The Nehrus and the Gandhis-PIII

Nehru and Kamala

Part-I link

Part-II link

Nehru held a very modern outlook about marriage, as is evident from the letter to his mother Swarupa Rani, from Harrow –

“There should be no marriage without mutual love. I consider it a crime and a ruination of one’s life, if one has to marry merely for the sake of creating children.” But finally, he had to succumb to the family/social pressures and marry the beautiful Kamala Kaul. Yes, as the author says, it was a marriage of convenience!

Even though I do value Nehru very much and I could sense his internal torment in marrying against his wish, I wonder how he could forget that Kamala was in no way responsible for it. So I couldn’t easily digest that she had to remain a neglected wife most of her life. His autobiography contains only two lines about his marriage, says the author.  The elite, modern, luxurious Anand Bhavan was in no way different from any ordinary Indian household when it came to the in-law problems. Kamala was not at all happy in her husband’s household. Motilal was the only one who loved, supported and defended her.

-Vijayalakshmi(Nehru’s sister), was particularly nasty to the young sister in law. She mocked Kamala’s unfamiliarity with the Western style of Motilal’s household; teased her maliciously because of her unsophisticated ways and constantly told tales about the young woman’s blunders to all and sundry. Kamala felt the torment much more because her husband rarely defended her against her detractors. If Jawaharlal, instead of listening to the inane prattling of Vijayalakshmi, had made it clear that he was not interested in her prejudiced gossip, Kamala would have been a lot happier.” Yes, there lies the point. Well said T.Ali, it is the root of the problem in most Indian families and not only in the Nehru household!

The daughter Indira’s words on Kamala-

-When my father (Nehru) wanted to join Gandhiji and to change the whole way of life, to change our luxurious living, to give up his legal practice, the whole family was against it. It was only my mother’s courageous and persistent support and encouragement which enabled him to take the big step which made such a big difference not only to our family, but to the history of modern India.

-By now, Kamala had become involved in congress politics and was regularly attending meetings and participating in processions. This was the happiest phase of her life. She felt free, independent ad committed to a cause. All the petty squabbles and insults at Anand Bhavan seemed trivial by comparison.

-Ever since Kamala had become involved in politics and ‘come out’, so to speak, she and Nehru had been close friends. Her companionship had become important. 

Kamala died peacefully in February 1936, while Indira was at Somerville College, Oxford and just when Nehru’s “An Autobiography”-which was reprinted nine times that year itself!- was going to press. It was Kamala who pushed him to find a publisher for his book, and settle Indira in a university.

His memoirs on Kamala published in another book ran thus:

 “She was bubbling over with gaiety and frankness before those she knew and liked.....she stuck to her instinctive likes and dislikes. There was no guile in her. If she disliked a person, it was obvious, and she made no attempt to hide the fact. Even if she had tried to do so, she would probably not have succeeded.” Yes, I have no doubts that the guileless, lovely, Kamala was an adorable personality.

T.Ali’s book has not only enhanced my respect and love towards Nehru, but also made me a fan of Kamala, and Feroze Gandhi too! I’m thankful to the author for throwing light on the lovely Kamala’s wonderful personality.

The Nehrus and Gandhis, an Indian Dynasty-PII

Gandhiji and Nehruji
Part II

PartI link.

Gandhiji:  In the short prologue to the book, the author states that Mahatma Gandhi was “cunning and foxy”-to which I do not concur.

-The great man was a ruthless politician. He had a fixed notion as to how independence should be won and he would tolerate nothing that stood in the way of that. For Gandhi, right from the beginning, a negotiated settlement for British withdrawal was the only possible exit route. This meant a peaceful transition to independence”.These words made me feel that Gandhiji was the reincarnation of Chanakya or Machiavelli! 

-Gandhi was not so much a peasant as a fox. He was an extremely shrewd and intelligent political leader.

-Gandhi began to idealise the prehistory of Hinduism, in which it is impossible to disentangle facts from mythology.

- Gandhi increasingly appeared to be a mongrel offspring of Victorian liberalism and Indian mysticism.

-Gandhi became a decisive link between the old and new India, between the peasants and the colonial state, between Jawaharlal Nehru and India’s strongest capitalist class. He was the man who held the whole act together. It would have been impossible to find another like him. He took the village to the metropolis and in the process became the country’s leading power broker.

Gandhi vs Nehru-The confrontation between Gandhi and Nehru was in fact the confrontation between tradition and modernism. The difference of opinion between the two was sharp, but at the end Nehru always succumbed to the Great man.

-the difference between Nehru and Gandhi, these 2 giants of India’s Nationalist movement couldn’t have been greater. The first was a Kashmiri Brahmin who discarded every religious inhibition. The older man was a Gujerathi Bania (trading caste) who had toyed with doubt, but then re-embraced orthodoxy. Nehru, a product of Harrow and Cambridge, was tempered by his lengthy stays in numerous British prisons; Gandhiji  was a product largely of Hindu India, but had learnt politics thru his South African  experiences. Gandhiji regarded religion as a crucial to everyday existence. Nehru saw it as India’s deadliest enemy, containing the seeds of destruction.

-Unlike Gandhi, Nehru did not believe that men and women should exercise strict sexual self-discipline and he had publicly attacked Gandhi on these questions in sharp language.

-How Nehru cursed the caste system? Gandhi had denounced the absurd practices of the system and its taboos, but never challenged the caste division as a whole. Nehru frequently did, arguing that it was a distorted, degenerate reflection of Hinduisms prehistory.

'It’s dangerous to be too good' was the Great Bernard Shaw’s response on the news of Gandhiji’s assassination (This is not from the book-it’s my general knowledgeJ). Since Nehru’s emotional speech, with tears in his eyes, after the assassination of Gandhiji  is very much available in net, I don’t intend to requote it.

-With Gandhiji’s death, there was no one left whom Nehru regarded as superior, whose reprimands and advice he could accept. 

To be continued- Nehru and Kamala

The Nehrus and The Gandhis-An Indian Dynasty

PART-I

The 300 page book penned by Tariq Ali and first published in 1985 with an introduction by Salman Rushdie, is of course a historical rendering worth reading. The author has covered a time span of 95 years, 1889 to 1984, to be precise; Or in other words, from the birth of Jawahar Lal to the ‘reign’ of his grandson Rajiv Gandhi. That is, it doesn’t cover Rajiv’s assassination, Sonia taking over the helm of affairs and later sharing it with her son Rahul. And recently the channels have reported that Priyanka is going to assume charge of the Congress party! She has denied it anyway; Good heavens, long live the dynasty!

At the outset, let me say that the name of the book sounded a little misnomer, at least to me who still consider ‘Gandhi’ as Mahatma Gandhi . The author might have named thus considering the patriarchal heresy of Rajiv Gandhi as son of Feroze Gandhi.  I have recently read Gandhiji’s  great grandson  Anand Gokani mentioned as ‘Gandhi kin’. Yes, what it definitely counts is whether the dissent is maternal or paternal!

The book, a truthful –that’s what I felt-compilation of political as well as personal lives of the Nehru Family, is very much readable and not at all drab. It is a very fascinating 95 year long journey through the annals of Indian history and partly world history. The story of a family turning out to be that of a great nation!  ‘The Parties’ and ‘The Politicians’, are also listed for easy reference.

This is simply my scribbling on the book, ie, a  review is not in my purview. The quotes from the book are either given as "  "  or thus -. Let the book speak for itself.  

The Nehrus were the descendants of Raj Kaul who was relocated to Allhabad from Kashmir. “The immigrant from Kashmir was provided with land and house adjoining a canal. The Urdu word for canal is nehar .” Thus the one’s from the canal came to be known as  Neharis and later on Nehru’s.

Some word meanings- Allahabad- City of God: Pakisthan-Land of the pure: Motilal-Red pearl: Jawaharlal -precious stone; And the word Gandhi literally meant grocer!

Why did the British deny mass education to Indians?

-The British consciously decided not to alter the rural landscape of India. To do so, they believed would rapidly create the conditions for their own removal from the region. 

-They denied mass education and as Lord Macaulay desired, they created a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions they govern. Indian in blood and color, but English in taste, in opinions, in morals and in intellect.

There are many anecdotes in the book, which none of us might have come across in our history lessons.

·        Nehru, Feroze, Indira, Subhash Chandra Bose and the like were referred to as the left wing sympathizers within Congress!

·       

     After the Chauri Chaura incident, 3 congress volunteers who were poor peasants, were arrested and hanged after trial.  They have never appeared in the Congress list of martyrs. Neither Gandhi nor Congress working committee shed tears on their behalf.

·        Gandhi had refused to plead Bhagath Singh’s case-(the book answers the question why).

·       

     General Dyer, responsible for the massacre in Jallianwalla Bagh, and Nehru happened to travel together in the same compartment, on a trip to Delhi from Amritsar! Nehru himself has recorded it in his autobiography.

-The butcher of Jallianwallah Bagh and the future Prime Minister of India travelling, even sleeping, in the same compartment was history’s more grotesque ironies”, says the author.

·  Nehru women had participated in the remembrance  week held for the martyrs of Jallianwala  Bagh. Nehru was in prison.

-At the head of the demonstration, which was illegal, there was a frail old woman dresses in white .She was batton- charged by the police and received several blows to the head, until a police officer recognized her, lifted her from the ground, put in her in a car and drove home. The woman was SWARUP RANI(Nehru’s mother).

·        Other ironies-

Nehru offered huge sums to the royal families of the erstwhile Princely States to integrate with the Indian Union. His daughter cut down all these privileges during 1971.

In 1947, the Delhi Muslims who lost all their fortunes and relatives stayed back in Delhi without fleeing to Pak honouring the requests by Abul Kalam Azad and Nehru. But after 29 years, Nehru’s grandson, watched by his daughter rendered them homeless-(The Turkman Gate incident).

Nehru had left strict instructions in his will that he he was not to be given a religious funeral.But his daughter raised a religious funeral for him.

·       

     In November 1937 the ‘Calcutta Modern Review’ published an anonymous article which argued that men like Nehru, were endangering democracy. “...In spite of his brave talk , Jawaharlal is obviously tired and stale.....Let us not spoil him by too much adulation and praise....” It run thus and surely did create a furore. That anonymous letter was written by none other than Nehru himself!

·        Nehru’s “An Autobiography”- was reprinted nine times in the year of publishing itself!

·        Nehru and Gandhi had to release press statements-that is public explanations- as to why Feroze-Indira marriage was endorsed!

-India’s two most important political leaders had been compelled, at a politically critical moment, to expend part of their energy on justifying the decision of two people to marry each other.

·        Feroze once questioned Nehru on some security bungle and ultimately the PM Nehru had to apologize to the MP Feroze in Parliament.

Quotes

-The Ganga is a liquid history of India.

-Family life has traditionally been seen as a refuge from the pain and cold of the world that lies outside..The bruises inflicted are often invisible. Even when the actual pain has gone, the suppressed anger can stay with the victim for the rest of his life.

-“Ever changing, yet ever the same”- by Nehru. This was my favourite quote once but what I had in mind was “ever changing, ever flowing, yet ever the same Ganga”. No, it was wrong. The quote was on Moon, Nehru’s only companion in prison. 

-His(Nehru’s)  parents and his wife were now all dead; his link with the past was broken. He decided it was time to strengthen his links with the future.

-“A little more slowly, Mr.Nehru,” he (Viceroy Lord Linlithgrow) said with sarcasm."My slow Anglo-Saxan mind cannot keep pace with your quick intellect."

-Our educated community is not a cultured community, but a community of qualified candidates-Rabindranatha Tagore

-“How did you manage  to so wonderfully isolate yourself from the people, in such a short space of time? ”Nehru, to Congress leaders of Kerala after they lost the 1957 elections  to communists.

-that he (Nehru) was happiest when attacked by the right for being “soft on socialism and communalism” and by the left for being “an agent of capitalism and reaction." That, he would say, “makes me feel I’m on the right course."

-Never do anything in secret or anything that you wish to hide. For the desire to hide anything means you are afraid, and fear is a bad thing and unworthy of you....Nehru to Indira in the first of his 200 letters from prison.

-“Little did we guess, that we would never see his wide toothless smile again, nor feel the glow of protection”-Indira on Gandhiji’s assassination.

-"We never hated you personally"-Indira to Churchill at London when he was amazed that a man(Nehru) the British had locked up for many years seemed to harbor no ill will. Churchill’s answer was "But I did, I did."

-Morarji Desai was an oddball even in the fad-ridden world of Hinduism

To be continued-M.K.Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru  PII

Siddhartha

         

The novel originally written in German language by Hermann Hesse during the year 1922 had been translated and published into English by many. The one I read was published by Maple press, Noida, but it doesn’t mention the translator’s name.

I had heard and read a lot about the book far back, but couldn’t get a chance to read until recently. Even though late in reading, it was an enthralling experience.  

If the original Siddhartha opted to renounce worldly life to become Gautama Buddha, the enlightened, it was vice versa for this Siddhartha, who is a contemporary of Gautama Buddha. The young Siddhartha renounced his so called spiritual entity and chose to live with Kamala, a courtesan, who prompted him to amass wealth for a comfortable and luxurious worldly life. The highly intelligent Siddhartha could do it with ease. But after sometime, he chose to abandon his *‘Garhasthya’ to seek fulfilment and finally attained it but not from any guru but a simple ferry man Vasudeva and the river which he used to ferry. 

Siddhartha’s journey through life symbolises the Hindu belief to attain fulfilment through the four aims or rather stages of life, viz Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha. He practised Dharma or righteousness during his childhood and youth, Artha and Kama during his life with Kamala, and finally attained Moksha during his old age.I have always loved the concept of Vanaprastha(embracing the forest) after Grihasthashram, though it is very difficult to be practised for one who is entangled in human ties.

Siddhartha’s father had no difficulty in raising his son as a righteous young man, but Siddhartha himself failed miserably in bringing up his only son properly after Kamala’s death. The boy-again Siddhartha named after his father-raised by his mother in the absence of his Dad had become a spoilt brat who abused his Dad like anything and one day he ran away from his Dad.  

The relationship between Vasudeva  and Siddartha, is worth mentioning. An ignorant lay man turned out to be an intellectual’s spiritual guide, so to say!. So impressive is Vasudeva’s and later Siddhartha’s fondness towards the river, which ultimately symbolizes mother nature herself.

What I understand from the book is that life should be a proper blend of spirituality as well as worldly pleasures. Denying either of this totally or indulging in any one state alone will not satisfy your inner self; Or else Siddhartha would not have left his early spiritual life of youth; Or else he would not have fled from Kamala and the luxurious life he led with her. I feel that spirituality is something above and of course very different from devotion;It has nothing to do with chanting of prayers, pilgrimages and the like.

Hermann Hesse is the grandson of Dr.Hermann Gundert who had well known Kerala connections.  

Now certain quotes from the book:

Siddhartha to Govinda:

 "What is meditation? What is leaving one's body?What is fasting?What is holding one's breath?It is fleeing from one's self, it is a short escape of the agony of being a self, it is a brief numbing of the senses against the pain and pointlessness of life."

"We find comfort, we find numbness, we learn feats to deceive others.But the most important thing, the path of paths, we will not find."

Siddhartha to Budha, mentioned in the book as Gotama/the exalted one:
"O, exalted one, no body will obtain salvation by means of teachings.You will not be able to convey to anybody, O, venerable one, in words and through teachings what has happened to you in the hour of enlightenment! "
 

You can read more about the book, of course in a more sophisticated language here  in wiki.

*Four stages of life

The 3 mistakes of my life

Author-Chetan bhagat
Publisher-Rupa
Price-Rs:95/-(You will get 20% discount if you are lucky.I bought all his 4 books together and got the discount).

At the outset, let me make it clear that neither am I a voracious reader nor a literary critic to attempt a book review, that too on one of India’s best sellers. And I don’t have sufficient language skills required for a critic. But the down to earth theme and narrating style prompts me to !

The novel revolves around three young friends Govind, Ishaan and Omi living in Belrampur, Ahmedabad, Gujrat, the state of businessmen.. Reading the book was a real big experience, so to say. Very lively , characters from middle class families. I was all for Govind until his second mistake, which I found difficult to digest, may be because I am a girl’s mother! Even his suicide attempt could not win my sympathy! Forgetting the dislikes let me bring out the likes.

1.The simple language- It definitely is written in the language of the masses without using high handed jargons. It makes you feel that the characters are living in your immediate neighborhood and you know them all.

2.Depth of friendship- I am all for the strong bond of true friendships where one emotionally supports, corrects and extends all sorts of help as and when required without being sought by her/his friend. The book shows you the beauty of friendship and the emotional trauma through which one goes at the point of breaking up.

3.Positive energy-It shows how an ordinary Indian can achieve his goals by simply using available resources in and around his/her place. Govind planned his business observing that cricket and badminton are the popular games in Belrampur. Moreover, Ishan was the top cricketer during his school days and G counted on utilizing his skills by starting training sessions for students. The sports goods shop amassed profit as he planned.

4.Intricacies of relationships-between dad-son(Ishaan and his dad), uncle- nephew(Omi and his uncle ) ,friend’s sister transforming to girl friend, friends turning foes ,the intimacy developed between Ishaan and the little boy Ali etc etc. The efforts, the trio put in under the leadership of Ish to rescue Ali from hindu fanaticism consequent to Godra incident was terrific. The riot stricken Ahmedabad was horrifying to read.

5.Vision –It gives what India is now and what India should be.

I liked Govind most ,because of his clear-cut ambition and the flawless planned efforts to achieve the same. He is a perfect professional who does not mix up profession with sentiments. I have noticed the absence of this professionalism among us . We are adepts at spicing each and everything with sentiments even in pure official matters at workplace, of course, according to me. Things have changed a lot, I admit, among the newer generation.

Ishaan, Omi ,Ali, his dad, all are real life characters. Vidya , Omi’s sister is representative of the typical new age fearless Indian girls. But the doubt of illicit pregnancy scares her too! But I love Vidya inspite of her impulsive behaviour!

More quotes from the book ,in case anybody wishes to read further.

Listen to what the agnostic Govind, who tells the story-

“I was never good with emotional stuff.I love maths, I love logic and those subjects have no place for emotion”

“My love for business began when I first started tuitions. It was amazing to see money build up. With money came not only things like coolers and sofas but also the most important stuff-respect. Shopkeepers no longer avoided us, relatives re-invented us to weddings and our landlord’s visit did not throw us into turmoil. And then there was the thrill-I was making money, not earning it under some boss or getting a handout.”

“I don’t want to be an Engineer, mom. My heart is in business”.

“I hate a display of emotion more than emotion itself”

“people called me Mr. Accounts, greedy, miser, anything”
“I am no Mr. Nice and I hate people who are not focused.”

“if Ish’s passion was cricket and my passion was business, was Omi’s passion religion? or may be like most people he was confused and trying to find his passion. And unlike us, who never took him seriously, Parekh-Ji gave him a sense of purpose and importance.”

Ali’s dad, on Hindu Muslim fights (The words which haunt me always)

“Male chimpanzees of the same pack fight violently with each other-for food, females, whatever. However after the fight, they go through a strange ritual. They kiss each other on the lips. The point is, this ritual was created by nature. To make sure the fight gets resolved and the pack stays together. In fact any long-term relationship requires this”

“Yes, take any husband and wife. They will fight, and hurt each other emotionally. However later they will make up, with hugs, presents or kind understanding words. These reconciliatory mechanisms are essential. The problem in Hindu-Muslim rivalry is not that that one is right and the other is wrong. It is that there are no reconciliatory mechanisms.”

Ish-“The young generation in India from the 60’s to the 80’s is the worst India ever had.These 30 years are an embarrassment for India...My point is, that the clueless sixties to eighties generation is now old, and running the country”.

The discussion among the 3 friends really throws insight into the present state of affairs of our country.

Omi & Govind-(at Australia where the trio took Ali for training cricket at their own initiative)

Omi-“There is an unspoken rule among Indian men and you broke it........You don’t hit upon your best friend’s sister. You just don’t. It’s against protocol.”

G-“protocol? What’s this, the army? And I didn’t hit on her. She hit upon me”

O-“But you let her hit upon you. You let her”

G-“well, it wasn’t exactly like being hit. It didn’t hurt. It felt good”(But I never felt good- I was thinking of Vidya's fiture and the plight of her innocent parents)

Australian cricketer Fred who is training Ali-“ If I don’t break their ( cricket practicing kids) pride, they will stay hoons for the rest of their life. Sportsmen aren’t movie stars, mate. Even though your country treats them like that!”

Little Ali on being asked to be an Aussie(Australian citizen) for better coaching and facilities-“It’s ok, if I don’t become a player, but it’s not ok if I’m not an Indian” ( I hugged Ali and kissed him on his forehead!)

“Don’t get so sentimental about politics. Emotional speeches are fine, but in your mind always think straight” Parek-Ji’s lecture to Bittoo mama, Omi’s uncle.

“Who you are, what do you want verse what people expect of you. And how to keep what you want without pissing off people too much.Life is an optimization problem, with tons of variables and constraints.” G to Vidya during a tuition class

Vidya to Govind at ATHIRA campus lawn-“why, why is it so unfair? Why do only I have to deal with this? why can’t you get pregnant at the same time?”

the P-word which freaks men out-Pregnancy
the A word- abortion ...

And stopping for the time being or else I”ll copy the whole book! It has become too long. But you always have the freedom to skip, don’t you?

TIT BITS

These are the jottings from one of my old literary notebooks. But , who said, seems to have been overlooked in most cases.....

“..January 2nd is the day when most people find that it is easier to break a resolution than a habbit.”

“ To handle yourself, use your head; To handle others use your heart ”.

“Ideas should be received like guests-in a friendly way;but with the reservation that they are not to tyrannize their host!”

“Two things indicate weakness-to be silent when it is proper to speak and to speak when it is proper to be silent.”- Persian Proverb

"When a man with money meets a man with experience, the man with experience gets the money and the man with money gets experience."

“ He has a right to criticize who has a heart to help”-Lincoln

"Criticism should be malice towards none and charity towards all"-Lincoln

A sentence with all the 26 alphabets-
“Quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog!”

“Silence is deep as eternity ; Speech is shallow as time.”-Carlyle

“Some books are to be tasted, others are to be followed, and some few to be chewed and digested”-Bacon

“Some men are great because their associates are little”-Johnson

“Begin not with a programme, but with a deed”-Florence Nightingale

"One who knows not that he knows not is a fool, neglect him
One who knows that he knows not is humble, teach him
One who knows not that he knows is innocent
On who knows that he knows is wise, follow him"

"Everyone wants to be wanted."

Neither Materialistic Nor Spiritual.......

Yes, now I’m on the road to spirituality! But that doesn’t indicate the least that we were too materialistic till now.

In fact we were and are leading a very simple life .We had professional degrees, held good offices in tune with our times, and we had everything to act big if so desired by us .But costly dresses, make up and luxurious living never allured us. It was not at all our style, so to say. We were quite contented too. Live and let live was our motto. We never interfered with other’s beliefs and we didn’t permit others to intervene in ours. A very silent and peaceful way of living. Very much sincere, dedicated and bound to duty to the extent of work holism at times. So did we take up our house hold duties and responsibilities as well.


But when we look back, we do realize one thing....We were not at all spiritual!!!. We were following a path in between materialism and spirituality. As the mistress of the house, I am to be blamed for that. I never used to light up the sandhyadeepam (the lamp lit in the evenings at hindu homes), offer prayers to God, go to temples, and observe rituals like vrathams (penance) for the betterment of family. We have read all the sacred books right from childhood days. But the reading had nothing to do with Bhakthi or religion. Any Indian should read these irrespective of his religion caste etc etc as rightly said by many learned people.

Similarly, we have visited many famous temples, stood wonderstruck before the huge structures........admiring the sculptors.......Praying to the lords inside the temple were the most unimportant part then....... But now I realize God must have smiled sympathetically at us who, got trapped in the external luxuries and failed miserably to find him/her inside the sanctum sanctorum .It was just like going to meet our Parents and enjoying the luxuries of the house without paying any attention to them! i.e. simply forgetting the very purpose of the visit.

Now I am experimenting.... But it is really hard.....had we been spiritual earlier, I'm sure we could have improved the quality of our lives and helped to make this place a better place to live.. The word spirituality itself has varied meanings.......

Late realisation in life.....Anyway better late than never!!!