Mahatma Gandhi And Jawaharlal Nehru Vol-II (A Historic Partnership 1916-1948)

Email

Whatsapp

Facebook

Pinterest

Twitter

Copy link

The second volume on the historic Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru relationship discusses the letter's increasingly crucial role in national politics. It analyses the differing attitudes of Gandhi and Nehru on such important issues such as communalism, the evil of untouchability, the evaluation of the liberals, emergence of the reformist mentality and property rights. In October 1934 Gandhi withdrew from the Congress as a prelude to handing over the leadership to Jawaharlal at the Lucknow Congress in 1936. Under Jawaharlal's two year's Presidentship the congress became a dynamic organization. His hectic election tour galvanised the masses and the Congress swept the polls in large parts of the country. On the question of office acceptance Jawaharlal and Gandhi differed, but as usual the former accepted the majority view. The congress assumption of office gave an impetus to the people struggles, especially in the Princely States. All Jawaharlal's actions sprang from his absolute conviction that anti-imperialist unity under Gandhi's leadership must be preserved at all cost. The author's critical evaluation of Jawaharlal's role is in a way an essay in self- criticism, for during this period the Socialists regarded the former as their leader and on basic issues both thought a like. Gandhi, Jawaharlal and Vallabhbhai instituted centralised control of Ministries to defeat the British machinations. But the failure of the Congress to realise the consequences of its poor showing in the Muslim Provinces and its rejection of the Muslim League's overtures in 1937 had tragic consequences. From adherence to federal Indian unity, Jinnah switched over to a highly centralised version of Pakistan and came to dominate the Muslim mind in the key Provinces of Punjab and Bengal. The country's slide down on the slippery road to partition had begun. Three Chapters of this volume examine the problem in depth and appraise objectively Maulana Azad's criticism of Jawaharlal and his own role in the affair. The war and the British Conservative policy of clinging to power aggravated the Indian crisis. Despite Jawaharlal's desire to help in the defeat of Fascism, the logic of the situation forced him to support Quit India. It took both Gandhi and Jawaharlal to detention camps where they were held incommunicado.

The first volume of this study of Gandhi-Nehru relationship covered a longer period, that is, from 1916 to 1931. But Jawaharlal's role in the freedom struggle became important only after his return from a prolonged visit to Europe towards the end of 1927. Within the next four years Jawaharlal achieved phenomenal popularity. This volume covers a shorter period of only 10 years (1932-1942). But Jawaharlal now comes to occupy a larger space on the national can vas. The length of the volume is the result of the increased impor tance of Gandhi's chief lieutenant in the nation's politics. The major themes of this volume are the communal problem, the question of ends and means and its relation to character building, the divergent approaches of Gandhi and Nehru to the removal of the social evil of untouchability, controversy over office acceptance, the functioning of the Congress Ministries, the States' people's struggle, the Subhas controversy, the Congress attitude to the war; the Cripps offer and Quit India.

I have examined the relevance of Jawaharlal's Marxist approach to the communal and social problems. Since Maulana Abul Kalam Azad had held Jawaharlal chiefly responsible for the break with the Muslim League in 1937 and partition, I have devoted two chapters to this question, and have objectively examined Maulana Azad's thesis that it was Jawaharlal who sabotaged the move for a rapprochement between the Congress-League which he had initiated. I have come to the conclusion that the Maulana was far from clearsighted and wasequally responsible for embittering relations with Jinnah and the Muslim League. The Socialist prescription was in no way different. The Congress leadership was so self-enclosed and self-absorbed in 1937 that it did not lose its sleep over its miserable electoral perfor mance in the strategically decisive Muslim- majority Provinces of the Punjab, Bengal and Sind nor did it worry over its failure to win a single Muslim seat on its own in the politically and culturally impor tant Muslim-minority Provinces of Bombay and the U.P. In this self-centredness of the Congress High Command lay the seeds of the tragedy of partition. The subject matter of the latter part of this volume is the slow transformation of Jawaharlal, the uncompromising anti-imperialist fighter of 1927-1937 into a wobbly leader whose will to action had been paralysed by premature internationalism, deep antipathy for Nazism and blind belief in the myth of the two-thousand year old India-China friendship. Gandhi's hold over him and his innate sense of honour acted as a corrective and saved Jawaharlal from going the cooperationist road taken by Rajaji and the Communists.This phase is important also because the Socialists' differences with Jawaharlal can be traced back to this change in Jawaharlal's outlook on life and events.

Madhu Limaye (b.1922-d. 1995), the most prominent and distinguished among the Socialist Movement's younger leaders, was drawn towards the freedom movement and the Socialist Party at an early age. He was held in great affection by Jayaprakesh, Lohia, Narendra Deva and other leaders. The struggle against foreign rule landed him in prison many times. His first imprisonment came in 1940-41. He participated in the Quit India underground movement and was detained under DIR till the end of the war. In the Goa Liberation Movement Limaye was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment by a Portuguese Military Tribunal. Again, he spent nineteen months in detention during the Emergency. Limaye was elected member of the Lok Sabha four times, and has been an outstanding parliamentarian and intellectual. Limaye, a lifelong fighter for civil liberties, himself argued his Supreme Court cases, and was invariably successful. Limaye held various offices: Secretary, (All India) Socialist Party; Secretary, Asian Socialist Conference; Chairman, Socialist Party; Leader, SSP Parliamentary Group. He was also General Secretary, Janata Party and later, of Lok Dal. He is the author of several books in English, Marathi and Hindi.

**Contents and Sample Pages**