Title: Letters for a Nation: From Jawaharlal Nehru to His Chief
Ministers (1947-1963); Author: Edited by Madhav Khosla; Publisher: Allen
Lane/Penguin Books; Pages: 334; Price: Rs.599
Narendra Modi may
well have taken a cue from the country's first prime minister,
Jawaharlal Nehru, when he decided to address the nation over radio in
talks titled "Mann ki Baat". During the 17 years he held office, Nehru
did that too - by writing regularly to the chief ministers. But these
letters were for the nation, each exposing his views on a variety of
subjects as he presided over the destiny of free India.
Nehru
wrote to his chief ministers on the 1st and 15th of every month. By the
time his last communication went out on Dec 21, 1963, he had written
nearly 400 letters, showing nation building to be a passionate affair
demanding infinite patience. He wrote on communal violence, refugee
crisis, minorities, corruption, rightwing and leftwing extremism,
economic planning, domestic problems and, of course, India's
relationship with the world at large. The letters painstakingly
catalogued the nation's journey from 1947 to 1963, a year before Nehru
died, broken by what he felt was the betrayal of China.
In
thoughts and deeds, Nehru was far removed from Modi, the incumbent prime
minister. The contrast was most evident on how Nehru, a Fabian
socialist at heart, viewed communalism among the majority - "dangerous,
because majoritarian communalism could claim to represent the entire
nation". He was opposed to the "butchery of innocent lives" and never
hid his contempt for the RSS. He knew what Muslim fundamentalism stood
for but underlined that it was "wrong to lay stress always on the
loyalty on behalf of the Muslims of India".
Again, Nehru made
known his distaste for proselytism, but pointed out that Christianity
"is as much a part of the Indian scene as any other religion".
In a
June 1954 letter, he said of the RSS and the Hindu Mahasabha: "If they
do not show the fullest tolerance to the minority groups, then it will
be bad for us."
Unlike most present day politicians, Nehru rarely
tried to cover up his own faults, admitting that public complaints
about "our inefficiency, inaccessibility, delays and, above all, of
corruption" were not off the mark. He was not above mistakes though. He
admitted that in his extreme desire to find a peaceful solution to the
Kashmir conflict, "we have allowed ourselves repeatedly get more and
more tied up". His understanding of China too was flawed. He appeared to
trust them blindly at one stage; after the Sino-Indian war did take
place, he said: "It is evident they had been preparing for some such
invasion for a long time."
Nehru wrote with humility, of lessons
India could learn from other nations and societies. He was convinced
that freedom would be incomplete without substantive socio-economic
outcomes. Only the highest standards of conduct in public life were
acceptable to him. But none of these came to his rescue after the 1962
war with China. It broke his spirit, killed his idealism. These letters
should be read by students of history, to know, at least from one man's
point of view, how India progressed in the first one and a half decades
after British rule ended.
(M.R. Narayan Swamy is Executive Editor at IANS. He can be reached on [email protected]
