Word: mahatmas
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...Charge. The British view, from Winston Churchill on down, was that Gandhi's "failure" to die merely showed that the irascible Mahatma's bluff had been called at last. Cranky old George Bernard Shaw exploded ("stupidest blunder . . . the King should release Gandhi unconditionally as an act of grace"), but Britain as a whole backed the Indian Government. British Tories were solidly anti-Gandhi. Labor Party leaders considered India as a sort of slum-clearance project for future consideration. Most Britons applauded, a New Delhi White Paper: "Only one answer can be given to the question...
Death & Decency. Each morning the Mahatma (Great Soul) was wheeled on his bed to a palace bathroom to be shaved and washed. He was massaged twice daily, had mud packs placed on his head. He was given occasional enemas. At the age of 74, in a land where life expectancy is only 27, Gandhi after twelve days of his intended 21-day fast was sinking rapidly. Said an Indian physician, Dr. B. C. Roy: "Only a miracle" could see him through. During the first days he took only citrus juice and water. Midway through his ordeal the act of drinking...
Crowds gathered outside the Palace each day, peeping through the grilled gates to the sunburned lawns and neglected flower beds. They caught no glimpse of Gandhi but they felt closer to him. Other Gandhi followers, disavowing the Mahatma's creed of nonviolence, rioted, stoned police, burned state buildings. These uprisings increased as the fast progressed, threatened to disrupt a stable wartime economy on which both British and American armed forces are dependent. But the Raj was prepared to meet this type of unrest. The only effective weapon left to Gandhi's badly battered Congress party was a fast...
...Japan, delighted with Britain's embarrassment, declared a "Mahatma Gandhi Week" in all occupied territories in the East...
Peril & Prestige. Visitors from India reported British prestige at its lowest point in recent history. The British can scarcely afford to allow Gandhi to die and become a martyr-the consequences would be unpredictable, and they might be fatal to British rule. As for the fasting Mahatma, he was again demonstrating, along with his appeal to millions of Indians, his shrewd sense of politics and his ability to regain prestige on fruit juice, water and an unquenchable spirit...