Explain why many scholars have written of the months after the independence as being Gandhiji’s “finest hour”.
(i) As it happened, Mahatma Gandhi was not present at the festivities in the capital on 15 August 1947. He was in Calcutta, but he did not attend any function or hoist a flag there. Gandhiji marked the day with a 24 hour fast. The freedom he had struggled so long for had come at an unacceptable price, with a nation divided and Hindus and Muslims at each other’s throats.
(ii) Many scholars have written of the months after independence as being Gandhiji’s “finest hour”. After working to bring peace in Bengal, Gandhiji now shifted to Delhi, from where he hoped to move on to the riottorn districts of Punjab. While in the capital, his metings were disrupted by refugees who objected to readings from the Koran, or shouted slogans asking why he did not speak of the sufferings of those Hindus and Sikhs still living in Pakistan.