74 SOCIAL SCIENTIST
revolutionary struggles. It was for such a revolutionary line that the Communist International called to only in India but in all the colonial semi-colonial and dependent countries.
Opposed to this was the Gandhian line of a negotiated settlement with the British rulers. To this end the technique of non-violent resistance was perfected by Gandhi. The sagacious leader of the militant mass movements of 1921, 1930-33 and 1942, Gandhi was also thee sagacious leader of negotiations with British imperialism, that was how even the m6st militant and widespread mass upsurge—the Quit India movement of 1941—was turned by Gandhi as an opportunity to open negotiations with the British imperialists and, as part thereof, with Muslim League leader Jinnah. The prolonged negotiations led to the greatest triumph for Gandhian technique of struggle—the 1947 transfer of power from the British rulers to India's ruling classes. It also led to the highest tragedy of Gandhi's political life—the vivisection of India which he said as the vivisection so his own body, with all the other consequence. The uprooting and transfer of Hindus and Sikhs from Pakistan to India an the Muslims in the opposite direction. This broke the heart of Mahatma Gandhi. He lived for almost half an year since then. It was at this point that a Hindu fanatic shot him to death.
It goes to the credit of Gandhi that he saw the reality that his was not the freedom that he had worked for. He was disappointed not only by the tragedy of the communal killings and loot but also the moral collapse of those who had been his close colleagues for several decades. His philosophy and his political technique did not help him in this new situation.
This tragic aspect of Mahatma Gandhfs life, his failure at the very time when the country was hailing him as the Father of the Nation, is not part of the analysis made by Irfan Habid.
While therefore agreeing with him on all that he has brought out as the positive contributions of the Mahatma, I desire to point out to him, that, in the absence of a critique of the negative aspects it is onesided.