Gandhi Nehru and J.P. Studies in Leadership and Legacy

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Formerly Professor of South Asian Studies and Dean, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University (New Delhi) and India's Ambassador to Nepal, Bimal Prasad is at present Founder-Director of Rajendra Prasad Academy, Chairman of the Rajendra Bhawan Trust, Chairman of the National Gandhi Museum and President, Indian Council for South Asian Cooperation.

Before joining the School of International Studies, Professor Prasad was Professor of History, Patna University and Fulbright, Smith Mundt Scholar, University Fellow in History and Rockefeller Foundation Fellow in Humanities at the Columbia University. In later years, he was Senior Fellow in History at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London and Visiting Professor of Modern Commonwealth History at the University of Leeds.

Professor Prasad has authored and edited several books relating to Modern Indian History and Foreign Policy. Among them mention may be made of The Origins of Indian Foreign Policy (Calcutta, 1960, 1962); Indo-Soviet Relations, 1947-72 (New Delhi, 1973); India's Foreign Policy: Studies in Continuity and Change (New Delhi, 1979).

A close associate of J.P., Professor Prasad has edited three single-volume selections of his writings: Socialism, Sarvodaya and Democracy (Bombay, 1964); A Revolutionary Quest (New Delhi, 1980) and Jayaprakash Narayan, Essential Writings, 1929-79 (New Delhi 2002). Finally, he has edited Selected Works of Jayaprakash Narayan, in ten volumes 1-10 (New Delhi, 1998- 2010). Besides, he has also authored Gandhi, Nehru and J.P.: Studies in Leadership (New Delhi, 1985) and Jayaprakash Narayan: Quest and Legacy (New Delhi, 1992, reprinted 2003).

There is no dearth of separate studies on Gandhi, Nehru and J.P. the three leading political leaders and thinkers of Modern India. However, most of them are either adulatory or derogatory. There is hardly any book which offers a balanced and critical view of all the three leaders under one cover and in a comparative perspective, in the context of their objective of establishing a just economic, social and political order in India. This book is a pioneering effort in that direction.

Generally speaking, scholars as well as political commentators have assumed that Nehru was as opposed to Gandhi's thinking as J.P. was to both Gandhi's and Nehru's. Rejecting this simplistic view of the ideological positions of the three leaders, this book takes a fresh look at them and examines them in a comparative perspective. As a result, the three leaders appear neither as rivals nor as ideologically opposed, but as complementary to each other.

The book has a separate chapter on each of the three leaders. Chapter one traces the emergence of Gandhi as a political leader and discusses the distinctive characteristics of his style of leadership. Chapter two analyses the evolution of Nehru's political ideas, based on a combination of Gandhian and Marxist ideas. Chapter three seeks to analyse the evolution of JP's ideas based on a similar combination of Gandhian and Marxist ideologies and culminating in his concept of Total Revolution.

Finally, chapter four seeks to highlight the common points in the political legacies left by the three leaders and points out that they can serve as the ideological foundations of a New India based on the principles of egalitarianism and social justice. It is, however, another matter that India has actually been moving in another direction.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Jayaprakash Narayan have stirred the minds as well as hearts of the Indian people during the last half century and more in a way in which no other leaders or thinkers have done. All the three, particularly the first two, have been the subjects of numerous biographies, but seldom have scholars attempted to critically evaluate their roles in the shaping of events with which they were connected or to bring out the salient features, including both the strong and weak points, of their leadership. This is the task attempted in the present study, with what success it is for the readers to judge.

The study has also been inspired by the feeling that the heritage left by these leaders, in the shape of ideas as well as models of leadership, constitutes a most valuable asset for all those who may be inclined not to throw up their hands in despair or take refuge in cynicism because of the state of Indian politics today but to make a fresh start with principled politics, grounded on a firm commitment to certain moral values and geared not merely to securing and holding power, but also to serving the people and laying down the foundations of a socially just as well as a politically free society.

To say this is not to blur the significant differences in the statures and styles of these leaders, or the contributions made by them. It will be futile, for instance, to question the pre-eminence of Gandhi. Yet the fact remains that those who want to work for the regeneration of Indian politics have tolerant valuable lessons also from Nehru and J.P. Besides, their legacies in the field of ideas and policies constitute a valuable supplement to the legacy left by Gandhi.