(2 of 2)
Partly because of Gandhi's decline, Moslem League Leader Mohammed Ali Jinnah was, superficially, in a stronger position to bargain for his partition of India into separate Hindu and Moslem states. Chakravarthi Rajagopalachariar, a Congress partyman who had broken with Gandhi over the "Quit India" resolution of Aug. 8, 1942, and had reunited with him during the fast, called on Indian leaders to "think furiously." It was time for them to think. Whatever the mistakes and blunderings of the British in India, they had not bumbled the Gandhi issue as they saw it. Neither had they solved the Indian issue: for that, something more statesmanlike than simple rigidity would be required.
Inside Gandhi. There was no way of determining what Gandhi thought about the world reaction. Quite possibly he no longer cared. After 20 years of fasting and arguing with the British, he had avowedly made his final break last August with them when he called for civil disobedience. And he was quite capable of viewing his fast as at least a partial success. He had set out to fast 21 days ("God willing") and, surprisingly, he had done so. In the terms of his creed, he had purified his thought. He had also managed to escape from seven months of obscurity, confer with party followers for the first time since he was confined, and he had dramatically brought himself back into the consciousness of his people.