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By the end of the Second World War, Britain's place in the world had changed dramatically and the demand for independence could no longer be ignored.52 Gandhi, along with his wife Kasturba and his secretary Mahadeva Desai were kept in detention from August 9, 1942 to May 6, 1944. His secretary died while in detention in 1942 and his wife died in 1944. The Quit India movement, more than anything, united the Indian people against British rule. Although most demonstrations were suppressed by the time that Gandhi was released from prison in 1944.
Meanwhile, Hindu-Muslim relations progressively deteriorated. In 1940, M. A. Jinnah, the leader of the Muslim League, demanded a separate state for Muslims. His basic argument was that Hinduism and Islam were not so much religions in the strict sense of the term, but two distinct social orders. To put two such social orders under the same state would only result in their slow destruction. India, therefore, had to be divided along religious lines. Based on this logic, the door to the partition of India was opened. This logic was contrary to all that Gandhi had stood for. He wanted India to be a multi-religious nation where the state would be neutral towards all religions and respectful to all the legitimate requirements of religions. This did not satisfy Jinnah and his negotiations with Gandhi completely broke down in 1944. Religious riots broke out in many parts of India, notably in Calcutta. From November 1946 to January 1947, in a last ditch effort to reconcile Hindus and Muslims, Gandhi, now aged seventy-seven, undertook another long march the third of his career this time in the worst affected areas of Bengal, visiting forty-seven villages, walking barefoot, covering large distances.
All this came to nothing when on August 15, 1947, India was freed from British rule but it was divided along religious lines into two nations, namely the secular Republic of India and the
Pg.90 | Gandhi & Jainism