Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 7636 Plough Quarterly • Summer 2015 I was a university student at Calcutta. As the midnight bell rang on August 15, people all over India and beyond listened to the historic speech that Pandit Nehru, our first prime minister and a great disciple of Gandhi, gave at Parliament House in Delhi. But Gandhi was not part of the celebration; with urgent work to do, he had disap- peared from the scene. The reason for his absence was that, as a precondition for India’s independence, the country was to be split in two as India and Pakistan. Gandhi had given his consent to this division reluctantly. This was one of the rare occasions when he gave in to others against his inner conviction, which came from a part of his life hidden from others: meditation, silence, and careful listening to the still, small voice within him. One day of each week was strictly observed as a silence day. When he faced important decisions that affected his country, he asked for time to listen to that inner voice. Popular opinion was secondary to his decision-making because history is a dialogue between God and people. The world is pulled from above to a definite destiny, not pushed from behind by a blind force. Upon partition, India witnessed violence on a scale it had never seen before, especially in Bengal in the east and Punjab in the west; Cal- cutta was the worst affected city on the eastern front. Thousands of families on both sides of the new line were uprooted. As law and order broke down completely, it was impossible to control the crowds; I saw dead bodies piled up on the roadside. The police and army acknowledged their inability to control the violence. Then we heard that Gandhi was coming to Calcutta. He had no military protection, and anyone could easily have killed him. He left Delhi unnoticed, traveling by train in a third-class compartment. Arriving in Cal- cutta’s Howrah station, he walked with his stick across the platform and asked for a small tent to be put up in the nearby maidan, where he seated himself on a raised platform. Remarking, “It’s better to die than to live in a world of violence,” he held a fast unto death. The first two or three days went by without much change in the communal violence. By the third day, Gandhi was very weak and could not sit up. The news that he was dying spread far and wide. Leaders of the warring Hindus and Muslims came together in an attempt to save his life, promising Gandhi they would lay down their own lives to prevent any more deaths. But Gandhi insisted that he would continue his fast until he saw a real change among the people. It was Gandhi’s Satyagraha in action: the innocent taking on the burden of others’ sins, and offer- ing his own life as atonement. Then a miracle took place of which I am an eyewitness. It seemed as if a breath of the Holy Spirit blew across the city. People came out of hiding. They put down their weapons before him, fell prostrate, and asked for his forgive- ness. I saw separate processions of the warring Muslim and Hindu communities coming from two sides. Before, they would have attacked each other and none would have been left alive. Now they embraced each other, saying, “We are brothers.” The transformation was deep and the cost of forgiveness great. At that time a Hindu asked Gandhi, “What shall I do? My only son was killed by a Muslim.” Straight came the reply: “Forgive. Adopt a Muslim child as your own. His parents may have been killed by Hindus.” Where are the Christians that live according to the Bible?