Appendix A.1 – Patel’s, Andrew’s Sarojini Naidu’s referral letters to Khare: 

Khare charged the Congress Working Committee with nepotism and favouritism in his speeches.  The then Congress President, Subhas Chandra Bose, challenged Khare to produce proofs of the alleged favouritism and nepotism.  In reply, Khare published three separate letters, from Patel, CF Andrews and Sarojini Naidu respectively. Sarojini’s and Andrew’s letters were more direct, but Patel’s letter  was more crafty. Even if we take on face value Patel’s plea of seeking justice for an Indian businessman, whose family has financially supported the Congress (likely Patel’s activities), it remains that he hardly ever sought similar justices for the revolutionaries who gave their all to India and were at the receiving end of British brutalities in return. Andrew has been a lifelong close friend of Gandhi, and his letter to Khare was carried by Jamanlal Bajaj, a member of the Congress Working Committee and a wealthy sponsor of Gandhi.   

My Dear Dr. Khare,

      This is to introduce the bearer, Shrijut Ratanchand Hirachand of the Indian Hume Pipe Co.  He is a strong nationalist himself.  One of his brothers is a member of the Congress Assembly Party in Bombay.  His elder brother has given great support to the Congress on many occasions in the past.  He wants a fair deal and no favour in connection with his tender to the Nagpur Municipal water supply where he is afraid of his rival’s influence in the affair getting an undue advantage.  I shall thank you if you see that justice is done to him.  His rival is a European Contractor and the decision in the affair depends, I understand, on the recommendation of a European Engineer of the Government. 

Bombay,

21/08/1937                                                                                               (Sd) Vallabhbhai Patel

                                                                                                                   Manerville,

                                                                                                                  Simla,                                                                                                       

November 5^th 1937

My Dear Jamanlal,

     I do hope you have good news about Kamat at Cambridge.  I want you to pass on this letter to Mr. Khare, the Prime Minister, with the enclosure.  Mr. Garewal is in the P.W.D. and was in C.P. (Central Provinces), where his son Daljit had an accident with a gun, which was loaded and shot a servant.  He told a lie over it and his lawyer tried to prove an alibi, but he was convicted of man-slaughter and sentenced for four years at the Jabalpur Reformatory.  His father finds, each time he goes, that his character is deteriorating and fears that if he remains all the four years, he will become hardened and ruined for life.  He would gladly come and see the Minister and ask that his son, who is about 14 years of age (if I have remembered rightly) might be placed under his own charge on probation.

      I have no doubt that the father has told me the truth, and that if it were possible now for him to be responsible for his own son on probation, his character might be saved.  Rajkumari offered to write also, but I said that I would write to you myself.  I feel sure that the Prime Minister whom I met at your bungalow could take an interest in such an exceptional case – where a son of a big respectable father has come, owing to his own fault in telling a falsehood, into a terrible state.

                                                                                        Your affectionate friend,

                                                                                          (Sd) Charlie Andrews

 

                                                                                                               Zaheer Manzil,

                                                                                                                    Red Hill,

                                                                                                                Hyderabad Dn.

                                                                                                                21^st June, 1938.

 

My Dear Dr. Khare,

      I hear that you are likely to appoint a new Advocate General, temporarily in the event of the present incumbent filling in an acting place on the Bench.  I would like, if I may to put in a word for Mr. Walter Dutt.  I think his name was approved by the High Court for a post, but your predecessor in office preferred his own man whom I need not name.  I think you will find Mr. Dutt W. B. very able and deserving of this responsible position.

                                                                                            (Sd) Sarojini Naidu

P.S. – There is also, I believe, a post of acting Judge likely to be vacant.

Khare’s successor Ravi Shankar Shukla indeed appointed Walter Dutt as Advocate General.

Appendix A2 – Gandhi’s letter to Bhulabhai Desai: 

Bhulabhai Desai, after being denied the Congress ticket, was considering fighting the coming polls on his own, even with his health failing.  Gandhi wanted to avoid this embarrassment to the Congress and sought to dissuade Bhulabhai Desai from contesting.  Gandhi’s letter to Bhulabhai Desai has been reproduced from pp. 197-198, [29], 288-290, [28].

BHAI BHULABHAI,

As it is difficult to decipher my handwriting, I am dictating this letter so that it can be written in a clear hand.

Sardar and I keep receiving telegrams suggesting that you should be put up as a candidate for the Central Legislative Assembly. I myself have no interest in the elections. A durbar daily assembles round the Sardar, but I know nothing about it. Ordinarily he does not talk to me not do I ask him anything. I attend to my work and he attends to his. The only reason for our being together this time is his nature-care treatment. He does not have much faith in nature care while I have. An operation would be a very risky affair. No doctor except Dr. Deshmukh advises it. That is why he has put faith in me and is undergoing nature-cure treatment. I have, accordingly, brought him to Dr. Mehta for I have faith in him. My own knowledge of nature cure is superficial. I have given this introduction because I thought it necessary.

     If Sardar receives any suggestion regarding you, he puts it before me. Since you have accepted my advice, I assume that you yourself are not at all keen o getting into the Central Assembly, and that, therefore, those who send the telegrams do not do so at your instance. Some big people naturally desire your presence in the Assembly. If I were not there, perhaps Sardar would have yielded to the pressure. But I am firm, for I am acting as your well-wisher. I want a big service from you, if you can give it. I wish to see you as a people’s man. I don’t consider you an old man. Why shouldn’t you also live up to 125? If you do not aspire to live that long, as I do, please remember that I try to persuade everybody to have such aspiration for the sake of service. And it is not that there is no strength or effort behind my aspiration. If there is non and my aspiration proves fruitless, I will accept that. I am not, therefore, afraid of death if it should come today. But I will cherish my aspiration till my last breath, for I have to serve —I have not yet finished with service. There is a spirit of competition to serve which all of us should share.

From this standpoint I suggest to you that you yourself should issue a graceful statement, thanking all those who are trying on your behalf, explaining that you do not wish to be a member of the Assembly at the moment and that you have been doing, and will continue to do, whatever service you can from outside, that if you live long enough and feel later that you should also enter the Legislature, you yourself will come forward and seek people’s votes.

I like the work you are doing just now of defending the prisoners. It will bring you credit. I also wish that like Jawaharlal and Sardar, and to a great extent Maulana Azad, you too should come into contact with the masses. Perhaps I should cite Rajendra Babu’s case as offering the best example. Rajendra Babu is sought after by Bihar, he himself does not go seeking the support of Bihar. I can cite other similar instances, too. But where is the need to do so for you? Even what I have written above seems to me too long, but I cannot restrain my Moha. If desire also could be described as sattvika, I am sure this desire of mine is that and, therefore, I need not hide it. I trust you are well and succeeding in your efforts.

                                                                                  Blessings from,

                                                                                   BAPU

 

Appendix A.3 - Vallabhbhai Patel’s letter to Mohandas Gandhi, after the surrender of the naval mutineers on 24/02/1946, pp. 152-153, [22]:

 

Revered Bapu,

               Sushila gave your letter to me.

             Aruna [Asaf Ali] has thrown a spark and is fanning the flames.  About two hundred and      fifty people have succumbed to the bullets.  Over a thousand men have been wounded.  The police felt helpless, so it was replaced by a heavy military force.  She gave an unbecoming retort even to your small statement of yesterday.  The Press has released only a small part of it.  The Free Press is on their side.  Achyut and his men are putting her in the vanguard.  She sent a telegram to Jawaharlal and gave out to the Press that, under the circumstances, he was the only leader who could lead them.  This she did as she could not find my support.  Jawahar wired to me asking if his presence would be necessary, and in that case, he would come setting aside all his preoccupations.  I advised him not to come.  Yet he is reaching here.  He has wired back to me that he was feeling out of sorts and he would come.  He will come here tomorrow at 3PM.  Well, let him.  But the fact that he comes here on account of Aruna's telegram is sorrowful indeed.  This way, she is encouraged, and if we would not resist their rashness, things will go from bad to worse.  Shops in the city have been looted, pedestrians have been ransacked, some public buildings have been set on fire, and some railway quarters, even a train, has been burnt.  If under such circumstances, they had to call the military, futile it would be to lay blame on them.  The atmosphere has much pacified today and peace may be restored tomorrow.  But it is unlikely that the military would be called off soon.  There is so much poison in the air.  The Englishman and his style of dress have fallen to utter disapprobation.  It is tragic that they have made ample use of the student community.

     All this coincided with a general strike in the Navy and Air Force.  They cannot any longer brook inferior treatment to themselves as compared to their English counterparts.  Nor can they tolerate insult and humiliation at the hands of their officers.  All this has added to the racial bitterness.  The upsurge of consciousness among Asiatics may also have prompted it, albeit indirectly.

    Ours is a difficult task.  These people do not any longer pay heed to your advice.  They respect you only as a saint.  But indeed they look upon us as worn out leaders, and think it is enough to lend their ears to what we say.  But they decry us publicly that ours is a way that has proved its inefficiency and impracticability.  How we have to handle this situation is worth considering.

     I am finding it hard to carry on with Maulana.  He is behaving like a despot.  I will speak it all to you when we meet.  I have asked him to relieve me (from the CWC and the EB). But he will not agree.  But there is no other course open to me unless matters are well cleared up.''

Note:

We have added information on many of the sources on Rash Behari and some of the other Revolutionaries on our webpage. [25]

References:

[1] Subhas Chandra Bose ``Indian Struggle’’

[2] Saswati Sarkar, Shanmukh, and Dikgaj, ``Did Nehru betray Chandrasekhar Azad to the British?'', 26/02/2016,  http://www.dailyo.in/politics/chandrasekhar-azad-jawaharlal-nehru-mahatma-gandhi-hinduism-freedom-struggle-sardar-patel-subhas-chandra-bose/story/1/9233.html

[3] Manmathnath Gupta, ``They Lived Dangerously''

[4] Legislative Assembly Debates, Vol. 2, No. 8.

[5] B. C. Dutt, ``Mutiny of the Innocents'', Sindhu Publications Pvt Ltd, Bombay-1, 1971

[6] Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, Gandhi's speech at the Lahore Congress Session II, 31/12/1929, http://www.gandhiserve.org/cwmg/VOL048.PDF

 

[7] Saswati Sarkar, Shanmukh, and Dikgaj, ``How Gandhi, Nehru and Patel colluded with the British to suppress the Naval Mutiny of 1946'', 10/08/2015 http://www.dailyo.in/politics/how-gandhi-patel-and-nehru-colluded-with-the-british-to-suppress-the-naval-mutiny-of-1946/story/1/5567.html

[8] Saswati Sarkar, Shanmukh, and Dikgaj, ``The Mahatma's War on Indian Revolutionaries'', 31/07/2015 http://www.dailyo.in/politics/mahatma-gandhis-war-on-the-indian-revolutionaries-british-nehru-mountbatten-sardar-patel/story/1/5359.html

[9] Rash Beharir Atma-katha O dushprapya Rachana, edited by Amal Kumar Mitra

[10] Uma Mukherjee, ``Two Great Indian Revolutionaries – Rash Behari Bose and Jyotindra Nath Mukherjee’’

[11] J. G. Ohsawa ``The Two Great Indians in Japan’’

[12] Sachindranath Sanyal ``Bandi Jiban’’

[13] Rash Behari Basu – His Struggle for India’s Independence, Editor in chief, Radhanath Rath, Editor Sabitri Prasanna Chatterjee, Biplabi Mahanayak Rash Behari Basu Smarak Samiti

[14] Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, Letter to Darcy Lindsay, 08/05/1931, http://www.gandhiserve.org/cwmg/VOL052.PDF

[15] Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, Gandhi's statement to the Press, 23/02/1946, Poona, http://www.gandhiserve.org/cwmg/VOL089.PDF

[16] The Cult of the Bomb Young India, January  2, 1930, http://www.gandhiserve.org/cwmg/VOL048.PDF

[17] Leonard A. Gordon, Brothers Against the Raj – Biography of Indian Nationalists, Sarat and Subhas Chandra Bose

[18] Subhas Chandra Bose, The Anti-Imperialist Struggle and Samyavada, Presidential Address at the Third Indian Political Conference, London, 10 June, 1933, India’s Spokesman Abroad, Netaji Collected Works, Vol. 8, Letters, Articles, Speeches and Statements, 1933-1937,    pp. 240-263

[19] N. B. Khare, ``My Political Memoirs’’

[20] ``History and Culture of the Indian People, Vol. 11, Struggle for Freedom'', Edited by RC Majumdar

[21] Complete works of Mahatma Gandhi, Speech on Resolution on Nehru Report, Calcutta Congress III, 31/12/1928, http://www.gandhiserve.org/cwmg/VOL043.PDF

[22] Durga Das, Sardar Patel’s Correspondence 1945-50, Ahmedabad, 1971-74 

[23] Saswati Sarkar, Jeck Joy, Shanmukh, Dikgaj Rashbehari Bose’s second war from East Asia – battleground Japan and Singapore http://www.dailyo.in/politics/rashbehari-bose-sachindranath-sanyal-japan-revolutionary-china-indian-freedom-struggle-second-world-war/story/1/9745.html

[24] Jeck Joy, Saswati Sarkar, Shanmukh, Dikgaj ``The legend of Rashbehari Bose and the forgotten Hindu-German conspiracy’’ http://www.dailyo.in/politics/rashbehari-bose-hindu-muslim-riots-partition-1947-mahatma-gandhi-independence-hindu-german-conspiracy-ina/story/1/8230.html

[25] Revolutionary Colleagues of  and sources of information on Rash Behari Bose. https://sringeribelur.wordpress.com/sources-of-information-on-rash-behari-bose/

[26] K. R. Palta ``My Adventures with the INA’’

[27] KM Munshi, ``Pilgrimage to Freedom’’, Volume 1.

[28] Chimanbhai Setalvad, ``Bhulabhai Desai – a biography’’

[29] ``Letter to Bhulabhai J Desai’’, 21/10/1945, Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, http://www.gandhiashramsevagram.org/gandhi-literature/mahatma-gandhi-collected-works-volume-88.pdf