Page:Fischer - A Week with Gandhi.pdf/54

 Far back, Lord Minto, then Viceroy, declared that the British had to keep Moslems and Hindus apart in order to facilitate the domination of India.”

I told Gandhi I had seen that Minto quotation. “This has been the principle of British rule ever since,” Gandhi emphasized.

“I have been told,” I said, “that when Congress ministries were in office in the provinces, during 1937, 1938, and 1939, they discriminated against Moslems.”

“The British governors of those provinces have officially testified that that is not so,” Gandhi asserted sharply.

“But isn’t it a fact,” I persisted, “that in the United Provinces, Congress and the Moslems entered into an electoral pact because Congress was not sure of winning, that, then, Congress won a sweeping victory and refused to form a coalition with the Moslems?”

“No,” Gandhi contradicted. “There were four Moslem ministers in the United Provinces government formed by Congress. There were no representatives of the Moslem League, but there were Moslems. No. We have always tried to collaborate with Moslems. It is said that the Maulana [Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, President of the Congress, is a Moslem scholar) is a puppet in our hands. Actually, he is the dictator of Congress. He is its president. But the Cripps proposals have divided