Dr. Vivek Arya
Recently Amit Shah talked about
the Bania title of Mahatma Gandhi. This
created lot of furor and upheavel. My
aim here is to draw attention of readers about the right connotation of the
term 'Bania' - which means a wise
man. In this sense did Mahatma Gandhi
qualify the aforesaid term or not is left to the judgement of readers
.
It was Kolkata congress special
session in 1920 presided over by Lala Lajpat Rai. Swami Shraddhananda
visited this session. Those were Khilafat movement days. Mahatma Gandhi
unnecessarily tagged Indian freedom struggle with the Khilafat Movement of
Turkey. The delegates of Congress especially the Muslims were interested more
in discussing about Khilafat rather than Indian freedom struggle. Swami
Shraddhananda witnessed in the above session,a group meeting being held by
Maulana Shaukat Ali, one among famous Ali brothers. In the presence of more than 50
persons (all Muslims), while the merits of non-violence were being discussed,
Shaukat Ali said "Mahatma Gandhi is shrewd Bania. You do not understand
his real object. By putting you under discipline, he is preparing you for
guerilla warfare. He is not such an out-and-out non-violent as you all suppose".
Swami Shraddhanda was shocked to
listen to the views of Shaukat Ali and he wanted such views should draw the
attention of Mahatma Gandhi.
However, he was unable to
communicate to him directly due to his illness. He sent his message through
Mahadeva Desai that Gandhiji's objectives were being misrepresented by his
trusted colleagues. In between there was another episode. In Khilafat Conference at Nagpur, the Ayats (verses) of Quran were recited by
Maulanas. These verses referred to Jihad and suggested the killing of infidels
or non-Muslims. Swami Shraddhanda drew the attention of Mahatma Gandhi to study
and analyse such verses of Quran. Gandhiji smiled and said, "They are
alluding to the British bureaucracy".
On this, Swamiji replied that it was all about propagation of
non-violence and when an opportunate movement comes, Mohammeden Maulanas would
not desist from using these verses against the Hindus.
Swami Shraddhanand also observed that Ali
brothers had no scholastic achievements in the study of Quran. They were also
not able to communicate either in Arabic
or Persian language. They were given Honorary Maulana title by Firangi Mahal
Lucknow for their extraordinary duties of Tabligh (Conversion of Non-Muslims to
Islam). On the question of untouchability,
Ali brothers' ill advice in
Cocanada(Kakinada) session of congress
regarding division of Dalits into two parts, one for Hindus and another parts
for Muslims speaks volumes about the evil intention of Maulanas. However, this move of Maulanas had no impact
on Mahatma Gandhi who as usual remained sympathetic towards them. Once he only
smiled when same Maulana said
“However pure Mr. Gandhi’s
character may be, he must appear to me from the point of view of my religion
inferior to any Musalman, even though he be without character… Yes, according
to my religion and creed, I do hold an adulterous and a fallen Musalman to be
better than Mahatma Gandhi.”
Mahatma Gandhi was simply living
in a fools paradise as he dreamt of
Swarajya with the support of such radical preachers of Islam. Swami Shraddhanda
alarmed him that he must not have blind faith in the fundamentalists. At long
last Hindus had to pay a heavy price for
the silly mistake of Gandhi. Khilafat movement raised the aspirations of Muslim leaders. They started dreaming
of Muslim Rule over India and started
considering the country under British rule as Darul-Harb. Dozens of riots broke
out all over the country. During the Moplah rebellion in Kerala in 1921,
thousands of Hindu men, women and children were killed by the Muslims. Hundreds
of women were raped. And yet Gandhi supported the Moplahs and not the Hindu
victims of the riots. On the other hand Mahatma Gandhi wrote in his “Young
India”, “It’s wrong to say that Islam has employed force. No religion in this
world has spread through the use of force. No Musalman, to my knowledge, has
ever approved of compulsion.”
Does this not show that Gandhi
practiced political deception? According to Gandhi, the Moplah Muslims were
guilty of no crime. Post Moplah, Multan, Kohat, Saharanpur, Kanpur, Delhi
burned with Hindu-Muslim riots. It will not be wrong to say that this massacre
of helpless Hindus lead to the 1947 partition of the country.
Had Mahatma Gandhi listened to sane
advice of Swami Shraddhanda, the
situation would not have gone out of his control. Further, had Mahatma
Gandhi not tagged Khilafat Movement with
the poles apart Indian freedom struggle, the Islamic fundamentalists would not
have talked about Darul-Aman (the land of Islam). Had Mahatma Gandhi visited
Moplah and witnessed the inhuman acts done in the name of Islam and criticized
them, the ugly approach of the radical
preachers could have been easily neutralized. Had Mahatma Gandhi learned from
his mistakes, Hindus would not have
faced such a humiliation in their own
motherland.
The term 'Bania' stands for a
wise person. In the light of above, I
once again leave it to the judgement of readers to decide whether Mahatma
Gandhi is fit to be called a “Bania”?
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