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When Eid was celebrated in independent India on August 18, 1947, three days after liberation of our country from British colonial rule, its western and eastern regions were reeling under dreadful Partition related communal violence which killed thousands of Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs. It was apprehended that Muslims in newly independent India would not be allowed to celebrate Eid and that they would be relegated to secondary status with their rights trampled upon.

Gandhi and the first Eid of independent India

It was during those terrible days that a refreshingly healthy example was set in Calcutta (now Kolkata) at a prayer meeting organised in the compounds of the Mohammedan Sporting Club on August 18, 1947. Mahatma Gandhi and about four to five lakh people, both Hindus and Muslims participated in it. Gandhi delivered a short speech by saying in the beginning “My first duty is to wish Id Mubarak to all those Muslims who are present here”.  

“There was a time when both the Hindus and Muslims embraced each other on this day…I must confess,” Gandhi proceeded to add, “that after many years I am witnessing this scene.”  

He was very happy to see the members of the Muslims League, National Guards and Congress volunteers present in large numbers and expressed fond hope that the unity of people of diverse faiths on that occasion would be everlasting. He said so in the context of the independence of India which heralded a new era, allowing Indians to replace British rulers to govern the country. At the end he reaffirmed his happiness by saying, “I will never be able to forget the scene I have witnessed today.”

The unity and amity of people of diverse faiths on the occasion of Eid in August 1947 recorded by Gandhi at a time when Punjab and Bengal were caught in internecine communal bloodbath........

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