Mahatma's own country... (Part II)

I couldn't properly sleep the whole night. The backache kept coming back. On that fateful evening in Lahore when we listened to my heart, the British police was rushed in, to quiet down the peaceful revolt in our college. We were beaten by laathis till they broke but none of us raised our hands on them. The police left after they were exhausted but I couldn't properly sleep from that night.

I stretched my back and sat on my computer again recollecting my thoughts. The sun shining through the window reminded me of one hot day that changed the fate of a nation...

It was June 3rd 1947. I was standing outside the building where a fate of a nation was being decided. An eager Nehru, a stubborn Jinnah and the mediator Mountbatten, among others were deciding if a nation and its people should be divided. The heat outside was unbearable but it was the anticipation that was making it worse.


I disagreed with Bapu on an ideological basis but one thing we both agreed was that India should not be divided under any cost. Bapu had tried his best. He even tried talking out Nehru. He told him that India has already spent more than 200 years British rule, so how does it matter if we wait 2-3 more years to sort everything out. Nehru always gave due consideration to Bapu but he was adamant about India getting Independence as soon as possible. I don't think he thought this way only to get power because at that point we Indians didn't knew what power was. Bapu's desperation was rising with every passing day and at one point he even suggested to Nehru that let us make Jinnah the Prime Minister of new nation and give all the top cabinet positions to Muslim leaders, if that prevents partition. I could understand Bapu's desperation about the nation he always dreamed of but at that point Nehru knew that we need our Independence sooner rather than later, lest Bapu is able to convince others to make Jinnah the Prime Minister of free India. It was then he called for the final meeting on June 3rd.

The news had leaked out of the room, Mountbatten had told Jinnah that he can have his Pakistan. A stroke of pen had decided the fate of millions of people. I could see it unraveling before my own eyes. Muslims standing with us suddenly were watching us with suspicious eyes. No body knew what to say to each other. The silence of the place was deafening. It was a silence that usually comes before a storm.

My thoughts went for the man who we all lovingly called, Bapu. He would be a broken man tonight. For the major part of his life he fought for a nation, a nation without caste system, a nation without religious differences, a nation who would celebrate their independence together. All he got was a divided nation, two nation full of hatred and two nations celebrating their independence without acknowledging each other. We all have differences with our parents and may not agree with them on a lot of issues but still nobody likes to see their father broken. Nehru who lovingly gave Mohandas Gandhi the name, Bapu, had just signed a deal that shattered his Bapu.

As I think about that day, tears still swell up in my eyes. I didn't gave my back for a divided nation. Bhagat Singh didn't die to get separated from Ashfaqulla Khan. Not many people know this but it was neither Nehru nor Jinnah who partitioned India, it was a lack of one piece of information, that divided India. As Mountbatten later wrote, if only he had known that Jinnah had cancer, he would have not divided the nation. Jinnah died after one year of Pakistan's independence, making the nation orphan, as President Musharaf noted in his recent memoirs.

Sometimes when I close my eyes, I still dream, what if...

(To be continued)

Chilly Paneer (Contributed by: Faith) ... a new recipe up @ sanjha chulha