'
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