SPECIAL ARTICLES

Nation, Reason and Religion

India's Independence in International Perspective
Sugata Bose
Throughout the entire course of the history of Indian anti-colonialism, religion as faith within the limits
of morality, if not the limits of reason, had rarely impeded the cause of national unity and may in fact
have assisted its realisation at key moments of struggle. The variegated symbols of religion as culture had
enthused nationalists of many hues and colours but had seldom embittered relations between religious
communities until they were flaunted to boast the power of majoritarian triumphalism. The conceits of unitary
nationalism may well have caused a deeper sense of alienation among those defined as minorities than
the attachment to diverse religions. The territorial claims of a minority-turned-nation heaped further
confusion on the furious contest over sovereignty in the dying days of the raj. Having failed to share
sovereignty in the manner of their pre-colonial forbears, late-colonial nationalist worshippers of the
centralised state ended up dividing the land. Surely godless nationalism linked to the colonial categories
of religious majorities and minorities has much to answer for.
" A PRIZE I got for good work at school", reach the shores of Britain's colonies where colonial period to unravel the complex
Jawaharlal Nehru writes in his auto- this was a period of political denial and weave of nation, reason and religion in
biography, "was one of G M Trevelyan's repression. India was 'showing fight' for historical analyses. Decades of secular,
Garibaldi books. This fascinated me, and the first time since the revolt of 1857 and rationalist discomfort with assessing the
soon I obtained the other two volumes of was "seething with unrest and trouble". role of r e l i g i o n in m o d e r n political
the series and studied the whole Garibaldi N e w s r e a c h e d I n d i a n s t u d e n t s in philosophy and practice have given way
story in them carefully. Visions of similar Cambridge of swadeshi and boycott of the in more recent years to cultural critiques
deeds in India came before me, of a gallant activities and imprisonment of Tilak and of modernity and one of its key signs -
fight for freedom, and in my mind India Aurobindo Ghose. ''Almost without nationalism - which tend to valorise an
and Italy got strangely mixed together " exception", Nehru recalled, " w e were ahistorical notion of indigenous religion
T o the young Nehru "Harrow seemed a Tilakites or Extremists, as the new party while denouncing the cunning of universal
rather small arid restricted place for these was called in India". Yet looking back reason. In an essay entitled "Radical
ideas", So it was that at the beginning of from the 1930s he also believed that in Histories and the Question of Enlighten-
October 1907, inspired by the first of social terms "the Indian national renewal ment Rationalism", Dipesh Chakrabarty
Trevelyan's Garibaldi trilogy, he arrived in 1907 was definitely r e a c t i o n a r y " . has berated secular and Marxist historians
at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he "Inevitably", Nehru commented gloomily, for their lack of imagination in addressing
"feltelated at being an undergraduate with 'a new nationalism in India, as elsewhere the q u e s t i o n of religiously i n f o r m e d
a great deal of freedom". 1 When freedom in the east, was a religious nationalism". i d e n t i t i e s in m o d e r n s o u t h A s i a .
came to India at the f a m o u s midnight After graduating f r o m Cambridge, he "[S]cientific rationalism", he contends, "or
hour of August 14-15, 1947 Trevelyan, visited Ireland in the summer of 1910 the spirit of s c i e n t i f i c e n q u i r y , was
then Master of Trinity College, 'rejoiced'. where he was 'attracted' by "the early introduced into colonial India from the
very beginning as an antidote to (Indian)
He had remained, his biographer David beginnings of Sinn F e i n " . 3 W h a t he
C a n n a d i n e t e l l s us, " e q u i v o c a l and religion, particularly Hinduism..." The
neglected to note in Britain and Ireland
opposition between reason and emotion,
u n c e r t a i n a b o u t the B r i t i s h E m p i r e , was that a religious tinge to nationalism
"characteristic of our colonial hyper-
which he always thought a far more was not a monopoly of the east. At the
rationalism", is seen to have "generally
formidable instrument of aggression and end of the day the nationalist leaderships
afflicted" the attempt by historians to
domination than any of Italy's colonising in both India and Ireland, quite as much
"understand the place of the 'religious' in
endeavours, which seemed small-scale by as their departing colonial masters, failed
Indian public and political life". 4 That
comparison". 2 to negotiate a satisfactory solution to the
may well be so, but is there any reason
Nehru's Cambridge years, which problem of religious difference. If there
to believe, if it is permissible to use such
coincided almost exactly with the Garibaldi was cause to rejoice at the end of the raj
a turn of the phrase, that hyper-rationalism
phase of T r e v e l y a n ' s life in history, in India, the celebrations were certainly
was characteristic of modernity under
represented the climactic m o m e n t of marred by a tragic partition ostensibly colonial conditions?
triumphant Liberalism in the domestic along r e l i g i o u s lines which t o o k an
politics of Britain. In Europe these were u n a c c e p t a b l e toll in h u m a n life and O n e of the key empirical premises of
the last days of liberal nationalism before suffering. Benedict Anderson's theory in Imagined
Italy launched on its imperialist expedition Communities is that "in Western Europe
CHURCH AND STATE IN EUROPE AND INDIA
in 1911 and the nation-states of the the 18th century mark[ed] not only the
continent as a whole moved recklessly T h e political failure at the moment of dawn of the age of nationalism but the
towards the precipice of total war. The formal decolonisation has been matched dusk of religious modes of thought". 5 "It
high tide of liberalism did not, however, by a certain intellectual failure in the post- is a c o m m o n e r r o r " , T r e v e l y a n had

2090 Economic and Political Weekly August 1, 1998

 observed in his English Social History, been applicable, it w a s according to rationalism, colonial modernity was a
"to regard the 18th century in England as Macaulay the British empire in India, complex and concrete phenomenon: its
irreligious". Religion continued to be in Surely, if it be the duty of government reasons of state were deeply enmeshed
his view "an imposing fabric" of British to use its power and its revenue in order with the communities of religion.
history in the 19th century until the to bring seven millions of Irish Catholics
Darwinian revolution made its full impact. 6 over to the Protestant Church, it is a fortiori RATIONAL REFORM, RELIGIOUS REVIVAL

The views of the early Gladstone and AND INTIMATIONS OF AN ANTI-COLONIAL

the duty of the government to use its
T r e v e l y a n ' s great uncle Lord T h o m a s MODERNITY
power and its revenue in order to make
Babington Macaulay probably covered the seventy millions of idolaters Christians. "Somehow, from the very beginning",
full spectrum of opinion among the British If it be a sin to suffer John Howard or writes Partha Chatterjee, " w e have made
ruling classes in the mid-19th century on William Penn to hold any office in England, a shrewd guess that given the close
the p l a c e of r e l i g i o n in p u b l i c life. because they are not in communion with complicity between modern knowledges
Gladstone had argued a powerful case in the established church, it must be a and modern regimes of power, we would
his book The State in Its Relations with crying sin indeed to admit to high situations forever remain consumers of universal
the Church p u b l i s h e d in 1839 that men who bow down, in temples covered modernity; never would we be taken
propagation of religious truth should be with emblems of vice, to the hideous seriously as its producers, It is for this
one of the principal aims of paternal images of sensual or malevolent gods. reason that we have tried, for over a hundred
government. He had no doubt that the But no. years, to take our eyes away from this
religion of the sovereign ought to be the Orthodoxy, it seems, is more shocked chimera of universal modernity and clear
only one to be propagated and allegiance by the priests of R o m e than by the priests up a space where we might become the
to that religion must be an absolute of K a l e e . M a c a u l a y ' s c o n c i s e v i e w creators of our own modernity". 8 As an
requirement for holding political office. respecting the alliance of Church and state example of the rejection of uncritical
Y e t he w a s o p p o s e d to r e l i g i o u s was that the latter could pursue religious imitation of English modernity he quotes
persecution of unbelievers among the e d u c a t i o n as a secondary end of the following passage from Rajnarayan
subjects as something unbecoming of government if it did not interfere with the B a s u ' s 1873 tract She Kalaar EKal (Those
government's paternalistic function. primary end of maintaining public order. Days and These Days):
Macaulay launched a searing attack on "No man in his senses would dream of Two Bengali gentlemen were once dining
Gladstone's advocacy of political and civil applying Mr Gladstone's theory to India", at Wilson's h o t e l One of them was
disability on grounds of religious belief especially addicted to beef. He asked the
Macaulay wrote, "because, if so applied,
w h i c h he saw as a sure r e c i p e f o r waiter, "Do you have veal?" The waiter
it would inevitably destroy our empire,
undermining efficient governance. He was replied, "I' m afraid not, sir". The gentleman
and, with our empire, the best chance of
also unconvinced by the Gladstonian logic asked again, "Do you have beef steak?"
spreading Christianity among the natives",
of stopping short of persecution since a The waiter replied, "Not that either, sir".
Gladstone must have sensed this and so
father's duty was to crack the whip on The gentleman asked again, "Do you
had engaged in a bit of "[i]naccurate
wayward children. have ox tongue?" The waiter replied, "Not
history" as "an admirable corrective of
that either, sir". The gentleman asked again,
Whatever their differences on political unreasonable theory". 7
"Do you have c a l f ' s foot jelly?" The
theory, it was the positions that Gladstone It was at least a partial application of waiter replied, "Not that either, sir". The
and Macaulay took on the practice of Gladstonian theory that created the history gentleman said, "Don't you have anything
governance in India that provide insights which in turn transformed the 'treaty' of from a cow?" Hearing this, the second
into religion as a characteristic of colonial Gladstone's imagination into reality. The gentleman, who was not so partial to beef,
modernity. 'In British India', Gladstone defence of Indian faiths, both Hinduism said with some irritation, "Well, if you
had written, "a small number of persons and Islam, against perceived threats from have nothing else from a cow, why not
advanced to a higher grade of civilisation, evangelical religion, not enlightenment get him some dung?" 9
exercise the powers of government over reason, played a significant part in the Chatterjee goes on to argue that, while
an immensely greater number of less great revolt of 1857 which almost made "Western m o d e r n i t y " in the voice of
cultivated persons, not by coercion, but Macaulay's nightmare come true. After a Immanuel Kant looked for the definition
under free stipulation of the governed". cataclysmic war, in which incidentally as of modernity "in the difference posed by
In a situation so plainly peculiar a theory many as 10 Trevelyans lost their lives, the the present...as the site of o n e ' s escape
of paternal principles could not have colonial power solemnly announced in the from the past", "it is precisely the present"
u n r e s t r i c t e d play a n d t h e r i g h t s of form of the q u e e n ' s proclamation of 1858 from which the colonised intellectual in
government were based "upon an express that n o n e of her s u b j e c t s would be search of a national modernity had to
and k n o w n treaty, matter of positive "molested or disquieted by reason of their escape to find solace in an imagined past. 1 0
agreement, not of natural ordinance 1 '. The religion, faith or observances". This formal What remains underplayed i n this argument
former Law Member of Bentinck's Council separation of religion and politics in the is that R a j Narayan B a s u ' s ruminations on
pointed out that the treaty known only to colonial stance was, however, breached m o d e r n i t y w e r e c o n t e s t e d by h i s
Gladstone was in truth a nonentity'. "It almost immediately as the British took the contemporaries, not least by his close friend
is by coercion, it is by the sword", Macaulay momentous decision to deploy religious and frequent correspondent, the poet,
thundered, "and not by free stipulation enumeration to d e f i n e m a j o r i t y ' and Michael Madhusudan Datta. The category
with the governed, that England rules India; 'minority' communities. In order to gain 'we' contained a wide range of internal
nor is England bound by any contract the political attention of the colonial state, variation which m a d e certain that 'our'
whatever not to deal with Bengal as she Indian publicists of the late 19th century modernity was never a monolith. While
deals with Ireland". If there was a single needed to dip their pens in the ink of Indian intellectuals often had an awareness
state in the whole world where Gladstone's religious community. Far from being a that modern rational knowledge from its
theory of paternal government should have mirror of the abstractions of European very inception was deeply implicated in

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 modern regimes of power, that never appears in Ranade as a critique of ancient the thing and the only thing that will
n e g a t e d the p o s s i b i l i t y of s e l e c t i v e Indian tradition. Even more fascinating is rescue us from our present appalling
appropriation and e f f e c t i v e resistance Ranade' sexposition of reason in the service condition of intellectual and moral decay,
within these fields of p o w e r T o put it in of reform. In 'Our Modernity' Partha but we are not to take it haphazard and
a n o t h e r way, I w o u l d c o n t e n d that Chatterjee offers us this reading of Kant's in a lump; rather we shall find it expedient
colonised intellectuals sought alternative essay on Aufklarang. to select the very best that is thought and
routes of escape from the oppressive According to Kant, to be enlightened is known in Europe, and to import even that
present, not all of which lay through to become mature, reach adulthood, to with the changes and reservations which
creating a 'mayajal' or web of illusions stop being dependent on the authority of our diverse conditions may be found to
about our past and denouncing their o t h e r s , to b e c o m e f r e e and a s s u m e dictate. Otherwise instead of a simple
modernity. responsibility for one's own actions. When ameliorating influence, we shall have chaos
What is needed here is a dynamic and man is not enlightened, he does not employ annexed to chaos, the vices and calamities
historicised conception of religion that his own powers of reasoning but rather of the west superimposed on the vices and
might enable us to consider how the place accepts the guardianship of others and calamities of the east, 17
of the 'religious' in Indian public and 14
does as he is told. Aurobindo Ghose called the Congress
political life changed in the course of What lay at "the root of our helpless- un-national in 1893 not because of its
India's colonial history. There is a certain ness", Ranade declared, was "the sense imitation of the west or its inability to
static quality to Dipesh Chakrabarty's that we are always intended to remain attract Muslims in sufficient numbers, but
invocation of age-old Indian religion set children, to be subject to outside control, because it did not reach out to the working
under siege by the modern forces of and never to rise to the dignity of self- classes, "The proletariate among us is sunk
scienwtific rationalism, Partha Chatterjee control by making our conscience and our in i g n o r a n c e and o v e r w h e l m e d with
c o n c e d e s that the " i d e a that 'Indian reason the supreme, if not the sole, guide distress. B u t with that distressed and
nationalism' is synonymous with 'Hindu to our conduct... W e are children, no doubt, proletariate, - now that the middle
ignorant
nationalism' is not the vestige of some but the children of God, and not of man, class is proved deficient in sincerity, power
pre-modern religious conception but an and the voice of God is the only voice [to] and judgment, - with that proletariate
entirely modern, rationalist and histori- which we are bound to listen...With too resides,..our sole assurance of hope, our
cist idea". 11 But he explains away the appa- many of us, a thing is true or false, righteous sole chance in the future," He even saw
rent contradiction between this rationalist or sinful, simply because somebody in the some hope in the communitarian conflicts
idea and the religiously inspired emotional past has said that it is so...Now the new over Hindi-Urdu and cow slaughter in the
attachment to the nation by resort to an idea which should take up the place of this early 1890s. "A few more taxes, a few
unsatisfactory dichotomy between the helplessness and dependence is not the more rash interferences of government, a
material and spiritual domains that he reads idea of a rebellious overthrow of all few more stages of starvation, and the
into anti-colonial nationalism, 12 In facing authority, but that of freedom responsible turbulence that is n o w religious will
up to the fundamental dilemma of having to the voice of God in us", 1 5 Seven years become social, I am speaking to that
to simultaneously resist colonial power later in a 1904 article entitled 'Reform or class.,.called the thinking portion of the
and appropriate elements f r o m modern Revival' Lala Lajpat Rai sought to argue Indian community; Well, let these thinking
European knowledge, colonised intel- that, while the reformers wanted reform gentlemen carry their thoughtful intellects
lectuals of the late 19th and early 20th on 'rational' lines, the revivalists wanted a hundred years back. Let them recollect
century harnessed reason and religion in reform on 'national' lines. Attempting to what causes led from the religious madness
multifarious ways to the cause of the nation. turn Ranade's argument on its head, Lajpat of St Bartholomew to the social madness
Religious sensibility could in the late Rai wrote: of the Reign of Terror". 1 8
19th century be perfectly compatible with Cannot a revivalist, arguing in the same Did the version of Indian nationalism
a rational frame of mind, just as social strain, ask the reformers into what they authored by Tilak and Aurobindo get
reform calling upon practical reason almost wish to reform us?....Whether they want marooned in the world of religious madness
invariably sought divine sanction of some to reform us into Sunday drinkers of brandy that failed to make the grade to social
kind. Speaking at the Eleventh Social and promiscuous eaters of beef? In short, madness? On the key questions of relations
Conference in Amraoti in 1897 Mahadev whether they want to revolutionise our between the overarching Indian nation on
Govind Ranade scored a debating point society by an outlandish imitation of the one hand and religious communities
against his 'revivalist' critics: European customs and manners and an and linguistic regions on the other, anti-
When my revivalist friend presses his undiminished adoption of European colonial t h o u g h t a n d politics of the
argument upon me, he has to seek recourse vice? 16 Swadeshi era left contradictory legacies.
in some subterfuge which really furnishes By this time Ranade was dead and he The anti-colonialism of both Hindus and
no reply to the question - what shall we could not reply that there need be no Muslims was influenced in this period by
revive? Shall we revive the old habits of necessary c o n t r a d i c t i o n b e t w e e n t h e their religious sensibilities. But since the
our people when the most sacred of our rational and the national. colonial state's scheme of enumeration
caste indulged in all the abominations as Vet it must be emphasised that the first had transformed one into the 'majority'
we now understand them of animal food radical intellectual challenge to moderate and the other into the ' m i n o r i t y '
and drink which exhausted every section nationalism had been remarkably community, it became easier for Hindu
of our country's Zoology and Botany? discriminating, judicious and balanced in religious symbolisms and communitarian
The men and the Gods of those old days ils attitude to European modernity. As interests to be s u b s u m e d within t h e
ate and drank forbidden things to excess Aurobindo Ghose put it in his sixth essay emerging discourse on the Indian nation.
in a way no revivalist will now venture N e w L a m p s f o r O l d ' p u b l i s h e d on If the Irish nation in 1905 was, as D P
to recommend. 13 December 4, 1893: M o r a n insisted, " d e facto a Catholic
What Chatterjee presents as Rajnarayan We are to have what the west can give us, nation", 1 9 the writings and speeches of
B a s u ' s critique of English modernity because what the west can give us is just most swadeshi nationalists certainly left

2092 Economic and Political Weekly August 1, 1998

 the impression that the Indian nation was Urged by C F Andrews to publicly clarify were unjust apart from the scriptures, there
permeated by a Hindu ethos. T h e granting his position on the Khilafat, Gandhi wrote may have been cause for hesitation, but
o f ' c o m m u n a l ' e l e c t o r a t e s in 1909 in Young India on July 21, 1920: an intrinsically j u s t claim backed by
compounded the problem in India even I should scriptural
clear the ground
authorityby stating that
was irresistible.
further. As Maulana M o h a m e d Ali com- I reject any religious doctrine that does not G a n d h i c o u l d not h a v e been m o r e
plained to his Congress colleagues in 1912, appeal to reason and is in conflict with forthright in acknowledging the extra-
the educated Hindu 'communal patriot' morality. I tolerate unreasonable religious territorial nature of the Muslim sentiment;
had turned Hinduism into an effective sentiment when it is not immoral. I hold
Let Hindus not be frightened by Pan-
symbol of mass mobilisation and Indian the Khilafat claim to be both just and
Islamism. It is not - it need not be - anti-
'nationality', but 'refuse[d] to give quarter reasonable and therefore it derives greater
Indian or anti-Hindu. Mussaimans must
to the Muslim unless the latter quietly force because it has behind it the religious wish well to every Mussalman state, and
shuffles off his individuality and becomes sentiment of the Musulman w o r l d / 3 even assist any such state, if it is
completely Hinduised". 2 0 Gandhi could "conceive the possibility of undeservedly in peril. And Hindus, if they
If religiously based notions of majority a blind and fanatical religious sentiment are true friends of Mussaimans, cannot but
and minority were already beginning to existing in opposition to pure justice". share the latter's feelings. We must,
pose problems for a unified Indian U n d e r those c i r c u m s t a n c e s he would therefore, co-operate with our Mussalman
nationalism, as yet there appeared to be " r e s i s t the f o r m e r a n d f i g h t f o r t h e brethren in their attempt to save the Turkish
little contradiction between Bengali or latter". 2 4 But since the Indian Muslims empire in Europe from extinction, 30
Tamil linguistic communities or 'nations' had an issue that was first of all reasona- Closer to home, Gandhi supported the
on the one hand and a broader diffuse ble and just and on top of that supported proposal of 'Brother Shaukat Ali' that
Indian 'nation' on the other. Few, if any, by scriptural authority, "then for the there should be three national cries ™
of the nationalist ideologues were thinking Hindus not to support them to the utmost ' A l l a h o A k b a r ' , ' B a n d e M a t a r a m ' or
a t this stage of the acquisition of power would be a cowardly breach of brother- ' B h a r a t Mataki Jai' and ' H i n d u -
in a centralised nation-state. India's two hood and they would forfeit all claim to Mussalmanki Jai'. Gandhi called upon all
most c e l e b r a t e d p o e t - p h i l o s o p h e r s - consideration f r o m their M a h o m e d a n Hindus and Muslims to join in the first
Rabindranath T a g o r e and M o h a m m a d countrymen", 2 5 cry "in reverence and prayer-fulness" since
Iqbal - whose Bengali and Urdu poetry The crux of Gandhi's case was Lloyd Hindus "may not fight shy of Arabic words,
celebrated patriotic sentiment, were both G e o r g e ' s 'broken pledge', 2 6 the pledge to when their meaning is not only totally
during the first two decades of this century respect the immunity of the holy places i n o f f e n s i v e but e v e n e n n o b l i n g " . He
impassioned critics of the western model in Arabia and Mesopotamia and of Jeddah preferred ' B a n d e M a t a r a m ' to 'Bharat
of the territorial nation-state. 2 1 and not to deprive Turkey of its capital Mataki J a i ' , as "it would be a graceful
or of its lands in Asia Minor and Thrace. recognition of the intellectual and emo-
GANDHI'S REASON
In the event, Smyrna and Thrace had been tional superiority of Bengal". And since
AND HINDU-MUSLIM UNITY
taken away 'dishonestly', mandates had India was nothing without "the union of
It required G a n d h i ' s genius to fuse the been established in Syria and Mesopotamia the Hindu and the Muslim heart", 'Hindu-
love for a territorial homeland with the 'unscrupulously' and a British nominee Mussalmanki Jai' was a cry never to be
extra-territorial loyalty of religion in the had been set up in the Hejaz "under the forgotten. 3 1
m a s s nationalist m o v e m e n t of 1920. p r o t e c t i o n of B r i t i s h g u n s " . G a n d h i Gandhi appeared to have devised the
Without detracting from his distinctive believed " t h e spirit of I s l a m " to be pcrfect formula for harnessing the emoti ve
qualities, the M a h a t m a ' s reason needs to "essentially republican in the truest sense power of nationalism in the linguistic
be rescued by historians from the mystical of the term" which would not stand in the regions and forging Hindu-Muslim unity
haze created by latter-day cultural critics way of Arab and Armenian independence based on a respectful attitude towards the
flying the banner of indigenous authenti- from Turkey if the Arabs and Armenians fact of religiously i n f o r m e d cultural
city, It is sometimes too easily supposed, so wished. On this point he endorsed difference in an anti-colonial movement
as Partha Chatterjee does, that Gandhi's M o h a m e d A l i ' s call for a mixed, on an all-India scale, Gandhi was not
thought did not accept "the conceptual i n d e p e n d e n t c o m m i s s i o n of I n d i a n using religious means for political ends;
frameworks or the modes of reasoning and M u s l i m s , H i n d u s and E u r o p e a n s "to nation and religion were precious ends in
inference adopted by the nationalists of investigate the real wish of the Armenians themselves, religion perhaps even more so
his day" and "emphatically reject[edl their and the Arabs and then to come to a modus than nation. For both Maulana Mohamed
rationalism, scientism and historicism" vivendi w h e r e b y t h e c l a i m s of t h e Ali and him, he asserted, the Khilafat was
Although Chatterjee provides some nationality and those of Islam may be "the central fact", with the M a u l a n a
brilliant insights into G a n d h i ' s critique of adjusted and satisfied". 2 7 The "most thorny because it was "his religion" a n d " w i t h m e
the western concept of civil society in part of the question" Gandhi recognised, because, in laying down my life for the
Hind Swaraj, his extended discussion of was Palestine. Promises had been made Khilafat, I ensure the safely of the cow,
Gandhi contains not o n e reference to by the British to the Zionists. But Palestine that is my religion, f r o m the Mussalman
M u s l i m s or I s l a m . 2 2 Y e t the classic was "not a stake in the war", and so he knife", "Both hold Swaraj equally dear",
'moment of manoeuvre' in the history of maintained that by "no canon of ethics or he added, "because only by Swaraj is the
Indian nationalism, if ever there was one, w a r " could Palestine be given to the Jews safety of our respective faiths possible". 3 2
came with Gandhi's espousal of the cause "as a result of the war". 2 8 The Khilafat T h e entire movement of non-cooperation
of the Khilafat which not only paved the question was to Gandhi "an imperial was in his view "a struggle between religion
way for his rise to power but enabled him question of the first magnitude 4 ' which he and irreligion" because the motive behind
to achieve a quite spectacular success in wanted Hindus to realise overshadowed the every crime perpetrated by a Europe,
popular mobilisation cutting across lines Montagu-Chelmsford " R e f o r m s and nominally Christian but beset by Satan,
of religious community. everything else". 2 9 If the Muslim claim was "not religious or spiritual, but grossly

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material" while the Hindus and Muslims s e d i t i o u s s p e e c h e s at t h e K h i l a f a t a "bond of affection" tied together the
h a d " r e l i g i o n a n d h o n o u r as t h e i r Conference in Karachi on July 9, 1921, Congress president and the young man he
motive". 3 3 Mohamed Ali and six others were put on a p p o i n t e d secretary of the A l l - I n d i a
T h e r e were at least two points of trial. Staged in a colonial law court, the Congress Committee. One frequent subject
weakness in the M a h a t m a ' s grand scheme defendants' case of necessity took the of argument between the two was "the
of Hindu-Muslim unity in his non-violent form of an interrogation of power in which Almighty". T h e Maulana liked to refer to
holy war. First, as in his staunch defence the memory of past British promises and God in Congress resolutions by way of
of t h e c a s t e s y s t e m , G a n d h i c l u n g present British perfidy loomed large, thanksgiving and when Nehru protested
dogmatically to social closure along lines M o h a m e d Ali took t w o long days to he was shouted at for his irreligion. But
of religious community when it came to address the jury. He did not hope to sway Mohamed Ali forgave his younger col-
inter-dining and inter-marriage. Likening them in order to be found not guilty. His league, believing him to be "fundamentally
eating to the other privately performed greatest success was in trying the patience religious" in spite of his "superficial
sanitary processes of life, he refused to of the British judge, all of whose attempts behaviour". 'Perhaps', Nehru mused, "it
dine even in the company of the Ali to rule his lengthy treatises on religious depends on what is meant by religion and
brothers. And he gave the meaning of law to be irrelevant proved utterly futile. religious". 4 1
Hindu-Muslim brotherhood an inimitable The judge exercised his power to sentence M o h a m e d A l i ' s stirring call for 'a
Gandhian twist in his opposition to inter- M o h a m e d Ali to t w o y e a r s ' rigorous federation of faiths' notwithstanding, the
marriage. "If brothers and sisters can live imprisonment, but the d e f e n d a n t had Coconada Congress failed to ratify C R
on the friendliest footing without ever successfully communicated his argument D a s ' s Bengal Pact for an equitable power-
thinking of marrying eachother", he wrote, to his audience of Islamic universalists sharing arrangement between Hindus and
"I can see no difficulty in my daughter and Indian anti-colonialists and, in the M u s l i m s . A s D a s ' s political disciple
regarding every Mahomedan [a] brother process, made the colonial masters squirm, Subhas Chandra Bose noted ruefully, it
and vice versa", 3 4 Gandhi changed his Mohamed Ali reminded the court of the was "rejected on the alleged ground that
views later in life and attended only inter- promise in the q u e e n ' s proclamation of it showed partiality for the Moslems and
caste and inter-community marriages, but 1858, a p r o m i s e r e - a f f i r m e d by t w o violated the principles of Nationalism". It
his attitude had caused hurt if not offence, s u b s e q u e n t British s o v e r e i g n s : ' T h e was adopted by a large majority at the
despite his claim that the Ali brothers Sepoys' Mutiny after which the q u e e n ' s Bengal Provincial Conference at Sirajganj
"scrupulously respect[ed his] bigotry, if proclamation was issued had originated in May 1924 overcoming the opposition
[his] self-denial may be so named". 3 5 The with greased cartridges in which c o w ' s of "some reactionary Hindus". 42 But at
s e c o n d w e a k n e s s s t e m m e d f r o m his and swine's grease was believed to be the all-India level the P u n j a b line
determination not to c o u n t e n a n c e the mixed". But Islamic law, the learned articulated by Lala Lajpat Rai had won
p o s s i b i l i t y of any l e g i t i m a t e c l a s s Maulana insisted, permitted a Muslim to out over the Bengal line advocated by
dimension in Muslim subaltern resistance eat pork if faced with starvation but laid C R Das. W h e n Das died in 1925, Subhas
to Hindu economic power. W h e n the down an absolute injunction against killing Bose, who deplored the absence of 'cultural
Mappilla rebellion broke out in the summer another Muslim. "And yet a government i n t i m a c y ' b e t w e e n I n d i a ' s t w o great
of 1921. he saw it as fanaticism pure and which is so tender as to ask soldiers before religious communities, wrote from
simple for which 'cultured Mussalmans' enlistment whether they object to vacci- Mandalay prison:
were sorry. 3 6 The response to the 'Moplah nation or re-vaccination", he concluded, I do not think that among the Hindu leaders
madness' was cited by him as proof of "would compel a Muslim to d o something of India, Islam had a greater friend than
Hindu-Muslim solidarity. " A s members worse than apostasise or eat pork. If there in the D e s h b a n d h u ..Hinduism was
of a family", he assured himself, " w e shall is any value in the boast of toleration and extremely dear to his heart; he could even
sometimes fight, but we shall always have in the proclamations of three sovereigns, lay down his life for his religion, but at
leaders who will compose our differences then we have performed a religious and the same time he was absolutely free from
and keep us under check". Besides, "in legal duty in calling upon Muslim soldiers dogmatism of any kind. That explains
the face of possibilities of such madness in these circumstances to withdraw from how it was possible for him to love Islam 4 3
in f u t u r e " , he asked, what w a s "the the army, and are neither sinners nor T h e m i d - 1 9 2 0 s , most contemporary
alternative to Hindu-Muslim unity? A criminals." 4 0 observers and historians agree, were a
perpetuation of slavery ? " 3 7 Even when in period of Hindu-Muslim strife. Nehru titles
December 1921 Lord Reading had "flung UNITARY NATIONALISM: the chapter in his autobiography dealing
Ireland" in his face, Gandhi was unfased. HINDU-MUSLIM DISUNITY with this phase of riots 'Communalism
"[I]t is not the blood that the Irishmen have M o h a m e d Ali emerged from prison as R a m p a n t ' in which he concludes: "Surely
taken", he contended, "which has given president of the Indian National Congress, religion and the spirit of religion have
them what appears to be their liberty. But Jawaharlal Nehru was present at the annual much to answer for. What killjoys they
it is the gallons of blood that they have session of the Congress in Coconada in have been." 4 4 This Nehruvian misdiag-
willingly given themselves". So Indians December 1923 where the Maulana, "as nosis of the c a u s e of H i n d u - M u s l i m
had to learn "the art of spilling their own was his wont", "delivered an enormously disunity was to have large implications
b l o o d w i t h o u t s p i l l i n g that of t h e i r long presidential address". But Nehru for the history of Indian anti-colonial
opponents". 3 8 t h o u g h t it w a s " a n interesting o n e " , nationalism in the last t w o decades of the
largely b e c a u s e it s h o w e d the historic British raj. A s the discourse of mainstream
For Gandhi's closest comrade Mohamed
M u s l i m deputation d e m a n d i n g s e p a r a t e Indian nationalism turned more strident
Ali it was the British call to Muslims to
electorates to have been "a command in its insistence on singularity, a sense
spill the blood of their o w n which, as
performance,..engineered by the govern- of unease a m o n g those c o n d e m n e d to
Ayesha Jalal has shown, constituted an
ment i t s e l f , Nehru considered Mohamed 'minority' status at the all-India level led
i n t o l e r a b l e i n f r i n g e m e n t of religious
them to call for safeguards and eventually
f r e e d o m . 3 9 On the charge of making Ali to be "most irrationally religious" but

2094 Economic and Political Weekly August 1, 1998

 to couch their own demands in the language BLOOD BROTHERS IN A W A R OF LIBERATION for the purpose of fighting against the
of n a t i o n a l i s m . W h a t infuriated foreign rule of our country". 5 0 In 1943
Mohammed Ali Jinnah in early 1938 was Yet during the second world war there Kiani was the top Muslim officer flank-
Nehru's statement reported in the press: was a movement, led by another Cambridge ing Subhas Chandra Bose at a "national
"I have examined this so-called communal man and avid admirer of Garibaldi, which d e m o n s t r a t i o n " and fund-raiser at the
question through the telescope, and if there sought to forge unity in anti-colonial Chettiar temple in Singapore. Bose had
is n o t h i n g , w h a t c a n y o u s e e . " 4 5 politics based on respect f o r and refused to set foot in the temple unless his
Paradoxically, it was precisely this myopic accommodation of religious difference. In colleagues belonging to all castes and
vision of n o n - c o m m u n a l nationalism his speech as Congress president in 1938 communities could come with him, 5 1
t o w a r d s the M u s l i m q u e s t i o n which Subhas Bose had warned against accepting "When we c a m e to the temple", Bose's
enabled the politics of religiously based colonial constitutional devices designed closest political aide Abid Hasan, a
Hindu identity to occupy comfortable to divide and deflect the anti-colonial Hyderabadi Muslim, has written, "I found
spaces within the regional outfits of the movement, but felt that "the policy of it filled to capacity with the uniforms of
Indian National Congress. T h e "moral divide and rule" was "by no means an the INA officers and men and the black
conception of Gandhian politics", it has unmixed blessing for the ruling power". caps of the South Indian Muslims glaringly
b e e n s u g g e s t e d , w a s in t h i s p e r i o d He could see Britain getting "caught in e v i d e n t " . 5 2 W h e n H a s a n , a civilian,
incompatible with "the realities of power the meshes of her own political dualism" volunteered to go to the war front, he found
within a bourgeois constitutional order". resulting from divisive policies, whether himself in an army which had altered all
But Gandhi had not only "acceded to the in India, Palestine, Egypt, Iraq or Ireland. 4 8 the rules of Britain's Indian Army as these
p o l i t i c a l c o m p u l s i o n s of b o u r g e o i s After war broke out in 1939 he likened had applied to religious and linguistic
politics", as Partha Chatterjee sees it, 4 6 the Congress proposal of a Constituent communities, caste and gender. And yes,
but had succumbed from the mid-1920s Assembly under the aegis of an Imperialist they dined together before they went into
to the political compulsions of Hindu government' to the Irish Convention of battle together. 'No one had asked us", he
majoritarianism in the United Provinces Lloyd George. During 1940 as Britain writes, "to cease to be a Tamilian or Dogra,
and Hindu minoritarianism in the Punjab. suffered reverses in the "war between rival Punjabi Muslim or Bengali Brahmin, a
By the time Gandhi rediscovered the imperialisms" and the Muslim League Sikh or an Adivasi. We were all that and
imperative of Hindu-Muslim accommod- passed its Lahore, resolution Bose noted perhaps fiercely more so than before, but
ation in the mid-1940s he had already that the problem of "fighting British these matters became personal affairs".
ceded too much political ground to the
imperialism" was likely to give way to the When their Netaji came to see the retreating
forces of unitary nationalism and Hindu
more pressing problem of "internal unity men f r o m Imphal at Mandalay, the "Sikhs
majoritarianism which were bound in a
and consolidation", which, in order to oiled their beards, the Punjabi Muslims,
tense but symbiotic relationship.
succeed, would have to include unity Dogras and Rajputs twirled their moust-
The colonial rules of representation in between the Congress and the Muslim aches and we the indiscriminates put on
the formal arenas of politics based on League on a joint Hindu-Muslim demand as good a face as we could manage". 5 3
49
religious enumeration were undoubtedly for a provisional national government, Faced with military defeat, there could
tailor-made for communitarian rivalry. Between 1943 and 1945 Subhas Bose be two sources of solace - o n e was rational
But there was also a significant shift in made a very deliberate effort to build unity analogy with the Irish example, the other
nationalist ideology on the issue of among India's religious communities in was religious faith drawn from India's
religious difference which made certain the movement he led in Southeast Asia. own history. "It is a strange phenomenon
that the M u s l i m m a s s e s were never Interestingly, the man who became the in history", Subhas Bose said in a speech
enthused in the same way by the civil scniormost field commander in Bose's on May 21, 1945, "that while the British
disobedience and Quit India move- Indian National Army had early in his could easily crush the Irish rebellion of
ments of the 1930s and 1940s as they career been the victim of exactly the sort 1916 at a time when they were engaged
had been in the years of non-cooperation of bias that stoked 'communal' animosity in a life and death struggle, they had to
and Khilafat. At the height of the 1942 In 1931 Mohammed Zaman Kiani had acknowledge defeat at the hands of the
move ment Leonard Woolf wrote in his faced a choice - either to go to the Olympic same Irish revolutionaries after they (the
preface to Mulk R a j A n a n d ' s Letters on hockey trials being held in Calcutta or to British) emerged victorious from the world
India: appear in the examination for admission war". 5 4 But he had already observed in
The nationalism of the Irish - largely due into the new Military Academy at Dehra his reply of November 2,1943 to a message
to British imperialism - has started an Dun. He passed the examination but the of felicitations from de Valera upon the
insoluble Ulster problem in which religion medical officer ruled him out from being proclamation of a provisional government
and nationalism have intertwined to admitted to the first term of the Academy. in Singapore that British imperialism had
produce incalculable harm. You and the T h e medical officer was a Hindu and the "brought about the partition of Ireland in
Congress Party are beginning to treat the next man to be selected was a Sikh. This the past and if British Imperialism were
Muslims and Jinnah as Mr de Valera treated enraged all the Muslims of the battalion to survive this war, a similar fate would
Ulster You may succeed in deluding Tom who believed "the whole thing had been be in store for India". 5 5
Brown on this point, but do you really m a n o e u v r e d with a communal bias". In an attempt to forestall such a fate the
wish to turn Jinnah into an Indian Lord Fortunately Zaman was later selected and I N A ' s march to Delhi had commenced
Craigavon? For that is what you will joined the Academy in its second term that with a ceremonial parade on September
certainly do. 4 7 started after six months, "Little did I then 26, 1943 at the tomb of the last Mughal
T h e t r a n s f o r m a t i o n of the w o u l d - b e realise", writes Kiani in his memoirs, "that emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar in Burma.
Charles Pamell of Indian politics to an un- in time to come, in a revolutionary move- At the ccremony Subhas Bose handed
likely James Craig - such was the measure ment..I would be one of the strongest advo- over a 'nazar' of t w o and a half lakh rupees
of success of inclusionary nationalism of catesof inter-communal unity and harmony to the Burmese government "as a very
the Congress variety.

2095
Economic and Political Weekly August 1, 1998
small token of... love and admiration for and Bengal and the province of Ulster had 4 Dipesh Chakrabarty, 'Radical Histories and
Burma". 5 6 Accepting the gift the Burmese to be divided by totting up numbers in the Question of Enlightenment Rationalism'
in Economic and Political Weekly, April 8,
leader B a M a w said: "We Burmans also districts and counties.
1995.
attach a great deal of importance to certain T h e spirit of religion had little to do with 5 Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities:
sacred spots, to certain victory-bearing these temporal sins. Throughout the entire Reflections on the Origin and Spread of
earth as in Shwebo," 5 7 Once the march to c o u r s e of the history of Indian anti- Nationalism, Verso, London, 1991, p II.
Delhi had been halted at Imphal, the colonialism, religion as faith within the 6 G M Trevelyan, English Social History, p 353
defeated warriors and their leader gathered limits of morality, if not the limits of and British History in the Nineteenth Century,
once more at Bahadur S h a h ' s tomb on p vii, cited in Cannadine, ibid, p 202.
reason, had rarely impeded the cause of 7 Thomas Babington Macaulay, 'Gladstone on
July 11, 1944. On that sombre occasion national unity and may in fact have assisted Church and State' in G M Young (ed),
Subhas Chandra Bose closed his speech its realisation at key moments of struggle. Macaulay; Prose and Poetry, Harvard
with a couplet composed by Bahadur Shah T h e variegated symbols of religion as University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts,
after the collapse of the 1857 revolt: culture had enthused nationalists of many 1952, pp 609-60, quotations from pp 636-38.
Ghazion me bu rahegi jab talak iman ki 8 Partha Chatterjee, Our Modernity' in The
hues and colours but had seldom embittered
Takht London tak chalegi, tegh Hindustan Present History of West Bengal, Oxford
relations between religious communities University Press, Delhi. 1997, p 204.
ki. until they were flaunted to boast the power 9 Rajnarayan Basu, She Kal aar E Kal,
(So long as Ghazis are imbued with the of majoritarian triumphalism. Theconceits Brajendranath Bandyopadhyay and
spirit of faith of unitary nationalism may well have Sajanikanta Das (eds), Bangiya Sahitya
The sword of Hindustan will reach Parishad, Calcutta, 1956, cited in Chatterjee,
caused a deeper sense of alienation among
'Our Modernity' in Present History, p 198.
London's throne.) 58 those defined as minorities than the attach- 10 Chatterjee, ibid, pp 200, 210,
FROM UNION OF HEARTS TO AMPUTATION ments to diverse religions. T h e territorial 11 Partha Chatterjee, The Nation and Its
OF LIMBS claims of a minority turned nation heaped Fragments: Colonial and Postcolonial
further confusion on the furious contest Histories, Oxford University Press, Delhi,
Whether due to a British error in rational 1994, p 110.
over sovereignty in the dying days of the
decision-making or in answer to the prayers 12 I have undertaken an elaborate critique of this
raj. Having failed to share sovereignty in position elsewhere. See my 'Nation as Mother:
offered at Bahadur S h a h ' s tomb. India's the manner of their pre-colonial forbears, Representations and Contestations of "India"
anti-imperialists were given a last oppor- late-colonial nationalist worshippers of in Bengali Literature and Culture' in Sugata
tunity to reach an honourable settlement the centralised state ended up dividing the Bose and Ayesha Jalal (eds), Nationalism,
of the problem of religious difference when land. Surely Godless nationalism linked Democracy and Development: State and
three Punjabi officers of the INA - a Hindu, Politics in India, Oxford University Press,
to the colonial categories of religious Delhi, 1997, pp 50-75,
a Muslim and a Sikh - were put on public majorities and minorities has much to 13 Ramabai Ranade (ed), Miscellaneous
trial at the Red Fort for waging war against answer for. What a killer it has been! Writings of the Late Hon'ble Mr Justice
the king-emperor. The venue was the same M G Ranade, Sahitya Akademi, Delhi, 1992,
I can do no better than close with a few lines
as on the occasion of the historic trial of p 190,
of a poem that the "great sentinel' Rabindra-
Bahadur Shah, so was the sentence - depor- 14 Chatterjee, 'Our Modernity' in Present
nath Tagore, a jealous guardian of reason History, p 199.
tation for life. But on this occasion the sen-
against unreason, printed in his little book 15 Ranade (ed), Miscellaneous Writings of
tence could not be carried out and the Red
on nationalism in 1917. It was an English the Late Horihle Mr Justice M G Ranade,
Fort the three officers were released almost pp 193-94.
rendering of a Bengali poem he had
immediately by the commander-in-chief 16 Lala Lajpat Rai, Writings and Speeches,
composed on the last day of the last century:
Claude Auchinleck under intense public Vol I, University Publishers, Delhi, 1966.
The last sun of the century sets amidst the
pressure. 5 9 Yet the union of hearts in the 17 Aurobindo Ghose, 'New Lamps for Old' in
blood-red clouds of the West and the Haridas Mukherjee and Uma Mukherjce (eds),
winter of 1945-46 could not prevent the ampu-
whirlwind of hatred. Sri Aurobindo's political Thought (1893-
tation of limbs in the s u m m e r of 1947.
The naked passion of self-love of Nations, 1908), Firma K L Mukhopudhyay, Calcutta.
The all-important question as to why at 1958, pp 103-04
in its drunken delirium of greed, is dancing
the end of the day the Punjab pushed the 18 Ibid, pp 108-09.
to the clash of steel and the howling verses
subcontinent towards partition rather than 19 Cited in R F Foster, Modern Ireland, 1600-
of vengeance... 1972, Allen Lane, London. 1988, p 454.
union has been addressed more fully by
Keep watch, India...Let your crown be of 20 Cited in Ayesha Jalal, "Exploding
Ayesha J a l a l 6 0 What needs emphasising Communalism; The Politics of Muslim
in conclusion today is that division was humility, your freedom the freedom of the
Identity in South Asia' in Bose and Jalal
not a foregone conclusion until the moment soul. (eds), Nationalism, Democracy and
of the actual wielding of the p a r t i t i o n e d Build God's throne daily upon the ample Development, p 87,
axe. The principle of Ausgleich was alive bareness of your poverty 21 For a fuller treatment of the history of this
And know that what is huge is not great period see the relevant chapters in Sugata
in the cabinet mission's proposal of a Bose and Ayesha Jalal (eds). Modern South
three-tiered federal structure for India in and pride Is not everlasting. 62
Asia: History, Culture. Political Economy,
1946 as it had been in the ideas for a Routledge, London and Oxford University
Notes Press, Delhi, 1997,
council of Ireland in 1920 and perhaps
even as late as the James Craig-Michael [G M Trevelyan Lecture, University of Cam- 22 See the chapter The Moment of Manoeuvre:
bridge, November 26, 1997. I would like to thank Gandhi and the Critique of Civil Society' in
Collins pact of March 1922 and also in
Ayesha Jalal for inspiring the ideas that inform Partha Chatterjee (ed), Nationalist Thought
the plans for a binational state in Palestine and the Colonial World: A Derivative
this lecture even though she does not share my
in 1948. 61 What made partition-adecision Discourse, University of Minnesota Press,
starry-eyed admiration of Gandhi,]
born of short-term expediency - into such Minneapolis, 1993, pp 85-130. The quoted
a l o n g - t e r m f e a t u r e of the p o l i t i c a l 1 Jawaharlal Nehru, Towards Freedom, Beacon phrases appear on p. 93.
Press, Boston, 1958, p 32. 23 Mahatma Gandhi, 'Mr Andrews' Difficulty',
landscapes of both India and Ireland, was
2 David Cannadine, G M Trevelyan: A Life in in Young India 1919-1922, (Young India,
that in order to ensure rule by religiously History, Fontana Press, London, 1993, p 92, July 21, 1920), S Ganesan, Madras, 1922,
defined majorities the provinces of Punjab 3 Nehru, Towards Freedom, pp 34-36, 38. pp 151-52.

2096 Economic and Political Weekly August 1, 1998

 24 'Khilafat', Young India, May 12, 1920 (ibid), Calcutta and Oxford University Press, Delhi, An Authentic Account of the Trial by a General
p 158. (forthcoming). Court Martial of Captain Shah Nawaz Khan,
25 'Why I Have Joined the Khilafat Movement', 50 Ibid, pp xiii-xiv. Captain P K Sahgal and Lt G S Dhillon and
Young India, April 28, 1920 (ibid), p 154. 51 Ibid, p 216. the Trial by a European Military Commission
26 Ibid, p 153, See also 'Pledges Broken', Young 52 Abid Hasan. The Men from Imphal, Netaji of Emperor Bahadur Shah', New Delhi, 1946.
India, May 19, 1920 (ibid), pp 159-62. Research Bureau, Calcutta 1995, p II. 60 See Ayesha Jalal's G M Trevelyan Seminar,
27 'Mr Andrews' Difficulty', ibid, pp 152-53. 53 Abid Hasan Safrani, The Men from Imphal, November 27, 1997, 'Nation, Reason and
28 The Khilafat', Young India, March 23, 1921 PP 7-9, Religion; the Punjab's Role in the Partition
(ibid), pp 178-79. 54 Manuscript (archives of the Netaji Research of India' in next weeks issue of EPW.
29 The Question of Questions', Young India, Bureau, Calcutta). 61 See the use of the concept of Ausgleich by
March 10, 1920 (ibid), p 145. 55 'India and Ireland' in Narayana Menon (ed). the founder of Sinn Fein, Arthur Griffith, in his
30 The Turkish Question', Young India, June On to Delhi or Speeches and Writings of The Resurrection of Hungary, London, 1904.
29, 1921 (ibid), pp 180-81. Subhas Chandra Bose, Bangkok, 1944, p 62 Rabindranath Tagore, 'The Sunset of the
31 T h r e e National Cries', Young India, 117. Bose had visited Ireland in early 1936 Century' in Nationalism, Greenwood Press,
September 8, 1920 (ibid), pp 442-43, and knew Irish nationalists including De Westport. Connecticut, 1973, originally
32 'Hindu-Muslim Unity a Camouflage', Young Valera. He had also met De Valera in London published, Macmillan, New York, 1917, pp
India, October 20, 1921. in ibid, p. 419. in January 1938. 157-59, In 1921 Tagore was sharply critical
Gandhi had not, however, wanted to make 56 'At Bahadur Shah's Tomb'. ibid, p 90. of the unreason inherent in the Gandhian
the stopping of cow-slanghter a condition for 57 Text of Speech delivered by His Excellency ritual of spinning in T h e Call of Truth',
lending Hindu support to the Khilafat claim. Dr Ba Maw', ibid, p 128, Modern Review, 30, 4 (1921). For Gandhi's
See Khilafat and the Cow Question', Young 58 Subhas Chandra Bose, The Great Patriot and defence of his own position and his tribute
India, December 10, 1919 (ibid), pp 141-43. Leader', Blood Bath. Hero Publications, to Tagore see The Great Sentinel', Young
33 T h e inwardness of Non-Co-Operation', Lahore, 1947, p 65, India, October 13, 1921 (ibid). Young India,
Young India, September 8,1920, (ibid), p 237, 59 See Moti Ram. Two Historic Trials in Red Fort: pp 668-75.
34 'Hindu-Mahomedan Unity", Young India,
February 25, 1920 (ibid), pp 397-400.
35 'Hindu-Muslim Unity a Camouflage', Young
India, October 20, 1921 (ibid), p 421.
36 The Meaning of the Moplah Rising', Young
India, October 20, 1921 (ibid), pp 675-78.
37 'Hindu-Muslim Unity', Young India, July 28,
1921 (ibid), p 417.
38 'Ireland and India', Young India, December
15, 1921 (ibid), pp 621-22.
39 Ayesha Jalal, 'Territorial Nationalism and
Islamic Universalism: South Asian Critiques
of the European Nation-State', paper presented
at the Institute of Advanced Study, Berlin.
June 1997. I owe the insights into religion
and rights to her latest work Self and
Sovereignty: The Muslim Individual and the
Community of Islam in South Asia, c 1850-
the Present (forthcoming).
40 See Mohamcd Ali's statement in R M Thadani
(eds), The Historic State Trial of the Ali
Brothers, Karachi, 1921, pp 63-87. I am
grateful to Ayesha Jalal for bringing Mohamcd
Ali's line of contestation to my attention. For
a much more detailed analysis which does full
justice to Muslim conceptions of rights as
well as sovereignty during the Khilafat
movement, see ibid (Ch 5).
41 Nehru, Towards Freedom, pp 104-05,
42 Subhas Chandra Bose, The Indian Struggle,
1920-1942, Sisir Kumar Bose and Sugata
Bose (eds), Netaji Research Bureau, Calcutta
and Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1997,
pp 102, 112.
43 Sisir Kumar Bose and Sugata Bose (eds).
The Essential Writings of Netaji Subhas
Chandra Bose, Netaji Research Bureau,
Calcutta and Oxford University Press, Delhi,
1997, pp 3-4, 67-68, 86.
44 Nehru, Towards Freedom, p 117.
45 M A Jinnah to Jawaharlal Nehru, March 17.
1938 in Jawaharlal Nehru, A Bunch of Old
Letters, Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1986,
p 278,
46 Chatterjee, Nationalist Thought, pp 113, 115.
47 Mulk Raj Anand, Letters on India, Labour
Book Service, London, 1942, p 9,
48 Bose and Bose (eds), Essential Writings of
Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, pp 11-12.
199-200.
49 Sisir Kumar Bose and Sugata Bose (eds), The
Alternative Leadership: the Collected Works
of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, May 1939-
January 1941, Vol 10, Netaji Research Bureau.

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