By
Mahatma Gandhi
BROTHERS AND SISTERS,The very first thing I want to tell you is that I have received disturbing news¹ from the Frontier Province. I am, of course deeply pained to hear it. I have spent considerable time in the Frontier Province. Badshah Khan was with me. I stayed with Dr. Khan Saheb. I used to have friendly meetings with members of the Muslim League. And now I am amazed that the Hindus and Sikhs cannot live there in peace. There used to be a considerable population of Hindus and Sikhs there but their number was small compared to that of the Muslims. However, it is not the number that matters. Even an innocent child should be able to live there in safety.What I think to myself I may as well convey to you, that is, we should not get angry. We can, of course, feel the pain. We ought to feel sympathy and concern for our brothers who are in trouble. It is natural to feel, ’why not kill the Muslims because our brothers have been killed.’ But I for one cannot kill even the actual murderers of my brothers. Should I then prepare myself to kill other innocent people? I do not believe in meeting evil with evil. He who indulges in evil words and deeds turns brutal; he becomes senseless. Let me narrate an incident of my childhood days. I think I was about ten years at that time. My elder brother had fallen ill. He had almost become mad. But everyone took pity on him. We sent for several doctors but not for a jailor, and we did not send him to jail. We did not send for soldiers because he had gone mad. My father was in a position to do anything he wanted to do. But why did he refrain from doing any such thing? After all he was his son. And how could my father kill his own son? So all these people are like my own sons, like my own brothers. I would like to request you not to regard the Muslims as your enemies. I can point out any number of Muslims who are my friends. Just because the country has been divided into India and Pakistan, it does not befit us to slaughter the Muslims who have stayed behind. The Government of Pakistan has forgotten its duty. I shall appeal to the Qaid-e-Azam Jinnah who is the Governor-General of Pakistan to desist from such policies. If the Press reports are correct, I would tell him that the Hindus and Sikhs have remained in Pakistan to serve him. Why are the Hindus and the Sikhs scared now? Because they are afraid that they and their wives would have to die and that their wives would be abducted. They are in danger and so they are fleeing. Why is it so under that Government? I want to tell my people that they should not become so barbaric. If the Hindus and the Sikhs say that they would take revenge on the local Muslims because the Hindus and the Sikhs in Pakistan are in trouble, they have been destroyed there and have fled leaving their property worth millions, it will be sheer barbarism. I have seen the terrible plight of the Hindus and Sikhs of Pakistan. I have lived in Lahore. Do you think I am not pained? I claim that my pain is no less than that of any Punjabi. If any Hindu or Sikh from the Punjab comes and tells me that his anguish is greater than mine because he has lost his brother or daughter or father, I would say that his brother is my brother, his mother is my mother, and I have the same anguish in my heart as he has. I am also a human being and feel enraged but I swallow my anger. That gives me strength. What revenge can I take with that strength? How should I take revenge so that they feel repentant for their crimes and admit that they have committed grave crimes? You all know what the Muslims have done in West Punjab. What can we do if Muslims are destroying religion? What are we going to do about it? Should I say that the Hindus and Sikhs of Delhi and those who have come from outside should become barbarians because Muslims are becoming barbarians?I had gone to the Jama Masjid today. I met the residents of that area. I also met their womenfolk. Some of the women wept before me and some brought their children to indicate their sad plight. Should I narrate to them the plight of the Hindus and Sikhs in West Punjab and in the Frontier Province? Will it mitigate the sorrow of the Hindus and Sikhs of the Punjab in any way? The people of Pakistan resorted to ways of barbarism, and so did the Hindus and Sikhs. And so, how could one barbarian find fault with another barbarian? That is why I would like to appeal to all of you to save Hinduism and Sikhism, save India and Pakistan and thus save the whole country.If we remain good to the end, the Muslims of Pakistan would have to be good too. That is the law of the world. No one can change it. This old man, who has made a considerable study of religion and tried to serve everybody, is telling you this. I have had enough experience in my 78-79 years. I have stayed outside India for twenty years. I lived in South Africa, the land of the Negroes, but never gave up Ramanama. I can say in the light of my own experience that it is not for us to avenge anybody’s wrongs. He who does good to one who has been good to him is a mere Bania and a pseudo-Baniya at that. I say that I am a Bania myself; and I am a true Bania. May you not become pseudo-Banias. True human being is he who does a good turn for evil. I learnt this in my childhood. I still believe in the rightness of this. I would like you to return evil with good.Those people were lying in the mosque in a sad state. They did not gather in such large numbers on Friday for fun. They had heard that I had done something for the Muslims in Calcutta and Bihar and something for the Hindus in Noakhali. They thought it was good that I had gone to meet them. They wanted to know what I could do for them as one who called himself a sanatani Hindu and on that account claimed to be a Muslim, Sikh, Parsi and Christian. A mother said her child was dead and she did not know what to do. I told her: “What can I tell you, dear lady? Think of God. He would be kind to you. What if your child is dead? What if everybody is dead? You would be going that way yourself—if not by knife, may be of cholera. You are not going to live forever, are you? Hence, think of God. What are you going to gain by crying over it?”Let us know our own dharma. In the light of our dharma I would tell the people that our greatest duty is to see that the Hindus do not act in frenzy, nor the Sikhs indulge in acts of madness. I wish to tell you that all those Muslims who have left their places should be sent back. I do not have the courage to send them back right now. But we must keep it in mind that they have got to be sent back. Till the Muslims are able to return to the places from which they have fled, we cannot have peace of mind. There is of course one point to consider. Today people tell me that the Muslims keep arms in their houses, they keep ammunition, machine-guns, and sten-guns which I have not even seen. For instance, this is the case in Subzi Mandi. I am prepared to believe everything. But why should we be afraid of this? I would tell the Muslims and I am telling everybody in Delhi that they should declare with God as witness, that there is no reason for them to be killed for the crimes committed in Pakistan. We are your friends and we all belong and shall ever belong to India. Delhi is no small place. It is the capital of the country. Here we have the grand Jama Masjid and also the fort. You have not built these nor have I built them. They have been built by the Mughals who ruled over us. They had become part of India. By telling the Muslims today to leave the country do you mean to say that you are going to take possession of the Jama Masjid? And if that is your intention, do you know the implication? Just think about it. Are we going to stay in the Jama Masjid? I cannot agree to any such proposal. The Muslims must have the right to visit that place. It belongs to them. We are also proud of it. It is full of great artistic beauty. Shall we raze it to the ground? That can never be.I appeal to the Muslims that they should open-heartedly declare that they belong to India and are loyal to the Union. If they are true to God and wish to live in the Indian Union, they just cannot be enemies of the Hindus. And I want the Muslims here to tell the Muslims in Pakistan who have become the enemies of the Hindus, not to go mad: ’If you are going to indulge in such madness, we cannot co-operate with you. We will remain faithful to the Union, and salute the tricolour. We have to follow the order of the Government.’ These Muslims themselves should tell all the other Muslims to surrender all their arms. It is the duty of the Government not to punish anyone for having possessed the arms. This is exactly what I did in Calcutta. People surrendered big stocks of arms to me there. Most of these people were Hindus. Here if the Muslims possess arms, do the Hindus not possess anything? I am telling the Hindus that they should not possess any arms at all. If they wish to possess arms they should get the licence. It is said that in the Punjab everybody has been given the right to possess arms. It is not going to do any good to the Punjab. If everybody possesses arms, people will fight among themselves and kill each other. The Government needs arms, what has the citizen got to do with them? None of the city people should possess arms. I would like the Muslims to surrender all the arms in their possession to the Government. The Hindus too should surrender all their arms. There should be no mutual fear. We should tell them that whatever happens outside, we in Delhi would live like brothers. The same thing happened in Calcutta and the Hindus and the Muslims have started living like brothers. The Hindus in Bihar have adopted the same attitude. You must soon create such a situation in Delhi that I can immediately go to the Punjab and tell the people there that the Muslims of Delhi are living in peace. I would ask for its reward there. I would ask for that reward from the Nawab of Mamdot. I would go to East Punjab as well. Since I belong to all religions I have a right and would say to all that they should not give in to madness.The Muslims wanted Pakistan and they have got it. Why are they fighting now and with whom are they fighting? Because they have taken Pakistan, do they want the whole of India too? That will never happen. Why are they killing the weak Hindus and the Sikhs? I want to tell them all these things. I am alone. You have got the whole Government. Let both the Governments come to a mutual agreement that they have to protect the minorities in their respective countries. We have to protect the minority here. Otherwise how can Jawaharlal and Sardar Patel say that they are protecting the minorities and there is no Muslim child whom anyone can harm or frighten by his blood-shot eyes? If there is any Muslim who has gone mad and who secretly keeps machine-guns in his house, we would punish him. But no one can touch the Muslims who are loyal to the country. You must create such conditions here so that Jawaharlal and Sardar Patel should be able to say Delhi had lost its senses for a few days but now it has become sane.I would like to tell my Muslim friends that they must issue a proper statement. They must thoroughly cleanse their hearts. The Sikhs have issued some statement. So have the Hindus. If the minds and hearts are purified we can live together in amity. After all, so much of business of Delhi, such wonderful buildings, this culture of Delhi belong to both the Hindus and the Muslims and not exclusively to either.²In conclusion, Gandhiji referred to his and Dr. Dinshaw Mehta’s talk with the Guru³ of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. He [Gandhiji] had been told that the hands of this organization too were steeped in blood. The Guruji assured him that this was untrue. Their organization was enemy to no man. It did not stand for the killing of Muslims. All it wanted to do was to protect Hindustan to the best of its ability. It stood for peace and he had asked Gandhiji to make his views public.⁴[From Hindi]Prarthana Pravachan-I, pp. 298-305Notes
- 1. A telegram had been received from Girdhari Lal Puri, an ex-Minister, saying that he and his wife, should be rescued at once from Muslim fury2. What follows is from Harijan, 21-9-1947.3. M. S. Golwalkar4. Vide pp. 193-5.
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