My father was born in Patiyalla, Punjab
and at a time just before WW2, Gandi ji
would make it his habbit to stay and rest in a small leanto, attached to the back of
a local mosque in Patiyala, and while there, he forbade contact with adults.
So familys would send.there children to sit at the great mans feet. My father was the child of land owners and went to be there with Ghandi ji, but things did not go well for him, he sat with the children of the other worthies in this hut, very likely feeling out out, when another small
child ducked in, upon which my father told this child "get out bunghi" ,bunghi bieng a slur against the class and caste of thus child, and dismissing such was(and is) something that my father is accustomed to.
Ghandu ji, spoke up and said ,"NO!, you are a bhungi, we are all bhungi!" and brought this child to sit beside him facing the rest.
And in the ensuing years, with the war and partition, and my family going through horror and 17 or our close and extended
family dieing, has left me with some different views.
Ghandi did try, but it is his signature beside that of mountbattens, that precipitated a war of ethnic clensing in
the break up of india.Hitler and stallin would be envious of the body count
that came after that signature.
And the best I can say for Ghandi is that at the crucial moment, he blinked.