Hindutva and History have nothing in common

Hindutva and history have nothing in common but the first two letters.

Nevertheless, The Hindutva version of Indian history is presently being written in the US by a set of poisonously hateful guys and eagerly lapped by scores of idiots here. It is no accident that a considerable number of these idiots happen to be Brahmins who consider Godse a Mahatma. For example, these guys say that it was Mountbatten who turned down Gandhi’s idea of making Jinnah the Prime Minister. Any person who has even a passing knowledge of the history of our Freedom Movement will be aghast at this shameless but typically the thuggish Hindutva way of twisting every bit and piece of history to calumniate the freedom movement, in which their cowardly and toadying forefathers did not participate.

Now what had actually happened?
1. As early as 1940 Rajaji mooted the idea of asking Muslim League to form the National Government.
“If His Majesty’s Government would agree to a Provisional National Government being formed at once, he would persuade his colleagues in the Congress to agree to the Muslim League being invited to nominate the Prime Minister who would form the National Government as he might consider best.”
2. Gandhi wrote to the Viceroy, Lord Linlithgow, on August 8, 1942, on the very eve of launching the Quit India movement: “the Congress will have no objection to the British Government transferring all the powers it exercises to the Muslim League on behalf of the whole of India”. Gandhi-ji added: “And the Congress will not only not obstruct any Government that the Muslim League may form on behalf of the people, but will even join the Government in running the machinery of the free State.” He emphatically concluded: “This is meant in all seriousness and sincerity”.
3. Gandhi did revive his proposal for a Jinnah-led government to the 1946 Cabinet Mission. The Cabinet Mission, however, “turned down” the suggestion “as being quite impracticable”. Nehru had nothing to do with either making the proposal or turning it down.
4. Following the Mountbatten-Gandhi and Mountbatten-Nehru meetings of April 1, the senior staff of the Viceroy, after consultation among themselves, “had come to the unanimous conclusion that Mr. Gandhi’s scheme was not workable”. The reasons the staff cited for the proposition being unworkable included: “Mr. Jinnah’s Government would be completely at the mercy of the Congress majority”; hence, “every single legislative or political measure would be brought up to the Viceroy for decision, and every action the Viceroy took after the initial stages would be misrepresented.” Thus, to save the Viceroy’s skin, the staff begged him to not pursue this any further.
5. But Mountbatten overruled his staff. He insisted that the Gandhi option be included in the panoply of options he proposed placing before Jinnah. Accordingly, on April 6, 1947, Lord Ismay drafted the “Outline of a Scheme for an Interim Government pending Transfer of Power”. The Outline said at point one, “Mr. Jinnah to be given the option of forming a Cabinet”; point two said, “The selection of the Cabinet is left entirely to Mr. Jinnah”. Jinnah rejected the Gandhi option as presented to him by the Viceroy.

(Thanks to Mani Shankar Iyer’s article on the subject)

What is conveniently forgotten is that this ‘JInnah be made the Prime Minister’ suggestion was not to be a permanent one. It was for the interim government. Congress was firm that the government to be formed in Independent India would be democratic based on adult franchise. It is inconceivable that Muslim League would have won the majority in the parliament of United India. If Jinnah had even a remote hope that it would happen, he would not have asked for Pakistan.