CHAPTER I

JAWAHARLAL NEHRU - LIFE AND PROFILE

Motilal Nehru and Swaruprani, a late Victorian Indian family, born in the

midst of wealth on November 14, 1889. This family descended from

Kashmiri Brahmin stock, the highest of high caste Hindus. It was from his

mother that Jawaharlal used to hear endless talk about Kashmir. "We

Kashmiris have always been proud and ancient people. Its cuisine was

the best in the world. Its women were the most beautiful in all India,

more like the fairies from beyond the Caucasus mountains."1 Jawaharlal's

childhood was secluded. He was an only child for eleven years, and he

spent his time mostly and exclusively in the company of adults. Nehru's

tutor was a young man named F.T.Brooks. On one occasion when Brooks

was holding forth on the joys of the 'Great Spirit/ Jawaharlal saw a deep

frown developing on his father's forehead. Motilal stopped Brooks in

midstream. "I realise, Mr.Brooks, that you could develop a rich

imagination in my son. Well, there's no harm in that. However, 1 would

prefer my son to learn to be guided in life not so much by emotion as by

reason, so that his imagination will not prevent him from seeing reality."2

Perhaps this had become really gateway for Jawaharlal's passion for

looking into realities.

The solitary confinement of Jawaharlal compelled him to develop a

passion for reading which stayed with him till the end of his life. He

became a voracious reader, devouring everything in sight. Lewis Carroll,

Rudyard Kipling, Conan Doyle, Scott, Dickens, Thackeray and slightly

deeply.,

Jawaharlal, who was a 'typical bourgeois, brought up in a

bourgeois surroundings' has been sent to Harrow for education in 1905.

Two years later, he went to trinity college at Cambridge where in 1910 he

obtained a degree in natural sciences. He was called to the bar in 1912.

After seven years stay in England, Nehru returned to India in 1912, at the

age of twenty three, 'a queer mixture of the East and the West/ He

enrolled himself as an advocate of the Allahabad High Court. He started

his political career by attending the session of the Congress at Patna in

1912. He met Gandhiji in 1915 and soon plunged into the freedom

struggle by participating in the non-cooperation movement.

During his years at Harrow, Nehru kept himself fully informed of

what was happening in India. He got regular clippings from the Indian

Press and followed political developments carefully and closely. After

coming to India, he toured the country extensively to understand the

problems of India and its people. He presided over the Lahore Congress

in 1929 where complete Independence was adopted as the goal of the

Congress. He spent many years in jail during freedom struggle. He

formed the interim government in 1946 and became Prime Minister of

free India in 1947.

14
 Jawaharlal Nehru emerged as one of the key figures of the

twentieth century and symbolised some of the major forces which have

transformed our age. He is the architect of independent India and carved

the nation in a dynamic way to beget multifarious sources of strength and

hope for building up of various institutions and progress of all fields of

development. He dominated the Indian political scene as a relentless front

rank freedom fighters till independence and as the first Prime Minister of

free India left behind him not only certain achievements but also a legacy.

Jawaharlal Nehru will live in people's minds for a long time. There

is no escape from history of what he did as a freedom fighter and for 17

years as India's Prime Minister. He was one of the captains of our

freedom struggle. He gave it a rational and modem basis, a secular and

economic bias, and a truly international outlook. He was looking years

ahead, though nobody can say what the centuries may bring. There had

been other great Indians, but with ail shortcomings and failures, Pandit

Nehru was the greatest nation-builder. He was always criticised by some

sections but he never compromised his consistency - always a man of

promise, always growing. With all the opportunities available his critics

and opposition parties could not present a viable alternative. His singular

achievements encompass the democratic process, the secular process, the

stress on science, the planning process and peaceful foreign policy which

would serve as the goals for any statesman Prime Minister.

15
 Evolution of Nehru's Personality

The evolution of the personality of Jawaharlal Nehru and his ideas

were helped by a mind which was intensely human, resilient, sensitive

and aesthetic. As a student of natural sciences in England, his mind was

exposed to the expanding intellectual vistas of the day without being

enslaved by any one single attachment, except the love that he retained

for scientific attitude and the rapidly growing knowledge of science.

On his return to India, Nehru was quickly drawn into the

nationalist movement wherein his father was an active participant. His

household was a model of secularism. As a child he owed much to a

* fatherly Muslim 'khansama.' As a young man he was immensely

influenced by the personality of Gandhiji. When he was drawn so quickly

towards Gandhiji, his father, Motilal Nehru, had some reservations about

the attachment. Gandhiji, sensing the feelings of Nehru's father, wrote a

letter stating that there was nothing to worry since he would also win him

over just like his son. In such like situations Gandhiji showed his

puckishness.

To begin with, Nehru was just one more of the ordinary run of

conforming nationalists, an unquestioning follower of the Mahatma. He

accepted unquestioningly not only non-cooperation but all the other

teachings of Gandhi - khaddar, spinning, faith in God - and what made it

worse was that, unlike Gandhi, he had at this time little sense of humour.
16
 There could be no half-measures, he said in the midst of the civil

disobedience campaign in 1921, and added that he had discovered no

new method of driving the English out of India except swadeshi. He did

not agree with those who advocated violence; swaraj could be won and

retained only by the use of swadeshi cloth. Finding himself in jail, he wrote

solemnly, 'Now I understand a little what Jesus meant when he asked us

to forsake the world and save our soul.'

The second major influence on Nehru was the peasant revolt of

Faizabad and Rai Bareli areas: on his own initiative he moved among the

• peasants and personally experienced for the first time the mute and

centuries-old anguish of the peasants of India. It was this experience that

made him sell the idea of active peasant association with the Congress

organization. Later, he extended this idea to the workers' organization's

also. But his concern for the peasants and workers is not adequately

conceptual.

"He agreed with Gandhi that the kisans should pay their rents and

devote their full attention to the non-violent struggle for sumraj. He even

preached kisan-znmindar unity; and on the issue of ejectment which, more

than any other, agitated the kisans of the United Provinces Nehru's

comment was a meaningless one, that the ejectment of kisan was but a

minor part of the major issue of ejectment of the British from India."

17
 "As this time Nehru had not considered carefully whether

r economic and social change should be part of, or even parallel to, the

political revolution; and he accepted unthinkingly the escapist suggestion

that economic issues should not hinder political activity. Peasants were

told that, till swaraj was attained, they should not complain about their

economic disabilities."

By then, Nehru was carried away by the traumatic experience of

the First World War. Being a keen student of history he could sense the

tragedy of the war - a crisis of Western society because of its failure to

provide adequate answers to the challenges posed by advancing

industrialization and capitalism. Logically, he drew more and more

towards socialism and even admired the Russian Revolution of 1917.

At that time, Gandhiji was more engrossed in perfecting his ethic

of non-violence and its application to practical realities in the form of non­

cooperation and other forms of satyagraha. He was also engrossed in the

'Khilafat Campaign'. The capstone of all these efforts was the Chauri-

Chaura incident which made Gandhiji to withdraw the non-cooperation

movement to the utter disillusionment of almost all leaders including

Pandit Nehru. After this event, Gandhiji made a tactical retreat into his

shell of introspection, concentrating on constructive programmes. Thus, it

was in this period that Nehru hit out on his own discovery, to probe more

and more into the emerging forces of the world.

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 Nehru attended not only the Socialist Congress at Brussels but also

journeyed to the Soviet Union in 1927. It was in this period that he

moved very close to socialism and even to Marxism and communism. He

openly expressed in his speeches that evolution of communism was an

inevitability. This view-point of Nehru was carried into the Congress fold.

The first part of the thirties was a period of intense anxiety within the

Congress organization. A large number of leaders thought that Nehru

had become a communist and some of the industrialists openly

challenged him. Gandhiji himself wrote a letter to Nehru expressing his

fear that he was moving away from him on a different path. Also, by then,

there emerged within the Congress Party a group of socialists as

represented by Acharya Narendar Dev, Subhas Chandra Bose, Ram

Manohar Lohia and others.

But the socialist enthusiasm of Pandit Nehru wilted away because

of certain developments, both world-wide and internal. In Europe the

forces of fascism grew more and more ominous. The socialist utopia of

Marx was clouded by purges in the USSR and Stalin's inscrutable policies.

Within the country a major constitutional change occurred with the

passing of the 1935 Act. Communalism grew into grave proportions by

the end of thirties. Nehru's vision of the future became clouded with the

on-rush of events within the country and the rapidly escalating

developments in Western Europe leading to the outbreak of the Second

World War. During the war the nationalist struggle speeded up further.
19
Caught in the swift currents of change, Nehru sobered his enthusiasm for

socialism while directing his attention more towards the immediate

problems that had to be tackled. Then onwards Nehru came very close to

Gandhiji: he was totally bewitched by the magnetism of this great man.

Apart from these two contexts Nehru's admiration for socialism

was a highly personalised perception of it. "Nehru could never be an

unqualified Marxist. For him Marxism was not a logical construction but

primarily an intellectual impulse based to a considerable extent on

emotional sympathy. It was not so much a rational or even a political

approach but an aesthetic reaction to the evils of capitalist society, an

abhorrence of its ugliness and squalor. He was more responsive to a

writer like William Morris than to the conventional exponents of Marxist

thought" "He was a radical, principled and emotional rather than an

ideological mind. Though he claimed to use the word 'socialism' not in a

vague way but in a scientific economic sense, to him it was always more a

tendency than a definable body of doctrine. It was an outlook, a blend of

science and humanism, a philosophy of life; and it would have to be

adapted to Indian conditions and speak in the language of the country.

When Jayaprakash asked him how he hoped to build socialism

with the help of capitalists and expressed his concern at Nehru's

proneness to run down all forms of socialist thought and practice, Nehru

replied that he did not pretend to be a socialist in any formal sense of the

20
 word and surely socialism was not the monopoly of any particular group.

In public, Nehru argued that it was a question not of theory but of hard

fact's, of raising the living standards of the people. The attitude was

logically impeccable. The disowning of this theory has the advantages of

flexibility; but it also carries the danger of robbing policy of any hard core

of objective and commitment."

And in 1947 Nehru was a witness to the tragedy of India's partition

and the emergence of a free country saddled with many burdens. In the

post-Independence era, he was engaged in holding the country together,

installation of a full-fledged representative government, initiating an

entirely new path in international affairs, and giving direction to the

planned economic development of the country. In all these fields Nehru

left his own distinct imprint since he had lost his guide and philosopher,

Gandhiji. During his tenure as Prime Minister, he was a lone furrow since

he was mostly surrounded by jealous and undoubtedly self-seeking

persons. However, he was able to carry on alone since he was superior to

any other leader: he was like a great banyan tree. Being a man of great

vision he conceptualized the future of India and the means for realizing it.

The five paths stuck by Nehru are: peace, democracy, socialism,

science and secularism. In brief, the story of Nehru is yet to be completed,

since what he stood for is still not within our reach. Nehru was the

« greatest Indian exponent of modern India. Whatever the little modernity

21
 that we see in today's India is his monument. We get an insight into his

ideas and thoughts mainly through his speeches and writings. His three

works are: Autobiography, the Glimpses of World History and the

Discovery of India.

Democracy

Nehru's faith in democracy was rooted in his deeply ingrained

v liberalism and humanism. For him every individual was important and,

therefore, he visualised a social order which would offer equal

opportunity to every individual to develop according to his capability. As

he firmly believed in the dignity of man, he was strongly opposed to

fascism and communism.

Nehru's faith in political equality stemmed out of his conviction in

the sovereignty of the people. The will of the people, according to him, is

the only paramount power. Power does not emanate from the magic of

personality but from the appeal to the minds of the masses. He was the

first to formulate the idea of a Constituent Assembly long before such an

assembly was set up under the Cabinet Mission Scheme. The basis of the

Constituent Assembly was the sovereignty of the Assembly with

revolutionary temper. India was to be an independent sovereign republic

wherein all the power and authority of the Republic, its constituent parts

and organs were derived from the people. Justice - social, economic and

political - to be guaranteed: there has to be equality of status and

freedoms.

To Nehru, democracy alone ensures full opportunity to the

individual for his development. His concern for individual liberty was

supreme. For him, freedom of the people came first, as it gave them the

freedom to shape their future. Therefore, he fought for civil liberties. Also,

his concept of freedom was all-encompassing, not merely political but

also economic and spiritual.

Nehru preferred democracy because he was convinced that it was

the right way of achieving the end as it was a peaceful method. Another

reason why he believed in democracy was that he was conscious of the

fact that a constitution must serve the needs of the people. India being a

land of many races, religions and languages, he wanted to fit the

composite culture of India into the framework of national unity. He did

not believe in either oneness of culture or the imposition of any majority

culture. In a democratic framework the mosaic of Indian culture should

look up.

Next to freedom, Nehru believed in economic, social and political

equality. To him the ultimate ideal of a democratic society is to remove

the differences between the rich and the poor. He considered the capitalist

system as the negation of equality and, therefore, strongly advocated the

socialist path for removing inequality, poverty and unemployment. With

of democratic socialism.

In his crusade for social equality, Nehru opposed caste system. He

felt that it was incompatible with both democracy and socialism.

Similarly, he believed that the measure of social progress was to be

judged from the status of women. As he strongly felt that women should

be independent and self-reliant, he was instrumental in the enactment of

Hindu Code Bill which aims at ensuring relationship between man and

woman based on unquestionable freedom and comradeship without

undermining the individuality of either.

Nehru indeed knew the limitations of Indian democracy: it was

unreal without social and economic democracy; elections were costly;

voting behaviour was yet uncertain and dependent on many

undemocratic habits, but there had to be wider participation by the

people. With all the inadequacies, he firmly believed that democracy

alone would correct its weaknesses and flaws. He favoured parliamentary

democracy by democratic decentralisation at the district and village level.

Jawaharlal Nehru had no fanciful notions about democracy. To

him the content was more important than the form. He sometimes

thought of reforms but always waited for consensus to develop. He did

not think of a partyless democracy. He considered the party system

essential for the functioning of democracy. But, at the same time, he did
24
not believe in brute majority. He was pained to see that parties in India

were breaking into groups and that instead of a party system a group

system was developing.

Nehru himself was a great parliamentarian of his time. He never

absented from the Parliament. He always sat through its deliberations. He

was always conscious of the fact that democracy must ensure good

government; it must allow criticism and corrections. He respected

freedom and was tolerant of criticism. He welcomed discussion and was

receptive to new ideas. Even though he did not agree with Mahatma

Gandhi on some basic issues, he always followed him as a disciplined

soldier. He stood for human dignity and self-respect. He knew that

Parliamentary democracy demanded ability and certain dedication to

work, a large measure of cooperation, self-discipline and restraint.

Though he had no prior experience, he adapted himself to his new role as

soon as he became the leader of the House. The secret of his success was

his unfailing respect for Parliament. He always raised the level of debate.

He disapproved of frivolity or incompetence amongst his colleagues in

the Cabinet. He was a great believer in the rule of law.

Ruling India democratically also involved inner-party democracy,

the art of human management. Holding together the Congress as a

coalition of opinion within a broad framework of agreement was one of

his chief pre-occupations. While giving the party broadly a leftist

25
orientation, he kept both flanks, on left and right, open so that the party

would gain an increasingly wider base, and draw in support from both

sides. He allowed the provincial parties to choose their chief ministers

and supported them till they lost the confidence of their followers. Power

and personality patterns in the States were allowed to resolve themselves.

Here are a few excerpts from the lectures delivered by Shri

S.Gopal:

(a) "Nehru could have, bearing in mind the legacy of viceroyal rule

as well as his own personal standing with the people thought in

terms of avowed one-man rule, justified by plebiscite. But even

if this had worked, it could only have worked in his lifetime.

Nehru was thinking much further ahead; and therefore,

working against the drive of his own personality and the eager

subservience of those around him, he promoted the spirit and

nurtured the institutions of a democratic system. He exploited

his personal dominance to create such a political atmosphere in

the country as would ensure that no one else would be able to

dominate Indian politics as he had done. One of Nehru's

greatest successes was the preclusion of a successor in any real

sense.

This thought, for all I know, might have prevailed in

Nehru's subconscious; but what influenced his thinking process

worked. The people grew accustomed to political participation,

they learnt what a French writer of the Eighteenth century

regarded as the most dangerous thin, that they had a mind, and

Nehru taught them to apply that mind. All his public speeches,.

both before and after 1947, were part of a sustained programme

of adult education. Over the years Nehru helped to transform

the political value structure of the Indian people. It was an

unseen revolution."

(b) "Outside Parliament, Nehru also saw to it that no hindrance

was placed in the way of a free press and independent

judiciary. On the one occasion when he slipped by publicly

criticizing a judge who was conducting a commission of

inquiry, he quickly sent an apology. But his main problem was

the strengthening of democratic government."

While it is true that Nehru gave us the Constitution which forms

the basis of our democratic process, we cannot ignore the fact that it was

„ during his time that the sanctity of the Constitution was violated as a

result of its frequent amendments, largely because of his impatience to

achieve some socio-economic results. As a democrat he had great faith in

the role of party system but it is also a fact that as the supreme leader of

his time, he hardly gave the attention which the Congress party needed

27
for providing adequate political training to its members and for ensuring

an effective intra-party democracy. The Kamraj Plan, though intended to

rejuvenate the party, did not achieve any significant result in toning up

the health of the party. Corruption in politics had begun to raise its ugly

head. Yet another political trend which developed during the 1960's was

the growth of confrontational politics. To some extent this development

was largely due to Nehru's democratic tolerance and his hope that a

constructive opposition would emerge.

Science, Religion and Secularism

Nehru believed that secular spirit is essentially a scientific spirit. It

was in this sense that he sought to establish secularism in this country of

many religions and many gods. He did not despise religion. He believed

in the equal status of all religions and complete religious freedom. He

respected the great teachers of all ages. But he relegated religion to its

proper place in life and did not want theocratic States or new crusades.

He did not believe in the 'two-nation theory' as religion could not be the

basis of a nation. He wanted the State to be completely national. He was

interested in this world, in this life, not in some other world or some other

life. Sometimes he startled people by declaring himself to be a pagan. His

paganism was his love of freedom, freedom from dogma, from ritual,

from sects, and from cliches. His religion was the service of India, and

thereby of humanity "I am trying to serve my country. If service to my

28
country is religion, I am religious. If it is not, I am not." To him, dams

and steel plants were the new temples, work was worship, and he put

science and spirituality above religion and ritual. However, he believed in

ethical values. His association with Gandhiji left an indelible stamp on

him as far as moral values were concerned.

Nehru held science as the greatest revolutionary force in the

modem world. He taught men to think in a rational way and not be afraid

of discarding anything or accepting anything if there were sufficient

reasons for doing so. There should be no narrowing of the mind or

restriction of the human spirit or the country's spirit. He wanted the

nation to imbibe the spirit of science and be prepared to accept the truth.

For this endeavour he hoped, the research institutes and laboratories

would play an important role in effecting not only the minds of the young

men and women who worked there but also the minds of others. He did a

lot to encourage eminent scientists to organize scientific research and its

application to the growing needs. He wanted science to be an instrument

of service to society and the scientists to accept social responsibility. He

gave science and technology his personal attention. He drafted the

"Science Policy Resolution" of 1958. He was actively associated with the

Indian Science Congress. Thanks to his enthusiasm, application of science

and technology has given India a sound agricultural and industrial base.

29
 Nehru was never tired of speaking of the industrial revolution

which India had missed. Indeed, industrialization may not always be the

product of the rational mind, but the chief cause of a rational approach.

He wanted the people to acquire a scientific and rational temper through

industrialisation and technology.

The scientific outlook includes the secular approach. Insistence on

secularism was necessary to preserve the values which the Indian

Republic cherished after the creation of the theocratic State of Pakistan.

'Two-nation theory' made no sense to Nehru. He saw no connection

between religion and culture or nationhood. He had an abiding faith in

unbreakable unit of India, though the religious and communal quarrels

caused him anguish and pain. He thought that they were different aspects

of the underdeveloped state of the economy. Therefore, he set himself to

the task of revolution. To him, revolution contained many revolutions in

one: a scientific revolution, an industrial revolution, and a social and

economic revolution: it was a total revolution.

Thus Nehru brought India to the threshold of modernity. Much of

modern India is a living monument to him. Though he never believed in

the religion of gods, he always believed in the religion of man; and he was*

not irreligious. He was clear that the right to profess and manifest religion

need not prevent the scientific growth or the development of secular

outlook. The United States has many religions, the Soviet Union has

30
allowed religion to be practised, and even in China, old pagodas and

temples have been restored. So why should India be an iconoclast?

Social Reforms

Nehru believed that the state must anticipate social needs and act

accordingly. He was strongly opposed to the caste system. He wanted

women to enjoy equal status with men. He was strongly in favour of a

uniform civil code for the whole of India, which, he thought, was an

imperative need for forging national unity. His achievement was the

Hindu Marriage Act which modified Hindu law in regard to marriage,

divorce, adoption, guardianship and women's right to property.

Education

Nehru approached the question of education from the view-point

of a democrat. He did not propound any theory of education as Gandhiji

or Tagore did, but he looked upon it as an instrument of establishing

sound basis for democracy and as a means of developing an integrated

human being. He also felt that education fostered from ignorance as

important as freedom from hunger. Also that education is essential for

promoting scientific temper. Education has to fulfil new social objectives

by inculcating a proper outlook, tolerance, a spirit of humanism and a

sense of citizenship. He advocated universalisation of education for

economic progress : he tried to develop facilities for basic, scientific and

31
technical education. He also stressed the need for cultural education and

education of women.

Nehru supported the claim of regional languages - mother tongue

to be media of education. He wanted to retain English language as a

second language in order to maintain contact with the outside world and

to make advancement in the field of science and technology. He endorsed

the Three-Language Formula consisting of one's mother tongue, one

Indian language other than the mother tongue and the third, either

English or any other foreign language.

Nehru's Humanism

Apart from rationality and open-mindedness, one more part of

Nehru's personality was his intense humanism. From Mahatma Gandhi,

he had inherited deep-seated humanism. Like Gandhiji, Nehru, too, had a

personality which drew people of all groups and of all countries.

Nehru belonged much more to the new age, ushered in by the

Bolshevik Revolution. He did not believe that God was to be sought

outside human society. Like Tagore, he has firm faith in this "world of

bondage", for, it contained both sorrow and satisfaction. The world in

which Nehru moved and had his being was a real world to him. That is

why he did not believe in renouncing the world, but in improving it. Thus

his interest in human happiness and in humanism. The man in Nehru, in

32
his day-to-day personal dealings with people in different walks of life,

never obtruded on others and never made anyone feel that he was

intellectually inferior to him.

Even though he inherited Gandhiji's humanism, Nehru was too

much of an individualist and too integrated a person to become the

replica of one single person or expository of one ideology. That is why it

seems to us that Tagore's estimate of him comes nearer to the truth when

he said that Nehru was a person "greater than his deeds and truer than

his surroundings". He was all this because, as an elder contemporary of

his, Dr.B.C.Roy wrote, "He radiates youth and joyousness which he

carries with him wherever he goes, and infects others with them". He

could do all this because his mind was impregnated with the deep path of

human lives, he felt the sorrows of others. He was a great humanist of the

kind which seems to have disappear from the world. True, imbued with

the dialectics of Marx, Nehru believed in a materialistic solution of the ills

of mankind, but beyond this and in spite of his razor-sharp brain, he was

basically human, a poet and a sufferer for the sufferings of others. General

de Gaulle's description of him as one who "represents the poetry and

mystery of India" came nearer the truth than any other we have heard of

or read.

33
An Overview

Nehru was a clear personality and he did clearly visualise the

horizon of India in the future. Although his achievement is massive there

are a few failings.

In pursuit of his goal of socialism, Nehru failed to give serious

thought to the importance of agriculture and the weightage that it needs

to be given in the development of economy. For that matter employment

and population growth too, received sketchy attention from Pandit

Nehru. Today we all know that the drag of agriculture and the worsening

unemployment along with growing population are the gravest problems.

It is only the day that we are able to crack these problems can we hope to

witness meaningful changes on the economic front.

Equally grave was the benign neglect of corruption. During his

own life time a few incidents took place like doings of Bakshi Gulam

Ahmed, Ravi Shankar Shukla and Pratap Singh Kairon. Even corruption

at ordinary levels was also on the rise. None of these developments

attracted the attention of Nehru. On a few occasions he chose to brush

them aside stating that they were not so serious, but this particular evil

has now grown into mammoth proportions.

Lastly, he never gave a serious thought to the question of

leadership after his death. The saying of the day was that nothing grows

34
under the banyan tree. The net result was after his death bickerings

started within the party. For a short while during the time of Shastri the

political situation of leadership in the congress became more and more

murky. The end result is today's pathetic political picture.

REFERENCES

1. Ali Tariq, The Nehrus and the Gandhis - An Indian Dynasty, London:
Picador, 1985, p.5.

2. Ibid., p.7.

35