obody was to co-operate with the British, which would lead to their leaving India. On the 8th of August 1942 the QUIT INDIA MOVEMENT started. This non-violent protest disrupted and destroyed the British Government and their system of governance and added nationalistic fire to every Indian’s heart. On the eve of independence, Hindus and Muslims in India were in the throes of civil war. All the government forces were powerless to stop the massacres. The bloodshed and destruction touched the very depths of Gandhi. He went straight to the heart of the violence and walked barefoot through the remote, ravaged villages as a one-man force for peace. “He who trembles or takes to the heels, the moment he sees two people fighting, is not non-violent, but a coward. A non-violent person will lay down his life in preventing such quarrels” said Gandhi and he truly justified it. It was on the evening of 30th of January 1948, that the final tragedy took place. Mahatma Gandhi was in Delhi, requesting for Hindu-Muslim unity. When the time for prayer meeting came, he walked briskly with his arms on the shoulder of two of the ashram girls. As he walked to the platform through the huge crowd, he held his palms together in front of him. Suddenly, a young man placed himself in Gandhi’s path and fired a gun point-blank into his heart. Such was the greatness of Gandhi that as his body fell, he called out “Rama, Rama, Rama” which meant I forgive you, I love you, I bless you. The killer was later identified as Nathuram Godse, a Hindu fanatic. This 30th day of January, is known in India as the Martyr’s Day. “Gandhi is a great man held in universal esteem, a figure lifted from history to moral icon”, states the Time Magazine, which has rated Mahatma Gandhi as the ...
