Tryst with Destiny
O Saint of Sabarmati! You have mystified and created a wonder by bringing freedom to the nation, without the use of swords and armaments.
These lines, though only two in number, suffice to narrate the saga of our struggle for independence. Ironic it was, that while the world was bathed in blood due to the fanatic genocide of the Third Reich, another man, similar in size and stature to Hitler, spearheaded the cry of freedom of millions. Blood did flow, lives were laid but not out of assault, but only on standing up to the wrath of the fury unleashed by the colonisers. Indeed, to the British Crown, India was the jewel and till then, they had never dreamt of the sun setting over the British empire. But, in their lust for power, they overlooked a simple fact of nature-every sun that hails a dawn has to retreat to a dusk.
Fluttering through the pages of our history, it is evident that India has been lusted often by power mongers, but this land, blessed with a people of eternal philosophy and pious lifestayle inundated one and all in its ever growing multitude. But the Europeans had different designs. They only wanted to exploit and extract, thereby remaining aliens even after 350 years.
India made her first significant attempt to overthrow imperialists, way back in 1857, but for a lack of coordination, the coup failed. To look at it from another angle, a land with such a rich heritage and a profound level of spiritual attainment may have adopted other measures than, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth’! And, that was how it was destined to be.
Years later, in 1919, when Mahatma Gandhi has launched the Non-Cooperation movement, the roots of the empire were quite stirred, if not shaken. It was only a matter of time but people grew impatient, turned violent at Chauri Chaura breaking the principle of AHIMSA laid down by Bapu. It can be argued now that had Gandhiji not called off the already volatile movement, our independence would have been 25 years earlier than 1947. But to compromise on principle was not for Bapu, even though the issue at stake was his mother land. Strikingly, Nirad C Chandhari had said in an interview to, a Weekly, `After Hitler, Gandhiji can also be put in the list of great dictators of the century’. Blood seeking dictators are many who do it to quench their thirst for power, but for the noblest of noble causes only men like Mohandas Karamchand.
The month of August had a very strong bearing on the world politics in the 40′s. On the 9th of August, in 1942, Aruna Asaf Ali unfurled the flag at the Bolia Tank Maidan (now August Kranti Maidan) at Bombay to launch the quit India movement. And all, the Britishers included, could sense that the end was near. Exactly three years later, on the same date, USA dropped the nuclear bomb christ ened `Fat man’ over Nagasaki, to herald the beginning of the end of World War II, but also the beginning of a terrible era of nuclear weapons, which are now ruthlessly poised on a precipice to wipe humanity off the face of this planet. Amidst tolling bells and tumultuous celebrations, India made a tryst with destiny on the 15th August 1947. Alas! The Britishers did not let go of their dictum of `divide and rule’ till the very end. Partition resulted in the formation of Pakistan.