MAHATMA GANDHI - 3 - ANSWERS

1. B. Pietermaritzburg

On 7 June 1893, Gandhi, then a young barrister, was on his way from Durban to Pretoria on a legal case aboard a train in a first-class carriage. When the train came to a stop in Pietermaritzburg, Gandhi was ordered by a white man to move from the first-class carriage (reserved for white passengers), to the van compartment for lower-class travelers. Gandhi refused showing his first-class ticket but was unceremoniously thrown from his carriage onto the platform. He stayed at the station that night shivering in cold and the bitter incident prompted him to think about race and colour prejudices and bolstered his decision to stay on in South Africa and fight the racial discrimination being faced by Indians there. His doctrine of "Satyagraha" subsequently took shape during his stay in South Africa.

A plaque on the platform in Pietermaritzburg today marks the approximate spot where he was pushed from the train carriage with his luggage (pic below)

In 2018, on the 125^th anniversary of the incident, a two-sided bust of Mahatma Gandhi was unveiled at Pietermaritzburg, now considered worldwide as the birthplace of “Satyagraha”.

2. C. Mahadev Desai

“The Story of My Experiments with Truth” is the autobiography of Mohandas K. Gandhi, covering his life from early childhood through to 1921. It was written in weekly installments and published in weekly Gujarati magazine Navjivan from 1925 to 1929. It was also simultaneously translated into English by Mahadev Desai. The English translation was published as “An Autobiography” or “The Story of My Experiments with Truth” in two volumes (1927 and 1929). The second re-revised edition of the autobiography was published in 1939; the revisions were a result of collaboration between Mahadev Desai and Srinivas Sastri. This is the edition that has been read ever since.

Mahadev Desai (1 January 1892 – 15 August 1942) was an Indian independence activist and writer best remembered as Mahatma Gandhi's personal secretary for 25 years (1917 - 1942) until his death chronicling each day of Gandhi. 

Rajmohan Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi (son of Devdas Gandhi) sums up Mahadev Desai thus: "Waking up before Gandhi in pre-dawn darkness, and going to sleep long after his Master, Desai lived Gandhi's day thrice over — first in an attempt to anticipate it, next in spending it alongside Gandhi, and finally in recording it into his diary".

3. B. Pattabhi Sitaraimayya

In 1938, Subhash Chandra Bose became President of Congress unanimously at the session held at Haripura. He wanted to give a six months’ notice to the British to leave India but Gandhi was not in favour of such an ultimatum because the British were involved in Second World II then.

For the 1939 elections of the President of Congress at Tripuri (near Jabalpur), Subhash Chandra Bose announced his candidature knowing that he would be opposed as his ideological differences with Gandhi were intense by that time. Gandhi first suggested Nehru and later Maulana Azad to announce their name as candidates for the post. But both declined and the name of Pattabhi Sitaramayya was suggested to Gandhi whom he gave support to contest Netaji. But Netaji ultimately won by securing 1580 votes against 1377 votes favouring Sitaramayya. But Bose could not continue in the post with mounting difference within the Congress. He resigned from the post of President and on 22 June, 1939 Bose formed the “All India Forward Bloc” as a faction within the Indian National Congress aimed at consolidating the political left.

4. A. Jamnalal Bajaj

Jamnalal Bajaj (4 November 1889 – 11 February 1942) was an Indian industrialist who founded the Bajaj Group of companies in the 1920s. He was also a close and beloved associate of Mahatma Gandhi, who is known to have often declared that Jamnalal was his fifth son.

When Gandhi started his foot march in 1930 from Sabarmati Ashram to Dandi for the Salt Satyagraha, he had decided not to return to Sabarmati till independence for India was attained. Independence was not attained at that time and Gandhi was imprisoned for more than two years. On his release, he spent time travelling considerably in central India. He came to Wardha in 1934 at the invitation of Jamnalal Bajaj. In April 1936, Gandhiji established his residence in the Shegaon village near Wardha and he renamed it as Sevagram, which means 'village of service'.

5. A. Narayan Apte

Soon after shooting Gandhi on the evening of 30^th January, 1948, Nathuram Godse was captured by members of the crowd and handed over to the police. The Gandhi murder trial opened in May 1948 in Delhi's historic Red Fort, with Godse the main defendant, and his collaborator Narayan Apte and six others as the co-defendants. The trial ran for eight months before Justice Atma Charan passed his final order on 10 February 1949. The prosecution called 149 witnesses and none as defense. Nathuram Godse and Narayan Apte were sentenced to death by hanging and the remaining six (Digambar Badge, Shankar Kistayya, Vishnu Karkare, Madanlal Pahwa, Dattatraya Parchure, Gopal Godse – Nathuram’s brother) were sentenced to life imprisonment.

Of those found guilty, all except Godse appealed their conviction and sentence in the Punjab High Court. Godse accepted his death sentence, but appealed the lower court ruling that found him guilty of conspiracy. Godse argued, in his limited appeal to the High Court, that there was no conspiracy, he alone was solely responsible for the assassination, witnesses saw only him kill Gandhi, that all co-accused were innocent and should be released.

The appeal by the convicted men was heard from 2 May 1949, at Peterhoff, Shimla (Himachal Pradesh) which then housed the Punjab High Court. The High Court confirmed the findings and sentences of the lower court except in the cases of Dattatraya Parchure and Shankar Kistayya who were acquitted of all charges.

Godse and Apte were finally sentenced to death on 8 November 1949. Pleas for commutation were made by Gandhi's two sons, Manilal Gandhi and Ramdas Gandhi, but these pleas were turned down by India's prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, Vallabhbhai Patel and the Governor-General Chakravarti Rajagopalachari. They were hanged in the Ambala jail (Haryana) on 15 November 1949.

Thus, Nathuram Vinayak Godse and Narayan Dattatraya Apte became the first convicts to be hanged in Independent India even 71 days before the Supreme Court came into existence on January 26, 1950.

(Nathuram Godse - Left and Narayan Apte - Right during their trail)