This visit of @RahulGandhi to the riot-affected areas of Delhi reminds me of Gandhi's visit to Noakhali in 1946 post the carnage which made Hindus flee that area. Once again I will be quoting @tathagata2's "My People Uprooted" which has documented this visit of Gandhi in detail.
Gandhi's trip to Noakhali brought the obscure area to the front page of every newspaper of the country, and is still celebrated as one of the great journeys undertaken by the apostle of peace to restore sanity among his fellow human beings
During his visit, he was once sitting on the floor of a hut in the midst of Muslims and discoursing on the beauties of non-violence. Sucheta Kripalani (wife of Acharya JB Kriplani) passed him a note saying that the man on his right had killed a number of Hindus.
The Mahatma smiled and went on speaking. In the village of Palla, on January 27th, he was asked "What should a woman do if she is attacked? Should she commit suicide"? His prescription was in the affirmative
During his visit, Gandhi did not speak one word about bringing the guilty to book. His central purpose was to get the Hindus back to their villages in Noakhali where they would, if he had his way, live happily ever after in perfect harmony with the majority community, the Muslims
And in this effort to establish harmony, Gandhi's entourage gave sarees to poor Muslim women who did not seem to have one intact saree to wear. (Despite this situation, these women arranged for their men to rape/forcibly marry Hindu women for the purpose of spreading Islam)
Did Gandhi succeed in his mission? The simple answer seems to be a big NO. In 1999, fifty-two years after partition, and twenty-eight years after the formation of independent Bangladesh, there are practically no Hindus in what used to be the district of Noakhali in British India.
The number of Hindus in that Noakhali used to be 411,291 as against 1,608,337 Muslims, namely 18 per cent,[67] while the percentage of Hindus in the land mass today known as Bangladesh was around 28 per cent.
Today it is about 5% according to 1991 census, taking together the present-day Noakhali, Feni and Lokkhipur zillas (districts) of Bangladesh. The proportion of Hindus in the whole of Bangladesh is currently 10.5%.
Therefore Gandhi, the apostle of peace, advocate of universal love and brotherhood failed. Ghulam Sarwar, the sectarian, murderous loudmouth, succeded. This is not an isolated case of failure. Gandhi failed in every case where it was his intention to establish Hindu-Muslim amity
What was Gandhi’s error? The error was twofold: first, not being able to appreciate the significance of Jihad in the Islamic code and secondly, inability to understand the powerlessness of his own code of Ahimsa against Jihad
Thankfully times have changed now. Hindus no longer tolerate these attempts to promote harmony when the opponents are waiting with their swords to behead our men and rape our women
It's time to call out these appeasement policies and take lessons from history to prevent another partition of this country
