Word: gandhis
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...little wooden hut in Calcutta, 78-year-old Mohandas K. Gandhi last week drank a glass of sweetened lime juice, thus ending a 73-hour fast (his first since 1943) in protest against communal violence. Half an hour later a dozen Hindu and Moslem youths came to beg Gandhi's forgiveness for rioting, solemnly promised not to do it again. At his bare brown feet the penitents placed big bundles containing knives, rifles, a much-used Sten gun and a dozen U.S.-made hand grenades...
...Mahatma magic had worked well in Calcutta. Just after 62 people had been killed, 400 injured, in 24 hours, Gandhi had announced that he would not eat until "sanity returned to Calcutta." (Aside he said: "As usual I shall permit myself to add salt and soda bicarbonate to the water I may wish to drink during the fast.") Anxious Calcuttans read about the Mahatma's pulse rate, his blood pressure (both diastolic and systolic) and the acetone and albumen in his urine; they stopped rioting...
...rest of India was relatively quiet. In once turbulent Calcutta, Mohandas K. Gandhi, still striving for Hindu-Moslem unity, was able to write of the situation there: "One might almost say the joy of fraternization is leaping up from hour to hour...
Gandhiji had moved into a Moslem house in Calcutta's Moslem quarter, which had been assailed by his fellow Hindus. He appealed to Hindus to keep peace. Angry young Hindu fanatics broke up a prayer meeting at his house. For the first time, Indians stoned Gandhi's house. Gandhi spoke sadly to the crowd: "If you still prefer to use violence, remove me. It is -not me but my corpse that will be taken away from here...
...Independence Day even Calcutta's violence turned to rejoicing. Moslems and Hindus danced together in the streets, were admitted to each others' mosques and temples. Moslems crowded round Gandhi's car to shake his hand, and sprinkled him with rosewater. For the disillusioned father of Indian independence, there might be some consolation in the rare cry he heard from Moslem lips: "Mahatma Gandhi Zindabad" (Long Live Gandhi...