Numbers are not the supreme truth in the world. In freedom's battle in any country, do all the people of that country take part? When the Americans f… - H. V. Sheshadri

The third factor which led to the collapse of the Congress leadership was their disastrous policy vis-a-vis Hindus which broke up their will and morale. It was the direct and tragic consequence of their going after the chimera of “Hindu-Muslim Unity’ at any cost. And what was the ‘cost’? The word ‘Hindu’ was dubbed as communal; all historical memories of his glorious past were dumped into a dark corner; since the national flag Bhagava had betn ‘tainted’ by Hindu glory, it was to be shunned; since Vande mataram tended to stir the Hindu heart to its depths, that song was to be mutilated; the same with Hindi, the national language. Similar was the case whenever riots broke out. On the one hand the Muslims had declared jehad and were indulging in. barbaric’ atrocities, with Government too abetting them. On the other side were the Hindus, to whom the leaders kept on preaching non-violence, and condemning them for raising their arm even in self-defence. Thus, at every step the Hindu who was, in fact, the backbone of the freedom struggle got worsted - beaten both by the Muslims and their own leaders..

In the [past] one thousand years many parts of our country had been ruled by the Muslims and then by the British, but the nation had never compromised, in principle, its sovereignty over any part of the motherland. As a result, our nation had never ceased to strive for throwing out the aggressors and liberate those parts. And history tells us that ultimately it did succeed in freeing the entire land from the clutches of foreign invaders. However, for the first time, Partition conceded the moral and legal right to them over certain parts of the country and declared an ignominious finale to the one thousand years old heroic struggle for freedom. Thus it was an act of humiliating surrender on the point of principle. The usual interpretation of Partition, however, does not utter a word about this aspect. Even while conceding Partition to be a tragedy, it is sought to be made out as the only practical way out then available - as the inevitable price for achieving freedom.

The Congress, befitting its name of Indian National Congress, had declared itself a representative body of all groups, religious or otherwise, in the country. It was, therefore, its pre-eminent duty to stand steadfast by its commitment to the interests and integrity of the nation as a whole and never succumb to the pressure tactics of any particular section of whatever denomination. However, to the nation's misfortune, the Congress was trapped in the coils of the theories of "composite nation" and "composite culture" and infected with an inferiority complex that unless all communities came to its platform it could not become a national organization. It became nervous at the prospect of being dubbed "communal" if Hindus alone participated in its activities.