Gandhi’s 1948 fast made India pay Rs 55 crore to Pakistan

The Indian Opinion

The Rs 55 crore payment is often framed as a naive or reckless act by Gandhi. But it was rooted in a straightforward question: how could India demand that Pakistan protect its minorities while refusing to honour a financial agreement? The sum was legally Pakistan's share of a common inheritance, not a charitable gift. Decades later, India's 1960 Indus Waters Treaty with Pakistan, which included a $174 million payment, followed a similar logic of honouring agreements despite conflict. The real test of Gandhi's approach is not in the crore amount but in whether India's leaders today would show the same consistency between their demands on others and their own actions.