VSK TN
Those Fifteen days
* August 9, 1947 *
– Prashant Pole
Sodepur Ashram … Located in the north of Calcutta, this ashram is just outside the city. That is, about eight-nine miles from Calcutta. Full of delightful trees, plants and greenery, Sodepur Ashram is very favorite of Gandhiji. When the last time he came here, he also said, “This ashram equals my very favorite Sabarmati Ashram …”
This morning there is a big commotion in this Ashram, today. Normally, the residents of the ashram wake up early in the morning. But * Today, Gandhiji is coming to the ashram, so preparations are going on since last week. * Though Cleanliness is daily routine here, but today it is being done specially. Because Bapu is about to come here.
Specially Satish Babu is doing with great enthusiasm. Satishbabu that is Satish Chandra Dasgupta, had a very good job in India’s first chemical company, i.e. ‘Bengal Chemical Works’ founded by Sir Acharya Prafulla Chandra Rai. He was working as Superintendent here. Since he was a scientist, he also did many experiments. * But his wife Hemprabha and himself, once came in contact with Gandhiji, his life changed completely. About twenty-twenty-seven years ago, that is exactly in the year 1921 Satishbabu left his lucrative job and established this beautiful ashram located on the outskirts of Calcutta. Nowadays, Satishbabu and Hemprabha Didi are staying in the ashram.
Hemprabha Didi was very much umpressed with Gandhij, that she donated all the Gold and Jewelery she had to Gandhiji in the beginning itself, to support the Gandhiji’s movement. Satishbabu had no objection in it, rather he was proud of his wife …!
Satishbabu has done many experiments in this ashram. Originally he was a scientist and also very impressed with Gandhiji’s ‘Swadeshi’ movement. He made affordable and simple oil making mill in his ashram. Also, made a small factory for making papers from bamboo pulp in the ashram.
The paper produced from this factory is a bit rough, but it can be written comfortably and this paper looks good too.The Ashram could manage its work with the paper manufactured here. The entire stationery of Ashram has been printed on this paper made by Satish Babu. A small quantity of paper is also sold outside.
Satishbabu knows that Gandhiji loves this ashram very much. He comes here for a month or so after an interval of a year-and-a-half year. A large number of prominent leaders come to the Ashram to meet him. In this entire exercise, the atmosphere of the ashram becomes sacred since the arrival of these great people.
Satishbabu remembers that he had a meeting with Subhash Babu about Seven-eight years back that is in 1939. Gandhiji, Subhash Babu and Nehru, they were all these three. * Against the will of Gandhiji, Subhash Chandra Bose was elected president of Tripuri (Jabalpur) Congress. * But other Congress leaders created much trouble for him. The meeting was organized to find a solution to this problem, immediately after the Congress the session concludes.
* No solution to the problem could be found in this meeting, contrary to this Subhash Babu left the Congress. Whatever faith Satishbabu had for Gandhiji, this attitude of Gandhiji pained him greatly . Nevertheless, Satishbabu shook his memories, because the time had come for Gandhiji to come. Normally, the sunrise happens earlier in Calcutta. Due to this it is enough day light at five thirty in the morning.
Within the next hour, Gandhiji is going to arrive in the Ashram ….
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On the other side, Hindu Mahasabha Bhavan situated on Mandir Marg was abuzz with activities. The Mahasabha President Mr N.B. Khare has arrived Delhi yesterday only from Gwalior.
* Doctor Khare was a great personality. Khare Sahab was originally from the Congress. In 1937, he was the first Congress Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh province. * But Dr. Khare was from tradition of the ‘Garam Dal’ group formed by the Lokmanya Tilak. He did not like Congress the continuous appeasement of Muslim Leagu. His views in this context in publicly never liked by Gandhiji and Nehruji. In such a situation, Gandhiji called Doctor Khare in Sewagram Ashram and asked him to resign from the post of Chief Minister.
Upon hearing this, Dr. Khare simply told Gandhiji, ” I am not mentally stable now, hence you yourself draft the resignation “.Khare will so easily accept to resign, Gandhiji was delighted to hear and immediately took a paper and wrote resignation letter of Dr. Kharein his own handwriting. The doctor took the paper but did not sign it and left to Nagpur in his car. Seeing this, Gandhi was shocked and shouted from behind, “Hey, are you doing …? Where are you going?”
The doctor came to Nagpur with the letter. * He published the resignation letter written by Gandhiji in all the newspapers of Nagpur and made it clear to the public that ‘how Gandhiji himself is pressurizing a Chief Minister to resign.’
And such an intelligent Dr N.B. Khare is the National President of Hindu Mahasabha, today. For his support are the great leaders. Pundit Mauli Chandra Sharma, behind him. Pandit Sharma is also from Congerss background, represented congress in the Round Table Confrence in London in the year 1930 & 1931.But he also came closure for the Muslim Appeasement policy of Congress. Tatyarao Savarkar himself is going to be present there with them, was the reason for their happiness.
After breakfast, the meeting of the Central Committee of the Hindu Mahasabha started at 9.00 am in the morning. Discussion on the issues declared by the Hindu Mahasabha in the meeting was started. * “All citizens will be entitled to full power in Divided Hindustan, but the situation in which Hindus in the proposed Pakistan remains, exactly the same situation should be retained for Muslims chose to remain in the Hindustan”, it is decided to raise the demand. *For Hindi speaking provinces, there will be all administrative proceedings in Hindi language in Devanagari script. In other provinces even if the medium of education is in local languages and script, but still the national language Hindi is accepted in administrative and judicial system. Apart from this, many demands including ‘Military training for all citizens essentially’ were kept in this meeting of the Hindu Mahasabha.
In at least fractured Hindustan, Hindus could keep their head high with their full pride and pride, for this purpose they were all trying different directions.
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The dawn next day to Jumma … i.e. today on Saturday morning 9th August.
For Barrister Mohammad Ali Jinnah, this was his beloved second morning in Pakistan. The huge bungalow in Karachi was a temporary residence of Jinnah. There were numerous things going on in Jinnah’s mind at this time. What will be the nature of new Pakistan, how will the judiciary be here, How the Pakistan’s national , Pakistan’s national anthem will be …? After coming to this final question, Jinnah stopped at once. In fact, he had considered deeply on all other things, but there has not been serious discussion on Pakistan’s national anthem namely ‘Quami Tarana’. Now there are only five days left to officially construct a new Pakistan.
When Jinnah was in Delhi, he marked t compositions of some poets. Those compositions suddenly remembered them yesterday. One of the same poets was – ‘Jagannath Azad’. He is basically Punjabi Hindu of Lahore, but he has strong knowledge of Urdu language. * Jinnah thought that although Azad is an infidel (Kafir), but what difference it makes? If any good song is written in Urdu, then what more do I want? He decided that to write the Anthem of Pakistan, the poet named Azad should be called. In the afternoon yesterday, he has to invite Azad from Lahore. So far he should have come.Jinnah called his secretary and asked, ‘Has any Jagannath Azad come from Lahore?’ The Secretary told that ‘He has come in the morning’. Jinnah said, ‘Send them in.’
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Jagannath Azad was a young man, barely thirty years old. Jinnah imagined that such a serious and profound Shayari composer in Urdu would be a middle aged person in his fifties. Jinnah asked Jagannath Azad to sit down. Asked about his health, and asked him if he has any good song that can make Pakistan’s ‘National Anthem’. Jagannath Azad did not have any immediate songs at that time, but according to his imagination he had made a composition spontaneously and he began to recite in front of Jinnah….
E! Sarjamin-e-Pak
Jarre tere hain aaj
Sitaron se taabnaak
Roshan kahakashaan me
Kahinaaj teri khaak
Tundi-e-Hansdan pe
Galib hai tera sawaak
Daaman wo sil gayaa hai
Muddaton se chaak
E! sarajameen-e-Pak
Stop!! Stop!! I want this. Jinnah liked this song the most.
And a poem composed by a Kafir Was decided to be the National Anthem(Kaumi Tarana) of Watan -e-Paki Saturday.
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9th August ….
Today is very stressful for Amritsar. The number of Muslims in Amritsar city and the entire district is high. News of riots is coming continuously from the border villages. For this reason Sikhs, Hindus and Muslims are all angry. * The Sikhs have guarded their main Gurudwara, the Golden Temple, by the arch and brave Nihangs. Sikhs do not want that the Holy Sarovar (pond) to be desecrated rogue Muslims.
Around eleven thirty- twelve o’clock in the morning, a dozen policemen in mufti surrounded the Tonga stand around Amritsar Railway Station * They have been informed that the hardline Pathan activist of the Muslim League, ‘Mohammad Saeed’, is about to arrive in Amritsar today. * This killer is a master at creating big massacre. The police caught him. From him several types of weapons, some letters written in Urdu and indigenous bombs were recovered. Mohammed Sayeed’s arrest came to an end of a possible mass murderer in Amritsar.
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Nizam Usman Ali of Hyderabad deccan, is busy in serious discussions with his Diwan, in his huge palace in Hyderabad, . * He has to immediately send a letter to Jinnah. In order to keep Hyderabad state independent, they need the help of newly formed Pakistan. * On the letter prepared by his diwan, Nizam Sahab signed in Urdu and sent his special messenger for Karachi.
* Within the next one week, in the middle of the fragmented India, a Muslim state with equal area of the country like Italy is doing its best to live independent and autonous. *
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Very far away in the east, in Singapor, government employees are leaving their work place for the day. Anyway, on Saturday, government offices in Singapore do not work for the whole day. A number of government employees have gathered in a small office of employee union working in the ‘Marina Bay’ area of Singapore. All these employees are Indian.
These employees are preparing a letter to the Chief Secretary of the Government of Singapore. Friday is August 15th. Obviously there in no Holiday in government and other offices. On 15th August, the beloved country of all these Indian employees is going to be free. On this occasion, all Indians want to celebrate that special day as a festival. And that’s why they all want a holiday on the 15th of August. A letter is being prepared to get holiday on this day, which will be given to the Singapore government.
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Amritsar city and the whole district have tremendous atmosphere of tension, because the news has spread all over that the police has arrested Mohammad Sayeed.
Through this incident, Muslims became very angry and from the afternoon they started stoneing the shops and houses of Hindus. By the evening, the riot spread throughout the district. * The National Guard of the Muslim League is at the forefront of rioting and bloodshed. They killed more than 100 Hindus and Sikhs in Jabalphad village near Amritsar. They took away about sixty-seventy young girls. * At Dhaapai village, about one thousand Muslims gathered and attacked. Though it was also resisted by the side of the Sikhs, 14 Muslims were also killed in Ghajipur village.
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Given the gruesome and cruelty of the riots, The soldiers who were deployed under the leadership of Major General T. W. Rees s also faced the Muslim National Guard. * There was a situation of war between the Muslim League’s National Guard and the army for nearly an hour in that enveloped atmosphere of the evening. * The news was spread through a telegram in Punjab’s capital, Lahore, a few miles away. Punjab Governor Sir Evan Meredith Jenkins read this telegram carefully and immediately urged his secretary and ordered the order ‘press censorship’ in entire Punjab province.
This meant that on Saturday 9th August, the news of the gruesome massacre in Amritsar and surrounding areas was not visible in any newspaper in Punjab the next day.
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On the east side, preparations for Gandhiji’s prayer are going on in the Sodepur Ashram near Calcutta. Prior to the prayer, Dr. Sunil Basu conducted a thorough examination of Gandhiji’s health. When Gandhiji had stayed for a month at Sodappur Ashram in 1939, then Dr. Sunil Babu was only did Gandhiji’s health check-up.
After the health checkup, Sunil Babu said that in the last eight years, Gandhiji’s health has remained steadily stable. There is no special difference in that. During his one-month stay in 1939, his weight was between 112 and 114 pounds, and he is still 113 pounds today. His heart and lungs are working perfectly. The speed of their pulse is 68. In short, their health is good. *
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This evening, Gandhiji’s prayer was centered on Calcutta’s situation. He said that ‘both Hindus and Muslims are behaving like crazy’. He further said that “I do not want to go into the interpretation of what the Muslim League Cabinet did or why they did.” But my focus will be on how the Chief Minister of Congress, Dr. Prafulla Chandra Ghosh, who is handling the work of Bengal fragmented since August 15. I will ensure there is no oppression against Muslims under the Congress rule. I will also go to Noakhally, but after peace in Calcutta ..!
Here in the evening in Delhi, there is a tremendous crowd gathered at Ramlila Maidan. ‘Independence Week’ is going to start from today. Today is Saturday and now next Friday, we are going to be a free nation. Speeches of the big leaders of Congress today, this is a big attraction. In this meeting, big leaders like Nehru and Patel will speak. This program was organized by the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee. For this reason, local leaders of the Delhi province started speaking. But as soon as Nehru and Patel arrived at the venue, the atmosphere of the crowd changed radically. Everybody got fresh enthusiasm People began to make spontaneous slogans loudly.
When Sardar Patel was speaking, the entire Ramlila Ground was listening to him peacefully. Patel tried to explain the compulsions of division to the people. But the people did neither like their arguments nor were getting convinced. That’s why Patel’s speech did not get a more enthusiastic response. * Similar was the case with Nehru’s speech. The crowd started feeling discouraged.
Delhi has now become the capital of the displaced people. * Hindu refugees are camping in Delhi after their Large-scale house, shop, property was looted. They wanted to hear any concrete talk from Nehru-Patel’s mouth. But that did not happen. Nehru spoke on international politics He thundered, that ‘foreign powers will now be completely driven away from all Asia’. But there was no effect on the masses gathered in the field. *
On the very first day of the Independence Week, the enthusiasm and happiness that was seen in the beginning of the meeting, did not appear at the end of the meetin
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Senior Pracharaks and office-bearers of the Sangh are seated on Saturday night in the Mahal office of the RSS, Nagpur in the heart of the country. There is a map of undivided India in front of them. What can be the exact line of this division, and *, how can the surviving Hindus and Sikhs be rescued across that division line, a deep churning is going on …! *
– Prashant Pole