Gandhi’s Last Fast is a Lesson for India’s Present

On August 15, 1947 India became free and the non-violent struggle against foreign rule ended. However, the historic event was disfigured by outbreaks of communal violence, provoked and sustained by a prolonged hymn of hate, accompanying the campaign for a separate state for the Muslim community.

Mahatma Gandhi pitted his whole soul against this madness and tried to calm the angry passions on both sides. In Calcutta, the “one-man boundary force” (as Lord Mountbatten hailed him) stopped the rioting, when 55,000 soldiers failed to do so in Punjab. Gandhi’s fast extinguished the fire in Bengal. It could not, however, be repeated in Delhi.

Disagreeing with a correspondent’s suggestion that he was being “buried alive”, Gandhi pointed out that even the members of the Muslim League had started saying, “we are all brothers”; that the masses had not lost faith in his ideals and that he would be “alive in the grave and speaking from it”. 

Gandhi’s faith in the people seemed to be vindicated in Calcutta, where he reached on August 9, 1947, on his way to Noakhali to resume his peace mission there, intending afterwards to go to Bihar. Here he found the Muslims “living in terror”. 

The memory of the great Calcutta killing of August 16, 1946, provoked by the Muslim League’s Direct Action Day, was rankling in the people’s minds and the Hindus, it was reported to Gandhi, had started threatening revenge. 

The secretary of the Calcutta District Muslim League waited on Gandhi on August 10 and entreated him to stay on in Calcutta even if it were only for two more days. He agreed, on the condition that the Muslim League guarantee peace in Noakhali and that if things went wrong there on the 15th then they would have to face a fast unto death by him. The Muslim leaders accepted the condition. Appealing for sanity in his prayer speech on the 11th, Gandhi said, “…we must unlearn the habit of retaliation in every shape and form”, not merely in action but, more importantly, in thought. Late in the evening the same day the former Muslim League Premier of Bengal, H. S. Suhrawardy, came with the Muslim League leader and requested Gandhi to prolong his stay in Calcutta indefinitely, till peace was firmly restored in the city. Gandhi replied: 

“I would remain if you and I are prepared to live together…We shall have to work till every Hindu and Mussalman in Calcutta safely returns to the place where he was before. We shall continue in our effort till our last breath.” 

He asked Suhrawardy to think carefully before accepting the offer, for this would mean “that the old Suhrawardy would die” and become a fakir. Suhrawardy accepted the offer, and on the evening of August 13th, the two moved for joint residence to an old, abandoned Hydari Mansion house in the predominantly Muslim locality of Beliaghata. 

Gandhi wrote to his trusted co-worker, Satis Chandra Das Gupta, “I have taken many risks, perhaps this is the greatest of all”. The Hindus were in an aggressive mood, for Suhrawardy was believed to have been responsible for the killing on August 16 last year. Facing an angry demonstration on the very first day of their arrival at the place, Gandhi reasoned with the leaders, “I have come here to serve not only Muslims but Hindus, Muslims and all alike. I am going to put myself under your protection. You are welcome to turn against me.”

Their reply was, “We do not want your sermons on ahimsa. You go away from here.” But Gandhi persisted in the non-violent confrontation. “You can obstruct my work, even kill me. I won’t invoke the help of the police…what is the use of your dubbing me an enemy of the Hindus? …How can I, who am a Hindu by birth, a Hindu by creed and a Hindu of Hindus in my way of living, be an ‘enemy’ of Hindus?”. The opposition was softened somewhat, but not quite. It was overcome the next evening, only when Suhrawardy openly admitted his responsibility for the previous year’s killing on August 16. 

The admission, Gandhi said afterwards, “was the turning-point. It had a cleansing effect”….And so on the 15th, he celebrated the coming of freedom with prayer, fasting and spinning of the charkha. 

Calcutta threw itself into a delirium of joy, “Hindus and Muslims meeting together in perfect friendliness” and “Hindus . . . admitted to mosques and Muslims … to the Hindu mandirs” and exuberant cries of ‘Long Live Hindustan and Pakistan’ “from the joint throats of the Hindus and the Muslims”. Gandhi claimed no credit for this miracle. 

“This sudden upheaval is not the work of one or two men. We are toys in the hands of God. He makes us dance to His tune. … in this miracle He has used us two as His instruments and … I only ask whether the dream of my youth is to be realised in the evening of my life”. 

Also read: Where Did the Phrase ‘the People of India’ Come From?

There was encouraging news from West Pakistan, too. Mohammad Ali Jinnah was reported to have said that “there was no longer any quarrel” between Hindus and Muslims. C. Rajagopalachari had confirmed the information. 

Regardless of Pakistan’s policy, Gandhi urged the Hindus in India to be just to Muslims at all cost. “The proper thing,” he said, “was for each majority to do their duty in all humility, irrespective of what the other majority did in the other state.” 

Gandhi wrote in Harijan, “the Indian Union and Pakistan belong equally to all who call themselves and are, sons of the soil, irrespective of their creed or colour.” Gandhi pleaded with the press, “Let the past be buried. Do not rake it up. Think of the future”. Gandhi wished India “to assure liberty of religious profession to every single individual”. This was the one great achievement of ancient India. 

It had “recognised cultural democracy”, holding that “the roads to God were many, but the goal was one, because God was one and the same…the roads were as many as there were individuals in the world”. In other words, religion was “a personal matter” and should be confined to “ the personal plane”. 

The atmosphere was too vitiated, however, for such wise and humane counsels to prevail. Gandhi sensed the continued tension in the air, “Though there is rejoicing,” he wrote to Amrit Kaur on August 16, “somehow or other, there is disturbance within. Is there something wrong with me? Or are things really going wrong?” He shared his doubts with Vallabhbhai Patel too, “I am reminded of the days of the Khilafat. But what if this is just a momentary enthusiasm?”. 

Before two weeks were over, Gandhi’s fears proved true. While Calcutta and Bengal were returning to peace, trouble started in the Punjab and the waves of the passions it aroused reached Calcutta through the Punjabi population there. 

Even as Gandhi, believing that things had settled down, was preparing to leave for Noakhali on September 2, an excited crowd of Hindu youths invaded Hydari Mansion where Gandhi was staying. The next day there were reports of conflagrations in several parts of the city. Gandhi began a fast “to end only if and when sanity returns to Calcutta”. As usual, co-workers remonstrated against the decision. 

“Can you fast against the goondas?” asked Rajagopalachari. Gandhi replied, “It is we who make goondas. Without our sympathy and passive support, the goondas would have no legs to stand upon. I want to touch the hearts of those who are behind the goondas”. 

Anticipating criticism from Patel, he wrote, “If the riots continue what will I do by merely being alive? What is the use of my living? If I lack even the power to pacify the people, what else is left for me to do?”.

The fast had the intended effect. Sarat Chandra Bose, leader of the forward bloc, called on Gandhi on September 2 and promised to do his best to establish peace. 

Syama Prasad Mookerjee, the Hindu Mahasabha leader, gave the assurance that the Mahasabha’s national guards would patrol the streets along with the Muslim national guards. 

A prominent member of the Bengal Muslim League “with tears in his eyes” assured Gandhi that “no Muslim in this area will again disturb the peace”. The leaven had begun to work. 

A group controlling the turbulent elements in Calcutta met Gandhi on September 4 and told him that the ring-leaders would all surrender themselves to him. One of them confessed responsibility for the disturbance in Gandhi’s camp on September 1 and agreed to “gladly submit to whatever penalty” Gandhi might impose. 

In the evening, a deputation of prominent citizens representing all the communities met Gandhi and signed a pledge promising that they would “never again allow communal strife in the city” and would “strive unto death to prevent it”. Thus peace returned to the city. Gandhi broke the fast at 9:15 p.m. 

The following morning, a stream of young men brought some country-made arms and surrendered them to Gandhi. A peace corps was formed, to whom Gandhi gave his well-known message “My life is my message”. Freed thus from anxiety on account of Calcutta, Gandhi left for Delhi on the 7th and, on the 9th, issued a press statement, ‘Man proposes, God disposes’ … I knew nothing about the sad state of things in Delhi when I left Calcutta … I have been listening the whole day long to the tale of woe that is Delhi today. I heard enough to warn me that I must not leave Delhi for the Punjab until it had regained its former self”. 

Gandhi had arrived too late. Jawaharlal Nehru had written to him on August 21 that Punjab needed his “healing presence”, but did not press him to go immediately. Gandhi wrote to him, asking, “When do you think I should go … if at all?” But Nehru could not make up his mind. Well aware of the serious situation there, he perhaps did not want Gandhi to expose himself to danger. Receiving no positive response from Nehru, Gandhi decided to leave for Noakhali on September 2, accompanied by Suhrawardy. But that resolve collapsed after the events of August 31 and September 1. Nehru’s wire came the following day: “I feel sure now that you should come to Punjab as early as possible”. But Gandhi’s fast had commenced and he could leave only on September 7. 

Arriving in Delhi, “which always appeared gay”, he now found it “a city of the dead”. The plague had spread from Punjab, where men had simply gone insane with hatred and indulged in large-scale killing, looting and arson, Muslim against Hindu and Sikh and vice-versa. The glorious land that was India had become a cremation-ground. 

Gandhi prayed to God to take him away and spare him from being a helpless witness of the senseless destruction. However, Gandhi did not yield to the weakness of despair. “I am surrounded by fire on all sides,” he wrote to a correspondent, “and yet I am not consumed by it. This is so only because of Rama-nama. I derive profound peace from it”. 

This peace survived even disappointment caused by differences among political co-workers and lapses of Ashram inmates. He continued to live in spite of them because he looked upon life “as a particle of God” and took “care of it as His gift,” to be spent in the service of His creation. 

With this faith in god and man, Gandhi reached out to the hearts of the people, Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs, to awaken the truth of life in them. He put the blame for the tragedy first on the Hindus and Sikhs who ought to have been “men enough to stem the tide of hatred”. 

Not that he lacked sympathy for the sufferers. “I have seen the terrible plight of the Hindus and Sikhs of Pakistan. Do you think I am not pained? … 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.” But the way of revenge was not the human way. The right response was to make the wrongdoers “feel repentant for their crimes”. 

If the Muslims had lost their humanity, that was no reason why the Hindus and Sikhs also should lose theirs. “It seems to me,” he told a prayer meeting, “that we have all become savages. Both Hindus and Muslims have turned savage”. “What is going on is not Sikhism, nor Islam nor Hinduism,” Gandhi told those who thought they were fighting to save their religions. 

“No one can destroy Hinduism. If it is destroyed, it would be at our own hands. Similarly if Islam is destroyed in India, it would be at the hands of Muslims living in Pakistan. It cannot be destroyed by Hindus”. 

Addressing a rally of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Gandhi said ,“if the Hindus felt that in India there was no place for anyone else except the Hindus and if non-Hindus, especially Muslims, wished to live here, they had to live as the slaves of the Hindus, they would kill Hinduism”. 

At the same time, Gandhi advised Muslims to show by their behaviour that they were loyal citizens of the country. They should surrender their arms and admit that “they had wished to …turn the whole of India into Pakistan” but had now realized their error. 

And they should shed their exclusiveness. “If you desire complete protection for Muslims,” he told U.P. Muslim League members, “you should show sympathy towards the Hindus who have come from Pakistan. You should serve them in their camps and convince them that you are their brothers”. 

Gandhi complained, both publicly and in private, to Lord Mountbatten, that even Jinnah had failed in this regard. In trying to reach the hearts of Muslims, Gandhi had to contend against the prejudice of the Muslim masses who had been taught to regard him as an enemy of Islam. 

On the other hand, because of his efforts to befriend the Muslims, the Hindus were furious with him. “I shall not be surprised,” he said, “if one day I fall a prey to this fury”. Gandhi acknowledged that Pakistan’s high commissioner in Delhi was “an enthusiastic believer in communal peace and friendship”.

Suhrawardy, who had gone, at Gandhi’s suggestion, on a peace mission to Jinnah, reported that the Pakistan government had become unpopular with the masses because of its policy towards the Hindus and Sikhs. But some of the public utterances of the Pakistan leaders had created deep distrust among them.

Gandhi blamed Jinnah primarily for this. The mischief, he told Suhrawardy, “commenced with Qaid-e-Azam, and still continues”. The distrust was aggravated by the problem of the accession of the three states, Hyderabad, Junagadh and Kashmir. 

Gandhi and the government of India held that it should be decided by the wishes of the people in each case. When Junagadh went to India by popular action, Pakistan allowed frontier tribesmen to invade Kashmir and force the hands of its ruler to join Pakistan. But the action had the opposite effect of uniting the people of the state, under their leader Sheikh Abdullah, who preferred accession to India. 

Gandhi commended the Sheikh’s nationalism. “If this is the attitude of the Sheikh and if he has influence on the Muslims, all is well with us. The poison which has spread amongst us should never have spread. Through Kashmir that poison might be removed from us”.

The Hindu-Muslim conflict was not the only problem, though it was the most difficult one, that demanded Gandhi’s attention. For shortages of food and cloth, he suggested decontrol in order to let the people learn “self-help and self-reliance”. He advised self-help to the refugees, too, for maintaining cleanliness in the camps and overcoming their hardships. He also outlined a code of conduct for governors. 

But Gandhi was content with offering advice and refused to dictate or to choose his own men to run the government. “Government of the people, by the people and for the people”, he told a correspondent, “cannot be conducted at the bidding of one man”. 

From September 1947, the communal situation in north India became grievous. Massacres were taking place in Punjab and Sindh, sparking off the migration of over ten million Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims. 

In September, hundreds of Muslims of Delhi were killed in Karol Bagh, Subzi Mandi and Paharganj. Tens of thousands of Hindu and Sikh refugees from Punjab were crammed into Diwan Hall, Chandni Chowk and Kingsway Camp; while thousands of Muslims, including Meos from Alwar and Bharatpur, camped in fear in Jamia Millia, Purana Qila and Humayun’s Tomb. 

The life of Zakir Husain, vice chancellor of Jamia Millia Islamia and president of the Hindustani Talimi Sangh, was saved by a Sikh army captain and a Hindu railway official. Upon arrival in Delhi on September 9, Gandhi was asked to stay not in the sweepers colony (his preferred residence in the city), but in Birla House. Gandhi plunged into the turmoil around him, travelling to nearby places, talking to refugees and cadres of social organisations. 

On December 22, he made this announcement at his prayer meeting: “Some eight or ten miles from here, at Mehrauli, there is a shrine of Qutubuddin Bakhtiyar Chisti. Esteemed as second only to the shrine at Ajmer, it is visited every year not only by Muslims but by thousands of non-Muslims too. Last September, this shrine was subjected to the wrath of Hindu mobs. The Muslims living in the vicinity of the shrine for the last 800 years had to leave their homes. I mention this sad episode to tell you that, though Muslims love the shrine, today no Muslim can be found anywhere near it. It is the duty of the Hindus, Sikhs, the officials and the government to open the shrine again and wash off this stain on us. The same applies to other shrines and religious places of Muslims in and around Delhi. The time has come when both India and Pakistan must unequivocally declare to the majorities in each country that they will not tolerate desecration of religious places, be they small or big. They should also undertake to repair the places damaged during riots.” 

Also read: Why Gandhi’s 1915 Kumbh Mela Reflections Matter in 2025

In fulfilment of his vow to “do or die”, to establish peace in Delhi or perish in the attempt, he undertook on January 13 a fast which did have a cleansing effect on most people in both countries. But it also roused the resentment of a few fanatics who promptly put out the light that hurt their eyes. 

After Partition, the Indian government sought to pressure Pakistan by delaying the payment of its agreed share of the cash balances from undivided India, in the wake of Pakistan-backed attacks by raiders in Kashmir in October 1947). In a press statement on 12 January, Sardar Patel elaborated on the rationale behind this decision.  

However, following Gandhi’s fast, which began on January 13 “in the cause of the Muslims”, the Indian Cabinet reversed its stance and decided to honour the agreement immediately, and transferred Rs 55 crores to Pakistan’s account.

A government communique from January 15, 148 said, “The Government have, however, shared the world-wide anxiety over the fast undertaken by Gandhiji, the Father of the Nation. In common with him they have anxiously searched for ways and means to remove ill will, prejudice and suspicion, which have poisoned the relations between India and Pakistan…The Government have decided to implement immediately the financial agreement with Pakistan in regard to the cash balances. The amount due to Pakistan on the basis of the agreement, i. e., Rs. 55 crores, minus the expenditure incurred by the Government of India since August 15 on Pakistan account will, therefore, be paid to the Government of Pakistan.”

In the flames of hatred raging round him Gandhi saw, not the failure of ahimsa, but his own failure to understand and apply the truth behind ahimsa. Some Maulanas of Delhi saw him on January 11 and one of them asked for help to enable them to go away to England. Gandhi had no answer to give them.

In his prayer speech that evening, he pleaded, “…we must forget that we are Hindus or Sikhs or Muslims or Parsis. We must be only Indians. It is of no consequence by what name we call god in our homes. In the work of the nation, all Indians of all faiths are one…We are Indians and we must lay down our lives in protecting Hindus, Muslims, Parsis, Sikhs and all others”. For days he had been brooding over his “impotence” to give the right answer to the Muslim friends who had sought his guidance. 

The final conclusion flashed upon him on the afternoon of the 12th and it made him happy. Without consulting anyone, not even Nehru or Patel, who had called on him a couple of hours earlier, he drafted a statement to be read out at the prayer meeting in the evening, announcing the commencement of an indefinite fast the following day. 

This was his answer to the Maulanas. The fast was to quicken conscience, not deaden it, to turn the searchlight inwards and seek self-purification.

“No man, if he is pure, has anything more precious to give than his life. I hope and pray that I have that purity in me to justify the step”.

The step was indeed justified as it evoked the right response from all quarters. Numerous telegrams from Pakistan as well as India conveyed assurances of communal amity. On the 16th, the government of India announced the decision to release forthwith the cash balances due to Pakistan.

Gandhi’s last fast

This was the background to his last protest. It began on January 13, 1948 and was announced at his prayer meeting that evening. He said, “Now that I have started my fast many people cannot understand what I am doing, who are the offenders – Hindus or Sikhs or Muslims. How long will the fast last? I say I do not blame anyone. Who am I to accuse others? I have said that we have all sinned.”

He continued, “I shall terminate the fast only when peace has returned to Delhi. If peace is restored to Delhi it will have an effect not only on the whole of India but also on Pakistan and when that happens, a Muslim can walk around in the city all by himself. I shall then terminate the fast. Delhi is the capital of India. It has always been the capital of India. So long as things do not return to normal in Delhi, they will not be normal either in India or in Pakistan. Today I cannot bring Suhrawardy here because I fear someone may insult him. Today he cannot walk about in the streets of Delhi. If he did he would be assaulted. What I want is that he should be able to move about here even in the dark. It is true that he made efforts in Calcutta only when Muslims became involved. Still, he could have made the situation worse, if he had wanted, but he did not want to make things worse. He made the Muslims evacuate the places they had forcibly occupied and said that he, being the Premier, could do so. Although the places occupied by the Muslims belonged to Hindus and Sikhs he did his duty. Even if it takes a whole month to have real peace established in Delhi it does not matter. People should not do anything merely to have me terminate the fast. So my wish is that Hindus, Sikhs, Parsis, Christians and Muslims who are in India should continue to live in India and India should become a country where everyone’s life and property are safe. Only then will India progress.”

Delhi was visibly affected by Gandhi’s fast. Leaders of all communities, Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims, met in Delhi. Addressing a gathering of 3,00,000 people on January 17, Maulana Azad announced seven tests given by Gandhi to be fulfilled and guaranteed by responsible people. On the 18th, 100 representatives of various organisations called on Gandhi with a joint statement pledging themselves to fulfil the conditions he had laid down for breaking the fast. 

Satisfied at last, he said, “till today our face was turned towards Satan, we have now resolved to turn towards God”. After breaking the fast, Gandhi wrote to his co-workers, “From calm I have entered a storm”. In two days it became clear what shape the storm would take.

They included freedom of worship to Muslims at the tomb of Khwaja Bakhtiar Chishti, non-interference with the Urs festival due to be held there; the voluntary evacuation by non-Muslims of all mosques in Delhi that were being used as houses or which had been converted into temples; free movement of Muslims in areas where they used to stay; complete safety to Muslims while travelling by train; no economic boycott of Muslims; and freedom to Muslim evacuees to return to Delhi.” That evening a procession of citizens walked to Birla House where Nehru addressed them. 

Gandhi’s speech was read out at the prayer meeting, attended by some 4,000 people. Among other things, he said:

“My fast should not be considered a political move in any sense of the term. It is in obedience to the peremptory call of conscience and duty. It comes out of felt agony. I call to witness all my numerous Muslim friends in Delhi. Their representatives meet me almost every day to report the day’s events. Neither Rajas and Maharajas nor Hindus and Sikhs or any others would serve themselves or India as a whole, if at this, what is to me a sacred juncture, they mislead me with a view to terminating my fast” (vol 98:248).

On January 18, Gandhi ended his fast. Over a 100 representatives of various groups and organisations including the Hindu Mahasabha, RSS and Jamiat-ul-Ulema-e-Hind, who had assembled at Rajendra Prasad’s residence, called on Gandhi at 11:30 am.

Those present included Nehru, Abul Kalam Azad, Rajendra Prasad, INAs General Shah Nawaz Khan, Maulana Hifzur Rahman and Zahid Hussain, Pakistan’s high commissioner. Prasad reported that even those who had some doubts on the previous night were confident that they could ask Gandhi with a full sense of responsibility to break the fast. As the president of the Congress, Prasad said that he had signed the document in view of the guarantee which they had all jointly given. 

Khurshid Lal, the chief commissioner and Randhawa, deputy commissioner of Delhi, had signed the document on behalf of the administration. It had been decided to set up a number of committees to implement the pledge. 

Prasad hoped that Gandhi would now terminate his fast. Deshbandhu Gupta described scenes of fraternisation between Hindus and Muslims, which he had witnessed at a Muslim procession that morning. The procession was received with an ovation and Hindu inhabitants offered fruit and refreshments to those passing by. A seven-point declaration in Hindi was read out solemnly affirming the people’s desire for communal harmony and civic peace. It read as follows:

1. We wish to announce that it is our heart-felt desire that the Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs and members of the other communities should once again live in Delhi like brothers and in perfect amity and we take the pledge that we shall protect the life, property and faith of Muslims and that the incidents which have taken place in Delhi will not happen again.
2. We want to assure Gandhi that the annual fair at Khwaja Qutb-ud-Din Mazar will be held this year as in the previous years.
3. Muslims will be able to move about in Subzimandi, Karol Bagh, Paharganj and other localities just as they could in the past.
4. The mosques which have been left by Muslims and which now are in the possession of Hindus and Sikhs will be returned. The areas which have been set apart for Muslims will not be forcibly occupied.
5. We shall not object to the return to Delhi of the Muslims who have migrated from here if they choose to come back and Muslims shall be able to carry on their business as before.
6. We assure that all these things will be done by our personal effort and not with the help of the police or military.
7. We request Mahatmaji to believe us and to give up his fast and continue to lead us as he has done hitherto.” .” (CWMG Vol 98, P. 249, 253).

Gandhi’s speech on the Delhi declaration

In his reply, Gandhi said, “I am happy to hear what you have told me, but if you have overlooked one point all this will be worth nothing. If this declaration means that you will safeguard Delhi and whatever happens outside Delhi will be no concern of yours, you will be committing a grave error and it will be sheer foolishness on my part to break my fast. 

You must have seen the Press reports of the happenings in Allahabad, if not, look them up. I understand that the RSS and the Hindu Mahasabha are among the signatories to this declaration. 

It will amount to breach of faith on their part if they hold themselves responsible for peace in Delhi, but not in other places. I have been observing that this sort of deception is being practised in the country these days on a large scale. Delhi is the heart – the capital of India. The leaders from the whole of India have assembled here. Men had become beasts. But if those who have assembled here, who constitute the cream among men cannot make the whole of India understand that  Hindus, Muslims and followers of other religions are like brothers, it bodes ill for both the Dominions. What will be the fate of India if we continue to quarrel with one another?… Let us take no step that may become a cause for repentance later on. The situation demands courage of the highest order from us. We have to consider whether or not we can accomplish what we are going to promise. If you are not confident of fulfilling your pledge, do not ask me to give up my fast. It is for you and the whole of India to translate it into reality. It may not be possible to realize it in a day. I do not possess the requisite strength for it. But I can assure you that till today our face was turned  towards Satan, we have now resolved to turn towards God. If what I have told you fails to find an echo in your hearts or if you are convinced that it is beyond you, tell me so frankly.

What greater folly can there be than to claim that Hindustan is only for Hindus and Pakistan is for Muslims alone? The refugees here should realize that things in Pakistan will be set right by the example set in Delhi. I am not one to be afraid of fasting. Time and again I have gone on fasts and if occasion arises I may again do so. Whatever therefore you do, do after careful thought and consideration. 

My Muslim friends frequently meet me and assure me that the peaceful atmosphere has been restored in Delhi and Hindus and Muslims can live in amity here. If these friends have any misgivings in their hearts and feel that today they have perforce to stay here – as they have nowhere else to go – but ultimately they will have to part company, let them admit it to me frankly. To set things right in the whole of India and Pakistan is no doubt a Herculean task. But I am an optimist. Once I resolve to do something I refuse to accept defeat. Today you assure me that Hindus and Muslims have become one but if Hindus continue to regard Muslims as Yavans and asuras, incapable of realizing God, and Muslims regard Hindus likewise, it will be the worst kind of blasphemy. 

I feel that if the hearts of both Hindus and Muslims are full of deceit and treachery, why need I  continue to live?

After listening to all that I have said, if you still ask me to end my fast I shall end it. Afterwards you have to release me. I had taken the vow to do or die in Delhi and now if I am able to achieve success here I shall go to Pakistan and try to make Muslims understand their folly. Whatever happens in other places, people in Delhi should maintain peace. The refugees here should realize that they have to welcome as brothers the Muslims returning from Pakistan to Delhi. The Muslim refugees in Pakistan are suffering acute hardships and so are the Hindu refugees here. Hindus have not learnt all the crafts of Muslim craftsmen. Therefore they had better return to India. There are good men as well as bad men in all the communities. 

Taking into consideration all these implications, if you ask me to break my fast I shall abide by your wish. India will virtually become a prison if the present conditions continue. It may be better that you allow me to continue my fast and if God wills it He will call me.” 

Maulana Abul Kalam Azad said that the remarks about non-Muslims to which Gandhi had referred were abhorrent to Islam. They were symptoms of the insanity that had seized some sections of the people. 

Maulana Hifzur Rahman insisted that Muslims wanted to remain in India as citizens with self-respect and honour. He welcomed the changed atmosphere in the city as a result of Gandhi’s fast and appealed to Gandhi to break the fast. 

On behalf of the Hindu Mahasabha and the RSS, Ganesh Datt reiterated the appeal. 

Hussain said a few words to Gandhi. He said he was there to convey the deep concern of the Pakistani people about him and the anxious inquiries they made every day about his health. It was their hearts’ desire that circumstances might soon enable him to break the fast. If there was anything that he could do towards that end, he was ready and so were the people of Pakistan. 

Hussain was followed by Khurshid and Randhawa who, on behalf of the administration, reiterated the assurance that all the conditions mentioned in the citizens’ pledge would be implemented, and no effort would be spared to restore the Indian capital to its traditional harmony and peace.

 Sardar Harbans Singh endorsed the appeal on behalf of the Sikhs. 

When Prasad said, “I have signed on behalf of the people, please break your fast,” Gandhi replied, “I shall break my fast. Let God’s will prevail. You all be witness today.”

During his prayer meeting on the 20th, a group of angry Hindus made the first attempt on his life. Gandhi did not know at the time that it was a bomb explosion. 

The following evening he advised his listeners not to hate the bomb-thrower. In fact, he pleaded his case and cited in his defence a verse from the Gita. “He had taken it for granted that I am an enemy of Hinduism” and “thinks he has been sent by God to destroy me”. Deprecating the security measures taken by the government, he told his host G. D. Birla, “…it is Rama who protects me, everything else is futile”.

Twelve days later, on January 30, 1948, Mahatma Gandhi was murdered at his daily prayer meeting.

All the citations are from Mahatma Gandhi’s Collected Works, CWMG.