"Vira-Swarga": A Tribute To Pandit Motilal

At a meeting of the passengers on board the S. S. Gange, held in mid-Mediterranean on the evening of Monday, the 9th February, 1931, Mr. N. Krishnamurti speaking in support of the Resolution of sorrow at the demise of Pandit Motilal Nehru said: -

Distinguished men have spoken before me, men who knew the beloved Pandit, men who have seen the charm of his face, men who have known the splendour of his work, men who have enjoyed his princely hospitality, men who have heard his voice, men in a word who have come under the spell of his great personality. I am sorry it has not been my privilege and good fortune to have seen him so in the flesh. But I have had the good fortune to come under his spell in a different but in no less prized a fashion. It has fallen to me during the last ten days to visit some of the more important cities of Europe in the company of a friend whom I am not to name, and everywhere the dusky hue upon my face revealed my Indian nationality, and at once people everywhere, in the train or in the streets, asked me only two things– "Indiana, Gandhi"–. It was the name of him who is not the possession of India only but of all the world, civilised and uncivilised. Nehru was the colleague of him, and with him strove to raise my countrymen in the scale of nations. The two words, India, Gandhi, were at once my passport to the hearts and the admiration of everyone and I walked with proud head the proud cities Europe. Such has been his contribution to the credit and honour of his countrymen as the colleague of Gandhiji.

It is him we have lost. We want him most now. We are at the dawn of a new destiny; the new-risen sun of India is just visible above the horizon, shall I say it is about 7 in the morning, and we must steer several degrees of stellar space before we reach the meridian, and a charioteer of the first rank is lost to us. We could ill spare him, But ours is not the choice. And for him, death has come when victory was in sight, Fighting with zeal and matchless courage, he has fallen at the moment of triumph, I am reminded of the thought of the poet that the most glorious death is that of the soldier at the moment of victory; so like a great Kshatriya has he been struck down, and he will pass into Vira Swarga.