Free at last

May 6, 2023

On May 6, 1944, Mohandas Gandhi walked out of the Aga Kahn Palace in Pune, India, where he had been indefinitely detained since 1942. Most of the other leaders of the Indian National Congress remained incarcerated, including Jawaharlal Nehru, who would later become the first prime minister of India. They would remain there until the final months of World War Two, when British victory was assured. Gandhi alone was released under the expectation that he would soon be dead.

The last 21 months had taken a toll on Gandhi. Almost immediately after arriving, his longtime secretary had died of a heart attack. Mahadev Desai had spent recent decades at Gandhi’s side; he had been there step-by-step during the Salt March. Gandhi cremated his body there in the palace courtyard.

After six months of indefinite detention, Gandhi undertook a 21-day fast, demanding the opportunity to defend his name. Perhaps he hoped that his captors would release him, as they had previously in response to his fasts. With World War Two raging, the British were unwavering. In case Gandhi died, they prepared for a nationwide communication blackout. The code word was Rubicon, but it went unused, disappointing British politicians like Winston Churchill.

His wife of sixty years had been by his side throughout the fast, praying to a sacred basil plant when things looked grim. Kasturba’s health had taken a turn for the worse during the winter, and it was a struggle with their captors to get her the medical care she wanted. On February 22, 1944, her head in his lap, Kasturba died.

He had cremated her in the same courtyard as Mahadev; the wood had been stockpiled in anticipation of his own death. Hour after hour, Gandhi stood by her side and murmured, “After sixty years of constant companionship, I cannot imagine life without her.” Certainly he recalled their adventure in Rajkot five years earlier.

His own health was shaky. Gandhi refused his doctor’s antibiotics to deal with his hookworm. When he caught malaria, he spent weeks trying to treat it with fasting before eventually accepting quinine. He looked very old, and very tired. His jailers noticed; the Viceroy suggested, the Prime Minister concurred, and Gandhi was released unconditionally on May 6, 1944, under the assumption he would soon be dead. It was the end of a long and glorious career in jail going, but the beginning of the final phase of Gandhi’s life.

Can you think of a time that someone underestimated you?