INDIA: After 21 Months

The old man seemed cheerful. Now & then his eyes twinkled; sometimes he joked. But all this was deceptive. Mohandas Gandhi's shriveled body was racked by malaria. His pulse lagged. He had moments of delirium. He was 73. Death, which had walked beside him through many a fast and many a jail, again stood close. Or so, at least, it seemed last week to the British rulers of India.

From Gandhi's prison in the Aga Khan's shabby villa at Poona, doctors' bulletins went to Viceroy the Viscount Wavell in New Delhi. The Raj had never intended to let the old man...

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