The anxiety was further exacerbated by the vacillating stands often taken by Gandhi and the Congress on the whole issue of Pakistan since the time it was vaguely mooted in the Lahore Resolution in 1940. In the Harijan of 4 May 1940, he had said: ‘I would any day prefer Muslim rule to British rule . . . the partition proposal had altered the face of the Hindu-Muslim problem . . . Pakistan cannot be worse than foreign domination.’62 His earlier statements were vague at best where he had said: ‘As a man of non-violence, I cannot forcibly resist the proposed partition if the Muslims of India
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