Gandhi and Jai Chand
Letter to The Daily Pioneer
In his edit page article Gandhi and Godse (Jan 19, 2005), Mr. K R Phanda calls Gandhi with Jai Chand "as two Hindu leaders who had changed the course of Hindu destiny for the worst." Future historians might record the role of Gandhi as more damaging to the Hindus than Jai Chand's. Despite what many apologists of Islam might claim, Islam and Hinduism are two irreconcilable ideologies. Jinnah, once hailed as "best hope of Hindu Muslim unity" soon realized the folly of such an exercise and talked about it in his famous Presidential address to annual Muslim League convention at Lahore in 1940. Jai Chand, might be given the benefit of doubt that when he invited Ghori did not know his true nature. But Mr. Gandhi when he placed all his bets and political career on Hindu Muslims unity had the historical evidence of several centuries and his own personal experience for his guidance. How could he have not known what Islamic scholars from Shah Waliullah and Sir Syed Ahmad Khan thought of the Hindus. Dr. Ambedkar in his study of the issue of partition had clearly spelled the stakes of a united India. At least the sober words of his close friend and "brother" Maulana Mohammad Ali when he said "However pure Gandhi's character might be, from religious point of view, in his eyes, a fallen Muslim is superior to Mr. Gandhi" should have woken Mr. Gandhi from his ego trip. If such was the opinion of an educated Muslim and a close friend, one might well imagine what a Muslim whose sole educational source is the madarasa think of an average Hindu. Mr. Jinnah was right when he said:" It is a dream that the Hindus and Muslims can ever evolve a common nationality, and this misconception of one Indian nation has gone far beyond the limits, and is the cause of most of our troubles, and will lead India to destruction, if we fail to revise our notions in time." Mr. Gandhi is regarded as a great personality of the last century but other than paying lip service to him, no organization or country has ever adopted any of the ideologies eschewed by him.
Vinod Kumar