The final fast
January 13, 2026
Hello friends,
I’ve been thinking about January 13th for the last month or so, because it was on this day that Mohandas Gandhi, better known as the Mahatma, or “great soul,” began his final fast. It was an indefinite fast, a fast to the death, and sure enough, 17 days later, he would take his last breath.
Tonight I’m starting my own commemorative fast; my first one of the new year, and my first of more than 72 hours in probably six months. My fridge has been hollowed out, I’ve got some veggie stock for when I need some flavor in a few days, and I hope it will channel that Gandhian spirit into my own campaign for 2026. More on that at the end.
By 1948, Gandhi’s decades of work toward a free and independent India had come to an end. Unfortunately, it was not in the way he’d dreamed. Instead, as the British left, they acceded to the demands of M.A. Jinnah for a separate Muslim nation, carving the subcontinent into three pieces; Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh,1
Imagine the United States, broken up as part of a “national divorce.” Red states make up the center and the largest section, with blue states grouped on the east and west coasts. It might seem logical for a few seconds, until one realizes that states are composed of individual people, and such a division would leave millions and millions of families on the wrong side of the new borders.
Gandhi was in New Delhi, the capital of India, and it was a city in crisis. Trainloads of Hindus and Sikhs poured in daily from Pakistan, and Muslim shrines and mosques were gutted to house the new arrivals. Across the country, caravans as long as fifty miles formed as millions fled on foot with whatever possessions they could carry. The two-way traffic often came into conflict, resulting in brutal violence and senseless killings.
It was too much to bear. At his evening prayer meeting on January 12, Gandhi announced he would be starting a fast the next day. The 78-year-old’s efforts had produced peace in Kolkata the previous September, in the first critical weeks after Partition, but the violence between the different religions had claimed hundreds of thousands of lives in the meantime. Could calmer heads still prevail? More on that in a few days.
Gandhi believed all humans possessed an inherent ability for self-improvement, and was willing to gamble his life—again—on this belief. While I’m not putting my own life directly on the line with my fast today, I do share this core belief, and will attempt to apply it to the 2026 election. Rather than dehumanizing politics of division, the vote with Brian campaign will offer rehumanizing politics of unity.
Believe peace is possible? Join the next fast for peace on Thursday.
Today’s discussion question: What would you do if America was partitioned into red states and blue states?