Bapu to Nehru

Anew, complete and well-footnoted collection of the correspondence between M K Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru is published in time for Gandhi’s birthday. In the excerpt below, a selection of Gandhi’s letters and telegrams to Nehru from the violent period just following Partition.

Calcutta, 22 August 1947
Chi. Jawaharlal,
I have your wire. The work here is progressing well. Yes, I must go to Noakhali. Some days are to be given to Bihar. Under the circumstances, when can I go to the Punjab? Nevertheless, you must tell me when I have to go. No more time to write more. I wanted to write in English but the pen went off into Hindustani. See the enclosed; is there any truth in it?

 

Blessings from Bapu

[The enclosure is an article alleging that Vijayalakshmi Pandit plans to order expensive furniture for her ambassadorial residence in Moscow, and Maulana Azad wants a large sum of money for furniture for his official residence in Delhi. Nehru replies at length with a description of the Punjab situation, and an explanation of the “greatly exaggerated” furniture purchases.]

24 August 1947
Punjabis in Calcutta have been pressing me to go to the Punjab at once. They tell me a terrible story. Thousands have been killed. A few thousand girls have been kidnapped! Hindus cannot live in the Pakistan area, nor Muslims in the other portion. Add to this the information that the two wings of the army took sides and worked havoc! Can any of this be true?

When do you think I should go to the Punjab if at all? I have still work in Calcutta, then in Noakhali and Bihar. But everything can be laid aside to go to the Punjab if it is proved to be necessary.

[Nehru replies with another, more worried description of the Punjab situation. He says Gandhi should go, “but not just yet”.]

29 August 1947
Herewith is a letter from one Sardar Ajit Singh. You will see he is insistent on my going to the Punjab without a moment’s delay. You will judge what I should do. Will it be any use my going after life and property are destroyed to the saturation points? Will it not be a mockery? I put before you for consideration the thoughts welling up within me. I have three wires pressing me to go.

[Nehru asks Gandhi to come to Delhi.]

30 August 1947
About my going to the Punjab, I won’t move without your and Vallabhbhai [Patel]’s wish. I want to say, however, that every day pressure is being put on me to rush to the Punjab before it is too late. If you wish I could send you all that comes to me so as to enable you to come to the right decision.

If I am not going to the Punjab, would I be of much use in Delhi as an adviser or consultant? I fancy I am not built that way. My advice has value only when I am actually working at a particular thing. I can only disturb when I give academic advice as on food, clothing, the use of the military. The more I think, the more I sense the truth of this opinion. Left to myself I would probably rush to the Punjab and if necessary break myself in the attempt to stop the warring elements from committing suicide. From a letter I just have from Lord Mountbatten I get the same impression. He would welcome my immediate going to the Punjab.

On this side I have work which must help you all.

[Nehru telegrams Gandhi urgently to come to the Punjab.]

2 September 1947
Chi. Jawaharlal,
I replied to your message of yesterday.
I would have started for Lahore today but for the flare-up in Calcutta. If the fury did not abate, my going to the Punjab would be of no avail. I would have no self-confidence. If the Calcutta friendship was wrong, how could I hope to affect the situation in the Punjab? Therefore my departure from Calcutta depends solely upon the result of the Calcutta fast. Don’t be distressed or angry over the fast.
Blessings from
Bapu

---

Excerpted with permission from Oxford University Press

TOGETHER THEY FOUGHT
Gandhi-Nehru Correspondence 1921-1948
Editors: Uma Iyengar and Lalitha Zackariah
Publisher: OUP
Pages: xlii + 558
Price: Rs 1,250