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These textbooks have been cited a total of 6,932 times in scholarly publications (per Google Scholar).
16 sources published by university presses (Oxford, Michigan, Wiley-Blackwell, Chicago, Cambridge, Macmillan, Yale, Routledge, and UCL
Parekh, Bhikhu (2001). Gandhi: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press. p. 31. In order to shock the 'conscience of all' in both India and Pakistan, he commenced his last fast on 13 January 1948 to create 'real peace' in place of the deadly calm imposed by the troops, and to pressure the government of India not to renege on its solemn promise to transfer to Pakistan, which was then already at war in India, its share of collective assets. Google scholar citation index 337
Spear, Percival (1961). India: A Modern History. University of Michigan Press. p. 424. Some inner force seemed to drive him on. He clashed sharply with Patel and wrestled with him on the very afternoon of his murder. By moral suasion and by a fast he secured the evacuation of the mosques and the payment of pledged cash balances to Pakistan."' Just after 5 p.m. on January 30, while walking toward his daily prayer meeting, he was shot by a Hindu fanatic.
Smith, Vincent A.; Spear, Percival; Wheeler, Mortimer; Basham, A. L. (1981). Spear (ed.). Oxford History of India (4th ed.). pp. 849–850. (p. 849) He arrived in Delhi to find the Muslim minority now threatened with a pogrom. Most serious, there was some sympathy within the government for these attitudes. He started his daily prayer meetings at the Birla mansion in Albuquerque Road and soon found that it was the Muslims he was now called upon to champion. In January the inner voice spoke: he called for the already agreed payment of assets to Pakistan (withheld since the Kashmir dispute had broken in the previous October), and a peace pact in Delhi, including the evacuation of fifty-(p. 850) seven occupied mosques. He began a fast to death and when Vallabhbhai Patel remonstrated with him, he said with his failing breath, 'You are not the Vallabhbhai I have known,' Only on the payment of the money and the conclusion of the peace pact did he give up his fast an 18 January 1948. It was the noblest and most courageous action in his life. The fast was a great moral victory, but it was also his death warrant. While he talked of walking to Pakistan on a peace mission, a Pune group within the R.S.S. had determined to kill him. It was not only because he was an opponent of Brahmin orthodoxy but insistently because he now appeared as the champion of the Muslims. The first attempt failed; the second should never have occurred had not some officials been more concerned with the letter than the spirit of their duties. As it was, while coming out to his prayer meeting at the accustomed time, he was shot at close range by Nathuram Godse and died with the words 'Ram, Ram' on his lips. ... When the shock of horror and grief subsided it was found that the Mahatma was even more powerful in death than he had recently seemed to be in life. The revulsion of feeling discredited Hindu extremist bodies; even Sardar Patel came under criticism as Home Minister for inadequate security arrangements. Google scholar citation index = 123
Spear, Percival (1990) [1978], A History of India, Volume II: From the sixteenth to the twentieth century, New Delhi: Penguin Books India, ISBN978-0-140138-36-8, ... in January 1948 the inner voice spoke again. This time the issues were twofold, the payment to Pakistan of her agreed assets which had been withheld owing to the Kashmir dispute and the restoration of peace in the capital. Only when the money had been paid and a peace pact, including the evacuation of the mosques, had been signed, did he give up his fast, on 18th January.Google Scholar Citation Index 613
McDermott, Rachel Fell; Gordon, Leonard A.; Embree, Ainslie T.; Pritchett, Frances W.; Dalton, Dennis, eds. (2014), "Chapter 6: Mahatma Gandhi and his responses", Sources of the Indian Traditions: Modern India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, vol. 2 (3rd ed.), New York: Columbia University Press, p. 344, ISBN978-0-231-13830-7, In January 1948 he fasted successfully again in Delhi to stop Hindu attacks on Muslims and to coerce his own Indian government into payment of large sums of money that were due to Pakistan. He prevailed, extracting both government payment and pledges of peace by leaders of all groups. This enabled him to end his fast; but on January 30, as he was en route to his regular evening prayer meeting, he was shot by Nathuram Godse, a Hindu extremist who believe him too lenient toward India's Muslims and Pakistan.Google Scholar citation index (volume 2) 33Google Scholar Citation Index (volume 1) 252
Stein, Burton (2010), Arnold, David (ed.), A History of India, The Blackwell History of the World series (2nd ed.), Wiley Blackwell, ISBN978-1-4051-9509-6, He undertook a fast not only to restrain those bent on communal reprisal but also to influence the powerful Home Minister, Sardar Patel, who was refusing to share out the assets of the former imperial treasury with Pakistan, as had been agreed. Gandhi's insistence on justice for Pakistan now that the partition was a fact, ... had prompted Godse's fanatical action.Google Scholar citation index 560
Lloyd I. Rudolph and Susanne Hoeber Rudolph, In Pursuit of Lakshmi: The Political Economy of the Indian State, University of Chicago Press, [Google Scholar citation index 1,470, who say, "Patel was not a committed or convinced secularist. His call for Muslims to pledge their loyalty to India as a condition of citizenship after partition, his one-sided defense of Hindus during the communal rioting and carnage that accompanied partition, and his refusal to honor India's commitment to turn over to Pakistan the assets due it were the occasion of Gandhi's last fast in January 1948. The riots in Delhi abated; Patel, after being told by Gandhi on the verge of death, "you are not the Sardar I knew," turned over the assets and deferred to Gandhi's call for brotherhood and forgiveness.
Barbara D. Metcalf (past president of the American Historical Association) and Thomas R. Metcalf, authors of A Concise History of Modern India, Cambridge, 2012, Google Scholar citation index 965, say, "Just before his death, Gandhi made one last decisive intervention in the Indian political process. By a combination of prayer and fasting, he forced a contrite ministry to hand over to Pakistan its share of the cash assets of undivided India, some 40 million pounds sterling, which had so far been retained in defiance of the partition agreements.
Sumit Sarkar, author of Modern India, 1885–1947, Macmillan, Google Scholar citation index 1,579, who says, "This last fast seems to have been directed in part also against Patel’s increasingly communal attitudes (the Home Minister had started thinking in terms of a total transfer of population in the Punjab, and was refusing to honour a prior agreement by which India was obliged to give 55 crores of pre-Partition Government of India financial assets to Pakistan). ‘You are not the Sardar I once knew,’ Gandhi is said to have remarked during the fast."
Ian Talbot, author of A History of South Asia, Yale University Press, 2016, Gooogle Scholar citation index 42, says: "Disputes over Kashmir and the division of assets and water in the aftermath of Partition increased Pakistan’s anxieties regarding its much larger neighbor. Kashmir’s significance for Pakistan far exceeded its strategic value; its “illegal” accession to India challenged the state’s ideological foundations and pointed to a lack of sovereign fulfillment. The “K” in Pakistan’s name stood for Kashmir. Of less symbolic significance was the division of post-Partition assets. Not until December 1947 was an agreement reached on Pakistan’s share of the sterling assets held by the undivided Government of India at the time of independence. The bulk of these (550 million rupees) was held back by New Delhi because of the Kashmir conflict and paid only following Gandhi’s intervention and fasting. India delivered Pakistan’s military equipment even more tardily, and less than a sixth of the 160,000 tons of ordnance allotted to Pakistan by the Joint Defence Council was actually delivered.
Ian Copland, India 1885-1947: The Unmaking of an Empire, Routledge, 2001, Google Scholar Citation Index 58, says, "Gandhi was adamant that the debt to Pakistan had to be paid, and in January 1948 he announced that he planned to embark on another indefinite fast to ensure that the Indian government fulfilled its legal and moral obligations. The Mahasabha and the RSS denounced this plan as tantamount to treason. In the early evening of 30 January, as he addressed a prayer meeting at Birla House, New Delhi, India’s prince of peace was shot and killed by a member of an RSS splinter-group, Nathuram Godse.
Hermann Kulke and Dietmar Rothermund, in History of India, Routledge, Google Scholar citation index 938, say, "While Jinnah departed with such good advice Gandhi was trying hard to stop the carnage which broke out after partition and to work for good relations between India and Pakistan. When the violence in the Panjab spilled over into India he rushed to Delhi from Bengal, where he had been at the time of partition. With a great fast he attempted to bring his countrymen to their senses. Then the Kashmir conflict led to an undeclared war between India and Pakistan and at this very point it was debated how and why the funds of the Indian treasury should be divided between India and Pakistan. Many Hindus felt that Pakistan had forfeited its claim to a share of these funds by attacking India in Kashmir, and that it would be the height of folly to hand over such funds to finance an aggressor’s war effort. Gandhi, however, pleaded for evenhanded justice. The Congress had approved of partition and was in honour bound to divide the assets equitably. To radical Hindus, this advice amounted to high treason, and one of them, a young Brahmin named Nathuram Godse, shot Gandhi on 30 January 1948.
Rhode, Deborah L. (2019), Character: What it Means and Why it Matters, New York: Oxford University Press, p. 173, ISBN9780190919870, LCCN2018058188, The violence, however, persisted, and in 1948, Gandhi began what was to be his final fast. He demanded that Hindus and Muslims agree to live in peace, and that India, despite its financially precarious circumstances, make the restitution payments it had promised to Pakistan for lost territories. As he approached death, India announced that it would make the payments. A vast procession of Hindus and Muslims marched toward his house, and 130 leaders met to discuss reconciliation. Gandhi ended his fast.
Mitra, Subrata K.; Schottli, Jivanta; Pauli, Markus (2023). Statecraft and Foreign Policy: India 1947–2023. University College London Press. p. 23. After 1947, in the wake of mass Hindu-Muslim atrocities on either side of the newly created border, Gandhi launched a fast-unto-death to end the violence and to compel the government to transfer money promised to Pakistan. On 30 January 1948, while in Delhi trying to stem communal violence, Gandhi was shot and killed by Nathuram Vinayak Godse, a Hindu extremist who considered him to be too conciliatory towards the Muslim community.
Chatterji, Joya (November 2023). Shadows at Noon: The South Asian Twentieth Century. Yale University Press. pp. 642–643. ISBN978-0-300-27268-0. Arriving at a mutually acceptable division of the assets (and liabilities) of British India proved challenging. In the matter of giving to Pakistan its share of the common pool of resources, India's Home Minister Vallabhbhai Patel deployed India's considerable advantage – physical control over the assets – to impose hard bargains on Pakistan. Even after India agreed, in December 1947, to accept Pakistan's claims to a portion of the public finance and the cash balances, Patel still refused to transfer any monies. It was only in January 1948, after Gandhi undertook his last fast to compel the government of India to honour its commitments, that Patel reluctantly released monies to Pakistan. (As we know, Gandhi paid with his life for taking Pakistan's side on this issue.)
Gollerkeri, Gurucharan; Raja Rao, Renuka (2024). The Making of India, 1947–2022: Pivotal People, Events and Institutions. Lady Stephenson Library, Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 28. In constrast to Nehru and Patel, Gandhi insisted on a negotiated settlement with Pakistan over Kashmir. While the war in Kashmir was on, Nehru and Patel had refused to deliver the 550 million rupees owed to Pakistan by partitioned British imperial balances since mid-August. Many Indians thought Gandhi fasted primarily to urge Delhi's cabinet to pay the money to Pakistan. Gandhi objected to the decision to block the payment and embarked on a fast unto death on January 13, 1948, to put pressure on the Indian government to release the funds to Pakistan. The Indian government reversed their decision in response to Gandhi's moral argument. Godse (Gandhi's assassin) and his comrades saw Gandhi as a domineering figure who was inimical to India's interests.
Monographs, book chapters, or journal articles written by scholars
18 monographs etc. published by Routledge; Columbia; IIC Quarterly; Am. Phil. Assoc.; California; Yale' Longman/Pearson; Kentucky; Lindhardt og Ringhof; Collins; Navjivan; IASI Quarterly; Oxford; SUNY; Cambridge; Stanford; BRILL
Rothermund, Dietmar (2015) [2010], Paine, S.C.M. (ed.), Nation building, state building, and economic development: case studies and comparisons, London and New York: Routledge, ISBN9780765622440, In 1948 Mahatma Gandhi became the most prominent victim of the partition. He did not grasp the full meaning of partition immediately: When he was told that it would also mean the division of the British Indian Army, he could not believe it. But when he saw that it would be the logical consequence of the territorial partition, he predicted that the two armies would fight each other—which they soon did. The the problem of dividing the financial assets of British India also came up. Being at war with Pakistan, the independent Government of India was reluctant to transfer to Pakistan 550 million rupees, which would fill the enemy's war chest. Gandhi pleaded for fairness and started his last fast in order to persuade the Indian government to part with this money. Hindu nationalists regarded this as high treason and one of them assassinated him on 31 (sic) January 1948
Dennis Dalton in Mahatma Gandhi: Non-violent power in action, Columbia University Press, Google Scholar citation index 439, quotes A. C. B. Symon, the British High Commissioner to India, whose office was across the street from Birla House, where Gandhi lived during the last five months of his life, and who observed Gandhi closely, "It would be a mistaken impression, however, to suppose that Gandhi devoted these last months of his life exclusively to social and humanitarian tasks. Through this constant stream of visitors he was able to keep in remarkably close touch with Indian opinion and continued to play a most important role as the principal adviser of the Indian government on all major political issues. Scarcely any important decision was taken without his prior advice, whether the subject was the movement and rehabilitation of refugees, Congress policy or the Kashmir issue. And when he disagreed with any decision taken it was not long, as in the recent case of the non-implementation of the Indo-Pakistan financial agreement, before he took determined and successful steps to have it revoked.... Gandhi entered upon what proved to be the last of his many fasts. His actions immediately evoked expressions of goodwill from all over the world including Pakistan and on the third day of the fast the Indian Government as a gesture to him announced their willingness, in flat contradiction to their determination of a few days previously, to implement the recently concluded Indo-Pakistan financial agreements.
Gandhi, Rajmohan (2002), "Religion, the Gujarat Killings, and Gandhi", India International Centre Quarterly, 29 (2): 1–10, On January 13, 1948, he announced a fast that would end only if certain conditions were met. Muslims, Gandhiji said, should be allowed to hold their annual fair at the ancient mausoleum of Khwaja Qutbuddin. Also, mosques converted into temples and gurdwaras should be returned. Muslims should be ensured safety in their homes and on trains. The economic boycott imposed against Muslims in some Muslim localities should be lifted. He also asked for Pakistan's share of the cash assets of undivided India. By agreement between India, Pakistan and Britain, this share was fixed at Rs 55 crores. Citing the Kashmir conflict, which started in October 1947, the Indian government had announced that it would withhold the payment. Gandhi asked that Pakistan's share should be handed over. After six days of fasting, during which lakhs of Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims urged Gandhiji to break his fast and offered to meet his conditions, the fast ended. The government of India said that the Rs 55 crores would be made available to Pakistan. The RSS and the Hindu Mahasabha of Delhi agreed with the others in the capital that the boycott of Muslims would end, and that mosques and tombs would be returned.
Lal, Vinay (Fall 2022), "Gandhi, the Last Fast, and the Call of the Conscience"(PDF), APA Studies on Asian and Asian American Philosophers and Philosophies, 22 (1), American Philosophy Association: 53–57, There was yet another delicate matter, one that a legion of commentators has described as the catalyst that finally moved Gandhi to take up a fast. In consequence of the war that had broken out between the two countries, India decided to withhold the amount of Rs 55 crores, amounting to about $200 million of the gold reserve, that was Pakistan's share of the assets of undivided India. The members of Nehru's cabinet were strongly in agreement that to hand over the money to Pakistan at this juncture would be imprudent in the extreme, as these assets would be used by Pakistan to advance its interests in Kashmir and wage war against India, and that no financial settlement was possible until an agreement had been reached on Kashmir. "A state freezes the credit of the other party in such circumstances," Nehru told the press on January 2, 1948, while denying that the Indian government had done any such thing: "All that we have said was that we accept the agreement, but there must be an overall settlement (including Kashmir) and we shall honour it completely." From Gandhi's standpoint, this attitude was more than unstatesmanlike and unwise: forsaking a purely legal view, he was inclined to see the action not only as something that would provoke Pakistan to further fury and poison future relations between the two countries but also as unprincipled and unethical conduct on the part of India ...To a Sikh friend who had written to him asking him to explain his conduct, Gandhi replied: "My fast is against no one party or group exclusively, and yet it excludes nobody. It is addressed to the conscience of all, even the majority community in the other dominion." But conscience is a prickly thing. Gandhi would not have been unaware that at least some members of the cabinet who acceded to his view that withholding from Pakistan its share of the assets of undivided India was morally unjustified did so because in all likelihood they did not want to have Gandhi's death on their conscience.
Gandhi, Rajmohan (2008), Gandhi: The Man, His People, and the Empire, Berkeley, Los Angeles: University of California Press, ISBN978-0-520-25570-8, (page 639) Another disturbance was caused by a Cabinet decision to withhold the transfer of Pakistan's share (55 crore rupees) of the 'sterling balance' that undivided India held at independence. The conflict in Kashmir was cited as the reason: Patel said (either on 3 or 4 January) that 'India could not give money to Pakistan for making bullets to be shot at us'! But Gandhi was not convinced that a violent dispute entitled India to keep Pakistan's money. ... 12 Jan. 1948: Though the voice within has been beckoning for a long time, I have been shutting my ears to it lest it might be the voice of Satan ... I never like to feel resourceless; a satyagrahi never should. Fasting is his last resort in the place of the sword ... I ask you all to bless the effort and to pray for me and with me. ... (page 640) In another tactical move, Gandhi went to Mountbatten immediately after the prayer-meeting and asked for the Governor-General's support for his step. Accepting Gandhi's decision, Mountbatten said that if things in India were rectified as a result of the fast, improvement in Pakistan would inevitably follow. He added that he agreed with Gandhi's view on the 55 crore. ... (p. 641) On 13 January a 'very much upset' Vallabhbhai repeated his offer to resign and thought that his departure might end the fast, but by now Gandhi had returned to the view that Patel and Nehru had to stay together. However, Gandhi raised the question of the 55 crore rupees with Patel. On the afternoon of 14 January the Cabinet met and decided to release the money, but not before Patel broke down and wept. ... (p. 644) For all his grievance about the fast and the reversal of the 55-crore decision, Patel said on 15 January: 'Let it not be said that we did not deserve the leadership of the greatest man in the world.' The next day, in a public talk in Bombay, Patel remarked, "We take a short-range view while he takes a long-range one."Google Scholar citation index 161
Sharma, Arvind (2013), Gandhi: A Spiritual Biography, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, ISBN978-0-300-18596-6, Years later, Gandhi lost his life for insisting that the Indian government honor a promise to the Pakistani government. The Indian National Congress and the Muslim League had accepted, in the summer of 1947, what is known as the Mountbatten Plan (named after the viceroy who promoted it). According to the plan, British India was to be divided into the two independent dominions of Pakistan and India on August 14 and 15, respectively, in 1947. The partition naturally involved a division of assets. India's payment to Pakistan would be made in three installments, two of which had been already paid when the war broke out over Kashmir, after its ruler officially acceded the province to India, on October 29, 1947. The Indian government held up the release of the third installment of the payment. The two nations were at war now; paying it would amount to funding an active enemy. Gandhi, however, insisted that the promise be kept and went on a fast to the death to make the point. The Indian cabinet met again three days later, changed its decision, and released the amount. On the very day Gandhi went on a fast to ensure this outcome, the man who would assassinate Gandhi began making his plans. Gandhi began his fast on January 13, 1948. He had many reasons for undertaking it, but the one that rankled most in the mind of his assassin-to-be, Nathuram Godse, was Gandhi's insistence that the government of India should stop withholding payment of 550 million rupees to Pakistan.Google Scholar citation index 35
Arnold, David (2001), Gandhi, Edinburgh and London: Longman/Pearson Education Limited, p. 224, ISBN0-582-31978-1, Nine months later, on 11 January 1948, he appealed in vain for the Congress to give up power and dissolve itself rather than continue as it had now become, fall of 'decay and decline', a place of 'corruption' overrun by 'power polities'. Reiterating his longstanding belief in the importance of social action, he called for a new 'Lok Sevak Sangh' (a People's Service Society) to replace the Congress, which had 'outlived its use'. This was to be made up of dedicated self-sacrificing workers who would help to bring genuine swaraj, 'social, moral and economic independence' to India's villages.' Again on 27 January 1948 Gandhi observed that the Congress had 'won political freedom' but had yet to win 'economic freedom, social and moral freedom'. These freedoms were harder to attain than political freedom 'because they are constructive, less exciting and not spectacular'. Gandhi was dismayed at the policies followed by Nehru but even more by India's Home Minister, his old associate, Vallabhbhai Patel, who now appeared to be drifting close to right-wing Hindu communalism and insensitive to the needs of the large number of Muslim refugees in Delhi and elsewhere. Gandhi undertook a new fast, this time to protest against anti-Muslim violence in Delhi from 13 to 18 January, but it was also by implication a fast against Patel's apparent indifference to Muslim suffering and the Government of India's unwillingness to pay the Rs 550 million (equivalent to pound sterling 40 million) promised to Pakistan under the Partition agreement. In a bitter conversation shortly before his death, Gandhi remarked to Patel, 'You are not the Sardar I once knew.'Google Scholar citation index 43
Ceplair, Larry (2020), Revolutionary Pairs: Marx and Engels, Lenin and Trotsky, Gandhi and Nehru, Mao and Zhou, and Castro and Guevara, Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, p. 134, ISBN9780813179193, Gandhi undertook his last fast, in January 1948, to protest the Indian government's decision to withhold a large settlement payment due to Pakistan until the Kashmir problem was solved.
Blinkenberg, Lars (2022) [1972], India-Pakistan: The History of Unsolved Conflicts: Volume I, Lindhardt og Ringhof, ISBN9788726894707, OCLC620393, Sardar Patel decided, in the middle of December 1947, that the recent financial agreements with Pakistan should not be followed, unless Pakistan ceased to support the raiders. Sardar Patel underlined that the all-round agreement had included an undertaking by Pakistan to withdraw the raiders from Kashmir, and since that had not happened, India was entitled not to carry through the agreement. Gandhi was not convinced and he felt—like Mountbatten and Nehru—that the agreed transfer to Pakistan of a cash amount of Rs. 550 million should be implemented despite the Kashmir crisis. Gandhi started a fast unto death, which was officially done to stop communal trouble, especially in Delhi, but 'word went round that it was directed against Sardar Patel's decision to withhold the cash balances', adds Durga Das.<Footnote 350: Durga Das, op. cit., page 276, i.e. Durga Das, From Curzon to Nehru & Afterwards, London: Collins, 1969. See below.> Only because of Gandhi's interference, which was soon to cause his death, Sardar Patel gave in and the money was handed over to Pakistan.
Das, Durga (1969), India from Curzon to Nehru & After, Foreward by Zakir Hussain, President of India, St James Place, London: Collins, pp. 275–276, ISBN9780002113519, OCLC58936, A crisis occurred around New Year. The Partition Council had arrived at several decisions regarding the division of assets. A financial agreement between India and Pakistan had also been reached and it had been further decided that all the outstanding disputes which eluded settlement be referred to an arbitration tribunal. Accord was subsequently reached on all points, including the withdrawal of Pakistani raiders from Kashmir, and Patel made a statement in Parliament that the agreement would have to be implemented fully. The Pakistani leaders changed their mind on Kashmir, insisting at the same time that India honour the financial clauses of the agreement, which included the payment of cash balances amounting to Rs. 550 million to Pakistan. Patel took a firm stand against turning over this sum to Pakistan until the other provisions of the pact were honoured and the Finance Minister, Shammukham Chetty, strongly backed him. When Pakistan's Prime Minister said this was an attempt to "strangulate" his country, C. D. Deshmukh, the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India and Pakistan, saw Gandhi and pointed out that Pakistan had been provided with the required ways and means. Liaquat Ali's charge, he added, was a political stunt. But Gandhi, who had made the restoration of peace and harmony in Delhi an issue on which he staked his life, announced an indefinite fast at this stage. Word went round that the fast was directed against Patel's decision to withhold the cash balances. Mountbatten and Nehru were, in fact, known to have told Gandhi that India was morally bound to transfer the balances to Pakistan and that, as both Patel and Chetty had adopted an unbending position on the issue, he alone could save the situation. Patel finally yielded and Gandhi broke his fast at the behest of leaders of all communities.
Das, Durga (1973), "Introduction to Volume VI", in Das, Dugra (ed.), Sardar Patel's Correspondence, 1945–50: Patel-Nehru Differences—Assassinaton of Gandhi—Services Reorganised—Refugee Rehabilitation, vol. VI, Primary authors: Sardar Patel and his respondents, Ahmedabad: Navajivan Publishing House, p. liv, This rift, by a strange combination of circumstances, coincided with the period when Gandhi was undergoing agony over Hindu-Muslim riots precipitated by the country's partition, and the mounting tension between Pakistan and India over Pakistan's behaviour regarding Kashmir and India's stand on the cash balances to be shared between India and Pakistan. Gandhi undertook an indefinite fast on 13 January 1948, which it was believed was partly in protest against the technically correct stand that Sardar Patel and Finance Minister Shanmukham Chetty had taken in holding back the cash balances to make Pakistan honour its pledges. As the fast advanced, the cash balances were paid. Gandhi's fast ended on 18 January. Twelve days later, an assassin's bullet laid low the Father of the Nation. Gandhi's martyrdom had an electrifying effect on the nation and, in particular, on his chief lieutenants.
Sarwar, Firoj High (2021), "Gandhi and Fasting: An Analytic Review", IASI Quarterly: Contributions to Indian Social Sciences, 40 (2), The ultimate fast of Gandhiji's life was against the Communal conflict in Independent India which began on 13 January 1948. He demanded the resolution of the communal issue in Delhi (the after-partition genocide of Muslims) and the protection of the Muslim community in India. He also appealed to grant Pakistan's share of the cash assets of undivided India. But Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, then the Home Minister of India, ignored the demands of Gandhi. So, Gandhi said that he had now no option but to use his last weapon, fast until the situation changed. He further stated that "I must however expiate through my own suffering and I hope that my fast will open their eyes to real facts"(Azad. 2009: 235). The moment it was known that he had started his fast, not only the city of Delhi but the whole nation, was deeply stirred. In Delhi, the effect of his fast was something like an electric shock. His fast had changed the hearts of thousands and brought back to them a sense of justice and humanity. Thousands now pledged that they would regard the maintenance of good relations among the communities as among their fast task (Azad. 2009: 236-239). Gandhi made it clear that the object of his fast was nothing less than the self-purification of all the communities in the sub-continent (Bandyopadhyaya, 1969: 289).
Wolpert, Stanley (2006), Shameful Flight: The Last Years of the British Empire in India, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 189–191, ISBN978-0-19-539394-1, (Gandhi) tried to end that political power game by earlier advising the Congress to 'disband' its party entirely, but neither Nehru nor Patel, and certainly no other members of Congress's Working Committee, liked that idea. Gandhi then tried to convince them to stop fighting in Kashmir, but that too evoked no positive response. He understood that Nehru and Patel hoped to bankrupt Pakistan by escalating the Kashmir war and by continuing to withhold overdue payments of a substantial sum of money India owed to Karachi's treasury, Pakistan's share of British India's cash assets, all kept in Delhi's Central Bank. He urged his friends as earnestly as he could to remit those funds, since it was not 'honorable' to withhold promised payments. Gandhi had always been as scrupulous about paying his debts as he was about keeping vows. By mid-December (1947) Gandhi was convinced that by airlifting "everything to support the war" in Kashmir, India was recklessley throwing away its fortune while ignoring the needs of its 'starving millions.' ... On January 12, 1948, Mahatma Gandhi launched his last fast, the 'finery' ultimate weapon of his passionate nature, which he used to delver his message of love to ears deaf to any verbal appeal. 'I yearn for heart friendship between Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims," Gandhi told his friends. ... 'This time my fast is not only against Hindus and Muslims but also against the Judases who put on false appearances and betray themselves, myself and society.' He was thus fasting for much more than the simple payment to Pakistan of the 550 million rupees of British India's cash balance debt, long since promised by Nehru and Patel. Many Hindus believed, however, that his desire to pay Pakistan was Gandhi's sole reason for launching, this final 'blackmail' fast, and cried alout that he should 'fast unto death,' not simply to 'capacity,' as he had initially announced he would. Three days after he stopped taking food, India's cabinet announced its agreement to transfer the funds to Pakistan, and on the fourth day Gandhi thanked the cabinet, hoping this would lead to 'an honourable settlement not only of the Kashmir question, but of all the differences between the two Dominions. Friendship should replace the present enmity.' He was too weak to stand but soon recovered enough strength to walk to his evening prayer meetings. Then on Friday, January 30, 1948, hate-crazed Hindu Brahman Nathuram Godse fired three bullets at close range into Mahatma Gandhi's chest. Google Scholar citation index 228
Kapoor, Ria (2022), Making Refugees in India, Oxford Historical Monograph Series, Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, pp. 114–115, ISBN978-0-19-285545-9, The Hindu nationalists' censure of the state's handling of the Hindu refugees is perhaps most evident in the courtroom statement of Nathuram Godse. On trial for the assassination of Gandhi, Godse would devote a considerable portion of his testimony to discussing the removal of Hindu refugees from the mosques in which they had taken up residence. Godse deplored that Gandhi and the government made no demands of Pakistan to improve the treatment of those Hindus and Sikhs who were now a minority there, nor did they ask for temples and gurudwaras to be emptied of Muslim refugees as Gandhi demanded of Hindu refugees in mosques as part of his fast unto death. ... Noted Gandhian and Congress activist J.B. Kriplani was also critical of Gandhi's fast and the motives behind it, through equally disparaging of the 'fanaticism' that motivated Godse's assassination of Gandhi. Besides the evacuation of mosques, he was also critical of Gandhi's demand that a payment of Rs. 55 crores be made to Pakistan by India, despite Pakstan's continued failures to take care of its minorities.
Mayaram, Shail (2022). The Secret Life of Another Nationalism: Transitions from Pax Britannica to Pax Americana. Cambridge University Press. p. 28. Gandhi's assassination came days after his last fast of 13 January 1948 for communal harmony and to pressure the Indian government to return the 550 million rupees it owed to Pakistan. Gandhi had also asserted that the Sufi shrine of Qut-ub-din Bakhtiyar Kaki and all other Sufi shrines must be reopened with the help of Hindus, Sikhs and the government to wash the 'stain' of the attack of Hindu mobs on Muslims who had to leave the neighbourhood they had been living in for 800 years.
Chatterjee, Partha (2022). Chatterjee, Partha (ed.). The Truths and Lies of Nationalism as Narrated by Charvak. State University of New York Press. The frenzy of communal violence in Punjab at the time of partition and the subsequent conflict with Pakistan over Kashmir vitiated public opinion in northern India. Recognising the mood, senior leaders of the Congress, including Vallabhbhai Patel and Rajendra Prasad, pushed for a hard line against Pakistan. It was decided to suspend payment of Pakistan's share of the substantial reserves in pounds sterling left behind by the British. Gandhi, who had moved to Delhi in September 1947 to stop the communal violence there, urged the Congress leaders to end their enmity with Pakistan, declaring that he belonged to both India and Pakistan. To press his point, he went on a fast in the middle of January demanding that the money that rightfully belonged to Pakistan be released. A few days later, the government relented. That is when Nathuram Godse decided to kill Gandhi.
Geva, Rotem (2022). Delhi Reborn: Partition and Nation Building in India's Capital. Stanford University Press. Gandhi conditioned the termination of his fast on a complete change of heart and restoration of peace, protection of Muslim life and property, and repairing of shrines and mosques, especially the dargah (Sufi shrine) of Qutubuddin Bakhtiyar Kaki in Mehrauli. ... Hindu-right circles resented the Indian government's decision to release Pakistan's share of British India's cash assets while the war in Kashmir raged on, and saw Gandhi's fast as political blackmail to achieve precisely this aim. Note: This author does not say the restoration of the cash balances was a precondition, but came to be seen as an effect.
Maitland, Padma D. (2017). "A House for the Nation to Remember: A Correspondence of Emotions between Jawaharlal Nehru and G.D. Birla, 1948". In Schuler, Barbara (ed.). Historicizing Emotions: Practices and Objects in India, China, and Japan. Emotional States and Minds in Asia series. Vol. 6. Leiden and Boston: BRILL. pp. 37–38. (p 37) He thought it was morally indefensible to go back on a commitment, and so Gandhi went on an indefinite fast, calling for the return of homes to Muslims, the restoration of mosques, and the payment of 550 million rupees that the government of India owed Pakistan, despite the violence in Kashmir. This move pitted him against members of Congress and, to some degree, his host G. D. Birla. ... (p 38) As the days went by Gandhi who had celebrated his 78th birthday got weaker and weaker and the urgency of the government's decision on its debt to Pakistan became increasingly pressing. Gandhi's fast lasted six days, during which time raucous groups began marching the streets of Delhi towards the Birla Bhavan. ... Gandhi's fast ended when the government of India agreed to pay the remaining funds it owed to Pakistan. Some members of government and the public, though, were decidedly upset over the decision and Gandhi's fast, which effectively forced the government's hand. Rumors began of threats on Gandhi's life.
Two books published by Knopf and Penguin Random House
Elkins, Caroline (2022), Violence: A History of the British Empire, New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, ISBN9780307272423, LCCN2021018550, A few months later, with war-fueled tensions over Kashmir mounting and India refusing to pay Pakistan 550 million rupees, Pakistan's share of Britain's outstanding war debt, Gandhi began to fast. "This time my fast is not only against Hindus and Muslims," the Mahatma said, "but also against the Judases who put on false appearances and betray themselves, myself and society." The elderly and frail man who was India's symbolic political and spiritual leader went three days without food before India's cabinet agreed to pay Pakistan, something Nehru had long promised Jinnah he would do.Google Scholar citation index 65
Lahiri, Ashok (2023). India in Search of Glory: Political Calculus and Economy. Penguin Random House. Pakistan asked for accommodation, through ways and means advances and transfer, of its share of Rs. 55 crore cash balances. RBI proposed a limit on ways and means advances to Pakistan of Rs. 5 crore and indicated its inability to release the balance of Rs. 55 crore because of the objections of the government of India. While the Indian government had apprehensions that Pakistan would use the proceeds to purchase arms and ammunition for use against India, Pakistan objected to the treatment of the financial issues and the Kashmir question together. Mahatma Gandhi, very unhappy about the balances not being released to Pakistan, intervened and even undertook a fast. After a review of its decision, on 15 January 1948, a fortnight before the Mahatma's assassination, India decided to transfer Rs. 55 crore to Pakistan.
Four books written by others and published by W. W. Norton; Houghton Mifflin; Navjivan; Hurst; Penguin Random House, Pan Macmillan
Walsh, Declan (2020), The Nine Lives of Pakistan: Dispatches from a Precarious State, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, ISBN9780393249910, Godse, who belonged to a neo-fascist Hindu group called the R.S.S., was furious at Gandhi for his conciliatory attitude towards Muslims, and for his insistence that Pakistan should receive its fair share of the assets of the former colonial state.
Hajari, Nisid (2015), Midnight's Furies, Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, p. 224, ISBN978-0-547-66921-2, Gandhi could look on passively no longer. He had decided to fast until "heart friendship" returned to Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs in Delhi, or until his own heart gave out. Although he had seen both Nehru and Patel that afternoon, he had given them no hint of his plans lest they try to stop him. The news angered the Sardar, who understandably believed that the fast was directed at him. The next day, he was "very bitter and resentful," Mountbatten recorded, and felt Gandhi was "putting him in an impossible position. Gandhi himself denied any such intention. But, encouraged by Mountbatten, the Mahatma did press Patel and the Indian Cabinet to stop blocking the funds owed to Pakistan. On the morning of 14 January, rapidly weakening, Gandhi summoned Nehru and Patel to his bedside. Tears ran down the Mahatma's face as he pleaded with them. For India to try and starve her sister dominion into submission was, Gandhi declared, using a word Mountbatten had chosen to prick his conscience, "dishonourable." The money should be paid immediately. Patel responded with "extremely bitter words," he later admitted. At a cabinet meeting later that day, he, too, shed tears as the others decided to heed Gandhi's request. "This is my last [cabinet] meeting,' Patel vowed,' The next day, he left for a tour of the Kathiawar states in his native Gujarat.Google Scholar citation index 110
Nayyar, Pyarelal (1958), Mahatma Gandhi: The Last Phase, vol. II, Ahmedabad: Navajivan Publishing House, pp. 699–706, To the numerous causes of mounting tension between India and Pakistan was now added another—the issue of Pakistan's share of the cash balances of undivided India. Under the decision of the Partition Council, out of a total cash balance of rupees 375 crores, 20 crores were paid to Pakistan on the day of the transfer of power. The allocation was provisional and subject to readjustment that would have to be made when the balance to be paid to Pakistan was finally determined. This amount was subsequently fixed at rupees 55 crores after a series of conferences between the representatives of the two Dominions in the last week of November. ... The Government of India, in the course of negotiations, made it clear that it would not regard the settlement as final until agreement had been reached on all outstanding issues, and that no payment would be made until the question of Kashmir was also settled. ... On the 6th January, 1948, Gandhiji discussed the question with Lord Mountbatten and asked for his frank and candid opinion on the Government of India's decision. Mountbatten said, it would be the "first dishonourable act" by the Indian Union Government if the payment of the cash balance claimed by Pakistan was withheld. It set Gandhiji furiously thinking. He did not question the legality of the Indian Union's decision. Nor could he insist on the Union Government going beyond what the strict letter of the law required and permitted them. And yet he felt it would be a tragedy if in a world dominated by the cult of expediency and force, the India that had made history by winning her independence by predominantly nonviolent, i.e. moral means, failed in that crisis to live up to her highest ancient tradition that would serve as a shining beacon light to others. For that, he would have to transform the overall situation and to create a new moral climate which would make it possible for the Indian Government to go beyond the strict letter of the law. ... On the 12th January in the afternoon, Gandhiji was as usual sitting out on the sun-drenched spacious Birla House lawn. As it was Monday, his day of weekly silence, he was writing out his prayer address. As my sister looked through sheet after sheet that she was to translate and read out to the prayer congregation in the evening, she was dumb-founded. She came running to me with the news—Gandhiji had decided to launch on a fast unto death unless the madness in Delhi ceased. From the time that he had returned to Delhi, after his Calcutta fast, Gandhiji had never ceased asking himself where his duty lay in the face of what was happening. ... Out of the depth of his anguish came the decision to fast. It left no room for argument. Sardar Patel and Pandit Nehru had been with him only a couple of hours before. He had given them no inkling of what was brewing within him. The written address containing the decision was read out at the evening prayer meeting. The fast would begin on the next day after the mid-day meal. There would be no time limit. During the fast, he would take only water with or without salt and the juice of sour limes. The fast would be terminated only when and if he was satisfied that there was "a reunion of hearts of all communities brought about without outside pressure but from an awakened sense of duty." ... He asked all to bless his effort and to pray for him and with him. The issue was nothing less than "the regaining of India's dwindling prestige and her fast fading sovereignty over the heart of Asia and therethrough the world." ... The fast commenced at 11:55 a.m. on the 13 January with the singing of Gandhiji's favourite hymn Vaishnava Jana To, and "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross" sung by Sushila, followed by Ramadhun. Only a few intimate friends and members of the household were present. The company was impromptu. ... Neither Sardar Patel nor Pandit Nehru tried to strive with him though the Sardar was very much upset. A believer in deeds more than words, he simply sent word that he would do anything that Gandhiji might wish. In reply, Gandhiji suggested that the first priority should be given to the question of Pakistan's share of the cash assets.
Raghavan, T. C. A. (2019), The People Next Door: The Curious History of India's Relations with Pakistan, London/New York: Hurst & Co./Oxford University Press, pp. 7–8, ISBN9781787380196, The communal situation, Partition massacres and refugee movements combined with the Junagadh events and the Kashmir war tended to vitiate every aspect of the India-Pakistan interface at this stage. The war in Kashmir was, however, an undeclared war. The newly established diplomatic relations between the two nascent governments continued, the high commissioners remained in place as indeed did intergovernmental discussions and even cooperation on resolving the administrative debris of Partition—the division of assets, deciding on a framework for trade, separation of currencies, etc. But in the vitiated atmosphere of two armies fighting it out, an obvious issue arose over the partitioning of military assets—spares, armaments, ammunition, etc. Then cash balances of the Reserve Band had to be divided between the two countries and Pakistan's share of Rupees 750 million released to it. The details of the divisions had been finalized earlier and the first tranche of Rupees 200 million paid on 14 August 1947. The balance Rupees 550 million remained. By the end of 1947 and early 1948 the question before the new Government of India was a difficult one. Given the ongoing war against Pakistani troops and proxies in Kashmir, was it correct to release Pakistan's balance share of Rupees 550 million? Release of the finances would straightaway have an impact on the military operations in Kashmir. Most in India at that time saw this as a no-brainer and the cabinet also agreed. Where was the question of releasing funds when it was evident that they would be used by Pakistan for the purchase of arms for the Kashmir war where Indians were being killed? At this point, Mahatma Gandhi, already distressed by the mayhem in Punjab and the killings still taking place in Delhi, decided to take matters in his hands. To him, withholding of Pakistan's share was an act of bad faith regardless of the Kashmir situation. He went on a fast—for communal amity, to cleanse a vitiated atmosphere and to persuade the Government of India to release the funds due to Pakistan. Mahatma Gandhi had no doubt that the military action being taken by the Government of India on the ongoing Pakistan invasion in Kashmir was the right and merited one. But withholding of the funds was a different matter. Mountbatten's comment to him that this was 'the first dishonourable act' of the Government of India, also appears to have made a deep impression. His fast began on 13 January 1948, and it lasted five days; the Cabinet backed down and the funds were released.
Bhattacharya, A. K. (2023). India's Finance Ministers: From Independence to Emergency (1947–1977). Penguin Random House. The Budget was presented just about a month after the tragic assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. Quite ironically, Gandhi's assassination was preceded by his decision to go on an indefinite fast on 13 January 1948 to protest against the stand that Shanmukham Chetty had taken, with the support of Home Minister Vallabhbhai Patel, to hold back the cash balances that were to be transferred to Pakistan. As the fast continued, Shanmukham Chetty and Patel came under pressure to reconsider their stand and release their cash balances.
Guha, Ramchandra (2017) [2007], India after Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy (10th Anniversay ed.), New Delhi: Pan Macmillan India, ISBN978-15098-8328-8, With attacks on Muslims continuing, Gandhi chose to resort to another fast. This began on 13 January, and was addressed to three different constituencies. The first were the people of India. To them he simply pointed out that if they did not believe in the two-nation theory, they would have to show in their chosen capital, the 'Eternal City' of Delhi, that Hindus and Muslims could live in peace and brotherhood. The second constituency was the government of Pakistan. 'How long', he asked them, 'can I bank upon the patience of the Hindus and the Sikhs, in spite of my fast? Pakistan has to put a stop to this state of affairs' (that is, the driving out of minorities from their territory). Gandhi's fast was addressed, finally, to the government of India. They had withheld Pakistan's share of the 'sterling balance' which the British owed jointly to the two dominions, a debt incurred on account of Indian contributions during the Second World War. This amounted to Rs 550 million, a fair sum. New Delhi would not release the money as it was angry with Pakistan for having recently attempted to seize the state of Kashmir. Gandhi saw this as unnecessarily spiteful, and so he made the ending of his fast conditional on the transfer to Pakistan of the money owed to it.
Singh, Madanjeet (2005). The Sasia Story. UNESCO Profiles series. Paris: UNESCO: United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization, and the European Union. pp. 55–56. Soon after my return from Srinagar, I stayed temporarily with my classmate Pran, whose uncle, a banker from Lahore, had been allotted a house in old Delhi by his employer. The burning issue at the time was the transfer to Pakistan of the assets that were to be proportionately shared between the two successor-states of British India. Mahatma Gandhi strongly advocated that India was honour-bound to make these payments to Pakistan, rejecting the Hindu right-wing parties' objection to them. As he was a serious obstacle to their objective of reviving the glory of the 'sacred Hindu land' — called Hindutva by their guru, Sarvarkar — they started a vicious campaign, calling Mahatma Gandhi 'Mohammad Gandhi' and maligning him as Pakistan's 'fifth columnist'. As the pressure mounted, Gandhi once again adopted his non-violent method of persuasion and, on 13 January 1948, began a fast. As his condition deteriorated, Pran and I went to Birla House where he was staying; we had never seen him at close quarters. A large crowd had gathered outside, and a number of prominent leaders representing different religious communities were inside persuading him to break the fast — especially as the Union Cabinet had that morning agreed to pay Pakistan its share of cash balances. Then someone came running out of the house with the good news that Gandhi had agreed to break his fast on written assurance by the leaders that the life, property and honour of Indian Muslims would be protected. So it fell like a bombshell when the news broke on 30 January that Mahatma Gandhi had been shot dead by a Hindu fanatic. People all over the world were stunned.
Newspapers, Magazines, and Dissertations published before 1955
Five newspapers, magazines, etc., from the early 1950s, including two by Edgar Snow in the Saturday Evening Post, March and July 1948
Ghosh, Tushar Kanti, ed. (December 11, 1947). "Division of Assets and Liabilities: India Pakistan Discussion, Agreement Reached on All Outstanding Issues". Bi-Weekly Amrita Bazar Patrika (A.P. feed). Vol. LXXIX, no. 91. Calcutta: Nirmal Ghosh. p. 1. New Delhi, December 9, 1947 ... Sardar Patel said, "I wish to make a small statement in connection with the discussions that were going on between the two Dominions on the question of division of assets and liabilities and other allied questions. I am glad to say that there has been complete unanimity (cheers). ... Complete agreement has been reached on all these issues. No reference will now be made to the arbitral tribunal and those already made will be withdrawn (cheers). The major issues on which the agreement has been reached are: 1) Division between the two dominions of cash balances of the undivided Government of India as on August 14, 1947. ... Kashmir Question: He knew that there was considerable anxiety in the House and outside about main question that gives us trouble, namely the question of Kashmir. That question was not before the Partition Committee and it was not part of this reference.
Ghosh, Tushar Kanti, ed. (January 13, 1948). "Patel Replies to Pakistan Minister's Charge: Non-Implementation Of Financial Agreement, Kashmir Issue Likely to Destroy Basis of Pact". Amrita Bazar Patrika (A.P. feed). Vol. LXXX, no. 13. Calcutta and Allahabad: Nirmal Ghosh. pp. 1, 2, 4, 8. New Delhi, January 12, 1948 India's Deputy Prime Minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel at a Press Conference here to-day, said, 'India cannot reasonably be asked to make a payment of cash balances to Pakistan when an armed conflict with its forces is in progress, and threatens to assume an even more dangerous character.' Sardar Patel described the conflict in Kashmir as likely to destroy the whole basis of the financial agreement and endanger other parts of the agreement, such as arrangements for taking over a debt, and division of stores. The Deputy Prime Minister, who was addressing the Press Conference jointly with the Finance Minister, Mr. R. K. Shanmukham Chetty, was replying to the Pakistan Finance Minister's charge of non-implementation by India of the financial agreement recently arrived at between the two Governments at Delhi. Sardar Patel asserted that right through the negotiations with the Pakistan Government, he had made it clear to the Pakistan Government that the discussions held were not confined to mere partition issues, but covered Kashmir, refugees and other important evacuation matters as well. The Finance Minister Mr. R. K. Shanmukham Chetty, told the conference that the Government of India had not given any instructions to the Reserve Bank regarding the transfer of any amount from 'our cash balances' to the credit of the Government of Pakistan.
Snow, Edgar (March 27, 1948). "The Message of Gandhi". Saturday Evening Post. 220 (39): 24, 25, 145, 146, 122. Nehru knew what the thing in Gandhi was, and he had repeated it often enough for the world to know, as Gandhi had himself. But it was all he really said when he left the Mahatma's quiet body at Birla House and came out to try to tell India what it was that she had lost. "The greatest prayer that we can offer is to take a pledge to dedicate ourselves to the truth," he told the air, "and to the cause for which this great countryman of ours has died." The immediate cause was Hindu-Moslem unity and the peace of men, but in the simplest and most profound reading, Gandhi died in an honest search for the truth, and in the end, all men came to see it and felt it shining in him. From impressions I have had of him since I first met him on the slopes of Simla in 1931, and out of the many books that have been written of him and the countless others to come, no more can be proved than that. Many seek the truth as many would become painters, or musicians, or writers, or actors, but few leave masterpieces behind as Gandhi did. He attained a genius with truth and became part of its immortality. He concentrated on eternal truths between men to the exclusion of everything else. He was a servant in abject humility before his wondrous medium, and all his teachings were faces of it.
Snow, Edgar (July 17, 1948). "The World's Queerest State". Saturday Evening Post. 221 (1): 24, 25, 120, 121, 122. The most important government buildings, arsenals, mints and other permanent installations were in parts of India now held by the Indian Union, but Pakistan got her share of everything else. That included the earmarking of 750,000,000 rupees out of India's cash balances. Much of the division remained theoretical, however. It took Gandhi's January threat of a fast unto death to get Vallabhbhai Patel to part with a large installment of cash-balance payments due to Pakistan. The post-independence breakdown in transport also halted the transfer to Pakistan of her share of other spoils of the partition—especially military stores and equipment, after hostilities began in Kashmir.
Lange, James H. (June 1953). Developing Trends in the Foreign Policy of Pakistan] (Master of Arts thesis). University of California, Berkeley]. Retrieved August 18, 2024. In January, 1948, on the insistence of Gandhi , India handed over almost the entire share of Pakistan's cash balances. Gandhi was assassinated shortly after this by a member of the Rashtriya Swayam Sewak Sangh."Thesis reference
Authors who view Gandhi's fast to have pressured the Indian government implicitly
Three books that view the connection between the fast and the cash payments to be implicit or latent, rather than explicit or manifest
Brown, Judith (1991). Gandhi: Prisoner of Hope. Yale University Press. p. 380. Despite and indeed because of his sense of helplessness Delhi was to be the scene of what he called his greatest fast. The fast was his answer to helplessness, the last weapon of a true satyagrahi, where the violent man would use a sword. His decision was made suddenly, though after considerable thought – he gave no hint of it even to Nehru and Patel who were with him shorty before he announced his intention at a prayer-meeting on 12 January 1948. He said he would fast until communal peace was restored, real peace rather than the calm of a dead city imposed by police and troops. Patel and the government took the fast partly as condemnation of their decision to withhold a considerable cash sum still outstanding to Pakistan as a result of the allocation of undivided India's assets, because of the hostilities that had broken out in Kashmir; it seems that Mountbatten had invoked Gandhi's support on this issue. The Mountbattens actually visited the fasting Mahatma as a symbol to the world that they supported him. But even when the government agreed to pay out the cash, Gandhi would not break his fast: that he would only do after a large number of important politicians and leaders of communal bodies agreed to a joint plan for restoration of normal life in the city. Although this six-day fast was a considerable physical strain, during it Gandhi experienced a great feeling of strength and peace.
Moller, Ulrika; Schierenbeck, Isabell. Political Leadership, Nascent Statehood and Democracy: A comparative study. Routledge Democratization series. London and New York: Routledge. p. 68. When Gandhi, in January 1948, again announced his intention to fast for the sake of communal peace, Nehru and his government took Gandhi's new fast as aimed against their decision to withhold a considerable amount of money from Pakistan. The money was to be paid as part of the allocation of assets, but was delayed as a consequence of the violence that had broken out in Kashmir. To end Gandhi's fast, the Indian Government had to agree to pay out the cash, as well as a large number of communal leaders making the promise to agree to a plan regarding how to restore Delhi to normal life (Brown 1989: 380).
Tidrick, Kathryn (2013) [2006], Gandhi: A Political and Spiritual Life, London and New York: Verso, ISBN978-1-78168-239-5, Gandhi began his last fast on 13 January 1948. Its aims were peace in Delhi, peace in India and peace in the world. "I flatter myself,' he said, 'with the belief that the loss of her soul by India will mean the loss of the 'hope of the aching, storm-tossed and hungry world.' The 'reward' of the fast would be 'the regaining of India's dwindling prestige and her fast-fading sovereignty over the heart of Asia and throughout the world.' Its targets were the malefactors of all communities, but especially Hindus and Sikhs in Delhi, the government of Pakistan which was denying equality to Sikhs and non-Muslims, the United Nations which was about to begin its debate on the crisis in Kashmir, and implicitly it appears the Indian government for its decision to withhold from Pakistan, pending resolution of the crisis, its remaining share of the cash balances of undivided India. Pyarelal suggests that it was the question of the cash balances which tipped Gandhi towards fasting rather than waiting for the assassin's knife.<Footnote 132: Pyarelal, Mahatma Gandhi – The Last Phase, Vol. 2, 700–701. (See below)> ... When the Indian government decided to stop payment of the 550 million rupees owed to Pakistan he asked Mountbatten for his opinion. Mountbatten's reply was that it would be the 'first dishonourable act' of the Indian government. This set Gandhi 'furiously thinking', in Pyarelal's words, and he realized that he must do something to retrieve India's honour. The final push towards fasting came. The final push towards fasting came when a delegation of Delhi Muslims came to Birla House and castigated him for not being able to guarantee their safety. Once the fast had started, it became apparent that there was no obvious way to end it. The government announced on the third day that the cash balance would be paid. But Gandhi's other concerns were so large and the criteria for assuaging them so vague that he could, had he chosen, have gone on until he died. He may have wished to reserve the possibility. After the government's announcement, he said he would end his fast only when 'the Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs of Delhi bring about a union, which not even a conflagration around them in all the other parts of India or Pakistan will be strong enough to break.'
