HOSE were the brains behind the assassin’s hand

that struck down Mohandas K. Gandhi?

What

sinister forces’ conspired to defeat the long and
still unfinished struggle ofthe Indian people for indepen-
dence by accomplishing the murder of their most revered
feader, concluding in violence a life passionately devoted to

the principle of non-violence? The
answer lies in the greater viol-
ence that has been unloosed in
India and Pakistan over the
past months, the organized cam-
paign of butchery and mass ex-
termination of thousands in.
which the assassination of Gand-
hi was the culminating crime.

The British plan which divided
India into three states, India,
Pakistan and the Princely states,
provided pro-imperialist commun-
al leaders with an opportunity to
advance their political ends by
fomenting and aggravating re-
ligious strife. In India and Pak-
istan alike they were aided and
abetted by Hindu-Moslem princes,
police officials and other British
agents.

The violence and bloodshed was
not without purpose. Indeed,
it had a sinister political signific-
ance. Pandit Nehru described it
as “an attempt by the reaction-
ary elements. to paralyse the
whole administrative machinery
and usurp political power.”

Who are these “reactionary ele-
ments’? They are the Akali
Party, Hindu Mahasabha and the
Moslem National Guards, the
groups that are mainly respons-
tble for so much of the death
and destruction.

The aim of the Akali Party is
to get a dominant hold over the
eastern Punjab and establish
Khalistan—a separate Sikh state.
They don’t conceal their aim. Its
leaders boastfully declare that
“Khalistan is the Empire of
Khalsa as left by Maharajah
Ranjit Singh. Every Sikh must
pledge himself to this and noth-
ing else.”

In fact, their long-range pro-
gram is the establishment of a
confederation of the Sikh states
and the Sikh central districts of
the Punjab under the leadership
of the Maharajah of Patiala, from
whom they obtained arms and
ammunition.

The Hindu Mahasabha was or-
ganized on an all-India basis in
1925 to counteract the Moslem
league.

Mahasabha is supported by the
wealthy merchants, landlords, in-
dustrial magnates and Hindu
princes. Althoug it is numeric-
ally small, it has played a very
important role in antagonizing
and aggravating the religious
tension, and has greatly enhanced
the political power of the wealthy
conservative Hindu-class.

The Mahasabha has an auxili-
ary organization of Hindu youth
known as the Rashtriya Swayam
Sangh (RSSS). It is supposed
to be composed of volunteers
but actually it is nothing short
of a private army with semi-
military training, and somewhat
similar to Hitler’s storm-troopers.

’ Both of these organizations are
anti-Moslem.'and_ anti-Congress.
They fanatically believe in the

caste system. “India for the
’ Hindus,” they claim, “let the
Moslems migrate elsewhere.”

They stand for establishment of
a “pure” Hindu state.

‘THESE are the extreme right
wing forces in India making
for violence and strife To ac-
-complish their aims they con-
spired to behead the people’s
national leadership. They con-
ducted a systemmatic campaign
against Nehru and Gandhi, charg-
ing that they had failed to pro-
tect minorities in the western
Punjab and demanding that they
be allowed to retaliate against
the Moslem minorities in India.
They openly proclaimed that
Nehru must meet the fate of
Aung San, the premier of Burtha
assassinated last year.

In their illegal leaflets they call-
ed upon Hindus and Sikhs to
“annihilate" Gandhi!
let declared:

“The world will be astounded
to discover some day that Gand-
hi was really a Muslim, another

‘Jinnah disguised as a Hindu

‘Mahatma’ engaged in the mis-
sion of bringing about complete
collapse of the Hindu nation
from within. He is the man
really responsble for raising Jin-
nah and the Muslim league to
their present world position. He
is the greatest opponent of the
cow-protection legislation. He
has condemned and reproached

the Hindu-Sikh sufferers of west’

Punjab, while he staked his life
for the rescue of Muslims in
Bihar and Calcutta,

“Let the Dussehra festival of
this year ‘be celebrated with
the annihilation of the ‘Ravan’ of
this age’’’ Ravan was a terrible
enemy of the Hindu prince Ra-
ma, im ancient India).

"THE fact is that during those

communal riots Gandhi and
Nehru came out sharply against
the atrocities committed against
the Moslems. They firmly stood
for the full protection of minori-
ties.

Gandhi worked untiringly.
against the fratricidal strife. In
the province of Bengal, he under
took a walking tour through
the riot-torn areas, preaching
non-violence and communal
peace. His fast to bring an end
to violence had a remarkable
effect in restoring order and
calm.

But no sooner had Gandhi left
than the communalists, by agita-

_tion and provocation, instigated

new rounds of riots. It was
only then that Gandhi boldly
denounced these communalists
leaders and declared that “‘mem-
bers of the RSSS cannot remain
in the Congress.”

Gandhi’s denunciation did not
end with the RSSS. Speaking at
the All-India Congress committee
meeting he asked, “Is Dr. Shy-
amaprasad here?” and continued,
“He is not here, I wish he were
here. He is in the Mahasabha.
The Mahasabha is an enemy of
the Congress, and therefore, he
can have no place in the Cab-
inet, or else he must leave the
Mahasabha,”

Thus Gandhi pointed his finger
at the arch-reactionary commun-
al leader, who is the minister
of industries and supplies in the
Nehru administration.

Yet the followers of Dr. Shy-
amaprasad were not disconcerted.
They answered these attacks
with three bullets in Gandhi’s
frail body. They further con-
spired to murder other popular
leaders, including Nehru, with the
hope of eliminating opposition
and so providing an opportunity
to re-organize the government
with the feudal princes, the vest-
ed interests and communal poli-
ticians more strongly represent-
ed.

Whether or not they succeed
will be determined by unfolding
events. The immediate popular
reaction to the assassination of
Gandhi has been one of deep
anger against the extremist
Hindus. There were no com-
muna] riots, but .millions of peo-
ple throughout India demon-
strated to demand punshment for
the criminals. The government,
hesitant in taking stern meas-
ures against those known to be
responsible nevertheless showed
no hesitancy in arresting the
demonstrators.

The RSSS has been declared
illegal, and Nehru has banned

One leaf-*

“all private armies and organ"
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1948

by XULDEEP SINGH BAINS

izations which preach violence
and communal hatred.” But
those in the cabinet responsible
for carrying out policy are lead-
ers of reactionary communal or-
ganizations.

In addition to Dr. Shyamapra-
sad, Defense Minister Sadar
Beldev Singh is pro-British and
a Sikh communalist leader. Shan-
mukham Singh is pro-British
and a Sikh communalist leader.
Shanmukham Chetty Bhabba,

. Spokesmen for big business, hold

the portfolios of finance and in-

A guide to good

“WHEN I use a word,” said

Humpty Dumpty rather
scornfully, “it means just what
I choose it to mean—neither
more nor. less.”

As pointed out by Stewart
Smith in his recent and very
timely little pamphlet The Red
Bogey, this character of Lewis
Carroll’s fairy tale is very rem-
iniscent of our present day poli-
ticians, particularly of Prime
Minister Mackenzie King’s swan-
song outburst against the com-
munists.. When such people use
the word “communist,” “democ-
racy,” “sanctity of the home,” or
when they make promises of re-
form, such as King’s promise to
institute. “adequate” price con-
trols, and provincial Labor Min-
ister Wismer’s promise of a rep-
resentative Industrial Labor Re-
lations Board, they mean only
what they choose to mean —
neither more nor less!

In this pamphlet Stewart Smith
points out that red-baiting, or
the old “poison word” trick, was
used successfully by Hitler and
Mussolini and is now being used
by Drew, Duplessis, King and
many others, “to get the people
to reject automatically what they
should have approved, and to
approve what they should have
rejected in their own interests.”

dustry and commerce respec-
tively. Sardar Patel, so-callea
“strong man” of the Congress
and leader of its right wing, is
home minister, and under his
controls are the police, the se-
cret service and the civil ser.
vice, ae |

So long as they occupy key
positions in the cabinet, it is dif-
ficult to conceive of the govern-
ment taking effective measures
to solve the economic crisis or
to end the strife which serves
their ends,

Behind the barrage of anti-
communism, Smith shows up
very clearly the plots to wreck
unions and organizations, to
blind the people against action
necessary to obtain their needs.

“The men of the trusts want
us to disregard the fact that their
fight against decent wages and
their pushing up of prices is
heading the nation to a new
economic crisis,” Smith says in
his pamphlet. “Anti-communism
is a weapon to keep your wages
cr income down, to raise the

‘prices of necessities you must

buy, to deprive you of social se-
curity, to leave you and your
family unprotected with a new
economic crisis coming. A most
determined fight against the Red
Bogey is most essential to pro-
tect your interests.”

Henry Wallace, third-party can-
didate for president, places the
issue this way:

“The only practical political |

question today is not a
question of communism put
whether we are going to continue
to strengthen the hands of the
witch-hunting labor-hating reac-
tionaries, who will be responsible
for World War III, or whether
we shall join hands and plan
definitely and precisely — both
politically and economically —

It is a known fact that the

cabinet is divided between Neh- _

ru’s progressive democratic pol-
icy and Sardar Patel’s reaction-
ary communal policy. And the
issue now is whether Patel’s
policies are to prevail, dividing

the Indian people and halting Ss

them far short of their goal, or
whether the government, relying
cn the united support of all left
wing forces, is to be reorganized
to enable it to carry out the

policies that will bring peace
and progress to India.

reading

for the peace and abundance
without which no freedom can

long remain.”

menced publication last year,

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This new magazine will en-—

deavour to combine and carry
forward the fighting cultural

tradition of New Masses—a tra-_

dition that goes ,back 37 years—
with the high literary achieve-
ment of Mainstream. It will in-
clude literature, theater, music,
radio, films, painting and other
fields of creative art, as wel as

philosophy, history, science and
other subjects integrated with

magazine will seii for 35 cents

& copy or $4 a year — prices
slightly higher in Canada.

Those with subscriptions out-
standing to either magazine will
be credited with an equivalent
amount for the new one.—KAY

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 7