Rajmohan Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma was speaking about Indian History at Ahmedabad Management Association.
Despite Congress rejecting several of his personal proposals before independence, Mahatma Gandhi never floated his own political outfit, claimed Rajmohan Gandhi, the grandson of the father of the nation. He was addressing the 13th edition of Ramlal Parikh Memorial Lecture series at Ahmedabad Management Association on Saturday.
“Gandhiji wanted Hindustani to be adopted as a national language which was rejected by Congress and Hindi replaced it in 1947. He wanted Mohammed Ali Jinnah to become the prime minister of independent India, which again was rejected by Lord Mountbatten and Congress and then his suggestions to put Charkha in the centre of tricolour was rejected by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru who thought Ashokchakra looks elegant.
There were many instances where proposals of Gandhiji were rejected by the Congress. Despite all these he never floated his own political outfit, which is not the case in the country’s present scenario,” said Gandhi. His lecture was on the subject ‘Something to learn from our History’.
A biographer and professor of History at the Centre for South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Illionis, Rajmohan touched upon various anecdotes of pre independent India’s history. “When Gandhiji raised the issue of untouchables and non violence, Lokmanya Tilak had remarked that he (Bapu) is expecting too much from people of the country,” he said.
Gandhi remarked that India got independence not on the power of a gun but because of non violence; the country would still be under a gunraj if the former method was adopted.
“For the first time, the issue of partition of India was raised in 1908 when Aga Khan met the viceroy. Aga Khan wanted a separate electorate for Muslims in areas where they have a majority population,” he said.
Talking about communal violence in Punjab during March 1947, Rajmohan said that Sikhs and Hindus from Punjab wanted partition of Punjab and Bengal. The issue was raised before the then Governor of Punjab and not before any religious leader of Hindus or Muslim leaders. “People did not had any faith in religious leaders at that time,” he added.
While discussing the issue of partition, Jinnah had put forward three conditions. “These conditions included Muslims should get reservation in states like Punjab, Bengal, separation of Mumbai from Sindh province and one third reservation for Muslims in assembly. These three conditions for join electorate were rejected by Congress in its meeting at Kolkata,” Gandhi added.
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