In 1948, the Navajivan Publishing House, Ahmedabad, published a book titled Delhi Diary. The 400-page book “contains Mahatma Gandhi’s post-prayer speeches during the last four and a half months of his life” – from September 10, 1947, to January 30, 1948.
The partition of India in 1947 into India and Pakistan had cost many lives. It led to carnage, a blood bath. The Hindu-Muslim riots destroyed “much property and much else of moral and spiritual value.” Poverty was rampant.
A staunch advocate of Truth and Ahimsa (non-violence), Gandhi was very distressed by what was happening around him. He travelled from place to place and delivered speeches after the prayer meetings. He went to Noakhali, Calcutta and Delhi, advocating peace, non-violence and camaraderie among communities. The Delhi Diary, which contains summaries of Gandhi’s speeches in Delhi, reflect his pain. As Rajendra Prasad wrote:
In these pages, one can read the anguish which he felt and the superhuman effort he was making to restore and re-establish human standards of life and conduct amongst us. As is usual, with his writings and speeches, he covers a vast field in these pages. But the most striking and significant utterances relate to the establishment of peace and concord among different sections of the people, particularly the Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs. It is a sad commentary on our life and work that instead of achieving the object which he had in view, he had to lose his life.”
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