Page 111 - GANDHI A Biography for Children and Beginners

GANDHI – A Biography for children and beginners

had gone on rampage and killed and looted and raped. He would expose himself

to their fury, Gandhi was not- far wrong. They stood sullen and furious as he

wended his way on barefeet. At some places, they placed thorny bushes on the
narrow footpaths through which he had to pass, or placed nightsoil along the

footpaths that he had to take. He bent down and removed the nightsoil with

dried leaves and placed his feet on the path. The looks of many showed their

unrepentant anger. Some taunted Gandhi, and asked him if he was not going to
Bihar. Was he only concerned with the safety of Hindus? He replied that he

made no distinction. The sins of the Hindus of Bihar were as black as the sins of

the Muslims of Noakhali.

He would go to Bihar and Punjab as soon as some sanity was restored in Bengal.

To him Allah and Ishwar were one. There were some who harkened to his call,

and vowed to work for the return of sanity and humanness.

After two months of this 'pilgrimage' in Noakhali, in March 1947, Gandhi decided

to go to Bihar to spread the message of sanity and love. Here, it was the Hindus

who had gone mad and done all that the Muslims had done in Noakhali. Gandhi's
task here was to bring solace to the Muslims who had been the victims of the

holocaust, and bring Hindus to the path of sanity. Here, the response that

Gandhi received was far more warm and reassuring. Many who had been guilty
of perpetrating atrocities on the minorities confessed their guilt, and promised

to turn a new leaf. Moved by Gandhi's words on the miseries of Muslim women

who had suffered, many Hindu women gave Gandhi their jewellery to give help

to their 'sisters'? Gandhi was unsparing in his condemnation of what the Hindus
had done in Bihar and what the Muslims had done in Noakhali.

www.mkgandhi.org Page 110