10-13-2004, 12:45 AM
A Mahatma he may have been, but he had serious flaws as a politician. This is a point made by independent thinking leaders even in pre-Independence india when he was already iconized. I will post an excellent piece by C Y Chintamani the editor ofo the Leader in Allahabad. In addition the British themelves in private dismissed the notion that Ganadhiji had anything to dowth tthe timing of the grant of independence as is noted by Penderel Moon. The real clincher as far as the brits were concerned was the substantial defection of indians soldiers to the INA and the revolt of the Indian navy in 1944/45. Without the danda( the army) there was no hope of keeping India. I will post more on this later. It must be understood throughout that it was with the substantial help of the Indians that the british were capable of keeping control over india.