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On Gandhi’s seventy-fifth birthday, Sevagram ashram bore a festive appearance… Greetings poured in on October 2, from all over the World …Albert Einstein asserted, “generations to come, It may be, will scarce believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth…”

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Accepting a cheque for eighty lakhs of rupees for the Kasturba Gandhi National Memorial Trust, Gandhi suggested that the memorial should take the form of a movement for the education and economic betterment of women and children in the rural areas in India…

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The war was drawing to a close…The members of the congress Working Committee were released… They journeyed to Simla at lord Wavell’s invitation to attend a conference of India’s outstanding politicians and party leaders for considering constitutional...

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On June 25 Tte invitees assembled at Simla…
Vindicating its claim to be a truly national organisation, the congress did not subscribe to communal parity… On this rock the conference foundered on July 14…

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Gandhi wrote to lord wavell, “ I must not hide from you the suspicion that the deeper cause is, perhaps, the reluctance of the official world to part with power…
Gandhi recorded his convictions on the draft united Nations Charter.

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In August 1945, the horror of the Atom Bomb was loosed on Hiroshima and Nagasaki… The Second World War was over…
Drawing a moral from the supreme tragedy of the atom-bomb, Gandhi reiterated his faith in non-violence.

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In December 1945, when the country was busy preparing for the general elections, Gandhi set out on his tour of Bengal, ravaged by famine and cyclone. His mind was filled with the grim spectre.

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People crowded the canal bank to narrate their tales of woes to Gandhi…
He prescribed to them the spinning wheel, the symbol of the constructive programme, as a panacea.

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Gandhi arrived at Madras in January 1946 to attend the silver jubilee celebrations of the Dakshin Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha.
He presided over its convocation and distributed certificated to successful candidates…

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Throughout his sojourn in Madras, Gandhi harped on the need for a national language to achieve unity.
“Only that language,” he asserted, “which the people of the country will themselves adopt can become the national language.”

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In between the heavy round of engagements, Gandhi laid the foundation stone of the Harijan industrial School in true mason’s style… and visited the Constructive Programme exhibition…

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cause of Untouchability…
On the way, he addressed the people from the coach and asked for their prayers and blessings for his mission.

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On February 3, Gandhi visited the ancient Meenakshi temple at Madurai which was thrown open to the untouchables as a result of his long crusade against untouchability…
He was glad that the desire which he had entertained for years was fulfilled at last…

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Crowds continued to surge at all the stoppages during the journey to Palni…
Unstinted,they poured their coppers into Gandhi’s beggar’s bowl in the service of the Harijans.

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At the ast meeting held at Palni under the shadow of the temple, strongly condemning the ulcer of untouchability that pervaded national life, Gandhi argued, “Why should we not all be children of one Indian family, and further, of one human family?

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On February 10, 1946 the weekly “Harijan” was revived after a lapse of three years and a half…
“It is the fashion”, wrote Gandhi, “to blame nature for famine. Scarcity of rain is by no means a monopoly of India…

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Gandhi subscribed to the view that all ailments are due to the violation of nature’s laws and that return to nature is the road to health…
He opened the Nature Cure Clinic at Uruli Kanchan, a village near Poona and examined the patients…

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It was India's hour of destiny…
The British Labour Government’s delegation consisting of Lord Pethick-Lawrence, Sir Stafford Cripps and Mr. A. V. Alexander arrived in India in March, 1946 to discuss terms for the transfer of power…

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>The Cabinet Mission began its work by interviewing leading representatives of the main political parties.
Interviews followed interviews to arrive at the greatest common measure of agreement among the different parties…

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Gandhi came to Delhi to meet the British Delegation at the request of Lord Pethick-Lawrence, and lived at the sweepers’ slum…
Day after day and week after week, the representatives of India poured in to meet Gandhi, and the.....

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Gandhi remained in touch with the Mission during the progress of the constitutional negotiation. He declared that he was opposed to the two-nation theory and made it clear that he was speaking entirely for himself…

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In a discourse Gandhi said, “There is little doubt that India is about to reach her cherished goal of political independence…Let the entrance be prayerful…
“Independence of my dream”, wrote Gandhi, “means the kingdom of God on Earth…”

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“In concrete terms, Independence should be political economic and moral, standing for the removal of the control of the British army, freedom form the capitalists and capital ensuring equality between the humblest and the tallest and freedom....”

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Free India, he hoped, would continue her non-violent policy and deliver the earth from the burden that was crushing her…

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Simla was fixed as the venue for further talks. Abul Kalam Azad… Jawaharlal Nehru… Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan… and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel arrived in the first week of May to represent the Congress viewpoint in the conference. Gandhi accepted the delicate role of adviser to the Cabinet Mission and came to Simla having full faith in the Mission’s intention…

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The pourpariers continued at the Viceregal Lodge but the conference could not achieve an agreement between the Indian National Congress and the Muslim League and broke up on May 12…

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After the failure of the Simla Conference, the Cabinet Mission set forth its own plan on May 16, rejecting the partition of India on defense, economic and administrative grounds. As the crux of the solution, they recommended a united India and the setting up of an interim Government to be followed by the constituent Assembly…

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Gandhi compared the Mission’s plan to a promissory note… despite some vital defects, he saw in it the germs of the realization of his ideal of ‘a land without sorrow and suffering’ provided it was genuine and appealed to the people to think of the country and not of their petty selves, groups or communities.

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A meeting of the All India Congress Committee was held in July to consider and ratify the Working Committee decision “that the Congress should join the proposed Constituent Assembly, with a view to framing the constitution of a free, united and democratic India”. Gandhi came to guide the committee’s deliberations.

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President Jawaharlal Nehru urged the people to be united and strong so as to prepared to face the new problems arising out of the ending of the foreign regime… Persuading the Congress to join the Constituent Assembly, Gandhi asserted, “It should be a challenge to combat and not a ground for rejection…”

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Giving a picture of Independent India of his conception, Gandhi wrote, “Every village will have to be a republic or ‘Panchayat’ having full powers… in this non-violent society, life will not be a pyramid but an oceanic circle whose center will be the individual always ready to perish for the village…” He made it clear that in such a society, every religion would have its full and equal place…

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A call by the Muslim League to observe August 16, 1946 as the “Direct action Day” to protest against the proposed formation of the interim Government let loose an orgy of violence at Calcutta… Madness seized a section of humanity which killed, maimed, and burnt… The fury spread burning its way into Noakhali and Tripura-rural areas of East Bengal……