MAD DOGS AND PARTITION

 
[Lahore, 1943] For his own reasons, Baba never visited the women in the second group at the other bungalow, and they were told not even to look in the direction of Garden Town. If a message needed to be sent from Mehera's group to the other, it went through Kitty, Rano, or Margaret.

The women from Mehera's group visited the women in the other house once a week, but there was to be no discussion of Baba's plans or his work. The other women could visit Garden Town on Sundays also, if Baba were not present.

With the political situation in India deteriorating, Baba's thoughts appeared to be on the future partition of India, which he had been predicting, and the division of the women mandali into two distinct groups could have signified this. Baba also revealed that an incident involving Margaret and a mad dog represented his working in this area. It began with Baba ordering Margaret to obey Mehera:

"The word obey was [normally] never used in reference to Mehera," Margaret explained. "We had only to keep her happy, not to upset her. She did not give orders. The only time she did to me, personally, was in Lahore, when Baba went out for mast tours. Baba sent for me and asked, 'Will you do something for me?'

"Usually, it was in the form of an order, not a request, so I was surprised. Baba was very gentle with me. I said, 'Of course, Baba.' I mean, there was no question.

"'While I'm away, will you do exactly what Mehera tells you, if she gives you an order?'

"I said, 'Yes Baba.'

"So it wasn't a usual thing, but we were under Baba, and he asked me to do that.

"Well, Mehera gave me no orders, until this black dog came along, sick. Usually, we would always feed stray dogs. This time Baba said no. But Mehera asked, 'Couldn't we feed the black dog?' Then Baba said, 'Yes, on condition that Margaret bathes it.'

"She asked me whether I would bathe it. It was an awful-looking thing, and I wasn't particularly anxious to touch it. I did, because she asked me. That was the only time I had a direct order to obey Mehera."

Sitting in the moonlight on the porch that night, Baba called Margaret and embraced her. He said, "Now I'm going to make you happy."

Soon after, a brown dog came. Baba pointed it out and said, "That dog is mad." He ordered Dr. Nilu to have it destroyed, but it had already bitten the black dog, though they did not know it. On the morning of 1 October, the black dog bit Margaret on the wrist and knee.

Baba came to Margaret's aid and then called Krishna [Nair]. Baba pointed out the mad dog, telling him to take the dog 20 miles away. Only after great difficulty did Krishna manage to capture the rabid animal; he did not think he could drag it for 20 miles. So Baba amended the order to 11 miles.

Krishna led the dog outside of Lahore to a small pond, and when the dog's mouth touched the water, it died. When Krishna returned, he asked Baba why he had made him go to all that trouble. Why take the dog 11 miles away, just for it to die? Baba told him to take a stick and draw a line on the ground. Erasing that line with his foot, Baba had him draw another line.

Then he said, "In the future, India will be divided into two countries India and Pakistan. This will be the boundary line between the two." Four years later, at the time of Partition, a dispute did arise over whether the boundary line between the two countries should be 20 or 11 miles from a certain point.

Mehera applied potassium permanganate on Margaret's wrist and knee, but Margaret still had to undergo the prescribed course of injections against rabies. On the Blue Bus journey to Quetta two years before, Baba had asked Margaret if she would die for him, and she very well could have now, if she had gotten rabies by following Mehera's order to care for the black dog.