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PUNCTUALLY at 3.30am on Friday, January 30, 1948, Mahatma Gandhi awoke to greet the last morning he would ever see.
He was in the tense atmosphere of Delhi, staying in a ground-floor guest room of Birla house, the mansion of industrialist and benefactor G.D. Birla located in Albuquerque Road. Gandhi had arrived in the strife-torn capital of newly independent India on September 9, 1947 from Calcutta, where he had performed a miracle of peace-making. By January 30, almost four months had passed since his 78th, and last, birthday. It was 12 days since the successful end of his fast to bring about a reunion of hearts in Delhi. But 10 days before, there had been an aborted attempt on his life during the evening prayer meeting at Birla House. With the situation in Delhi having stabilised, Gandhi was again looking to the future, but his life was in grave danger - and he knew it.
The Mahatma's last day would be as methodical and crowded as any other. Upon getting up from his wooden plank, he roused the other members of his party. They included attendants Brij Krishna Chandiwala and Manu and Abha, his grand-nieces. His physician, Dr Sushila Nayar, who was normally with him, was away in Pakistan. He brushed his teeth with a twig like any ordinary Indian.
At 3.45 am prayers were held on the same cold verandah where the party had slept. With Sushila away, Manu led the Bhagavad Gita recitation. They recited the first and second shlokas. Another female member had failed to rise in time for prayers. This disturbed Gandhi. He mused whether she should leave him, and concluded by saying, "I do not like these signs. I hope God does not keep me here very long to witness these things." When Manu asked Gandhi which prayer she should chant for him, Gandhi chose a favourite Gujarati hymn. The song begins, "Whether weary or unweary, man, do not tarry, stop not, your struggle if single-handed - continue, and do not tarry!"
After prayers, leaning on his "walking sticks", Manu and Abha, the old man moved slowly into the inner room where Manu covered his legs with a warm blanket. It was still dark outside as Gandhi began his day's work. He corrected the draft of his proposal for a new Congress constitution written the previous night. This document was to become known as his Last Will and Testament to the nation. At 4.45 he drank a glass of lemon, honey and hot water, and an hour later, his daily glass of orange juice. While working, because of weakness caused by the fast, he became tired and allowed himself a sleep.
Waking after only half an hour, Gandhi asked for his correspondence file. The previous day he had written a letter to Kishorlal Mashruwala. One of two matters the letter discussed was a tentative plan for Gandhi to soon leave Delhi and go to Sevagram. The letter had been mislaid, by Manu, and not posted. But it was found and Gandhi gave it to be posted, the last of many thousands. Manu had also wished to convey a message to Mashruwala, who had recently left Gandhi's service. She asked Gandhi whether they were returning to Sevagram on February 2, in which case they would be seeing Mashruwala soon anyway. Gandhi replied, "Who knows about the future? If we come to a decision regarding Sevagram, I shall announce it at the evening prayer meeting. It will then be relayed on the radio at night."
Also a consequence of his fast, Gandhi suffered from a bad cough. To treat it he would take palm-jaggery lozenges with powdered cloves. But by this morning the clove powder had finished. Instead of joining him in his morning walk, a stroll up and down the room, Manu sat down to prepare some more. "I shall join you presently," she said to Gandhi. "Otherwise there will be nothing at hand at night when it is needed." But always focusing on the here-and-now, Gandhi replied, "Who knows what is going to happen before nightfall or even whether I shall be alive. If at night I am still alive you can easily prepare some then." Manu, although well aware of Gandhi's principled stance against modern medicines, could not refrain from offering him penicillin lozenges instead. Unyielding, Gandhi asked her how she could 1offer him such things when his faith was in Ramanama and prayer.
The Mahatma's first appointment for the day was at 7 am, with Rajen Nehru who was going to America. Gandhi spoke with her while taking his morning constitutional in the room. He had not yet regained enough strength for his customary long walk in the open air.
Next Gandhi was to have a massage. Passing through his secretary Pyarelal's room, Gandhi handed Pyarelal his draft submission for the new Congress constitution, written for the forthcoming Congress Working Committee meeting. Gandhi asked him to go through it carefully. "Fill any gaps that you may find in my thinking," he instructed. "I have prepared it under heavy strain." Brij Krishna gave Gandhi the half-hour massage in a room adjacent to his sitting room. Two electric heaters were needed to warm the chilly air. While laying on the table Gandhi digested the morning newspapers.
After the massage Gandhi asked Pyarelal whether he had finished the revision. Gandhi also requested him to write a note on how, in the light of his work in Noakhali, he believed an impending rice crisis in Madras province could be handled. Manu then gave Gandhi his bath. During this he asked her whether she was doing the hand exercises he had prescribed. Manu told him that she did not like the exercises, then listened to a long but gentle rebuke from her master, who told her of the responsibility he had taken for her health and moral development.
After the bath Manu weighed the little man (who was about five feet and five inches tall). He was 109 1/2 pounds. He had regained two-and-a-half pounds since ending his fast. His strength was returning. Pyarelal thought he looked refreshed after his bath. The strain of the previous night had disappeared. When someone told Gandhi that a woman member of Sevagram Ashram had missed her train that morning because there had been no conveyance for the several mile ride to Wardha station, he asked in all seriousness, "Why did she not walk to the station?" Then Gandhi did his morning Bengali writing exercise. Today he wrote, "Bhairab's home is in Naihati. Shaila is his eldest daughter. Today Shaila gets married to Kailash."
By now it was 9.30, and time for Gandhi's morning meal. The meal included cooked vegetables, 12 ounces of goat's milk, four tomatoes, four oranges, carrot juice and a decoction of ginger, sour limes and aloes. While eating Gandhi talked with Pyarelal about the draft Congress Constitution, to which Pyarelal had made some alterations. Pyarelal also reported on the outcome of a meeting the previous day with the leader of the extremist Hindu Mahasabha, Dr Shyama Prasad Mookerjee. Gandhi had sent Pyarelal to inform Dr Mookerjee of speeches of a particular Hindu Mahasabha worker inciting the assassination of some Congress leaders. Could not Dr Mookerjee stop these inflammatory speeches? Dr Mookerjee's reply was halting and unsatisfactory, reported Pyarelal to the Mahatma. Pyarelal observed Gandhi's brow darken as he repeated Dr Mookerjee's reply. Gandhi and Pyarelal then talked at length about the volatile situation at Noakhali. He told Pyarelal also of his plan to go to Pakistan. He asked Pyarelal to go back to Noakhali, but to wait until he had returned to Sevagram. Pyarelal was surprised at this request, for it was unusual for Gandhi to delay anyone returning to their post. Mid-morning also, an old associate from Gandhi's South African days, Rustom Sorabji, called in with his family.
Next, at about 10.30, Gandhi again slept. The soles of his feet were rubbed with ghee. At midday he awoke and drank a glass of hot water with honey. A little later he walked alone to the bathroom. It was the first time since his fast that he had walked unaided. "Bapuji," Manu called out to him, "how strange you look, walking all alone!" Gandhi laughed and said, "It's nice, isn't it? 'Walk alone, Walk alone'!" These l ast words were Tagore's.
Morning had given way to afternoon. At about 12.30 Gandhi talked about the plan of a prominent local doctor to build a nursing home and orphanage. He wanted very much to help. Soon Gandhi was visited by a delegation of Delhi Muslim leaders who were calling daily. Communal tensions and the refugee crisis still darkened the atmosphere in the capital. Gandhi discussed with the leaders his wish to go to Wardha to see about his institutions there and attend a conference on February 2. He would be back in Delhi by the 14th. He sought their permission to leave Delhi. "I do expect to be back here by the 14th. But if Providence has decreed otherwise, that is a different matter. I am not, however, sure whether I shall be able to leave here even on the day after tomorrow. It is all in God's hands." The leaders gave their permission for Gandhi to leave Delhi. He would announce his plans at the evening prayer meeting.
On his last day Gandhi also spoke about his late beloved secretary Mahadev Desai. A biography of Mahadev's was to be written, but there was disagreement over financial terms. Gandhi expressed his frustration at this. Mahadev's diaries also needed to be edited and compiled. The ideal candidate, Narhari Parikh, was in poor health. The task, Gandhi decided, should fall to Chandrashanker Shukla. Mashruwala had been another candidate.
The Mahatma also met with Sudhir Ghosh, who mentioned an apparent campaign in the British press to highlight a rift that had developed between Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Deputy Prime Minister Vallabhbhai Patel. Gandhi would raise the matter with Patel who was calling this afternoon, and with Nehru who, with Maulana Azad, was calling at 7pm this evening.
Gandhi lay down in the afternoon January sunshine and had his abdominal mud pack. To shade his face he donned the peasant's bamboo hat he had brought from Noakhali. Kanu and Abha again pressed his feet. A journalist who was there asked Gandhi if information that he was leaving for Sevagram on February 1 was correct. "Who says so?" Gandhi asked. "The papers have it," replied the journalist. "Yes," rejoined Gandhi, "the papers have announced that Gandhi would be going on the Ist. But who that Gandhi is, I do not know."
At about 1.30pm, Brij Krishna read out to Gandhi a statement by Master Tara Singh which angrily advised the Mahatma to retire to the Himalayas. A similar attack by a refugee yesterday had shocked him, and this also left its mark. Gandhi then took a few ounces of carrot and lemon juice. Some blind and homeless refugees came to meet him. He gave instructions to Brij Krishna about them. Then the Allahabad Riot report was read to him.
Time was ebbing away. It was now mid-afternoon.
Continued to part 02
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