‘The Triple Stream’

‘TRIVENI’ HAS SHED LIGHT ON MY PATH.
BLESSED BE HER NAME!

The Passing of Nehru

With the passing of Jawaharlal Nehru, as with the passing of King Arthur of Ancient Britain, “the old order changeth, yielding place to new.” Next to Gandhiji, Nehru was the prime architect of India’s destiny. During the freedom struggle, he was among the foremost of Gandhiji’s lieutenants. Along with senior stalwarts like C. R. Das, Sardar Patel, Rajendra Prasad, and his own father Motilal Nehru, he played a significant role in the three-decade fight for Indian Independence. He gave a new form and content to the concept of freedom by urging, firstly, the case for complete Independence, and secondly, by pleading for Socialism as a way of life. During the seventeen years of his Prime Ministership, he laid the foundations of the New India of his dreams of her democracy, her economic and social structure, of her dedication to the ideal of international peace and goodwill.

Not since the assassination of Gandhiji has the nation sustained a loss comparable to the sudden collapse of Nehru. And all nations have shared India’s grief, and offered reverential homage to his memory. Scholar and statesman, lover of humanity and champion of the rights of nations yearning for freedom, Nehru occupies an exalted place among the immortals of recent centuries. He was endowed with rare gifts of personal charm, and supreme ability as a speaker and writer wielding words of winged power. He won the affection of millions of men, women and children of all lands and of all faiths.

“I have cleared all the files,” were almost his last words, as he attended to his official work far into the night after returning from his brief holiday at Dehra Dun. He may not have had any premonition of the end of all earthly striving; but the words were prophetic. They represent too his attitude to all work–as a joyous fulfilment of self-chosen tasks. On the morning of the 27th of May he sank into an unconscious state following a spasm of pain. Within a few hours the Light went out, in the presence of his dearly loved daughter Indira Devi and the comrades who had a glimpse of his visions.

At Dehra Dun he had met, for the last time as it turned out, his life-long friend Sri Prakasa. That meeting was memorable, between the hero who was still at the helm and his erstwhile colleague, who had chosen to drop the oars and let the placid stream of life glide on its way to Eternity. The son of Motilalji of Prayag and the son of Sri Bhagvan Das of Kashi,–they formed an inevitable pair–trained to the profession of Law but abandoning it at the call of the Father of the Nation, they worked in close co-operation to energise the national movement in their home Province of U. P. In 1930, Nehru was the President of the Congress and Sri Prakasa the General Secretary. And now, after half-a-century of unbroken friendship, they fell to comparing notes in Sri Prakasa’s quiet home, far from the busy haunts of men. One has only to recall that scene to realise the intensity of the abiding love which invested their lives with the halo of a medieval romance. And let us remember that this was but one of many such links which bound Jawaharlal Nehru to his friends of early days.

This leader of a nation was intensely poetic, responsive to the appeal of literature and the fine arts, and moved to his depths in contemplation of sunset and dawn, the wide expanses of green fields, the surging ocean and the swift-flowing river. The lofty snow-clad Himalayas held him in thrall. He was an artist to his finger tips: his Autobiography is replete with passages which, in imaginative splendour and poetic expression, deserve to rank with the best in English Literature. He realised, as few had done, the cultural unity of India. As President of the Sahitya Akademi, he made this affirmation of faith: “We are busy with the econo­mic development of our country...But it does not cover the whole of life. Without art and literature, life would be rather a dull and uninspiring affair. It is largely in art and literature that a nation gives expression to its inner feelings.” It was this faith which drew him to Rabindranath Tagore and his Visva-Bharati.

While at school in Harrow, young Jawaharlal received, as a prize, one of Trevelyan’s famous books on Garibaldi. This led to his study of the great movement for the freedom and unification of Italy–the Risorgimento. It is worthy of note that Nehru combined in his own nature the heroism of Garibaldi, the idealism of Mazzini and the wise statesmanship of Cavour. But the nearest parallel to the commanding position occupied by Nehru in modern Indian life is that of Pericles of Athens, the builder of Athenian democracy and the embodiment of all that was noblest in the Golden Age of Greece.

Now that the towering personality of Nehru has been removed from the Indian scene, we begin to perceive the contours of the new order. The most striking of these is the emergence of a Prime Minister of India who is but “the first among equals” in his Cabinet. After the passing away of Sardar Patel, there was none among Nehru’s colleagues who could be even a good second to him, and this situation led to the incessant demand that Nehru should nominate his successor. But Nehru wisely declined to name his heir, for he felt that a well-ordered democracy could not fail to discover its leader. The manner in which Sri Lal Bahadur was chosen is a striking testimony to the vitality that persists in the Congress organisation, despite its weaknesses and its tendency towards groupism. There is a widespread feeling, however, that the correct procedure was to let the Parliamentary Party of the Congress make a free choice without interference from the orga­nisational wing of the Congress Party, represented by the President of the Congress and the Working Committee. The choice might have been the same, but it is necessary to keep the distinction clear between the Congress as a Party organisation which wins the elec­tions and outlines the main features of the Party’s policy, and the Cabinet which represents the majority of the Congress members of Parliament. The Prime Minister and his Cabinet ought to be in complete control of the governance of the country and the actual implementation of policies and programmes. Any intrusion by the Party bosses outside Parliament into this sphere is apt to result in mischief and confusion in public affairs. Once a Prime Minister of the Indian Union or the Chief Minister of any State is installed in office by virtue of his election as the leader of the Congress Parliamentary Party at the Centre or the State Legislature Party in a State, the President of the all-India Congress organisa­tion or the President of the Pradesh Congress Committee ought not to meddle with the day-to-day administration. The executive Head of the Indian Union or of a component State must be supreme in his own sphere and be responsible solely to the majority of the members of the Legislature belonging to all Parties, the Government or the Opposition. That the head of Party organisation should seek to control him at every stage is definitely a disturbing trend in Indian public life.

A welcome feature of the new order is the enhanced prestige and moral influence of the President of the Indian Union. It is being gradually realised that the Rashtrapathi is the constitutional Head of the Republic of India and a living symbol of its unity and majesty. No one raised to this exalted position should be dwarfed by the Prime Minister who, in consonance with the conventions of a democratic Constitution, should be content to take the second place in the eye of the nation and of the leaders of the nations with whom India maintains diplomatic relations. It is the President’s right to advise, to warn and to encourage the Ministers. Being above all parties, he is capable of taking a national as opposed to a Party view.

In the agonising hours following the demise of Nehru, it was the Prsident’s voice over the Radio which put heart into a despairing nation and created the feeling that all was not lost. India in the post-Nehru age is exceedingly fortunate that, in the Rashtrapathi Bhavan in New Delhi, dwells a philosopher-statesman, a modern Janaka whose writ runs over a realm wider than that of Asoka or Akbar, and whose lightest utterance is listened to with profound respect in all the Chancellories of the world.

July 31, 1964