Dr. Susmit Kumar, Ph.D.
This article is based on Chapter 46 of Dr Kumar’s forthcoming book Gandhi, an Obstacle for the Freedom of India, Brought Radical Mullahs into Mainstream Politics Which Finally Led to Partition of India.
Due to almost six decades of near continuous rule by and massive glorification of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, “court” historians of India have corrupted the country’s history. We had a similar example in Bihar state. During the fifteen-year rule of Laloo Yadav (and his wife) in Bihar, they introduced chapters in school texts, comparing Laloo Yadav to Lord Krishna and the messiah of social justice (“Paean is mightier,” India Today website, Sanjay Kumar Jha, July 12, 2004).
Some of Chapters of forthcoming Dr. Kumar’s book can be accessed by following links:
Gandhi Collected Crores of Rupees by Claiming He Would Get Swaraj in One Year in 1921
(1) It was Subhas Chandra Bose and his surrendered INA who gave independence to India in just 4 months after WWII, and Gandhi ji and Congress party had no role to play – PLEASE READ THE ARTICLE NUMBER ONE ABOVE.
(2) Gandhi, Nehru and Congress party had no role to play in the independence of India. They usurped the credits which actually belonged to Subhas Chandra Bose and his Indian National Army.
(3) In January 1941, Subhas Chandra Bose left India in disguise and went to Germany via Afghanistan/Soviet Union and thereafter to East Asia - assembled INA to fight for liberation of India - on the other hand, Nehru was not in even favor of the 1942 Quit India Movement (please read the section 10)
(4) None of Gandhi ji's movement, except the 1942 Quit Indian Movement (which he did in exceptional circumstances), was for independence from Britain.
(i) Gandhi ji's 1920 Non-Cooperation Movement - ended within few months
(ii) 1930 Civil Disobedience - same fate as 1920
(iii) 1942 Quit India Movement - collapsed in few months
(5) At the onset of World War II, the Congress party did not opt for any movement until 1942 and the 1942 Quit India Movement was suppressed within a few months. In October 1943, Page Croft, Under-Secretary of State for War in the Churchill Cabinet, wrote to Churchill, “The failure of Gandhi to rouse India against the King-Emperor is one of the happiest events of the war” (Liberty or Death: India Journey to Independence and Division, Patrick French, Flamingo, London, 1997, p 178).
(6) At the onset of World War II, Gandhi met Viceroy Linlithgow in Simla on September 6, 1939 (just 3 days after the start of WWII), at the latter’s request. Afterwards, Gandhi issued a statement to the press (Gandhi The Years That Changed the World 1914-1948, Ramchandra Guha, Alfred A. Knoff, New York, 2018, p 557):
I told [Viceroy] that I could not contemplate without being stirred to the very depth the destruction of London… And as I was picturing before him the Houses of Parliament and the Westminster Abbey and their possible destruction, I broke down. [bold by Dr Kumar]
(7) We were fortunate to have Subhas Chandra Bose, otherwise if you take Bose out of picture, India would not have had independence in 1947 at all - yes no independence in 1947 because Gandhi ji would not have allowed any independence movement in his life time - Gandhi ji's all movements ended up in disaster within few months. Gandhi ji went for 1942 Quit India Movement only when he realized that INA, with the backing of Japanese forces, would liberate India - please see the screenshot of the British intelligence report in my article whose link is given at the top - Gandhi ji thought that Germany and Japan would win WWII (it is clearly written in British intelligence report).
(8) Gandhi ji never wanted independence from Britain.
(9) [As described in an article whose link in given at top] Had Nehru not left the co-leadership (with Bose) of the left-wing group within the Congress and sidelined Gandhi ji in late 1929-30, India would have had independence in mid-1930s. But somehow Gandhi ji was able to bring Nehru under his wing and started giving him lollipops (i.e. Congress party presidentship in 1929/30, 1936, 1937 – unprecedented 3 times in a span of 7 years - in 1929/30 it was Dec 31-Jan 1 Congress annual meeting). On the other hand, Sardar Patel was Congress president just once. When Subhas Chandra Bose stood for second term for Congress president (in 1939) Gandhi ji opposed it and asked Patabhi Sitaramayya to fight against Bose after several other top Congress leaders, including Sardar Patel, declined to fight against Bose because of Bose’s popularity; in the end Bose defeated Sitaramayya but Gandhi ji manipulated to force Bose out of Congress. It was the same left-wing which voted for Bose over Gandhi ji's nominee Patabhi Sitaramayya in 1939 Congress Presidential election.
(10) Even after Gandhi ji signed off for the 1942 Quit India Movement, Nehru and Azad (who was Congress president at that time) were not announcing it. Only after Sardar Patel and Rajendra Prasad (who were ardent followers of Gandhi ji) threatened to resign from Congress Working Committee, then only under pressure, Nehru announced the 1942 Quit India Movement. Nehru did not want any movement against Britain during World War II, i.e. till Britain was in war, Nehru did not want to create any problem for Britain - reference is from none other than Gandhi ji's grandson's book:
Jawaharlal Nehru and Abul Kalam Azad, the then Congress President, tried long and hard to resist to sanction the Quit India Movement. In May 1942, Sardar Patel and Rajendra Prasad wrote to Azad that they and others were willing to leave the Working Committee in view of fundamental differences. In June 1942, Patel said he would resign from the Working Committee if it did not sanction Quit India and added that Prasad and others would do likewise. The resignations were not accepted because Azad and Nehru knew that Congress was with Gandhi. Fervent with Quit India, the Congress Socialists like Jayaprakash Narayan criticized Jawaharlal’s hesitation and found common ground, for the first time, with Patel (Patel A Life, Rajmohan Gandhi, Navajivan, Ahmedabad, India, Thirteenth Reprint, May 2019, p 312). Finally, Congress had to opt for the Quit India Movement in August 1942.
(11) Even in 1946-47, Gandhi ji was angry with Congress leaders because they were not listening to him as he wanted his so-called non-violence method to get independence. But everyone in Congress party knew that it would never lead to independence from Britain.
In the night between August 14 and 15, 1947 when Jawaharlal Nehru was making the famous "While the whole world was sleeping..." speech in the Central Hall of Indian Parliament, Gandhi was walking along the alleys of then Calcutta with the plea to stop communal violence. One main reason for skipping the Parliament function was that Nehru, Patel and others in Congress had sidelined him and his doctrine of non-violence to get independence. He felt very bitter about it and had conveyed his bitterness to several people.
On November 22, 1945, Secretary of State for India, submitted a memorandum to the entire cabinet following (The Transfer of Power 1942-7, Vol. VI The Post-War Phase: New Moves by the Labour Government 1 August 1945-22 March 1946, by Nicholas Mansergh and Penderel Moon, Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, London, 1976, p 522):
…the viceroy should be asked to invite Mr. Gandhi to see him as early as possible and before any disorders occurred, in the hope that Mr. Gandhi, who was pledged to a policy of non-violence, might be persuaded to exercise a moderating influence on the Congress leaders.
Although Viceroy Wavell also asked Gandhi several times to rein in the Congress leaders, like Nehru and Patel from preaching violence in their political speeches (praising Bose's Indian National Army and INA Officers' trials at Red Fort, Delhi in late 1945), these leaders did not listen to Gandhi in the least. Instead, Nehru rebuked Gandhi in a Congress Working Committee meeting by stating at his face that he was a “Buddha” and that his non-violence and khaddar doctrines were out of date (The Transfer of Power 1942-7, Vol. VI The Post-War Phase: New Moves by the Labour Government 1 August 1945-22 March 1946, by Nicholas Mansergh and Penderel Moon, Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, London, 1976, p 393). While parleys were going on with Cabinet Mission in Simla, Gandhi said Durga Das there was too much deceit all round and added that Patel and Rajen Babu (Rajendra Prasad) had ceased to be his “yes men.” There was too much violence in the hearts of the people (India from Curzon to Nehru and After, Durga Das, Rupa Publications, India, 1981, pp 226-7).
It was British prime minister Clement Atlee who, at the time of granting independence to India, said that Gandhi’s non-violence movement had next to zero effect on the British. Chief Justice P.B. Chakrabarty of the Kolkata High Court, who served as acting governor of West Bengal, disclosed the following in a letter addressed to the publisher of Ramesh Chandra Majumdar’s book A History of Bengal (Subhas Chandra Bose, The Indian National Army, and The War of India’s Liberation, Ranjan Borra, Journal of Historical Review, Vol. 20 (2001), No. 1, reference 46):
You have fulfilled a noble task by persuading Dr. Majumdar to write this history of Bengal and publishing it … In the preface of the book Dr. Majumdar has written that he could not accept the thesis that Indian independence was brought about solely, or predominantly by the non-violent civil disobedience movement of Gandhi. When I was the acting Governor, Lord Atlee, who had given us independence by withdrawing the British rule from India, spent two days in the Governor’s palace at Calcutta during his tour of India. At that time I had a prolonged discussion with him regarding the real factors that had led the British to quit India. My direct question to him was that since Gandhi’s “Quit India” movement had tapered off quite some time ago and in 1947 no such new compelling situation had arisen that would necessitate a hasty British departure, why did they have to leave? In his reply Atlee cited several reasons, the principal among them being the erosion of loyalty to the British Crown among the Indian army and navy personnel as a result of the military activities of Netaji [Subhash Chandra Bose]. Toward the end of our discussion I asked Atlee what was the extent of Gandhi’s influence upon the British decision to quit India. Hearing this question, Atlee's lips became twisted in a sarcastic smile as he slowly chewed out the word, “m-i-n-i-m-a-l!”. [bold is of the author]
