Far from claiming any credit for achievements of 1942 [Quit India], both Gandhi and the Congress offered apology and explanation for the madness which seized the people participating in it. {AD1}
I see it as clearly as I see my finger: British are leaving not because of any strength on our part but because of historical conditions and for many other reasons. {Gill/24}
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Preface
I see it as clearly as I see my finger: British are leaving not because of any strength on our part but because of historical conditions and for many other reasons. {Gill/24}
Mahatma Gandhi
This book comprehensively covers all the factors that really led to the freedom of India from the British.
Chapter-1 covers prominent international timelines, particularly that of World War-I and World War-II, that had major bearings on Indias freedom.
Chapter-2, a mega chapter, chronologically covers all timelines, events, and developments relevant to the Indian Freedom Movementsrevolutionary, constitutional and Gandhian right since 1600 CE.
Chapter-3 covers the three major, once-in-a-decade Gandhian Movementsall of which, unfortunately, were major failures.
Chapter-4 covers Netaji Subhas Bose, his INA, and the army mutinies that hugely contributed to winning freedom for India.
Chapter-5 evaluates the Gandhian Movement, and compares it with the other freedom movementsrevolutionary and constitutional.
Chapter-6, the last chapter, analyses in detail What Really Led to Freedom.
Ambitious coverage of this book would have required over a thousand pages to do full justice to the topics. However, this project (book) is restricted to presenting a comprehensive yet compressed view of the relevant factors, events and timelines. It is a summarised work deliberately limited to as few pages as possible.
Rajnikant Puranik
www.rkpbooks.com
A Note on Citations & Bibliography
Citations are given as super-scripts in the text, such as {Azad/128}.
Citation Syntax & Examples:
{Source-Abbreviation/Page-Number}
e.g. {Azad/128} = Azad, Page 128
{Source-Abbreviation/Volume-Number/Page-Number}
e.g. {CWMG/V-58/221} = CWMG, Volume-58, Page 221
{Source-Abbreviation} for URLs (articles on the web), and for digital books (including Kindle-Books), that are searchable, where location or page-number may not be given.
e.g. {VPM2} , {URL15}
{Source-Abbreviation/Location-Number} for Kindle Books
e.g. {VPM2} , {VPM2/L-2901}
Example from Bibliography Table at the end of this Book
Azad | B | Maulana Abul Kalam Azad India Wins Freedom . Orient Longman. New Delhi. 2004 |
CWMG | D, W | Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi. Vol. 1 to 98. http://gandhiserve.org/e/cwmg/cwmg.htm |
The second column above gives the nature of the source : B=paper Book, D=Digital Book/eBook other than Kindle, K=Kindle eBook, U=URL of Document/Article on Web, W=Website, Y=YouTube
To the fond memory of my late parents
Shrimati Shakuntala and Shri Laxminarayan Puranik
Thanks to
Devbala Puranik, Manasi and Manini
Table of Contents
Detailed Table of Contents
{ 1 }
Relevant International Timelines
Timelines of Prominent International Events
191517: Armenian Genocide by the Ottomans
Khalifa and the Ottoman Empire perpetrated the dastardly Armenian Genocide, also known as the Armenian Holocaust , during 1915-17 involving the systematic extermination of about 15 lakhs (1.5 million) of its minority Armenian subjects inside their historic homeland, which lies within the present-day Republic of Turkey. The genocide commenced with Ottoman authorities rounding up and deporting around 250 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders from Constantinople to Ankara, and eventually murdering most of them. The genocide then expanded to the wholesale killing of the able-bodied male population; subjection of army conscripts to forced labour; and deportation of women, children, the elderly and infirmdeprived of food and water, and subjected to rape robbery and murderon death marches to the Syrian desert. {AG1} Many women were raped, stripped naked, and crucifiedin testimony, there are photographs of rows of naked women nailed to cross! {AG2}
It was the first modern genocide, and precursor of Hitlers Holocaustindeed Hitler was inspired from, and took lessons from the same. Hitler was reported to have remarked in the context of his order to exterminate the Polish race: I have issued the command, and I'll have anybody who utters but one word of criticism executed by a firing squad that our war aim does not consist in reaching certain lines, but in the physical destruction of the enemy. Accordingly, I have placed my death-head formations in readiness for the present only in the East with orders to them to send to death mercilessly and without compassion, men, women, and children of Polish derivation and language. Only thus shall we gain the living space (Lebensraum) which we need. Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?
Despite enough and mounting evidence, Gandhi had refused to acknowledge the Armenian genocide, saying I distrust the Armenian case. What can be said of leaders who choose to deliberately ignore even the current history and facts, stick to their concocted reality and airy notions, and fail to fashion their national policies based on ground reality.
Gandhi had made a bizarre statement in support of the Khilafat and Ottoman responsible for the many wrong-doings including the Armenian Holocaust: I would gladly ask for postponement of Swaraj if thereby we could advance the interests of Khilafat. {BK2/81}
How could the Apostle of Non-Violence lead a movement to save a regime that had perpetrated genocide? Was Gandhi totally ignorant of the what was going on elsewhere in the world? How could a person unaware of important currents in contemporary history be ever a good leader? Or, was he doing what he did aware of the background? If so, he was totally unprincipled!
Modern day ISIS, the perpetrator of indescribable crimes on the Yezidis and Kurds and others, is headed by a Khalifa, and their aim is to establish Khilafat all over the world! Gandhi was therefore supporting those whose modern incarnation is ISIS!
7 November 1917 : October Revolution