In the front page of your daily of 10th April, 2000 it was published that Mr Rajmohan Gandhi, a distinguished visitor to Bangladesh and a grandson of Mahatma Gandhi gave an hour-long lecture on “The continuing relevance of Gandhi ideas for social action in South Asia" at CIRDAP Auditorium. Association for Development Agencies in Bangladesh (ADAB) and Proshika. an NGO, organised the lecture followed by open discussion and questions from different leaders. Asked about a move by Abul Hashem and others to stave off the division of Bengal. Rajmohan Gandhi said, as far as he studied. Mahatma Gandhi did not find any popular support for it. He (Mahatma Gandhi) was also keen to ensure right of minorities on both sides. "He was not opposed to united independent Bengal. But Jinnah did not want It. Also many leaders of both Congress and Muslim League did not support the idea of united Independent Bengal", he said.

My objection lies against the last sentences under the inverted coma as quoted above, it Is not true that Mr Jinnah did not want it. In support of Jinnah's positive attitude towards united Bengal concept. I quote a few Unes from Freedom at Mid-Night' by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapiere": Mountbatten had Inserted in (he plan a clause which would allow an Indian province to become independent if a majority of both its communities wished to. That clause was intended to provide that the sixty five million Hindus and Muslims of Bengal could Join into one viable country with the great support of Calcutta as their capital. The idea had been placed before Mountbatten by Calcutta's Muslim leader, Sha-heed Suhrawardy. The Viceroy liked it. Contrasted to Jinnahs aberrant two headed state, it seemed an entity, likely to endure. To his surprise, he had discovered Bengal's Congress Hindu leaders intrigued by the project He had quietly encouraged their interest. He had even discovered Jinnah would not oppose the idea" (page 124). “At Mountbatten's behest, Nehru agreed to stay on another right to give him time to draft a revised plan which might be acceptable to Congress. It would have to close that loopholes that had so distressed Nehru. The new plan would offer India's provinces and princes only one choice India or Pakistan. The dream of an Independent Bengal was gone" (page 127). Was not Mahatma Gandhi aware of it?

Secondly. 1 quote from The Great Divide' bv H V Hodson "Mr Suhrawardy himself, on 26th April told the Viceroy that in the case of Bengal, partition was far from being the necessary corollary of partitioning India. Since the plan of which he had been told involved a vote on whether a province should be partitioned or not. and if not. whether It was to Join Pakistan or Hindustan or remain independent. he could say with confidence that given enough time lie could persuade Bengal to remain united, and that ne could get Jinnah to agree that in that event it need not Join Pakistan. 'This is very good news ' said Lord Mountbatten. The same day he saw Mr Jinnah and reported his conversation with the Bengali premier. What did Mr Jinnah think", asked the Viceroy, about keeping Bengal united at the price of its staying out of Pakistan? Without hesitation Mr Jinnah replied ‘1 should be delighted. What is the use of Bengal without Calcutta? They had much better reipain united and independent. I am sure they would be on friendly terms with Pakistan,' (page 246). Does It mean he did not want it?

Thirdly. I quote Irom the book 'Jinnah and Pakistan' by Mr Stanley Wolpert, “Chief Minister Suhrawardy hoped to save Bengal the agony of a second partition in less than half century by proposing a coalition government to his Congress and Forward Bloc op-

ponents. advocating independent national status for united Bengal. With Bengal enjoying the virtual world monopoly of jute and having Calcutta's highly developed international port. Suhrawardy sought British as well as American capital to develop his 'Nations' economic potential. We have common mother tongue and common economic interests.' Suhrawardy argued. Bengal has very little affinity with the Punjab. Bengal will be an independent state and decide by herself later whether she should link up with Pakistan. Jinnah would nave welcomed the emergence of an independent, united Bengal with open arms, but Nehru and Patel considered it an anathema to Congress and Indian interests and feared that unified Bangladesh led by a Muslim premier, would form closer alliance to Pakistan than India" (page 320).

I can quote from several other books also specially from Memoirs of H S Suhrawardy by M H R Talukder (page 27-32) and Jinnah ■ Pakistan New Thought by Sailesh Kr Bondopadhay (page 276-279-281) and some more in my support. But I defer with the wish that the above quotations would be considered enough.

1 like to conclude by saying that Mahatma Gandhi was the greatest leader India ever produced and had world-wide reputation. Prof. Einstein remarked in his condolence message that "Future generation would refuse to believe that such a human being ever treaded this earth." Nevertheless, the fact remains that with all his political acumen l.ii sigbh Im ss ,tinl dedication he could not save India from partition by controlling the Congress stalwarts and by withholding his blessings even to Cabinet Mission Plan which was the last resort to that end. Thus, his precisely maintained creed of no-violence, perhaps, as I feel, crashed at the gate of horribly violent inci-aents that followed with unbelievable vengeance, loot, plunder and killings for which no patience Is too great.