ABSTRACT
In the later decades of India’s struggle for freedom from British colonial rule, an immense groundswell of popular support and mass mobilisation had surged behind Mahatma Gandhi. The majority of people of this land shared his vision for the new India, of a resolutely secular nation, with freedom and equal rights of citizenship for people of every faith, community, caste, class, colour and gender. There was also influential mass support for more radically egalitarian and democratic ideologies of the Left and Dalit movements. However, leaders of the Muslim League fought for and secured an independent Islamic nation carved out from Muslim majority segments of India, convinced that people of diverse faiths cannot live together with peace and equality. Extremist Hindu organisations were also implacably opposed to Gandhi’s humane and inclusive Hinduism and nationalism, and one from among their ranks assassinated him just months after India became free.
