Literary Views And The Development Of Nehru’s Political Thought

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30745, 8 May 1965, Page 4

Literary Views And The Development Of Nehru’s Political Thought

Nehru. The First Sixty Years. By Dorothy Norman. Bodley Head. 2 Volumes. 1611 pp. These two volumes present. 1 in Jawaharlal Nehru’s own! words, the development of his' political thought from his! earliest years up to the found-, ing of the Republic of India' in 1950, and include significant passages from his writings, speeches, statements and documents. The prime purpose is to demonstrate the evolution of his political thought. The responsibility for the selection, editing of a vast array of information, plus the preparation of commentaries. was given to Dorothy Norman whose qualifications to handle the task are impressive. She has written extensively about politics, leaders, philosophy and art of India, was an officer of the India League of America and was a guest at Mr Nehru's residence in New Delhi in 1950 for the formal inauguration of independent India. The Indian national movement did not suddenly come into being in January 1950, but developed gradually through various forms over a long period. When the Honourable East India Company first made contact in the mid-18th century they found the Portuguese and French trading in a small way with a people who certainly had no! sense of being a nation. It | was by no means an easy task to develop such a sense, and it is not surprising that several solutions were attempted before any degree of! success was achieved, and in a land such as India it is also not surprising that the first form should be religious. The Brahmo Samaj (Divine! Society) was founded in 1828! by Ram Mohan Roy who had! been a student of Buddhism. Hinduism, Islam and Christianity and who launched an,

attack on such traditional Hindu traditions as caste, suttee and idolatry. His new principles of “reason” particularly affected the new middle classes made up of lawyers, journalists and teachers but did not reach as far as the masses. The Arya| Samaj (Aryan Society), which developed from the former! Society, was more militant in its outlook and promoted an, “India for Indians” outlook. ■ with the addition of what could successfully be grafted! on from the West. It attacked orthodox Hinduism | and promoted social uplift and education but, because of its archaic religious proposals, failed to capture the imagination of India as a whole. It called for a return to Vedaic (earliest Hindu scripture) ways, but although the bulk of the people would retain the Vedas, very few wanted to return to them. The late 19th century saw the founding of the Ramakrishna mission. This was essentially a synthesis of the main religions of the world and non-Hindus were acceptable as members. Being patterned along the lines of western Christian missions it introduced a new element—action. It taught social service and self-reliance, and encouraged a sense of cohesion but was too unorthodox to achieve a great deal in the way of nationalism on a large scale. The Ilbert Bill, introduced immediately after the Mutiny, had given a lead amongst the English-educated classes, but much more was required. The beginnings of nationalism are to be found within a complex' pattern of factors, indeed the all important India National Congress could not have held its inaugural meeting in 1885 without the roads and railways laid down earlier by the 1 British. At the same time as the Congress, there was another nationalist body meeting, the National Con-1 ference. It is interesting to note that this had grown from Banerjea's India Association I which had held three objects: ! the stimulating of publicopinion, the unification of India and Hindu-Muslim unity. The whole course of Indian history might have been greatly different if Congress had not developed as l it did.

Jawaharlal Nehru was born, in Allahabad only four years! after these initial attempts atj nationalism but the movement was soon to have what it had been waiting for—a Harrow and Cambridge educated Brahmin with the drive, intellect and ability to carry nationalist feelings through the turmoils ahead, to final success. Just prior to Nehru’s leaving for England and Harrow, the Viceroy (Lord Curzon) was raising the political temperature of India with his partition of Bengal, and in early 1906, IndoBritish relations entered a new phase for in that year

Congress decided to work towards “Swarji,” selfgovernment. In England the boy was impressed by the stories of Garabaldi in Italy and the Sinn Fein in Ireland, and he returned to India in 1912 as a lawyer with a strong leaning towards thought and action which would assist to lead India tb freedom. “This initial urge came to me, I suppose, through pride, both individual and national, and the desire, common to all men, to resist another’s domination and have freedom to live the life of our choice. It seemed monstrous to me that a great country like India, with a rich and immemorial past. ! should be bound hand and foot to a faraway island : which imposed its will upon j her.” Nineteen hundred and sixj teen was an important year, for it was at this time that Nehru was married, and in ! December of that year he first met Mahatma Gandhi who made a life-long impression .upon him: “He (Gandhi) seemed to emerge from the ! millions of India speaking their language and incessantly drawing attention to their appalling conditions.” From him Nehru learnt fearlessness, and the influence of Gandhi was to be felt for many years. In 1920 Nehru came to realise the abject poverty of millions of his countrymen, and this year also brought the first police action against him. His actual “sentences” totalled over 14 years before India was to achieve independence in 1947. Nehru visited England again in 1926 and Russia in 1927, all the time observing and developing an interest in I socialism and independence. The thirties brought much hardship. He lost his father, mother and wife in rapid succession and gaol sentences occurred with distressing regularity.

Nehru’s political opinion had now hardened to a democratic form of socialism, but these beliefs were not shared by his colleagues in Congress where there was pressure from Muslim quarters for a separate Muslim state. But Nehru continued to press for. a free, democratic, united and secular India. India declared her independence in 1930 at the Lahore Congress Session under Nehru's Presidency, but much was to be done before this became actual fact. The gulf between the Muslim League, under Jinnah, and Congress, gradually widened over this period but by 1938, Indians were well aware that they were Indians, and the approaching European war,

plus the fighting in Manchuria, Abyssinia and Spain,! assisted in generating a more] intense nationalistic feeling. On October 17. 1939, Lord Linlithgow announced that India was to receive Dominion status after the war, but this was not sufficient for Nehru; “We want a united India but a free India and we have no shadow of doubt that we shall get what we want.” The war years brought further opportunities to advance the nationalist cause and late 1940 found Nehru back in gaol again for “endeavouring to stir up agrarian discontent,” but Churchill requested that he “receive special consideration and treatment.” In insisting on absolute ! independence, Nehru was politely firm with England but it is clear that he had no sympathies whatsoever with Hitler.

Immediately after the war came new British proposals. Lord Wavell proposed that the Executive Council be so reorganised as to give suitable representation of Hindu and Muslim, and Nehru was permitted to leave prison once again to attend the subsequent discussions between British Government, Muslim League and Congress representatives, the upshot of which was that Nehru’s group was prepared to proceed with the “interim” Government under Wavell’s plan without the participation of the Muslims who had made demands which could not be met. India was at last moving towards self-government but partition was also looming on the political horizon. The year of decision came in 1946. The power of the British Empire was rapidly waning in the East and with the Articles of Freedom, as enunciated in the Atlantic Charter, on Nationalists’ lips, complete freedom would have to be granted without delay. The spokesman for India was to be Jawaharlal Nehru, and Congress elected him President in anticipation of the task ahead. The first meeting with Lord Mountbatten was an informal affair which took place at Singapore under conditions of mutual good-will. Mountbatten drove through the streets side by side with Nehru and “the streets, packed with Indians, seemed to shake with the cries of enthusiasm which greeted them.”

At home, the Muslim League continued to press for an independent Pakistan but Nehru continued to argue for representative government of both Hindu and Muslim. The critical task of passing power over to Indian control fell to Lord Mountbatten who, with Lady Mountbatten, arrived in India in March 1947, to take up his duties as the last Viceroy of India. August 15th, 1947 marked the birth of independent India, and once partition became an inevitable necessity, religious tensions became greatly intensified. During the dreadful carnage which followed, Nehru continued to oppose the division between Indians and played “an important role in helping to stem the overwhelming tide of hatred and terrorism that seemed both never-ending and inhuman beyond belief.” India needed the wisdom of his experience and the political hour produced the man capable of guiding her through the first difficult but joyful years of her long awaited freedom. As leader of the new India, Nehru had to face these problems at a time when his role was having an increasing influence upon Asia as a whole. These volumes will be of considerable value to the serious student of Indian history but are offered in such a way as to also have much general appeal. Maps, a glossary of terms and a comprehensive index make these books easy to handle, and detailed chapter headings also assist in this direction. There is a bibliography, and an appendix which extends several interesting facets of the subject matter.