On arriving in India he followed the advice of Gopal Krishna Gokhale to visit different parts of India and understand it. In an interview to the Bombay Chronicle on the day he reached India he, therefore, said“…I having been out of India for so long, have no business to form any definite conclusions about matters essentially Indian, and that I should pass some time here as an observer and a student”.However, he did reflect on religious pluralism and its critical necessity four days after his arrival in Bombay. While responding to a reception accorded to him on January 14, 1915 in Bombay by Gurjar Sabha, presided over by Mohammad Ali Jinnah, he recalled with anguish that in South Africa when “anything was said about Gujaratis, it was understood to have a reference to the Hindu community only and Parsis and Mahomedans were not thought of”.He, therefore, was happy to see a ‘Mahomedan like Jinnah’ who was a member of the Gurjar Sabha and the chairman of that function. The sub text of what Gandhi said, a few days after his arrival in India, that an inclusive approach should be integral to embrace people professing diverse faiths.He while adding that “With regard to the Hindu-Mahomedan question he had much to learn” stated on that occasion that “…he would always keep before his eyes his twenty-one years’ experience in South Africa”. That experience was, of course, rooted in religious pluralism and equal respect for all faiths.He recalled on that occasion the words of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, founder of the Mahomedan Anglo-Oriental College at Aligarh , that “the Hindus and Mahomedans were the two eyes of Mother India and if one looked at one end and the other at the other, neither would be able to see anything and that if one was gone, the other would see to that extent only. Both the communities had to bear this in mind in the future”.Those words of Gandhi on Hindu-Muslim issue are of contemporary relevance particularly in the context of the frightening call given by Hindutva leaders for arms and genocide of Muslims of India and pronounecemnts of high functionaries of State that civil society is the new frontier of warfare. Combined with aggressive peddling of majoritarianism it adversely impacts society and poisons the whole body politic.On 13th January 1915 Lokmanya Tilak, while participating in the meeting convened by Bombay National Union to welcome Gandhi and his wife Kasturba, stated that both of them fought for the honour of India in a distant land and the lesson to be learnt from them was to produce more men and women of the self-sacrificing spirit by following their example. Tilak’s words came true and Gandhi commanded attention of the whole of India and vast masses of people joined the freedom struggle because of his role in setting an example of self sacrifice and service.Today, when Hindutva elements operating State apparatus are causing divisions in our society on the basis of religion and violently targeting minorities and values of religious pluralism, let us recall Gandhi’s words after his arrival in India on 9th January 1915 and take measures to save the Idea of India and its secular ethos by defeating forces representing majoritarianism.( The writer S N Sahu served as Officer on Special Duty and Press Secretary to President of India late K R Narayanan)
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