29 January, 1948.

29 January, 1948 was a particularly tiring day for Mahatma Gandhi. He worked hard and late on a draft constitution for the Congress party.

Bapu was very tired but finished the draft of the Congress constitution. He got up to wash his feet at 9:15 P.M. and then made ready to go to bed. He was so exhausted that he forgot to take his exercises till I reminded him.

These were the words of Manu, Gandhi's grand-niece.

And what did the draft say about the Congress party?

Though split into two, India having attained political independence through means devised by the Indian National Congress, the congress in its present shape and form i.e. as a propaganda vehicle and parliamentary machine, has outlived its use.

India has still to attain social, moral and economic independence in terms of its 700,000 villages as distinguished from its cities and towns. The struggle for the ascendancy of civil over military power is bound to take place in India’s progress towards its democratic goal. The Congress must be kept out of unhealthy competition with political parties and communal bodies. For these and other similar reasons, the All-India Congress Committee resolves to disband the existing Congress organization and flower into a Lok Sevak Sangh...

On 30 January he was assassinated. This document, however, was given to the Secretary of the Indian National Congress that day. It was unheeded.

The rest, as they say, is history.