What did those on ICHR’s poster think of Nehru?

That the Indian Council of Historical Research published a poster of freedom fighters without Jawaharlal Nehru among them says more about those currently at the helm of ICHR, and their political masters, than about Nehru. To them, I say, you can remove Nehru’s name from any place you want, but you can do nothing about the fact that it was Nehru, along with Gandhi and Vallabhai Patel and many others, that stood up against the British through the freedom struggle, for over 30 years. You can’t change that, or any other, part of history.

You can’t erase the fact that until 1929, Gandhi was willing to accept Dominion status for India under the British empire, but it was Bose and Nehru who insisted that India must have full independence. It was Nehru who hoisted the tricolour on the banks of the Ravi and got the ‘Poorna Swaraj’ declaration passed at the Lahore session of Congress. You can’t change the fact that Nehru spent nearly 10 years of his life in jail fighting for freedom (while his wife ailed and died of tuberculosis and his daughter couldn’t attend school). You can’t change the fact that on the momentous occasion of India achieving freedom – “A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history…when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance — on the night of August 14-15, Bharat Mata, the Gods, destiny or whatever it is that you believe in, chose Nehru to announce it to the nation, to set its future direction. There is nothing you can do about it!

On the ICHR’s poster, there are Gandhi, Bose, Patel, Bhagat Singh, Rajendra Prasad, Madan Mohan Malviya, B R Ambedkar and Veer Savarkar. What would they have said about the omission of Nehru from their midst? What did those on the poster think of Nehru and his place in India’s freedom struggle and contemporary history?

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Let’s start with Gandhi, Nehru’s inspiration and mentor. Their relationship is well-documented, especially in the thousands of letters and telegrams they exchanged. They differed with each other on fundamental questions and argued vehemently over them. Yet, Gandhi summed up his assessment of, and blessings for, Nehru after over 30 years of their association in one line in a letter 10 days before he was assassinated by Nathuram Godse, in the midst of communal riots in Delhi. Gandhi had gone on a week-long fast in protest. Unbeknownst to him, Nehru, then Prime Minister, too had gone on fast even as he went around Delhi, jumping into crowds and daring the rioters, physically separating the antagonists, admonishing them. Gandhi wrote, “May you live long and continue to be the jewel of India.” (Italics mine)

Bhagat Singh wrote an article in 1928 titled Naye Netaon ke Alag Alag Vichar (The Different Views/Ideologies of New Leaders) in the journal Kirti, comparing Nehru and Bose, who were then the two rising stars of the Congress Left. After an analysis of Nehru and Bose’s different ideas and appeal, Bhagat Singh concluded: …The other man (Nehru) is an epochal change-maker (italics mine) who is fuelling not just the heart, but also the mind…The need of the hour now is for the youth of Punjab to understand and strengthen revolutionary ideas. At this time, Punjab needs food for the mind, and this can only be found with Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru...”

Bose himself did feel betrayed when Nehru would not support him against Gandhi and the Congress Right (led by Sardar Patel, GB Pant, Rajendra Prasad, et al), which eventually ousted him from Congress. Yes, Nehru also strongly opposed Bose joining hands with Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. But guess what, when Bose formed the Azad Hind Fauj, he named his brigades, Gandhi Brigade and Jawahar Brigade.

Nehru and Patel differed on some issues post-Independence as they shaped the new democratic nation and its structure together. But they did so with the utmost respect to each other and without falling out.

At the beginning of August 1947, in the face of a controversy over whether or not Patel would have a place in Nehru’s cabinet, Nehru wrote a short, touching letter inviting Patel to join the cabinet, saying almost sheepishly that the invitation was “superfluous, because you are the strongest pillar of the Cabinet.” In response, Patel wrote: “Our attachment and affection for each other and our comradeship for an unbroken period of nearly 30 years admit of no formalities. My services will be at your disposal, I hope, for the rest of my life, and you will have unquestioned loyalty and devotion from me in the cause for which no man in India has sacrificed as much as you have done…” (Italics mine)

I rest my case.