Quotes from Rajmohan Gandhi

Dalhousie proved staunch in his imperialist and modernizing convictions and resolute in his conclusion, quickly formed, of Indian inferiority.

the British adroitly played Indians against fellow-Indians. Obligingly, Indians betrayed one another.

am I inferior simply because I am not English born? Am I to be a slave because I am an Indian?

To 'die to prove that I alone was right' was meaningless, Gandhi said on 5 June

Mehtab Singh, completely cowed, meekly did as he was told.' All 'swaggering about' in the Jullundur area apparently ended after this demonstration by Nicholson of British dominance over Indians

In the Punjab of 1857, flattery was realism's sibling.

Nicholson's force, largely European but with a contingent also of Sikh and Muslim Punjabis, moved out of Amritsar that night.

Churchill could not become Gandhi's idol, for the premier did not accept Indians as equals or as being worthy of independence

A sacred thing has to be used on sacred and lawful occasions. A kirpan is undoubtedly a symbol of strength, which adorns the possessor only if he exercises amazing restraint over himself and uses it against enormous odds…

In 1947, additional factors contributed to the carnage. London's abrupt 20 February announcement that the British would very soon leave Punjab, Bengal and all of India was not accompanied by any plan of who would replace them in Lahore, Calcutta or Delhi.

the sword was of value only when a person of courage and restraint protected life with it.

As the Punjabis were thrown into a collision course, the departing British more or less abdicated responsibility. Returning home at the earliest became the dominant desire of most British soldiers, policemen and civilians.

Gandhi was warning that in a nation which honoured killing, the weak would be bullied by the well-armed, the well-heeled and the strong-bodied.

They belong to one another because, to use Gandhi's language, they drink the same water, breathe the same air and eat the same soil's produce. And because they share the same history, even while often looking at it from clashing angles.

Cutting losses was the watchword, as was throwing responsibility onto the shoulders of Indians. 'You asked us to quit. We will oblige. Now it's up to you.' The argument was irrefutable, but it was not as if earlier Indian demands had always been met.

On 3 March, after Sikh and Hindu MLAs refused to support an alternative League ministry, which therefore could not be formed, Master Tara Singh unsheathed his sword on the steps of the Punjab legislature building in Lahore and said that Sikhs would not live under Muslim rule nor allow Pakistan to emerge.

Sikhs in the raiding party 'shouted with delight' when Hodson murdered the princes.

Bloodlust found free play in recaptured Delhi. Wilson ordered that anyone found with a weapon should be killed, not taken prisoner. In the event, the empty-handed too were slain.

Nishan Sahib), which was raised at every gurdwara from the 1620s, when Guru Hargobind led the community.

Many of today's youngsters are unaware that in their grandparents' time Kolkata, Dhaka and Chittagong were part of a single entity, and Lahore, Rawalpindi, Amritsar and Jalandhar likewise. And they are unaware of what it means for a nation to find freedom.

Sikh and Muslim Punjabis, Pashtuns and Gurkhas joined the British in the slaughter

But I am glad to be able to leave this record of the doings more than sixty years (or two generations) ago of an amazing set of individuals. They were not perfect; they were unable to prevent the great tragedies associated with Partition; but they made a mark on the world; and they left for us a house of which we can be proud, and where we can grow, if we want, in liberty, justice and order.

While a steadily-nursed religio-political conviction about Khalsa Raj, and a psychological yearning for revenge, motivated the Sikhs, Punjab's Muslim chiefs, who had accepted the Mughals, possessed no comparable impetus.

400 mutineers were hanged simultaneously, while British officers seated beneath sipped whiskies and sodas and regimental bands played.