Mushirul
Hasan
As
a lover of words and phrases which he used to express, intelligently and in
ordered sequence, Nehru emerged as a public intellectual whose opinions
mattered.
Nehru’s books make
public his remarkable erudition in dealing with a range of subjects
The French political
theorist Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859), talked about the part played in
French political thinking by men of letters. In the second half of the 19th
century, Bengal witnessed a “renaissance” to which literary men, reformers and
journalists contributed their bit. Literary works in Urdu and Hindi had a
striking impact in raising mass awakening. In this connection, I recount the
creative writings of Jawaharlal Nehru to mark his 50th death anniversary (May
27). Most of his books were written in jail. His love of learning was too
strong to be quenched by disabilities in jail.
“Long periods in
prison,” Nehru wrote, “are apt to make one either a mental and physical wreck
or a philosopher. I flatter myself that I kept myself very well during all
these years.” As a lover of words and phrases which he used to express,
intelligently and in ordered sequence, he emerged, perhaps unknowingly, as a
public intellectual whose opinions mattered. And his books held an approach to
life compounded of buoyancy and optimism, a humorous tolerance towards life’s
foibles and even its trials.
Nehru read 55 books
from May 21, 1922 till January 29, 1923 alone. Oscar Wilde’s The Ballad
of Reading Gaol had a magical sway over him. Plato’s The
Republic stimulated him, whereas To the Lighthouse by
Virginia Woolf opened his eyes to many scenes of life. As a man with socialist
leanings, he perused Beatrice Webb, a Fabian socialist, and Sidney Webb.
Besides, he delved into philosophy, and turned the pages of history to illuminate
his understanding of ideas and movements, which stood apart as the catalyst for
momentous changes. As with the French Revolution or the Bolshevik Revolution,
he wanted to know what lay behind people’s upsurge. For the histories of
colonialism in India, he read a great deal more on the subject.
An
antidote to isolation
Nehru’s reading
habits saved him from a life of frustration in the house of sorrow. In this
connection he cited the Dutch philosopher, Hugo Grotius, about whom Disraeli
had written: “Other men, condemned to exile and captivity, if they survive,
despair; the man of letters may reckon those days as the sweetest of his life.”
Without comparing his own role with the famous jailbirds — Miguel de Cervantes
and John Bunyan, he wrote on October 26, 1930: “In India today, we are making
history, and you and I are fortunate to see this happening before our eyes and
to take some part ourselves in this great drama.” Mulk Raj Anand, the
progressive novelist and essayist, once remarked, “the quality of imagination
he brought to his world experience … heightened his egoistically slanted
self-realization into significant statement, which is not merely personal
history, but the history of a generation, indeed the interpretation of a whole
liberation struggle.” Reading history is good, but even more interesting and
fascinating is to help in making history.
Putting pen to paper
was an antidote to isolation and to harnessing his creative energies. For
example, he asked himself, what he was heir to, and answered that he was heir
to all that humanity had achieved over tens of thousands of years, to its cries
of triumph and its bitter agonies of defeat, to that astonishing adventure,
which had begun so long ago and yet continued and beckoned to man. He wrote on the
wisdom of India’s past, on its great inexhaustible spiritual heritage, and on
the vital necessity to apply it intelligently and reasonably to the present and
the future. Toleration and peace were the whole essence of the Indian outlook,
and that his countrymen would adjust, without too great difficulty, to a new
scheme of things. But the frail old man in the loincloth told him not to be
troubled by the outside word but to read, write or learn any handicraft.
On the struggle for
freedom, of which he was the intellectual leader, Nehru doubted whether his
countrymen would be attentive to or absorbed in his detailed narrative. It did
not long for such trepidations to go out of Nehru’s mind. The fact is that he
is generous, understanding, and kindly in evaluating the freedom struggle in
Asia and Africa. Likewise, he was sympathetic to the ideals and aspirations of
liberal nationalism in Turkey and in the Middle Eastern countries, and his
Asian pride was burst by Europe’s machinations in the region. He drew comparisons
between them and India, and aspired for their freedom.
On Gandhi’s advice,
Nehru put in writing some of these thoughts in Glimpses of World
History. It consists of his letters to Indira Nehru that were meant to
acquaint her with the milestones in world history, the creative thrust and
splendour of mankind, the theory and practice of statecraft, the multiple
influences of events, and the fate of societies that have been constructed in a
narrow and superficial spirit. The letters reflect on the Indian situation and
its bearing on the outside world, so that his daughter could “see a mighty
procession of living men and women and children in every age and every clime,
different from us and yet very like us, with much the same human virtues and
human feelings.”
Nehru identified the
stirring and epoch-making past events, and reflected on those illustrious men
and women who made the masses do great deeds — Lenin, Giuseppe Garibaldi,
Cavour, the first Prime Minister of Italy, Giuseppe Mazzini, Mustafa Kamal Atatürk,
and, above all, Gandhi. Nehru admitted that it was not for him to assess his
historical role, given his personal closeness to the man; but neither can those
who remained untouched by the magic of his charisma and personality accomplish
this task. Nonetheless, he recounted Gandhi’s leadership, his ideas, his
conception of truth, and his ability to mould and move enormous masses of human
beings. Without being inflexible, he adapted himself to changing circumstances
and to the necessities of the moment. Certain that much ink and paper would be
expended on discussing and critiquing Gandhi’s life theories and activities, he
pointed out nonetheless, that he could not be reduced to theory. He would
remain forever “a radiant and beloved figure.” The image of Gandhi that endured
in Nehru’s mind is that of Gandhi leading the Dandi march, determined, staff in
his hand.
Wide
canvas of ideas
In his glimpses of
the great moments in the career of these and many more people, he brought to
the fore their treasures of knowledge, learning, heroism and devotion. What is
more, his description recovers his own voice, his own enthusiasm, and his own
strong arm at the service of his people. Drawing on the accumulated mass of
notes, to which Nehru made frequent additions, his correspondence illustrate a
unity of outlook and a command of facts which would do credit to any
professional writer. Without the dust and tumble of politics, they are clear,
emphatic, neat and without a trace of pedantry. Glimpses of World
History, with its thousands of facts and events and names, stands by itself
as “a demonstration of human intellectual capacity.” Hiren Mukherjee, Nehru’s
biographer, remarked that a great deal happened while Nehru was in jail,
affecting the whole gamut of his emotions and touched off thoughts. Hence, it
was incumbent for a sensitive man like him to put them down in words that came
with graceful spontaneity.
Nehru’s books make
public the wide range of his interests, and his remarkable erudition in dealing
with subjects ranging from domestic politics to the ethics and morality of
science, from India’s role in world affairs to the urgency of setting up
universities, and his thoughts on culture. Any yet, a running thread is
discernible within all these diverse interests. For example, one is struck by
Nehru’s awareness of the continuity between the past, the present and his hopes
and vision for the future. Hence, he refers to the weight of the past, the
greatness of the civilisation he had inherited, not as a burden to be carried,
but as a point for judging the moral worth and wisdom of his decisions.
It is hard to find
much fault with Nehru’s general conception of ideas and their execution or to
deny the limitations of an otherwise wide canvas. The verdict of a reviewer in
the American Current History was flattering; according to
him, Glimpses of World History was a better survey of the
world story than H.G. Well’s Outline. Fenner Brockway, a friend of
India, acclaimed it. His daughter claimed that she learnt more from Glimpses
of World History than any other history book she had studied at
school. Passages from it were read out in the Aga Khan Detention Camp. Gandhi
felt like translating them. Since then, new editions succeeded one another
during Nehru’s life and many have appeared after his death, and the value of
the work has not diminished. Besides public men, lawyer and judges thought
highly of the Glimpses. Few works of the time require so little
adaptation to satisfy students today.
(Mushirul Hasan is
Nehru Fellow and former director-general of the National Archives of India.)
