M.J. Akbar�is a distinguished writer and Member of Parliament representing the BJP from Madhya Pradesh. During his long career in journalism, he launched, as editor, India's first weekly political news magazine,�Sunday�in 1976, and two daily newspapers,�The Telegraph�in 1982 and�The Asian Age�in 1994. He has also been editorial director of�India Today�and�The Sunday Guardian.
Gandhi, a devout Hindu, believed faith could nurture the civilizational harmony of India, a land where every religion had flourished. Jinnah, a political Muslim rather than a practicing believer, was determined to carve up a syncretic subcontinent in the name of Islam. His confidence came from a wartime deal with Britain, embodied in the 'August Offer' of 1940. Gandhi's strength lay in ideological commitment which was, in the end, ravaged by the communal violence that engineered partition. The price of this epic confrontation, paid by the people, has stretched into generations.
