Page 37 - GANDHI A Biography for Children and Beginners

GANDHI – A Biography for children and beginners

collected and moved menacingly towards Gandhi. Laughton tried to hail a

rickshaw to take them to the house. The rickshaw puller was scared away. The

crowd started closing in on Gandhi. In the pushing and pulling, Laughton got
separated from Gandhi. Now the crowd began to rain blows, and throw stones.

They were intent on lynching Gandhi. Gandhi walked on. He was hit by a rain of

stones. He was injured, and started bleeding profusely. Swathed in blood, he

was still hauling himself forward when he got dizzy and swooned. The crowd of
lynchers and persecutors was in hot pursuit. Gandhi held on to the railings on

the side of the road and kept crawling while more stones landed on his bleeding

body. It is difficult to say what would have happened if, at that crucial
moment, Mrs. Alexander, the wife of the Police Superintendent had not

chanced to come from the opposite direction. She was a white woman, and

much respected in the community. Seeing Gandhi bleeding and crawling with

tormentors in hot pursuit, she went to Gandhi, opened her parasol to protect
him from the stones, and chastised the crowd. In the meanwhile, Alexander,

the Police Superintendent himself arrived on the scene with a posse of Police

and rescued Gandhi, and escorted him to Parsi Rustomji's house.

Hearing that Gandhi had reached Rustomji's house, a crowd collected there,

asking that Gandhi be handed over to them. They threatened to burn the house

down, along with all the inmates, if Gandhi was not handed over. The Police
Superintendent acted with great tact in holding the crowd at bay, and

meanwhile persuading Gandhi to leave through the back door dressed as a

policeman, and go to the safety of the police station.

When the news that white crowds had attempted to lynch Gandhi and had

inflicted injuries on his body reached London and other capitals of the world,

there was widespread revulsion and sorrow. The Secretary of State for Colonies

sent a telegram to the Government of South Africa asking them to track down
and punish the culprits. The Police Superintendent informed Gandhi of these

orders and asked for his co-operation in identifying the culprits and punishing

them. Gandhi had no bitterness whatsoever. He told the Government that he
did not want the Government to prosecute any of his assailants.

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