Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948) has been a rather enigmatic figure in modern Indian history. To millions of his countrymen in his own time he was the 'Mahatma' or a saintly person whose very sight or touch was purifying. Writing of Gandhi in July, 1944, a scientist of the calibre of Albert Einstein observed, "Generations to come, it may be, will scarcely believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth". But Gandhi was not basically a religious or spiritual personality in the commonly accepted sense of that term, like the Buddha, Jesus Christ, St. Francis of Assisi, Chaitanya or Sri Ramakrishna. Though his Satyagraha was designed to introduce the spirit of religion into politics, Gandhi never regarded himself as a saint, and disclaimed all miraculous powers for himself. Far from holding himself as infallible, he often confessed that he was groping in the dark, and on at least one occasion openly admitted that he had made a 'Himalayan blunder'.
Gandhi's politics did not commend itself to many contemporary Indian politicians, statesmen and intellectuals, though hardly any of them could deny his tremendous hold upon the masses and power to galvanize them into political action. Lord Willingdon, the Viceroy, described Gandhi in 1933 as 'the most astute politician in India'. But he was criticised by national revolutionaries, socialists and communists, Subhas Chandra Bose and his followers, leaders of the 'Depressed Classes' like B. R. Ambedkar and both Hindu and Muslim fundamentalists of his time. He was condemned for his readiness to compromise with the British, failure to save the precious lives of some well-known national revolutionaries, and inability or lack of will to uphold the cause of poor peasants against rich landlords and of oppressed industrial workers against their capitalist employers. Leaders of the Muslim League described him as the 'number one enemy' of the Indian Muslim community, while the Hindu Mahasabhaites accused him of sacrificing the legitimate interests of the Hindus in order to curry favour with the Muslims. Ultimately, he was proclaimed guilty by some people for acquiescing in the partition of India, and in recent times he has been debunked by intellectuals like Nirode C. Chaudhury as well as short-sighted, caste-obsessed 'Dalit' leaders like Kansiram and Mayavati.
It will be unfair to dismiss all these allegations against Gandhi as absolutely baseless and motivated. Sometimes he did behave like a shrewd, calculating politician, as in his dealings with Subhas Chandra Bose in 1938-39 when he found his leadership threatened by the latter. He supported the Khilafat movement which demonstrated the extra-territorial loyalty of a section of the Indian Muslims, and was also prepared to make political concessions to the League leaders in order to remove their distrust of the Hindus, though he opposed the Muslim separatists' demand for the partition of India almost till the end. It may be noted in this connection that C. R. Das in Bengal was also prepared to make political concessions to the Muslims in the twenties (Bengal Pact of 1923) with the same object of forging Hindu-Muslim unity. Unfortunately, both Gandhi and Das failed. The Poona Pact of 1932 alienated the upper caste Hindu leaders, but did completely satisfy the 'Depressed Classes' whose political interests Gandhi sought to protect within the broad framework of nationalist politics.
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