“One
of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long
enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer
interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply
too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you
give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.”
-
Carl
Sagan
Hi,
Everyone! With the Muslim League taking the Pakistan scheme off the table,
though with reservations, the saving of India was a great possibility.
It
was a very, very delicate juncture in Indian history, a very critical moment.
It was time to tread with great caution.
So
who upset this applecart?
On
July 6, 1946, Nehru gave a speech before the Congress Working Committee. Read
what R. C. Majumdar has to say about it in his HFMI, Vol III (pages 770-774).
“In winding up
the proceedings of the Committee, Nehru made a long speech explaining the
position of the Congress vis-à-vis
the Cabinet Mission plan. He said ‘that as far as he could see, it was not a
question of the Congress accepting any plan, long or short. It was merely a
question of their agreeing to enter the Constituent Assembly, and nothing more
than that. They would remain in that Assembly so long as they thought it was
for India’s good and they would come out when they thought it was injuring
their cause. ‘We are not bound by a single thing except
that we have decided for the moment to go to the Constituent Assembly.’
Later, speaking
at a press conference on 10 July, Nehru qualified his statement. He admitted
that the Congress was bound by the procedure set down for election of members
to the Constituent Assembly. But then he added: ‘What we do there we are
entirely and absolutely free to determine.’ . . .
If
Nehru were determined to scare away Jinnah he could not have devised a better
or more ingenious plan.
In view of the
importance of Nehru’s statement and its tragic consequences of putting ‘Hindus
and Muslims back in two fuming and suspicious camps,’ it would not be improper
to refer to the views of two Englishmen, both intimate friends of Nehru, and
one of whom was the author of what Nehru regarded as his best biography.
Leonard Mosley says:
‘Did Nehru
realize what he was saying? He was telling the world that once in power, the
Congress would use its strength at the Centre to alter the Cabinet Mission Plan
as it thought fit. . . . In the
circumstances, Nehru’s remarks were a direct act of sabotage.’”
“In
1937 his [Nehru’s] outright rejection of Jinnah’s offer of Congress-League
Coalition Ministry ruined the last chance of a Hindu-Muslim agreement. His
observations in 1946 destroyed the last chance—though a remote one—of a free
united India.”[1]
When
everything was set for a happy ending for India, Nehru chose to ruin India’s
chances of unity. For years the Congress had been trying to get Jinnah out of
their hair. And now when it appeared they would be stuck with him, for in the
final reckoning he had put aside his Pakistan demand, they chose to incite him into
demanding it again.
There
is a very good word to describe this action of Nehru’s: “stabotage,”[2]—a
deliberate stab in the back sabotage of India’s chance of unity.
·
This is the action that dropped the
gavel on go-ahead of the Pakistan scheme.
·
This is the action that led directly to
Jinnah’s calling out for Direct Action.
·
This is the action that led to the
horrendous killing, raping, and looting of Hindus.
·
This is the action that led to the civil
war in India, the wholesale violence particularly in the Punjab and Bengal.
India
paid a very heavy price, indeed, for the aspirations of the Congress High
Command.
Anurupa
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