Today, when conspiracies are being hatched to find temples under every mosque, one remembers the father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi, what he would have done if he were alive and what he did during his mere five and a half months of life in independent India. To maintain Hindu-Muslim unity and mutual harmony, he put his life at stake and became the target of a Hindu communal fanatic’s bullet. Today, it is important to revisit this period.
One of Gandhi’s last acts – just three days before his assassination – was a visit to the tomb of Qutbuddin Bakhtiyar Kaki in Delhi’s Mehrauli. What was the reason behind this last public visit and an act he called a pilgrimage?
Just nine days after ending his last fast on January 18, 1948, to restore peace and harmony in Delhi, 79-year-old Gandhi, who was extremely weak and tired, visited the Qutbuddin Bakhtiyar Kaki dargah on January 27. The purpose of his visit was to personally see the damage caused to the dargah during the riots that were engulfed in an unprecedented communal violence. It was biting cold in Delhi and he reached there before 8 am to see the damage caused during the communal mayhem.
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He was deeply saddened by the fact that Muslims were being attacked in their own country in the name of religion. He went there with Maulana Azad and Rajkumari Amrit Kaur. Though the annual urs was underway at that time, the atmosphere was sombre and Bapu was unwell. After the holy place was attacked and vandalised, many local Muslims left their homes and moved to safer places. Even the dargah employees left the dargah fearing for their lives. They too sought refuge elsewhere.
Gandhi visited the dargah and appealed to all those present there to live peacefully. He asked the refugees to rebuild the damaged area. Gandhi also asked the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to get the dargah repaired as it had suffered insurmountable damage during the riots. Apart from this, Gandhi asked Nehru to allocate Rs 50,000 as compensation, which was considered a huge amount in those days.
After his visit, Gandhi wrote:
“After the Ajmer dargah, this is the second most revered (Qutbuddin Bakhtiyar Kaki) dargah in the country and is visited every year by not only Muslims but also thousands of non-Muslims.”
Before leaving the dargah, Gandhi said to those present:
“I have come here on a pilgrimage. I request the Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs who have come here to take a pledge with a pure heart that they will never allow strife to arise but will live in peace, friendship and brotherhood. We must purify ourselves and meet even our opponents with love.”
Bapu also said:
“This dargah has been a victim of the anger of the mob. The Muslims who have been living nearby for the last 800 years had to leave it… Though the Muslims love this dargah, today no Muslim is found around it… It is the duty of the Hindus, Sikhs, the authorities and the government to reopen this dargah and wash away this stain on all of us… Now the time has come that both India and Pakistan should clearly declare to the majority of their respective countries that they will not tolerate the insult of religious places, whether small or big. They should also undertake the repair of the places damaged during the riots.” Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi (Volume 98, pp. 98-99) 27 January 1948.
The dargah of Qutbuddin Bakhtiyar Kaki comes alive every year during autumn when Delhi’s annual festival celebrating communal harmony, “Phool Walon Ki Sair”, is held here. It is, in fact, a tribute to Gandhi, who insisted that India must live on secular values. The seven-day festival, a symbol of Hindu-Muslim unity and shared heritage, which was discontinued in 1862 during British rule, was revived in 1961 after independence by Nehru.
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During this festival, both Hindus and Muslims offer chaadar (a piece of cloth that is offered at dargahs as a mark of reverence) and fans at the dargah; fans and umbrellas are also offered at the nearby ancient temple of Goddess Yogamaya in Mehrauli. Unfortunately, there is no plaque at Qutbuddin Bakhtiyar Kaki’s dargah that would indicate that this place had a deep connection with Gandhi. The sad part is that the people working at the dargah have no idea why Gandhi came here before his death.
According to Delhi’s senior journalist and history expert Vivek Shukla:
“During his total stay of 744 days in Delhi from 12 April 1915 to 30 January 1948, Gandhiji visited religious places in Delhi only twice, although he was a staunch Hindu. He inaugurated the Birla Mandir on 22 September 1939 on the condition that the entry of Dalits would not be prohibited there. And the second time he visited a dargah, it was the dargah of Qutbuddin Bakhtiyar.”
Yes, he lived in a small room in the Valmiki temple in Delhi, where he taught children of Valmiki families. The blackboard that Gandhi used to teach his students is still safe. Bapu stayed at the Valmiki temple in the then Reading Road (now Mandir Marg) for exactly 214 days from April 1, 1946 to June 10, 1947. It was here that Louis Fisher took his last interview before writing his biography Life of Mahatma Gandhi.
Gandhi visited the dargah of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti in Ajmer Sharif thrice in 1921, 1922 and 1934, about which a controversy is being raised today, and offered flowers and chadar as a sign of his devotion and faith.
Gandhi first came to Ajmer Sharif on March 8, 1921 and described the darbar (mazar) as the ‘centre of humanity’.
He came to Ajmer for the second time on March 8, 1922 on the invitation of revolutionary Kumaranand. Kumaranand was the leader of farmers and labourers at that time. Kumaranand and local Congress leaders gave Gandhi a grand welcome at Ajmer railway station. He went straight to Phool Niwas Bhawan on Kachhari Road, which was the house of his friend Gaurishankar Bhargava. After this he went to the dargah. When Gandhi feared his arrest, he returned from there the same night. He went to Ahmedabad by train.
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Gandhi came to Ajmer for the third time on the night of July 4, 1934 on the invitation of Rajputana Harijan Seva Sangh.
In 1990, a so-called historian Sita Ram Goyal along with other authors Arun Shourie, Harsh Narayan, Jai Dubashi and Ram Swaroop published a two-volume book titled Hindu Temples: What Happened to Them. In this book, Goyal has traced more than 1,800 Muslim structures (mosques) that were built on existing temples or using the material of destroyed temples. From Qutub Minar to Babri Masjid, Gyanvapi Masjid, Pinjore Garden and others are mentioned in this book. Now this number has increased to more than 35,000.
When individuals who have been eroding India’s unity and integrity, as well as its ancient civilisation and harmony, over the past three to four decades raise inflammatory slogans like “Teen nahi to teen hazaar, nahi bachegi koi mazaar (If not three, then three thousand mosques will be demolished and no shrine will be left)“ and “Ayodhya to jhanki hai Mathura Kashi baki hai‘ (Ayodhya is just a glimpse, Mathura Kashi are still left),“ the wisdom and words of Gandhi are recalled more than ever.
Qurban Ali is a tri-lingual journalist who has covered some of modern India’s major political, social, and economic developments. He has keenly followed India’s freedom struggle and is now documenting the history of the socialist movement in the country. He can be contacted at [email protected]
