My aunt’s father was my grandfather, the late Dr Kailas Nath Katju, who had been the Governor of Odisha and West Bengal, Union Home and Law Minister of India in Nehru’s cabinet, and Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh. She narrated this incident to me.
Before Independence and Partition in 1947, two top Congress party leaders, Maulana Azad (who later became India’s Education Minister) and C. Rajagopalchari (known as Rajaji, who later became the Governor General of India) were in Allahabad and staying in the home of Jawahar Lal Nehru (who later became India’s Prime Minister).
My grandfather Dr. KN Katju was then a top lawyer of Allahabad High Court, and was an active member of the Congress party. He had a huge house in Allahabad on Edmonstone Road, now Tashkent Marg, where I too spent my youth.
One day late at night Dr. Katju received a frantic telephone call from Pandit Nehru. He told Dr. Katju that Maulana Azad had had a heated argument over the question whether Congress should agree to partition of India. Maulana Azad was strongly opposing partition, and Rajaji was equally strongly supporting it.
The argument became so bitter that they told Nehru that they could not spend the night under the same roof.
For this reason, Nehru asked Dr Katju whether he could accommodate Rajaji at his house for the night. Dr. Katju readily agreed, and Rajaji spent the night at my grandfather’s house.
Today one can understand the wisdom of Maulana Azad especially when I believe India and Pakistan are really one country, sharing the same culture, and were one since Moghul times.
Religious extremists and nationalists have made friendship let alone the reversal of partition impossible. We have to still learn how to live as peaceful neighbors. Undoing Partition will ensure a bigger blood bath than 1947.