THE NEHRUS MOTILAL AND JAWAHARLAL

101 723

1

1ST E

Motilal Nehru, Swarup Rani and Jawaharlal Nehru about 1895

THE NEHRUS

MOTILAL AND JAWAHARLAL

By B. R. NANDA

ILLUSTRATED

The John Day Company New York

TO MY FATHER

FIRST AMERICAN EDITION, 1963

1962 by George Allen & Unwin Ltd. All rights reserved*
This book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced ID
any form without permission. Published by The John
Day Company, <S West 45th Street, New York 36, N. Y

Library of Congress Catalogue
Card Number: 62-21017

MANUFACTURES IK THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

MANY people today remember Motilal Nehru as the father of
Jawaharlal Nehru, just as in the nineteen twenties there were not
a few in whose eyes JawaharlaTs chief title to distinction was that
he was the son of his distinguished father. Both verdicts are
equally superficial The fact is that MotilaTs place in Indian
politics in the last ten years of his life was second only to that of
Gandhi* And Jawaharlal, even in the life-time of his father, had
climbed several rungs of the ladder which was to bring him to the
top as the leader of the national movement and the logical heir of
the Mahatma.

It is exactly one hundred years since Motilars birth, and thirty
since his death, but no biography of him has yet been written. If
this has made my task more laborious, it has also made it more
interesting, as the story of his life had to be pieced together from
original sources, including his own papers. However, I had not
gone very far in my research when I realized that it was impos-
sible to understand or interpret his life without dealing in detail
with the ideas and activities of his son, that a biography of Motilal
could not but become the biography of his son as weO.

Father and son played very different parts in the national
struggle; but so intertwined were their lives that they influenced
each other, not least when they differed. Love of one's children is
a natural and common enough emotion, but in the case of Motilal
it had a rare quality, which Gandhi, a deeply religious man,
described as 'divine'* It was this extraordinary emotion, deeply
rooted in his being and strangely incongruous in a hard-headed
lawyer, which gave a new twist to the story of the Nehrus. That
story was not always of a triumphal progress with garlands and
banner-headlines; more often it was a chronicle of sweat and toil,
loneliness and suspense, personal anguish and political frustration,
against which their only defences were their proud patriotism and
indomitable faith. Such of course is the stuff of which politics
the politics of nationalist revolt are made.

lie story of the Nehrus ran parallel with and merged into the
story of the Indian freedom movement A survey of that move-
ment has already been attempted by me in my biography of
Gandhi. But the Mahatma was not directly concerned with the
early period of the Indian National Congress before 1915; nor

THE NEHRUS

was it necessary, (or feasible for reasons of space) to deal with the
twenties in such detail as is essential to bring out the role of the
Nehrus. The present work, therefore, supplements rather than
overlaps the theme of my earlier book.

This book is primarily based on a study of original and un-
published sources, the Nehru family papers, confidential official
records, the Gandhi and Sapru papers. In addition, books, journals,
reports and newspapers have been consulted to reconstruct the
period; the select bibliography at the end, however, includes only
such printed works as have been cited in the text or in the foot-
notes. As a rule, footnotes refer to printed sources. Only occasion-
ally have references been made to unpublished sources, since
mention of all of these would have distracted the reader with too
many footnotes.

Having drawn upon such diverse sources and dealt with events
which, in the light of the changed relationship between India and
Britain, now seem more remote than mere chronology might
suggest, I have tried to see men and events in historical perspective,
to understand and interpret, rather than to uphold or condemn.

Delhi B. R. NANDA

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I AM deeply grateful to Shri Jawaharlal Nehru for kindly per-
mitting me to consult and use extracts from his private papers, for
finding time, in the midst of his other pressing engagements, to
meet me on a number of occasions, and for answering my many
questions.

I am indebted to Shrimati Vijayalakshmi Pandit, Shrimati
Indira Gandhi, Shri Brij Lai Nehru, Shrimati Rameshwari Nehru,
Shri B. K. Nehru, Dr S. S. Nehru and Shrimati Raj Dulari Nehru
for giving me much useful data, which helped to fill gaps in my
knowledge.

Dr B, C Roy was kind enough to prepare for me a note dealing
with Pandit Motilal Nehru's health, his last illness and certain
incidents. Dr K. N. Katju supplied me with useful information on
the legal career of Pandit Motilal Nehru. Shri Mohan Lai Saksena,
Shri S. D. Upadhyaya, Dewan Chaman Lall and Shri Brij Mohan
Vyas gave me their interesting reminiscences. Munshi Kanhiya
Lai gave much assistance in tracing old papers in Anand Bhawan.
Shri Jhabarmal Sharma furnished some data on the early associa-
tion of the Nehru family with Khetri.

I am grateful to Shri G. Ramachandran, General Secretary
Gandi Samarafc Nidhi, for permission to consult the corres-
pondence of Mahatma Gandhi* The Ministry of Home Affairs
granted me permission to consult and use extracts from con-
fidential official records. Shri S. Roy, Shri V. C. Joshi and staff of
the National Archives of India have been very helpful to me.

Shri A. N. Sapru and his brothers were kind enough to permit
me to use extracts from the unpublished papers of the late Sir Tej
Bahadur Sapru.

The Navajivan Trust Ahmedabad have been good enough to
permit me to quote from the writings of Mahatma Gandhi,

I am grateful to Shri Kesavan, the Librarian, and Shri Mulay, the
Deputy Librarian, of the National Library, Calcutta; to Shri Girja
Kumar, Librarian of the Indian Council of World Affairs, and to
Shri Dharam Vir, Librarian of the Gandhi Memorial Museum
Library, for their courteous assistance at all times.

Shri V* C. Joshi has helped me in correcting proofs and my son
Naren has assisted me in the preparation of the index.

THE NEHRUS

I need hardly add that I alone bear responsibility for the views
expressed in this book and for all its shortcomings.

And finally, I owe a profound debt of gratitude to my wife for
her constant sympathy and support during the many months
when this work was under preparation,

B.R.N,

CONTENTS

1. Formative Years 17

2. The Profession of Law 26

3. West Wind 34
4* Indian "National Congress 45

5. Motilal the Moderate 54

6. The Only Son 62

7. Harrow 70

8. The Young Nationalist 81

9. Fateful Choice 94
10* Politics Calling 106
11- Halcyon Days 115

12. Home Rule 130

13. Reforms on the Anvil
14* Emergence of Gandhi

15. Amritsar 162

16. The Plunge 173

17. High Tide 187

18. Low Tide 199

19. Letters from Prison 209
20* Trapped in Nabha 217
21* Leader of the Opposition 224

22. Tussle with Gandhi 234

23. Evolution of Jawaharlal 245
24* Rift in the Lute 260

THE NEHRUS

25. End of the Tether 270

26. Rising Tempo 282

27. The Clash 293

28. On the Brink 307

29. Freedom's Battle 325
Epilogue 340

BIBLIOGRAPHY 344

INDEX 348

ILLUSTRATIONS

Motilal, Swamp Rani and Jawaharlal

about 1895 frontispiece

Motilal about 1900 facing page 36

Motilal in his car about 1904 ^

Motilal as Leader of the Bar 27

Father and son before and after the

plunge into politics ^5

Motilal, Leader of the Opposition in the

Central Legislative Assembly in 1928 ^

Anand Bhawan jog

Motilal launching The Jalduta 199

CHAPTER ONE
FORMATIVE YEARS

i, Church Road, Allahabad. A large palatial house; with its
elegant furnishings, spacious lawns, fruit gardens, sparkling
fountains, swimming-pools, tennis-courts, horses, carriages, cars
and retinue of servants, it reminded visitors of the country man-
sions of the British aristocracy. It was not far from the University
and the High Court and on a moonlit night one could trace from
its roof the silver line of the sacred Ganges and the silhouette of
the Naini Central Gaol across the Jumna. The Honourable
Pandit Motilal Nehru, the proud owner of the house, was the
cynosure of all eyes as he drove to the High Court every morn-
ing in a magnificent carriage drawn by a fine pair of horses and
with liveried servants in attendance. Robust and rubicund, with
chiselled features, a determined chin and rather formidable
moustaches, well dressed (his suits were made in Savile Row), he
commanded inside and outside the High Court an admiration
not unmixed with awe. His ready wit delighted the Honourable
Judges as much as it discomfited rival counsel. Genial, fond of
good food, good wine and good conversation, a staunch friend
and a straightforward opponent, he was known among his many
friends, British and Indian, for his generous hospitality. He had
everything a man could wish for: a fabulous income, the respect
of his peers, a lovely though fragile wife, a dear-eyed son, two
charming daughters. He was the idol of the Bar, the favourite of
the Bench, the darling of destiny. Nothing could have been more
apt than the name he chose for his house: Anand BJiawn
(Abode of Happiness).

This image of Motilal at the zenith of his professional career
was to undergo important changes in the last ten years of his
life. But in the minds of his contemporaries it remained un-
altered to the last and thirty years after his death it still lingers
in popular imagination. It is usual to refer to him as a "born
aristocrat', with a 'princely' style of life and a 'right royal
manner* of lavish hospitality, Motilal did not, however, inherit

THE NEHRUS

a kingdbm, nor even an estate* He was not born with a silver
spoon in his mouth; he had no 'gold-bearing genes'*

MotilaTs family originally belonged to the valley of Kashmir,
which is famous for its lofty mountains, dancing brooks, flower-
filled meadows and beautiful women* Early in the eighteenth
century it was also noted for its scholars; one of them, Pandit
Raj Kaul, caught the eye of the Mughal king Farukhsiyar when
he visited Kashmir about the year 1716, and was persuaded to
migrate to Delhi, the imperial capital, where he was granted a
house situated on the canal which then ran through the city,
living on the bank of the canal (nafiar), Raj Kaul's descendants
came to be known in the Kashmiri community as 'Nehrus', or
rather 'Kaul-Nehrus'. Raj Kaul also received a few villages as
;agir from the Mughal Emperor. But unfortunately his patron
did not live long. Challenged by ambitious satraps and refractory
nobles from within and powerful enemies from without, the
Mughal Empire was in the last throes of a rapid dissolution.
Farakhsiyar*s brief reign had its disgraceful denouement in 1719,
when he was dragged out of the harem of his own palace, de-
posed, imprisoned and finally done to death at the instance of
his own ministers, the ambitious Syed brothers* Raj Kaul's royal
patron thus disappeared from the scene. With the decline of the
imperial authority during the following years his ;agir dwindled
until it amounted to no more than zamindari rights in certain
lands. The last beneficiaries of these rights were Raj Kaul's grand-
sons, Mausa Ram Kaul and Saheb Ram Kaul. Mausa Ram's son,
Lakshmi Narayan, became the first Vakil of the East India Com-
pany at the Mughal court of Delhi. Lakshmi Narayan's son
Gaaga Dhar-the father of Motilal Nehru and the grand-
father of Jawaharlal Nehru - was a police officer in Delhi when
the Mutiny broke out in 1857.

By 1857, the <Nehrus', the descendants of Raj Kaul, had been
settled in Delhi for nearly a century and a half. During this
period the political landscape had been completely transformed.

FORMATIVE YEARS 19

Bahadur Shah, who was to be the last of the imperial line of the
Mughals, had been divested of all real power, though he still
maintained a shadow court in the Red Fort at Delhi with as
much dignity as his straitened finances, contumacious sons and
the whims of the British Resident permitted. The Mughal court
performed cultural, rather than political functions; Bahadur
Shah himself was a poet; his protege was Zauk, the rival of the
famous Ghalib. The aristocratic classes of Delhi took their cue
from the King and patronized painting, poetry and local handi-
crafts* Remarkably free from religious prejudice, Bahadur Shah
observed the Hindu festivals of Diwali and Holi with the same
enthusiasm as the Muslim Id. On certain auspicious days, such
as New Year's Day and the lunar and solar eclipses, he followed
the Hindu custom of having himself weighed again**- grain,
which was then distributed among the poor. During the rainy
season, Mehrauli, a suburb of Delhi, was the scene of the
"Punkahs' festival, when Hindus and Muslims fraternized in
visits to the temple of a Hindu deity and the tomb of a Muslim
saint

The only surviving portrait of Ganga Dhar Nehru shows hi
bearded, dressed like a Mughal grandee, with a curved sword in
his hand. There was nothing surprising in a Kashmiri Brahmin
being turned out like a Muslim nobleman, if we remember that
the conventions, the ceremonial and even the language -
Persian of the Mughal Court had, since the days of Akbar, set
the fashion for the entire Indian sub-continent By the middle of
the nineteenth century western influences had made themselves
felt in the port-towns of Bombay, Calcutta and Madras, but had
not yet percolated to the heart of the sub-continent Neverthe-
less, by 1857 even Delhi had enterprising individuals such as
Ramachandra, the mathematician, and Mukandlal, the physician,
who had received western education* Ganga Dhar's own sons,
though only in their teens, had learnt to speak English -an
accomplishment which was soon to stand them in good stead.

This conservative, cultured and contented society, centred on
the Mughal court, broke up on nth May 1857, when the
mutinous troops from Meerut broke into Delhi, killed or drove
out its European residents and thrust the standard of rebellion

20 THE NEHRUS

into the unwilling and feeble hands of King Bahadur Shah. From
the outset it was a hopeless venture. No love was lost between
Prince Mirza Mughal, who became the commander-in-chief of
the rebel army, and Prince Jawan Bakht, the son of Bahadur
Shah's youngest and favourite queen, between the royal princes
and the king's advisers, or between the rebel leaders and the
court Bahadur Shah was hard put to it to save the townsfolk
from the soldiers who had already tasted the fruits of indis-
cipline. Hakim Ahsanullah Khan, the King's adviser, who was
suspected, with good reason, of communicating with the British, 1
was arrested by the army leaders, and released only after Bahadur
Shah had threatened to abdicate and even to commit suicide.
Lack of leadership in the mutinous regiments and in the royal
entourage sealed the fate of Delhi, notwithstanding the great
heroism of the rebels in the battle of the Ridge during that
terrible summer of 1857.

A ghastly fate awaited Delhi when British troops shelled their
way into the town in September. In the words of a British his-
torian, 'for the citizens of Delhi, the aftermath of the Mutiny
was a case of the scorpions of Rehoboam following the whips of
Solomon'. 2 No man's life was safe in the city : all able-bodied
men were taken for rebels and shot on sight. Three Mughal
princes were shot dead in cold blood by Captain Hodson; twenty-
one more were hanged shortly afterwards* 'It is a great pity/
wrote John Lawrence about the King, who had been taken
prisoner, that 'the old rascal was not shot directly he was seen';
and as late as December 12, 1857, he was enquiring: 'Is
private plundering still allowed? Do officers go about shooting
natives?' 3 After the city had been ransacked and looted with a
thoroughness which put Nadir Shah's record into the shade, the
'prize agents' of the victorious army were busy digging up the
floors and walls of deserted houses in search of buried treasures.
Almost the entire Indian population of Delhi, estimated at a
hundred and fifty thousand, streamed out of the gates.*
Thousands camped under the sky in the neighbourhood of the
Qutab and Nizamuddin, braving cold and starvation, but hoping

1 Sen, S. N., Eighteen Fifty-seven, p. 94.

1 Spear, Percivai Twilight of the Mughuls, p. 218.

3 Ibid, p. 219.

* Ibi(ip,ai8.

FORMATIVE YEARS 21

/

one day to return to their homes; others bade a final goodbye to
Delhi and set out in search of safety and shelter.

Among the fugitives who took the road to Agra were Ganga
Dhar Nehru and his wife Jeorani, their two sons Bansi Dhar and
Nand Lai, and their two daughters Patrani and MaharanL
One of the girls, with her fair complexion and fine Kashmiri
features, was mistaken by British soldiers for an English girL Kid-
napping was a serious offence and life - Indian life - was cheap.
Fortunately Ganga Dhar's sons, who spoke English, cleared up
the misunderstanding and thus saved the whole family from
massacre.

The upheaval of 1857 uprooted Ganga Dhar from Delhi,
where his ancestors had been settled for nearly 150 years. He
was lucky to escape with his family, but he lost his job and
almost everything he possessed. It is not known whether he tried
to restore his fortunes in Agra, but he had not long to live. Early
in 1861, he died at the age of thirty-four. Three months after his
death, on May 6, 1861, his wife gave birth to a son. He was
named Motilal.

The death of her husband had been a terrible blow to Jeorani.
It was one of those catastrophes under the weight of which many
an Indian family of ancient lineage has been known to sink into
permanent oblivion. Luckily both Bansi Dhar and Nand Lai were
plucky boys and were able to stand on their own feet. Bansi
Dhar secured a job as a 'judgment-writer* in the Sadar Diwani
Adalat at Agra and rose to the position of a subordinate judge.

Since Bansi Dhar was in government service and liable to
frequent transfers, Motilal was brought up by Nand Lai. Be-
tween these two there grew up a strong bond of affection, a
happy blend of the filial and the fraternal of which the Hindu
joint family, despite its many faults, furnishes perhaps the finest
examples.

Through the good offices of Principal Anderson of Agra
College, Nand Lai secured a job in the small state of Khetri in
Rajasthan, where he became a teacher, then private secretary to
Raja Fateh Singh, and finally the Diwan (chief minister). Nand
Lai proved an efficient administrator. The enlightened policy and
reforms of the young chief of Khetri, Fateh Singh/ ran the Re-

Z2 THE NEHRUS

port on the Political Administration of Rajputana for 1865-7,
'have already been brought to the notice of and secured the
approbation of his Excellency the Viceroy and Governor-General
in Council". In his speech at the Agra Durbar in November, 1867,
Sir John Lawrence cited the Raja of Khetri as an example for
other princes to follow* 5 Nand Lai served in Khetri till the end of
1870. On November 30th of that year, Raja Fateh Singh died at
Delhi; he had no son but had expressed a wish to adopt Ajit
Singh, a nine-year-old boy, as his heir* The ruler of Khetri had
a somewhat anomalous position: he was the feudatory of the
Jaipur Durbar, but in certain matters dealt directly with the
Paramount Power acting through the Agent to the Governor-
General for the States of Rajputana* It was doubtful whether, in
terms of the treaty rights, the Raja of Khetri was entitled to
adopt an heir, and whether Jaipur Durbar would acquiesce in
succession by adoption* Nand Lai and others who attended Raja
Fateh Singh during his last illness decided to conceal the news of
his death and took the dead body in a closed carriage to Khetri,
where, after announcing a sudden illness, they pronounced him
dead. The boy Ajit Singh was hastily summoned to Khetri. Mean-
while Captain Bradford, the Political Agent at Jaipur, had
hurried to Khetri. Ajit Singh had not yet been installed on the
gaddi (throne), but Captain Bradford, presented with almost a
fait accompli, confirmed the adoption/

Nand Lai had carried out the last command of his late master,
but he lost his job. He quitted Khetri, qualified as a lawyer and
began to practise law in Agra. When the High Court was trans-
ferred to Allahabad, he moved with it. The misadventure which
had pulled him out of the backwaters of Rajputana to a provin-
cial capital in British India gave great new opportunities, not
only to himself, but to the entire Nehru family.

Meanwhile Motilal was growing up into a vivacious boy* At
Khetri, where his brother was the Diwan, he was taught by
Qazi Sadruddin, the tutor of Raja Fateh Singh. Till the age of
twelve he read only Arabic and Persian. In the latter language

5 Shanaa, Jhabannal Khetri Ka Ithas (History of Khetri), p. 8*.

6 Captain Bradford to Colonel Brooks, Agent to Governor-General, De-
cember 7, 1871. (N.AX).

FORMATIVE YEARS 23

his proficiency was striking enough to command the respect of
men much older than himself. He joined the high-school at
Cawnpore where Bansi Dhar was posted. Characteristic letters
from Motilal to the headmaster, have fortunately survived:

To H. Powell Esq.

Head Master of Ch. Ch. School,

Cawnpore.
Respected Sir,

I respectfully beg to inform your honour that I am quite
prepare for the examination of both dasses i.e. 4th and 5th.

Perhaps you know that when I informed to the Principal for
my promotion in the 4th dass, he refused and said, "the other
boys have also right as you have". Therefore now, I wish to be
promoted in the 4th dass by my own power.
Hoping that you will grant my petition.

I remain,

Sir,

Your obedient student,
Moti Lall.'

The confidence and courage of Motilal, who was hardly twelve,
break through the barriers of the arbitrary spelling and grammar
of an alien tongue, which he had only just started learning and
in which he was before long to become remarkably fluent.

Motilal was far from being a bookworm. Athletic, fond of
outdoor sports, particularly wrestling, brimming over with an
insatiable curiosity and zest for life, he took to the playground
and places of amusement with enthusiasm, and between whiles
attended his dasses. His career at the Muir College at Allahabad
was not noted for academic distinction : his quick wits and high
spirits landed him in many an escapade, from which he was
extricated by Principal Harrison and his British colleagues, who
conceived a strong liking for this intelligent, livdy and restless
Kashmiri youth. Englishmen teaching in Indian colleges may
have been no more friendly to nationalist aspirations than the rest
of their compatriots in India, but it would be wrong to think of
them as cogs in the Imperial machine like magistrates and police
officials. Between the English professors and their Indian pupils
there were often bonds of sympathy, understanding and even
friendship. On Motilal a deep and lasting impression was left

24 THE NEHRUS

by the affectionate solicitude of Principal Harrison, one of whose
letters he carefully preserved. The contact with his English pro-
fessors was a strong formative influence, implanting an intel-
ligent, rational, sceptical attitude to life and a strong admiration
for English culture and English institutions. University educa-
tion did not load Motilal with book-learning; but it helped to
open for him a window on the world - the wide western world.
Motilal sat for his degree but, thinking he had done his first
paper badly, stayed away from the rest of the examination. As it
turned out, he had answered his first paper fairly well. His
university life thus ended inconclusively and ingloriously. For
an Indian youth who had inherited neither money nor property,
to play with his educational career was to play with his future
and to face the frustration of a low-paid job for the rest of his life.
Fortunately, Motilal pulled himself together in time. He decided
to follow the legal profession in which his elder brother Nand
Lai had already achieved a moderate success. He worked hard
and topped the list of successful candidates in the Vakils'
examination. In 1883 he set up as a lawyer at Cawnpore under
the aegis of Pandit Prithinath, a senior lawyer and a friend of
the family.

Nand Lai, Motilal's elder brother, had been married at the age
of twelve at Delhi in 1857, the year of the Mutiny; the ceremony
was too important to be put off even in the midst of that great
upheaval. Child marriage was then the rule among Kashmiri
Brahmins and Motilal was also married and had a son while still
in his teens. But the marriage ended tragically: mother and
child both died. Soon afterwards Motilal married again. Swarup
Rani, his second wife, belonged to a fresher stock from Kashmir;
her family, the Thussus, unlike the Nehrus, had migrated to the
plains comparatively recently. She was petite, with a 'Dresden
china perfection' of complexion and features, hazel eyes, chest-
nut-brown hair and exquisitely shaped hands and feet. The
youngest of four children, she had been spoiled by her parents;
it was not easy for her to fit into her husband's household,
peopled by a host of relatives and dominated by a formidable
mother-in-law whose fierce temper was a byword in the town.

The beautiful Swarup Rani and handsome Motilal made a

FORMATIVE YEARS 25

charming pair. They had a few years of happiness before Swarup
Rani's ill-health cast its long shadow over their domestic life.
Their first child, a son, did not live. On November 14, 1889,
their second child was born. He was named Jawaharlal The birth
of a son and heir is the high-watermark of happiness in a Hindu
family* In MotilaTs case it was an occasion for special rejoicing,
because of the tragedy of his first marriage. It was, and is, cus-
tomary among Kashmiri Brahmins to have the horoscope of
every new-born baby cast by the priest-astrologer, who is
attached to each family in the same way as a doctor or solicitor
is in the West, However, Motilal had the horoscope of his infant
son prepared by the court astrologer of Khetri State, whose ruler
had not forgotten the services rendered to him by MotilaTs
brother.

Meanwhile, Motilal had made a good start with his legal
practice. The district courts of Cawnpore did not offer full scope
for his ambition. In 1886, after he had completed his three years'
apprenticeship, he decided to move to Allahabad, the seat of the
High Court, where Nand Lai had a lucrative practice. Nand Lai
was so delighted when he heard young Motilal argue his first
case that he embraced him in the court-room.

Once again destiny dealt Motilal a cruel blow. In April, 1887,
Nand Lai died at the age of forty-two, leaving behind him his
wife Nandrani, two daughters and five sons, Biharilal, Mohanlal,
Shamlal, Kishenlal and Brijlal At the age of twenty-five, Motilal
found himself head of a large family, its sole bread-winner. He
had come to Allahabad for greater opportunities; he found only
heavier burdens. But he was not the man to be overwhelmed by
adversity. The loss of his beloved brother gave a keener edge to
his ambition. The exuberant energy which had been dissipated
in childish pranks and youthful follies had now a single
aim - success in his profession.

7 Sharma, J, M., Adarsh Naresh, p. 344-

CHAPTER TWO
THE PROFESSION OF LAW

ALLAHABAD may seem a sleepy little town today, but in the last
decade of the nineteenth century, to a young lawyer anxious to
make a place for himself in the world, it must have seemed a
land of opportunity. It was the capital of the North Western
Provinces, as the United Provinces were then called. It was the
seat of the university and the High Court, and the centre of the
English language press which moulded the opinion of Europeans
and educated Indians in northern India.

The legal profession, thanks to the purely literary qualifica-
tions required for it, was becoming overcrowded even in the
eighteen-eighties. 'Briefless barrister' was a comic phrase to some,
but a tragic reality to those whom it was intended to ridicule.
The struggle for survival at the Bar was keen: room at the top
there always was, but the top was not easily reached, nor did it
accommodate more than a few. Dr John Matthai, the well-
known economist and educationist, is said to have received a
bunch of bananas as the fee for his first brief in the Madras High
Court. Initial disappointment and a sense of failure were .the lot
even of those who later achieved outstanding success. For many
a weary year, the new entrant to the legal profession found time
hang heavy on his hands. The aimless browsing on newspapers
and magazines in the Bar Library, the gossip from the courts,
the anecdotes relayed at secondhand from the more fortunate
seniors, scarcely filled the young lawyer's frustrating day. He
had to be content with such petty briefs as came his way, until
he resigned himself to failure, or found himself, by an unex-
pected turn of fortune's wheel, at the top of the profession. Such
was the lot of C. R. Das, a Bengali lawyer, nine years younger
than Motilal, whom the trial of Aurobindo Ghose brought into
the limelight after fifteen years' straggle against poverty and
oblivion. Such too was the lot of a Gujarati youth, M. K. Gandhi,
eight years younger than Motilal, who was called to the bar in
England, read books on physiognomy and sought advice from

THE PROFESSION OF LAW 2J

experienced lawyers on the 'art' of practising law; and when at
last, after unconscionable waiting, a brief came his way, he
broke down in a Bombay court while cross-examining the first
witness, refunded the client's fee and retired to the small town of
Rajkot to make a modest living by drafting petitions until the
displeasure of a British officer drove him to seek his fortune in
South Africa. The diffident, tongue-tied, self-conscious Gandhi,
scanning the morality as well as the legality of his briefs, was
poles apart from Motilal, who was the epitome of self-confidence,
quick to seize on a point of fact or law and to stretch it to the
utmost in his client's favour,

Motilal received only five rupees for his first brief, but he was
fortunate in not having a long uphill struggle: his success was
as rapid as it was spectacular* In his early thirties, he was making
nearly Rs, 2,000 a month, a considerable sum for an up-country
lawyer at that time; in his early forties his income had reached
five figures. He was one of the four brilliant vakils whom Chief
Justice Sir John Edge admitted to the roll of advocates of the
Allahabad High Court in 1896, the others being Pandit (later Sir)
Sunderlal, Munshi Ram Prasad and Mr Jogendranath ChoudhurL
In August, 1909, he received permission to appear and plead at
the bar of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in Great
Britain*

Success came easily to Motilal because he possessed a natural
shrewdness, sound common sense and the gift of persuasive
advocacy. K. N* Katju, one of his younger contemporaries, thus
explains the secret of his eminence at the Bar: 'Pandit Motilal
was handsome. He dressed fastidiously* He was by no means
eloquent, but keen in debate and incisive in argument He
radiated cheerfulness and good humour * * * While Pandit Motilal
was in the court and on his legs, the atmosphere seemed sur-
charged with sunshine*' He also had the saving grace of humour*
Once in the course of his address to the jury he said he did not
want to confuse it. 'Never mind the jury,' cut in the judge, 'the
jury can look after itself*' 'My Lord,' Motilal replied, 'that may
be so, but I want it to look after my client/

But all his gifts would not have brought him to the top
without another quality of which he had given little promise in
his youth - industry* There is no short cut to success in the legal
profession* Each day brings new battles of wits, new briefs with
new intricacies of law, fresh masses of evidence to be sifted

THE NEHRUS

marshalled and digested. This means working hard late at night
or first thing in the morning, as the days are taken up with in-
terviews with clients and appearances in court*

Motilal was a civil lawyer* Most of his important cases were
about disputed succession to property belonging to big zamindars
and talukdars. The stakes were high and so were the fees. The
rival claimants engaged the foremost lawyers in the land* The
intricacies of the Hindu law of inheritance were further com-
plicated by the thick folds of insinuation and intrigue in which
such disputes were often shrouded* The income from an estate
was large enough to make it worth while for the party in posses-
sion to prolong the course of litigation, and for the rival party
to fight for it to the bitter end. One of these cases which con-
cerned the Lakhna estate, came to Motilal in 1894 and remained
with him for more than thirty years - long after he had given up
active practice* A brief history of this case, which was one of the
most important and remunerative Motilal handled, is not only
interesting in itself but a good example of the problems with
which he had to wrestle in the course of his legal practice*

A jagir (estate) was granted to Raja Jaswant Singh, a landlord
of Etawah district, for his services to the British Government
during the Mutiny* Raja Jaswant Singh married three times* He
had a son, Balwant Singh, by his first wife and a daughter, Beti
Mahalakshmibai, by his third wife, Rani Kishori* Unfortunately,
Balwant Singh fell into evil ways, was convicted of murder and
sentenced to thirteen years' imprisonment* Raja Jaswant Singh
thereupon disinherited his son and executed 'a solemn deed of
gift' of his property in favour of Rani Kishori, with the stipula-
tion that if a son were born to Balwant Singh, the property
would revert to him when he came of age*

In 1879 on the death of her husband, Rani Kishori came into
possession of the jagir, which she managed with uncommon
ability and efficiency* But four years later her stepson, on release
from jail, claimed the property on the plea that he had been
wrongfully deprived of it* Since the jagir had been acquired and
not inherited by his father, the courts held that the disinherit-
ance of Balwant Singh was valid under Hindu law* Events now
took a dramatic turn* Balwant Singh, who was approaching his

THE PROFESSION OF LAW 29

fiftieth birthday and had a wife living, married a young woman
named Dunnaju. In 1894 it was announced that Dunnaju had
given birth to a son who was named Narsingh Rao, To Rani
Kishori this seemed part of a plot to do her out of her jagir. She
consulted Motilal, then a rising lawyer in Allahabad. MotilaPs
opinion, which was later confirmed by Sir Charles Paul, an
eminent Calcutta lawyer, was that Raja Jaswant Singh's gift of
property in favour of a grandson unborn on the date of the
execution of the deed, was bad in law,

In 1916 things came to a head when Narsingh Rao, having
attained his majority, filed a suit as Balwant Singh's son and heir
for the restitution of the property in the terms of his grand-
father's will. He engaged Tej Bahadur Sapru, a leading lawyer of
Allahabad, as his counsel. Rani Kishori engaged Motilal. Motilal
was inclined to contest the suit on the legal issue, but his client
insisted that legitimacy of Narsingh Rao should be disputed. On
this point Narsingh Rao produced an impressive array of wit-
nesses-relatives, midwives and neighbours. The evidence of
Dunnaju, who was in purdah, was taken at her residence by the
British judge. At the end of the cross-examination - which
Dunnaju had stood remarkably well - Motilal casually asked her
if she would submit to a medical examination. "Not once/ she
retorted, 'but twenty times, and not by one lady-doctor but by a
hundred lady-doctors, provided Rani Kishori does not open the
gold-bags in her treasury/ Motilal consulted a few eminent
gynaecologists to ascertain if such an examination, twenty-two
years after the event, could establish the fact of maternity. The
advice he received was by no means unanimous, but he decided
to apply for Dunnaju to be medically examined. Her counsel
stoutly contested the application, describing it as mala fide and
protesting that all the gynaecologists in the country had been
consulted on behalf of the other party, that it was no longer
possible to obtain impartial advice, that the examination ('the
physical cross-examination',) was harmful, uncalled for, useless;
that it was an intolerable humiliation for a high-born Brahmin
widow. All these arguments served only to rouse the judge's sus-
picions. Narsingh Rao's suit was dismissed in 1918 and the High
Court rejected his appeal. Motilal's client had won the first
round, but the litigation was to last for another ten years, with
new developments, which will be related later.

It was this case which elicited from Chief Justice Sir Grimwood

30 THE NEHRUS

Mears the memorable compliment that 'no lawyer in the world
could have done that case better than Pandit Motilal had done
it*. Sir Grimwood formed the highest judgment of Motilal's
talents. 'When I came to Allahabad/ he recalled, 'and was be-
ginning to learn the names and positions of the various members
of the Bar, I was struck with the respect and pride with which
all his colleagues at the Bar spoke of Pandit Motilal Nehru,
When I had the pleasure of meeting him, I understood the
reasons for the affection with which he was regarded . * . He
had a profusion of gifts; knowledge came easily to him, and as
an advocate he had the art of presenting his case in its most
attractive form* Every fact fell into its proper place in the
narration of the story and was emphasized in just the right
degree. He had an exquisite public speaking voice and a charm
of manner which made it a pleasure to listen to him . . . With
his wide range of reading and the pleasure that he had taken in
travel he was a very delightful companion, and wherever he sat
at a table that was the head of the table and there was the
centre of interest' 1

What distinguished Motilal was not that he earned enormous
sums of money: there were other lawyers in Allahabad - Sir
Sunderlal for example - who did not earn less, and there were
quite a few in Bombay and Calcutta who earned more. But only
of Motilal could it perhaps be said that expenditure rose pan
pasm with income. He spent generously on the education of his
children and of his nephews, who had become his responsibility
after the death of his beloved brother Nand Lai in 1887. He
moved from the densely populated city of Allahabad to a bunga-
low -9, Elgin Road, m the spacious and exclusive "civil lines'
wjiere European and Eurasian families lived in solitary splen-
dour. It was a courageous decision. It signified a desire on his
part to live in healthier surroundings with greater quiet and
privacy than were possible in the heart of the town. It was also
a sign of the transformation which was taking place in his life :
the rise in the standard of living was accompanied by increasing
westernization. Only a few hundred yards separated the 'civS
lines' from the city, but mentally and socially the two were poles

1 Leader, February 8, 1931.

THE PROFESSION OF LAW 31

apart: one could almost say, as E* M Forster said of Chandra-
pore, that all they had in common was 'the overarching sky'*

In 1900 Motilal purchased a house -i, Church Road -from
Kanwar Parmanand of Moradabad. It was situated near Bhard-
waj Ashram at a spot hallowed by association with episodes in
the Ramayana* Motilal was struck less by the sanctity of the
location than by the size and the possibilities of the estate, which
included a large garden and a swimming pool The price -
Rs* 19,000 -may seem ridiculously low, but die deal was made
sixty years ago, and the house was in a dilapidated condition and
required extensive renovation and reconstruction* Motilal opened
his purse-strings to make his new home -which he named
'Anand Bhawan' (Abode of Happiness) - as comfortable as
possible.

Today, Anand Bhawan (renamed "Swaraj Bhawan') with its
huge bare rooms, long verandahs, empty terraces and legend-
haunted silence, is a different place from fifty years ago when it
was filled with MotilaTs own family, his nephews, their wives
and children and numerous guests and above all with his own
resonant voice. Having a lively curiosity and zest for living, he
made a point of ordering the latest gadgets and improvements*
Anand Bhawan was the first house in Allahabad to have a
swimming pool; it was also the first to have electricity and water
laid on* MotilaTs library included quite a few 'manuals of
applied science', which were in vogue in America and Europe
at the turn of the century* One of these was Practical Bell-
fitting and another A Practical Treatise upon the Fitting of Hot-
Water Apparatus. Apparently before ordering installations for
his house, Motilal took care to find out how they worked* The
craze for the 'latest and the best' was an essential part of his
make-up in those days* During his visits to Europe in 1899,
1900, 1905 and 1909 he spent much time and money in buying
furnishings and fittings for Anand Bhawan* When the cyde
was an expensive novelty, he ordered successive models through
Raja Ram Motilal Guzdar and Company, a local firm of which
he was part-owner* ,In 1904 he imported a car, the first in
Allahabad and probably in the United Provinces* Next year,
during his visit to Europe, he bought a new car* In 1909 when
he was again in Europe he bought two cars, a Fiat and a Lancia*
He already had a number of carriages and a fair-sized stable of
fine Arabian horses* There is a good photograph of Motilal in

j z THE NEHRUS

breeches with his two daughters, eleven-year-old Sarup and
three-year-old Krishna, on horseback beside him. His children
learned to ride almost as soon as they learned to walk. He him-
self was a good rider and an excellent shot and whenever possible
indulged his taste for shikar. His favourite sport was wrestling:
when he was too told to practise it himself he enjoyed watching
a bout between his servants in a part of the garden where the
ground had been specially prepared for an akhara: he would
encourage the contestants during the match and entertain them
to milk afterwards.

MotilaTs optimism and self-confidence had hastened his success
at the Bar; his success further enhanced his self-confidence. Look-
ing back, he could not help feeling that he had triumphed against
heavy odds. A star-crossed destiny had seemed to shadow his
early years : it had robbed him of his father before he was born,
and then taken away his elder brother in the prime of life.
Within a decade, however, the days of uncertainty and in-
security were behind him. He did not suffer from false humility;
he enjoyed his success enormously and visibly and took full
credit for it. He valued money, prestige and the good things of
life and was glad to be able to command them.

Though he worked hard, he knew the art of relaxation. At
about seven in the evening, winter and summer alike, he would
entertain his friends in the house or garden, and good food, good
wine, good conversation were the order of the day. Here the
batdes of the courtroom were fought over again - quite without
malice, for it was all part of a game, the great game of making
money. The moving spirit of these gatherings was always the
host himself: his wit and exuberance were unfailing. By nine
o'clock the party would be over and Motilal, still in high spirits,
would join his family for a gay and leisurely dinner, sometimes
eaten at table in the western fashion, sometimes squatting Indian
style on the marble floor in the Indian dining-room, but always
to the accompaniment of a happy flow of repartee and little
intimate family jokes.

Those were the days, too, of the tennis and the big garden-
parties, when the great, smooth lawns of Anand Bhawan were
gay with the many coloured saris of the guests and the bright-

THE PROFESSION OF LAW 33

ness of winter flowers; when the teacups tinkled, the guests
laughed and chattered, the band played; and above the cheerful
sounds of the elite of Allahabad enjoying themselves could be
heard the rich laughter of the host enjoying himself most of all.

CHAPTER THREE
WEST WIND

TILL the age of twelve Motilal had been able to read only Persian
and Arabic, but he employed European governesses and resident
tutors for his children. His nephew Brij Lai Nehru tells how in
the nineties he decreed that everyone in the house must talk in
English* The result was dead silence, as most of the women and
children in that large household could not speak it The incident
reveals a new trend towards westernization in MotilaTs life. He
had already scandalized his orthodox colleagues by taking his
midday meal in the premises of the High Court. Very strict and
irrational rules governed the eating habits of Brahmins; many of
them cooked their own food and ate in sanctimonious seclusion
which not even their children were allowed to disturb. For
Motilal, whose natural independence had been fortified by
bracing contact with the British professors of Muir Central
College, it was not easy to acquiesce in a social tyranny which
presumed to govern the minutest detail of his daily routine.

The Hindu society of the early nineteenth century was like a
fossil from which true life had departed. It was scarcely aware of
its great heritage; it was caste-ridden, and priest-dominated; it
tolerated social inequality : it sanctified untouchability and child-
marriage; it shut out girls from the rudiments of education and
even from God's sun and air by the pernicious custom of purdah.
Little initiative was left to the individual, not only in such
matters as love, marriage and the choice of a profession, but even
m the trivial details of everyday life. The heavy hand of an en-
trenched priesthood lay everywhere; no marriage could be cele-
brated, no birth announced, no funeral arranged without the
paid assistance of the ubiquitous priest. It was forbidden to share
food or drink with those outside the caste, to eat certain kinds of
meat or vegetables, to have a haircut except on auspicious days,
or to stir out of the village until the astrologer had conferred
with the stars. This society had its good points : its profound
respect for tradition and authority, its keen sense of social

WEST WIND 35

obligations, its placid contentment and stability. But it left little
elbow-room for the growth of the individual; the strait-jacket of
the society was too tightly wrapped round him. The neutrality
of the British Raj in social and religious matters had stereotyped
existing abuses and strengthened the stranglehold of the priests.
The one line in the Rig Veda which was held to enjoin sati
(burning of the widow on the funeral pyre of her husband) was,
according to Max Muller, the great orientalist, 'perhaps the most
flagrant instance of what can be done by an unscrupulous priest-
hood'.

It is not surprising that on such a society the first impact of
the West should have been shattering. Macaulay's name is
linked with the introduction of a system of education designed to
produce 'Indians in blood and colour but European in opinion,
in morals and intellect*. Nevertheless, long before Macaulay set
foot on Indian soil, western education was being demanded by a
vocal section of Indian opinion. As far back as 1823, Raja Ram
Mohan Roy had protested in a letter to Governor-General Lord
Amherst against the 'establishing of a Sanskrit school under
Hindu Pandits to impart such knowledge as is already current in
India. This seminary can only be expected to load the minds of
youths with grammatical niceties and metaphysical distinctions
of little or no practical use to the possessors or to society'. The
Sanskrit system of education/ he warned, 'would be the best
calculated to keep this country in darkness/ Six years before
Ram Mohun Roy write this letter, the Hindu College had been
founded in Calcutta. Its students were so intoxicated with the
heady wine of the West that they saw nothing to admire or
accept in their own culture. Some of them went the length of
eating forbidden food and throwing the remnants into the houses
of their orthodox neighbours, and most of them would have
heartily endorsed Macaulay's verdict that a 'single shelf of a
good European library', was worth 'the whole native libraries of
India and Arabia'. The poetry of Keats and Shelley and the prose
of Burke and Macaulay were discussed at dinner by educated
Bengalis in the middle of the century; the enthusiasm for Shakes-
peare's plays could not have been less in Calcutta than in London.
Quite a few of these Anglophiles adopted not only the habits
and manners but also the religion of the riding race. The efforts
of Christian missionaries, the pioneers in new education, were
seconded by proselytizing colonels and magistrates whose evan-

36 THENEHRUS

gelical ardour became a contributory cause of the Mutiny*

'The fear of Christianity/ the historian of Indian social reform
has written, 'has been the beginning of much social wisdom in
India/ 1 Threatened from within as well as without, the Hindu
society sought to reform itself* The Erahmo Samaj in Bengal and
the frarthana Samaj in Bombay denounced social evils which had
become indefensible under the searchlight of the West A whole
generation of Hindu reformers battled against restrictions on
jitter-dining, female education and the remarriage of widows, and
against the curse of untouchability; men like M. G. Ranade and
Telang devoted their lives to the task of hastening the transition
of Hindu society from the medieval to the modern by substitut-
ing rational and secular for traditional and sectarian standards
of conduct and morality.

At the beginning of Queen Victoria's reign Hinduism was on
the defensive, almost defenceless; when she died it had already
taken the offensive. Swami Dayanand had offered in the Arya
Samaj a purified, almost puritanic version of Hinduism, free from
elements like image worship which had been particularly vulner-
able to attack from Christian missionaries. For the rest, the Arya
Samaj was pertinaciously polemical, militant, proselytizing.
About the same time Bengal produced a gentler prophet of
Hindu revival in Shri Ramakrishna, who interpreted the
traditional concepts of Vcdanta and BJuzfeti simply, clearly and
vividly so as to reconcile the western-educated intelligentsia to
the faith of their forefathers. The process of reconciliation was
stimulated by the devoted researches of western orientalists and
by the ardent, albeit undiscriminating enthusiasm of European
admirers of Hinduism like Mrs Annie Besant. The discovery that
its cultural heritage was second to none raised the amour propre
of a people smarting under political subjection.

The recoil from a blind and wholesale imitation of the West
had thus begun, but the process was slow. Early in the nine-
teenth century Michael Madhusudan Dutt, the Bengali writer,
claimed that he dreamed in English; the boast could have been
repeated with equal justification by the young Aurobindo Ghose
when he returned to India in 1893 after fourteen years' stay in

1 Natarajan, S., Social Reform in India, p. 8.

Motilal about 1900

Motilal in his car

Motilal as Leader of the Allahabad Bar

WEST WIND 37

England. Every ambitious young man in India aspired to visit
England to qualify for the Indian Civil Service or t as a second
best, to become a barrister and return to India transformed into
an English gentleman.

Motilal had not been called to the Bar in England; he was a
home-bred vakil, but as his legal practice rose, his dress and
manner of life began to conform more and more to the western
style. One landmark in this westernizing process, as we have
already seen, was his occupation in the early nineties of a
bungalow in the 'civil lines' of Allahabad; another was a visit
to Europe in 1899*

The visit to Europe was to prove a turning-point in MotilaTs
life. Of the taboos prevalent among Kashmiri Brahmins, per-
haps none was stronger than that on foreign travel: to go
abroad was tantamount to a violation of the Hindu religion and
punishable with excommunication from the caste a form of
social boycott which could be very trying indeed. Pandit Bishan
Narayan Dhar, a prominent lawyer of Allahabad, defied the ban,
but on his return to India offered to perform a prayshchit
(purification) ceremony - a face-saving expedient which at once
condoned the transgression on the part of the individual and
asserted the supremacy of the caste. A bitter controversy
followed. The Kashmiri community split into two factions; those
who were prepared to take Bishan Narayan back into the fold
came to be known as adherents of the Bishan Sabha, while those
who would not waive the social boycott on any conditions be-
longed to the Dharam Sab ha. Motilal's sympathies were de-
cidedly with the Bishan Sabha. Before long Motilal and his
family found themselves in the centre of the fray. Bansi Dhar,
Motilal's eldest brother, who was about to retire from govern-
ment service, took it into his head to visit England and witness
Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897. All his life Bansi
Dhar had meticulously followed the painfully elaborate ritual
prescribed for orthodox Kashmiri Brahmins; not even his
children were allowed to intrude upon him when he sat down to
his meals in his own home. Any hopes he may have entertained
of maintaining his orthodoxy intact in the course of his travels
were dashed to the ground soon after he sailed. He fell seriously
ill and had no alternative but to accept food and medical aid
available on board the ship. The novel experience, despite the
initial shock, broke the shackles of a lifetime; when Bansi Dhar

38 THENEHRUS

returned to India a few months later, after his round-the-world
trip, which included an interview \fltdj; President McKinley of
the United States, he had been transformed into an English, or
perhaps an American gentleman*

3

Two years later, in 1899, Motilal himself paid a visit to
Europe. The visit was partly for pleasure and partly to canvass
support for Raja Ajit Singh of Khetri in his dispute with the
Jaipur Durbar. Motilal sailed from Bombay in August and re-
turned home in November.

While in London he saw Sir Mancherjee Bhownaggree, the
Indian member of the House of Commons. When Motilal showed
him a memorandum on the daims of the Khetri State, he was
so impressed that he thought it had been drawn up by Sir
Edward Clark, the Advocate-General of England. 1 must con-
fess my weakness/ Motilal wrote, 'when I say that I did feel
flattered for a time/ The affairs of Khetri did not wholly absorb
Motilal; he enjoyed every moment of his stay in England and re-
counted some of his experiences in a letter to the Private Sec-
retary to the Raja of Khetri*

Motilal to Jagtnohanlal, dated London October 22, 1899: 1
have not been able to catch all the people for whom I had (letters
of) introduction from His Highness . * * but I have seen a good
number of them. Sir G. Seymour Fitzgerald has been of great
assistance to me in getting orders for me to see the House of
Lords on the opening day ceremony and other places of interest.
Sir W. Lee Warner is a dry-as-dust old Anglo-Indian who did
not know what to talk about except the Indian National Con-
gress which came in for a large share of abuse. Dr Lennox
Brown is a grasping old surgeon very eager to pounce upon any-
ope who is unfortunate enough to have a throat affection.* 2

Dr. Brown attributed MotilaFs cough to his nose, and cauter-
ized his nostrils on the spot. Motilal came home with a lacerated
nose and minus twenty guineas. 1 must say/ Motilal wrote, 'that
on all accounts Dr Brown is one of the cleverest throat surgeons
in England . . . The late Sir Morel Mackenzie who attended the
(RP,X

WEST WIND 39

late German Emperor for his throat disease was accompanied by
our friend Dr Brown. His name is therefore closely associated
with Mackenzie's. When talking of them both people say Moral
Mackenzie and Immoral Brown. The reason is that the largest
class of throat patients comes from among the beautiful actresses
of England, who flock to him and receive the first and foremost
attention without paying a single guinea. He is the Hakim
Mahmood Khan of London. I wish I had been an actress, not to
save the twenty guineas, but to save the great pain I suffered,
which he would never have given me if I was capable of in-
spiring a tender feeling in him/

As the time came for Motilal to leave for India he confessed
'it is for the first time in my life that I feel that it is not an un-
mixed pleasure to return home from a country like England . . .
I have made some friends among the nobility and gentry of
England, but have not been able to do much in that direction as
it is a very bad time of the year to see anybody. London is out of
season and all the big people are out. Besides, the [Boer] War is
the all-absorbing topic of the day and no one cares to listen to
anything else'.

On return to Allahabad, Motilal refused to perform "the puri-
fication ceremony'. Threatened by social boycott, he was not
apologetic, but disdainful, defiant, aggressive. In a letter dated
December 22, 1899, addressed to his friend Pandit Prithinath
of Cawnpore, he explained his stand :

mind is fully made up. I will not (come what may) in-
dulge in the tomfoolery of Proschit [purification ceremony] . No,
not even if I die for it. I have been provoked and have been
dragged from my seclusion into public notice. But my enemies
will find me a hard nut to crack. I know what your biradari
(caste) is and if necessary, in self-defence, I will ruthlessly and
mercilessly lay bare the tattered fabric of its existence and tear it
into the minutest possible shreds. I am only waiting for some
foeman worthy of my steel to take the field and will then be
ready to break a lance with him ... So long as H and others of
his ilk howl and bark I will pass them by with the most studied

indifference and contemptuous silence . . /

i

Motilal was excommunicated, but did not give in. Nor did
he lose any opportunity for a dig at his self-righteous oppon-

40 THE NEHRUS

ents. Tou may not dine with me without polluting your-
self/ he told an orthodox uncle who came to see him, 'but I
suppose we could share whisky and soda?' Motilal became the
leader of a third group, the most emancipated in his community;
it was at first called Mott Sabha, but the name was changed at
MotilaTs instance to Satya (Truth) Sab ha. His defiance helped to
put out the dying embers of orthodoxy; large numbers of
Kashmiri young men were henceforth able to travel abroad for
education or for pleasure, without incurring the odium or
opposition of their community*

This trip to Europe, which was followed by another in the
following year, accelerated MotilaTs westernization. Thorough-
going changes ensued, from knives and forks at the dining table
to European governesses for the children. To the new influence
may be attributed the adoption of 'Nehru' as a surname. As we
have already seen, Motilal's ancestors were Kauls, and acquired
the name of Nehrus because their house was situated on the
bank of a nahar (canal). The double-barrelled name Kaul-Nehru
was adopted for some time; it was shortened to 'Nehru', but the
description was confined to a small circle of friends and relatives.
MotilaTs eldest brother was known as 'Bansi Dhar Pandit'
during his trip abroad in 1896-7, and Nand Lai's books in the
Anand Bhawan library bear the signature : 'Pandit Nand Lai'.
Motilal was the first in the family to adopt Nehru as a surname:
'M. Nehru Esq.' had obviously a more modern ring than 'Motilal
Pandit'.

Growing westernization brought Motilal doser to the British
community in Allahabad. Many Englishmen admired this hand-
some Kashmiri Brahmin, the rising star of Allahabad Bar, who
dressed, lived and even looked like an Englishman. They envied
the elegant luxury in which he lived; they admired his
bonhomie; they respected his independence even though it some-
times seemed to verge on defiance. Senior officers of the I.C.S.
liked his company and enjoyed his hospitality; one of them, Sir
Harcourt Butler, who rose to be a Lieutenant-Governor, claimed
in 1920 'a friendship of thirty years' standing'* The relations be-
tween Government House and Anand Bhawan were cordial;
dinners and teas were exchanged. Motilal had not turned forty
when Sir John Edge, Chief Judge of the "Allahabad High Court,
offered to propose his name for membership of the exclusively
European 'Allahabad Club', and to get the proposal seconded by

WEST WIND 41

the Brigadier-General commanding the Allahabad sub-area.
Motilal politely declined the offer as he sensed the width of the
racial gulf and did not want to risk being 'blackballed' by the
newest subaltern from England* Nevertheless, it was a fine
gesture from the Chief Justice and indicated the high esteem and
even affection in which Motilal was held by those at the apex of
the official hierarchy.

Many years later, when Motilal gave up his profession and the
luxuries of a lifetime to cast in his lot with Gandhi, he became
a symbol of patriotic sacrifice. Nothing strikes the imagination
of the Indian masses more forcibly than renunciation : a Buddha
or a Gandhi storms his way into their hearts. It is therefore not
surprising that legends should have grown round MotilaTs
opulent past: for example, he was said to have sent his linen for
laundering to Paris. These legends, by heightening the contrast
in his life before and after the plunge into the struggle for free-
dom, served to feed an inverted snobbery and to fulfil a psycho-
logical need of the millions who had dared to challenge the might
of the British Empire. There was thus an understandable tend-
ency to play up MotilaTs phase of anglicism. But in fact it had
definite limits. In the first place, though he flouted the tyranny
of caste, he did not discard that characteristically Indian in-
stitution, the joint family. Unlike many a westernized Indian,
he did not look down upon his relatives or wash his hands of his
social obligations. The debt he owed to his brother Nand Lai he
repaid many times over. He brought up his nephews as his own
children; to them he always remained the beloved Bhaiji (re-
spected brother) on whom they could always lean for advice and
support. Secondly, MotilaTs wife was too unsophisticated and
deep-rooted in traditional beliefs to be converted into a full-
fledged mem-sahib. Swarup Rani might tolerate knives and forks,
and European governesses in her house, but her attachment to
the Hindu scriptures, the pujas (worship) and orthodox ritual
was unshakeable. She continued to make pilgrimages to Hardwar
and Benares, though her husband often laughingly suggested
that she was already living in Prayag, 8 the holy of holies, and
could more usefully visit Japan or America.

Swarup Rani's health, suffered a setback after the birth of
Jawaharlal in 1889. A second child, a daughter, was born on
August 18, 1900. She was named Sarup Kumari; her pet-name

8 The ancient name of Allahabad.

42 THE NEHRUS

Nanni ('the little one') was shortened to 'Nan* by a European
governess* There was great rejoicing in 1905 when a son was
born on November 14th - by a curious coincidence, the birthday
of JawaharlaL But the rejoicing was short-lived; the infant died
when he was hardly a month old. Two years later, in 1907, a
daughter was born on November 2nd* She was named Krishna;
her nickname Betty was the choice of her European governess,
but it sounded like 'Beti' (Hindustani for 'daughter'), and was
readily accepted by the family* 'I hardly remember a time/
Krishna recorded many years later, 'when mother was hale and
hearty, able to eat, drink and lead a normal life like the rest of
us* I did not know what it was to have a mother's constant care,
for she had to be taken care of herself all the time/* From time
to time Swarup Rani became seriously ill and was a semi-invalid
for long periods* Her sister Rajvati, who had been widowed at an
early age, came over to Allahabad and thenceforth spent the best
part of each year nursing Swarup Rani and keeping house for
her*

Rajvati's life was punctuated by a strict routine of worship,
fasting and other austerities; her influence, coupled with that of
the pious Nandrani, the widow of Nand Lai, constituted a strong
religious pocket in Anand Bhawan which Motilal made no effort
to dislodge* There was indeed a good-humoured co-existence in
Anand Bhawan between the deep religiosity of the women and
the light-hearted agnosticism of the men. Rajvati was too ortho-
dox to touch food cooked in the western style for Motilal* She
had her own separate kitchen, where she told the children
fascinating tales from the epics as she cooked and served them
hot puris. On auspicious days, such as Diwali, Motilal was
present at the Laksfimi puja* And he looked forward to the
colour, festivity and expense of ceremonies such as that on his
son's birthday, when the boy was weighed against bags of grain
which were later distributed to the poor.

This easy-going tolerance and lack of humbug exposed Motilal
to no little misunderstanding and even misrepresentation*
Political opponents found religion a good stick to beat him with :
he was denounced as 'denationalized', anti-Hindu and pro-
Muslim* Only recently a critic referred to MotilaFs son as
'English by education, Muslim by culture and Hindu by an

* Hutheesing, Krishna, With No Regrets, p. 124,

WEST WIND 43

accident of birth'/ It is not easy to say whether this verdict is
coloured more by ignorance or malice. True, Motilal's wide circle
of friends included Muslims, his hospitality made no distinction
of race or creed, he employed Muslim munshis (derks) and
servants; he was well-versed in Persian literature and fond of
Urdu poetry. All this did not, however, add up to 'Muslim cul-
ture'. During the two hundred years the Nehrus had been
settled at Delhi and Agra, they had imbibed that peculiar Indo-
Muslim synthesis in dress and etiquette, art and literature, social
customs and even superstitions, which was the product of three
centuries of Mughal rule and was most pronounced in northern
India. We have already seen how, on the eve of the Mutiny,
Hindus and Muslims lived in harmony in Delhi. The Mughal
King and the Muslim noblemen of Delhi did not see any outrage
to Islam in participating in the colourful festival of the Holt.
Nor did a Brahmin aristocrat lose caste because he was equally
proficient in Sanskrit and Persian. The sharp lines of communal
cleavage date from a later period, when the grinding of religious
axes began to yield political advantages.

Specializing as he did in the law of Hindu inheritance, Motilal
possessed a much wider and deeper knowledge of the religion of
his birth than many of his critics would have allowed. Neverthe-
less, it is a fact that his was not a religious temperament. He was
not one of those inquisitive, introspective, self-questioning spirits
who, obsessed by a sense of sin, draw up a nightly balance-sheet
of good and evid deeds, or experience an irresistible urge to pene-
trate the mystery of life. He was too absorbed by the daily
struggle here and now to bother about the hereafter. He was a
product of that late-Victorian 'free thinking* rationalism, which
was learning to dispense with divine explanations of the work-
ing of the universe and to pin its faith on the human intellect
and on science to lead mankind along endless vistas of progress.
This rationalism prevented Motilal from being swept off his feet
by the tides of Hindu revivalism, which rose high at the turn of
the century. The doctrines of the Arya Samajists were too dog-
matic, of the Vedantists too metaphysical and of the Theoso-
phists too ethereal for his logical, practical - and unimaginative -
mind.

If we must label Motilal, it would be safer to describe him as
an agnostic than as an atheist His initial rebellion was not

5 N. B. Khare, in an article in A Study of Nehru (Editor, Zakaria), p. 215.

44 THENEHRUS

against the tenets of Hinduism but against the superstitions with
which it was encrusted. Vivekananda, the great apostle of re-
awakened Hinduism and a contemporary of Motilal, had be-
wailed: 'Our religion is in the kitchen* Our God is the cooking-
pot, and our religion is : "don't touch me I am holy" '. 1 would
rather see every one of you/ he had exhorted a Hindu audience,
'rank atheists than superstitious fools, for the atheist is alive and
you can make something of him/

By taking to western ways, Motilal did not seek merely to
imitate the ruling race; he made a bid for freedom from the
hidebound society into which he had been born* It was as if, to
prevent asphyxiation, he had opened his western window for a
breath of fresh air. In this, as in most other things, Motilal was
more rebel than conformist His innate spirit of rebellion was
one day to lead him along political paths which neither he nor
his British friends could have imagined as they drank each
other's healths.

CHAPTER FOUR
INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS

ON December 28, 1885, when Motilal was twenty-four and a
budding lawyer in Cawnpore, seventy-two Indian gentlemen
from various parts of India met in Bombay. For this first meeting
of the Indian National Congress, ground had been paved by a
number of pioneers in the fields of education, journalism and
social reform. It was, however, left to an Englishman to provide
an outlet for the incipient nationalism which was still groping
for expression. Allan Octavian Hume, the son of the Radical
M.P. Joseph Hume, rose to the high position of secretary of a
department. In 1882 he retired, after serving the Government of
India for thirty-three years in the Covenanted Service* The re-
maining thirty years of his life were spent in the service of the
people of India.

Hume was convinced that though the British had brought
peace to India, they had not solved her economic problems, that
the officials were perilously out of touch with the people, that
the surging tide of intellectual, social and economic discontent
needed to be controlled and channelled if it was 'not to ravage
and destroy but to fertilize and regenerate'. Hume's first im-
pulse had been to confine the All India meeting in December,
1885, to the discussion of social questions and to invite Lord
Reay, the Governor of Bombay, to preside over its deliberations.
The Viceroy, Lord Dufferin, however, advised Hume to enlarge
the scope of the meeting to include political "questions, so that
it might perform the functions which His Majesty's Opposition
did in England, and not to fetter freedom of discussion under an
official president. 1 After a hurried visit to England during which
he consulted John Bright, Lords Dalhousie and Ripon and other
eminent authorities on India, Hume returned just in time for the
first meeting of the Indian National Congress, the venue of
which had to be changed at the eleventh hour to Bombay be*
cause of the outbreak of cholera in Poona.
1 Wedderburn, Sir William, Allan Octavian Hume, p. 60.

46 THENEHRUS

As they assembled in the Goculdas Tejpal Sanscrit College in
their morning coats, well-pressed trousers, top hats and silk
turbans, the seventy-two delegates to the first session of the
Indian National Congress could scarcely have realized the
historic role they were playing. Florence Nightingale, who read
a paper on the Indian revenue system at a meeting of the East
India Association, and whose reformist zeal came to embrace the
poverty of the Indian peasant as well as the health of the British
soldier, wrote shortly before the inaugural session of the
Congress :

This National Liberal Union, 2 if it keeps straight, seems
altogether the matter of greatest interest that has happened in
India, if it makes progress for a hundred years. We are watching
the birth of a new nationality in the oldest civilization in the
world. How critical will be its first meeting at Poona ! I bid it
God-speed with all my heart . . .* 3

The feminine intuition of Florence Nightingale was to prove
keener than the political insight of Lord Dufferin.

Far-sighted Britons had foreseen that the British rule in India
could not last for ever* Macaulay had pointed out that it was
dangerous to impart western knowledge without awakening
ambitions, and to awaken ambitions without providing an outlet
for them; he had envisaged the day 'when the public mind of
India may expand till it has outgrown our system*. Such a
prophecy would have been dismissed as the fantasy of a Whig
historian by members of the Covenanted Service, who com-
manded all the points of vantage in the structure of the Raj,
whether in the districts, in the provinces, or in the councils of
the Viceroy and the Secretary of State. Theirs was a close cor-
poration of professional administrators, who behaved as, and
perhaps sincerely believed themselves, in the words of Blunt,
'the practical owners of India; irremovable, irresponsible and
amenable to no authority but that of their fellow members*. A
small coterie of senior officers in the central secretariat formed a
freemasonry which dispensed the plums of the service, decorated
each other and wound up their careers in Simla, or more often
in London, where from their seats in the Secretary of State's

a One of the names suggested for the Indian National Congress.
3 Ratdiffe, S. K., Sir William Wcddcrburn, p. uj.

INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS 47

Council they could continue to promote their own policies and
proteges in India. Theirs was a steel frame, solid, immobile,
difficult to bend, impossible to break.

It was hardly to be expected that the emergence of an all All-
India political organization could be welcome to the 'guardians'
of the British Raj* Their point of view had been expressed often
and bluntly enough. In 1853 Lord EUenborough had observed
that British policy should avowedly be "to continue to govern the
Indian people with the deliberate intention of holding them in
perpetual subjection'. In March, 1877, Sir John Strachey, the
Finance Member of the Government of India, frankly repudiated
the doctrine that it was the duty of his government to think of
Indian interests alone. 4 During the Hbert Bill agitation, Sir
Fitzjames Stephen, a former member of the Viceroy's Executive
Council, wrote a letter to The Times in which he described the
Government of India as 'essentially an absolute Government
founded not on consent but on conquest'. 5 Even the gentle,
scholarly and judicial Henry Beveridge, the father of Lord
Beveridge, who confessed that 'India had burnt itself' into him,
could write in 1877 that, however wrongfully the British may
have got hold of India, for them to 'abandon her now would be
to act like a man-stealer who should kidnap a child, and then in
a fit of repentance abandon him in a tiger jungle'. 6

What with keeping down crime, administering justice and
sitting up late at night writing interminable reports for their
superiors, the British officers in the districts had their hands
more than full. Fretting at the climate, the loneliness and the
exile, they looked forward to the long leaves and re-joining their
families in England. And meanwhile they bore their cross with
fortitude, supported by the conviction that the system they
administered was 'the most beneficent, the most perfect and the
most unalterable that can be devised'. They felt at home with
the unsophisticated peasant to whom they were ma-bap, mother
and father rolled into one. They could understand and even like

4 Proceedings of the Legislative Council of the Governor-General, voL xvi,
p. 163*

5 Gopal, S., The Viceroy alty of lord Ripon, p. 153.

6 Beveridge, Lord, India Called Them, p. 384.

48 THENEHRUS

the sly sychophant expectantly hanging around their verandahs
for the favour of a job or a title. But they were repelled by the
English-speaking Indian, who had the impudence not to make
an obsequious bow, take off his shoes or lower his umbrella when
approaching the members of the ruling race. Patronage, and
even kindness towards the subject race, came more naturally to
the British official than equality* The sense of racial superiority
was even more deeply ingrained in the non-official Briton who,
lacking official status, had only his colour to fall back upon*
During the early years when the Indian National Congress was
going through its birth-pangs, it was a favourite grouse of the
Anglo-Indian press that the English-speaking Indians had the
audacity to refer to Europeans in India as foreigners* 7

The merciful dispensation of Providence, which has placed
India under the great British Dominion/ - such expressions were
often heard at the early sessions of the Congress* It was, how-
ever, not so much sycophancy as the fighting spirit of some of
the Congress spokesmen which impressed the authorities in
India* At the second Congress held in December, 1886, Raja
Rampal Singh, a delegate from North Western Provinces, de-
clared that the Arms Act, which denied Indians the right to
carry arms, outweighed all the benefits of British rule: 'We
cannot be grateful to it f or . . * converting a race of soldiers and
heroes into a timid flock of quill-driving sheep/ More significant
than the professions of loyalty were the demands voiced by the
Congress : the expansion and reform of the legislative councils,
the right to question the executive and to criticize the budget,
a larger share in the superior branches of the administration*
These were radical, indeed revolutionary demands, "Representa-
tive institutions, according to a British Governor, 'were a sickly
plant in their own soil'; their extension to India must have
seemed out of the question. 'Democracy' was not an en-
tirely respectable word, nor did it have a wholly pleasant con-
notation even in England in the dosing decades of the nineteenth
century* Of Lord Salisbury, the Conservative statesman, the
British historian A. J* P. Taylor has written: 'He spoke all his
life as though democracy was a sort of germ people catch much
as people now talk of Communism that will get into the Western

7 Cotton, Sir Henry, New India, Or India In Transition, p. 75.

8 Banerjea, S, N., A Nation in the Making, p. 130.

INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS 49

world unless we keep the Greek window closed/ 9

Gokhale, one of the ablest and sanest leaders of the Congress
in its early phase, once remarked that no Indian could have
started the Indian National Congress, and if its founder had not
been an Englishman and a distinguished ex-official, the authori-
ties would have found some pretext for snuffing it out at birth.
Lord Dufferin quickly retraced his steps; the benevolent
neutrality of his Government towards the Congress turned to a
thinly-disguised antagonism. Hume also discovered his miscal-
culation; the response from his former colleagues of the Civil
Service was disappointing; while they were sensitive to criticism,
they were impervious to pleas for reform. It was futile, Hume
felt, to address petitions and protests to the authorities in Simla.
He decided to appeal to public opinion in India and England over
the head of the unchanging and unchangeable bureaucracy. In
a speech at Allahabad on April 30, 1888, he declared:

'Our educated men singly, our Press far and wide, our repre-
sentatives at the National Congress -one and all -have en-
deavoured to instruct the Government, but the Government like
all autocratic governments has refused to be instructed, and it
will be for us to instruct the nations, the great English nation in
its island home, and the other far greater nation of this vast
continent, so that every Indian that breathes upon the sacred
soil of our Motherland may become our comrade and coadjutor,
our supporter, and if needs be, our soldier, in the great war, that
we, like Cobden and his noble band, will wage for justice, for
our liberties and rights/ 10

3

The fact that Hume's speech was delivered at Allahabad had a
special significance. Allahabad was the capital of the North
Western Provinces and the headquarters of their Lieutenant-
Governor, Sir Auckland Colvin. Colvin was a liberal adminis-
trator, a supporter of legislative reform in homoeopathic doses,
but he had been alarmed by the bold lead Hume had recently
given to the Congress. In October, 1888, Colvin wrote to Hume
warning him against unleashing forces which he would not be
able to control, and criticized the Congress on lines which werfe

9 Taylor, A. J. P., From Napoleon to Stalin, p. 120.

10 Wedderburn, Sir "William, Allan Octavian Hume, pp. 62-2.

50 THE NEHRUS

to become familiar during the next fifty years. He challenged the
representative character of the Congress, stressed the divergent
needs and aspirations of the Muslims and pointed to the hazards
of premature and aggressive propaganda among an illiterate
population. Hume picked up the gauntlet and refuted Colvin's
arguments. He denied that the Congress was spreading hatred
against the Government; on the contrary, by recognizing and
ventilating grievances it was telling the people of India 'that the
British Government is superior to all other governments in the
world, for its fundamental principle is to shape its policy accord-
ing to the wishes of the people*. Nor did he accept that the Con-
gress agitation was premature; he was not sure that it was not
already too late* As for Colvin's solicitude for the Muslims,
Hume described it 'a shameful libel on the Muslims that they
were inferior to the Hindus and would have no chance if a fair
field is conceded to all'. The hostile stimulus/ Hume drily
added, 'came from outside/

Sir Auckland Colvin's known antipathy to the Congress and
Hume's visit to Allahabad had brought the conflict to Motilal's
door-step. The Congress session for 1888 was scheduled to meet
at Allahabad during Christmas week; it became an occasion for
a trial of strength between the British officials and their hench-
men on the one hand, and the local Indian intelligentsia on the
other. Among the latter were a number of lawyers, veterans like
Pandits Ajudhianath and Bishamber Nath, and juniors like
Madan Mohan Malaviya. The president of the session was
George Yule, an English merchant of Calcutta and a friend of
India. An attempt by a group of loyalists led by Raja Shiva
Prasad to break up the session proved abortive* The Raja's
buffoonery caused a little stir and much amusement and his
'Patriotic Association', set up as a rival body to the Congress,
proved still-born.

Motilal had moved to Allahabad only two years before; after
the death of his brother he had too many domestic and profes-
sional burdens to be able to afford the distractions of politics. But
there was much excitement in the town, and the twenty-seven-
year-old Motilal was too proud to keep out of the fray. The list
of the 1,400 delegates of the Allahabad Congress (1888) includes
'Pandit Motilal, Hindu, Brahmin, Vakil High Court, N.W.P/
The following year at the Bombay Congress in 1889, Motilal was
not only a delegate, bjit was also elected to the 'Subjects Com-

INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS 51

mittee' in the distinguished company of Surendra Nath Banerjea,
Gokhale and Madan Mohan Malaviya. Two years later when the
Congress met at Nagpur, Motilal was again elected a member of
the 'Subjects Committee'. In 1892 when the Congress again met
at Allahabad under the presidency of W. C Bonnerji, Motilal
was the secretary of the Reception Committee. A spacious
octagonal hall, specially built in the grounds on Lowther Castle
to accommodate 3,500 delegates and visitors, 'surpassed in
elegance and finish, the best halls in which the Congress had
hitherto held its sessions'. 11 Part of the credit for this grandiose
structure could safely be given to the future builder of Anand
Bhawan.

During the next decade MotilaPs name does not figure in the
list of Congress delegates. These were the years when he was
forging his way to the top of the Bar, and hardly had the time or
the inclination to stray into the by-ways of politics. Nor was the
political atmosphere electric enough to evoke a. response in him.
The Congress had survived the initial displeasure of the authori-
ties; it held its annual sessions with unfailing regularity; it
solemnly heard familiar feats of oratory from well-known leaders,
and year after year passed resolutions in similar if not identical
terms. But the novelty was wearing off. The attitude of the
'Simla clique' - as Hume called it - had changed from neutrality
to antagonism, and finally to a supercilious indifference. Hume
had despaired of making an impression on the bureaucracy and
pinned his hopes on the education of public opinion and Parlia-
ment in Britain. The apathy of the British public was, however,
notorious; only a bloody mutiny or a bejewelled Maharaja could
arouse its momentary interest in the distant Oriental Empire
which seemed more remote even than Ireland. Nor was it an
easy task to whip up the interest of the House of Commons in
Indian affairs. If Providence had thrown the burden of govern-
ing India on the House of Commons (as the admirers of the
Empire, British and Indian, loved to put it), the House of Com-
mons had thrown the burden back on Providence. 12 Hume and
his friends, Sir William Wedderburn, Sir Henry Cotton, C. J. 0.

11 Report of the Annual Session of the Indian National Congress 1892,

12 Besant, Annie, India Bon4 Or Free, p. 25.

52, THE NEHRUS

Donnell, George Yule, Dadabhai Naoroji and Gokhale made
heroic efforts to educate the British public, press and Parliament
through the British Committee of the Indian National Congress,
the Indian Parliamentary Committee and the journal India, but
they seemed to make little headway. They had to contend not
only with abysmal ignorance of Indian problems, but also with
the tide of imperialism which was running high at the turn of
the century. R. C Dutt, the president of the Lucknow Congress
(1899) bewailed the 'reactionary times' through which India was
passing. 'We have achieved nothing of late/* he lamented, 'we
haye lost a good deal of what we possessed before . . . I have
Struggled hard to save the wrecks of established rights I have
been beaten, defeated, swept away by the overwhelming
tide . / u In Britain, these were the years of a resurgent im-
perialism, of Joseph Chamberlain, Rhodes, Jameson -and
Curzon.

Lord Curzon's regime marked the high watermark of British
imperialism in India. Ironically enough, it also marked the be-
ginning of the end. 'Remember/ Curzon once exhorted English-
men in India, 'that the Almighty has placed your hand on the
greatest of his ploughs * . / For his great mission in India, as he
conceived it, he had extraordinary qualifications* After a dis-
tinguished record at Eton and Oxford, he had entered Parliament
at the age of twenty-seven, travelled widely in Central Asia and
the Far East, in the United States and India; he had served as
Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, and secured the
ambition of his life, the Viceroyalty of India, before he had
turned forty. To his undoubted talents, vast knowledge, and
prodigious industry he added a fervid imagination, but it was
that peculiar brand of 'Oriental* imagination which revelled in
magnificent pageants and phrases, but could not enter the minds
and hearts of a subject race. His 'reforms 1 of the university and
the corporation in Calcutta had already awakened misgivings in
the western-educated classes, but the partition of Bengal (July,
1905) was his crowning blunder. Whatever the administrative
merits of a scheme which sought to re-draw the frontiers of an
unwieldly province populated by seventy millions and covering
the present states of West Bengal and East Pakistan, Orissa and
Bihar, the indecent haste and secrecy with which it was pushed
through roused the suspicion and wrath of the educated classes.

13 Gupta, J. K, life and Work of R. C Dutt, p. 319.

INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS 53

The Bengali intelligentsia viewed the project as a calculated
attack on their political consciousness and solidarity. They felt,
in the words of Surendra Nath Banerjea, f the uncrowned iking of
Bengal', that they had been 'insulted, humiliated and tricked'.
The atmosphere in Bengal, and indeed in the whole of India,
became dangerously explosive. Hundreds of meetings were held;
memorials rained upon the Viceroy and the Secretary of State;
the nationalist press thundered. On October 16, 1905, the streets
of Calcutta resounded with the cries of 'Bande Mataram', as
thousands of men, women and children converged on the sacred
ghats for a bath, and later vowed to resist the dismemberment of
their province and the threat to the integrity of their race.

All was in vain. Curzon belittled the agitation as 'manu-
factured', and the authorities followed the time-honoured
methods of countering the agitation. In April, 1906, a conference
of the Bengal Provincial Congress at Barisal was dispersed, its
prominent leaders were beaten up and imprisoned; one of their
offences was the shouting of 'Bande Mataram'. The pent-up
anger and frustration of the people sought new outlets. They
lacked the power to shut out British manufactures; but could
they not through the discipline of patriotism raise invisible tariff
walls? The boycott of British goods and the encouragement of
Swadeshi (Indian manufactures) became the two pillars of the
campaign against the Partition of Bengal. Such was the temper
of the people in Bengal when the campaign was at its height that
few people dared to purchase foreign cloth except under cover of
darkness; guests retired from dinners where foreign sugar or salt
was served; a six-year-old girl cried in her delirium that she
would not take foreign medicine; 1 * and no porters could be found
at Faridpore station to carry the luggage of His Honour the
Lieutenant-Governor of East Bengal, when he arrived on a tour
of inspection. 15

The partition of Bengal raised the political temperature in
India. It drove some hot-headed youths along the perilous paths
of political violence and created a new gulf between the educated
classes and the British Government. It also widened the cleavage
within the Indian National Congress : the tug of war between
Moderates and Extremists was to dominate Indian politics for a
decade, and to draw Motilal Nehru into the fray.

14 Banerjea, S. N., A Nation in the Making, p. 197.

15 Ibid, p. 291.

CHAPTER FIVE
MOTILAL THE MODERATE

THE Moderate leadership included well-known figures, whose
association with the Congress dated from its birth : party man-
agers like Pherozeshah Mehta, prolific publicists like Dinshaw
Wacha and spell-binding orators like Surendranath Banerjea.
But the ablest exponent of political moderation was Gopal
Krishna Gokhale, the disciple of Ranade, the mentor of Gandhi
and the idol of Motilal Nehru. Gokhale was once asked if con-
stitutional agitation had ever helped a subject country to liberate
itself* 'It may be/ he replied, 'that the history of the world does
not furnish an instance when a subject race has risen by agita-
tion. If so, we shall supply the example for the first time. The
history of the world has not yet come to an end/

No one was better qualified than Gokhale to lead a con-
stitutional agitation. He was intensely patriotic; he had given
his all to his country. While still in his thirties he was honoured
as' an "elder statesman'; knowledgeable and accurate, cautious
and empirical, candid and courteous, indefatigable and incor-
ruptible, fluent and formidable in debate, his performance as a
parliamentarian struck Sir Henry Cotton, MR, the president of
the Bombay Congress (December, 1904) as comparable with the
best in the House of Commons. 1 From his seat in the Imperial
Legislative Council at Calcutta and Simla, Gokhale directed a
powerful searchlight on the grievances of the Indian people.
Why had the pledge of racial equality, implicit in the Charter
Act of 1833 and the Royal Proclamation of 1858, not been ful-
filled? Why were Indians shut out from their legitimate share
not oaly in the 'great' imperial services' buf in the officer cadres
of the 'Minor Departments' such as the Opium, Salt, Customs
.and Police? How was it that after a hundred years of British rule
four Indian villages out of five were without a school-house, and

1 Cotton, Henry, Indian and Home Memories, p. 289. This incidentally was
the first Congress session, which Jawaharlal, who was fifteen at the time,
attended with his father,

MOTILAL THE MODERATE 55

seven children out of eight grew up in ignorance and darkness?
Gokhale made earnest appeals to the Government of India to
recognize the changes which were coming over the country.
The whole of the East/ he declared in his budget speech of 1906,
'is throbbing with a new impulse, vibrating with a new passion
... we could not remain outside this influence even if we would,
we would not remain if we could/ He invoked a 'nobler im-
perialism', instead of that 'narrower imperialism", which treated
subject peoples 'as mere footstools' for the dominant race* He
called for a change of heart in the bureaucracy. Though foreign
in personnel, would not the Government of India conduct itself
as if it were national in spirit?

Gokhale was voicing the sentiments, the hopes and the
illusions of the first generation of Congressmen, 'We hope to
enjoy the same freedom/ Dadabhai Naoroji had said on his
election as a member of the British Parliament, 'the same strong
institutions which you in this country enjoy* We claim them as
our birthright as British subjects/ Sankaran Nair told the
assembled delegates of the Indian National Congress in 1897 that
it was 'impossible to argue a man into slavery in the English
language', and declared: 2 Trom our earliest school-days, the
great English writers have been our classics, Englishmen have
been our professors in colleges. English history is taught in our
schools . . . Week after week, English newspapers, journals and
magazines pour into India for Indian readers. We, in fact, now
live the life of the English. It is impossible under this training
not to be penetrated with English ideas, not to acquire English
conceptions of duty, of rights, of brotherhood. To deny us the
freedom of the press, to deny us representative institutions,
England will have to ignore those very principles for which the
noblest names in her history toiled and bled/ These veterans of
the Congress were not dispirited by lack of response from the
Government. They had read their British history, and knew
what struggles had been waged in and outside Parliament for
the Corn Laws, the anti-slavery laws, the factory laws, parlia-
mentary reform, and indeed for every piece of important legis-

2 Natesan (Editor), Congress Presidential Addresses, vol. I, pp. 363-5.

j6 THENEHRUS

lation. They knew that it could not be otherwise with con-
stitutional reforms for India.

This optimism seemed wholly unrealistic to a section of Con-
gressmen, who were learning to question the premises and the
programme of the Old Guard. This radical section, of which the
inspirer and hero was Bal Gangadhar Tilak, and which came to
be known as 'Extremist', regarded as futile all attempts to pene-
trate the darkness of the bureaucratic mind with luminous
speeches; twenty years of petitioning had failed to bring the
country visibly nearer self-government* The Extremists wondered
whether self-government within the Empire was at all a prac-
ticable ideal; it could mean, in the words of Bipin Chandra Pal,
one of the prophets of the new school, 'either no real self-govern-
ment for us or no real overlordship for England'* They wondered
whether political evolution from precedent to precedent was
feasible for a country like India; a subject nation did not prepare
itself by gradual progress for liberty; it opened by means of
liberty the way to rapid progress* It was hardly possible by a
snail-slow process to convert a foreign government into its
opposite; there was no alternative to a speedy substitution of
Indian and democratic for British and bureaucratic rule* Indians
needed not more appointments in the services, but the right to
make them. Such was the logic of Tilak, who would not rest nor
let the Government rest, of Lajpat Rai whose fiery eloquence
electrified the Punjab; of Bipin Chandra Pal whose burning
eloquence set the listeners 'aflame with the fever of a wild con-
suming desire', and of Aurobindo Ghose whose ardent patriotism,
mystical fervour and subtle logic fused into an explosive mixture*
'Nationalism/ wrote Aurobindo, 'comes from God* Nationalism
cannot die, because it is God who is working in Bengal'.

The partition of Bengal was a godsend to the Extremists, be-
cause it seemed to demonstrate the incorrigibility of the British
bureaucracy in India and the futility of Moderate tactics* It
drove scores of young men and women to anarchical societies,
into which they were initiated with the Gita in one hand and
the sword in the other. 'Perverted religion and perverted
patriotism' - this was how an official committee later described
the dark and daring deeds of these young men and women, who
believed they were repaying in blood the debt they owed to the
land and religion of their birth. The Extremist leaders knew full
well that political violence was unavailing and indeed suicidal

MOTILAL THE MODERATE 57

against a better-armed adversary. They, however, advocated
vigorous measures to demonstrate the depth of the national feel-
ing on the partition* Boycott of British goods and promotion of
Swadeshi - Indian manufactures - became two important planks
in their campaign against the Government,

A head-on collision between the Moderates and the Extremists
seemed imminent at the Benares session in December, 1905 - the
first meeting of the National Congress after the announcement
of the partition of Bengal. The excitement was keen enough to
draw Motilal, after many years, as a delegate to this session over
which Gokhale - his beau ideal in politics - presided. Gokhale's
presidential address, despite its restrained and measured tone,
was a trenchant criticism of Curzon's policies and a passionate
plea for a new deal for India. An open clash between the Ex-
tremists and Moderates was saved by the mediation of Lajpat Rai,
the gentleness of Gokhale, the forbearance of Tilak and the
absence of the formidable Pherozeshah Mehta.

Early in 1906, a rare opportunity seemed to offer itself for the
opening of a new chapter in Indo-British relations. The turn of
the electoral wheel brought the Liberal Party into power in
England. The new Secretary of State was John Morley, the
student of Burke, the disciple of Mill, the friend and biographer
of Gladstone. The heart of nationalist India, as Gokhale put it,
hoped and yet trembled as it had never hoped and trembled be-
fore. 3 If only Morley would rescind the partition of Bengal, carry
through a substantial measure of constitutional reform and
with the help of the new Viceroy inaugurate a sympathetic
policy, the bitter legacy of Curzon would be obliterated. Un-
fortunately, Morley did not, perhaps could not, act quickly. He
had to wrestle with his own council in London, packed as it was
with the quintessence of Anglo-Indian reaction; he had to reckon
with the entrenched bureaucracy at Simla and the vocal
European commercial interests in Calcutta; he had to repel the
attacks of Curzon, Lansdowne and the Conservative Opposition
in Parliament, which accused him of weakening in the face of
agitation and violence; he had to handle the Radical members
in his own party who urged him to go fast and far in meeting
3 Natesan, Congress Presidential Address, vol. I, p. 823.

58 THENEHRUS

Indian aspirations. 'It was no easy thing, Morley recorded, later,
to make watches keep time in two longitudes at once/ 4 In
1906 Gokhale visited England and had a number of interviews
with Morley. 'My principal work here/ he wrote home, 'now
has resolved into a tug of war with the officials of the India
Office, as to who should capture Mr. Morley's mind. I am only
one and they are many . . / He sent word to Tilak not to impugn
Morley's sincerity and to have a little more patience 'for the
sake of our common country/ 5

To Tilak the results of this secret and indefatigable diplomacy
were not obvious; the partition of Bengal remained and the
attitude of the authorities towards political agitation was harden-
ing. Once again as the time for its annual session approached,
the shadow of a split seemed to lengthen over the Indian National
Congress. The Extremists suggested the names of Lajpat Rai and
Tilak for the presidency. The Old Guard took fright and sum-
moned Dadabhai Naoroji to the rescue. The 'Grand Old Man',
now in his eighty-first year, travelled all the way from England
to preside over the Calcutta session in December, 1906. His
presence prevented an open rupture and facilitated a com-
promise on the controversial issues of Swadeshi and boycott.
Dadabhai's presidential address delighted the Extremists by
making a clarion call for Swaraj (self-government). The Moder-
ates were uneasy: they had invited him to put out the fire; this
he had done, as an Anglo-Indian journal gleefully put it, with
kerosene. After Dadabhai's departure, the old suspicions and
hatreds between the two factions welled up again. The Moderate
leaders, and especially Pherozeshah Mehta, who controlled the
party machine, came to the conclusion that the time had come
to stem the Extremist tide if the Congress organization in India
and Morley's work in England were not to be swept away.
Within a few weeks of the Calcutta Congress, the Moderate
offensive opened, A number of conferences were convened to
educate public opinion. Pherozeshah Mehta himself presided
over a conference in Bombay. Another conference was held at
Raipur in Central Provinces.

4
It was against this background that the first Provincial Con-

* Morley, Recollections, vol. II, p. 156.
5 T. V. Parvate, Gokhale, pp. $10-13.

MOTILAL THE MODERATE 59

ference of the United Provinces opened in Allahabad on
March zpth with Motilal Nehru in the chair. He gave as its
raison d'etre the obvious need for supplementing the efforts $f
the Indian National Congress with 'small Congresses' in every
province, to reiterate the national demands and to ventilate local
grievances* The argument was plausible so far as it went, but
there is no doubt that the real object of the Allahabad meeting
was to define and defend the creed of the Moderates and to de-
nounce the programme and tactics of the Extremists. The
political barometer in MotilaFs home province had recently
risen. There had been a lecture tour by Gokhale, who had ably
expounded the creed of political moderation; and just before the
conference, Lajpat Rai had visited Allahabad and lectured on
The New Spirit', which was another name for Extremism. He
had urged a boycott not only of British goods but also of British
courts, exclaiming : 'We feel like sinking in the earth when we
are asked what our numbers are, and what the numbers of
our rulers are ... The history of the world points to the fact
that no nation has secured freedom by another's charity or
benevolence. This is written in letters of gold, nay letters of
blood . . .'

That Motilal should have found himself in the Moderate
camp may seem surprising in the light of later history; in 1907
it seemed natural and inevitable. Moderate politics were the only
politics he had known since he attended the early sessions of
the Congress. Constitutional methods of agitation fitted in with
his legal training and background; able and persistent advocacy
was as sure to succeed at the bar of British public opinion as at
the bar of the Allahabad High Court. Motilal had boundless
admiration for Gokhale. The aura of religious revivalism that
overhung Extremist politics in Bengal and Maharashtra repelled
him. He came to respect Tilak, but had little patience with some
of the other Extremist leaders, impatient idealists, whose politics
seemed to him to have run away with their imagination and
whose methods were better suited to the market-place than to
the chamber of a legislature, or even of a lawyer. To one who
had worked his way up the hard way, it was also an irritation
that some of these young firebrands had no recognizable pro-
fession - except perhaps that of patriotism.

MotilaTs i2,ooo-word presidential address at the Allahabad
Conference followed the familiar Moderate lines. It contained

60 THE NEHRUS

pointed references to the words of wisdom uttered by the
Hon'ble Mr, Gokhale', whom Motilal described as 'the apostle
of the gospel of moderation'. 6

Motilal acknowledged India's debt to England. She 'has fed
us with the best food that her language, her literature, her
science, her art and, above all, her free institutions could supply.
We have lived and grown on that wholesome food for a century
and are fast approaching the age of maturity. We have out-
grown the baby garments supplied to us by England'. He re-
minded his audience that they enjoyed great blessings under the
British rule, not the least of which was the right they were
exercising at that very moment of assembling in a public meet-
ing to criticize that rule itself. He paid a tribute to the Indian
National Congress, 'the great University of National Polities',
which had educated the people of India and secured a modicum
of reform from the Government. If the gains had not been more
substantial, it was entirely due to the fact that John Bull had
not been sufficiently aroused. 'I firmly believe,' declared Motilal,
'that he means well - it is not in his nature to mean ill. This is a
belief which is not confined to myself alone. It is shared by many
of our distinguished countrymen, including past presidents of
the Indian National Congress, and will be readily endorsed by
those who have seen and known John Bull at home. It takes him
rather long to comprehend the situation, but when he does see
things plainly, he does his plain duty, and there is no power on
earth -no, not even his kith and kin in this country or else-
where- that can successfully resist his mighty will/

On the Extremists, Motilal launched a vigorous onslaught:
'A new school of thought has lately arisen in India holding ex-
treme political doctrines, and advocating measures of coercion
and retaliation to obtain redress for their wrongs.' The repressive
policy of the Government had brought people to the verge of
despair 'which gave birth to that child of adversity, our good
friend the Bengal Extremist'. He agreed that Swadeshi was an
admirable doctrine. Had he not himself seen the injunction
'Patronize Home Industries' displayed at railway stations, in
places of amusement and buses in England? But boycott was a
different matter: although it had been given a grudging, limited
and temporary acceptance by the Hon'ble Mr Gokhale at the
Benares Congress as a mark of protest against the partition of

6 Malaviya, K. D,, Pandit Motilal Nehru: His Life and Speeches, p. 109.

MOTILAL THE MODERATE 6l

Bengal, it was a negative policy and could not carry them very
far: 'Not all the ill-will and vindictiveness in the world' could
drive foreign manufactures out of India unless they were re-
placed by better and cheaper articles made in India. If India were
to be industrialized, her bankers and moneylenders must provide
the capital, her talukdars must unearth their gold and silver
hoards and her ambitious young men acquire technical skill, if
necessary, by visiting Europe, America or Japan,

Motilal ridiculed the Extremists' talk of extending the boycott
from British goods to British institutions, 'They would have you/
he told his audience, 'make the government of the country im-
possible* They talk of "passive resistance" - that charming ex-
pression which means so little and suggests so much/ He
deprecated unconstitutional methods: 'We are constitutional
agitators and the reforms we wish to bring about must come
through the medium of constituted authority/ He held no brief
for the administration; nor did he deny its many shortcomings*
He was too proud to recommend a policy of 'mean, cringing,
fawning flattery* of those in power. 'You have grievances/ he
said, 'and you must like men demand redress. Be brave, unbend-
ing, persistent in advocating and carrying out reforms/

He ended his speech on an optimistic note, recalling
Macaulay's prophecy of 'the proudest day in British history'
when Indians instructed in European knowledge would 'in some
future age demand European institutions'* That proudest day,
in English history is no longer a dream. Destiny has for years
been bringing us nearer to that day. Let not the bureaucracy
shut their eyes to the glorious dawn that is just beginning to
break. Let not our countrymen mistake the glory of that dawn
for the grandeur of the noonday sun. Let both unite to dispel
all passing douds from the horizon. Let both "bow down and
hail the coming morn," '

Earlier in his speech, he had deplored the fact that the sub-
versive ideas of the Extremists had found a ready response in
'the young blood of schools and colleges in the United Provinces',
Little did he know that the contagion had travelled to England
where his only son was at school at Harrow.

CHAPTER SIX
THE ONLY SON

IT is not easy to fathom the depth of the emotion which centres
on an only son in a Hindu family* A male heir is necessary not
only for the continuity of the family tree and the inheritance of
the patrimony, but also for the performance of those rites with-
out which the soul, after it departs from this world, cannot rest
in peace* Tradition, deeply rooted in the collective unconscious
of the Hindu race, has helped to heap upon the only son a degree
of anxious solicitude verging on the ridiculous. He is a little
idol adored by grand-parents, uncles, aunts and sisters; his way-
ward will is a law unto itself* His parents live in perpetual dread,
as if they had staked their all on one precarious investment in a
shaky market. If they could, they would wrap him in cotton
wool and shelter him from the cold blasts of a cruel world. That
such pampering is a poor preparation for life is proved by the
melancholy annals of many an aristocratic family: it has been
rare for great wealth and high position to descend in a con-
tinuous line for two, let alone three, generations,

'I knew/ Jawaharlal has written about his childhood days,
"that my mother would condone everything I did, and because of
her excessive and indiscriminating love for me I tried to domin-
ate over her a little'. Motilal was an affectionate but not in-
dulgent father, generous but not gentle. Little Jawahar might
find himself on his father's knee, if he peeped into the drawing-
room in the evening when Motilal and his friends were relaxing,
but in the son's earliest memories admiration for the father was
mingled with awe* If the house frequently resounded with
Medal's laughter, it also shook visibly when he was provoked
into one of his paroxysms of rage* The provocation usually came
from the misunderstandings and bickerings inevitable in a joint
family, or from a slip on the part of a servant Hari (Motilal's
personal servant), recalls that at a dinner-party, just as the guests
were about to take their seats, Motilal, noticing a servant wipe a
plate with the end of his sleeve, beat up the poor wretch so

THE ONLY SON 63

violently that the other servants ran for their lives and the guests
- embarrassed and hungry - quietly retired. It was only after one
of Motilal's old clerks, Munshi Mubarak Ali, had interceded on
behalf of the erring servant, that the household, which seemed
in a state of suspended animation, hummed again with activity*
Little Jawahar himself was a trembling victim of his father's
wrath when he was barely six years old. One day, noticing two
fountain-pens lying at his father's table, he helped himself to
one. When the search was being made, he was too much afraid
to confess, but his guilt was discovered and he was punished
with such a thrashing that ointment had to be applied to the
wounds for several days. In that pre-Freudian age, Motilal could
hardly have worried about the traumatic possibilities of such in-
cidents. In retrospect, it seems likely that, but for his iron grip,
the ease and luxury of Anand Bhawan might easily have been
the slippery slope to indolence and failure.

Motilal was resolved to give his son the best possible educa-
tion. He himself had studied only Persian and Arabic in old-
fashioned maktabs (schools) before switching on to the high
school at Cawnpore and Muid Central College at Allahabad. He
considered this wholly inadequate for his son. In 1896, when
Motilal's elder brother, Bansi Dhar, went to Europe, his son
Shridhar (who was about the same age as Jawaharlal), was left
at Anand Bhawan. Motilal put both the boys in the local St
Mary's Convent school. Six months later, when Shridhar left
Allahabad, Jawaharlal was removed from the school: it was
decided that henceforth he would receive instruction at home
from English tutors. To this decision, Motilal may have been led
partly by aristocratic pride, partly by pro-English prejudices and
partly by the consciousness that he could afford the best - and
the most expensive - education for his children. The decision had
more far-reaching consequences than Motilal could have
imagined. Solitary tuition at home deepened the loneliness of a
boy who had been an only child for eleven years and had little
opportunity to play with children of his own age. On the other
hand, Jawaharlal escaped the stereotyped courses of study in
Indian schools and colleges, which were suitably spaced by
examinations and adorned with degrees designed not so much

64 THENEHRUS

to release the springs of the mind and soul as to open gateways
to careers under the government and in the professions.

Jawaharlal was lucky in being spared the strait-jacket of con-
ventional education* He was luckier still in having, during the
years 1902-4, Ferdinand T. Brooks, a gifted young man of mixed
Irish and French extraction, as a tutor. Brooks inspired in his
pupil a zest for reading and an interest in science. The miniature
laboratory which he rigged up in Anand Bhawan provided a
thrilling introduction to elementary science. Encouraged by his
tutor, Jawaharlal read voraciously : from children's books - Alice
in Wonderland and Kim -he passed on to novels of Scott,
Dickens, Thackeray and H. G. Wells, Mark Twain and the
Sherlock Holmes stories. The Prisoner of Zenda and Three Men
in a Boat delighted him. It was varied fare, less important in
itself than as a foretaste of what was to come. Many years were
to pass, however, - the years of Harrow, Cambridge and prison
- before his intellect was fully fledged.

Brooks was a theosophist and had been recommended to
Motilal by Mrs. Annie Besant. This remarkable woman, a friend
of Charles Bradlaugh and George Bernard Shaw, a born orator
and a great organizer, had travelled from Christianity to
theosophy via rationalism and atheism. In 1893, four years after
she had joined Madame Blavatsky, the co-founder with Colonel
Olcott of theosophy, Mrs Besant had landed on Indian soil.
'Though born in this life in a western land and clad in western
body', she believed that she had been, in a previous incarnation,
the child of Mother India. It was characteristic of this London-
born lady - Annie Wood was her maiden name - that when she
said Ve' in England, she meant the Indians, not the English.
Long before she flashed like a meteor through the Indian political
firmament during the first world war, she had devoted herself to
the task of disseminating Hindu philosophy and religion. Madras
was her headquarters, but her links with MotilaTs home
province were close. She set up at Benares the Central Hindu
School, which grew into a college, and finally into the Hindu
University. She became a friend of the Nehru family. Motilal
admired her great work for social and educational reform, but
did not take her spiritual Odyssey seriously. In his youth he had
been drawn to theosophy, into which he was initiated by
Madame Blavatsky herself during her visit to India. Theosophy
offers a detailed plan of the universe, its origin and nature, its

THE ONLY SON 65

past and future, based not on deductions from verifiable data,
but on direct revelation to the chosen few* 'Full proof is possible/
said one of Madame Balavatsky's original converts, 'to those who
have full belief/ Incapable of 'full belief, Motilal had quickly
outgrown his enthusiasm for the new creed.

For his son, however, the doctrines of theosophy - 'reincarna-
tion', 'astral and supernatural bodies', 'auras' and Karma - had
an irresistable fascination. He attended the theosophists' weekly
meetings, which were usually held in his tutor's room in Anand
Bhawan. Annie Besant's eloquence swept Jawaharlal off his feet
He felt the 'call' to embrace theosophy and, with becoming
gravity, approached his father for permission* Motilal did not
object, and indeed seemed to treat the whole thing as a joke.
Evidently he saw it as an outburst of juvenile enthusiasm which
would soon pass off -which is exactly what happened. Jawa-
harlal had the thrill of being 'initiated' by Mrs Annie Besant
and of watching the magnificently bearded face of good old
Colonel Olcott at a Theosophists' Convention at Benares. But his
interest in theosophy departed with his tutor. The scraps of in-
formation he had picked up about the Buddhist and Hindu
scriptures, the Dhammapada, the Upanishads and the Gita were,
however, his first introduction to the religious and cultural
heritage of his country: they provided the initial impulse for
that long intellectual quest which culminated forty years later
in the Discovery of India.

From English tutors to an English public school and university
must have seemed to Motilal a natural, perhaps a necessary step.
On May 13, 1905, he sailed from Bombay in the s.s. Macedonia
along with Swarup Rani, Jawaharlal and the four-year-old Sarup
(or Nanni as she was called). This was his third trip abroad after
an interval of five years. In a letter 1 to his nephew Brij Lai Nehru,
who was in Oxford at this time, Motilal wrote that he was
suffering from 'nervous prostration, the natural consequence of
five years' hard, incessant work without rest. There are two
things I have to do in London; first, put Jawaharlal in a school;
second, consult some specialists about the proper treatment and
the most suitable watering place for [my] wife. If you have the

1 Motilal Nehru to Brij Lai Nehru, April, 1905 (N.P.).

66 THE NEHRUS

time, collect all the information you can on these two points* As
regards Jawaharlal, I am still in the dark as to the school where
he has to go* All the well-known schools have no vacancies * * * I
am sorry I have delayed Jawaharlal's visit to England'*

Luckily, with the help of some English friends, Motilal man-
aged to get his son into Harrow, The school was not to open till
the end of September, but on the advice of Dr Wood, the Head-
master, the boy was left in London to learn Latin and prepare
for the entrance examination* Meanwhile, on the advice of
London doctors, Motilal took his wife for a few weeks' rest and
treatment to watering places on the Continent*

On July 3oth the Nehrus arrived at Cologne. "It is a beautiful
city/ he wrote to his son, 'Coleridge might have had some justi-
fication for the lines he wrote in his own time. The Cologne of
today is quite different * * * He is, however, right about the pave-
ments. They do consist of murderous stones* The rattling of the
carriages produces a terrific noise, the stones being laid on edge
and being of uneven surface*' On August 5th, he wrote from
Bad Homburg, where at seven in the morning he found himself
in an endless procession of ladies and gentlemen, proceeding
glass in hand, to the particular springs which had been pre-
scribed for them'* The tennis-courts of Homburg were 'supposed
to be the best in all Europe', but Motilal gave up the idea of join-
ing the local club, when he saw that 'not only men but girls
played a much prettier game than I could ever expect to do*'

The mineral waters of Bad Homburg failed to produce the
magical properties ascribed to them, so on August xyth the
Nehrus moved on to Bad Ems* The four hours' train journey on
the bank of the Rhine was delightful, and the scenery was
'simply perfect'* Surrounded by high hills and standing on both
banks of a small river in which motor-boats were plying up and
down every few minutes, Bad Ems struck Motilal as 'one of the
loveliest little places' he had ever seen. He was in high good
humour and arranged a tea-party for the children of local schools
on his daughter's fifth birthday. As the grounds of the Hotel
D'Angleterre Englishcherhof could not accommodate four
hundred children at a time, they were entertained in two batches.
The children enjoyed themselves immensely, and before taking
their leave sang German songs. Their teachers made neat little
speeches in English to which Motilal made a suitable reply*

THE ONLY SON 67

Motilal gave a glowing account of the party in a letter to
Jawaharlal :

'Nanni was literally laden with presents, large crowds assem,-
bled round the grounds, and Nanni was cheered by them. She
shook hands with each guest (poor thing was quite exhausted).
Besides the presents brought by the children, the proprietor of
the hotel sent a beautiful birthday cake, the jeweller from whom
I bought a pair of earrings for Nanni sent her a magnificent
basket of flowers, and several lodgers in the hotel also sent
flowers. It was the greatest birthday Nanni has ever had, or
perhaps will have in future. She behaved very well indeed, and
looked like a little queen in her new dress. I have come to be
known at Ems as an Indian Prince. Cheap fame purchased for
15 only!"

The 'little queen' played all day in the open air, improved her
appetite and learnt to pronounce new words 'with faultless
accent'. A pretty child, she was (her father noted) as much
admired in Ems as she had been in London. She insisted on
scribbling what she thought were letters to her brother. When
her father was unable to decipher 'the crooked lines and loops',
she told him : Tou do not know German, this is German'. She
was the only member of the family to whom the waters of Bad
Ems seemed to do any good. Her mother was decidedly worse
than she had been in London and her father came to the con-
clusion that 'the little improvement' in his health could have
been achieved anywhere if he had taken the same precautions.

When the time came for Jawaharlal's admission to Harrow
the family returned to London. On September 30th, after his
first visit to Harrow, Motilal warned his son : 'You must really
guard yourself against cold more effectively than you have been
doing. You must never be in the condition in which you were
when I left you . . .' Two days later he wrote : 'I hope you have
been taking care of yourself, for you must understand that in
taking care of yourself you do in a great measure take care of
me and my happiness.' This anxiety stemmed from the fact that
in all his sixteen years this was Jawaharlal's first long separation
from his parents. The parting was as hard for them as for him.
When Motilal reached his hotel at Marseilles on October 19,
1905, it was almost midnight. Next morning the Macedonia was

68 THE NEHRUS

to take him, his wife and daughter back to India* Full of emotion,
he could not leave Europe without a farewell letter to his son.

'You must bear in mind/ he wrote, 'that in you we are leaving
the dearest treasure we have in this world, and perhaps in other
worlds to come. We are suffering the pangs of separation from
you simply for your own good* It is not a question of providing
for you, as I can do that perhaps in one single year's income* It
is a question of making a real man of you, which you are bound
to be* It would be extremely selfish - 1 should say sinful - to keep
you with us and leave you a fortune in gold with little or no
education*

'I think I can without vanity say that I am the founder of
the fortunes of the Nehru family* I look upon you, my dear son,
as the man who will build upon the foundations I have laid and
have the satisfaction of seeing a noble structure of renown rear-
ing up its head to the skies.

'We leave you in flesh, but will always be with you in spirit
In less than ten months I will again be with you, and in about
two years you will be in a position to pass a few months among
your old surroundings at Allahabad. . . I never thought I loved
you so much as when I had to part with you, though for a short
time only. Perhaps it is due to my weak heart. But my sense of
duty to you is as strong as it ever was, and as for the poor weak
heart, it is in your keeping* I have not the slightest doubt that
you will rise to all my expectations and more. You have enough
work to keep you engaged . . . work includes the preservation of
health. Be perfect in body and mind and this is the only return
we seek for tearing ourselves from you. I could write pages in
this strain, but it is close upon i o'clock and you really need
no sermon from me. I will, therefore, say farewell, mine own
darling boy, take every care of yourself. In doing so you will be
taking care of your parents.

Your loving, Father/

On November 4th, Motilal, Swarup Rani and Sarup were back
at Allahabad. 'Here we are at last/ he wrote to Jawaharlal two
days later, 'but somehow or other Anand Bhawan does not
appear to be so full of Anand (Happiness). There is something
wanting, and that something must necessarily be yourself. I dare
say we will soon be accustomed to it/ Immediately on his return,

THE ONLY SON 69

he was inundated with briefs. He had expected that it woulcl
take some time before his presence in Allahabad would become
known throughout the province* But he was 'most agreeably
surprised to see a large number of clients eagerly expecting me
with long purses* Briefs are flowing in from all directions . . * and
I find it difficult to cope with them . . . my list of cases for to-
morrow has reached its climax. During the last twenty-four
hours, I have been engaged in every first appeal on the list. My
absence from the High Court for any length of time does not
make any difference in my practice. I am taken for a magician !
To my mind it is simple enough. I want money. I work for it and
I get it. There are many people who want it perhaps more than
I do, but they do not work and naturally enough do not get it/
The formula of success was not so simple as Motilal made it
out to be. But of his industry there could be no doubt. On
November gth he got up at four in the morning, worked away
at his briefs till eight, saw new clients till nine, was in the court
at ten and on his feet throughout the day. He was resolved (he
wrote to his son) 'to work as hard as I can for another seven
months, after which I will have the pleasure. of seeing you and
the benefit of another change in Europe'.

CHAPTER SEVEN
HARROW

'MY dear Mr Nehru/ wrote Dr Joseph Wood, the Head Master
of Harrow, on November i, 1905, 'I received your kind letter
this morning and hasten to assure you that your dear boy shall
be my special care. I have had a long talk with him, discussed
the vital question of clothing, and given him my best advice* I
have told him that if his present room should prove too cold for
him, I will make arrangements to give him another facing south*
He looks very well today, and very smart in his cadet corps
uniform/ A week later Dr Wood wrote again : Tou will by this
time have arrived in India, but your thoughts will, I doubt not,
often travel back to England* I promised you to write now and
then and let you hear something* It is now half-term and you
will in due course receive the official report* Every master speaks
well of your boy, both as to his work and his conduct. He has
distinct ability, is already ahead of his form and will doubtless
secure promotion next term* I am fully satisfied with him in
every way * * /

The official report for the half-term was indeed very compli-
mentary to young Nehru* He was top in every subject His form
work and Modern Languages were 'excellent'* In Algebra he
was adjudged "good*, in Geometry, 'extremely neat and pains-
taking'* The tutor's comment on the 'pupil room work' was:
'Excellent, has done some good history papers for me'* The House
Master summed up: 'very creditable stand'*

Motilal was delighted to hear that his son was top of his form,
and predicted that before long he would be top of die school:

'Did I not tell you, soon after leaving you, that there was a
great and brilliant future for you? * * * I find that the Science
column is left blank in the report* Perhaps you will take it up
next term* As you know. I want you specially to develop a taste
for Science and Mathematics. You are no doubt doing all that

HARROW ji

can be done and nothing will please me more than to have in
you the first Senior Wrangler of your year . . /

On December 18, 1905, Jawaharlal learned that he was to
receive a prize. 'I had never thought of this happening/ he
wrote to his father, 'and am rather nervous about it At the most
what occurred to me was that I might get a small prize in the
Head Master's study privately, but not in the speech room in
the midst of all the people . . / The shy, sensitive boy from
Allahabad found the ceremony something of an ordeal : 'I was
not quite sure to the very end, and when Dr Wood called out
my name, I felt very confused. He gave me the book in the usual
formula of congratulations/ The prize was Lamb's Essays of Elia.
1 am not only quite satisfied with your work/ Motilal wrote,
'but really proud of you* If you only go on working steadily, as
you are sure to do, the day is not far distant when your country
will be proud of you/

Lyrical though Motilal grew over his son's scholastic attain-
ments, he had no intention of turning the boy into a bookworm.
He knew only too well that Jawaharlal had had a lonely child-
hood and would find it hard to come out of his shell. In his first
letter (September 30, 1905) to Harrow from London, he had
urged his son to 'make friends with your immediate neighbours
in the house - occasionally entertain them on holidays and half-
holidays - in a word try to be a general favourite as you are
bound to be without my telling you'. In his first letter from
Allahabad (November 6) he repeated the advice to 'make many
friends' and 'patronize the creameries ... to entertain, specially
the rowdier element of the school. Never mind the expenses
which cannot be very great'. A few days later, after appreciating
his son's exploits at the Rifle Club Range and 'sham fights*,
Motilal wrote that he was surprised that Jawaharlal had not yet
found himself 'mixed up in some real fight with somebody or
the other'. Tlease do not suppress the information/ he added,
'even if you get the worse of it It will by no means be dis-
couraging to me to hear about it/

Motilal had been a keen sportsman in his youth. He asked his
son to play as many games as possible, and gave him carte
blanche to engage a professional coach for any game. The only
game in which Jawaharlal had acquired some proficiency in
Allahabad was tennis, but that was not of much use at Harrow,

7 2 THE NEHRUS

Nevertheless, there is evidence that young Nehru took his sports
as seriously as his studies* He frequented the gymnasium and
joined the Rifle Club and the Cadet Corps* 1 am agreeably sur-
prised/ wrote Motilal, 'at your passing the examination in shoot-
ing and at the progress you have made at footer. You were quite
ignorant of both these things when you joined Harrow ... At
footer specially I never had any hopes for the simple reason that
it is the game of rough and burly boys and not of those so
delicately framed as you/ The paternal pride was, however,
tempered by paternal solicitude :

1 will advise you to play [football] cautiously. Don't venture
beyond your strength. It will be a bad day for us all if you came
out of it with broken bones as did the younger of the two
brothers in the book entitled The Brothers/

On May 4th, 1906, Jawaharlal bought a cricket bat. On
June ist he reported 'a slow but steady improvement ... I made
yesterday 40 "not out", which is rather good for me. Of course
this is really not much, considering the low game I am in'. The
following month his description of a cricket match between Eton
and Harrow would have done credit to a sports correspondent :
'It was a victory for our opponents but the rarest chance would
have changed it into a defeat for them. The first day's play was
interesting, but not exciting. At the end of the innings, Eton
was 135 runs ahead of us. In the second innings our men got out
fast and many people thought that we would be beaten by an
innings. The last man, however, played well and saved our side.
He got out by a most regrettable misunderstanding. The ball
was in the hand of an Eton fellow quite near the wicket, but the
batsman, unaware of this, started to run with the result that he
was run out. As it was, he had made 79, the highest score on our
side. The Etonians had now to make 95 to win, and it seemed an
easy task. But it proved less easy - the first wicket fell in the
first over without any runs having been made. The second
followed after a few balls. You cannot imagine the excitement
which prevailed at the fall of the wickets. The Etonians went on
getting out till only four wickets remained. Then somehow they
stuck. Two or three easy catches were missed and this gave them
confidence. If the catches had not been missed, there is not a
shadow of a doubt that we would have won. As it was, we did

HARROW 73

very well* The Eton Eleven was a strong one in every point; ours
was equally strong in batting and fielding, but in bowling it was
deplorably weak/

One of the most exciting days at Harrow was the Cadet Corps
field day,

Jawaharlal to his father, April i, 1906: Today was a field day
and we had to do a great deal of marching . . . The field day
today was at Hatfield House, the country seat of Lord Salisbury,
against Eton. Although they are nearly twice our size, they were
the defending side and we the attacking. And so we were not
particularly successful in dislodging them out of their position,
but they too made a mess of their affairs. The umpires, instead of
praising both sides as is usual with them, blamed both, and so
equalized matters. After the operations we had tea which was
not half so good as the last field-day's, but still far better than
what we get here. We were allowed to go over the house -a
magnificent old building. The rooms were beautifully furnished.
The walls were lined with huge paintings and everything was
charming . * /

Harrow and Eton usually found themselves in opposition in
these manoeuvres. On March i, 1907, when Jawaharlal and his
fellow Harrovians took the train to Uxbridge and marched the
five miles to the scene of operations, they had no doubt that
the Etonians, who had suffered a defeat in a previous engage-
ment, were burning to avenge themselves.

Jawaharlal to his father, March i, 1907: 'Our section was
placed on the reserve and so we had a very easy time at the be-
ginning, lounging about in the long heathers, which made a
splendid hiding place. After some time our turn came, and we
had to make up for our slackness. Our side was supposed to be
covering off the retreat of a large army, and we were to keep the
enemy in check, whilst the supposed enemy was destroying the
bridges* We were thus fighting a rearguard action, and had often
to retire. Towards the end, the fighting got quite close, and in a
thick wood the Etonians suddenly rushed up almost into our

7 4 THE NEHRUS

arms. Of course no fighting could take place at such dose
quarters without danger, and both sides were ordered to stop.
The umpires were sought after, but they could not be found
anywhere . . . After a little time the [fighting] came to cease,
and both sides went to the country house of an officer, who had
kindly invited us to tea. Tea being over, one of the umpires made
a short speech about the field day. He praised both sides and said
that they equally shared the honours/

Motilal carefully filed and preserved not only his son's letters
but also the reports and bills from the headmaster; so we know
a good deal about JawaharlaTs time at Harrow. We know that
his father remitted 67 19$ 8d on admission and 71 gs 6d for
the Christmas term, and that the amount for the remaining
terms ranged round 65, except for the summer term of 1906,
when (because of an item of 23 for the tailor) it shot up to 88.
There is a bill for 1 135 6d from W. Hay Wood of West Street,
Harrow, for a cricket bat and a pair of 'best buck pads'. The
extra charge of threepence indicates how many times young
Nehru was shaved at Harrow: once in the first term, twice in
the succeeding terms, rising to a maximum of four times in .the
Christmas term of 1906. The dentist (Dr Ernest Fox) charged
him 1 is for the service of 'gold stopping and amalgam
stopping' rendered on May 7, 1906. Doctors Bindloss and
Lambert, the school physicians, charged 17 shillings in the
Christmas term of 1905, and 5 shillings in the summer term of
1907. It was too soon for J. C. Wilbee & Co., the school book-
sellers, to make money out of Nehru; they only succeeded in
selling text-books. Jawaharlal dutifully forwarded to his father
question papers set at the terminal examination; the arithmetic
papers had answers scribbled against each question. The English
History paper for the Christmas term, 1906, included com-
bustible material for a future rebel against the British Raj. One
of the questions was: 'For what reasons did the American
colonies revolt? Why was it impossible to subjugate them?'
Another : 'Summarize the causes of the French Revolution/

Work and play kept young Jawaharlal fully occupied, but
there were moments, specially in the first few months, when he

HARROW 75

was homesick for Allahabad, His father had ordered a Bombay
firm to send regular consignments of mangoes to Harrow, but to
Jawaharlal news from India was more important than Indian
luxuries* The weekly mail brought him three letters, one each
from his father, mother and baby sister. Little Nanni (Samp), the
darling of the family, seemed to be doing very well in the charge
of Miss Hooper, the governess whom Motilal had engaged
during his visit to England in 1905. A beautiful child, high-
spirited, talkative and wilful, she was a universal favourite.

Motilal to his son, December 14, 1905: 'They observed the
Foundation Day at the Muir College for the first time this year.
They held all sorts of sports and Lady Stanley gave away the
prizes. I was called upon to subscribe to the fund as 'one of the
richest Muir Collegians* and had to do so. But I was not able to
go and sent Nanni with Miss Hooper. I am told by some barrister
friends that Nanni was very much admired by the ladies and
gentlemen present. Lady Stanley in particular did not leave her
for a minute, and went on chatting with her all the time '

February 15, 1906: Tou would again have disappointed dear
little Nanni had it not been for my foresight. The picture post-
card, I posted as from you, came in good time and she was well
pleased with it. She now wants you to write to her a letter. I am
afraid I am not sufficiently advanced in the fine art of forging to
pass off on her a letter from me as if it were from you . . .'

March 22, 1906: '. . . Miss Hooper is thriving and the Indian
climate is taking very kindly to her -she is getting fat. Dear
Nanni is making rapid progress. She can speak 170 English
words correctly and can repeat multiplication tables up to 3. But
somehow or other she is getting very thin - just like you did at
her age . . /

Jawaharlal to Motilal, June 13, 1906: 'Nanni in spectacles! It
is unthinkable. I do hope you won't follow the advice of the
surgeon, however, eminent he may be. She would look perfectly
absurd in them and I doubt if they do her much good either
... I do not like at all women, and especially girls to wear
spectacles . . /

76 THE NEHRUS

Swarup Rani's health was the subject of anxious comment on
both sides of the water. She wrote to Jawaharlal every week,
except when she was too ill to do so. Her letters to her son were
written in colloquial Hindustani, and overflowed with emotion*
On November 4, 1905, she gave birth to a son. Irrepressibly
optimistic, Motilal wrote happily to Jawaharlal: "The little
stranger chose your birthday as the most fitting time to come to
this world, and I cannot help attaching a significance to this
circumstance/ Unhappily the coincidence had no significance.
The child, who was named Ratan Lai, died when he was hardly
a month old.

In Allahabad life moved along the old grooves. Occasionally
there was exciting news. In February, 1906, Pandit Sunderlal
was appointed the first Indian Vice-Chancellor of Allahabad
University. The Vakils* Association arranged a garden party in
his honour, to which the Lieutenant-Governor and his wife were
invited. Toor Sunderlal/ wrote Motilal, 'is taking lessons from
me as to how to talk to the ladies/ Early in 1906, the Magh Mela
drew an endless stream of pilgrims to Allahabad. About a million
people had assembled and thousands were pouring in daily;
cholera broke out at the river-side. 'Sunday next is one of the
great bathing days/ Motilal wrote to his son. I am not going to
see, what my friends call, fun. It is discouraging to me to see
my countrymen engage themselves in stupid things/

Motilal included in his letters an occasional word of fatherly
advice to his son, who was spending the most impressionable
years of his life away from home. When Jawaharlal pleaded lack
of time for the dumb-bells which his father had sent him, he
was advised 'to have the things handy whenever you enter or
leave the room. Do just one exercise about seven times . . . you
should, of course, do a different exercise each time during the
day/ In February, 1906, Jawaharlal received a picture postcard
of the Hon'ble N. G. Chandavarkar; below the photograph
were just two words in Motilal's own handwriting : 'Unassuming
simplicity'. A few days later, the rumoured romance of a Kash-
miri youth (the son of a friend of the family) in England gave
Motilal an opportunity to touch on more delicate issues. 'You
must not confuse real love, with a passing passion, or a feeling of
pleasure in the society of a girl . . . You know all the arguments
against Indians marrying English women . . . You must know
that I hold you too dear to think of coming between you and

HARROW 77

real happiness . * Jn everything that concerns you, you do nof
look upon me as your father, but your dearest friend in the
world, who would do anything for you to make you happy*.

Motilal took particular care not to sermonize. His advice was
tempered with an informality and good humour which were all
too rare between fathers and sons in those days; it was almost as
if he was already treating his young son as an adult After dis-
cussing the possibilities of coaching for entrance to Cambridge in
the context of the crowded routine at Harrow, he concluded a
letter in October, 1906 :

'So after all I can give you no advice in the matter and must
leave you to your own resources. This is an apt illustration of
the true principle of life. You may have loving and willing
parents and friends to back you, but it is you, and you alone,
who must fight your own battles . . /

The flow of advice was not wholly one-sided. Writing from
Harrow (October 19, 1906) Jawaharlal implored his father to be
careful 'about yourself, this time for my sake, and * . . not work
too hard as you unfortunately often do. You may think this
boldness on my part to give you advice, but, dearest father, it
comes from my heart and as such, I hope, you will receive it'.
Motilal counted his friends by the dozen; he entertained them
lavishly and laughed with them heartily, but he was intimate
with very few of them* Swarup Rani was often ill and, in any
case, her intellectual range was too limited to enable her to share
all his thoughts* It was only with his son that he could think
aloud, and to him, although he was still only a schoolboy,
Motilal would sometimes unburden himself.

Motilal to liis son, April 30, 1908: 1 was very glad to receive
a very sympathising letter from you by the last mail. Sympathy
is a commodity which has never been bestowed on me by those
from whom it was expected in very excessive quantities, and
lately it has become very rare indeed. Coming as it does from
across the seas and from my own son, it has its own value for
me.

'You are quite right in saying that these repeated attacks of
one ailment or another are bound sooner or later to end in a
complete breakdown* The last attack of lumbago has taken a lot
out of me* Having been very improvident in money matters all

78 THE NEHRUS

my life, I have to thank myself if I have now to work harder
than I should. You need not, however, be afraid of losing me in
the near future. I have a long span of life and mean to live it * . /

Jawaharlal to his father, May 21, 1908: "... My information
about your being morose is, I am glad to know partially in-
accurate . * * It is you who ought to influence other people, and
not be influenced by them. Yours must be the stronger person-
ality -I doubt if you meet many people, who have the ad-
vantage of you in that commodity - and I should have thought
you would bring others up to your state of mind, rather than
lower yourself to theirs/

During the summer vacation of 1906 Jawaharlal came to India,
and spent three weeks with his parents at Mussoorie. He spent
Christmas in Paris, where he saw the great automobile show of
1906. There were hundreds of motor-vehicles of all kinds, from
motor bicycles of i h.p. to racing cars of 450 h.p. He saw the
motor-car -a Renault - which Motilal had ordered and which
was being made ready for shipment to India.

At the end of 1906, the motor-car was ceasing to be a novelty
in Europe; the air age was at hand. "Every one seems to be cock-
sure/ Jawaharlal wrote to his father, 'that aeroplanes will be as
common in a few years as motor-cars are now. I actually saw,
the other day, an advertisement of a firm who undertook to build
aeroplanes for people ! I hope you will have time to use your car
before the aeroplane craze sets in. And then perhaps, when I am
at the 'Varsity - it is too much to hope before then - 1 may have
the pleasure of seeing you on week-ends/

Motilal was thinking of more important problems than the
potentialities of civil aviation. JawaharlaTs academic progress at
Harrow seemed highly satisfactory. In some subjects, such as
literature, history and general knowledge, he was easily ahead
of the English boys. In science also, thanks to Ferdinand T*
Brooks, he had an initial advantage. 'We are doing Chemistry
now', he wrote in November, 1906, 'this is fairly elementary,
but it is far and away better than measuring lines and cutting
circles to bits, and then calling the whole thing Physics, as we
did last term. Next term, I shall probably have a more advanced

HARROW 79

course". Though he was at a slight disadvantage in Latin and
French, there was every indication that he would remain at or
near the top of the form. Tou have every reason to be proud of
your son/ wrote Headmaster Wood to Motilal (May 19, 1906),
'who is doing excellently and making his mark in the school.
Every master, who has anything to do with him, speaks in the
highest terms of his ability and his industry. He is a thoroughly
good fellow and ought to have a very bright future before him'*
Jawaharlal had come to Harrow in 1905 when he was nearly
sixteen; to complete the school course, he needed to stay on till
the autumn of 1908. Adding three years at the university, he
would be more than twenty-two by the time he graduated. He
would thus have little time to prepare for the competitive
examination for the Indian Civil Service. Motilal had broached
the subject with the Headmaster.

Motilal to his son, October 27, 1906: 'I have told Wood that I
had to enter you at Trinity College as having regard to your
age and the limits imposed by the I.C.S. Regulations, there was
no time to lose . . /

Dr Joseph Wood to Motilal, November 1 i, 1906 : "I will do what
I can to carry out your wishes, though I confess that I think
your boy too young to go to Cambridge. He ought to have
another year at school to bring out what is best in him. More-
over, it is putting a great strain upon him to expect him to get
up these subjects for Cambridge in addition to his regular work.
I fear the burden may be too heavy for him. But I will consult
his tutor, and we will do our best. He is very well, and looks
very bright and happy/

Jawaharlal too was ready to leave Harrow for Cambridge.
Though he had plunged into the routine of work and play at
Harrow, he did not find^his surroundings intellectually very
stimulating. 'I must confess/ he wrote to his father on March 4,
1906, 1 cannot mix properly with English boys. My tastes and
inclinations are quite different. Here boys, older than me and in
higher forms than me, take great interest in things which appear
to me childish ... I almost wish sometimes that I had not come
to Harrow, but gone straight to the 'Varsity. I have no doubt
that public schools are excellent things and their training essen-

So THE NEHRUS

tial to every boy, but I have come here very late to really enjoy
the life/

*I can quite appreciate your inability to enter into the spirit
of Harrow life/ replied Motilal on March zgth, 'an Indian boy
is generally more thoughtful than an English boy of the same
age. In fact there is early development in India, which English-
men call precocity. Whatever it is, my own experience tells me,
that what we gain in the beginning, we lose at the end* You
must have seen many English boys even older than you are
looking perfectly blank and stupid, but have you seen any Indian
of the same age as Dr Wood looking half so vivacious and full
of life? This is no doubt due to our climate, but there it is. Child-
hood in England occupies much greater portion of life than it
does in India, and so do boyhood and manhood. Old age does not
properly begin till a man is three score and odd - an age very
seldom reached in India. Big boys in England are, therefore, to
be found committing themselves to foolish pranks, which much
smaller boys in India would be ashamed of. But this is no reason
why they should be despised. They afford you, who can think,
an excellent opportunity to study at least one phase of human
nature, and thus add to your stock of that particular branch of
knowledge called experience. You seem to put very little value
on English public-school life, but let me assure you that as soon
as you pass on to the 'Varsity, your thoughts will fondly turn to
Harrow. And when you have done with the 'Varsity, the happy
reminiscences of it will cling to you throughout life/

A striking example of this precocity of Indian boys was
furnished by Jawaharlal's insatiable interest in politics.

CHAPTER EIGHT
THE YOUNG NATIONALIST

JAWAHARLAL had hardly been two months at Harrow when he
asked his father to send him an Indian newspaper, 'not the
Pioneer'. 1 In December, 1905, he was pleasantly surprised to read
in The Times that the Swadeshi movement had spread to Kash-
mir, where the people were reported to have bought up, by
public subscription, all the English sugar and burnt it. 'The
movement must be very strong indeed/ he wrote to his father,
'if it reached even the Kashmiris/

Jawaharlal read the proceedings of the Indian National Con-
gress with particular interest. When his father wrote from
Calcutta that the Moderates and the Extremists had been at
loggerheads in the 1906 Congress, he was disappointed. 'I am
sorry to hear/ he wrote, 'that the Congress was not a success. I
am impatiently waiting for your next letter to know the result
of the proceedings* I do hope the different parties worked
smoothly together, and there were no dissensions among the
delegates. A most foolish thing this seems to me; for not only do
they do no good to themselves but they d<$ harm to their country
they both pretend to serve. There couldn't have been any great
difference or disagreement among the delegates, as our friends
the Anglo-Indians would hardly have failed to wire the fact
over here/

Such passionate nationalism may seem surprising in an Indian
boy of seventeen studying in an English public school, whose
home in Allahabad was one of the most anglicized, whose father
was an admirer of British ways and British institutions and
counted high British dignitaries among his friends. However, we
must remember the great gulf which, at the turn of the century,
divided the British and the Indian, the rulers and the ruled.
Educated Indians had not forgotten the hysteria of the European
community during the agitation over the Ilbert Bill, when Lord

1 British owned and edited, the Pioneer was the organ of European opinion
and was then published from Allahabad

82 THE NEHRUS

Ripon was ridiculed as a 'White Baboo', 2 and a correspondent of
the Englishman could seriously assert that 'the only people who
have any right to India are the British; the so-called Indians have
no right whatsoever'* Not only were Indians excluded from re-
sponsible posts in the administration of their own country; they
received frequent and galling reminders of their inferior status.
Compartments in railway Jjains and benches in public parks
were reserved for 'Europeans only'. Long before the word was
coined, 'apartheid' was practised by the most fashionable dubs
in the principal towns of India. Many of them did not admit
'natives' even as guests; in Bombay and Calcutta it was not
uncommon for an Indian gentleman to wait in the carriage,
while his European wife went into the club. Nevinson, the noted
British journalist, wrote after his visit to India in 1907-8 that
there were in every part of the country Englishmen, who 'still
retained the courtesy and sensitiveness of ordinary good manners.
But one's delight in finding them proved their rarity'. 3 It was
a significant commentary on racial prejudice that, right through
the first world war, the Baden-Powell organization refused to
admit Indian children as scouts. All this deeply hurt proud and
sensitive members of the intelligentsia. Intellectually, they might
feel equal, or even superior, to individual Europeans, but socially
they were branded as an inferior race. No wonder the western-
educated middle dass passionately longed for what an Australian
writer* has called 'fre^om from the white man's contempt'*

Some of the most flagrant examples of racial arrogance were
seen on the railways. In 1907, Keir Hardie, the Labour M.P.,
boarded a train at Madras, and found two Indians in a first class
compartment. As Hardie entered, one of the Indians got up and
said, 'Shall we move to another compartment, sir?' Hardie stared
at the man, and enquired if he had paid his fare. 'Oh, yes,' he
replied, 'but English gentlemen do not as a rule like to travel
with natives.' 5 Not all Indian gentlemen were equally obliging.
Some of them refused to give in to the white man's bullying, and
then there were 'incidents'.

One of Jawaharlal's cousins, the "strong man' of the Nehru
family, was often involved in these 'incidents' and when they

2 Gopal, S., The Viceroyalty of Lord Ripon, p. 146.

3 Nevinson, H. W., The New Spirit in India, p. 117.

* Ball, MacMahon, Nationalism and Communism in East Asia, p. 15.
5 Hughes, E, Keir Hardie, p. 155.

THE YOUNG NATIONALIST 83

/ **

were related at home, young JawaharlaTs blood boiled. He was
(he wrote later) 'filled with resentment against the alien rulers
of my country who misbehaved in this manner, and when an
Indian hit back, I was glad'. 6 He 'dreamt of brave deeds, of how
sword in hand I would fight for India and help in freeing her'/

On the day the Nehrus arrived in London, the newspapers
carried the news of the crushing defeat inflicted on the Russian
fleet by the Japanese navy off Taushima. The victory of an Asian
country over a great European power thrilled JawaharlaL The
transition from Allahabad to Harrow seemed to stimulate rather
than suppress his interest in politics* The great question of the
hour/ he wrote to his father on January 12, 1906, 'is of course
the General Election. Everybody is excited about it, and even in
the streets you see some people talking about it ... Today is the
first day of the polling/ When Campbell-Bannerman formed his
ministry, Jawaharlal was the only boy in his class., who, much
to the surprise of his teacher, reeled off the names of the entire
cabinet. A few days later when the Headmaster's House at
Harrow, of which Jawaharlal was a member, held a 'mock
election' young Nehru's political instincts vibrated to the excite-
ment:

"Great preparations were made for two days for it and all the
House was busy with placards for the respective candidates. The
only difficulty in the beginning was to find a Liberal candidate.
Almost everybody in this House is a strong Conservative, and
the remaining few are half and half. Out of the latter the Liberal
was chosen, although he himself was a better Unionist On a
half-holiday afternoon the lectures took place in a room which
had been provisionally turned into a Committee Room, and the
same evening the polling took place. The Conservative of course
won/

Not long after his arrival at Harrow, Jawaharlal's political pro-
clivities almost got him into trouble with the authorities. A
letter addressed to 'Master Joe, Harrow' was opened by the Head-

6 Nehru, J. L., To ward Freedom, p. 21 (John Day, 1941).

7 //<, p. 30.

84 THE NEHRUS

master, Joseph Wood, who shared the nickname of 'Joe' with
JawaharlaL Wood was shocked at its seditious tone* "I think you
will agree with me/ he wrote to Motilal, 'that it is not the sort
of letter for a boy to receive at an English school/ When Motilal
explained that the writer was Rameshwari Nehru, the wife of
Jawaharlal's cousin Brijlal, Dr Wood hastened to make amends :
'I am intensely amused to hear, that it was a charming young
lady who defied the British Raj. Give her my kind regards, and
say I hope, some day, when she knows us better, she will like
us more/

There was no one at Harrow to whom Jawaharlal could con-
fide his inmost thoughts, but he scoured The Times for Indian
news, and avidly devoured the pages of the Indian People and
other journels mailed to him from Allahabad. MotilaTs own
letters contained a good deal of information about political de-
velopments in India, although he himself during these years
hovered uncertainly on the periphery of national politics. He
was present at the Benares (1905) and Calcutta (1906) sessions
of the Indian National Congress, but more as a spectator than
as an active participant The reasons for this are not far to seek.
For one thing, MotilaPs work at the High Court continued to
make heavy demands on his time. 'My immediate surroundings
remain unchanged/ he wrote to Jawaharlal on November 23,
1905: 'Clients! Clients! ! Clients! ! ! One small brain to cope
with half of the workpf the High Court. The other half goes to
Sunderlal/ For another, he was not at all happy at the course
Indian politics had taken after the partition of Bengal. The
anti-partition movement/ he told his son, was 'the most stupid
and, I may add, the most dishonest thing I have ever seen . . /
Preoccupied as he was with his heavy -and lucrative - legal
practice, and out of harmony with the prevailing current of
public opinion, Motilal had neither the time nor the inclination
to give up the comfortable position of a critical looker-on at the
political drama.

3

Early in 1907 events conspired to push Motilal to the centre
of the stage. An open rupture between the Moderates and the
Extremists had been averted at the Calcutta Congress (December,
1906), but the tension between the two wings of the Congress

THE YOUNG NATIONALIST 85

had not abated. The year opened with a propaganda offensive by
the Moderates. In February Gokhale visited Allahabad. Motilal
was present, along with other prominent citizens, at the railway
station to welcome him* As the distinguished visitor came out,
a large and enthusiastic crowd of students, which had been held
back outside the station limits, shouted: 'Gokhale ki Jai\ and
surrounded MotilaFs carriage, in which Gokhale was to drive to
the house of his host, Tej Bahadur Sapru. The students un-
horsed the carriage and insisted on drawing it. Gokhale pleaded
with them; he threatened to go back to Calcutta. But the
students were adamant: amidst deafening cries of Bande
Mataram, they pulled the carriage through the streets of Allaha-
bad. Next day Gokhale delivered a lecture on The Work Before
Us'; Motilal, who presided at the meeting, told his son that the
lecture was 'a masterpiece of close reasoning and sound common-
sense expressed in the best and purest English'. There were two
more lectures by Gokhale on 'Swadeshi* and 'A Few Words to
Students'. Motilal gave a garden party in Anand Bhawan and
invited 'all the leading Indian and European ladies and gentle-
men' of Allahabad to meet the distinguished leader of the
Congress.

The enthusiasm which the students of Allahabad had dis-
played during Gokhale's visit was inspired less by his politics
than by his personality. Only a few days earlier they had given
a thunderous welcome to Tilak. It was obvious that Allahabad
and the United Provinces were beginning to be convulsed with
the Moderate-Extremist conflict, and Motilal would be drawn
into it willy nilly. In January, 1907, there was a meeting of
Moderate politicians in Anand Bhawan, at which the possi-
bilities of a provincial conference were discussed; it was sug-
gested that Motilal should preside over it. He was not at all eager
to plunge into the political arena, and asked for time to consider
the suggestion. The news, however, leaked to the press and it
became awkward for him to withdraw. 1 have been compelled
to accept it [the presidency of provincial conference]/ he wrote
to his son. It is entirely a new line for me and I have very grave
doubts of being able to justify the expectations of my friends.
What I am particularly afraid of is the student class. They of
late have developed a remarkable aptitude for rowdyism, and no
sober and serious thinker can expect to secure an uninterrupted
hearing from an audience composed of this element. Tilak was

86 THE NEHRUS

here the other day specially to address the students . . . He suc-
ceeded to such an extent that the students of the Muir College
(specially those of the Hindu Boarding House) have assumed an
attitude of open defiance to the more moderate leaders of these
provinces, Sunderlal and Malaviya are openly abused* I have so
far escaped, but cannot be safe much longer as my views are
even more moderate than those of the so-called Moderates. At
present the boys declare that they will all be happy to follow my
lead, as they think I have given enough proof of my independent
and fearless adherence to my own views in matters social, etc.
Whether they will think so when they hear my political views
is a totally different question. I have, however, courted the storm
and must brave it to the best of my ability/

Jawaharlal did not share these misgivings. He was delighted
at the prospect of his father's entry into active politics. 'I am
sure/ he wrote (February 19, 1907), 'you will be as successful in
the new line as you have been in other fields. You have already
kept away from it far too long, but that, I hope, will add a new
zest to it/ He urged his father to agree to preside over the con-
ference. 'However you disagree with the details of the Congress
programme/ he argued, 'you cannot but agree with its general
aim . . . your (presidential) address is certain to be a brilliant
one; only I hope it will not be too moderate. Indians are as a rule
too much so, and require a little stirring up/ Tou may not agree
with the ways of the new Extremist party/ went on young
Nehru, 'but I do not think that you are such a slow and steady
sort of person as you make yourself out to be/ This was an extra-
ordinarily shrewd judgment of his father's political make-up; but
many years were to pass, and much was to happen to father and
son and to India, before the truth of this judgment was
vindicated.

MotilaTs presidential address received the qualified approval
of his son :

'You are still very Moderate, but I hardly expected you to
become an Extremist. I personally like to see the Government
blamed and censured as much as possible ... As regards John
Bull's good faith I have not so much confidence in him as you
have. . / 8

* Supra, pp. 59-61.

THE YOUNG NATIONALIST 87

On July 31, 1907, Jawaharlal left Harrow for Trinity College,
Cambridge. From the strait-jacket of a public school, the tran-
sition to the university could not but be exhilarating. Young
Nehru's nationalist ardour was immediately fanned by the freer
climate of the university, the intellectual stimulus of fresh read-
ing, discussions with fellow Indian students and, above all, by
the strong breeze of discontent from the Indian sub-continent

For India 1907 was a critical yean The tensions which had
been accumulating since Curzon's viceroyalty had reached burst-
ing point The Minto-Morley partnership had not been able to
assuage Indian feeling. Tou cannot enter at this date, and with
public opinion, mind you, watching you, upon an era of pure
repression/ Morley had publicly warned a gathering of British
members of the LC.S., 'Gentlemen, we have seen attempts in
the lifetime of some of us here tonight, attempts in Continental
Europe to govern by pure repression. Has any one of them
really succeeded?' 9 Privately, the Secretary of State exhorted the
Viceroy to curb the over-zealous bureaucracy and to keep the
political temperature low.

Morley was to discover, as other Secretaries of State discovered
before and after him, that India could not be governed from
London. Sir Bampfylde Fuller, the Lieutenant-Governor of the
newly-created province of East Bengal, had endeavoured to sup-
press sedition by banning public meetings, tightening espionage,
prosecuting schoolboys for preaching Swadeshi, and even by
playing upon the vested interests and the fanaticism of his
"favourite wife' -the Muslim community. It was, however, in
the Punjab that the political cauldron boiled over in the summer
of 1907. Early in May, the Government of India received a
minute 10 from Sir Denzil Ibbetson, the Lieutenant-Governor of
the Punjab, on the political situation in the province, which he
described 'as exceedingly serious and exceedingly dangerous'.
The prosecution of the editor of the Punjabi, a nationalist paper,
had stirred up feeling in Lahore; tension was mounting in Rawal-
pindi, Ambala, Ferozepore, Multan and other towns. The most
disconcerting feature of the unrest was that it had penetrated to

9 Morley, Viscount, Indian Speeches, p. 67.

10 Minute dated May 3, 1907. (N.A.I.).

88 THE NEHRUS

the countryside, strikes of minor revenue officials and cases of
withholding land revenue had been reported; carriages and other
conveniences had been denied to officers on tour; policemen were
being pilloried and adjured to quit the service of an alien Govern-
ment 'Everywhere people are sensible of a change, of a new air,
a nai hawa, which is blowing through men's minds/ wrote Sir
Denzil, 'the well-disposed classes stand aghast at our inaction
and wonder whether the gods, wishing to destroy us, have made
us mad. And their astonishment will, before long, inevitably
turn into contempt for a Government, which can (as they regard
the matter) so abrogate its functions, as to permit sedition to
flourish unrebuked, and for a ruling race who tamely submit
to open and organized insult. It is difficult to say what their
(agitators') precise object is, and probably a good many of them
hardly know themselves . . . Some of them no doubt, look to
driving us out of the country, at any rate from power, either by
force, or by the passive resistance of the people as a whole. But
the immediate object of all seems to be to make our government
of the country impossible; and probably the idea of the greater
number is that we shall, then, in order to escape from an impasse,
be compelled to give them a larger share of power and of appoint-
ments, and to introduce the changes which they desire/

Sir Denzil was convinced that the brain behind the agitation
was Lajpat Rai, a leader of the Arya Samaj, a religious body
which in his opinion had a strong political bias in the Punjab*
He did not favour the prosecution of Lajpat Rai nor of his chief
lieutenant Ajit Singh : if it succeeded it would make martyrs of
them; if it failed it would be a disastrous blunder. He demanded
their immediate deportation, and asked for special powers for
'strong executive action' to suppress political meetings and news-
papers.

Sir Denzil's minute was received in Simla on May 3, 1907.
Within ten days, Regulation III of 1818 had been resurrected
from the dusty state archives and applied to the 'dangerous
revolutionary Lajpat Rai', who was taken in a special train (by-
passing Calcutta) to Diamond Harbour, where the steamer Guide
was waiting to carry him to his ultimate destination - Mandalay
gaol in Burma*

'I was astounded to read the news from India/ Jawaharlal
wrote on May ijtL The same day Motilal included in his weekly

THE YOUNG NATIONALIST 89

letter from Allahabad a trenchant resume of the political situa-
tion in which neither the Government nor the Extremists were
spared* 'The whole position can be summed up in a very few
words* A set of moral cowards has been placed at the head of an
administration which is to govern a people who are both moral
and physical cowards* The latter kicked up a row in the hope of
impressing the former with their power and importance. The
former got frightened, and, not knowing exactly what to do,
laid their hands on the most prominent man in the Punjab
simply with the object of overawing the people* This has had
the desired effect . * * The arrest and deportation of Lajpat Rai,
unjustifiable and inexcusable as it is, has shown what stuff our
countrymen are made of* It is nothing but a storm in a tea-cup,
and it is all over now - only we are put back half a century* The
forces which were slowly and silently working for the good of
the country have received a sudden check/ He cautioned his son
not to be unduly alarmed by the news from India: It is in the
interest of both Government and the people to exaggerate. Each
has to justify its action * . /

Perhaps these strictures on the Extremists were made for the
benefit of his son, whose political consciousness was sharpening
fast. 'Do not go near the Majlis or the Native club or whatever
it is called/ Motilal warned Jawaharlal when he went up to
Cambridge* The warning was not heeded* 'I went the other day
to a meeting of the Majlis here/ came the answer, 'just to see if
they were as bad as they were painted. I failed to discover any-
thing reprehensible in it** And as for the 'Native Club', Jawa-
harlal reported that there was one in Cambridge, 'but it was for
eating natives'*

A few weeks earlier, Motilal had a twinge of anxiety on
reading in the newspapers that there had been disturbances in
Ireland where his son was holidaying. 'In your last letter/
Jawaharlal wrote from Dublin on September 12, 1907, 'you
asked me not to go near Belfast on account of the riots, but I
would have dearly liked to have been there for them* About a
fortnight ago, there was a chance of our having similar scenes
here, but to my mortification the whole thing ended in a fiasco*
The tramway employees were on the point of striking, and if
they had done so, there would have been a little fighting in the
streets of Dublin/

go THE NEHRUS

The visit to Ireland had put new ideas into the head of the
young nationalist 'Have you heard of the Sinn Fein in Ireland?/
he asked his father, 'it is a most interesting movement and re-
sembles very closely the so-called Extremist movement in India.
Their policy is not to beg for favours but to wrest them. They
do not want to fight England by arms, but "to ignore her, boy-
cott her, and quietly assume the administration of Irish affairs"
. . Among people, who ought to know, this movement is
causing . * * consternation. They say that if its policy is adopted
by the bulk of the country, English rule will be a thing of the
past/

The militant nationalism of his eighteen years old son did not
please his father who, in his forty-seventh year, was making a
cautious, almost tentative, entry into active politics on the side
of a party wedded to slow and ordered progress. As the tension
between the two wings of the Congress mounted, Motilal became,
along with Malaviya and Sunderlal, the target of the Extremist
press in his own province. He retaliated with a hard-hitting
article in the Pioneer and sent the extract to his son. Jawaharlal's
reactions were sharply critical : 'I had till now an idea that you
were not so very moderate as you would have me believe. The
article almost makes me think that you are 'immoderately
Moderate'. I would have said that the article had been written
by a person with strong loyalist tendencies if I had not known
you better . . / Having overshot his mark, Jawaharlal received
an immediate reproof. Tou know me and my views well enough/
Motilal wrote (January 10, 1908), 'to understand that I do not
approve of opinions expressed by you, but boys must be boys . * *
We are living in very critical times and events are crowding
so fast that the present situation cannot last very long * . * It
is unnecessary to enter into any discussion on this subject.
Within a year or two, there will be no doubt left in the mind
of anyone as to the correctness and otherwise of the attitude of
the various so-called political parties in India'.

Events had indeed already moved to a dramatic climax at
Surat, where the Indian National Congress met for its twenty-
third session in December, 1907* Motilal had been reluctant to
attend the session; he was not well and feared that the long train

THE YOUNG NATIONALIST 91

journey would aggravate his asthma. But his Moderate friends
in Allahabad were insistent and Gokhale telegraphed him to
come without fail.

It is hardly necessary to recapitulate the oft-told story of the
Surat Congress : the bitter controversies surrounding the choice
of the president and the place for the session; the manoeuvres
of the Moderates for the election of Dr Rash Behari Ghose; the
fears of the Extremists that they were being elbowed out of the
Congress and that the programme of Swadeshi and boycott
adopted by the Calcutta Congress was being jettisoned; the
abortive efforts at mediation behind the scenes; the ominous
adjournment of the session on the opening day; the stormy
scenes on the following day with Tilak on the platform; the
flying missile -the fateful shoe -which touched off the un-
seemly scuffle; the brandishing of sticks, the unrolling of turbans,
the broken chairs and the bruised heads; and finally the crown-
ing humiliation when the police arrived to dear the hall. Motilal
was one of the prominent Moderate delegates and had been
called upon to second the proposal for the election of Dr Rash
Behari Ghose as president just before the last tumultous scenes;
he returned from Surat with redoubled dislike of Extremist
policies and tactics* The reactions of his son (who had not yet
received the freezing dose his father had administered in the
letter dated January loth), were just the opposite*

Jawaharlal to Motilal, January 2, 1908: 'We expected lively
things at Surat and our expectations were more than fulfilled.
It is of course a great pity that such a split should have occurred.
But it was sure to come and the sooner we have it, the better.
You will most probably throw all the blame on Tilak and the
Extremists. They may have been to blame for it, but the
Moderates had certainly a lot to do with it. I do not at all object
to Rash Behari Ghose being president, but the manner in which
he was declared president in the face of opposition can hardly
be defended from any point of view. The Moderates may repre-
sent part of the country, but they seem to think, or at any rate
try to make others believe, that they are the "natural leaders
and representatives of the whole country. The manner in which
some of them try to ignore and belittle all those who differ from
them would be annoying, if it was not ridiculous/ 'I firmly be-
lieve/ Jawaharlal concluded, 'that there will hardly be any so-

92 THE NEHRUS

called Moderates left in a very few years' time* By the methods
they are following at present, they are simply hastening the
doom of their party/

Though he had only the reports in the British press and his
own Extremist sympathies to guide him, young Nehru's analysis
of the Surat fiasco was remarkably near the truth, and his fore-
cast of the future of the Moderate party was almost prophetic.
But if he expected his father to swallow these pronouncements,
he had made a serious miscalculation. There was a touch of
irony in MotilaFs reply (January 24th):

'I am favoured with your views as to the conduct of the
Moderates and Extremists at Surat in December last, and feel
flattered by the compliment you have paid to the Moderates,
knowing of course that your father is one/ 'I am sorry/ Jawa-
harlal wrote back, 'you don't approve of my opinions, but really
I can't help holding them in the present state of affairs . . . any-
how I have not the presumption of imagining that my opinions
are infallible/ After this half-hearted apology, he was tempted
into a thoughtless witticism : The Government must be feeling
very pleased with you at your attitude. I wonder if the insulting
offer of a Rat BahadursHip, or something equivalent, would make
you less of a Moderate than you are/

Motilal was furious, but he did not refer to this subject in his
weekly letters* From a number of sources, however, Jawaharlal
was left in no doubt of the mood of his father, who even talked
of fetching the young hothead home. It was not until April,
1908, that the storm blew over, when Jawaharlal begged to be
pardoned for an offence, which *I did not intend to commit', and
Motilal closed. the controversy with a confession:

1 do not of course approve of your politics and have on certain
occasions expressed myself very strongly, as you know, I can,
when I wish to. This is, however, neither here nor there. My
love for you knows no bounds, and unless there is some very
remarkable change in me, I do not see how it can be affected/

One wonders whether Motilal realized his own responsibility
for the political precocity of his son. His letters to Harrow

THE YOUNG NATIONALIST 93

covered the political scene almost as fully as the domestic* He
could, if he had wished, have avoided the subject altogether.
Perhaps he thought it was safer to allow the boy to let off steam
and to channel his interest along prudent lines* Jawaharlal, for
his part, had shrewdly discerned a deep vein of defiance in his
father beneath the placid surface of Moderate politics. Cautious
as he was in advocating political changes, Motilal exhibited a
prickly intolerance of bureaucratic or racial arrogance. 'Our
Chief Justice is developing a temper/ he wrote in one of his
letters. *I was surprised to see Sunderlal and Chaudhuri sub-
mitting to it Encouraged by their example, he tried to be nasty
to me. I paid him back in his own coin, and he is now milk and
honey with me/ And when the Prince of Wales laid the founda-
tion stone of the Medical College at Lucknow in December,
1905, Motilal was almost apologetic about his presence at the
ceremony: 'As I have subscribed Rs, 1,000, 1 am on the Central
Committee and as such have to be present. Otherwise there is
no charm for me in such gatherings/

The father's avowed displeasure did not moderate the son's
radicalism. As we shall see later, Jawaharlal's political conscious-
ness - academic as it was at this time - was further sharpened
on the intellectual grindstone of Cambridge. There are signs that
from 1908 onwards, Motilal himself began to drift from his
Moderate moorings. How far he was influenced by the views of
his son it is difficult to say, as his own pride and the compulsion
of events were also factors to be reckoned with.

This was the first political dash between father and son, but
already it is possible faintly to trace the pattern of the future.
Towards the ever-growing radicalism of his son, MotilaTs
attitude was successively to be one of indignation, opposition,
conflict, conversion and, finally, championship.

CHAPTER NINE
FATEFUL CHOICE

THE fears of Headmaster Wood proved groundless* Jawaharlal
was able to cope with the school routine at Harrow and also to
pass into Trinity College, Cambridge* Five days before his de-
parture from Harrow, he received his father's congratulations
and good wishes*

Motilal to Jawaharlal, July 26, 1907: I was delighted to hear
from your last letter that you had done so well at Part II of the
Previous. You have thus closed your career at school with every
success and credit that we could possibly expect* Need I tell you
how happy and proud I feel?

Tour admission to Trinity now being assured, you enter on
the second stage of your education which promises to be even
more successful than the first*. It was lucky that you could get
into Harrow, one of the premier schools of England, and it is
equally lucky that you could get admission into Trinity, a
college with a great name and a great history* It would be some-
thing for any man to speak about his connections with these
great institutions, but in your case it will be the institutions
who will own you with pride as one of their brightest jewels*
I am sure they will profit as much as you will by your con-
nection with them* Go on working, my dear boy, as you have
been - good, solid, steady work, interspersed with a fair amount
of recreation, amusement and exercise - and you will shine out
as one of the leading lights of your time * * .'

Though Motilal's optimism was racing rather ahead of events,
it was certainly backed by the boy's creditable record in Harrow*
But already, it was possible to detect signs of boredom, if not
fatigue, in Jawaharlal's approach to the scholastic tournament.

In November, 1906, he was writing:

1 think I can easily come out third, and perhaps second, in

FATEFUL CHOICE 95

the form but of coming out on top I have no hope * * * And even
if I come out on top, it would not do me much good. I would
get a prize and that would be the end of it . * /

Two weeks before the Trinity entrance examination he con-
fessed he had not started working for it :

'Even now there is time for me to get up the books if I go to
work seriously, but it is doubtful if I can manage to drag myself
from a good cricket match to work/

Academic laurels did not lure him* The love of reading which
his tutor F. T. Brooks had inculcated never left him, but he
would rather read two books than read a book twice* He had no
stomach for cramming. Nor did he know the fine art of the
examinee - the art of making a litde go far* Books could, how-
ever, make a strong impact on him. By a curious oversight on
the part of the school authorities, one of Trevelyan's books on
Garibaldi was given to young Nehru as a prize. He bought the
remaining two books in the series, and read the exciting story
of Italy's struggle for freedom and unity. Italy and India got
inextricably mixed up in his mind, and he dreamed of heroic
deeds to liberate India from the foreign yoke.

The public schools of England have traditionally been the
nurseries of her governing classes; they have supplied cabinet
ministers, commanders on land and sea, and proconsuls for the
British Empire. All the Viceroys of India from 1884 to 1947
went either to Harrow or Eton, with the exception of Chelms-
f ord and Wavell who went to Winchester, and of Mountbatten
who went to Osborne. It is true that the son of an Indian lawyer,
entering Harrow in the first decade of the twentieth century,
could not aspire to be a cabinet minister, a proconsul or a
general. Nevertheless, the fact remains that English public
schools produced or were designed to produce (in Patrick Geddes*
words) "a courage caste with its ambitions turned from gain or
learning towards an ideal of rule'* The qualities which went to
the making of the 'guardians' of the Empire were equally service-
able in hardening the fibre of the future rebel against the British
Raj. If the battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of
Eton, the battle of the British Empire was lost in the class-rooms
and playing fields of Harrow.

96 THE NEHRUS

Motilal wanted his son 'to be the most popular young fellow
and the most distinguished graduate of Cambridge', but it is
doubtful if these struck Jawaharlal as sufficiently exciting goals.
His reading was too catholic and desultory for the former; his
innate reserve and loneliness militated against the latter. He was,
however, in high good humour and glad to enjoy 'a good deal of
freedom, compared to the school', to do what he chose. With a
self-conscious air, he sauntered about the big courts and narrow
streets of Cambridge, delighted when he met someone he knew*
He discussed literature, history, politics and economics and
became sensitive to new intellectual stimuli. 'I have just come
back/ he wrote to his father late on the evening of October 24,
1907, 'from a lecture on "Socialism and the University Man"
which lasted quite two hours . . . The lecturer was George
Bernard Shaw, about whom you must have heard a good deal.
I was more interested in the man than in the subject of the
lecture, and that was the reason of my going there. George
Bernard Shaw is a very able speaker and he gave a very interest-
ing lecture/

Cambridge gave a keener edge to JawaharlaTs political think-
ing. Unlike Harrow, it had a number of Indian students with
whom he could share his boyish hopes and fears for the future
of his country. The Majlis was a useful forum for Indian
students, not only for playing at parliamentary technique, but
also for earnest discussion of political issues. Though he could
not screw up his courage to speak at these gatherings, Jawa-
harlal was an interested listener, particularly when an eminent
Indian leader addressed them, In November, 1908, Lajpat Rai
visited Cambridge and spoke at the Majlis. 'Lajpat Rai read a
most interesting paper/ he wrote to his father, 'he didn't at all
like the idea of Indians going into the CS. (Civil Service) or the
Bar. He told me that as I had taken science, I might go in for
manufacturing various things/ B. C. Pal, who came a few days
later, created a less favourable impression. For one thing, he
thundered in a Cambridge sitting-room before an audience of
ten students as if he were addressing a crowd of ten thousand
in Calcutta. For another, young Nehru detected traces of Hindu
revivalism and narrowness in Pal, who 'did not take the Muslims

FATEFUL CHOICE 97

into account. Once or twice he referred to them, but he was not
very complimentary'.

Despite Motilal's disapproval of his son's radicalism in 1908,
JawaharlaTs letters from Cambridge continued to breathe the
same nationalist fervour; if anything, they revealed a deeper
distrust of British intentions and a greater cynicism about British
professions. 'The Saturday Review,' he wrote to his father
(June 4, 1908), 'by the way, made a very wise remark a few
weeks ago. It said that Indians were bound to have self-govern-
ment but - and herein lies the difficulty - not before a few aeons
of geological time! This may mean anything between a few
million years and a wholly incomprehensible period. The chief
difficulty was the want of education and some million genera-
tions will be required to educate them [Indians] up to the
Colonial standard.' When the Minto-Morley reforms were an-
nounced in December, 1908, Jawaharlal's only comment to his
father was : 'Do you not think he [Morley j has got a strange
sense of humour?' Morley became the bete noire first of the son,
and then of the father, an irritating image of British bad faith
towards nationalist India.

Jawaharlal to Motilal, November 19, 1908: * I am told that

Morley has shown him [Gokhale] a draft of the reform pro-
posals and asked him to criticise them. He has been busy doing
this for the last month. He thinks that they are fairly liberal.
This evidently is not the opinion of the Government of India,
who think that they are far and away too liberal. Great pressure
is being brought to bear on Lord Morley, and Gokhale seems to
think that he may yet succumb to Anglo-India and drop the
more drastic proposals.'

December 3, 1908: *. . . I was much amused to learn that the
C.I.D. had interested themselves in such an unimportant person
as I am. If this was due to a letter being opened, I am very
curious to know who wrote that letter . . .'

March 12, 1909: '. . . Morley is coming up to Cambridge today,
presumably to confer with the dons on the Indian question.
There was a meeting here a few days ago of Masters of colleges
and others to discuss the same question. Various resolutions
were passed which, I am told, were to the effect that no other

98 THE NEHRUS

college should take in an Indian who had been forcibly made to
leave his college. The Master of Downing was the only person
who objected to this* He told them plainly that if an Indian was
expelled through spite and without sufficient reason from the
college, he would take him.

'Morley was asked to come to the Indian Majlis dinner here
which takes place tonight. His answer, of course, was that he
was too busy * . /

It would almost seem as if Jawaharlal, young though he was,
was holding a watching brief for his country in England. After
hearing Haldane, the British Secretary of State for War, on the
new Officers' Training Corps, Jawaharlal wrote home:

'If I were an Englishman, I should certainly take advantage of
it [The Officers' Training Corps]. At the end of his speech
[Haldane] was asked a number of questions, among them being
one concerning Indians. The question was whether Indians could
join the Officers' Training Corps and, at the end of their 'Varsity
life, go out to India as officers. His answer to this was rather
evasive. He said that it was an excellent idea . . . but, as the
Indian army was quite separate from the English army, he could
not say anything definite about it. The Corps here, as you know,
does not take Indians in/

At a ceremonial function held at Cambridge to award
honorary degrees to a number of distinguished persons, including
the Aga Khan and the Maharaja of Bikaner, young Nehru's
sharp eyes noted that the Vice-Chancellor did not deign to get
up from his chair when giving the degrees to the Indians,
although he had stood up for eveiyone else.

The General Election of 1905 had roused Jawaharlal's curiosity
during his first term at Harrow; that of 1910 excited him. 'The
party moves are most interesting to watch for an outsider. The
betting was, I think, 5 to i in favour of the Liberals a few days
ago. Since Mr. Balfour's declaration about the Referendum it
has practically become level. The first results will be announced
tomorrow evening, and I hope to be in Fleet Street or near at
the time/

Indian politics continued to bulk large in the letters exchanged
between Allahabad and Cambridge. Motilal now seemed less

FATEFUL CHOICE 99

ruffled by Jawaharlal's unabashed extremism, partly because he
had got used to it, and partly because his own faith in the British
Government and in the Moderate leadership in India was
weakening under the impact of events.

Motilal to Jawaharlal, November 6, 1908: 'Renter says that the
English papers are all full of the highest appreciation of the
King's (or rather Morley's) Proclamation. The whole Indian and
Anglo-Indian Press, however, has condemned it as a weak and
spiritless document, ill-conceived and badly expressed . * . The
wonder is that it has not even literary merit to recommend itself.
The Statesman has brought out dearly all the lies it conceals
under verbosity. Fancy "equal treatment of Indian and other
subjects", after what is going on in South Africa and India itself.
It is almost certain that Morley's reforms will be as disappointing
as his Proclamation has been . . /

January 3, 1909 : '. . . I was not at all satisfied with the pro-
ceedings of the Congress of which I made a special study in order
to decide upon my own attitude towards it in future. I must
say that I am not very much in sympathy with the modus
operandi of my friends of the Congress

'Pandit Sunderlal has been made a C.I.E. This was La ToucheV
parting present to him for his weak submission to the powers
that be/

The political gulf between father and son was beginning to
narrow, but it would be wrong to infer that their attitude to-
wards England or individual Englishmen was in any way
coloured by political developments. 'The mail boat which will
carry this letter/ Motilal told his son (April 22, 1909), 'will also
carry Mr Aikman, his wife and daughter. He was a good judge
and a perfect gentleman and we gave him a splendid send-off/
And Jawaharlal confessed to a feeling, 'akin to that of home-
coming', when in October, 1908, he returned to England after a
brief vacation in India. The familiar sights and sounds had quite
an exhilarating effect on me/ he wrote, 'and what a strange
home-coming it was, with no one to welcome us after our long
voyage. For everyone else there was a friend or relation to bid
him welcome, and I stood there with a heavy heart thinking that

1 Sr J. J. D. La louche, lieutenant-Governor of the ILR

100 THE NEHRUS

that was not for such as us. It is strange that in spite of the
homelike feeling, I am constantly reminded of the fact that I am
a foreigner, an intruder here/

In the autumn of 1906 Jawaharlal spent a few weeks with his
parents at Mussoorie, Professional and domestic preoccupations
made it impossible for Motilal to leave India in 1907 and 1908,
but in the summer of 1909 he took a few months off for a holi-
day in Europe. Father and son saw Count Zeppelin arrive in his
new airship amid thunderous cheers from millions of Berliners.
Two months later, they were in Paris, when the Comte de
Lambert flew over the city and circled round the Eiffel Tower*
Two years later, in September, 1911, Jawaharlal had the thrill
of writing home on an 'aerial postcard' issued to commemorate
the coronation of King George V. The success of the venture
was by no means a foregone conclusion. 'The experiment has not
met with very great success so far/ Jawaharlal informed his
father, 'two aviators have maimed themselves and are lying in
hospital/

Though optimistic by temperament, Motilal found it hard not
to worry about his son. On reading in the papers of 'a spate of
accidents in England and the continent', he wrote:

'[The news] makes me shudder to think of you travelling
about. Your mother would kill herself if I were to tell her these
things. As it is, she remains in blissful ignorance while the
anxiety is all my own. But I am strong enough for it, while she
is not/

While at Cambridge Jawaharlal expressed a wish to buy a
motor-car. Motilal turned down the suggestion, not because of
the expense involved, but because he feared motoring would
distract the boy from his studies and keep his parents in 'per-
petual dread of accidents'.

The parental fears were not altogether groundless. In the
summer of 1910 Jawaharlal had the narrowest of escapes in the
course of a holiday cruise to Norway. One day the party left the
boat for an overland excursion; Jawaharlal and an Englishman,
more energetic than the rest, were the first to reach a small hotel

FATEFUL CHOICE 1O1

where the party was to spend the night Feeling tired and hot
after the stiff climb - the hotel was nearly five thousand feet
above the sea level - they expressed a wish for a bath* Somewhat
bewildered by this unusual request, the hotel staff directed them
to a river near by - a shallow but wild mountain torrent fed by
a glacier. As they plunged in the ice-cold water their limbs were
nearly numbed; but worse was to follow, JawaharlaTs foot
slipped, he lost control and began helplessly to drift with the
current. Fortunately, his English companion managed to get out
on to the bank, run along it, catch hold of his legs and pull him
out. The exciting part of it/ Jawaharlal informed his father, 'lies
in the fact that there was a mighty waterfall of about 400 ft
quite near/ To Motilal there was nothing 'exciting* in the in-
cident : it is difficult to say whether he was more indignant at
his son's recklessness or relieved at his miraculous escape. Jawa-
harlal was unrepentant; though the accident had hot been of his
seeking, he was highly pleased with the 'adventure and would
not have missed it for a lot'. He protested that he was fit as a
fiddle:

'At one time over fifty of our fellow passengers were unwell
owing to the rough sea. I need hardly say that I was not one of
these unhappy people. You need never have any anxiety about
my health. I am one of the most violently healthy persons I have
come across/

Jawaharlal's three years at Cambridge were 'three quiet years
with little of disturbance in them, moving slowly like the
sluggish Cam. They were pleasant years, with many friends and
some work and some play and a gradual widening of the intel-
lectual horizon'. 2 His interest in science, stimulated by his tutor,
F. T. Brooks, and encouraged by his father, led him to the
Natural Sciences Tripos. He took chemistry, geology and physics;
after nearly a year and a half he substituted botany for physics.
His letters do not betray any feverish resolve to dimb to the top
of the academic tree.

He noted the probability of the grandson of Charles Darwin,
who was at Trinity College at the time, being the last of the
Senior Wranglers, but discounted his father's forecast that he
(Jawaharlal) would also reach 'these Olympian heights'. 'You

2 Nehru, J. L., Toward Freedom, p. 33.

102 THE NEHRUS

are apt to underrate yourself/ complained MotilaL 'I mentionec
the scholarship and the prize to put some stimulus in you and tc
show that I thought more of you than you do/

Untroubled by ambition, unruffled by competition, and tin-
inhibited by religion, Jawaharlal had enough time -and money
- to enjoy life at Cambridge. The aesthetic side of life appealed
to him and "the idea of going through life worthily, not in-
dulging it in the vulgar way, but still making the most of it and
living a full and many-sided life'/ The days were taken up with
work and play, the long winter evenings whiled away in inter-
minable discussions with his friends on life, literature, politics,
ethics, sex and people, until, long after midnight, the dying fires
sent them shivering to their beds*

These were the years before the Great War, when Europe was
at the zenith of its prestige and power* Science was on the march,
and unlike the science of the mid-twentieth century, it was con-
fident, almost cocksure within the mechanical universe of forces,
pressures, oscillations and waves all explicable in terms of their
laws'* The practical applications of science - electric light and
heat, telegraph and telephone, bicycle and cinema, motor-car and
aeroplane - were rapidly transforming European society. A new
and more hopeful era seemed to be dawning for the common
man* Standards of public health were rising; preventive medicine
was prolonging life; penal codes were being humanized; the
penny newspapers, the public libraries, light opera and the music-
halls were bringing recreation within the reach of the masses*
But for the stray douds which occasionally hung over its chan-
celleries, the future of Europe seemed wholly bright, and
nowhere brighter than in Great Britain. The soundness of her
economic structure, the stability of her Empire and the proven
wisdom of her ancient institutions seemed axiomatic*

To Campbell-Bannerman, the Liberal Prime Minister, whose
term coincided with JawaharlaTs time at Harrow, there were no
evils, 'except, of course, natural evils that cannot be remedied by
freedom, self-government and English institutions'/ Yet even on
the placid stream of British life there were ripples caused by
Fabian-Socialists, English suffragettes and Irish nationalists*
Strikes were becoming disconcertingly frequent; they accounted
for the annual loss of no less than eleven million working days

8 Nehru, J. L., ibid., pp. 33-34.

4 Brogaa, D. W., The Price oj Revolution, p. 64.

FATEFUL CHOICE 103

during the years 1906-14. The Victorian doctrine of laissez-faire
was going by the board; statutory provision was being made for
insurance against sickness, accidents and (to some extent) against
unemployment, for old age pensions, minimum wages in
'sweated' industries, regulation of housing and town-planning.
Symbolic of the new forces which were to shape the future of
Europe and the world were the advent of a Labour Government
in Australia, the growing strength of the socialist and syndicalist
movements on the continent of Europe and the struggle between
the Tsarist autocracy and its enemies in Russia*

What could be more bracing for a precocious young Indian at
Cambridge than this climate of scientific and economic progress,
social flux and nationalist discontent? We must remember, how-
ever, that it was not uncommon for Indian students in England
to go through a passing phase of intellectual and political fer-
ment. When they returned home to coveted posts in the Indian
Civil Service or joined in the frantic race for professional success,
the fireside arguments at Cambridge or Oxford became no more
than dim memories of exuberant youth* This was the experience
of the majority of JawaharlaTs contemporaries; it could have
been his as well*

'It is curious/ Jawaharlal writes in his autobiography, 'that
in spite of my growing extremism in politics, I did not then view
with any strong disfavour the idea of joining the LC.S/ The
choice was not half as obvious in 1908-9 as it appeared a quarter
of a century later* Satyendranath Tagore was the first Indian to
win his way into the Indian Civil Service in 1863, ten years after
entry had been thrown open to a competitive examination* In
1869 four Indians passed in-R* C. Dutt, S. N. Banerjea, B. L*
Gupta and S* B* Thakur. On their return to India they were
feted and lionized; at Howrah railway station the great Keshub
Chander Sen welcomed them in person* Europeans, officials and
non-officials, whose minds had been baked by the Indian sun,
looked askance at these intruders into the higher levels of
administration* S* N. Banerjea indeed soon became a victim of
race prejudice: he was dismissed from the service for an offence

104 THE NEHRUS

for which a young English officer would have received no more
than a 'friendly reproof. 5

The fact that the entry of these Indians into the LC.S. was
the first dent in the armour of the British Raj was dearly recog-
nized at the time by both sides* In 1877-8, the reduction of the
age-limit for the LCS. (which handicapped Indian entrants) led
to a country-wide agitation in which Banerjea took a prominent
part This agitation heightened the national self-consciousness of
the intelligentsia, and helped to crystallize forces which brought
into being the Indian National Congress in December, 1885.
When R. C Dutt was appointed Magistrate of Balasore district
in 1882, the Pioneer 6 of Allahabad lamented:

believe this is the first occasion on which a native of
India has held executive charge of a district . . * The adminis-
tration of districts means the government of the country * . .
People have pleaded for employment of natives . * . but the
wannest partisans of the movement have generally conceded
that it would be premature to put natives in charge of
districts . . /

It was an Indian colleague of R. C. Dutt - Bihari Lai Gupta -
who raised the question of jurisdiction of Indian judges over
Europeans, which touched off the famous Ilbert Bill agitation,

In March, 1907, Motilal publicly described the LCS. as "the
greatest of the services in the world which has produced some
of the most distinguished builders of the British Empire'. A few
months later he made his son leave Harrow early to go up to
Cambridge so that he might have enough time left after taking
his degree to prepare for the LCS. examination. As the tempo
of nationalist discontent rose in India during the next two years,
Motilal began to suspect that the Civil Service Commissioners
were biased against Indian candidates. He voiced this suspicion
in a letter to his brother Bansi Dhar when the latter's son
Shridhar Nehru failed in his first attempt at the I.C.S. in 1910.
There is no doubt, however, that the final decision against Jawa-
harlal joining the LCS. was based not on the merits of the
service but on sentimental grounds,

If Jawaharlal joined the LC.S., his return to India would be

5 Woodruff, Philip, The Guardians, p. 170,
1 Pioneer, October 20, 1882,

FATEFUL CHOICE 105

delayed by at least two years, and if he became a district officer,
he could be posted anywhere in India. These were chilling pros-
pects for his parents, to whom the idea of being parted from
their only son for the rest of their lives was intolerable- It was
therefore finally decided that Jawaharlal should follow in his
father's footsteps, become a barrister and practise at Allahabad*
Looking back we can see how effectively the LGS. absorbed
the energy of India's talented young men. One has only to think
of the damage done to the Empire by those who left the Service
or who just failed to get in - Surendranath Banerjea, Aurobindo
Ghose, Subhas Chandra Bose. It is tempting to conjecture what
might have happened if fawaharlal had slid into the comfortable
anonymity of a civil servant With his tremendous capacity for
work, his iron constitution and his love of outdoor life, he would
doubtless have made an excellent officer in the field; his atten-
tion to detail and fluency of expression would have made it
equally easy for him to make a mark in the secretariat His
literary ability might have found expression in a handy manual
on the land Revenue Problems of Mirzapur District', in a
standard work on the 'Hora of Kumaon Hills', in revised
gazetteers of the districts in which he served, or even in a
fascinating travel book entitled Trekking in the Kulu Valley'.
And provided he had not ruined his chances by being too out-
spoken to a choleric superior, he might have risen to the dizzy
heights of the Board of Revenue or the Bench of a High Court,
and retired with a CXR to Anand Bhawan, to grow the finest
roses and browse on the largest private library in northern India*
Not only his own life, but that of his father, mother, wife,
daughter and sisters would then have run in less turbulent,
albeit obscurer, channels, and the history of India, Asia, Africa
-and indeed, the whole world - might have been changed for
good or ill. All this was not to be, because he was the only son.

CHAPTER TEN
POLITICS CALLING

'I AM sure/ Jawaharlal had written in January, 1907, when
Motilal was wondering whether he should agree to preside over
the U*P* Provincial Conference, 'you will be as successful in the
new line as you have been in other fields/ During the next three
years, Motilal was drawn willy nilly into the vortex of public
life* Admiration for Gokhale and old associations with his col-
leagues in the legal profession and in the Congress had led him
into the Moderate camp* But though political moderation
seemed to him to be founded on the hard realities of the Indian
situation, the second thoughts, the half-measures and the com-
promises of the Moderate party ran counter to a strong vein of
pride in his character - pride in his noble ancestry, pride in his
country, pride in his own powers - and later, pride in his son.
Submission, whether to priestly pretensions or to bureaucratic
arrogance, went against the grain. The champions of orthodoxy
received no quarter from Motilal when he presided in April,
1909, over the third United Provinces Social Conference at Agra.
His presidential speech, delivered extempore, was remarkably
eloquent and forthright, 'As I stand before you in this beautiful
and historic city of yours/ he began, 'abounding in magnificent
monuments of a glorious past, I feel more like an object of pity
than of envy. For was it not here that the greatest of the Moghal
Emperors engaged himself in -nightly debates in Council and
silent meditations in the loneliness of early dawn on the prob-
lems we have met to discuss?' Three hundred years had rolled
by since the reign of Akbar, but the problems which he was
supposed to tackle and solve remained as intractable as ever* A
century of Pax Britannica had not destroyed 'the canker-worm
of caste' which was eating into the vitals of India's social struc-
ture; her womanhood was groaning under the combined weight
of forced seclusion, illiteracy, and early marriage* These evils
continued to thrive, all the eloquent speeches and learned
treatises on social reform notwithstanding. Quoting Ranade, the

POLITICS CALLING 107

great judge and reformer who had once described the Social Con-
ference as 'an humble sister* of the National Congress, Motilal
affirmed:

'Social reform in my opinion, is the much despised parent of
political reform and not merely its humble sisten It is impossible
for any community of men, however large and influential it may
be, to obtain political emancipation before it has attained that
height of political elevation which compels the respect of the
best-ordered, highly civilized and self-respecting communities of
the time. Our great ambition is to build a united Indian Nation.
Can we expect to achieve that ambition by obtaining political
concessions alone? There is no process of legislation or diplomacy
by which these millions with all their diversities of caste and
creed could be fused into a harmonious whole . * * Now let us
assume the converse case . * . Imagine for a moment that there
was no caste system in India, that Hindus and Musahnans, and
the numerous sub-divisions of these two great communities sank
their differences and met together as children of a common
mother; that the ladies of India instead of being shut behind the
prison walls of the zenana were properly educated; that there
were no longer in the population of India the children of prema-
ture mothers and under-developed fathers. Suppose we reached
such a social, moral and physical perfection, could any power on
earth keep us from obtaining the fullest political privileges
enjoyed by the most advanced nations of the world?'

He then attacked the two villains of the piece :

'Let us, therefore, begin at once, and in all earnestness, to re-
move the two ugliest blots on our social system -caste and
purdah. These are the two evils which have dragged us down
the social scale and made us the laughing-stock of modern
civilization/

The conference had to put up with more plain speaking from
its President than it may have bargained for, 'I beseech you/ he
said, 'not merely to confine yourself to passing resolutions * . , it
is high time that we ceased to be a mere post office and did
something practical/ He declared that he himself was an Indian
first and a Brahmin afterwards and would not follow any custom

108 THE NEHRUS

or usage of the Brahmins, however sanctified by age or authority,
if it came in the way of his duties as a true Indian. He was con-
vinced that the days of orthodoxy were numbered, and recalled
'the tea-pot storms' raised twenty years earlier over foreign
travel, which had not prevented 'the more daring souls amongst
us to go or send their sons to foreign countries'*

Such candour was unusual at social conferences. The Indian
Social Reformer described Motilal's speech as Vigorous'; the
Indian Mirror called it 'outspoken* and the Wednesday Review
praised its 'manly tone'. Jawaharlal was delighted when he read
the'extracts his father had sent him :

'It was quite characteristic of you, and I could have guessed as
much as I have often heard you talking in the same strain. But
I was rather afraid that you might respect the feelings of the
more conservative people and not be so explicit. Not that you
generally do so, but the draft resolutions led me to think that it
would be a tame affair/

Among those who wrote to Motilal complimenting him on
his excellent speech was Sir J. P. Hewett, the Lieutenant-
Governor of the United Provinces. If His Honour derived a secret
satisfaction from MotilaTs emphasis on social vis-a-vis political
reform, he was soon to discover that the enemy of social
obscurantism was no friend of political status quo.

Like other leaders of the Moderate party, Motilal had set much
store by Secretary of State Morley's desire and ability to in-
augurate a new chapter in Indo-British relations. He had tele-
graphed his congratulations to Morley on the appointment of an
Indian -Sir S. P. Sinha-to the Viceroy's Executive Council in
the teeth of opposition from influential quarters in India and
England. The Secretary of State's stock with the Nehrus was
soon to slump. During the spring and summer of 1909 while the
reforms were on the anvil in England, the excitement in Allaha-
bad was intense. 'We simply live for half the day in expectation
of the Pioneer,' Motilal wrote, 'and spend the other half in dis-
cussing the news which it brings/ However, the publication of
the reform proposals was something of an anti-climax. The image

POLITICS CALLING 109

of Morley as a friend of India fell from its high pedestal and
broke in pieces.

Motilal to Jawaharlal, August 30, 1909 : 'Morley's long-promised
reforms have at last been published. They are . . . just the
opposite of reforms* His advisory Council of Noodles (I beg your
pardon . . . I mean Notables) will be a huge farce, and the en-
larged Legislative Council will be no more than a collection of
Ji Hazoors (yes-men) where the opinion of the Chairman (who
is always the Collector of the district) is dittoed by every member.
The avowed object of the so-called reforms is to destroy the in-
fluence of the educated classes, but the law of the survival of the
fittest is too strong even for Morley/

It was not only the slow and halting measure of constitutional
proposals which had shaken MotilaPs robust faith in the sin-
cerity of John Bull* He was disgusted at the way some of the
British officials and their proteges were playing up the differences
between Hindus and Muslims : democracy was being made to
wither at the roots before it had even sprouted.

Motilal to Jawafwtrlal, March 25, 1909 : *An open rupture be-
tween the leaders of the two communities is imminent. Nothing
short of a miracle can save it. I do not attach much importance
to the differences of opinion among the leaders as there has never
been much love lost between the two. The masses of both com-
munities have, however, always been good friends and neigh-
bours, and what I dread is the day when the tension of feeling
filters down to the lower classes. Nation-building will then be a
thing of the past . . . Our Anglo-Indian friends have distinctly
scored in this matter and no amount of Council reforms will
repair the mischief/

Motilal to Jawahariai, April 29, 1909: The Hindu-Muham-
madan question is the talk of the day. They [Muslims] have in-
sulted us so often and so grossly that we are seriously thinking of
breaking off with them . . . Amir Ali and others are being put
up not by the fifty-three millions of Indian Muslims, but by a
few Anglo-Indians who see their only chance in setting Hindus
against Muslims. The Hindus were actuated by the best feelings
for what they are now being discredited everywhere/

110 THE NEHRUS

In spite of his avowed disappointment with the reforms,
Motilal contested a seat in the enlarged provincial council under
the 'reformed' constitution and was elected. Endowed with
limited and wholly advisory functions, packed with British
officials and titled Indian gentry, presided over by the Lieutenant-
Governor, the council was an obsequious body. Friendly re-
lations with many of those who sat on the Government benches
did not prevent Motilal from assuming from the first the role of
a fearless critic of the official policies. He was sworn in on
February 7, 1910. On the same day he asked his first question:
'Will the Government be pleased to state whether it contem-
plates to confer upon graduates of the Allahabad University the
right of electing Fellows to the University?' On the following
days he asked more questions : 'What were the qualifications of
the prosecuting inspectors attached to the courts of the magis-
trates? How many police reporters sent to political gatherings
knew shorthand?' He was often on his feet during question
time goading the executive, but it was not until April 25th that
he delivered his maiden speech* He criticized the financial
arrangements with the Government of India* 'Provincial Govern-
ments in matters of finance have been likened by some to shorn
sheep left out in the cold, and by others to fat sheep, who having
eaten too much, have rolled on their backs and are unable to
stand on their legs. But whether as a class they are the one or
the other, there is no doubt that this province is treated as the
black sheep of the flock under the Government of India.'

He criticized the small allocations for sanitation and educa-
tion: There is so much wanted and so little done in these
directions/ He felt that the United Provinces were 'over-policed' :
'We spend more on the police than any other province except
Burma, though ours is the most well-behaved of all provinces in
India/ 1

Motilal to Jawaharlal, April 29, 1910 : 'I had the first experience
of the Provincial Budget debate at the last meeting of the
Council. It was quite a farce and could hardly be described a
debate. The Lieutenant-Governor began by calling upon non-
official members one after the other to address the Council. Each
member rose at a sign from the Governor and, with a few ex-
ceptions, complimented him for his successful rule. The Moham-
1 U.P. Council Debates, 1910, pp. 165-69.

POLITICS CALLING 111

madens in a body adopted this attitude. I was the first to be
called upon to speak; the idea being, as I afterwards learnt, that
the Governor expected I would be nasty, and he wanted to give
the officials as much time as was possible to prepare their reply*
I only made a few general observations. They were not com-
plimentary to Government: I admit there was nothing so dread-
ful in them to excite the anger of the "Gods". Malaviya and
Ganga Prasad Varma followed on the same lines. They in their
turn were followed by the loyalists. This is what happened on
the first day.

The next day, having a whole night to prepare themselves,
the officials got up one after another, and Malaviya, Ganga
Prasad and myself, came in for a lot of abuse from each of them.
We had no right of reply and the important debate was wound
up by the Governor who patted (on the back) the khushamdis
(sycophants) and the officials/

Politics have a seductive logic of their own; one thing leads to
another. Since March, 1907, when he had made his reluctant
debut in the Allahabad Conference, Motilal had been drawn into
militant advocacy of social reform, into active political agitation
and finally into the arena of the provincial legislature itself.
From politics to journalism was a short, almost an inevitable
step. The urban intelligentsia which formed Indian public
opinion at the time could be reached only by the English press,
but the only English daily newspaper in the province was the
Pioneer -the spokesman of official and non-official European
interests. Indian ventures into English journalism had met with
little success in the United Provinces. The Advocate of Lucknow
and the Indian Opinion of Allahabad were weekly papers. The
launching of the Leader in October, 1909, was therefore an im-
portant event. The first editor was Madan Mohan Malaviya, who
was assisted by Nagendra Nath Gupta and C Y. Chintamani.
Gupta's weekly paper, Indian Opinion, (which Jawaharlal had
been reading at Harrow) was merged in the Leader. Motilal was
the first Chairman of the Board of Directors and in this capacity
had his first experience of the pleasures and pains of newspaper
proprietorship, of which he was to have more than his share ten
years later.

Motilal to Jcrwaharlal, June 3, 1910: 'A great difficulty arose in

112 THE NEHRUS

connection with the Leader. One of the editors (Chintamani)
took seriously ill * . * Tej Bahadur (Sapru) and Ishwar Saran,
Shamji Mushran and other young fellows were commandeered
and it was with the utmost difficulty that the paper could be
issued every morning* As Chintamani had worked very hard
indeed, the Directors * . . increased his salary by Rs. 50 last
month * * * Mr Gupta, the other editor, seeing that preference
was shown to Chintamani over him, got very angry and yester-
day morning handed in his resignation. Till about eight last
night there was no leading article for this morning's issue * * *
Gupta never worked beyond the usual office hours, while Chinta-
mani besides his own work did duty for a night editor as well,
and often went on without any sleep at night . . /

From the humble position of a struggling journalist, Chinta-
mani was within a decade to establish himself as one of the
eminent editors in the land, sparing neither the Government nor
the Congress* The Leader soon became a thorn in the side of a
bureaucracy which was unaccustomed to criticism* Apropos of
an article by Bishan Narayan Dhar, the paper was warned and
threatened with prosecution* Motilal and his friends did not take
the threat lying down* They consulted two eminent lawyers in
England -Sir Edward Carson and Sir Horace Avery-who
certified the article as innocent of sedition* 2 This opinion was dis-
creetly conveyed to the authorities* No more was heard of the
threatened prosecution* Throughout the crisis Motilal had stood
like a rock* 'So long as a single brick is left on top of another in
my house/ he told St Nihal Singh an Indian journalist, 'I will
defend the right of the Leader to fight in the cause of freedom*'

St Nihal Singh, who had just returned from a visit to the
United States via Britain and spent ten days in Anand Bhawan
in 1910, has left a graphic pen-picture of his host:

'A tall slender man * * * A head crowned with coal-black locks,
carefully cut and pomaded, surmounted an erect, lithe figure*
His forehead was broad and lofty* Time had lightly pencilled a
few lines across it* From under arched brows shone two dark
eyes aglow with some fire hidden away back in his brain* The
expression changed constantly* Now mirth entered them, and
they fairly danced with the joy of life. Again, seriousness crept

3 Natarajan, J., History of Indian Journalism, p, 141.

POLITICS CALLING 113

into them, or, they would become suddenly ablaze with righteous
indignation. The nose was perfectly modelled. It nevertheless
conveyed a suggestion of strength. The lips were thin. A slight
curve betokened that they could utter sharp remarks. They
were, however, more often parted in a good-natured repartee.
The chin was in harmony with the almost Grecian purity of the
other features, but gave an impression of combativeness/

St Nihal Singh found MotilaTs hospitality overwhelming :

'The meals were good enough to be placed before royalty.
Wine flowed liberally - wine of many kinds. With the dessert
were brought boxes of cigars and cigarettes and liqueurs. A fair-
sized bar could have been opened with the decanters placed in
front of us ... The intellectual feasts served in the evening and
on holidays were stimulating . . /

3

The twenty-sixth session of the Indian National Congress was
held at Allahabad during Christinas week, 1910. Motilal was
one of the prominent citizens who had invited the Congress to
meet at Allahabad, and Vice-Chainnan of the Reception
Committee. The president of the session was Sir William Wedder-
burn, a former Civilian, an associate of Hume, a confidant of
Gokhale and an ardent champion of Indian aspirations in and
outside the British Parliament. Motilal did not find the proceed-
ings of the Congress very inspiring. The timorous politics of
some of his Moderate colleagues, no less than the irrational con-
servatism of others, had begun to jar upon him. One of his
guests, Mrs Sarla Chaudhrani, who played a notable part in
the politics of the Punjab ten years later, had at his instance set
a few Vedic verses to music and trained a group of little children,
including his elder daughter Sarap, for a performance on the
opening day. After the children had practised for a week, Pandit
Madan Mohan Malaviya forbade the recitation on the ground
that to chant the Vedic mantras (verses) in the hearing of non-
Hindus was a sacrilege. 1 am so disgusted/ Motilal wrote to his
son, 'that I would have chucked the Congress ... As it is, I take
a lukewarm interest in it/

A notable feature of the Allahabad Congress was the initiative

114 THE NEHRUS

taken by its president, Sir William Wedderburn, in convening a
Hindu-Muslim conference, probably the first of a series of con-
ferences on unity, which during the next thirty years produced
a harmony of phrases rather than of minds and hearts. It was
also at this Congress that a number of Hindu leaders conceived
the Hindu Mahasabha, as a communal counter-blast to the All
India Muslim League. To Motilal, whose good-humoured agnos-
ticism set him above the storms of religious passion, 3 the emerg-
ence of the new organization was a bad omen.

Motilal to Jawaharlal, January 6, 1911 : They [in the Hindu-
Muslim Conference] called each other brothers, "cousins". A
Committee of 8 Hindus and 8 Mohammedans with Gokhale
as the ijth Member, was nominated by the Aga Khan. It is
certain that this committee will never meet or come to no con-
clusions whatsoever.

'Another new feature of the Congress has been that it has
given birth to an All India Hindu Mahasabha, which in my
opinion will not only minimize the chance of the Hindu-Muslim
Committee doing any good, but sap the foundation of the Con-
gress itself. I opposed the formation of this Sabha, brought round
Surendranath Banerjea and Bhupendra Basu, but the great
majority of the so-called leaders of upper India, specially those
of the Punjab, had worked themselves to a high pitch and could
not be made to listen to reason * . .'

The fires of Muslim communalism were to be stoked for the
next thirty years by British reactionaries on the one hand and
Hindu partisans on the other.

In one of its resolutions, the Allahabad Congress offered its
'humble homage' and expressed its 'deep and heartfelt joy' at the
(expected) visit in 1911 of their Most Gracious Majesties King
George and Queen Mary to India.

3 In 1916, Motilal was violently criticized by the Hindu press and politicians
in the UJP. for taking an independent line on what was known as the
Jehangirabad amendment to the Municipal Bill, which was alleged to be a
surrender to Muslims.

CHAPTER ELEVEN
HALCYON DAYS

'I HAVE received the command of His Gracious Majesty King-
Emperor George V/ Motilal wrote on July 28, 1911, 'to be in
attendance at Delhi, a funny way of inviting a gentleman. This
is accompanied by a letter saying that the Lieutenant-Governor
and Mrs Porter will be pleased to accommodate me and Mrs
Nehru in their own camp/ A few weeks later, when Motilal re-
ceived dress regulations 'for English civil officers and English
gentlemen', he instructed his son to place orders for a complete
outfit in London and to arrange to despatch it by parcel post.
For several weeks the court dress bulked large in the correspond-
ence between father and son.

Jawaharlal to Motilal, October 12, 1911 : 1 got your cable day
before yesterday and have ordered the court dress and the other
clothes you require at Poole's. I suppose you want the ordinary
levee dress with sword and everything complete. The shoes for
the court dress will be made at Knighton's and the gloves at
Travellette's ... the hats I am sending ought to fit you. Heath's
man has managed to fish out your old measures and cast, and he
will shape your hats accordingly/

The Durbar of 1911 was a splendid spectacle. A new city of
tents covering twenty square miles and housing nearly a quarter
million people was erected in Delhi; it was served by a network
of railway stations, post offices, banks and bazaars and was
illuminated by electric light, which was then a novelty in India.

Motilal, Swamp Rani and their daughters Sarup and Krishna
travelled to Delhi in the special train which carried Lieutenant-
Governor Leslie Porter and the official and non-official guests
from the United Provinces. The Governor and his wife were very
cordial to the Nehrus. They have lately become very friendly
with us/ Motilal informed his son in January, 191 1, "dinners and
teas have been exchanged and Mrs Porter has been very gushing

Il6 THE NEHRUS

in her treatment of your mother and myself/ Later in the year
when the Nehrus visited Naini Tal, they dined at the Govern-
ment House. There were about thirty guests, mostly senior
British officers. It was rather nice of Porter/ Motilal wrote soon
afterwards, 'to give us the position of the chief guests of the
evening - he taking in your mother to dinner, and I, Mrs Porter,
We spent a very pleasant evening/

At Delhi, the Nehrus were given every possible consideration
and courtesy* They were lodged in the Lieutenant-Governor's
special camp; their tent was between those of Sir A. McRobert
and an I.C.S. Officer, Mr Tweedy. There were only two Indian
ladies in the United Provinces camp; Swamp Rani was one of
them*

Except for the State Dinner, to which no practising lawyer
was invited, Motilal and his wife received invitations to all im-
portant functions, and were given (he recorded) 'the most
prominent places and received special bows from the King and
the Queen'. Their eleven years old daughter Sarup (or 'Nan', as
she was called in the family) who was one day to represent in-
dependent India in the principal capitals of the world, and to
preside over the United Nations Assembly, had her first intro-
duction to protocol: 'Nan received special attention from the
Queen, who would certainly have spoken to her, had it not been
for the stiff formality of the occasion/

A first-hand version of the 'Gaekwad incident' during the
Durbar, which horrified that august assembly, is preserved in a
letter written by Motilal, who knew the Gaekwad (The Maharaja
of Baroda) rather well and earlier in the year had entertained
him at Anand Bhawan.

Motilal to Jawaharlal, December 22, 1911 : 'I was not quite un-
prepared for something silly on his (Gaekwad's) part* My seat at
the Durbar was not far from his and we were chatting away
before the arrival of the King. He asked me what I thought of
the show and on my saying that it was the grandest tamasha
(show) I had seen, remarked that it would have been all right if
we had not to act in it like animals in a circus . * * He went
straight to the dais, made a slight bow, and at once turned his
back on the King and the Queen, walking away (rather saunter-
ing away) with one hand in his pocket, and turning his stick
round and round with the other. Where was the necessity for

HALCYON DAYS 117

all this, if it was all to end in the abject apology you must have
seen?'

A few days before the investiture, which was to be held during
the Durbar, rumours were afloat that Motilal would receive a
decoration from the King. 1 was rather surprised to know/
wrote Jawaharlal, "that people expected you to be knighted.
Knighthood in India is more or less an uncommon distinction,
in England it is nowadays not worth very much. For the matter
of that even a peerage is now hardly a thing to shout about I
do not suppose you are disappointed at the absence of your name
from the Honours List/ Motilal hastened to dear up the mis-
understanding, 'I do not intend to give you the impression/ he
wrote, 'that I cared for a title. It is the last thing in the world
that I can expect after the attitude I have adopted towards
government officials. It is only men of the type of Leslie Porter,
who do not allow their heads to be swollen by high official
position, and can appreciate criticism of their official acts that
I can pull on with. Such men are scarce/

Motilal had received invitations to a number of functions at
Calcutta, where the King and the Queen were spending Christ-
mas, but he decided to return to Allahabad. 1 have had enough
of royalty/ he wrote, 'and have a lot to do at home/ The ten
days under canvas in the bracing winter of Delhi turned out to
be a perfect holiday. He had left Allahabad with a 'hacking
cough and carried a number of medicines to avoid coughing in
the presence of the King/ but, fortunately, there had been no
occasion to use the medicines. Swarup Rani and the two girls
also visibly benefited from the change.

For many years Motilal had been a victim of asthma. The six
months in Europe in 1905 had given him little relief. During his
visit to Europe in 1909, he consulted Professor Kilian, the best-
known specialist on throat and chest diseases in Germany, but
the learned professor had nothing to add to the remedies which
had already been tried and found wanting; all that he could
recommend was (Motilal wrote) 'a change to the most impossible
places for impossible lengths of time'. While in Germany, Motilal
had received a cable from Pandit Prithinath, (the lawyer friend

Il8 THE NEHRUS

under whose aegis he had embarked on his career as a lawyer in
1883) urging him to consult a homoeopath, but he was sceptical
and ignored his advice* But when on returning to India he
visited Calcutta, where Prithinath was lying seriously ill, he was
persuaded to try a homoeopathic remedy. The results were
miraculous* 'My cough and I have at last parted/ he triumph-
antly informed his son* Homoeopathy had won an enthusiastic
convert From that time he was never without homoeopathic
books and medicines and even learned to prescribe and dispense
medicines for ordinary family ailments*

With his health restored, his son's future settled and politics
at a low ebb, Motilal's life flowed placidly* At the High Court
his pre-eminence was unquestioned* In the provincial council he
commanded the respect of Indians and Britons alike* In Allaha-
bad his house was at once the hub of social life and the nerve
centre of politics. He continued to earn enormous sums and at
the same time to display a curious, aristocratic disdain of money.
One of his clients, the Raja of Amethi, was so grateful to him for
winning an important suit that he offered him a lakh of rupees*
Motilal, however* advised the Raja not to be hasty but to defer
payment till after the first flush of victory* On second thoughts,
the Raja, to Motilal's chagrin, reduced the offer to Rs* 25,000; he
was, however, prepared to settle on Jawaharlal a few villages
with an annual income of Rs* 6,000. This tempting proposal,
which ironically enough would have turned young Nehru into
a landlord, was not accepted by his father, who feared that it
might be misconstrued* 1 would have been condemned/ he told
his son, 'in drawing-rooms and at dinner tables behind my back,
and my reputation (which I value at more than a hundred lakhs)
would have suffered.'

There was only one thing wanting during these years to com-
plete Motilal's happiness - the presence of his son. Tour birth-
day comes and goes/ he wrote* Tour account of my birthday
parties/ wrote Jawaharlal, 'makes me feel quite envious* My
"twenty-firster" was observed here with' marked simplicity; in
other words, I almost forgot all about it till the last moment.'

In spite of the strong emotional bonds between father and son,
their temperamental and intellectual differences were already
apparent. Motilal was practical, confident, optimistic; Jawaharlal
was academic, introspective, diffident. Motilal saw the world as
it was without any illusions; Jawaharlal had a tendency towards

HALCYON DAYS 119

abstraction, a disposition to seek a shape for life from within
himself. MotilaPs reading was utilitarian, usually related to the
job in hand : he had one of the largest private libraries of law-
books in India. To Jawaharlal, reading was not only an ex-
quisite pleasure, but a key to those immeasurable realms of know-
ledge the existence of which he dimly perceived; his intellectual
appetite was insatiable. Once he made the curious suggestion
that he should take the I.C.S. course, not to sit for the examina-
tion but to widen his knowledge. Occasionally, he gave vent to
his literary enthusiasm in letters to his father.

Jawaharlal to Motilal, March 9, 191 1 : '. . . The edition of Mere-
dith, which started coming out when you were here last, has
just been completed. I should like to send it to you together with
some other books which, I am sure, would please you. Some new
editions of old authors have just come out, and they are very
good indeed and would delight the heart of anyone who at all
cares for books. A twenty-volume edition of Thackeray proved
too great an attraction for me, and I could not resist ordering it.
... A charming edition of Dickens is out too. It runs into forty
volumes . . * The author I am very keen on getting is Oscar
Wilde . . .

1 think it will be a rather good idea if you opened an account
at one of the book-sellers here -The Times Book Club for
preference . , /

The last suggestion led to a curious misunderstanding. Motilal
told his son that he could not give him "a carte-blanchc to buy
up the Times Book Library'. The Times Book Library/ wrote
back Jawaharlal, 'would take a lot of buying, and even if it could
be bought, I don't think many persons would be foolish enough
to invest in it ... A library should in my opinion be built up
gradually and with care, and it was in order to do this that I
asked you to have an account with the Book Club . . /

In June, 1910, Jawaharlal graduated from Cambridge with a
second class Honours degree. In July, he was urging his father
to let him go to Oxford instead of London to study law. This
was not because he wanted a degree, but because he wanted to
study something besides law. Taw and Science are all very well
in their own way/ he wrote, 'but no man, however great a
lawyer he may be, will or should be excused for his want of

120 THE NEHRUS

knowledge in certain other subjects, I would much rather risk
my success at the Bar than go through life as a mere lawyer
with no interest in anything save the technicalities and triviali-
ties of law*. Motilal was rather taken aback by this superior,
almost supercilious attitude of his son's towards the profession
from which he was to earn his bread and butter, 'I am dense
enough/ he wrote dryly, 'not to be able to guess what that
branch of knowledge is to which the unfortunate lawyer is or
should be a stranger. I may, however, tell you that a mere
lawyer has not yet been known to succeed in his own profession,
and that the lawyers who have succeeded and will succeed have
generally something more than mere law to draw upon. Please
do not judge the profession by the bad example of your father
who is not even well-versed in law/

It would seem that Jawaharlal was confusing the spheres of
literature and law: a successful lawyer did not have to be a
learned don. Jawaharlal's criticisms of 'the technicalities and
trivialities of law' were a sign of his own inner conflict, rather
than a valid criticism of the legal profession. Having already
decided not to compete for the I.C.S., he could not turn away
from the law, but he hated the idea of narrow specialization. He
felt the pangs of intellectual hunger. For his Natural Sciences
Tripos he had studied rocks, plants and the physical structure of
universe. He was now eager to learn something about the social,
economic and political forces which were shaping the modern
world. This was why he preferred Oxford to London for the
study of law, and why, when in deference to his father's wishes
he finally joined the Inner Temple, he wanted also to enrol at
the London School of Economics.

Motilal did not deny the usefulness of the study of economics,
but feared that it might distract Jawaharlal from his legal curri-
culum. In actual fact London had a softening influence on young
Nehru. He found some old friends from Harrow, scions of aristo-
cratic families, developed expensive habits, took rooms in
Holland Park in the West End, joined the Queen's Club and tried
to 'ape the prosperous and somewhat empty-headed Englishman
who is called a man about town'. His requests for funds became
more frequent and insistent; sometimes a cable would arrive at
Allahabad with just one expressive word : 'Money', Motilal did
not mind the extravagance, but was irritated by his son's hints
he might not be able to scrape through the law examination.

HALCYON DAYS 121

Jawaharlal's diffidence stemmed partly from his resistance to
cramming and partly from what his father had once described
as his habit of underrating himself. He did get through the Law
Finals, but in the meantime he had incurred his father's wrath.
The immediate provocation was the loss of 40 lent by young
Nehru to a friend* "I do not think', Motilal wrote on May 30,
1912, 'there are many fathers in the world who are more in-
dulgent than I am, but however indulgent I may be, I am not
the man to stand nonsense . . . What am I to think when you
tell me seriously that there is a chance of your being put back
[in the law examination] . . . ? Again, the idea of throwing away
40 in the way you did, does not commend itself to me ... I am
afraid that you have managed to fall in with a set of people, not
always desirable for the son of a father of my means , . . You
cannot imagine how grieved I am to say all this but things have
come to a pass when I must cry halt'. Motilal went on to ask his
son to render an account of the money spent by him during the
preceding six months. Jawaharlal replied with a reasoned and
dignified explanation, which concluded on a point of principle.
The father thus received a foretaste of that peculiar blend of
logic and ethics, which many years later was to fascinate his
son's admirers as much as it was to exasperate his critics.

Jawaharlal to Motilal, June 21, 1912: *. . . Your last letter
pained and surprised me very much. I am fully aware of the fact
that I have lately spent far too much money and have not given
attention to my studies, which I should or might have given.
The latter did not have as disastrous results as it might have had,
the former I could not very well help after I had decided to live
in such expensive surroundings. As for the 40, 1 could not very
well refuse. I suffered enough for my folly later on; I was driven
to such straits that for the first time in my life I had to pawn
my watch . . .

Tou ask me to send you an account of expenditure May

I know if I am supposed to keep you informed of every penny I
spend on a bus fare or a stamp? Either you trust me or you do
not. If you do then surely no accounts are necessary. If you do
not, then the accounts I send you are not to be relied upon. To
me the very idea of furnishing accounts is anathema and sug-
gests my being on ticket-of-leave. I am not desirous of staying
in England or any where else under these conditions. I think it

122 THE NEHRUS

will be best for me to return home at once . . /

This long explanation had become unnecessary even before it
reached Allahabad. After posting his caustic letter of May 3oth
Motilal admitted that he would 'have given anything in the
world to recall the letter and destroy it'* He felt that in a fit of
temper he had been unjust to his son and he hastened to make
up the quarrel: 'You know as well as anyone else does that,
whatever my shortcomings may be, and I know there are many,
I cannot be guilty of either love of money or want of love for
you/

3

The incident was soon forgotten. Motilal was already busy
preparing an album of photographs of his son from 'The Cradle
to the Bar', and planning another: 'From the Bar to . . / He
gave orders for Anand Bhawan to be redecorated and two new
rooms to be built on the first floor to make the house 'at least
tolerable to one whose head is full of palatial buildings'* From a
letter to his brother it appears that he had toyed with the idea
of visiting Europe to fetch his son.

Motilal to Bansi Dfiar, June 28, 1912 : '. . . The idea was that I
would go to Europe and take [Jawaharlal] to places he has not
yet seen before he finally came back. But my engagements did
not permit of my leaving India ... It must be a great disappoint-
ment to Jawaharlal, as it certainly is to me, but it is in his own
interest that I should keep up my practice in its various branches
in India eventually to be able to hand at least some of it to him.
The competition for a beginner is at present very keen . . . The
one object of my life, after his return, will be to push him on
and, if within the next four years he can manage to be inde-
pendent of me, I shall retire in peace and comfort after a most
strenuous life of active work extending over thirty-five years/

The family reunion took place at Mussoorie in August, 1912.
Swarup Rani was beside herself with joy -her sickness had
miraculously vanished; Motilal was proud and happy; the twelve-
year-old Sarup. was agog with excitement, while her baby sister
Krishna, who had been born while her brother was in England,

HALCYON DAYS 12J

wondered what all the fuss was about A few weeks later, while
Motilal was in Allahabad attending to his legal work and the
rest of the family was holidaying at Mussoorie, he received a
money order for Rs. 500 from a client named Rao Maharaj Singh
who wished to engage young Nehru as a counsel. The first fee
your father got/ Motilal wrote to his son, 'was Rs. 5 (five) only*
You are evidently a hundred times better than your father. I
wish I was my son instead of being myself * . * Your mother will
be delighted to hear that you got it as your first fee* So there
is the double pleasure for the man who started on Rs.,,5 only'.

Rao Maharaj Singh blazed a trail which othej clients were
rather slow in following. Motilal was of course very anxious to
pass on at least part of his vast clientele to his son. Legal practice
is not usually a heritable commodity, but it is important to re-
member that Jawaharlal had assets of his own for the profession
he was entering. 'He is a son to be proud of, such perfect man-
ners ! ', wrote Sir Robert Aikman, a friend of Motilal and a re-
tired judge of Allahabad High Court, who had met Jawaharlal
in London towards the end of 1911. To personal charm, young
Nehru added an earnestness of purpose and a capacity for hard
work even in those early years, which belie his description of
himself as 'a bit of a prig with little to commend me. n His cousin
Shridhar Nehru of the Indian Civil Service, who was in Allaha-
bad during the years 1913-15 and shared a room with him in
Anand Bhawan, recalls that Jawaharlal's dinner often went cold
while he was poring over his law books. Against these assets
must be set certain limitations. The stage-fright which had
troubled Jawaharlal at Harrow and Cambridge died hard. "At
the present moment/ he had written to his father from London
in August, 1911, 1 can imagine nothing more terrifying than
having to speak in public/ His long stay in England had served
not only to deepen the loneliness from which he had suffered
since his childhood, but also to make him a stranger to the
seamy side of life in his own country. His sensitive spirit found
the heavy odour of cynical self-interest and calculated rapacity
which overhung the Indian courts unbearably oppressive. And
unlike his father thirty years earlier, he lacked the spur of
necessity to goad him into a profession in which total absorption
was the price of total success. It was not easy for young Nehru
to pay this price. During the years 1913-14, among the books he

1 Nehru, J., Toward Freedom, p. 39.

124 THE NEHRUS

read were Addington Symond's Renaissance in Italy, John Drink-
water's Swinburne, Norman AngelTs The Great Illusion and
John Morley's Notes on History and Politics. He could not find
time for all the reading he wanted to do. Deep down in him there
was a vacuum which needed filling with something more than
personal and professional ambition. He took to Red Cross work
and with Mr Knox of the I.CS., who was later to try him for
sedition, became the joint secretary of the Allahabad branch of
the St John Ambulance Brigade. He seriously thought of joining
the Servants of India Society founded by Gokhale, whose person-
ality and patriotism attracted him as much as his Moderate
politics repelled him. When Gokhale appealed for help for
Gandhfs South African struggle, Jawaharlal threw himself
wholeheartedly into the campaign and became the secretary of
the organization set up at Allahabad for the collection of funds.
It was politics which seemed to strike the vital chord in him.

In December, 1912, within four months of his return from
England, Jawaharlal attended the Bankipore Congress with his
father. They found the proceedings rather tame. The political
temperature had dropped even before the reversal of the partition
of Bengal removed the running sore in Indo-British relations.
The Congress had not yet recovered from the shock of the Surat
split. The Moderates, who were in possession of the party
machine, had slammed and bolted the door against the Ex-
tremists, whose leader Tilak had been clapped into prison. Be-
tween the caution of the Moderates and the complacency of the
authorities, political life was in the doldrums. Discontent had
been driven into the subterranean channels of violence. The
average number of political murders during the years 1910-11
was one a fortnight. 2 Terrorism was, however, a two-edged
weapon; it threw the official world into panic, and provided
specious pleas for repressive legislation and strong-arm methods
which had the effect of emasculating even normal political life.

The outbreak of the world war in 1914 seemed momentarily

to bridge the gulf between India and Britain. The East, said Lord

Curzon, was 'sending out civilized soldiers to save Europe from

the modern Huns'. It was clear, said Charles Roberts, that 'India

2 Lord Hardinge of Penshurst, My Indian Years, p. 79.

HALCYON DAYS

claimed to be not a mere dependent of, but a partner in the
Empire, and her partnership with us in spirit and the battlefield
could not but alter the angle from which we should all hence-
forward look at the problems of the Government of India Act'.
The political implications of the war were well summed up by
Surendranath Banerjea at the Lucknow Congress: The object
of the war is to vindicate the sanctity of treaty obligations - to
uphold the sacredness of scraps and bits of paper . . . In the same
spirit the Royal Proclamation and Charters to India should be
redeemed. The moral law does not work by latitudes and longi-
tudes/ It was a sign of the new spirit that the Imperial Legisla-
tive Council unanimously passed the Defence of India Act,
despite its drastic provisions, and large sums were voted as grants
to Britain in her hour of trial. Unfortunately, the generous im-
pulses generated by the German peril soon spent themselves, and
were succeeded by cynicism and doubt There were insinuations
in the Anglo-Indian press that the Indian soldier was unable to
adapt himself to winter warfare on the battle-fronts of Europe,
that the Indian politician was doing nothing to win the war.
Misgivings and impatience grew on the Indian side as well: the
near-success of the German challenge had exploded the myth of
the invincibility of British arms. There were complaints that the
special powers conferred by the Defence of India Act were being
abused to crush normal political activity. The internment of the
Ali Brothers - Maulanas Mohammed and Shaukat Ali - became
a sore point with the Muslim intelligentsia. "Never before/ wrote
Valentine Chirol in 1910, 'have the Muslims of India as a whole
identified their interests and their aspirations with the consolida-
tion and permanence of British Rule/ Events in South-Eastern
Europe and the Middle East soon made nonsense of this estimate.
After the Mutiny had shattered their imperial day-dreams, the
Indian Muslims had looked increasingly for inspiration to the
Muslim states beyond the Indian border. They saw the Balkan
Wars not as a conflict between the outmoded Turkish im-
perialism and the resurgent forces of nationalism, but as a hope-
less struggle of Islam against the superior might of Christendom.
Poets such as Iqbal and Shibli, publicists such as Abul Kalam
Azad and Mohammed Ali, dwelt on the many dangers which
beset Islam in the world. The professions of Muslim loyalty to
the British Crown began to wear thin. In 1913, the goal of the
Muslim League - which had been brought into being in 1906 as

THE NEHRUS

a counter-blast to the Congress and as an avowed organ of
Muslim sectional interests - was enlarged to include the attain-
ment of self-government The outbreak in 1914 of a war in
which Turkey was ranged on the side of Germany created a
painful dilemma for the devout: as a Muslim leader put it, "the
Government of our Caliph is at war with the Government of
our King-Emperor'.

The political consciousness of the Muslim middle class was
thus heightened by events abroad* The Hindu middle class had
already been made sensitive by bureaucratic sins of omission and
commission at home* The two streams of discontent converged
at Lucknow, where the Congress and the League held their
annual sessions in December, 1916. M* A* Jinnah* who presided
over the League, spoke of a new India under the influence of
Western education fast 'growing in identity of thought, purpose
and outlook'. 'We have found luck in Lucknow/ declared Tflak,
Ve are now united in every way in the United Provinces/
History was to make a mockery of this optimism. The Lucknow
Pact did not prove the turning point in the nationalist move-
ment it was expected to be. Separate electorates failed to win
lasting adherence of the Muslim middle class to Indian national-
ism and in fact turned out to be the thin end of the wedge
which was to split India apart thirty years later. And ironically
enough, Jinnah, one of the chief architects of the Lucknow Pact,
was to become the prophet of Muslim separatism. All this was
of course in the womb of the future* In 1916 the fraternization
between Moderates and the Extremists as well as between
Muslims and Hindus warmed the hearts of all patriotic Indians*
In these stirring events Motilal also played his part, though he
did not yet occupy the centre of the stage. The details of the
Congress-League compromise, of which Lucknow Pact was a
part, were indeed hammered out at a meeting in his house in
Allahabad.

The war years made their impact on the Nehrus* They
earnestly followed and discussed the neWs from the war-fronts;
Swarup Rani joined groups of European and Indian ladies in
knitting and collecting woollen garments for the soldiers* These
preoccupations did not, however, dim the flame of their
patriotism* The girls of the Nehru family formed an association
-the Kumari Sabha- whose meetings in Anand Bhawan were
enlivened by national songs and patriotic plays and debates* The

HALCYON DAYS 127

Leader continued to ventilate grievances, national and local; in
the Provincial Council Motilal continued to hold a watching
brief for the nationalist cause. The meetings of the U.P. Con-
gress, the visits of prominent political leaders to Allahabad and
the annual sessions of the Congress provided occasional diver-
sions* At home, there were long and sometimes heated discus-
sions between father and son; it was as if they had picked up
the threads of the argument which had continued by letter for
the seven long years of JawaharlaPs stay in England. Jawaharlal
vehemently denounced the feebleness of Moderate politics and
the futility of their tactics. It was foolish, he argued, to take
British professions at their face value: Great Britain could never
be talked out of her imperial position. Motilal acknowledged the
limitations of constitutional agitation, but saw no practical
alternative to it. He knew something of the game of politics; he
had played it, albeit intermittently, for more than a quarter of
a century; it required much patience and skill. He was suspicious
of the emotional approach. As he listened to his son's ceaseless
stream of passionate argument, he wondered how badly the boy
had been bitten by the patriotic bug. He shuddered to think
that the impulsive youth might be drawn into a gang of revolu-
tionaries and end his career in jail, if not on the gallows.

To put the events of these years in perspective, it is important
to remember that politics were not yet the dominant interest of
the Nehru family, but in the nature of a diversion for the week-
end or for the dinner table. Domestic and professional activities
continued to absorb the energies of both father and son.

The most important event of these years was Jawaharlal's
marriage. Curiously enough, the subject had cropped up while
he was at Harrow. Motilal did not of course contemplate an
early marriage, but he favoured an early engagement on the
ground that the choice in the small Kashmiri community was
Bunted, and the couple of eligible girls were likely to be 'booked'
by 'the time Jawaharlal returned to India. The parents were
naturally anxious to find an ideal girl for their only son, but
they came up against the not uncommon difficulty that beauty
and education were hard to come by in the same person. How-
ever, while good looks could not be conferred, it seemed quite

THE NEHRUS

possible to cultivate the mind of a good-looking girl. An unusual
candour marked the debate between father and son on every
aspect of matrimony. "As for looks/ Jawaharlal wrote from
Harrow, Vho can help feeling keen enjoyment at the sight of a
beautiful creature? And I think you are quite right in saying
that the outer features generally take after the inner person*
And yet sometimes this is not the case. Beauty is after all skin
deep . . .' JawaharlaPs pleas that the engagement should await
his return to India finally prevailed.

The final choice fell on Kamala Kaul, daughter of Pandit
Jawaharmul, a Delhi business man. Kamala, who was born on
August i, 1899, was tall, slim, pretty and healthy. Her home
was less westernized than that of the Nehrus, but during her
engagement, while she was staying with some of her relations
in Allahabad, she was turned over for grooming to the European
governesses of her fiance's sisters.

The marriage took place at Delhi on February 8, 1916, the
Vasanta Panchami day, the Hindu festival which heralds the
coming of spring. A special train took MotilaPs numerous friends
and relatives to Delhi, where the Nehru Wedding Camp was the
centre of festivities for a week. On the return to Allahabad,
the entertainments continued for several weeks: Indian and
European friends of the Nehrus were invited to teas and dinners,
badminton and tennis parties, poetical recitations and musical
concerts. To Motilal, at the age of fifty-five, the marriage of his
only son was a joyous consummation of his life.

That summer, the whole family had a holiday in Kashmir.
After spending a few days in the valley, Jawaharlal, with a
cousin, went on a mountain expedition beyond Zoji-la pass. It
was a perilous venture; the two young men had neither the ex-
perience nor the equipment necessary for climbing high peaks.
Once, stepping on fresh snow, Jawaharlal slipped down a steep
gorge. For a critical moment his life trembled in the balance, as
it had done in that mountain torrent in Norway six years before.
Now, as then, fate in the person of his companion pulled him
back from the brink of death. *

It may seem odd that Jawaharlal should have left his wife aid
mother to go off on a hazardous mountain expedition at such a
time. But his spirit was too restless to take kindly to the pleasant
but rather pointless routine of many of his contemporaries - the
strenuous day at the desk and in the court relieved by gossip in

HALCYON DAYS 129

the Bar Library, chatter of women and children at home, the
daily drink and rubber of bridge at the club, the glossy magazines
on Sunday mornings. Born thirty years earlier, Jawaharlal might
have been one of Vivekananda's faithful apostles of re-awakened
Hinduism,* thirty years later, he might have led an expedition to
Mount Everest. In his forties, while in jail, he wistfully recalled
Walter de la Mare's lines :

Tea, in my mind these mountains rise,
Their perils dyed with evening's rose;
And still my ghost sits at my eyes
And thirsts for their untroubled snows/

For an Indian youth, in the stirring years of the first world war,
the path of adventure led not to the solitudes of a monastery,
nor to the slopes of unconquered peaks, but to the struggle
against foreign rule.

After JawaharlaTs return to Allahabad, Motilal took a few
weeks off in Kashmir. It was a holiday on the grand scale, with
a fleet of houseboats and cars and a retinue of servants. He could
not, however, be away very long. His cough grew worse, his pro-
fessional work was waiting, and he was missing (he wrote to his
son) "the pleasure of seeing you which is never expressed in
words but felt and felt as any pleasure has been or will be felt/

The holiday over, the family came back to Allahabad. Jawa-
harlal returned to his desk in Anand Bhawan as his father's
junior, to the banal round of the court-room, the Bar Library
and the club, relieved by such tepid politics as Allahabad had
to offer.

Fortunately for young Nehru, local and national politics soon
wanned up to fever heat.

CHAPTER TWELVE
HOME RULE

'HOME Rule/ 1917 opened and closed with these magic words
which echoed in a million Indian homes, spelling patriotism and
hope to nationalist India, sedition and anarchy to her rulers*

The high-priestess of Home Rule was the London-born sixty-
nine-year-old Mrs Annie Besant, who had adopted India as her
home. In the words of an eminent contemporary, Srinivasa
Sastri, who knew her well, she believed 'that she belonged in her
spirit, and by her soul to this country, that its culture, religion
and philosophy belonged to her, and that in future lives she
would be born in this country to learn that culture, to spread
that philosophy, to teach that religion'. With her snow-white
hair, beautiful voice and immaculately white sari, the venerable
Mrs Besant was a well known and well-loved figure in Allahabad,
and particularly in Anand Bhawan. Ferdinand T. Brooks, Jawa-
harlal's tutor, had been appointed on her recommendation, and
she had personally officiated at the initiation of the thirteen-
year-old Nehru into theosophy.

Mrs Besant's dramatic entrance on the Indian political stage
during the years 1916-7 astonished friends and enemies alike. In
her youth she had followed her friends Bradlaugh and George
Bernard Shaw into many a political skirmish, but after her
arrival in India she seemed for many years wholly immersed in
the affairs of the Theosophical Society, of which she became the
head, and in social and educational reforms. In an article pub-
lished in 1894, she had declared that her work in the sphere of
politics was over; that India would rise again not through
political methods but through the renewal of her ancient religion
and philosophy. Nevertheless, over the years there was a per-
ceptible shift in her activities from the occult to the spiritual,
from the spiritual to the social, and finally to the political This
shift was hastened by the unseemly controversies which raged
round the Leadbeater case and the Krishnamurti incarnation*
Her prestige with the Hindu intelligentsia was waning, her

HOME RULE 131

educational institutions passed into other hands, but she was
able to stage a spectacular comeback*

In January, 1914, she started a weekly paper, the Common-
weal, from Madras. Six months later she bought a daily paper
and renamed it New India; the first issue appeared on July i4th f
the anniversary of the fall of Bastille. She conceived a movement
for India on the lines of Redmond's Home Rule League. 'I am an
Indian tom-tom/ she declared, 'waking up all sleepers so that
they may wake and work for their motherland/ She tried to
'sell' the idea of her Home Rule League to the Indian National
Congress, and to unite that body by the re-admission of Ex-
tremists who had been expelled after the *Surat Split*. The
Moderate faction led by Pherozeshah Mehta, which controlled
the Congress, was as reluctant to embrace the Extremists as it
was to embarrass the Government; it feared that a new organiza-
tion would divide and weaken the Indian National Congress; it
was suspicious of the dynamic old lady, who neither rested her-
self nor let others rest. When Dadabhai Naoroji accepted the
presidency of Mrs Besanf s Home Rule League, he received an
immediate protest from Dinshaw "Wacha, a prominent Moderate
and a lifelong lieutenant of Pherozeshah Mehta. "We do not
approve of the methods of Mrs Besant/ wrote Wacha, Vho late
in the day has come forward to support the Congress movement
. . . We are alarmed at the way in which she is going about on
her own responsibility, supported from behind by the Ex-
tremists . . . [it] is a distinct menace to the peaceful progress of
the country/ 1

Distrusted and discouraged by the Old Guard of the Congress,
which was weakened by the deaths in 1915 of Pherozeshah
Mehta and Gokhale, Mrs Besant decided to take the plunge
alone. In September, 1916, she founded her All India Home Rule
League. An experienced campaigner, a tireless organizer, an
eloquent speaker and a facile editor, she knew something of the
tactics of Irish nationalists and English suffragettes. All these
assets, however, could hardly have won her an immediate and
spectacular success, but for the fact that her movement was ex-
quisitely timed to focus and express the vague feais and hopes
which a global war had generated in the politically-conscious
classes. Her words spoke to the heart of India's youth : "Let India
remember what she was and realize what she may be; then shall

1 Masani, R. P., Dadobfioi Noorojt, p. 531.

132 THE NEHRUS

the sun rise once more in the East and fill the western lands with
light/ She conceded that British rule in India was efficient, "as
German rale in Germany was efficient', but asked whether any
Englishman desired to see the Germans occupying the highest
positions in England. India preferred, she declared, her 'bullock
carts with freedom to a train de> luxe with subjection; . . . India
no longer wants your boons, your concessions and those offers
you make; India wants to be mistress in her own house . . .
Autocracy is destroyed in Russia, tottering in Germany; only
under England's flag it is rampant . * /

The Home Rule movement made a swift and strong impres-
sion on the country* Mrs Besant's Home Rule League was
founded in September, 1916; in April of the same year Tilak
had already started a Home Rule League in Poona. There was
no rivalry between the two organizations and their leaders
worked in harmony. In May, 1916, Mrs Besant came to Poona
and, with Tilak in the chair, delivered a lecture on Home Rule.
Tilak deliberately confined the activity of his Home Rule League
to western and central India, and let Mrs Besant operate freely
in the rest of the country.

The Home Rule movement made an instantaneous appeal to
Jawaharlal. The atmosphere became electric/ he wrote many
years later, 'and most of us young men expected big things in
the near future/ He joined both Home Rule Leagues, but worked
mostly for Mrs Besant's. Motilal had a high regard for Mrs
Besant, but was too seasoned a lawyer and politician to be swept
off his feet. Home Rule was a new slogan but not a new doctrine :
self-government had been the avowed aim of the Indian National
Congress for the thirty-odd years of its existence and there did
not seem to be any need for another organization with the same
aim. Not all his son's arguments could persuade Motilal to join
Mrs Besant's movement; these arguments were, however, soon
powerfully reinforced from an unexpected quarter.

The Government's reaction to the Home Rule Movement
quickly changed from derision to bewilderment, and from be-
wilderment to alarm. Mrs Besant's aim - self government within
the British Empire - was modest enough, but her advocacy was
militant. She set up a branch of her Home Rule League in

HOME RULE 1J3

England; it published one of her booklets, India, A Nation,
which the publishers withdrew from circulation under official
pressure. 'Obstreperous old harridan* -this is how Geoffrey
Dawson, the Editor of The Times, referred to Mrs Besant in a
private letter to the Viceroy.* *A vain old lady influenced by a
passionate desire to be a leader of movements' - this was the
verdict of Sir Reginald Craddock, the Home Member of the
Government of India. There was, however, no denying the fact
that her movement was spreading like a prairie fire* Craddodk
summed up the political situation : 3

The position is one of great difficulty, the Moderate leaders
can command no support among the vocal classes who are being
led at the heels of TUak and Besant. The great figures among the
Moderates have passed away and so far they have no successors.
Home Rule is pressed for not so much as constitutional reform
now becoming due, but as the only salvation from innumerable
wrongs and grievances under which India is suffering . . . under
cover of constitutional agitation, the minds of the people who
read newspapers are being poisoned against -the British Govern-
ment . . /

'Sedition in India/ Craddock wrote a month later, 'is like the
tides which erode a coastline as the sea encroaches. The last high
tide was in 1907-8. The tide then went out, but it is flowing in
now rapidly, and it will reach a point now higher than it ever
reached before. We must have our dam in order lest it inundate
sound land'* 4

The projected dam against the seditious flood was a declara-
tion of policy. In a series of *Clear-the-Line* telegrams the Vice-
roy, Lord Chelmsford, urged the Secretary of State, Austen
Chamberlain, to hasten an announcement by His Majesty's
Government on post-war constitutional and administrative
changes in India. While the contents of this declaration were
being debated between Delhi and London, the Viceroy was being
pressed by the provincial governments to give a clear lead on

2 The History of The Times, The ijoth Anniversary and Beyond, Part n,
p. 841.

8 Minute January 17, 1917. (N.AX).
4 Minute February 19, 1917. (N.A.L).

134 THE NEHRUS

the policy to be adopted towards Home Rule* This Lord Chelms-
ford declined to do. The policy of the Government of India, he
wrote 5 'has been that local Governments should have a free
hand to take such measures as they, with their local knowledge,
deem to be necessary . * . with the assurance that the Govern-
ment of India will support them in any action * . . Lord "Willing-
don 6 thought it advisable to restrain Mrs Besant from entering
the Presidency of Bombay. We supported him. Sir Benjamin
Robertson, 7 on similar grounds, took a like step in Central
Provinces and we supported him. Sir James Meston, however,
felt that such action was inadvisable in the United Provinces.
We supported him'.

This policy, or rather the lack of a policy, was to lead the
Government of India into deep waters at the heels of Lord Pent-
land, the Governor of Madras. 'Thin, whiskered, in tightly-
buttoned frock-coat, large gardenia flower in his button-hole * . .
looking what he is - an early Victorian Governor in post-war
India' this is how Lord Pentland appeared to a visiting Secre-
tary of State. 8 Pentland decided to silence Mrs Besant by demand-
ing and forfeiting securities from her journals, by imposing re-
strictions on the movements of her lieutenants and finally by
issuing orders under the Defence of India Rules (June 16, 1917)
for her internment in Ootacamund and Coimbatore along with
B. P. Wadia, the Assistant Editor of New India, and G. S.
Arundale, a popular contributor to that paper.

The news of Mrs Besant's internment came as a bombshell to
the Indian intelligentsia, who saw it, not as an ordinary miscalcu-
lation by the Government, but as another link in the chain of a
reactionary conspiracy to stifle Indian political aspirations. Had
not the Defence of India Act been misused to suppress normal
political life in the country? Was not Lord Sydenham, a retired
Governor, publicly advocating in England the pernicious doctrine
that there could never be a diminution of British authority in
India? Had not Sir Michael O'Dwyer, the Lieu tenant-Governor
of the Punjab, suggested that municipal work was good enough
for Indian politicians for many years to come? Had not Lord
Pentland told the Madras Legislative Council that 'the placing
of executive government under the direct control of the legis-

5 Minute February i, 1917. (N.A.L). 6 Governor of Bombay.

7 Chief Commissioner Central Provinces.

8 Montagu, E, S., An Indian Diary, pp, 135-6.

HOME RULE 135

lature was outside the range of polities'? Had not the Viceroy
himself warned his Legislative Council against expecting
'catastrophic changes* in the near future?

'Who would have thought/ a high official was reported to
have said, that 'there would have been such a fuss about an old
woman.' To Indian nationalists, however, nothing could be more
pusillanimous and unchivalrous than to sit back with folded
hands while an aged English lady went to prison for declaring
that self-government was India's birthright. The repercussions
of Mrs Besant's internment were shrewdly summed up in a
letter to the Viceroy by Gandhi, who was at this time con-
scientiously trying to keep out of controversial politics.

M. K. Gandhi to J. L Maffey, Private Secretary to the Viceroy,
July 10, 1917: *. . . In my humble opinion the internments are
a big blunder. Madras was absolutely calm before then, now it
is badly disturbed. India as a whole had not made common cause
with Mrs Besant, but now she is in a fair way towards com-
manding India's identity with her methods ... I myself do not
like much in Mrs Besant's methods. I have not liked the idea of
political propaganda being carried on during the war. In my
opinion our restraint will have been the best propaganda. And
no one could deny Mrs Besant's great sacrifice and love for India
or desire to be strictly constitutional. But the whole country was
against me ... The Congress was trying to capture Mrs Besant.
The latter was trying to capture the former. Now they have
almost become one . . .*

3

During the week following the arrest of Mrs. Besant, events
in Allahabad moved with unwonted rapidity. Lord Pendand
succeeded where Jawaharlal had failed. On June 20, 1917, the
Leader announced :

The Hon'ble Pandit Motilal Nehru, the Hon'ble Dr Tej
Bahadur Sapru, the Hon'ble Munshi Narayan Prasad Asthana,
the Hon'ble C. Y. Chintamani and a number of others have
joined the Home Rule League as a protest against the arbitrary
action of the Madras Government/

9 Unpublished (G.S.N.).

136 THE NEHRUS

The same issue of the Leader carried a notice of a public meet-
ing of 'the Indian citizens of Allahabad' on June 2 2nd over
which Motilal was to preside. The forty-four signatories to this
notice included almost all the prominent citizens of the town,
headed by Tej Bahadur Sapru; they included, besides Jawaharlal,
Motilal's nephews Sham Lai Nehru and Ladli Prasad Zutshi.
Even though the summer vacation had emptied Allahabad of its
student population, which bulked large in political gatherings,
no less than four thousand people gathered in Munshi Ram
Prasad's gardens on the evening of June 22nd. The country is
in the midst of a crisis/ Motilal declared, The Government has
openly declared a crusade against our national aims . . . Are
we going to succumb to these official frowns? . . . Let us raise
aloft the banner of Home Rule League and 330 million throats
voice forth the motto of Home Rule, The bureaucracy is pre-
paring a coffin for Home Rule before its birth . . * Let us advance
with stout hearts saying with the poet : "Come what may, we
have launched our boat into the sea.". . . .'

Next day at a meeting of the Allahabad Home Rule League,
Motilal was elected president and his son one of the joint secre-
taries. On June 25th, Motilal cabled to Lloyd George, the British
Premier, appealing to 'constitutional England against uncon-
stitutional methods of repression in India'.

An interesting sequel to this crisis was that Jawaharlal Nehru
missed a King's Commission. The exclusion of Indians from the
officers' cadre of the British Indian army was, to sensitive Indians,
one of the most galling humiliations of foreign subjection. We
have already seen 10 how bitterly Jawaharlal had resented the ex-
clusion of Indian students from the Officers' Training Corps at
Cambridge. In response to persistent agitation, in which Tilak
had played a notable part, the Government of India at last agreed
in 1917 to* raise a volunteer force -the Indian Defence Force -
which educated Indians could join. The emergencies of a great
war', so ran the official resolution, 'cannot justify the hurried
determination of so important and difficult a question.' It was a
half-hearted concession hedged by quite a few ambiguities and
reservations. Nevertheless, Jawaharlal applied for a commission,
and both he and his father agreed to serve on a six-man com-
mittee whose aims were to popularize the scheme with educated

w Supra, p. 98.

HOME RULE 137

young men, and at the same time to try to rid it of some of its
objectionable features, A meeting of the committee was to be
held in Anand Bhawan on June 2,3rd, but when the news of
Mrs Besant's internment came through, Jawaharlal persuaded
the committee to cancel the meeting and disband itself.

The Hon'ble Dr Tej Bahadur Sapru and the Hon'ble
Pt Motilal Nehru have ostentatiously withdrawn from the
Indian Defence Force/ the ILP. Government reported to the
Government of India, Talk in Allahabad indicates that they
were not sorry for an excuse to get out of a difficult tasL m The
Pioneer of June Z5th made a scurrilous attack on the 'political
puerility' of the Indian politician. Motilal promptly retorted in a
letter to the Leader: 33

'Sir, it is not often that I am tempted to take any notice of
what is said by the section of the Anglo-Indian Press which de-
lights in running down Indians in every conceivable manner * . .
Life is too short to deal with the volume of contempt and
calumny it pours over the people of the country from day to day.
A scheme [of Indian Defence Force] bearing such objectionable
features was not likely to meet with an enthusiastic response. It
was decided at an informal conference that committees be estab-
lished in Allahabad and Lucknow which were to perform more
or less the part of intermediaries between the Government and
young men eligible for enrolment, and that while on the one
hand they were to influence the young men to put up with
certain defects [of the scheme] , they were on the other hand
to approach the Government - to secure the removal of certain
drawbacks - without affecting the emergencies of the Great "War
. . , [After the arrest of Mrs Besant] it was quite obvious that
we could not approach either the Government or the young men
concerned with any reasonable hope of success . . /

The Lieutenant-Governor of the United Provinces at this time
was Sir James Meston. His political instincts were better trained
than those of his opposite number in Madras and of his superiors
in Simla. In December, 1916, he had paid a courtesy visit to the
Indian National Congress when it met in Lucknow. He had dis-
creetly refrained from restricting Mrs Besant's movements in the

11 Chief Secretary U.P. Government to Government of India.

12 June 28, 1917.

138 THE NEHRUS

United Provinces. Early in July, 1917, he felt greatly perturbed
at the sharp edge politics were developing. At first he thought of
meeting the leading politicians, but 'in order not to run the risk
of too direct a rebuff' he left the task to the Commissioners of
Allahabad and Lucknow. The result of the interviews was com-
municated by him in a confidential letter to the Viceroy: 13

They both report that there was a disposition to be reasonable,
to disavow any intention of stirring up racial animosities . * .
They both, however, felt -and they are quite capable judges of
the Indian mind - that there is a genuine suspicion even among
the agitators that the Government is contemplating a reaction-
ary policy I wish it were possible for the Home Government
to realize how full of nerves the country is at present, and how
eagerly the vast majority of thinking people would welcome any
declaration . * /

Sir James Meston's letter was dated July jth. During the suc-
ceeding month Motilal, assisted by his son, put new life into the
local Home Rule League. 'Capable and energetic' . . . this was
how the U.P. Government described 1 * the Allahabad branch of
the League in a report to the Government of India, 'The chief
political event of the fortnight/ the report continued, 'has been
the special meeting of the Provincial Congress at Lucknow on
August loth/ The conference which was presided over by
Motilal was attended by 548 delegates from the various districts
of the IIP., Delhi and Agra, It was a motley crowd, which in-
cluded Moderates, Extremists, lawyers, doctors, businessmen,
zamindars and many others who had so far taken little part in
politics* The choice of Motilal as president of the conference
evoked an editorial comment from the Leader : 15

Tandit Motilal Nehru cannot be dismissed as a prentice hand,
an amateur politician, a hot-headed youth or an unquestioning
follower of Mrs Besant. Fifty-six years of age, talented and
thoughtful, sober and independent, dignified and manly, he
speaks and acts with a proper sense of responsibility, and is ad-

13 Sir James Meston to the Viceroy: July 7, 1917. (N.A.L).

14 R. Burn, Chief Secretary U.P. Government to Du Boulay. Home Secretary
Government of India, August 17, 1917. (N.A.I.)*

15 August 13, 1917.

HOME RULE 139

mired, trusted and respected by his countrymen - * * He can be
equally trusted even by the bureaucracy to see that any
organization or movement, with which he is associated, always
conducts itself in the most becoming manner* He has both tact
and courage, and is inspired equally by loyalty and patriotism/

"Studiously moderate/ was the official verdict on Motilal's
presidential address* The moderation was apparent more in the
language than in the contents of a speech, which was a sharp
though closely reasoned indictment of official policies since the
outbreak of the war. The bureaucracy, Motilal argued, suffered
from the obsession that the root of the trouble lay not in its
policies, but in the people themselves. He contrasted the rashness
of Lord Pentland with the restraint of Sir James Meston. He drew
pointed attention to the freedom of discussion in Britain and the
Dominions during the war and deplored the irksome restrictions
imposed in India. These bureaucratic rulers of ours/ said Motilal,
'are almost completely lacking in imaginative conception, sym-
pathetic understanding and intelligent enterprise. They fail to
realize how deeply interested we are in the maintenance and
permanence of the British connection in India/ He appealed to
'British Democracy, the sole tribunal appointed by Providence
- to decide between us and the bureaucracy'. At this point some-
one from the audience shouted: 'Question/ The sequel to this
interruption may be described in the words of an eye-witness : M

'Mr Nehru flared up, violently tapped the table before him,
angrily threw over the papers in his hands and hastily put off
the spectacles ... he challenged the sceptical intruder to come
out in the open and disprove his contention. There was com-
plete silence. Pandit Motilal so completely overpowered the
assembly, that not a word was breathed in defiance or disagree-
ment while he was on his legs * . /

Such was the excitement at this conference that a vocal section
advocated the adoption of passive resistance to bring the Govern-
ment to heel. Motilal steered the proceedings skilfully, holding
the conference to its original aim of protesting against the in-
ternment of Mrs Besant and her colleagues and demanding a new
political deal for India.

16 Malaviya, K. D., Pandit Motilal Nehru: His life and Speeches, p. 10.

140 THE NEHRUS

Within ten days of the conference came Montagu's declara-
tion of August 20, 1917: 'The policy of His Majesty's Govern-
ment ... is that of increasing association of Indians in every
branch of the administration, and gradual development of self-
governing institutions with a view to the progressive realization
of responsible government in India as an integral part of the
British Empire/ The declaration came as gentle rain on parched
earth. Though trust in Montagu and the British Govern-
ment was partly offset by suspicions of their agents in India,
there was an immediate relaxation in the political atmos-
phere. On September 17th, Mrs. Besant was released. On
October 5th, she arrived at Allahabad. Among those who re-
ceived her at the railway station were Tilak, Motilal, Sarojini
Naidu and Jawaharlal Nehru. The carriage in which Mrs Besant
was to be driven in the company of Tilak and Motilal to Anand
Bhawan, was unhorsed and dragged by a party of young men
through the streets of Allahabad, which were decorated with
Home Rule flags, bunting and floral arches. Along the route
resounded cries of "Bande Mataram' and 'Besant Mata Ki Jai'
('victory to Mother Besant'), and flower petals rained from
housetops. When the procession reached the office of the Allaha-
bad Home Rule League, Motilal presented an address to Mrs
Besant. "Two years ago/ he said, 'y u saw with the clear in-
tuition of genius what the motherland needed . . . You saw the
inner hopes and aspirations in the hearts of the dumb, inarticu-
late millions of the people of this country . . /

Mrs Besant replied briefly. Indian blood, she said, had soaked
the soil of Handers, Gallipoli, Egypt and Mesopotamia. The land
that had welcomed Garibaldi, the land that had sheltered
Mazzini, could not but give the same welcome to Indians who
had fought for the same cause 'We shall join together under
a free crown in a free commonwealth of nations in which India
shall shine as the sunshine in the East/

This was Mrs Besant's glorious hour, even though the glory
was to prove evanescent. Lord Pentland"had given a tremendous
impetus to her swift triumphal progress from Madras to the
prison in Nilgiri Hills and finally to the presidency of the
Calcutta Congress in December, 1917. In the ensuing dust and
heat, Motilal, Tej Bahadur Sapru, C Y. Chintamani and others
-once picturesquely lumped together by the IXP. Government
as 'the Brahiain clique of Allahabad' - had taken a fateful step

HOME RULE J4 1

away from Moderate politics. While most of his colleagues were
to have second thoughts, for Motilal there was to be no turning
back.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN
REFORMS ON THE ANVIL

On November zjth, 1917, a group of U.P, politicians, including
Motilal Nehru, Gokran Nath Misra and Tej Bahadur Sapru, had
an interview with Edwin S. Montagu, the Secretary of State for
India, at Delhi Montagu had joined the British Cabinet in July,
1917, made his famous declaration on the political future of
ladia in August and landed at Bombay early in November* That
a member of the British Cabinet should, in the midst of a global
war, have found it necessary to visit India was an event of great
significance, without precedent in the history of the Indian
Empire.

The August declaration, with which Montagu's name is
associated, was in fact the handiwork of his predecessor Austen
Chamberlain, who would have made it if the 'Mesopotamia
Muddle* had not led to his resignation. And paradoxically
enough, the main impulse for the declaration came from Lord
Chelmsford and his Executive Council* By the beginning of 1917,
even the blinkered bureaucrats of Delhi could see that not all
the ills of the body politic could be attributed to the 'machina-
tions* of Tilak and the 'demagogy' of Mrs Besant There were
other forces at work. As Austen Chamberlain told the Viceroy : l

'After all, we must take into account the changes produced by
tfais war, of the constant emphasis laid upon the fact that the
Allies are fighting for freedom and nationality, of the revolution
ifi Russia, and the way it has been hailed throughout Europe,
and of the effect of all these things on Indian opinion and on our
<wn attitude to Indian questions. What would have seemed a
gseat advance a little time ago, would now satisfy no one and we
should, I think, be prepared for bold and radical measures/

A similar coBchision was reached by an experienced adminis-
1 TeJegram dated Marcfe 29* 1917, From Secretary of State to the Viceroy.

REFORMS ON THE ANVIL 143

trator, Sir James Meston, the Lieutenant-Governor of the United
Provinces, who said that the strength of nationalist feeling was
'greater than it has ever been in our time , . . The Christmas
meetings at Lucknow 2 caught up and consolidated popular senti-
ment as few political events have done* Extremists and Moder-
ates had united after years of misunderstanding; and, greatest
marvel of all, the Muhammadeas also had come into the fold. A
few Moderates may grumble here and there; and a few conserva-
tive Muhammadens may urge that the [Muslim] League does
not really represent their community. But they do nothing.
They are voiceless The resultant union of all voices has filled
educated India with a pride and a feeling of nationality which is
impossible to ignore'. Sir James Meston felt that the time had
come for a gesture which would strike the imagination of the
people of India, and suggested frank discussions between 'the
chosen of the Government' and the 'chosen of the people'* By
the latter, he meant the representatives of the Indian National
Congress and the Muslim League.

Sir James' diagnosis was too blunt, his prescription too bold to
find favour with his superiors in Simla. True, Lord Chelmsford
and his council were pressing the home government for a new
declaration of policy to define the goal and pace of constitutional
evolution in India; but this declaration was intended not so much
to bring about major political changes as to set a limit for the
Extremists in India and to restrain a post-war radical ministry at
home which might be swept into office in the first flush of
victory. The latter danger was described in a minute by Sir R. PL
Craddock, the Home Member of the Viceroy's Council:

It is at least a possibility that the views of the Government of
India and of the Secretary of State may be swept aside in a fit
of generosity and gratitude on the conclusion of peace by a
nation which is daily becoming more democratic . . * the
United Kingdom [is] now ruled by a dictator 3 who is a great
believer in democracy. Such a politician is likely to be moved
more by theoretical, plausible arguments of a number of Con-
gress emissaries [in England] than by the cautious and cold
reasoning of a bureaucracy/

1 Annual sessions of Indian National Congress and All India Muslim League
at Lucknow in December, 1916.
3 Lloyd George.

THE NEHRUS

It is obvious that Lord Chelmsford and his Executive Council
did not contemplate any considerable devolution of authority,
for they could hardly conceal their consternation when Austen
Chamberlain, prodded by Sir William Wedderburn and the pro-
Congress element in the House of Commons, proposed a non-
official committee consisting of members of the British Parlia-
ment and a few eminent Indians to suggest the outlines of a new
scheme of reforms* This attitude called forth a rebuke from
Austen Chamberlain.

Secretary of State to Viceroy, May 15, 1917: 1 can see no use
to multiplying elected representatives until we are prepared to
entrust diem with some degree of responsibility in financial or
administrative matters . * . nor do I think it is possible to leave
the question to be settled by a Government [of India] whose
members are drawn from a great service - but who are yet neces-
sarily steeped in traditions of bureaucracy, and are therefore
likely to be critical and impatient of the faults and defects which
any approximation to a parliamentary or self-governing system
involves. No bureaucracy in the world will ever transform itself
into self-government. The motive power must come from out-
side. Their very virtues are inimical to a parliamentary system,
and it is inevitable that they should magnify the difficulty and
dangers of any change . . .**

Montagu, who joined Lloyd George's cabinet on the under-
standing that he would go to the India Office, saw as clearly as
his predecessor that a specious declaration, unless followed up by
concrete concessions, would only add fuel to the flames of Indian
discontent. Accepting an invitation from the Viceroy originally
mlended for his predecessor, Montagu sailed for India with a
small fceam of advisers, including Bhupendranath Basu, a member
of his council and a former president of the Indian National Con-
gress *My visit to India, 7 Montagu wrote in his diary soon after
setfiug foot on Indian soil, "means that we are going to do some-
difag i% .. , it urast be epoch-making or it is a failure/ 5 For this
self-imposed mission, he had unusual qualifications. He was
singularly free from the pride of race or office. Invited to a
luncheon party at Bhupeodranath Basu's house in Calcutta, he

* UnpobfesbeA (RAXX

* Ifeatagg, BdNia S, An Iik&m Diary, p. 8.

REFORMS ON THE ANVIL 145

cheerfully stood up with his fellow guests during the singing of
'Bande Mataram', the song of Indian nationalism and the symbol
of sedition in official circles. Montagu had something of the
sincerity of a Pethick-Lawrence, the subtlety of a Stafford Cripps,
the courage of a Clement Attlee and the drive of a Louis Mount-
batten. These were too many roles for one man who had come
to India thirty years too soon. Nevertheless, during the next five
months Montagu applied himself to the task of outlining a new
constitution which would set India on the road to self-govern-
ment.

On November 26, 1917, the Viceroy and the Secretary of State
received the deputations of the Congress and the Muslim League.
These were, as Montagu said, 'the real giants of the Indian
political world', including as they did Mrs Besant, Hasan Imam,
Vesan Pillai, Mazhar-ul-Huq, Jinnah and Gandhi. Next day,
they received Madan Mohan Malaviya alone, and then came, to
quote again from Montagu's diary, 'four men from the United
Provinces . . . Motilal Nehru has been a great firebrand to
Meston, but even he, and more particularly Sapru, and the old
Pandit Misra seemed to be quite willing to consider something
less than [the Congress League] scheme ... if only they were
satisfied that we meant business and that they could get respon-
sible government in, say, twenty years. It seems to me ... it is
useless to count upon these lesser men who will be swept off their
feet when their leaders start agitation again . . /

The inclusion of Motilal among the lesser men' may sound
incongruous in the light of later history, but in November, 1917,
the description was not inappropriate. He had presided over two
'special' political conferences, at Allahabad in 1907, and at Luck-
now in 1917; he had been a member of the provincial legis-
lature since 1909; he had been the president of the Social Con-
ference at Agra, of the U.P. Congress, of the Vakils Association
and of the Home Rule League at Allahabad. But he was only
distinguished in his own province and more particularly in his
home town of Allahabad. Though he had served as a member of
the All India Congress Committee and, since the return of his
son from England, had attended all its annual sessions, he was
still very much a provincial leader - one of the lesser men'. In

146 THE NEHRUS

fcss than two years, he was to tower head and shoulders above
most of the 'giants of Indian polities'*

In his interview with the Viceroy and the Secretary of State,
Motilal pleaded for the acceptance of the Congress-League
scheme, which had been approved at Lucknow in December,
1916. Designed as a compromise between Indian aspirations and
British objections, between Hindu nationalism and Muslim com-
munalisni, the Congress-League Scheme included a series of
checks and balances. It sought to place the Secretary of State for
India on a par with the Colonial Secretary* The control of de-
fence and foreign affairs was to be reserved to the Imperial
Government Hscal and administrative autonomy was to be
granted to the provinces. The executive councils at the centre as
wdtt as in the provinces were to include more Indians, and be-
come issponsible to legislatures four-fifths of which were to be
elected. The bills passed by the legislatures could be vetoed by
die Viceroy or the Governor as the case might be, but if passed
again after a year, were to be enf orced.

In retrospect, the Congress-League scheme seems modest
enough; in 1917 it sounded revolutionary. Even Montagu, sym-
pathetic as he was to Indian aspirations, was unable to see how
tibe control of the executive - and of the purse - could be trans-
fenced at one How to newly-elected and inexperienced legislators*
Was India to have no intermediate stage between complete irre-
sponsibility and fully responsible government? Was it possible
to transplant British institutions into the soil of India without
jpviag her people time to master 'those customs, conventions and
traditions which could not be embodied in an Act of Parlia-
ment*? Could democracy work without training ministers, legis-
late and voters? *Do not be in a hurry/ Montagu had begged
oM Modla! Ghose, the editor of Amrit Bazar Patrika, 'ten years
is a long stretch in the life of a man, but very little in the life of
a nation',

left to himself, Montagu might have taken a long stride for-
warf* Bat he found in high officials in Delhi and the provincial
capfcals a deep (toast dE the Indian politician. He had also to
reckon with the <flefcards in the Cabinet, Parliament and the
and above afl, the powerful Anglo-India lobby in Britain.
is it neoessaiy to proceed at a breakneck speed/ Curzon
with Montagu when the reforms came up before
e, 1% Ufc of Lord Cmzoa, vol. IE, p. 172.

REFORMS ON THE ANVIL 147

f

the Cabinet, 'in a case that constitutes a revolution, of which
not one person in a thousand in this country [Britain] realizes
the magnitude, and which will probably lead by stages of in-
creasing speed to the ultimate disruption of the Empire . . . shake
the foundations of the entire structure both of Indian society
and of British rule/

It was not easy to evolve a scheme which would give a
modicum of satisfaction to the Indian intelligentsia without
antagonizing the I.C.S. and the Tory politicians. But Montagu
decided to take the risk and to begin the experiment at the pro-
vincial level* He seized on Lionel Curtis' formula of 'dyarchy',
modified it, and proposed the bifurcation of the provincial execu-
tive into two parts, one to be responsible to the Indian electorate
through the legislature, and the other to the Governor, The Im-
perial Legislative Council was to be enlarged and given wider
powers of interpellation and discussion, but it was not to con-
trol the central executive*

Even these proposals, conceived as a cautious first step, filled
the older members of the I.C.S* with deep foreboding* *I had a
talk with Marris/ 7 Montagu noted in his diary on January 31,
1918, 'who is rather upset about the civil service, who fear that
everything is crumbling under them/

The Montagu-Chelmsford Report was published in July, 1918*
It was not enthusiastically received in India* Tilak dismissed it
as 'entirely unacceptable'* 'Unworthy to be offered by England
or to be accepted by India', was the verdict of Mrs* Annie Besant,
the president of the Congress. Most of the Moderate leaders,
while acknowledging the defects of the report, sprang to
Montagu's defence* The cracks in the Congress organization,
which had been plastered over at Ludcnow barely two years be-
fore, reappeared and widened beyond repair*

In the United Provinces, the split between the Moderates and
the Extremists was immediately reflected in and outside the
legislature* On August nth, Motilal rose from his seat in the
provincial council to oppose a resolution welcoming the
Montagu-Chelmsford Report. 'To express gratitude for all official
acts, whatever their character,' said Motilal, 'is the natural out-

T Sir W. D. Mams, K.CLE, CSJ. (later Governor of UJP. 1922-8).

148 THE NEHRUS

come of centuries of bureaucratic rule/ He conceded the good
points of the report : its masterly treatment of the subject, its
dear reasoning, its sound principles. But before he could express
his gratitude, he wanted 'an honest answer to an honest
question'. What had they (Montagu and Chelmsford) actually
done? Had they redeemed the pledges implicit in the 1917
declaration? Was not the authority of the legislatures hedged by
too many 'reservations' and safeguards? It looked as if what was
being given with one hand was being taken away with the other.
He went on to quote from a speech of Sir James Meston (who as
lieutenant-Governor was presiding over the deliberations of the
Council): There is a canon of moral strategy that reform must
not be afraid of itself/

Oa the following day, August 13th, Motilal moved a resolu-
&m recommending that all departments, except those of the
police, law and justice, should be transferred to ministers respon-
sible to the provincial legislature. The Montagu-Chelmsford Re-
peat had vested the control of the army and the navy, foreign
affairs and relations with Indian States in the Government of
India. 'What catastrophe would befall the Empire/ asked Motilal,
'if popular ministers controlled all provincial departments except
those concerned with law and order?' He ridiculed the timid
counsels of Chintamani and other Moderate members of the
council who had endorsed the official line that Indians must
learn to stand before they could walk. 'We cannot learn to walk/
he said, "unless you give us the opportunity to exercise the
function. If we keep lying down all the time, then goodbye to
all benefits of the exercise/

While the UJP. Council was in session, the Moderate party
suffered a serious reverse at a political conference at Lucknow at
which Motilal had presided. A number of his Moderate friends
-Sapni, Jagat Narayan, Chintamani and others - declared them-
sdbes in favour of the Montagu-Chelmsford report. Some of
them stayed away from the conference, others found themselves
in a hopeless minority.

An important consequence of Motilal's break with his
Moderate friends was his incursion into journalism. He Jiad been
associated with the Leader since its inception in 1909 as an organ
<rf nationalist opinion in the United Provinces. He was indeed
the iisl Obtinnaii of the Board of Directors of 'Newspapers
d' which owned the Leader, and had valiantly resisted

REFORMS ON THE ANVIL 149

early official attempts to muzzle the paper* Chintamani, the
young and enthusiastic journalist from Andhra - whose salary
Motilal had increased in I9io 8 -had within a decade made the
Leader a power in the land, and himself a power in the Leader.
In the summer of 1917 Motilal and Chintamani had pulled to-
gether over the aftermath of Mrs Besant's internment. But
Montagu's visit at the end of the year proved decisive in Chinta-
manf s final conversion to the idea of constitutional advance by
measured stages* At the same time forces at home and in the
country were driving Motilal in the opposite direction. He
pressed for a more forward editorial policy; but in Chintamani he
met a Tartar. At a meeting of the shareholders Chintamani
silenced the elder Nehru by producing a majority of proxies.
Motilal did not admit defeat, and decided to launch a daily paper
of his own; the Independent appeared on February 5, 1919.

In the last week of August, 1918, Motilal and his son were in
Bombay for the special session of the Indian National Congress,
which had been convened to consider the Montagu-Chelmsford
Report. Besides asking for greater powers for ministers in the
provinces - somewhat on the lines of Motilal's resolution in the
U.P. Council - the Bombay Congress demanded dyarchy at the
centre as a first step in the process of making the Government of
India fully responsible to the legislature within fifteen years. It
was an indication of MotilaTs rising stature in national politics
that he was called upon to speak on the main resolution at the
plenary session. Referring to the charge that there was no
parallel in history for the Congress-League scheme, he said : 'I
plead guilty to the charge, but I say, are you able to point out a
parallel in history for the conditions under which we live and
have lived for a hundred and fifty years and more? While we
cannot find an exact parallel in history to our case, you are
acting in the teeth of tie lessons of history."

The Bombay session was remarkable for the absence of
Moderate leaders, who seceded from the Congress and formed a
separate body - the National Liberal Federation. The wheel had
come full circle: the Moderates, who had expelled the Ex-
tremists in 1908, found themselves edged out of the Congress
ten years later and suffered a sudden slump in prestige and
popularity. Henceforth they were ridiculed by those who sup-

8 Supra t p. 112.

9 Indian National Congress, Report of the Special Session 1918.

150 THE NEHRUS

planted them in popular esteem as fossils incapable of registering
the vital currents of national feeling; their policies were de-
Bounced as craven, even corrupt The verdict was unjust to some
of these veterans who had spent their lives in the nationalist
cause. Among them was Suiendranath Banerjea - the 'Surrender-
Nof of the partition of Bengal -who had attended every Con-
gress session from 1886 to 1917 and enthralled the delegates
with his sonorous eloquence. Then there was old Dinshaw
Wacha, who as a little boy had sat on the steps of the Bombay
Town Hall and heard the reading of Queen Victoria's Proclama-
tion of 1858, Wacha had faithfully backed Pherozeshah Mehta's
fang sway over the Bombay Corporation and the Indian National
Congress, and ceaselessly bombarded the Government in and
outside the legislature with a volley of facts and figures on
Indian grievances, Banerjea and Wacha were the last survivors
<rf a fast diminishing band, which had included Dadabhai
Naoroji, and Badruddin Tyabji, Hume, and Wedderburn, W. C
Boimezjee and H C. Ehitt, Gokhale and Ambika Charan
Maznmdar, and which had sown and nurtured the seed of Indian
nationalism*

*What a wonderful revolution have we seen within the life-
time of a generation?' It C* Dutt wrote just before his death in
1909 to S, N, Banerjea. 3 * Of the magnitude of this revolution
there was no doubt. The founding fathers of the Congress had
been bom into an inert society which needed to be prodded into
vigour with western education and social reform. It was a society
in which political aspiration, let alone political agitation, was
unknown, the sense of Indian nationality was submerged under
the confusion of sectarian and regional loyalties, the press was
Deither vocal nor free, there was a handful of Indians in the
civil service, and acme in the provincial and central executives;
Biuakipa! bodies were run fey officials; and the so-called legis-
lative councils -packed with British officials and the Indian
filled gentry -resemMbd the durbar of an Indian prince. In less
than ifty yeais the scene had been completely transformed.
National coascioosiicss bad coiae to be recognized by the rulers
wA the rdfed as the strongest force in the land; the press had
become a power to be reckoned with; the proportion of Indians
m the superior rarib of tbe civil service had risen, and some of
mm sat em* in lie executive councils of the Governors and

REFORMS ON THE ANVIL

the Viceroy; the local bodies had been reorganized on a popular
basis; and, above all, a beginning had been made with parlia-
mentary institutions. The declaration of August 20, 1917, in-
fused new life into the ageing arteries of the Moderate veterans,
who read into it the consummation of their life-mission, a
tangible proof that their patient pleading at the bar of British
justice had borne fruit* The Montagu-Chehnsford scheme seemed
to them a promise of better things to come* Was it not foolish,
they argued, to oppose the scheme and play into the hands of
its Tory critics in England who were in any case bent upon
wrecking it?

A vocal section in the Congress - a new generation of leaders,
egged on by new politicians in the country at large - feared
that the Moderate veterans were confusing the beginning
of the journey with its end, the promise with the fulfilment.
The declaration of 1917 might be a charter of liberty but it was
not liberty itself* That the Congress leaders should have divided
into two camps at this critical juncture in the national move-
ment is not surprising. What is surprising is that Motilal, in his
fifty-eighth year, should have walked into the Extremist camp,
'The Extremist of today/ Tilak had said at Calcutta in December,
1906, 'will be the Moderate of tomorrow just as the Moderates
of today were the Extremists of yesterday. This normal
sequence of political evolution was to be reversed by Motilal; he
began as an 'immoderate Moderate', and ended in the van of
militant nationalism.

In the autumn of 1918, MotilaTs path had diverged from that
of his old colleagues, but no one could have foreseen how far
and fast he would travel. That was to be decided by the emerg-
ence of a new leader on the Indian stage, who was to make in
1919 one of the most spectacular political conquests in history.

Ajnong Gandhi's earliest and most fateful annexations was
Allahabad's Anand Bhawan,

11 Parvate, T. V^ Gopal Krishna Gofefcak, p, 228.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN
EMERGENCE OF GANDHI

IN the early nineties, when Motilal had already forged his way
to the forefront of the Allahabad Bar, M* K. Gandhi, a young
Gujarati lawyer, was floundering hopelessly in the courts of
Bombay, Tongue-tied, diffident and self-conscious, Gandhi had
perforce to retire to the small town of Rajkot to make a modest
living from petition-writing* He could not carry on for long
even as a barrister-scribe, as he fell foul of the local British
officer in whose court most of his work lay. In 1893 he was glad
to accept a year's contract from an Indian firm in Durban, even
though the fee was modest and it was not quite clear whether he
was being engaged as counsel or as a clerk*

From the day of his arrival in the Dark Continent, Gandhi
was made sharply aware of the humiliating conditions under
which his countrymen had to live* In a Durban court he was
ordered to take off his turban; and in the course of a harrowing
journey by rail and road to Pretoria he was thrown out of a first
class compartment, mercilessly beaten up by an arrogant white
and refused admission into the best hotels* There was nothing
new in these humiliations; Indian merchants had learnt to
pocket them, as they pocketed their daily earnings* What was
new was Gandhi's reaction: he did not give in to those who
abused and assaulted him, nor did he retaliate in kind* He ob-
served that the Indian immigrants had few rights, and did not
know how to assert even the rights they had* The helplessness
of his fellow-countrymen in a hostile environment had the
miraculous effect of dissipating his own pathological shyness.
Though barely twenty-five, Gandhi quickly blossomed into a
successful lawyer and an astute politician* He organized the
Indians in Natal - and later in the Transvaal - against a racial
tyranny which not only denied them elementary civic rights but
threatened to undermine the position they had built by dint of
iiaid work in the economy of South Africa. He was able to infuse
a sprit of solidarity among his compatriots, although they came

EMERGENCE OF GANDHI 153

from different provinces, faiths and strata of society* He
appealed to the conscience of the saner section of the European
community in South Africa; he sought the sympathy of Indians
and Englishmen whose moral sense had not been blunted by race
prejudice*

It was a measure of Gandhi's success that the Indian National
Congress repeatedly passed resolutions and the London Times
commented editorially in favour of the cause he championed* But
in South Africa itself he made little headway* Except for a hand-
ful of Christian missionaries and youthful idealists bewitched by
Gandhi, the Europeans of South Africa tended to view the
Indian Question* not so much as a matter of political ethics as a
question of their own bread and butter and that of their children*
The logic of colonial self-government prevented the Imperial
Government in London from effectively interceding on behalf of
the Indian settlers. Gandhi made some fine gestures: he led
ambulance units composed of Indian volunteers during the Boer
War and the "Zulu Rebellion', but these gestures were wasted on
his opponents* Nor did the British victory in the Boer War bring
any relief; it resulted in a new partnership between Boer and
Briton, but the brown, black and yellow races had no place in it
Gandhi's patience was finally exhausted in 1906 when the Trans-
vaal Government proposed to enact an irksome, humiliating and
wholly unnecessary law for the registration of the Indian popu-
lation* There is only one course open to those like me/ he told
a meeting of his fellow-countrymen in Johannesburg, 'to die but
not to submit to this law." To die, not to kill: thus was born
Satyagraha, a new technique for fighting political and social
injustice* It was not the product of a sudden impulse; behind it
lay a lifelong discipline, in which the austere background of
Gandfs home, the influence of his devout mother, the impact of
the Sermon on the Mount, the daily meditation on the Bhagavad
Gita, the inspiring words of Tolstoy and the harsh realities of
South African politics had all played their part

For eight years -from 1906 to 19 14 -Gandhi waged a seem-
ingly unequal struggle against the Government of South Africa*
The Indians lacked the right to vote or to be represented in the
local legislatures and were exposed to economic pressures from
the dominant European community* Nevertheless they refused
to submit to unjust laws, though they refrained from hatred or
violence against those whom they regarded as their oppressors*

154 THE NEHRUS

Under Gandhi's leadership, hundreds of Indians cheerfully faced
impoverishment/ imprisonment, flogging and even shooting.
Gandhi tried, with great success, to keep his agitation from pass-
ing from the realm of conscience to the realm of force. Public
opinion in India and Britain - and indeed throughout the world
- was deeply stirred and impelled the South African Government
to a compromise in 1914. Not all Indian grievances were redressed,
bat General Smuts, who negotiated with Gandhi on behalf of the
South African Government, recalled many years later that the
compromise was 'a successful coup for Gandhi*. It was my fate/
added Smuts, "to be the antagonist of a man for whom even then
I bad the highest respect.*

In January, 1915, the Government of India joined the people
of India in welcoming Gandhi home* The New Year Honours'
list included a Katser-i-Hmd medal for him* His fame had long
preceded his return to the homeland. Gokhole, whom he ack-
nowledged as his political mentor, had paid a tribute to his
'marvellous spiritual power to turn ordinary men into heroes
and martyrs 9 .

Early in 1915 Gandhi was in no great hurry to plunge into
pn&lie life. For one thing, he had promised Gokhale that he
would watch and wait for a year before irrevocably committing
himself. For another, he was convinced that it did not become a
votary of Satyagraha to embarrass the Government so long as
the war lasted. During his stay in England en route to India, he
had organized an ambulance unit from among Indian students.
Had te not been for a severe attack of pleurisy, which compelled
hfap to return home, Gandhi might have served in the batde-
fie&fe <rf Bmope and the Middle last, and possibly lost his life in
the dfefeiice of an Empire whkh he was destined to shake to its
fowodations.

Iter the fiist few yeass after his return from South Africa,
^sufiii was a strangely enigmatic figure hovering uncertainly
oil tibe peiipheiy of Indian politics, 'rather an eccentric specimen
01 an a^aBd-retomad^facated Indian? He avowed his political
oeal in a speed* be deiiveisd at the annual law dinner at Madras

MaJkitm* Gondfo Essays and Refactions, pp. 277-8,

EMERGENCE OF GANDHI

in April, 1915. It gives me the greatest pleasure this evening/
he said, "to re-declare my loyalty to the British Empire. I dis-
covered that the British Empire had certain ideals with which I
have fallen in love and one of those ideals is that every subject
of the British Empire has the freest scope for his energies and
honour whatever he thinks is due to his conscience.' 3 His tributes
to the British Empire, his criticisms of western civilization and
modern science, his use of religious jargon to describe social and
political problems, his crusade against child marriage and un-
touchability, his pleas for revival of handloom industry, the
ashram he set up to practise voluntary poverty - all these seemed
to mark him out as a visionary, strangely unpolitical and other-
worldly, whose energies were likely to be drained off in in-
nocuous channels of social and religious reform*

Gandhi did not make a sharp demarcation between religion
and politics. His technique of Satyagraha sought to introduce
the spirit of religion into politics. He was eager, almost impatient,
to apply this technique to cure his motherland of the many ills
from which she suffered. It was, however, part of the strategy of
Satyagraha not to take advantage of the difficulties of the
opponent; this self-denying ordinance determined Gandhfs
attitude to the Government during the war, which he explained
in a letter to the Viceroy.

Gandhi to the Viceroy, April 29, 1918: *I recognize that, in the
hour of its danger we must give - as we have decided to give -
ungrudging and unequivocal support to the Empire, of which we
aspire in the near future to be partners in the same sense as the
Dominions overseas ... If I could make my countrymen retrace
their steps, I would make them withdraw afl the Congress resolu-
tions and not whisper "Home Rule" during the pendency of the
war* I would make India offer all her able-bodied sons as a sacri-
fice to the Empire at this critical moment, and I know that India
by this very act would become the most favoured partner in the
Empire and racial distinctions would become a thing of the
past . . /*

So remote was this romantic idealism from red-politik that it
carried conviction neither to the nationalist leaders nor to the

3 Natesao, G. A. (Editor), Speeches and Writings of Mahatma Gom&i, p. 310.

156 THE NEHRUS

Government of India* Tilak and Mrs. Besant saw (as the Irish
nationalists had seen) that 'the price of India's loyalty was
India's freedom'. The Government soon discovered that Gandhi
was no honeyed loyalist and Satyagraha was no passive doctrine.
When Lord Chdmsford appealed for 'domestic differences' to be
sunk during the crisis of war. Gandhi answered, If the appeal
mvolves the toleration of tyranny and wrong-doing on the part
of officials, I am powerless to respond ... I shall resist tyranny
to the utmost Ask me to suspend my activities in that direc-
tion, and you ask me to suspend life. If I could popularize the
use of soul-force which is another name for love-force, in the
place of brute force, I know I could present you with an India
that could defy the whole world to do its worst . . * In season
and out of season, therefore, I shall discipline myself, to express
in my life this eternal law of suffering . . . And if I take part
in any other activity, the motive is to show the matchless
superiority of that law . * I write this because I love the English
nation, and I wish to evoke in every Indian the loyalty of the
Englishman'.

It is doubtful if the Viceroy and his advisers understood or
cared for the moral superiority of Satyagraha. If they were
ostentatiously courteous, almost respectful to Gandhi, it was
because they knew what a nuisance he had been to authority in
South Africa. They did not mind his advice on the problems of
Indians overseas - a subject on which he was acknowledged as
an expert But when he went on to comment on such delicate
issues as the internment of the Ali Brothers or Mrs Besant, or to
dbampion agrarian grievances in Bihar and Bombay, their esteem
turned to suspicion, and finally to indignation. They tended to
see Gandhi not (as he saw himself) in the role of a bridge-builder,
bat as a basy-body who was exaggerating and even inventing
grievances. lit April, 1918, Home Member Vincent suggested

the Viceroy that 'it would save a lot of trouble if Mr Gandhi's
serving is the battlefields of France or Mespotamia were

Gandhi did not go to Mesopotamia. He spent the dosing
saditfas of the war touring his native province of Gujarat to
collect recruits for die British Indian Army. Prostrated by the
s&aiii of tfafe Sour followed by an acute attack of dysentery, he
test iatoest in life and seemed to be at death's door. The pub-
of the Rowktt Bills, however, stirred him to the depths

EMERGENCE OF GANDHI 157

and gave him a fresh incentive to go on living. The scales fell
from his eyes : the fanciful image of the Empire which he had
cherished so long crumbled in a moment. Throughout the war,
he had struggled hard to keep out of political agitation; now he
felt an irresistible call to fight a wrong perpetrated in peace*

The Rowlatt Bills sought to arm the executive with special
powers to suppress political violence* They could not have been
more ill-timed* To the Indian intelligentsia looking for a generous
gesture from Britain after the war, a measure curtailing civil
liberties came as a bolt from the blue* 'Wrong in principle, un-
sound in operation and too sweeping/ was the comment of Tej
Bahadur Sapru* Another Moderate leader, Jinnah, declared that
a government which enacted such a law in peace-time forfeited
its claim to be called a civilized government* 'Though I have not
left my bed/ Gandhi wrote to Srinivasa Sastri, 'I feel I can no
longer watch the progress of the Bills lying in bed. To me the
Bills are the aggravated symptoms of the deep-seated disease*
They are a striking demonstration of the determination of the
Civil Service to retain its grip of our necks * * * I consider the
Bills to be an open challenge to us * * **

The tenacity of the Government in pushing the measure
through the Imperial Legislative Council in the teeth of the
unanimous opposition of the Indian members shocked Gandhi*
Constitutional opposition having failed, he thought recourse to
Satyagraha was the only alternative* He set up a new organiza-
tion - the Satyagraha Sabha - and published a Satyagraha Pledge:
'Being conscientiously of opinion that [the Rowlett Bills]
. * * are unjust, subversive of the principle of liberty and justice
and destructive of the elementary rights of individuals on which
the safety of the community as a whole, and the State itself is
based, we solemnly affirm that * . * we shall refuse civilly to obey
these laws and such other laws as a Committee to be hereafter
appointed may think fit, and further affirm, that in this struggle
we will faithfully follow truth and refrain from violence to life,
person or property*'

It is not easy to understand the policy of the Government of
India at this time, if indeed it had a policy at all* In Britain
Montagu had been endeavouring to create a favourable climate
for the next instalment of constitutional reforms* If he had had
his way, an Indian - Sir S. P* Sinha - would have become the

* February 9, 1919. (G.S.N.).

158 THE NEHRUS

Secretary of State for India, with Montagu as his deputy. This
was too bold and statesmanlike a proposal to go through, but
early in 1919 Sinha was raised to the peerage and appointed
Under-Secretary of State for India. In April, 1918, before
leaving India, Montagu had advised Chelmsford 'to lead and not
to follow the administration over which he presided'. This was
excellent advice, but it was wasted on a Viceroy who was
(Montagu noted in his diary) 'cold, aloof, reserved, strongly
holding views collected from his surroundings'. A kindly and
well-meaning man, who daily struggled to the best of his ability
through the mounds of files and the exacting Viceregal cere-
jocumial, Chelmsford was overtaken by events which he could
neither foresee nor control

The Rowlatt Bills and Gandhi's appearance on the political
stage were to exercise a profound influence on the fortunes of
the Nehru family. Motilal had followed with interest and
admiration the course of Gandhi's valiant struggle on behalf of
Indians overseas. In 1913 Jawaharlal had collected funds in
Allahabad to assist the Satyagraha struggle in South Africa.
Lorf Hardinge's strictures on the policies of the South African
Government, which nearly led to his dismissal, 6 seemed too mild
to Jawaharial. When one of the youijg ladies of the family, Uma
Nehra, criticized the Viceroy in a public speech and Jawaharlal
OHiairred in her sentiments, Motilal wrote: 'Uma's speech is a
very creditable oae, coming as it does from the heart. The heart,
however, is always a fool whoever it belongs to. The only safe
guide is the head and I must say there is little of it in the speech
. * . the Vksesoy is as helpless in the matter as any of us ... it
wa$ impossible im hlsa to declare war on the Union Govern-
ment * . [he] west roich further than he was justified, having
regard to the peculiar relationship which exists between the
Indian and die Imperial Governments/ 7

had first seen Gandhi at the Bombay Congress in

r, 1915; die fallowing year during the Lucknow session
ttief met Gm&i still had some of the halo of the South African
struggle, font hfe politics seamed a strange mixture. If he avowed

of PeEsfenrst, Uy In&m Years, p. 91.
* December ai, 1^5, gif.),

EMERGENCE OF GANDHI 159

loyalty to the British throne and deprecated controversial politics
for the duration of the war, he also venerated Tilak, pleaded for
the release of AH Brothers and Mrs Besant, led agrarian agita-
tions and conducted himself like a knight-errant of truth, ever
ready to take up the 'sword' of Satyagraha against injustice.
Jawaharlal was puzzled by Gandhi's politics but captivated by
his personality, finding him "humble and clear-cut and hard as
a diamond, pleasant and soft-spoken, but inflexible and terribly
earnest His eyes were mild and deep, yet out of them blazed out
a fierce fire . * * this little man of poor physique had something
of steel in him, something rock-like which did not yield to
physical powers, however great they might be. And in spite of
his unimpressive features, his loin-doth and bare body, there
was a royalty and a kingliness in him which compelled a willing
obeisance from others * * * It was the utter sincerity of the man
and his personality that gripped; he gave the impression of tre-
mendous inner reserves of power'*

The Champaran agitation had shown that the quaint little
man, seemingly so unworldly, possessed a keen political acumen
and a formidable political weapon* The publication of the
'Satyagraha Pledge* made an immediate impact on young Nehru;
it filled a void in his soul which the arm-chair politics of Allaha-
bad had failed to do* The vague nationalism of his childhood,
nourished by the self-imposed exile at Harrow and Cambridge
at last found a focus*

Motilal was astounded when Jawaharlal told him that he in-
tended to join the Satyagraha Sabha* The elder Nehru held
Gandhi in high esteem and was second to none in denouncing
the Rowlatt Acts* But the idea of an extra-constitutional agita-
tion seemed to him preposterous* His entire career as a lawyer,
legislator and Congressman strongly predisposed him against
civil disobedience* In his presidential address to the Allaha-
bad Provincial Conference in 1907, he had ridiculed passive re-
sistance as a 'charming expression which means so little and
suggests so much', and pictured the results of such an agitation*
*I for one tremble to think/ he had said, 'of the condition of
things which would prevail if all our Government and 'aided*
schools and colleges were to be dosed, all municipal and district
boards abolished, and the elected dement of the legislatures done
away with* Where shall we be? The answer is plain enough:
nowhere. We cannot even occupy the position we did at the

l6o THE NEHRUS

beginning of the British rule, when the institutions, I have just
mentioned, olid not exist Remember the price you have been
paying upwards of a century for the few blessings that you
eajoy* Remember the greater price you will have to pay if you
throw away these blessings/

Twelve years later, MotilaTs faith in the sincerity of John Bull
had visibly declined, but his faith in constitutional methods re-
mained intact : unconstitutional agitation struck him not only
as foolish but futile : breaking the law could land a few hundred
people in gaol, but hardly affect the apparatus of the administra-
tion* The heart is a fool, the only safe guide is the head/ It was
all very wdi for Jawahadal to say that he was going to gaol, but
4id lie realize the repercussions of this step on the health of his
ailing mother, the professional fortunes of his old father, the
happiness of his young wife and the future of his baby

Tlhese misgivings were the more natural in the spring of 1919
when Gandhi was an unknown quantity in Indian politics. The
publication of the Satyagraha pledge had instantly provoked a
'manifesto' of protest signed by a galaxy of senior politicians,
who feared that civil disobedience would undermine the stability
of die society and the state* There were strong reasons, personal
as mil as political, for Jawaharlal to pause and think before
taking the plunge. What seemed 'a tryst with destiny* in 1947*
was, twenty-eight years earlier, a leap in the dark.

Father and son realized that they were at the cross-roads.
Night after night, Jawaharlal 'wandered about alone, tortured in
mind and trying to grope" his way about, torn by the conflict
between his political convictions and family affections, tor-
mented by the feeling that he was not requiting his parents*
lifelong low and care. For oiiee, Motilal found that the crisis was
too serious to be i*esolved by the exercise of the paternal preroga-
tive dE aa aagyy explosion; secretly he tried sleeping on the floor
to get an idea of what his son would have to go through in gaol.

Having foied to wean his son from Satyagraha, Motilal
sought Gandhi's Intervention. The Mahatma came to Allahabad
fa the second wed: of March and advised Jawaharlal to be

* l&eir ooly cfeild fe&a was bom on November 19, 1917.
Oa midnight of Aiigost 14, 1947* Jawaharlal Nehru told the Constituent
Assaessfciy : Ijougg yeais a$fc we made a tryst with destiny and now the time

EMERGENCE OF GANDHI l6l

patient awhile and not to do anything which was likely to upset
his father* The domestic crisis was postponed rather than re-
solved; soon it was overshadowed by a catastrophe which shook
the Indian sub-continent, and incidentally brought father and
son into political alignment

CHAPTER FIFTEEN
AMRITSAR

THE people of India/ wrote Ramsay MacDonald, after a visit to
India in 1909, 'are like the aged Simeon and Anna, the
prophetess who watched by the temple for the Messiah. Every
year prophets arise who blaze across the religious firmament like
a comet, and palpitating hearts are drawn to them/

Early in 1919, the Government of India was as slow to recog-
nize the political Messiah as 'the giants of Indian polities' who
had rushed to the press with a joint manifesto denouncing Satya-
gjaha. From Allahabad, where he had gone to see Motilal Nehru,
Gandhi sent another telegram to the Viceroy on March nth:
'Even at this eleventh hour, I respectfully ask RE. and his
Government to pause and consider before passing the Rowlatt
Bills/ Whether justified or not there is no mistaking the strength
of public opinion on [these] measures/ The Viceroy and his
advisers remained unmoved by Gandhi's appeals* They were con-
vinced that the bills were necessary 'in the public interest'; they
dared not rid: the loss of face in bowing before Indian opinion;
and they tended to underrate (just as a little later they were to
exaggerate) the risks o Satyagraha.

Gandhi launched his movement with a day of hartal when
business was to be suspended and the people were to fast and
piay, As a token of anger or mourning, the hartal was not un-
kaowzi is India's villages 'and towns, but as a national strike in
a {xptetfcal campaign it was a novel idea, 'When I suggested the
Sraday <tenoBsta^tik>n and fast,' Gandhi confessed 1 later, *I
thought I wmdd be laughed at by most people as a lunatic. But
tibe idtes struck ffce imagination of an angry people/ If the
^itetas&c response to his appeal prised Gandhi, it alarmed
tfee Cqwmsieajk At Delhi, where owing to a misunderstanding
the Imrtel was observed on March 3oth, the police opened fire to
disperse a d0w$; GaadM described the firing as 'a sledge-hammer
to ct^sh a iy*. Tte country-wide demonstrations on April 6th

* Gawlbi fc Montagu, June 14 1920. (OSN.X

AMRITSAR 163

unhinged the authorities. The mighty imperial edifice was
shaken by a political earthquake the tremors of which pervade
the secret telegrams exchanged between the Government of India
and the Provincial Governments.

Governor of Bombay to the Viceroy, April 7/8, 1919: Tester-
day's demonstrations were large* Owing, however, to the know-
ledge of the presence of a military force they passed off quiedy
* . * it will almost certainly be necessary for me to proceed against
Gandhi and others * . * but in view of the fact that such action
may result in considerable disturbance here and possibly else-
where, I consider it proper to inform you immediately and to
defer taking action until I receive telegraphic intimation of the
receipt of this telegram by you/

Viceroy to Secretary Home Department, Government of India,
April 8, 1919: Tlease see "clear the line*' telegram from H.E.
the Governor of Bombay dated the jth April, 1919. I think it
important that in order to deal with the possible development of
the passive resistance movement a definite plan of action should
be prepared at once . . /

Secretary Home Department to Private Secretary to the Viceroy,
April 9, 1919 : *. . . In the opinion of O'Dwyer,* the situation is
now so serious that it is desirable that Gandhi should, under
Regulation in of 1818, be deported to Burma. Vincent 8 at any
rate does not agree with O'Dwyer as to the expediency of de-
portation . * . In Egypt recent doings show deportation might
cause general conflagration . . After consulting Sir James
Meston and Sir George Lowndes/ the Home Member has tele-
graphed to the Punjab and the United Provinces Governments
and the Chief Commissioner Delhi sanctioning the issue by then
of an order directing Gandhi to remain in Bombay Presi-
dency , . /

Secretary Home Department to Chief Secretary Bombay Govern-
ment, April 12: 'In connection with His Excellency the
Governor's [Sir George Lloyd's] 5 conversation with His Excd-

* Governor of die Punjab.

3 Home Member of the Viceroy's Council.

* Law Member of tiie Viceroy's Council.
5 Governor of Bombay.

164 THE NEHRUS

feacy the Viceroy regarding the deportation of Horniman, 6
Jamsadas Dwarkadas, Sobhani, Mrs Naidu, Sethe, Banker,
Jinaah and Gandhi . . If however they [the Government of
Bombay] consider this action to be essential for peace and safety
of the Bombay Presidency, the Government of India will support
them. Government of India doubt the expediency of including
fiaaah and they think that Gandhi should not be deported unless
some further occurrences take place which render it unavoid-
able../

Viceroy to Governor of Burma, April 12: It is probable that I
shall deport in the immediate future some six persons from
Bombay area, I hope you will assist us by accepting charge of

Of the Bombay politicians only Horniman was actually de-
ported to England. Jinnah soon ceased to be persona non grata by
showing that he was immune to the Gandhian virus* Gandhi
himself was arrested on the night of April pth, while he was on
his way to Delhi, taken by train to Bombay and set free. He
would have again courted arrest by leaving for Delhi, were it not
for the fact that the news of his arrest had provoked serious dis-
turbances in Bombay, Ahmedabad, Nadiad and other places in
his own province which was the least expected to forget his
fundamental principle of non-violence. He observed a three-day
fast to expiate his "Himalayan miscalculation' in launching a
mass-movement without making sure that the people were ready
for it He was as unsparing in his denunciations of mob violence
as of official excesses. Though he decided to restrict and finally
to suspend civil disobedience, his faith in Satyagraha did not
falter. He aigued that Satyagraha had not caused violence but
0rfy brought it to the surface, curbed it and channelled it along
fe^ harmful lines. In spite of the indications, which to super-
Soai observers may appear to the contrary/ he wrote to Maffey,
Flivate Secretary to Lord Chelmsford,* 'Satyagraha alone can
the relations between Englishmen and Indians/ Gandhi
his appeals to the Viceroy to repeal the Rowlatt Act,
Mostim sentiment on Khilafat and grant constitu-
tionai lefonas 'in a liberal and trusting spirit' .

* Mtor <rf the Bombay Ommick.

AMRITSAR

Gandhi's appeals to the Viceroy went unheeded. Lord Chelms-
ford did not seem to have a policy of his own* In June, 1917,
Lord Pentland, the Governor of Madras, had led him up the
garden path over Mrs Besant's internment; in April, 1919,
another satrap, Sir Michael O'Dwyer, was to push him into the
gravest crisis in Indo-British relations since the Mutiny. Montagu
had noted in his diary (January, 1918) that O'Dwyer was 'deter-
mined to maintain his position as the idol of the reactionary
forces and to try and govern by the iron hand'. 7 On September
13, 1917, an outburst by O'Dwyer rubbed salt into wounds
which the Viceroy had been striving to heal. 'O'Dwyer undid
my work in a minute/ Chelmsford complained 8 to Geoffrey
Dawson. On the afternoon of April 13, 1919, a .British general
backed by O'Dwyer was to undo the work of many more people
and bedevil Indo-British relations for a generation.

The hartal and demonstrations on April 6th against the
Rowlatt Act, alarmed the authorities in the Punjab, who read
into them not the emergence of the Mahatma, but the recrudes-
cence of the Mutiny. The British Government* , thundered Sir
Michael, Vhich has crushed foreign foes and quelled internal
rebellion could afford to despise these agitators/ On April 9th,
the day of the Rama Naumi, the anniversary of the birth of
Lord Rama, Amritsar, the second largest town in the Punjab,
witnessed extraordinary scenes of fraternization between Hindus
and Muslims. A huge procession formed, but it was peaceful and
good-humoured; the brass bands leading it struck up 'God save
the King' while marching in front of the (British) Deputy Com-
missioner* On April loth, another procession, protesting against
the arrest of two local leaders, was fired upon, ran amuck, com-
mitted acts of arson and assaulted a few Europeans, including
two women. On April nth, troops under the command of
Brigadier-General Dyer were drafted into the city, which was
quiet for the next two days.

On the afternoon of April I3th, which happened to be the
festival of Baisafefu, a public meeting was held in Jallianwala
Bagh, despite a ban on meetings of which many people in the
town were aot aware. General Dyer inarched his troops to lie

7 Montagu, E, &* An Indian Diary, p. 207.

* The History of *&c Times: 15061 Anniversary and Beyond, Part n, p. 844-

i66

THE NEHRUS

place where the meeting was being held, and ordered firii
which lasted for ten minutes until the ammunition was e
hausted. The Jaffianwala Bagh, with its high-walled enclosu:
and one narrow entrance, proved a virtual rat-trap for tl
hundreds of men, women and children who had assembled ther
Tragic as this massacre was, worse was to follow. Martial la 1
was declared in Amritsar, Lahore and several districts of tt
Punjab. O'Dwyer and his civilian and military advisers mad
themselves believe that by ruthless action they were nipping a
mapient rebellion and saving the Punjab for the Empire A
was certainly not well with that unhappy province of which th
war and influenza had taken a heavy toll; there was real soda
and economic discontent which German, Afghan and Par
Mamie agents had been trying to exploit. However, all this ha,
nothing to do with the demonstrations against the Rowlatt Act
That the theory of a conspiracy had no basis in fact is prove,
by secret letters exchanged between M. L. Robertson, Bombay
Importer-General of Police, and Sir C R. Cleveland, the Directo:
ot the Government of India's Intelligence Bureau -the tw<
officers who should have been best informed on the politica
ataafton. It is difficult to understand the position in the Punjal
Mly, wrote Robertson on May 19, 1919. 'Have you been able
to trace any organized conspiracy? We have not yet succeedec
m doing so in respect of Ahmedabad.' Cleveland replied or
May 2 3 rd : So far no traces of organized conspiracy have beer
found in the Punjab. There was organized agitation, and then in
particular places the people went mad ... I am sorry to see that
the Times of Indm and The Pioneer have committed themselves
to the theory of Bolshevism or Egyptian instigation for our
Mian troubles I have satisfied myself that they have no
wteace worth the name to support the theory '
_ This 'mutiny-complex' explains, even though it cannot excuse,
the draconian punishments and nameless indignities indis-
criminately meted out to the Indian population by trigger-happy
majors and tease magistrates. 'For me/ General Dyer had blundy
toM the people of Amritsar on the morrow of the Jallianwala
y, 'the battlefield of Amritsar or Flanders is the
anger and fear alone could have prompted bombing
unning of villages from the air, and created under
law regime a number of ingenious and indeed fan-
of em**. It became for example an offence for two Indians

Father and son before the
plunge into politics

Father and son after the
plunge into politics

Motilal Nehru, the Leader of the Opposition in the Central
Legislative Assembly

AMRITSAR 167

to walk abreast, or for a Hindu and a Muslim to fraternize in
public. In Lahore, the capital of the province, college students
were made to march sixteen miles in the scorching summer sun
to salute the Union Jack, and a marriage party which numbered
more than ten was arrested, the bridegroom detained, the priest
and the others whipped. Hundreds of persons were rounded up
all over the province and tried by summary courts set up under
martial law*

Motilars links with Lahore were dose: it was his wife's home
town. One of the victims of martial law was his friend Harkis-
henlal, a prominent Congressman, who was charged with
'waging war against the King". Motilal applied for permission
to defend him, but was not allowed to enter the Punjab. He
addressed a long telegram to the Home Member at Simla and
sent copies to Montagu and Sinha in London. Montagu, prob-
ably goaded by Sinha, reacted quickly, called for the Viceroy's
explanation and then, without waiting for it, cabled on
June 4th :

The reasons why advocates from other provinces are being
prevented from appearing should please be communicated to me.
It is considered by my council that unless special strong reasons
exist, the prohibition is improper/

The Viceroy dutifully defended the action of the local authori-
ties as being legal' and "within the jurisdiction of the Military
Administrator', but added that lawyers from outside the
province would be admitted after June nth when martial law
was expected to be withdrawn* Not satisfied with this assurance,
Montagu telegraphed again on June gth :

1 presume that there is no probability of proceedings against
Harkishenlal and other accused being disposed of before counsel
from outside provinces have opportunity of appearing. If there
is any doubt, kindly arrange for postponement of proceedings** 8

Motilal's strategy in appealing to Montagu and Sinha above
the heads of G'Dwyer and Chelmsford was shrewd and success-
ful. He was able not only to save Harkishenlal, but also perhaps
to shorten the duration of martial law. But for Montagu's inter-

* Telegram Secretary of State to Viceroy.

l68 THE NEHRUS

vention, the Government of India would have let things slide
and the Punjab Government would have been in no hurry to
restore civil liberties. Unlike many lawyers in Lahore and out-
side, Motilal refused to make money out of the distress of the
Punjab. He neglected his own practice, visited Lahore at the
earliest opportunity and took in hand the appeals of several un-
fortunate persons who had been condemned by the martial law
courts. In London the appeals to the Privy Council were handled
by his own solicitors, Barrow Rogers and Nevill.

3

The Punjab tragedy had a strong, almost a traumatic, impact
on a generation whose sensitivity had not been blunted by the
purges, firing squads, pogroms and gas chambers of our own
times* The time has come/ Rabindranath Tagore wrote to the
Viceroy while renouncing his knighthood, Vhen badges of
honour make our shame glaring in their incongruous context of
humiliation/ 1 * C F. Andrews, a friend of Tagore, Gandhi and
the Nehrus, wrote to Mahadev Desai after a visit to Amritsar:

It was a massacre, a butchery ... I fed that if only I could
take each single Englishman and show him out of my eyes what
I have seen, he would feel the same as I. English honour has
departed . . / n

More disastrous for Indo-British relations than these tragic
happenings was the way the official world reacted to them. Sir
Michad O'Dwyer and his advisers were, of course, the victims
of f&eir own 'mutiny complex'. But even Lord Chelmsford was
content gallantly to defend the actions of the local officials. Only
i^isly did* the Government of India put its foot down, for
$cai&ple 7 when the Punjab Government proposed to recover from
tibe unfortunate local population the cost not only of the
ITOiifire forces stationed there while martial law was in force,
&ni; also of raaoving European women and children to the hills.
As lor Montagu, it could fairly be said that he was no less a
victim of General Dyer's firing than the hundreds whose blood
had soaked the stricken field of Jalliaiiwala Bagh. The turn of

. 250.
59

AMRITSAR 169

the wheel which the Amritsar tragedy set into motion was to
spin Montagu from one crisis to another, wreck his patient work
for conciliation and co-operation on both sides of the water and
deny any chance of success to the constitutional reforms on
which he had laboured so long and hard. He felt in duty bound
to defend the men on the spot, but he used his influence, when-
ever he could, on the side of restraint and moderation. We have
already seen how readily he responded to MotilaPs appeal on
behalf of HarkishenlaL Sensing die depth of Indian feeling, he
advocated a judicial and public inquiry into the Punjab disturb-
ances in preference to the departmental inquiry recommended
by the Government of India.

Unfortunately, Montagu's sympathy and generosity were not
emulated by those who occupied the seats of power in Simla and
the provincial capitals* The Government of India brought for-
ward and pushed through the Imperial Legislative Council an
Indemnity Bill designed 'to protect' officers who had acted 'in
good faith* in the recent disturbances. There were of course
precedents for an indemnity bill following a period of martial
law, but those were cases in which the raison d'etre of martial
law was not in question. The enactment of an Indemnity Act,
even before the official enquiry committee headed by Lord
Hunter began its work, sounded frankly cynical. The 'white-
washing bill' formed the subject of a speech by Motilal at a
public meeting at Allahabad on September 17, 1919. *I main-
tain/ he said, 'that the Government of India is not only the most
interested party in this matter . . . but a very unfair party . . *
Indeed the way the Government of India has behaved would do
little credit even to an ordinary litigant in a court/

On October 8th, Malaviya, the Congress President, informed
the Government of India that a Congress sub-committee had
been constituted to collect and produce evidence before the
Hunter Committee. On October 24th, Gandhi arrived in Lahore;
three days later he met O'Dwyer's successor, Sir Edward
Maclagan, 'a true gentleman loved by all', 12 The Governor was
impressed by the conciliatory attitude of the Mahatma. 'Mr
Gandhi evidently does not take the intractable attitude as Pandit
Malaviya/ Sir Edward informed the Government of India, 'he
appears sincerely anxious to get matters settled as soon as

32 Qiaturvedi, Benarsidas and Sykes, Marjori^ Charles freer Andrews,
p. 131.

THE NEHRUS

possible/ Gandhi suggested that Rauf, one of the High Court
Judges, appointed to review the martial law cases, should be
replaced by a judge from another province; that Congress repre-
sentatives should be permitted to suggest questions when wit-
nesses were examined by the Hunter Committee; that some of
the gaoled Punjab leaders, who were conversant with the subject
of the inquiry should be temporarily released. The Punjab
Government (backed by Government of India) was prepared to
accommodate Gandhi on the first two suggestions, but declined
to release the Punjab leaders; the farthest the Government could
go was to rdease each of the leaders on parole on the day his
evidence was to be recorded. The gulf was narrowed but not
bridged, and the Congress announced that it would boycott the
Hunter Committee and conduct a parallel inquiry of its own,
The public effect of the [Hunter] Inquiry Committee/ Sir
Edward Madagan wrote, 'would be weakened by the absence of
the other side/

However unfortunate the breach on this issue, it had far-
reaching consequences. Motilal was appointed a member of the
Congress Inquiry Committee; his colleagues were Gandhi, C R*
Das, M* IL Jayakar and Abbas TayabjL This was the first
occasion/ Gandhi recorded many years later, *on which I came
is dose personal contact with Motilalji/ 13 A pen-picture of the
committee at work has been left by Jayakar: 'Gandhi invariably
assumed the role of the stern judge in sifting the chaff from the
substance* He took infinite pains to see that what was to be put
before the public was the quintessence of truth. The occasions
ware not infrequent when we differed violently as to what was
die truth . . Das and I often advocated our view with great
insistence; Das often thumped the table with a vigorous gesture,
which was his favourite habit when putting forward his point
f view* Motiial did the same bat with great restraint Gandhi
cltea stood alone against all this fusillade/ Jayakar adds that
Gas<Ms weak voice and irresistible logic finally prevailed, and
at the ead of the day Das would leave the discussion with the
Xtean it all, Gandhi. You are right and we are

For Motilal, as for other members of the committee, this dose
association with Gandhi was an instructive experience. The

K* My Experiments with Truth, p. 583.
Ja^ate, $. IL, UK Story of My life vol. i, p. 322.

AMRITSAR 171

Mahatma's incisive intellect, moral sensitivity, passion for
justice, rock-like will, conscious humility, flair for polemics and
publicity, were a strange but effective mixture, No longer was it
possible to dismiss him as a starry-eyed visionary : it seemed as
if his practical sense had been strengthened rather than weak-
ened by the religious cast of his mind. Jawaharlal had already
fallen under the Mahatma's spell early in 1919; by the end of
the year his father had developed a wholesome respect for
Gandhi which was to survive basic temperamental differences as
well as the vicissitudes of politics*

An important consequence of MotilaTs legal and political
work for the Punjab was his election as president of the Amritsar
Congress, The Amritsar railway station was *a seething mass of
humanity 7 when he arrived from Lahore on the afternoon of
25th December. He was escorted by a huge procession amidst
scenes of great enthusiasm. It was a sign of the times that Motilal
and Ajmal Khan (the President of the annual session of the
Muslim League which was also meeting in Amritsar) together
visited and offered prayers at the Golden Temple, the holy shrine
of the Sikhs.

The Amritsar Congress was attended by a galaxy of nationalist
leaders, including Tilak and Annie Besant, B. C Pal and C R.
Das, Malaviya and Gandhi, Srinivasa Sastri and Jinnah. MotilaTs
presidential speech took three hours. His voice was faint from a
recent illness; the audience was in an excitable mood, but he
wittily headed off hecklers, who objected to his speaking in
English, by 'begging as a Brahmin 7 for silence to enable his weak
voice to reach the ends of the hall. He reminded the Punjabis
that they owed it to the delegates from southern India, who had
come all the way to Amritsar to sympathize with them in their
ordeal, to let him speak in English.

Motilal made a detailed and trenchant analysis of the chain
of events in the Punjab - the repressive regime of Sir Michael
Q'Dwyer, the agitation against the Rowlatt Bills, the beginnings
of Satyagraha, the Jallianwala tragedy and the martial law
regime. From official sources he cited some revealing statistics :
108 persons had been condemned to death and the sentences of
imprisonment added up to the staggering total of 7,371 years.
The figures for whipping, forfeiture, fines and impositions on
villages and towns/ he added, 'are not available/ He accused
O'Dwyer of trying to convert the Punjab into *a kind of Ulster

IJ2 THE NEHRUS

... a bulwark of reaction against all reforms' while Lord Chelms-
ford had failed to serve his King and fulfil his trust by 'per-
sistent refusal to listen or to interfere, by his absence from the
scene of these happenings'. He bluntly asked whether the British
Democracy would tolerate 'this frightfulness' in India and shield
its authors. That is the acid test of British policy in India. On
the answer to that depends the future goodwill of the Indian
people/ To Montagu he paid a tribute: he had laboured
strenuously for us we must express appreciation of his sincere
desire to advance our national aspirations*.

A last-minute addition to MotilaFs presidential speech was
necessitated by a Royal Proclamation which, besides announcing
a political amnesty, had expressed admirable sentiments. 'So far
as possible/ King George V had declared, 'any trace of bitterness
between my people and those who are responsible for My
Government should be obliterated/ The Royal Proclamation
came as balm to the assembled leaders at Amritsar. It seemed to
confirm their lingering hope that British Democracy would ulti-
mately triumph over the British Bureaucracy; that British justice
would triumph over British prestige. Motilal expressed his
'humble appreciation' of the Proclamation. Tilak cabled his
'grateful and loyal thanks' to the King Emperor. 'This is a docu-
ment/ affirmed Gandhi, 'of which the British people have every
reason to be proud and with which every Indian ought to be
satisfied. The Proclamation has replaced distrust with trust but it
remains to be seen whether it would filter down to the civil
service/

As the new year dawned, it seemed as if the trail of bloodshed
and bitterness left by 1919 might after all be obliterated.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN
THE PLUNGE

GANDHI'S moderation at the Amritsar Congress was not an im-
pulsive reaction to the Royal Proclamation; since April, 1919,
when he had suspended Satyagraha after violent outbreaks in
Bombay and the Punjab, he had been restraining the ardour of
his followers and, at the same time, urging moderation and con-
ciliation on the Government He bombarded the Viceroy, the
Governors and even local officials with letters stressing points of
agreement rather than of divergence, seeking information, plead-
ing for redress in specific cases of hardship* He did not call upon
Lord Chelmsf ord and Sir George Lloyd (the Governor of Bombay)
to sign the Satyagraha pledge, but he did invite them to express
their sympathy with the Swadeshi movement To Secretary of
State Montagu, he avowed "our common interest in an Empire
to which both you and I belong'. He asked Montagu to believe
that Satyagraha was 'a powerful aid on the side of law and
order?

The Viceroy and his colleagues received these protestations
with a mixture of bewilderment, incredulity and impatience. It
exasperated them to discover that Gandhi, unlike most other
politicians in India, could not be fobbed off with studied
courtesy, that he adhered to his demands for repeal of the
Rowlatt Bills, relief on the Khilafat issue and amends for the
Punjab tragedy.

The Khilafat issue was not as simple as the romantic pan-
Islamism of Indian Muslims made out: in it were involved the
conflicting ambitions of the Turks, the Greeks and the Arabs and
the dash of interests - strategic as well as economic -of the
Allies at the end of the First World War. The Muslim divines
and politicians who had Gandhi's ear were unable to see that the
Khilafat was a moribund institution, that the Turks themselves
were thoroughly sick of it, that the Ottoman Empire had to go
the way of the Hapsburg Empire, that the smaller nations, Arab

1 Gandhi to Montagu, June 14, 1919, (G.S.N.).

174 THE NEHRUS

and non-Arab, were struggling to shake off the Turkish yoke.
MotilaFs healthy agnosticism made him proof against the re-
ligious emotion which lay at the heart of the Khilafat agitation*
He had consented to be one of the thirty-four signatories to the
'Khilafat memorial', but he did not join the deputation which
presented the memorial to the Viceroy in January, 1920.

MotilaTs chief interest, both as a lawyer and as a politician,
lay in the affairs of the Punjab. When the Privy Council re-
jected the appeals of Bugga and Rattan Chand, two of the
martial law accused, he was shocked. "Whatever part the other
appellants might have taken in the disturbances/ he wrote to
JawaharM, 'there can be no shadow of doubt that Bugga and
Rattan Chand are as innocent as Indu* 2 Everyone in the Punjab
-official and non-official - knows it and yet they are to be
banged I However, this is only one instance out of a million in
which injustice is daily perpetrated in this country/ 3

la February, 1920, the Congress sub-committee which had
enquired into the Punjab disturbances assembled at Benares to
write its report, Motilal had ceased to be a member of the com-
mittee after his election as president of Amritsar Congress, but
botli he and his son were present at the discussions which pre-
ceded the preparation of the final draft

Having been disappointed in Lord Chelmsf ord and his council,
Gandhi and other Congress leaders continued to hope that the
British Government and Parliament would override the narrow,
insensitive and prestige-ridden policies of their agents in India.
Unfortunately the Indian case was not well represented in
.England. Motilal had remitted 1,000 to Reginald Nevill, his
London solicitor, for publicity in England* The money was to be
$pmt in consultation with the British Committee of the Indian
National Congress* But the amount was ridiculously small,
ffcfiS was no politician, the British Committee was a derelict
lia!yv a&I the two were soon at loggerheads* Henry S. Polak, a
London solicitor, complained that he had the utmost difficulty
in obtaining in London a copy of the report of the Congress In-
qairy Commit tee.

The Congress Inquiry Committee published its report in
Hasfldb, 1920* Two oaths later came out the official report - or
ratter reports, as the European and Indian members of Lord

* JawahadaTs 4augli$er who was osae year old at &is time.
1 Hefere. JL L, Btwdi of Old letters, p. 5.

THE PLUNGE 1J5

Hunter's committee divided on racial lines. The conclusions of
Lord Hunter and his European colleagues, which were described
by Gandhi as thinly-disguised whitewash', astounded MotilaL
'My blood is boiling/ he wrote to his son, 'since I read the sum-
maries you have sent. We must hold a special Congress now and
raise a veritable hell for the rascals.'

Montagu appealed for moderation and sanity, but as Secretary
of State he had to defend the men on the spot, from whom in-
cidentally he had to draw all the facts for their own indictment.
Suspicious of his pro-Indian bias, the Government of India had
taken the precaution of deputing an officer with 'journalistic ex-
perience and contacts' to brief the British press well ahead of
the publication of the Hunter Committee's report. Unfortunately
the nationalist version of the events in the Punjab went largely
by default, though Colonel Wedgwood and Ben Spoor put up
a valiant fight, and even Churchill came down heavily against
Dyer's 'doctrine of frightfulness' and ridiculed the theory of the
mutiny in the light of modern developments in communications
and techniques of war. The Anglo-Indian lobby had done its
work well - indeed, too well for the future of the Raj. There were
uproarious scenes in the House of Commons. Montagu was
shouted down for encouraging lawlessness in India and asked to
resign. The debate in the House of Lords was no less tense.
Sarojini Naidu, who was in England at the time, wrote to
Gandhi: 'Our friends revealed their ignorance, our enemies
their insolence . . * Mr. Montagu has proved a broken reed/
Motilal, whom Nevill had been feeding with press cuttings from
the British press, was shocked at the way the guilty officials of
the Punjab were being shielded and indeed lionized as saviours
of the British Empire. These developments also made a sharp
impact on Jawaharlal; many years later in an article on the
Quetta Earthquake he recalled that he had been hurt not so
much by the jingoism of Dyer as by 'the reaction in England to
Dyer's deed . . . the real reaction of the British ruling class was
never in doubt. This cold-blooded approval of the deed shocked
me greatly. It seemed absolutely immoral, indecent, to use publk-
school language, it was the height of bad form'.

2

While the political kaleidoscope was shifting fast in the first

176 THE NEHRUS

half of 1920, Mqtilal was tied down to the small town of Arrah
in Bihar by a professional engagement* It was the famous
Duniraon case, in which Motilal and a Calcutta barrister, N* N*
Sircar, were ranged against C R* Das, probably the most
eminent lawyer in Bengal* The property in dispute was valuable;
the stake was high and so were the fees* In eight months Motilal
cleared a sum of two lakhs at the rate of Rs* 25,000 a month* But
Che work was strenuous: the original brief ran to nearly 8,000
pages; the battle of wits continued outside as well as inside the
courtroom* The atmosphere in Arrah was heavy with intrigue;
most of the witnesses and local underlings had been bribed -
sometimes by both sides* It was not quite safe to send letters by
post, and a private courier service ran regularly between Arrah
ami Allahabad where Jawaharlal, in the absence of his father,
was looking after domestic, legal and political affairs*

The Dumraon case, involving as it did a continual battle of
wits with C* R* Das, was no picnic* In February, 1920, while
Motilal and his client were in Calcutta for the examination of
certain witnesses on commission, Das abruptly closed the
plaintiff's case at Arrah, compelled Sircar to open the case for
the defence and himself turned up in Calcutta* The whole
thing was engineered by Das at Arrah/ Motilal wrote to Jawa-
harlal, 'you wotJd simply be shocked at the practices to which
the big guns of the Calcutta Bar lend themselves/ A few days
later Motilal confessed: 'Das is by far the deverer of the two
Calcutta men* I cannot for the life of me understand the tactics
he employed today* He has tendered our documents as his
evidence'* Motilal spent the night studying the documents in
aa attempt to understand and checkmate this move*

The case had its exciting moments* On February zjth Motilal
noted:

*TJ$e turn the case has taken will not admit of my absence
Arrah for an hour. The fate of a large estate depends upon
the leading of an Arabic word, and I am the only person on
KfetifiV side who has pretensions to some smattering in the
language* They have examined a formidable witness today * * *
a Persian by birth and the author of many books* He has, how-
ever, ptwed too much and herein lies my chance* I have to work

THE PLUNGE 177

tonight as hard as I can and refresh my memory with the aid of
the books you have sent/

As if these headaches were not enough, Motilal was distracted
by dissensions in his own camp. He had a quarrel with Sircar,
his colleague.

Motilal to Jawaharlal, April 12, ipzo: There was a difference
of opinion between him [Sircar] and me ... the other day, and
he exhibited some temper forgetting who he was talking to* This
was in the presence of Hariji. I gave it hot to him on the spot as
you might easily imagine. He had to apologize and did so meekly
enough, but I have reason to think that he has since been trying
to get rid of me ... He felt a bit cowed down after the apology
incident He complained to Das that he had never seen a more
insolent vakil-junior than I was, and Das replied that having
seen the work of Sircar and myself he would any day deem it an
honour to work as my junior . . /

Hardly had this storm blown over when both Motilal and
Sircar were engulfed by a minor tragedy. The neat little house
- perhaps the only suitable house in Arrah - in which they were
staying belonged to a retired lawyer who had been hoping to
make a little money by appearing as a witness. "When his
evidence was dropped, he took his revenge by abruptly terminat-
ing the tenancy. On returning from Calcutta, Motilal found that
all his belongings had been thrown out of the house. There is
considerable amusement in the camp at our expense/ he wrote,
'but the joke was a bit too practical for our nerves.'

But his zest and sense of humour could sustain him under the
most trying conditions. 'Mango session is at its height/ he wrote
from Arrah, 'but we have had no mango for nearly a week. Only
two safedas* received today for the four of us. What a tragedy !
Are there no langaras 6 in Allahabad?'

In June while he was at Benares, he visited the Vishwanath
temple, 'to see what impression it would convey to my mind at
this time of my life'. Unfortunately for him he was immediately
recognized, surrounded by a horde of pandas (priests), made to
do pujos (worship) and rushed in sweltering heat from one
temple to another through the narrow streets of the holy city.
5 & * Varieties of mangoes.

178 THE NEHRUS

1 felt a sense of relief/ he confessed to his son, 'on returning to
the wide road. Total cost of the experience Rs. no; net gain:
abuses of pandas and beggars ! *

Whatever his preoccupations, Motilal was never too busy
to remember his family- He gave detailed instructions for the
treatment of Kamala, his daughter-in-law, whose health had
already begun to give cause for concern. During his visit to
Calcutta, he asked Messrs Whiteaway Laidlaw to send a per-
ambulator for his two-year-old grand-daughter. 1 am always
thinking of Indira/ he wrote on March 8, 1920, 'the very
thought of a personification of innocence is soothing. By a very
easy slip it justifies idol worship and many other things which
modern civilization sets down for senseless superstition. Indira
has to be very specially taken care of as she is not at all well'.
When Jawaharlal expressed his inability to decipher certain in-
structions sent by a homoeopathic physician from Calcutta,
Motilal wrote to him : There is nothing very complicated about
Dr Ray's letter if you will only read it carefully after divesting
your mind of the Khilafat and Satyagraha/ Such, however, was
the spell cast by Satyagraha on young Nehru that it was not
easy for hfon to forget it. The Government were soon to hasten
his political education.

3

While Motilal was at Arrah, Swarup Rani and Kamala fell ill
at Allahabad. The doctors advised an immediate change to the
hills. Early in May, Jawaharlal arrived in Mussoorie with his
mother, wife and sisters, and took rooms in the Savoy Hotel. It
so happened that the Afghan envoys, who were negotiating the
terms of peace after the brief Anglo-Afghan hostilities of the
previous year, were staying in the same hotel. The coincidence
fed to a crisis.

to MoiM, May i4th, 1920: 'Greatness is being
1 have just had a visit from the Superintendent of
Police, He showed me a letter from the Government addressed
f* fete in wbkfa he was asked to take a positive undertaking
finosa m& &> the efibc& that I would refrain from seeing or having
slrf ^smakatioB with the Afghan delegates. In case I refused

an externment order was to be served

THE PLUNGE 179

on me. I told him that as a matter of fact I had no intention of
having anything to do with the Afghan delegation, I had not
even seen any of them from a distance so far. He said this was
so. He knew it perhaps from various C.I.D. sources. But I told
him that on principle I was opposed to giving any undertaking.
He was very courteous . . .*

Jawaharlal refused to give the 'undertaking*, resisted an im-
pulse to defy the prohibitory order, and left for Allahabad.
Motilal was not at all happy at the turn events had taken. Not
only had the ailing ladies been left unattended at Mussoorie;
there was a real danger that Jawaharlal would defy the ban and
land in gaol - a contingency which his father had been dreading
and staving off for fifteen months. Motilal therefore decided to
address the Governor, Sir Harcourt Butler, whom he knew rather
well. He wrote on May 19, 1920 :

1 need hardly say that I wholly approve of JawaharlaTs

action His politics and mine are well-known. We have never

made any secret of them. We know they are not of the type
which finds favour with the Government, and we are prepared
to suffer any discomfort which may necessarily flow from them.
Young Jawaharlal is known throughout India, and I can con-
fidently say that there is not a man, excepting perhaps in the
C.I.D., who will believe that he is capable of carrying on a secret
intrigue of the nature apprehended from him. You have yourself
had a long talk with him, and knowing as I do the vast and
varied knowledge of human nature you possess, I cannot easily
believe that you could for a moment doubt the material that he
is made of. I am therefore inclined to think that one of two
alternatives has happened: either the order has been issued by
some mistake or inadvertence or under pressure from above/

The tone of this letter was far removed from the ingratiating
humility to which high British dignitaries were accustomed in
letters from Indian correspondents.

Sir Harcourt's reply was at once courteous and evasive: 'I
am really very sorry that you and your son, and especially the
ladies of your family, should have been inconvenienced by an
official act which your son made it a matter of conscience not
to fall in with ... I hope, whatever views we may hold on public

l8o THE NEHRUS

matters . . in private life . * , nothing will interfere with the
friendly relations that have existed between us for thirty years/
Motilal appreciated Sir Harcourt's courtesy, but rebutted his
arguments. 1 thought/ he wrote on June 14th to his son, 'it
was necessary to let Master Butler know, that we are not the
people to be overawed by him into servility. I have written to
him exactly as I felt and knew how you would feel/ The day
after this letter was written, the externment order against Jawa-
harlal was unconditionally revoked. It lasted exactly one month,
kit was to have far-reaching consequences.

Eariy in June, while Jawaharlal was at a loose end at Allaha-
bad, he went to meet a few hundred peasants from the adjoining
district of Pratapgarh who had marched to Allahabad to draw
public attention to their grievances and were encamping on the
bank of the Jumna. They begged young Nehru to visit their
district and see things for himself. Their villages were off the
beaten track of political leaders; many of them could not boast of
a post office, a railway station or even a proper road; their prob-
lems, even their existence, were beyond the ken of newspapers
and politicians* Jawaharlal found his tour of the countryside an
exciting as well as instructive experience. Probably for the first
time since his return from England, instead of spending the
month of June in Kashmir, Mussoorie or Simla, he was tramping
the pot-holed, dusty roads of the Oudh countryside, a wet towel
OsQ his head. The peasants were thrilled to have among them the
Eagbud-trained son of the great Motilal Nehru of Allahabad.
As for Jawaharlal, he was 'filled with shame and sorrow, shame
at my own easy-going and comfortable life ... sorrow at the
^fegiailation and overwhelming poverty of India'. 7 He ate with
the peasants, lived with them in their mud huts; their affection
tod gratitude had the miraculous effect of dissipating his own
cBfifecse, Since his university days he had had a horror of speak-
tog is public. His first speech at a meeting in Allahabad in 1916
had w0a him a compliment 8 from his father, and a kiss from Tej
SaWur Sapra, but it had not cured him of his stage-fright. In
tibe pjeseuce of these wide-eyed, unsophisticated and pathetically
ignorant peasants, whose contact with 'educated' people had so

T Nehru, J. L^ Toward freedom, pp, 56-57.

* Mo*a]ai who was in Kashmir at the time, wrote (June 27, 1916): 1 was
glad to read yoai speed* on the Press Act in the Leader. Though not very
rag it lias Ike rare merit of being free from commonplaces, the be-
E so* of a! Indian speeches at least in the IIP/

THE PLUNGE l8l

far been confined to zamindars, money-lenders and petty officials,
Jawaharlal forgot his nervousness. That his Hindustani diction
was not of the purest, that he fumbled for words, did not matter
to the peasants. Their faces were strangely transfigured, their
eyes glistened and their crushing load of misery seemed momen-
tarily to lift, as they crowded round him and listened*

Motilal was glad to hear of his son's adventures in the villages*
'If one or two more visits like this to other parts of the Pratap-
garh district can be arranged/ he wrote from Arrah (June 14th),
"there will be some chance for a pure nationalist getting into the
Council in spite of the Raja Bahadur of Pratapgarh/ But the
brief incursion into the countryside rewarded Jawaharlal with
something more valuable than a ticket for the U.P. Council : it
shook off his stage-fright, gave him an insight into the "naked
hungry mass' of India, imparted a socio-economic edge to his
politics and laid the foundations of his unique mass-appeal.

4

The Mussoorie episode was no more than an interlude in an
exciting drama which was unfolding itself on the wider political
stage* The central figure in this drama was Gandhi, whose moves
mystified friends as well as opponents. Motilal and C. R* Das,
who crossed swords in the courtroom during the day and dis-
cussed poetry and politics over a bottle of whisky in the evening,
were driven to despair by what they regarded as Gandhi's com-
promising tactics - his eleventh-hour appeals for peace, his ex-
changes with high British officials, his repeated and futile over-
tures to the Moderate leaders. In February Gandhi seemed too
much of a reluctant rebel; by June he had swung to the other
extreme by irrevocably committing himself to "non-violent non-
co-operation* - the boycott of the whole apparatus of govern-
ment. Without waiting for the verdict of the Congress, which
was to meet in a special session at Calcutta in September, he
launched his movement on behalf of the Khilafat party, whose
frustration had been completed by the publication of die peace
terms with Turkey*

The fact that Gandhi swept the political board by the end of
the year must not blind us to the odds against him. Some of the
best known public figures among Moderates as well as Extremists
questioned the wisdom of his programme. Early in the year

l8l THE NEHRUS

C P. Ramaswami Iyer, then a brilliant and influential Congress-
man, had urged Gandhi to avoid, 'what has happened in
America, namely the reluctance of gentlemen to enter the
political arena'. Annie Besant warned Gandhi against unleashing
forces which he would be unable to control, and Srinivasa Sastri
begged him to keep out of the Khilafat agitation* 'We have no
right to embarrass the Government of India/ wrote Sastri, "if
through causes beyond their control, the Turkish question takes
an unfavourable turn/ EL S. L Polak, a London solicitor, who
had been an intimate associate and confidant of Gandhi during
the Satyagraha struggle in South Africa, described the non-co-
operation programme as 'ill-advised, harmful and inappropriate'* 9
*J ana strongly inclined to think/ wrote Polak, 'that even if you
had a national government ruling the country in accordance
with the average wishes of your compatriots, you would not feel
content, unless you were challenging it upon one point or
another* I quite appreciate that this may well be your individual
method of self-expression* But does it not occur to you what you
may do as an individual you are not necessarily free to do as a
member of a group or as a national leader?'

la his presidential speech at Amritsar Motilal had described
Gandhi *as the most revered Indian of the day', and 'the great
Satyagraha movement as a new force with tremendous poten-
tialities'. 1 * Nevertheless, his conversion to non-co-operation was
neither quick nor easy* 'As far as I can see/ he wrote on June 16,
1920, 'it is not likely that the Congress as Congress will bind
i&eK to non-co-operation* It is too big an organization for this*'
In the same letter he suggested to his son that it was time they
selected for themselves constituencies for the U.P. Council to
which elections were due later in the year*

Since 1917 MotflaTs politics had been growing progressively
swe radical He had broken with his Moderate friends in 1918
wear the MontaguChebn$ford reforms* Yet it was not easy for
him ID go ajl the way with Gandhi, to exchange the politics of
calculated risks fas ittose of incalculable risks, to make a dean
keak -with the constitutional traditions in which he had been
to accept not only new tactics but a new game, the rules of
weie bdsg fooimlated by its author while it was being
The pocsosd Aspect was no less important than the

, , _ P r > . .

f Natesan CBS&rX Cpagress jfosi<fefkl Addresses (1911 to 1934), p. 43 1

THE PLUNGE 183

political. It required an effort of will to give up legal practice, to
slough off the luxury of a lifetime, to deprive the family of com-
forts to which it was accustomed. During the Mussoorie episode,
Motilal had pleaded with his son not to precipitate a crisis. The
consequences, he wrote 0une 3, 1920), 'are so obvious both from
the public and private point of view that it is hardly necessary
to discuss them. It will mean the final break-up of the family and
the upsetting of all public, private and professional work. One
thing will lead to another, and something is sure to turn up
which will compel me to follow you to the gaol or something
similar'.

Motilal prided himself on his objectivity, but it is a strange
paradox that in the greatest decision of his life he was guided as
much by his heart as by his head. It was love of his son that
enabled him to take the last crucial step over the precipice. The
Punjab tragedy had helped to bring Jawaharlal completely under
Gandhi's wing. In 1920, young Nehru was frequently seen with
the Mahatma, from whom he received from the first extra-
ordinary consideration and affection. In fact Motilal was already
looking to his son to interpret Gandhi's moves on the political
chequerboard. 'I could not find time to have a quiet talk with
Gandhiji as to what he expects us to do/ Motilal wrote to Jawa-
harlal on June 3rd, 1 hope he has given you some indication
before he left this morning/ A few days later, a note in favour of
Council-entry, drafted jointly by Motilal and C. 1L Das, was
carried by Jawaharlal to Gandhi at Bombay.

Jawaharlal seemed determined to go the Gandhi way. In
February, 1919, and again in May, 1920, Motilal had seen his
son straining at the leash. Was it not better to push himself
forward than to try in vain to pull his son back? Was it not
better for father and son to march together -even if it was to
prison? The image of a doting father trailing after a dashing
son is an absurd over-simplification, but there is no doubt that
the conversion of the son made that of the father inevitable, and
merely a matter of time.

It is only fair to add that the relationship which had bees
established between Motilal and Gandhi during their stay in
Lahore in the last weeks of 1919 facilitated Motilal's conversion.
No two men could have been more different. 'Gandhi was the
saint, the stoic, the man of religion, one who went through life
rejecting what it offers in the way of sensation and physical

184 THE NEHRUS

pleasure/ and Motilal was 'a bit of an epicure, who accepted life
and welcomed and enjoyed its many sensations, and cared little
for what may come in the hereafter'. 1 * Motilal admired Gandhi;
he did not, however, pretend to appreciate all the bees in his
bonnet; nor did he rate highly the intelligence of the eccentric
fringe in the Mahatma's entourage* On his part, Gandhi had
good reasons for according high regard to Motilal, who was eight
years his senior, a man of outstanding ability, and also young
JawaharlaTs father. The links of mutual esteem which were thus
forged between Sabarmati and Anand Bhawan were to provide
emotional sustenance for the Nehru family. They were also to
exercise a profound influence on the course of the Indian free-
dom movement*

At the Calcutta Congress, Gandhi's plight (as he recalled
many years later) 12 was 'pitiable'. He was opposed by an im-
posing phalanx of veteran leaders including Malaviya, C. R.
Das and Lajpat Rai - the President of the session* The discussions
ia the 'Subjects Committee' were prolonged; the crucial resolu-
tion on a boycott of the legislatures was carried with the narrow
majority of seven votes. Motilal, as the official historian of the
Congress has recorded, 13 was the only front-rank Congress leader
who supported Gandhi at the Calcutta Congress. As a result, he
found himself in the three-man sub-committee, including Gandhi
and V. J. Patd, which worked out the details of the non-co-opera-
tion programme - the boycott of titles and honorary offices, of
official functions and durbars, of Government-owned or aided
schools and colleges, of law courts and legislatures and, above all,
of foreign goods.

Iiainediateiy after the Calcutta Congress Motilal resigned his
membership erf the U.P. Council, and announced that he would
not seek election to the reformed legislatures. He wound up his
legal practice, withdrew his daughter Krishna from the local
school which she had recently joined, disposed of his horses,
omages, dogs, treasured crystal and china. Life at Anand
Bfiawaa underwent a sudden metamorphosis. The two cuisines
*eife reduced to one, the cellar was abolished altogether. The
army of servants was drastically curtailed. Foreign finery was
and cartloads of it ware consigned to public bonfires.

, p. 66.

Experiments with Truth, p. 610.
!>., fife&wy of the Indian 'National Congress, vol. I, p. 107.

THE PLUNGE 185

From the select dub of the elite of Allahabad, Anand Bhawan
turned into a caravanserai frequented by humble-looking folk
clad in homespun - party members sojourning in or passing
through Allahabad, With political workers flitting in and out at
odd hours, the household was in chaos - an ordeal for the women
of the family, who found themselves robbed overnight not only
of comfort, but of the quiet and privacy to which they were
accustomed* Thanks to the ascetic streak which lies just beneath
the surface in Hindu womanhood, Swarup Rani, Kamala and the
girls quickly adapted themselves to the changes. The process of
adjustment was helped by the fact that the author of the meta-
morphosis was a holy man.

For Motilal the final step had not been easy, but once it was
taken, he never looked back. He had spent money with the same
facility with which he had earned it. 'No man in his senses/ he
wrote on October 27, 1920, to his Arrah client, who was making
difficulties about payment of his dues, 'can for a moment doubt
the supreme contempt I have always had for money. My whole
life is an illustration of this. I have so far been sought by it and
have now forcibly closed my doors in its face/

Before long Motilal was savouring the new simplicity with
the same gusto with which he had relished the luxuries he had
voluntarily renounced. A glimpse into the changed mode of his
life can be had from a letter he wrote to Gandhi in the summer
of 1921 from a health-resort : *. . . The brass cooker . . . has taken
the place of the two kitchens, a solitary servant, not over-in-
telligent that of the old retinue -three small bags containing
rice, dal and masala that of the mule-loads of provisions . . .
one square meal of rice, dal, vegetable, sometimes khir [milk and
rice cooked together] in the middle of the day, that of breakfast,
lunch and dinner "a PAnglaise" . . . The shikar has given place
to long walks, and rifles and guns to books, magazines and news-
papers (the favourite book being Edwin Arnold's Song Celestial
which is undergoing its third reading). "What a fall, my
countrymen!" But, really, I have never enjoyed life better/

Motilal had laid aside his Savile Row suits, but even the home-
spun khadi sat well on him. St Nihal Singh, the journalist, who
had enjoyed MotilaTs hospitality in 1910 in the heyday of his
anglicism, noted the contrast twelve years later.

*A tiny khaddar cap of Mahatma Gandhi's invention/ St

l86 THE NEHRUS

Nihal Singh recalled, 'sat saucily I thought upon Panditji's head
He wore no coat nor waistcoat A long khaddar shirt- kurta we
cafl it in the Punjab - came down to his knees * . . his feet were
bare, and he had gold-embroidered shoes . . . The home-spun in
which he was clad was coarse. It seemed to add distinction to
his handsome face and figure. It certainly did not detract from
them. The pure white of the khaddar harmonized exceedingly
well with his hair and moustaches that had gone grey during
the interval between our two meetings. The years had left a few
marks upon his face, but he looked robust . . .

* W A great change, Panditji," I remarked as we sat down in a
comer*

4 "Qofy in the externals I hope/' he replied.

' "Mentally, too, I believe," I said.
"Hardly, I have been a rebel all my life. I must have been

** Leader, February 18, 1931.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
HIGH TIDE

is a matter of grave concern to me/ Motilal wrote to
Gandhi soon after the Calcutta Congress, 'is not the giving up
of the [legal] practice, but the fate of the Independent.' The In-
dependent started its career on February 5, 1919, before the
passage of the Rowlatt Bills and the Satyagraha movement
brought Gandhi to the forefront of national politics. Motilal had
thus defined the aims of his newspaper :

The Independent has come into existence, to lay bare the soul
of a nation, of a people ripening into nationhood, of com-
munities merging into a people, of individuals growing into a
community* How shall it approach its noble work? or better
still, how not? Not along the facile line of opportunism, the
fatal line of least resistance. . . But by bringing the fierce light
of day to play upon dark spots wherever they exist By striving
to press home the eternal truth that . . . while on the one hand
national rights cannot be withheld to be doled out in little bits
with a consciousness of high-minded generosity, those rights
cannot, on the other hand, thrive in an atmosphere of religious
deavage and racial antagonism. Thus alone can the Independent
fulfil its mission/

Not all Motilal's idealism nor all his money could make the
venture a success. The high salaries which he offered created a
stir in the world of Indian journalism and even succeeded in
weaning 1 some journalists from the local rival, the Leader, but
financial mismanagement ultimately sealed the fate of the In-
dependent B. G. Horniman, the editor of the Bombay CHronide,
who was Jyfotilal's chief adviser in starting die new paper, was a
fiery journalist, but he had little insight into the business side
of a daily paper. 2

1 lyengar, A. S^ AH Through the Gradfean Era, p, ij.
* Jayakar, M. IU The Story of Uy Ufc, voi L p. 245-

l88 THE NEHRUS

The first editor of the Independent was Syud Hossain, who
had served on the Bombay Chronicle. Under his editorship the
Independent made a promising start, but it soon ran into
difficulties and became a great drain on MotilaFs bank balance
just when, owing to his preoccupation with politics, his own
income was dwindling. By the beginning of 1920, the Inde-
pendent had become a headache to MotilaL It had not been easy
to find a suitable editor after Syud Hossain's departure, Jawa-
harlal tried to step into the breach, but he had too many other
interests* And even Jawaharlal found that it was easier to dash
off an artide than to unravel the managerial and financial
tangles of the paper.

Matilal was the Chairman of the Board of Directors of
^Nationalist Journals' which owned the Independent. The other
directors were Syed Hyder Mehdi, Syed Nabi UUah, Janki Nath
Chak and Jawaharlal. Early in February there was a crucial meet-
ing of the Board of Directors at Allahabad, but Motilal was un-
able to leave Arrah even for a few hours.

Motilal to Jawaharlal, February 10, 1920: Tour note on the
"lad" [Independent]. I am sorry I do not follow your figures. It
is easy to pass a resolution to continue the paper, but difficult to
do so in decent form. What arrangements have been made for
the supply of paper, types, etc.? Where is the money to come
from? Who is to do the editorial work? I am thoroughly dis-
satisfied with Ranga Iyer, and cannot give him a free hand to
put in any nonsense he likes ... For the last nine months we
have been playing at this stupid game. You say Joseph is out of
the question [as editor]. He is a thousand times better than
Ranga Iyer, who cannot be trusted to write a single line without
pre<3sisorship either by you or someone else . . . Lajpat Rai is a
good idea for the editorship . . , but by the time he is ready
to fake charge* (if at all) the "Ind" will be buried and forgotten.
Yen cannot go OH with your present bank balance and income
e^ai for a manth Had I been present at the meeting I should
have voted for complete suspension for a time . . /

A few days later Motilal tried to sell some shares in
^Nationalist Journals' during his visit to Calcutta, but without
success* He could not interest financiers, but was able to enlist

a lafpat Kai was expected to return to India from abroad.

HIGH TIDE 189

the services of Bipin Chandra Pal for regular editorial assign-
ments. Since the partition of Bengal, Pal had been a popular
hero in Bengal and indeed in the whole of India; in 1920 his
name was still one to conjure with* He was modest in his de-
mands and offered to write four articles a week for sixty rupees.
'He expects payment punctually every Saturday/ Motilal wrote,
'the poor man is really hard up/ In May Pal became editor of the
Independent at a monthly salary of Rs. 500; one of his sons was
appointed a sub-editor at Rs. 100 a month, and another son who
was in England was to work as a foreign correspondent for 6
a week. At the same time Motilal appointed his energetic nephew
Mohan Lai Nehru as the manager of the paper. The hope ttat
these appointments would bolster up the prestige of the
Independent and bring in fresh capital was not to be realized.
B. C Pal's politics were out of step with those of the Nehrus; his
flamboyance outran his discretion, and the guns of the Inde-
pendent, to MotilaPs consternation, were turned on Gandhi and
the Congress. Within ten days Motilal was asking his son to
'take Bipin Pal in hand. He has run amuck, abusing all
nationalists without any distinction. His last attack on Gandhi
is about "the limit". The Ind appears to be doomed. Whoever
comes to it loses his head'.

The Independent lingered on for another three years. By
October, 1920, Motilal had sunk Rs. 80,000 in the paper, which
needed a lakh and a half to work off its liabilities. He addressed
a confidential appeal to friends :

*I have given away freely from the earnings of my practice at
the Bar whatever was necessary to keep it afloat, but these earn-
ings have now ceased and I cannot possibly give what I do not
possess. I can therefore no longer give to die Independent any-
thing like the help I have so far given single-handed/

It would be incorrect to regard the story of the Independent as
merely one of editorial ineptitude and financial mismanagement
It provided a useful, perhaps essential, outlet for the political
and literary enthusiasms of Jawaharlal, whose articles gladdened
his father's heart 'The leading artide in the "Ind", which Nagu
brought was excellent/ Motilal wrote from Airah (February z6,
1920), 'I smelt Jawahar in every word and sentence.' In spite of
all the headaches it gave to the Nehrus, the Independent was

190 THE NEHRUS

decidedly a political asset in the autumn of 1920* It is the only
English daily in India/ Motilal proudly wrote to Gandhi on
September 17, 1920, 'to support the full programme of non-
co-operation/

Gandhi's spectacular success in capturing the Congress in
1920 was not the foregone conclusion it might appear in the
li^ht of later history* True, he had caught the imagination of
the masses, but he had also awakened much doubt and heart-
searching in the intelligentsia. The Calcutta Congress, as we
have already seen, was no walk-over for him* The Government
of India hoped to the last that he would overplay his hand and
lose credit with the Congress* 'I think/ Sir William Vincent,
the Home Member, wrote on April 26, 1919, 'that a good many
people will soon tire of Mr Gandhi and his vagaries/* And as
late as September 4, 1920, the Government of India, pinning its
hopes on a split in the Congress, told the provincial government
that non-interference towards non-co-operation was the 'wisest
policy** 6 These hopes were baffled by Gandhi's consummate skill,
patience and humility, which enabled him to win over his critics,
to change the creed of the Congress, to amend its constitution
and to convert it from a 'three-day picnic of the urban gentry*
into a 'broad-based militant organization in touch with the
masses.

Non-co-operation was not a magic wand; it had to contend
with the scepticism of the leaders, and the inertia of the rank
and ile. *What is troubling me/ Motilal complained to his son,
the solid inactivity of our party/ 'There is any amount of

to be done/ he wrote, 'but no workers* You cannot do

iing single-handed/

i Nehnis could not do everything, but they did a lot* Since
the spring of 1919, Jawaharlal had virtually given up his practice
at the Bar* In the autumn of 1920 Motilal also became a full-
tfaie pofitidaiL He was elected a member of the Working Com-
mittee - the national executive of the Congress - and also one of
the three General Secretaries for the year 1921, Since the office

HIGH TIDE 191

of the All India Congress Committee was located in his house at
Allahabad, the brunt of the work was inevitably borne by him.
He brought to his political work the same singleness of purpose,
eye for detail and strong common-sense which had enabled him
to dominate the Allahabad Bar.

As General Secretary of the Congress, Motilal dashed with
the president for the year, C Vijiaraghavachariar, the veteran
lawyer and Congressman from the South, whose lack of en-
thusiasm for non-co-operation had been apparent even at the
Nagpur Congress over which he had presided, and who raised
issues which could have seriously distracted the Congress, Motilal
completely by-passed old Vijiraghavachariar who tearfully com-
plained to Gandhi: 1 deeply, very deeply fed the humiliating
position to which the over-enthusiastic Panditji has subjected
me under your auspices/

The non-co-operation movement confirmed Gandhi as the un-
disputed leader of the Congress and as a great father-figure.
'Gandhism is more than a political movement/ John Clayton, the
correspondent of the Chicago Tribune wrote on March i, 1922,
after an interview with the Mahatma, 'it is a religion among the
followers of this amazing Indian leader ... He is a master-
philosopher of God to these men and women/ Gandhi's
asceticism, simplicity and saintliness struck deep chords of
Indian humanity. He seemed like a rishi [sage] from some
ancient epic come to bring about the liberation of India. His
parables struck home: his analogies were drawn from Hindu
epics. Indian politics became a strange mixture of 'nationalism
and politics and religion and mysticism and fanaticism'. The
mists of Khilafat lent a romantic enchantment to non-co-opera-
tion in the eyes of the Muslims. The Hindus needed no
extraneous impulse to yidd their willing allegiance to the
Mahatma. Even a hard-headed lawyer like Jayakar could be
so profoundly moved as to write to Gandhi in March, 1922 : *It
is a singular fortune of India that, at this crisis, her greatest
leader is also the humblest Zhakta [devotee]. That fact must
secure for his noble mission the blessing and co-operation of
Divine Providence.**

Motilal was not swept off his feet by this emotional tide, but
he was not entirdy unaffected by it The religious impulse be-
hind the non-co-operation movement appealed to Swarup Rani

Jayakar, IL^Tbc Story of My Ufa vd t p, 586.

192 THE NEHRUS

and Kamala. The girls turned vegetarian; Motilal himself became
an abstainer and could even be seen poring over Sir Edwin
Arnold's translation of the Gita. As for Jawaharlal, he confessed
latex that he 'came nearer to a religious frame of mind in 1921
than at any other time since my early boyhood'. 7

Religious emotion was to prove a two-edged weapon. But
while it lasted it produced a sense of exaltation, which may be
glimpsed in JawaharlaTs autobiography :

were full of excitement and optimism and a buoyant
enthusiasm. We sensed the happiness of a person crusading for a
cause * . . The old feeling of oppression and frustration was com-
pletely gone. There was no more whispering, no roundabout
phraseology to avoid getting into trouble with the authorities.
We said what we felt and shouted it out from the house-tops * * *
We were proud of our leader and of the unique method he had
evolved and we indulged in fits of self-righteousness. In the
midst of strife and while we ourselves encouraged that strife,
we had a sense of inner peace.' 8

As the morale of non-co-operators went up, that of the
authorities went down. A striking example of this new equation
was furnished in May, 1921, when Sarup, MotilaTs elder
daughter, was married to Ranjit Pandit, the handsome barrister-
scholar from Rajkot A number of prominent Congress and
Khflafat leaders came to Allahabad to attend the wedding. The
concentration of political leaders at Allahabad, coupled with the
fact that the date chosen by the priests - May loth - happened
to be the anniversary of the Mutiny, made the imagination of
the British officials run riot. Such was the panic into which
they woriked themselves that there was talk of removing
Bropeaa women and children to the Allahabad fort for greater
safety. That anyone could have credited Motilal Nehru and
Gandhi with designs of a violent uprising appears fantastic
iocby; but it shows the widening golf between the rulers and
the ruled in those critical years 1920-22.

A few days after the wedding Motilal went to Almora in the
Kumaon hffls fco recover from a particularly malignant attack of
asthma* At Kathgodam, the rail terminus, while he was in the

^ Toward Freedom, p. 72.
.+ pp. 69-70.

HIGH TIDE 193

refreshment room, hundreds of people surrounded his car and
decorated it with paper flags and bunting, 1 was so short of
breath/ he wrote, 'that I could not say even a few words to
them/ At Almora, where he stayed with his nephew Shridhar
Nehru of the Indian Civil Service, a crowd collected and insisted
that he should speak to them. 'Shridhar looked very uncom-
fortable/ he wrote, 'each time a lusty jai [shout] was sent up by
the crowd/

Henceforth it was to be difficult for Motilal to have any
private life : he and his family were to be as much in the public
eye as Gandhi himself and as time went on he had his full share
of the troubles which are part of public life. He had his first
shock in May, 1921, when Gandhi went to Simla for a series of
interviews with Lord Reading, who had Just succeeded Lord
Chelmsford as Viceroy. It was given out that Gandhi had agreed
to persuade the Khilafat leader Mohained Ali to withdraw
certain passages in a speech which were considered susceptible of
incitement to violence. The official communique did less than
justice to Gandhi's viewpoint, and the confidential nature of the
talks prevented Gandhi from being more explicit Nevertheless
Gandhi did not see any harm in reiterating and emphasizing that
non-violence was the sheet-anchor of his movement This was
not how Motilal viewed the episode.

have the indisputable fact/ he wrote indignantly to
Gandhi (June 3, 1921) 'that the leader of the N.C.O. 9 movement
has been in treaty with the Government of India, and has secured
the suspension of the prosecution of Ali Brothers by inducing
them to give a public apology and an undertaking . . * Very
serious questions affecting the whole movement arise for con-
sideration. Indeed it seems to me that the whole principle of
non-co-operation has been given away/

The Viceroy, who believed that he had outwitted and out-
manoeuvred Gandhi, gleefully wrote to his son:

'If trouble comes between h [Mohamed Ali] and Gandhi,
it means that collapse of the bridge over the gulf between Hindu
and Muslim/

9 Noa-co-operation.

194 THE NEHRUS

It was not the first time that the real significance of Gandhi's
action was lost on his adherents as well as his opponents; they
failed to see that Satyagraha did not admit of an irrevocable
distinction between friend and foe, peace and war, and that even
while the battle was in progress, bridgeheads had to be held for
the ultimate meeting of minds and hearts.

In 1921, Gandhi was under increasing pressure from within
the Congress to tighten the screws on the Government* There was
a clamour for a 'mass movement'. Gandhi described civil dis-
obedience as a "general upheaval on the political plane'; it was
the most drastic remedy in the pharmacopoeia of Satyagraha and
it could not be lightly applied. He had been perturbed by out-
breaks of violence in Ahmedabad and Amritsar in 1919 and in
Malabar and Bombay in 1921. The Mahatma's caution was not
appreciated by his adherents who were burning to deliver
hasuaer-blows at the bureaucracy. An eye-witness records that
when he argued at a meeting of the Congress Working Com-
mittee in November, 1921, that people needed to be trained in
hand-spinning before being allowed to offer civil disobedience,
Taodit Motilal Nehru burst out laughing. Messrs Kelkar and
Pate! indulged in loud and angry protests'. 10

If Gandhi had his reasons for restraint, so had the Govern-
ment. It was anxious not to precipitate a show-down. It did not
want to alienate the Moderates, who venerated Gandhi even
though they differed from him. It was reluctant to take any
measures which might have the effect of strangling the reforms
at birth. It hoped for a split in the Congress; but a split did not
come. Indeed, by the time Lord Reading became Viceroy Gandhi
had acquired a messianic halo which made it difficult for the
Government to balance the risks-of his arrest against the dangers
of inaction.

in September, 1921, the AM Brothers, the most prominent of
tfae Khilafat leaders, were arrested on a charge of trying to
subvert the British Indian army. Soon afterwards forty-five
Indian lea^fecs, headed by Gandhi, issued a manifesto affirming
that it was 'conixary to the national dignity for any Indian to
$efre as a civilian and more as a soldier under a system of Govern-
ment which has brought about India's economic, moral and
political degradation'. Both Motilal and Jawaharlal signed the
manifesto - the lattsear in Hindi.

, Seven Mottffts with Mahstma Gandhi, voL I, p. 410.

HIGH TIDE 195

This was an open challenge which the Government would
have taken up at once, but for the impending visit of the Prince
of Wales in November, 192 i, u Nevertheless, there were signs of
a stiffening of official policy towards non-co-operation. When
the Government enforced the Criminal Law Amendment Act
and the Seditious Meetings Act to ban volunteer organizations
and public meetings, Gandhi made it a casus belli. It may seem
strange that he challenged the Government on freedom of speech
or association rather than on the larger issue of Khilafat or
Swaraj. But he always preferred a concrete to an abstract issue;
moreover, he was shrewd enough to see that without these ele-
mentary rights, a peaceful popular movement could be quickly
snuffed out

'It is essential/ the Viceroy cabled to the Secretary of State
on November 24, 1921, *to take action on more drastic and com-
prehensive scale . . * Local Governments are being assured by us
of our full support should police or military be compelled to fire
. . . We are informing them that they should not hesitate to
prosecute . . . any person, however prominent, whose arrest and
prosecution they consider, is required for maintenance of law
and respect of authority * . . m

December opened with the arrests of a number of prominent
leaders* Lajpat Rai was arrested in the Punjab. On December 5th,
a number of leading non-co-operators were rounded up in Allaha-
bad. On the afternoon of December 6th, while M. S. Godbole,
the office secretary of the All India Congress Committee, was in
Anand Bhawan showing some papers to Motilal, a servant
announced the arrival of a police officer* What followed may
best be described in Godbole's words.

Godbole to Gandhi, December j, 1921 : Tanditji . * . calmly
asked him [the police officer] to be introduced * * * He saluted
Panditji in his right royal UJP. fashion, shouting courteously:
"Adabaraj" 1 * and the salute was returned in the same manner by
Panditji. After a formal greeting, he presented a search warrant

u For further details, see the author's Mahatma Gandhi, pp.

* Unpublished (N AX).

** 1 beg to offer my greetings/

196 THE NEHRUS

* . * Panditji told him that his whole house was open for search
, . . but added * . . to search his house they would not take less
than six months to do justice to it This was [Panditjf s] inborn
humour . . .

'I could see the poor fellow [the police officer] wanted to say
something more which he could not take the courage to say* But
Panditji came to his rescue, Reading the search warrant again
. . . he asked the [police official] if Government wanted to
prosecute him under the Second clause of Section 17 of the
Criminal Law Amendment Act. "Yes, sir, and I have a warrant
of arrest also in my pocket/' was the prompt reply . . . "Oh, I am
ready for it," said Panditji, "but why did you not produce it all
at once?"* 14

The police officer was visibly nervous, but somehow he made
it known that he had a warrant for the arrest of Jawaharlal as
weiL The grounds of Anand Bhawan were soon filled with
friends and admirers. And then, to resume Godbole's account:

The police ordered a motor, and the Pandits, old and young,
father and son, son and father (spiritually Motilalji regards
fawaharlal as his father as you know) gladly entered [the car]/

Motilal dictated a farewell message to his countrymen :

^Having served you to the best of my ability, it is now my high
privilege to serve the motherland by going to gaol with my only
son/

Swamp Rani, who was interviewed by a press correspondent,
admitted that her heart was not entirely free from 'the wrench
of separation', but she 'rejoiced in the great privilege of sending
my dear husband and my only son to jail'. The words, "the only
son*, were heavily charged with emotion, but Swarup Rani
ad4dl: 'Mahatma Gandhi told me once that others in the world
have also thdbr only sons'.

As the police van drove out of the house the grey-haired, frail
Swamp Rani nearly broke down; her 22-year-old daughter-in-
law Kamala bravely held back her tears. These last twelve
months had demanded much from them; their whole world had

* OSLN. Papers.

HIGH TIDE 197

been turned upside-down, and now they had taken leave of their
menfolk for they did not know how long. Suspense, loneliness
and heartache were going to be their portion for the rest of
their lives.

The dean sweep of the Congress and Khilafat leaders in
Allahabad did not prevent a complete hartal on the occasion of
the Prince of Wales's visit, which Motilal had organized before
his arrest. When Prince Edward arrival at the Senate Hall to
receive a welcome address from the Allahabad University, most
of the students were absent. Those who were present had to go
without food that evening; the servants in the students' hostd
refused to serve them* 15

The following day, on December jth, MotilaTs trial opened in
an improvised courtroom in the gaol before K. N. Knox, LCS*,
who had been Jawaharlal's colleague in the local St John
Ambulance Brigade. Banerjee, the Government Advocate, was
an old friend of Motilal and obviously ill at ease. The charge that
Motilal was a Congress volunteer hardly needed any corrobora-
tion; his name had headed the list of volunteers published in his
own paper, the Independent* However, the police did not take
any chances; they produced Kirpa Ram Brahmin, a tattered and
evidently illiterate fellow, who pretended to verify MotilaTs
signatures in Hindi by holding the documents upside down.
Motilal refused to defend himself ; with his four-year-old grand-
daughter Indira in his arms, he cheerfully sat through the trial,
which he described as a 'farce'. He was sentenced to six months'
imprisonment and a fine of Rs. 500. A similar sentence was
awarded to Jawaharlal who was tried separately for distributing
handbills for a hartal. The fines were small, but both father and
son refused to pay them: as non-co-operators they could not
admit the jurisdiction of British courts. This gave the local police
a pretext for making raids on Anand Bhawan and carrying
away, despite the angry protests of little Indira, furniture and
carpets worth thousands in lieu of fines of a few hundreds. For
the ladies o the Nehru family, this police vandalism was a
valuable training in patience. Soon after the trial, they went to
Ahmedabad in response to an invitation from Gandhi to attend
the annual Congress session. Swamp Rani, Kamala, Krishna and
Indira had their first experience of a train journey in third class*
At Ahmedabad they were soothed and uplifted by the presence

* University of Allahabad jvtk Anniversary Souvenir, p, m.

THE NEHRUS

of the Mahatma, but it was hard to fit in with the ashram
routine of waking up at 4 ajn., assembling for prayers on the
banks of the Sabannati, partaking of simple but tasteless meals,
sleeping on the floor, cleaning plates and washing clothes.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
LOW TIDE

THE Nehrus were lodged in the District Gaol at Lucknow, the
headquarters of the Lieutenant-Governor, Sir Harcourt Butkr,
whom Motilal had known for thirty years. Arthur Moore, a
former editor of The Statesman, has recently repeated a story
which was widely current in the nineteen twenties:

'Motilal was dining with Sir Harcourt and no doubt, feeling
his political views changing . * * and possibly shades of the prison
house beginning to close around him, said laughingly to Sir
Harcourt over their champagne . . . that one day soon he might
be in prison* To which Sir Harcourt replied, "Well if that
happens, I will see that you get champagne"/

Moore says that the Governor was as good as his word, and
throughout Motilal's term in gaol an AJD.C turned up from
the Government House daily with 'a half-botde of champagne
wrapped in a napkin*. 1

This is a delightful anecdote; only it is not true. For one thing,
under the first impact of Gandhian austerity, Motilal had at this
time become a teetotaller. For another, it is difficult to believe
that even a smart AJD.C could have smuggled champagne for
the elder Nehru without the knowledge of his son and nephews
who lived in the same barrack. Arthur Moore has cited for his
story MotilaTs own testimony. As against this, Dewan Chaman
Lall recalls a conversation he heard between Motilal and Aldous
Huxley at a dinner party in Western Court during the latter's
visit to India. Asked by Huxley if Sir Harcourt Butler had pro-
vided him with maple furniture and champagne in gad, Motilal
laughed and said: 'No, it is not true. But in the good old days
rivers of champagne must have flowed between us/

Sir Harcourt's Government did not send champagne, but it
did something to make MotilaTs lot tolerable in gaol He had the

1 Zakaria, Rafiq (Editor), A Study of Nehru, p. 17?.

200 THE NEHRUS

company of his son and two nephews, Shamlal and MohanlaL
He was permitted to supplement his food from outside, to write
letters, to obtain newspapers and books* Godbole - whose eye-
witness account of Motilal's arrest has already been quoted 2 -
had noted that the police officer deputed to arrest Motilal was
visibly hesitant, almost apologetic. The awe in which prison
officials stood of the elder Nehru is illustrated by the story of a
visit to Lucknow gaol by MotilaPs nephew Brijlal Nehru, who
was on a short visit to India from Burma* Accompanied by his
wife Rameshwari Nehru, son Braj Kumar, and brother Kishenlal,
Brijlal arrived at the gaol gates, but was informed that not more
than three visitors could be admitted. Brijlal decided to stay out,
and the rest of the party went in. Motilal was furious when he
learned that his nephew had been kept out; he sent for the Gaol
Superintendent and demanded why the number of visitors had
been restricted without his - Moral's - approval. The Superin-
tendent did not wait to contest the propriety of this remarkable
query from his distinguished prisoner, but issued orders that
Brijlal should be admitted at once and the new rule should not
be applied to the Nehrus.

This was JawaharlaTs first imprisonment, but already he
seemed to be in his element. Unlike many Indian nationalists, he
did not seek serenity by diving into the Hindu scriptures, but
with the zest of a public schoolboy plunged into a feverish
routine of physical and mental activity. He swept and dusted
the gaol barrack, washed his father's and his own clothes, plied
the spinning wheel, read and discussed energetically and con-
ducted evening classes for the prisoners. He ministered to his
father's wants and nursed him with a devotion which would
have been impossible in the servant-ridden Anand Bhawan.

As 1922 dawned, Lucknow gaol resounded with nationalist
slogans. Truck-loads of political prisoners arrived daily. The tide
of non-co-operation was running high. The climax came on
February i, 1920, when Gandhi wrote to the Viceroy informing
Mm that civil disobedience was about to begin in Bardoli in
Bcmibay Presidency.

2

The Nehrus strained their ears for a darion call to the final
1 Supra, p. 196.

TIDE 201

battle against foreign rule; all they heard was the bugle of
retreat. Three days after the Mahatma had sent his ultimatum to
Lord Reading, there was a clash between a procession and a party
of police at Chauri Chaura, a small village in the United
Provinces. The police station was burnt down and twenty-two
persons, including the young son of the Sub-Inspector of Police,
lost their lives. According to Devadas, Gandhi's youngest son,
who visited the scene of the tragedy soon afterwards and sent a
confidential report to his father, the procession was unarmed, the
initial provocation had come from the police, and the attack on
the police station was not premeditated. The High Court came
to contrary conclusions, but even Devadas reported that the
rioters were heard shouting : 'Gandhi ki Jaf ,

Gandhi viewed the Chauri Chaura tragedy as a red signal, a
warning that the atmosphere in the country was too explosive
for a mass movement. He decided to retrace his steps, to coned
the plans for civil disobedience in Bardoli, to suspend the
'aggressive* part of the non-co-operation campaign and to shift
the emphasis to the 'constructive' programme of hand-spinning,
communal unity, abolition of untouchability, etc.

These decisions were like a clap of thunder to the Mahatma's
adherents. Probably no one was closer to him than his faithful
secretary Mahadev Desai; but even Desai wrote from Agra gaol
(February 15th) that the shock had 'absolutely unhinged' Mm.*
Lajpat Rai addressed a circular letter* to the Congress Working
Committee in which he described Gandhi as 'one of the greatest
men of all ages, all times and all countries* Yet that is exactly
the reason why we have to swallow the bitter pill of ignominious
defeat today . . * Our defeat is in proportion to the greatness of
our leader * . . Mahatmaji pitched his standard too high . , . To
change the hearts of mobs in such a way as to make it impossible
for them to indulge in such brutalities without changing the
hearts of Governments, that rule over them is an impossi-
bility . . . Leaders of political campaigns for freedom cannot
afford to wear their hearts on their sleeves . . /

In Lucknow gaol the reactions of the Nehrus were equally
violent Motilal was beside himself with anger, while his son
vented his despair in a letter which Gandhi described 'as a
freezing dose*. In a long letter the Mahatma sought to justify

3 Unpublished. Desai to Gandhi (G.&N.).
* G.&N. Papers.

202 THE NEHRUS

his volte face and to soothe the nerves of both father and son.

Gandhi to Jawaharlal: February 19, 1922 : "... I see that all of
you are terribly cut up over the resolutions of the Working Com-
mittee. I sympathize with you, and my heart goes out to Father. 5
I can picture to myself the agony through which he must have
passed, but I also feel that this letter is unnecessary because I
know that the first shock must have been followed by a true
understanding of the situation . . .

1 must tell you that this Chauri Chaura incident was the last
straw . . . I received letters both from Hindus and Mohammedans
from Calcutta, Allahabad and the Punjab, all these before the
Gorakhpur incident, telling me that the wrong was not all on
the Government's side, that our people were becoming aggres-
sive, defiant and threatening, that they were getting out of hand
. . , I assure you that if the thing had not been suspended we
would have been leading not a non-violent struggle but essen-
tially a violent struggle . . . The cause will prosper by this
retreat The movement had unconsciously drifted from the right
path. We have come back to our moorings . . /

Contrary to the belief current at the time, Gandhi's arrest was
delayed rather than precipitated by the aftermath of Chauri-
Chaura. Reading was being pressed by Montagu, and Montagu
was being goaded by Parliament and the press in Britain, to
adopt a sterner line towards Gandhi. Uncharitable critics were
indeed whispering that India was being lost between two Jews,
one in Whitehall, and the other in Delhi, who were not strong
enough to grapple with Gandhi. 6 In 1920 Montagu had taken
Ctelmsford to task for questioning Gandhi's bona fides; 7 in 1922
he was chiding Reading for 'the continued freedom of Gandhi
to organize and issue justifications of civil disobedience'. 8 Reading
had decided to arrest Gandhi before the Chauri Chaura riot, but
considered it politic to give Gandhi just sufficient time to go into
reverse. By the end of February, the emasculated programme
which Gandhi had already piloted through the Working Com-
mittee at Bardoli was finally ratified by the All India Congress

*MotilaL

* Wintertoa, Eaii, Orders of the Day, p. 112.

7 Nanda, B. & Mahatma Gandhi, p. 197,

Telegram to Viceroy, Fe&ruary 6, 1922 (N.A.I.).

LOW TIDE 203

Committee* On March loth he was arrested, tried for sedition
and sentenced to six years' imprisonment.

After the Chauri Chaura incident Lord Reading told his son
that 'Gandhi had pretty well run himself to the last ditch as a
politician/ 9 A few months later, the Viceroy traced the decline
'both of the non-co-operation movement and of the prestige of
its leaders * . . from the issue of the Bardoli resolutions which
left the organization without any clearly defined and intelligible
objectives* From that moment, disintegration and disorganiza-
tion set in; enthusiasm evaporated, disillusionment and dis-
couragement prevailed in the ranks of the party/ 1 *

Motilal would have agreed with this analysis. But he was too
shrewd publicly to assail the Mahatma, who was in gaol, whose
prestige was in any case independent of the success or failure of
particular policies, and whose leadership would be indispensable
in years to come* In a speech at Allahabad in June delivered
soon after his release, he defended Gandhi's change of front.
Tor the war in which we are engaged/ he said, 'we have chalked
out an entirely new line. We fight entirely with new weapons
unknown to history and only have our own mistakes to profit
by/ He deplored the indiscipline that had crept into the non-
co-operation movement. Mahatma Gandhi had made himself
believe that he was leading a well-equipped army, but had dis-
covered behind hi 'a rabble either unarmed or badly* armed,
and a great number not even in their fighting uniforms'. After
Chauri Chaura civil disobedience had not been abandoned but
suspended* 'We may have to adjust our sails to the varying
winds, we may have to alter our course to avoid the shoals and
the breakers ahead, we may even have to drop apchor to allow
the gathering mists to clear up* But there can be no question of
our changing our destination or our good ship which we have
chartered for the voyage/

Motilal was to be one of the most important influences in
setting a new course. In June, 1922, the All India Congress
Committee met at Lucknow to consider measures to halt the

9 Reading, Marquess of, Rufus Isaacs, First Marquess of Heading, vol in,
p, 2.40.
M Telegram to Secretary of State, December 5, 1922 (N.AX),

204 THE NEHRUS

growing divisions and demoralization which had been sapping
the Congress organization since Gandhi's arrest. Serious differ-
ences had arisen on at least one item in the non-co-operation
programme - namely the boycott of legislatures*

This was the issue on which Gandhi had waged the hardest
battle at the Calcutta Congress in September, 1920, won with
the narrowest margin* Among those who had then opposed him
was C 3L Das* Das was not at all happy at Gandhi's conduct of
the campaign of non-co-operation* He did not like the way
Gandhi spurned proposals for a Round Table Conference with
the Government in December, 19x1 ; u nor did he appreciate the
reasons for the volte face after Chauri Chaura* Subhas Bose has
recorded how Das 'was beside himself with anger and sorrow
at the way Mahatma Gandhi was repeatedly bungling'. 12 On his
release from gaol Das endorsed MotilaTs pleas for council-entry,
not in order to co-operate with the Government, but in order to
create deadlocks which would compel the Viceroy and the
Governors to use their emergency powers and thus expose the
true nature of the 'mock parliaments' that had been set up in
India.

The All India Congress Committee appointed a Civil Dis-
obedience Enquiry Committee to tour the country and advise
whether a reorientation of the Congress programme was neces-
sary* The committee came to the conclusion that the country
was not ready for civil disobedience on a large scale, but limited
mass civil disobedience' on the responsibility of provincial con-
gress committees could be permitted. On the vexed question of
council-entry the committee reached a deadlock : three members,
Hakim Ajmal Khan, V. J* Patel and Motilal favoured it, while
the remaining three, lyengar, Ansari and Rajagopalachari, were
opposed to it* The report of the committee was discussed by the
All India Congress Committee in November, 1922, but the final
decision was left to the annual Congress session at Gaya*

Those who advocated Congress support for council entry -
the 'Pro-Changers' -were led by C* R* Das and Motilal* The
two men had been much thrown together during the years
1919-20 as members of the Congress Enquiry Committee in the
Punjab, and later as rival counsel in the Dumraon case at Arrah*
Temperamentally, they were poles apart* Motilal was severely

11 Nanda, B. IL, Mahatma Gandhi, pp. 227-8.

a Bose, Snbfeas Chandra, The Indian Struggle, p. 108.

LOW TIDE 205

rational, logical, impervious to emotion, particularly religious
emotion. Das was alertness itself in the court-room and the
legislative chamber, but had a strong vein of mysticism which
expressed itself in tender verses and religious trances* MotiJaFs
Olympian manner, stern exterior and caustic wit, while they
lent a peculiar distinction to his personality, sometimes en-
gendered in his colleagues a sense of inferiority which not in-
frequently avenged itself in ingratitude, sullenness and even
open rebellion. The more emotional and volatile Das evoked
fiercer loyalties.

Despite these temperamental differences Das and Motilal had
much in common. Both were able and successful lawyers
though success came to Das rather late in life. Both were
patriots who gave their all - and they had much to give - to the
national movement : MotilaPs gift of Anand Bhawan in the last
year of his life had an exact parallel in the donation by Das of
his Calcutta residence, 148, Russa Road. Both were skilful
parliamentarians. Both admired and respected Gandhi but were
far from being 'whole-hoggers'. Both favoured flexibility and
were irritated by the ethical straitjacket in which Gandhi
seemed to wrap his politics. In 1922 both were unable to under-
stand why, after the decline of non-co-operation, a new 'front*
could not be opened in the legislatures.

The Das-Nehru combination met with stiff opposition from
the 'No-changers' - those who opposed changes in the pro-
gramme of non-co-operation as framed by Gandhi before his
arrest. These included Rajendra Prasad, Vallabhbhai Patd, C
Vijiaraghavachariar; their chief spokesman was C, Rajagopala-
chari, already a leading Congressman and an exponent of
Gandlan dialectics. Rajagopalachari's keen wit, subtle logic
and stamina in debate, working on the faith of the rank and file
in the infallibility of the Mahatma, carried the day for the
No-changers at the Gaya Congress. The result, 890 votes for
council-entry and 1,740 against, was a crushing defeat for the
Tro-Changers', particularly for Das, the president of the session.

Das and Motilal did not throw up the sponge. Immediately
after the Congress session, on December 31, 1922, they con-
vened a meeting of their supporters at the Gaya residence of the
Maharaja of Tikari, a client of Motilal, and formed the 'Con-
gress-Khilafat Swaraj Party'. Das was elected president and
Motilal one of the secretaries. In fact the burden of organizing

206 THE NEHRUS

the party fell chiefly on MotilaL The new party, which came to
be known as the Swaraj Party, accepted the creed of the Con-
gress and the programme of non-co-operation, but decided to
follow an independent line on the issue of council-entry*

The Gaya Congress witnessed only one round in a tug-of-war
which was to last for the best part of 1923* While continuing to
profess loyalty to Gandhi and the Congress, 'No-Changers' and
'Pro-Changers' engaged in a fierce struggle for the control of the
party machine. Attempts at reconciliation invariably ended in
fireworks of recrimination* Neither party was willing to change
its ground or to accept responsibility for an irrevocable breach.
Early in 1923, Abul Kalam Azad arranged a compromise: the
Swarajists agreed to suspend propaganda in favour of council-
entry while the 'No-Changers' raised funds and volunteers for a
revival of mass civil disobedience; but if civil disobedience did
not materialize by the end of April, each party was free to go
its own way. The call for the revival of civil disobedience - as
might well have been anticipated - fell flat Meanwhile the
Swarajists were growing impatient; they had little time to lose
if they were to contest the elections at the end of the year. The
puisuit of a phantasm': this was how Motilal described the
attempts at rapprochement between the two groups in the Con-
gress. Nevertheless, another attempt at a compromise was made
in May, 1923, when the All India Congress Committee met at
Bombay. It was proposed that the 'No-Changers' should desist
from propaganda against council-entry. Rather than make this
limited concession to their opponents, the 'No-Changers' on the
Working Committee - Rajagopalachari, Vallabhbhai Patd,
Rafendra Prasad and Jamnalal Bajaj - resigned. Das, who had
offered his resignation from the presidency of the Congress at
Gaya in December, 1922, but had been persuaded to continue,
also finally stepped aside, A new Working Committee profess-
ing to represent a 'Centre Party' was elected. Dr Ansari became
the new president and Jawaharlal one of the secretaries. But the
days of the new Working Committee were numbered. 'It repre-
sented nobody in particular, and it tried to boss it over those
who held the real power in the Congress organization/ 15 Jawa-
harlal was 'quite shocked at the way some prominent Congress-
men amid intrigue'. It did not take him long to discover how
thankless was the role of a buffer between the warring groups.
, L, Autobiography, p. 108.

LOW TIDE Z07

Within a month of the Bombay compromise, Vallabhbhai Patd,
one of the leading 'No-Changers', was provoked by a speech
delivered by C R. Das and fired a broadside at Jawaharial, the
peacemaker.

Vallabhbhai Patel to Jawaharlal, June 24, 1923: '. . . I trust
you have been carefully following the adventures of Mr Das in
Madras. Do you think that the sinking movement [of non-
co-operation] can last long if terrific onslaughts are allowed to
be delivered day after day without protest? . . . Is this the fend
of propaganda against which the Bombay decision issued an in-
junction not to open our lips? . . . I have been scratching my
brains to find out how, of aU people, you could be a party to an
arrangement which was expected to create such a complex
situation . . . You have an impression that I am obstinate, per-
haps incorrigible/

Das, of whom Patel had complained, was equally critical of
Jawaharial and called him 'cold-blooded* at the next meeting of
the All India Congress Committee - which incidentally saw the
downfall of the Centre Party,

These wrangles went on until a modus vivendi was reached
at a special Congress at Delhi in September, 192,3, over which
Abul Kalam Azad presided. The principles of non-co-operation
were reaffirmed, but those who had *no religious or other con-
scientious objections against entering the legislatures' were
allowed to take part in the elections* This compromise, which
was ratified at an annual session at Coconada three months later,
was not reached a day too soon. The elections were due in
November.

The election manifesto of the Swaraj Party, which Motilal
issued on October 14th, described it as 'a party within the Con-
gress, and as such an integral part of the Congress. It is not and
was never intended to be a rival organization'. The Swaraj Party
did not question the principle of non-co-operation. On the con-
trary, it proposed 'to carry the good fight into the enemy's camp
by entering the councils*.

Though the Swarajists were handicapped by strife within the
Congress organization and had only a few weeks to prepare for
the elections, they gave a good account of themselves. Motilal's
vigorous electioneering at the age of sixty-two was astonishing.

208 THE NEHRUS

He travelled incessantly by road and rail, addressing an endless
chain of meetings - till late at night. The performance of the
Swaraj Party at the polls, if not spectacular, was impressive. In
the Central Legislative Assembly it won 42 out of 101 elective
seats; in the Central Provinces Council it won an absolute
majority; in Bengal it was the largest party; in the ILP. and
Assam the second largest party; in the Punjab and Madras, it
made no headway against sectarian and communal elements.

It was decided that Motilal would lead the party in the Cen-
tral Legislative Assembly and C K Das in the Bengal Council.
'Two of the ablest leaders in the Congress Camp" - this was how
the Viceroy described Motilal and Das* In a confidential
'dossier* of the Swarajist legislators prepared for the Govern-
ment of India soon after the elections Motilal figured as 'an out-
standing leader of marked capacity . . . The General Secretary
of the Swaraj Party, he engineered the very complete hartal and
boycott at the time of the visit to Allahabad of His Royal High-
ness the Prince of Wales in December, 1921 * .. His family as a
whole dabbles in politics . . /

CHAPTER NINETEEN
LETTERS FROM PRISON

JAWAHARLAL took no part in the controversies which preceded
the birth of the Swaraj Party in the latter half of 1922, for the
simple reason that he was in prison. His first term had ended
prematurely in March, 1922, thanks to a belated qualm of the
official conscience: it was discovered that he had been wrongly
convicted. It was a wrench parting from his father and almost
the first thing he did after his release was to leave for Ahmeda-
bad, where he arrived just in time to meet Gandhi in gaol and
to witness his historic trial The proceedings deeply moved Jawa-
harlal not only because of the stirring statement of the
Mahatma, but of "the dignity and the feeling' with which the
British judge behaved towards the distinguished prisoner. It
will be impossible to ignore the fact/ Judge Broomfidd told
Gandhi before sentencing him to six years' imprisonment, 'that
you are in a different category from any person I have ever tried,
or am likely to have to try. It would be impossible to ignore the
fact that, in the eyes of millions of your countrymen, you are a
great patriot and a great leader. Even those who differ from you
in politics look upon you as a man of high ideals and of noble
and even saintly Me'.

On return to Allahabad, Jawaharlal threw himself into the
non-co-operation movement His presence -and the threat of
picketing - brought the local doth merchants to heel, and the
sales of foreign doth to a standstill. He was arrested, tried on
several counts, induding those of 'intimidation and extortion',
and sentenced to twenty-one months' imprisonment. He did not
defend himself, but gave a statement which inter alia recalled:

"Less than ten years ago, I returned from England after a long
stay there ... I had imbibed most of the prejudices of Harrow
and Cambridge, and in my likes and dislikes I was perhaps more
an Englishman than an Indian. I looked upon the world almost
from an Englishman's standpoint ... as much prejudiced in

210 THE NEHRUS

favour of England and the English as it was possible for an
Indian to be/ 1

In giving this flash-back, Jawaharlal was probably emulating
his political mentor, who had given Judge Broomfield a
dramatic exposition of his transition from a confirmed loyalist
to a self-confessed rebeL There was, however, little in common
between the political evolution of Gandhi and that of young
Nehru, Gandhi's ahglicism was an adolescent phase, which he
had begun to outgrow even during the student days. But long
after his western veneer had peeled off, Gandhi had continued
to profess a peculiar attachment to the British Empire -an
attachment which survived even his long struggle in South
Africa, and the frustrations of the war years after his return to
India. The Rowlatt Acts and the Punjab tragedy had almost a
traumatic effect upon Gandhi: the depth of his disillusion in
1920 was a measure of the illusion he had been hugging, of a
new heaven and earth being established after the war by a grate-
ful Empire for the help rendered to it in its hour of need by a
subject people,

JawaharlaPs nationalism ante-dated the Rowlatt Acts, the
emergence of Gandhi, even the first world war. It had visibly
sprouted when he arrived at Harrow at the age of fifteen; it had
not been smothered by the westernized atmosphere of his home
and the influence of his European governesses and tutors. It sur-
vived the seven impressionable years he spent in the nurseries of
the British aristocracy; indeed it was nourished by homesickness
at Harrow and invigorated by the bracing climate of Cambridge,
His growing familiarity with the literature, the arts and the in-
stitutions of England did not reconcile him to her rule over
India. On the contrary, it enabled him to judge and criticize the
English by their own standards. Jawaharlal did not need the
shock of a Jallianwala Bagh to become a rebel; his trauma, if
there were one, would have to be traced right back to his in-
fancy: perhaps his nationalism was a congenital disease.

On returnii^ to Lucknow gaol in May, 1922, young Nehru
found that his father had been transferred to Naini Tal prison

1 DwivdB, R. (LX The Ufe and Speeches of Jtwaharlal Nehru, pp. ^5.

LETTERS FROM PRISON ZU

and the official attitude towards political prisoners had per-
ceptibly hardened. The initial leniency of the authorities may
have been due in part to the presence of the elder Nehru - who
inspired a strange awe even in his gaolers - and in part to the
sudden influx of a new class of prisoners belonging to the
intelligentsia. The Government had of course no intention (in
the words of Lord Reading) of converting imprisonment into 4 a
comfortable lodging at the expense of the state'. 2

Jawaharlal's second term in Lucknow gaol began in a barrack
housing about fifty prisoners, which was cut off from other
barracks and was thus a 'gaol within a gaol'. Jawaharlal found
the want of privacy hard to endure. He and his fellow-prisoners
bathed in public and washed their clothes in public, and ran
round and round the barrack for exercise and talked and argued
till they had largely exhausted each others* capacity for intelli-
gent conversation. Yearning for solitude, Jawaharlal would
sometimes leave the barrack and braving the sun and the rain,
sit in the open part of the gaol enclosures. It has been very
pleasant/ he wrote to his father (August 17, 1922) "and I have
spent all my time in the open. All day I sit or lie under the neem
trees spinning or reading or, it may be, writing. And at night,
I move out from under the trees so as to have an unrestricted
view of the stars and the moon. As I write this letter I am
sitting under the starry canopy. An hour ago it was almost a
cloudless night -a beautiful sight -and doubly welcome after
so many days of mist and cloud. Now the clouds have crept up
and try in vain to hide the stars, which peep through them, and
twinkle away for all they are worth/

The new rules for the treatment of political prisoners led to a
crisis in Lucknow gaol. Protests from the prisoners were followed
by fresh restrictions. The authorities decided to isolate in a
remote part of the gaol seven of the ringleaders, including
Devadas Gandhi, Mahadev Desai, Purushottam Das Tandon and
Jawaharlal Nehru. Whatever other inconveniences this arrange-
ment may have had; it ensured Jawaharlal the modicum of
privacy for which he had longed in that crowded barrack. Inter-
views and newspapers were carefully rationed, but enough in-
formation had filtered through to indicate that the non-co-
operation movement had passed the magic moment, that the

1 Reading, Marquess of, Ruftis Isaacs, First Marquess of Reading, voL fl,
p. 236.

212 THE NEHRUS

people had begun to non-co-operate with each other rather than
with the Government It was only natural that from the melan-
choly present, young Nehru's mind should have wandered into
the recent past or the remote future. 'In the golden days to
come/ he wrote to his father, 'when the history of our times
and our country comes to be written, shall we not think of the
good old days? Shall we not remember the great men who
showed us the way, and filled us with the fire of faith? In the
words of Meredith (changing but one word Italia for India) :

who have seen India in the throes
Half-risen but to be hurled to the ground, and now,
like a ripe field of wheat where once drove plough,
All bounteous as sh<e is fair, we think
Of those who blew the breath of life into her frame/

A regular routine of activity and exercise enabled Jawaharlal
to preserve his health and sense of humour* One day he received
copies of the Nation and the New Statesman with marks in blue
pencil and a marginal note, by the Gaol Superintendent. 'His
interest is touching/ Jawaharlal wrote to his father. 'He is
evidently bent on improving our minds, and like the missionary,
would save us from the wrath to come in spite of ourselves/
Then, there was a visit from the Inspector-General of Prisons,
preceded by 'a good deal of rubbing and scrubbing and soaping
and washing and sweeping and cursing and the [staff] put
on their newly-washed dothes and tried to look their smartest,
and the high officials and the low officials of the gaol put on
their uniforms, and tried in vain to look comfortable in them*
And so in the evening the grand finale took place. The great one
came and walked across and went. So far as I know he did not
speak to any prisoner in our barrack/

3

f awaharlal took advantage of his enforced leisure to catch up
with his reading, which had fallen into arrears since his return
from England. It was a tantalizing thought that he might be
out of the gaol before he had time to read half the books on his
list, that, but for Gandhi and non-co-operation, he would have
been leading a pleasant but pointless existence.

LETTERS FROM PRISON 213

Jawaharlal to Motilal: September i, 1922: *. . . My mind is full
of books I ought to read and it is with great difficulty that I re-
frain from sending you even longer lists than I have done so
far ... I wonder often how I shall be able to compress so much
reading, spinning, writing, etc., as I have to do before discharge*

* Ever since my return from England I had done little read-
ing, and I shudder to think, what I was gradually becoming,
before politics and N.C.O.* snatched me away from the doom
that befalls many of us . . . the life I led and that so many of us
led, the atmosphere of the lower courts, the uninspiring con-
versation of the Bar Library, the continuous contact with the
sordid side of human nature - all this and the absence of any
organized intellectual life - gradually kill the power of free
thought We dare not think or follow up the consequences of
our thought. We remain in the ruts and valleys, incapable
almost of looking up towards the mountain-tops. And the finer
side of life escapes us, we cannot even appreciate art or beauty,
for everything that is outside the ruts and the valleys terrifies
us. We cling to our physical comfort, and a very second-race
bourgeois comfort at that We do not even know how to live well
or to enjoy ourselves. Few of us have any joie de vivre left And
so we live out our lives with little said or little done, that beauti-
fies existence for us or for others, or that will be remembered by
anyone after we are dead and gone. That was the fate reserved
for us also, till the high gods took us in hand, and removed us
from the rats, and placed us on the mountain side. We may not
reach the top yet awhile, but the glory of wide vision is ours,
and sometimes the rays of the morning sun reach us sooner
than those in the valleys.

"Many years ago Colonel Haksar told me that, after he had
finished his academical career, he gave a year or two to reading
and thinking and did nothing else during that period. I envied
him that year or two. And now the chance has been given to
me. Shall I not rejoice? . . /

In gaol Jawaharlal thought of another of his early loves, the
mountains. He sent for two books from the Anand Bhawan
library on Western Tibet and the Borderland. 'Khaliq and I/ he
wrote, *came to an agreement long ago to undertake a long
pilgrimage as soon as Swaraj is attained. We have chalked out

8 Non-co-opetatkHi.

214 THE NEHRUS

a beautiful itinerary. We go to Kashmir and Ladakh and Tibet
We pay a visit to the lovely Mansrovar Lake and Mount Kailas.
And then we go through the famous cities of Central Asia,
may be, Afghanistan and Iran, Arabia, and go to the West . . /

He hated self-pity and deprecated the sympathy lavished on
him by friends and relatives: "It is those who work and labour
outside/ he told his father, "who deserve sympathy. We have no
appointments to keep, no piling up of work with which we
cannot cope, no speechifying, no hurry. Time ceases to have
significance . . . We might with a stretch of the imagination,
think ourselves in Tennyson's island in the Western Sea, where
it is always afternoon, and the lotus-eaters dwell. Barrack No. 4
is not such a bad place as outsiders imagine.'

Jawaharlal was protesting too much. That his health was not
half so good as he pretended to his family is shown by a diary
of his ailments which he used to send to his father so that the
latter could prescribe homoeopathic remedies.

Sometimes his thoughts strayed beyond the walls of the
prison and the covers of his books. 'I hope mother is not worry-
ing about me/ he wrote. 'I was very pleased to get her note from
Bombay . . . Like all mothers, she perhaps exaggerates my ail-
ments and so I am afraid, needlessly alarms herself/ On Novem-
ber 15th he wrote that he had observed his birthday in accord-
ance with his mother's directions : 'I did everything she wished
me to do. I have even kept Rs. 5 for the poor. I shall hand these
to her when she comes/ The health of his little daughter Indira
caused him much concern. Tomorrow it will be three months
since I saw her/ he wrote on August iSth. When she came to
see him, he found her Very pale and weak'. 1 wish/ he added,
'some arrangements were made for Indu's lessons. I am con-
fident that I could have managed her easily -but I am in
Barrack No. 4.' She was probably too small to be able to read
the letters her father wrote to her in Hindi.

Jawaharlal to his daughter, October 17, 1922: To dear Indu,
love from her Papu. You must get well quickly, learn to write
letters and come and see me in gaol. I am longing to see you.
Have you plied the new spinning wheel which Dadu [grand-
father] has brought for you? Send me some of your yarn. Do
yora join mother in prayers every day ? '

LETTERS FROM PRISON 215

November 15, 1922 : '. . . Love to dear daughter Indira from her
Papu. Did you like Calcutta? Is it better than Bombay? Did you
see the Calcutta 200? What animals did you see? Have you
seen a huge tree there? You must get strong and plump before
you return to Allahabad/

From the gaol, Jawaharlal sent 10,570 yards of yarn to Anand
Bhawan. 'It took me/ he wrote, *a considerable time to spin,
chiefly because I tried to spin fine yarn. Spinning coarse yarn
does not interest me/

On January 31, 1923, before he had completed half his term,
Jawaharlal was released. The dedine of the non-co-operation
movement, and the differences between Hindus and Muslims,
Pro-Changers and No-Changers, had encouraged the Govern-
ment to grant a partial amnesty, for which there was an in-
sistent demand in and outside the provincial and central legis-
latures.

Just a month before JawaharlaPs release, his father in partner-
ship with Das had founded the Swaraj Party. Jawaharlal, who
as a student in England had watched with interest the tactics of
Irish nationalists, had argued with Gandhi in favour of council
entry in 1920. Three years later, Gandhi was in gaol and his
staunch adherents favoured a programme which seemed rather
remote from politics as they were commonly understood.
Though Jawaharlal did not align himself with either of the
parties, he recognized the inevitability of a parliamentary phase
following the failure of direct action. We get a glimpse into his
mind from Mahadev Desai, who had been his fellow-prisoner
in Lucknow gaol in 1922. 1 know you are of the opinion/ wrote
Desai, "that the country is generally in a mood to accept
[council entry], if it is afiowed to have its own way/ 4

Curiously enough, Motilal did not press his son to join the
Swaraj Party. In 1920, he had looked around for a constituency
for Jawaharlal for the U.P. Council; in 1924 he would have been
glad to have him by his side in the central legislature. How-
ever, the experience of the last four years had shown him how
little amenable his son's politics were to merely parental advice,

4 Makadev Desai to Jawaharlal June & 1923 (N.P.).

2l6 THE NEHRUS

so he left the task of conversion to his friend C R. Das; but even
the able advocacy of Das failed to win over Jawaharlal, who
preferred the role of a mediator between the Swarajists and the
No-Changers* As one of the chief architects of the ill-fated
Bombay compromise, Jawaharlal was elected a member of the
short-lived Working Committee representing the 'Centre Party'
in the Indian National Congress. His debut on the stage of
national politics in the summer of 1923 revealed his peculiar
assets and limitations: while his idealistic and sensitive mind
rebelled against pettiness and the scramble for power, he himself
was too remote from the personal and factional manoeuvres to
be able effectively to control them.

The instinct which kept young Nehru out of political
squabbles of 1922-5 was a sound one. If he had been drawn into
them, not only would his own intellectual growth have suffered,
but he might not have been able to offer in the late 'twenties
that romantic and unsullied image which helped to make him
the hero of youth, the hope of the national movement and the
heir of the Mahatma.

In September, 1923, Jawaharlal attended the Special Con-
gress at Delhi which patched up a truce between the Swarajists
and the No-Changers* At the end of the session he decided to
take a day off to visit Nabha, which was much in the news
because of clashes between Akali demonstrators and the police.
Little did he know that a 'strange and unexpected adventure'
was in store for him.

CHAPTER TWENTY
TRAPPED IN NABHA

THE Afcali movement had originally professed a religious aim:
the rescue of the Sikh shrines from the corrupt control of the
Mahants. But the attack on these vested interests inevitably
brought the Akalis into conflict with the Government In 1923
they started an agitation against the deposition of the Maharaja
of Nabha. The tangle of dynastic rivalries between the sister
states of Patiala and Nabha, and the squalid intrigues which had
preceded the downfall of the ruler of Nabha, could hardly be
solved by marching jathas - bands of volunteers - from British
India. But such reasoning did not enter into the calculations of
the Akalis; they could command men, money and emotion for
a movement which, so long as it remained non-violent, was
designed to enlist nationalist sympathy.

On September 21, 1923, Jawaharlal, accompanied by two of
his Congress friends, Dr Gidwani and K. Santhanam, followed
an Akali jatha from Muktsar in British India to Jaito on the
frontier of Nabha state* On arrival at Jaito, all the three were
served with orders directing them to leave the state territory
immediately. They protested that they were not members of the
Akali jatha but only spectators, that they had already entered
the Nabha state, that the next railway train was not due to
leave Jaito for several hours. Their protests were ignored; they
were arrested and taken to the police lock-up. In the evening
Santhanam's left wrist was handcuffed to Jawaharlal's right
wrist; led by a policeman who held a chain attached to the hand-
cuff, the prisoners were marched through the streets of that
small town. The experience was deeply humiliating until the
humour of the situation dawned upon Jawaharlal: the sight re-
sembled that of *a dog being led by a chain'. That night he and
his two colleagues, handcuffed to each other* remained packed
in a third dass carriage of a slow-moving passenger train. The
following day they arrived in Nabha, the state capital, where
they were locked up in the local gaol in a small, damp, in-

2l8 THE NEHRUS

sanitary cell with a ceiling so low that their heads touched it
Immediately after his arrest at Jaito, Jawaharlal had written
two letters* 1 have been arrested here, this afternoon/ he briefly
informed his wife, Ve do not know exactly where we will be
tried and taken to , * * please don't worry/ To his father he
wrote: 'We have been fortunate enough to be arrested * . . We
have been waiting here for the last few hours in the police
station, and do not know what is going to happen* Whatever
that may be, we are thoroughly satisfied Do not worry/

]A otilal had seen too much of the world - the world of Indian
States - not to worry. Some of the Punjab states were notorious
for their sordid atmosphere of intrigue, chicanery and violence*
In these states life and honour were cheap and inconvenient
persons had a habit of disappearing mysteriously* He sensed the
hazards to the health, and indeed the life of his son. He tele-
graphed (September 23rd) to the Viceroy: 'Starting for Nabha
today by Punjab Mail to interview my son Pandit Jawaharlal
Nehru, reported to have been arrested under Section 188, and
now in state custody* Have so far taken no part in Akali agita-
tion, and the sole object of the present visit is to see my son*
Expect there will be no interference or molestation by sub-
ordinate officials in exercise of my natural right* 1 Before leaving
Allahabad, he also telegraphed to Harkishenlal - whom he had
helped during the martial law days of 1919, and who was now
a minister in the Punjab.

Motilal arrived at Nabha on September 24th and lodged him-
self in the waiting-room at the railway station* What followed
may best be described from the contemporary records, which
have fortunately survived**

J. Wilson Johnston, LCS*, CBJE., Administrator Nabha State,
to Pandit Motilal Nehru, September 24, 1923 : 'The Honourable
Mr Harkishenlal has forwarded to me your telegram of the 22nd
despatched from Allahabad * * * I give you a brief outline of
your son's case * . . He is being tried under Section 188 and
Section 145 . . /

Morilol Nehru to Administrator Nabha dated September 24,
1923, Waiting Room Nabha Railway Station: 'I beg to ack-
nowledge your letter of this date (unsigned) handed over to me

* N JU.

TRAPPED IN NABHA 219

at the Nabha railway station by the Chief Police Officer of the
State.

1 am obliged to you for the brief outline of my son's case
given in your letter . . .

*I have no desire at the present moment to disturb the course
of proceedings you have chalked out for the trial , , . but assert
the inalienable right of an accused person to have such advice
and assistance at the trial as he or his friends may determine.
As the father of the accused and the man most interested in him
I formally claim the right to have access to him . . .

1 may mention that various reports of ill-treatment of persons
arrested by State officials have appeared in the press and I am
naturally anxious to find out if my son has been subjected to
such ill-treatment . . /

J. Wilson Johnston Administrator Nabha to Motilal Nehru,
September 24, 1923: 1 am in receipt of your letter dated
waiting room Nabha station, the 24th September . * .

'As already verbally communicated to you, you have my per-
mission to interview your son upon the following conditions,
the acceptance of which I must ask you to give me in writing:
(i) That you undertake not to engage in any political

activity while you are within the state territory,
(ii) that immediately after the conclusion of your inter-
view with Jawaharlal Nehru, you will leave the state
precincts . . /

Motilal Nehru to J. Wilson Johnston Administrator, Nabha
State dated Waiting Room Nabha the 24th September, 1923 :
*I beg to acknowledge your letter of date in reply to my letter of
this morning. I thought I had in that letter given my dear
answer to the conditions verbally imposed upon my interview
with Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru which you have repeated in
writing * . . I may mention that, besides the right of interview-
ing Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, I consider myself fully entitled to
watch his trial and to appear for him as counsel if necessary * . .

I Wilson Johnston, LOS., CB.R, to Motilal Nehru, Dated
September 24, 1923 : 'As you categorically refuse to accept the
two conditions that I have laid down before I could sanction an
interview with your son, I have nothing to say. Under the

220 THE NEHRUS

circumstances, I regret that I must ask you leave the state terri-
tory by the first train* I am sending herewith a notice to be
served upon you in this connection under Section 144 of the
Criminal Procedure Code/

Endorsement on the Duplicate copy of the Order under
Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code by Motilal Nehru:
'Received notice* My presence in Nabha may be undesirable
from the point of view of the present Nabha Administration,
but it is not true that it will tend to disturb the public tran-
quillity* For the present, however, I am leaving Nabha by the
fest available train. Section 144 is wholly inapplicable/

Motilal returned to Ambala and sent another telegram to the
Viceroy.

Motilal Nehru to the Viceroy, dated Ambala Cantt. September
25, 1923: 'Arrived yesterday morning* Despite my assurance
that I had no part in the Akali agitation and the sole object of
my visit was to see my son Jawaharlal Nehru, under-trial
prisoner, Administrator (Nabha) insisted on guarantees. My
request for permission to appear as counsel answered by notice
under Section 144 ordering me to leave Nabha by first train*
Accordingly I left yesterday, while mock trial going on. Besides
absolute denial of justice and fairplay I have strong suspicions
of ill-treatment in gaol * * . Waiting Ambala Cantonment station
for reply*'

Thanks to the intervention of the Government of India,
Motilal was permitted to interview his son and to stay on in
Nafaha till the conclusion of the trial; he disavowed, as he had
done from the outset, any intention of taking part in the politics
of Nabha. The interview took place on the evening of Septem-
ber 27th. The police officials who escorted Motilal reported to
the Administrator that he was in high spirits on his way to
the gaol, but visibly dejected after the interview: from this they
inferred that he had recognized how weak and indefensible his
son's case was. This explanation was wide of the mark* To
secure this interview with his son, he had struggled for a whole
week, travelled hundreds of miles by road and rail, kept anxious
vigil in railway trains and waiting rooms, conducted a wordy

TRAPPED IN NABHA 221

duel with the British Administrator of Nabha and even secured
the intervention of the Viceroy. Then came the anti-climax.
Jawaharlal absolutely refused to be defended. He would not hear
of an appeal to the Viceroy; his only advice to his father was to
go back to Allahabad and 'not to worry*.

From Ambala, Motilal wrote a letter (September 28th) to the
Administrator to say that he had caught 'a chill' on the way,
which prevented him from conducting the case personally, and
so he was deputing his private secretary Kapil Deo Malaviya to
be present at the trial. That the 'chill' was contracted not on
the way to Ambala but in Nabha gaol the previous evening is
evident from the letter he sent to his son through Kapil Deo.

Motilal to Jawaharlal, September 28, 1923 : 'My dear J., I was
pained to find that, instead of affording you any relief my visit
of yesterday only had the effect of disturbing the even tenor of
your happy gaol life. After much anxious thinking, I have come
to the conclusion that I can do no good either to you or to my-
self by repeating my visits. I can stand with a clear conscience
before God and man for what I have done so far after your
arrest, but as you think differently it is no use trying to make
opposites meet . . . For the present I hardly know what to do
with myself and shall wait here for a couple of days or so. Please
do not bother about me at all. I am as happy outside the gaol as
you are in it.

Your loving,

Father/

MotilaFs irony was merely a cloak for his distress. There was
a postscript to this letter :

Tlease do not think that I have written this letter either in
anger or in sorrow. I have tried my best after an almost all-night
consideration to take a calm and practical view of the position.
I wish you not to have the impression that you have offended
me, as I honestly believe that the position has been forced upon
both of us by circumstances over which neither has any control/

A day's halt at Delhi, where he met his old friend Hakim
Ajmal Khan, and Kamala and Indira, revived his spirits. On his
way to Allahabad he wrote to Kapil Deo Malaviya:

222 THE NEHRUS

'I do not know what is going to happen when I get back to
Allahabad, but of one thing I can assure you that you will not
be ashamed of whatever decision I take/

Meanwhile in Nabha, the trial -or rather trials -of Jawa-
harlal and his companions went on. To the original offence of
illegally entering Nabha, had been added another, of "a criminal
conspiracy'* The two cases ran their parallel and farcical courses
in two separate courts. One of the judges was stupid and
illiterate; the other was relatively intelligent and educated, but
both of them seemed to be under the thumb of the police. How-
ever, the last word was to rest neither with the police nor with
the magistrates, not even with the all-powerful Wilson-Johnston.

On September 24th, even before Motilal sent his second tele-
gram, the Government of India had informed the Administrator
that the requirements of the case against Jawaharlal and his
companions would be 'adequately met' by an order of expulsion
from the State* This advice instantly provoked a protest from the
Administrator, who had complained to his immediate superior,
Lt-Colond Minchin, Agent to the Governor-General, Punjab
States at Lahore, against the attitude of 'the thinly-veiled im-
pudence which has characterized the whole of Motilal's deal-
ings with me', and against the 'invidious distinction' sought to
be made between Jawaharlal and his friends on the one hand
and the Akali agitators on the other. The Government of India
could afford to look beyond the pride and prejudice of a local
despot Lord Reading and his advisers could not peer into the
not far-off future when Jawaharlal was to lead an independent
India; but they knew that his father was the General Secretary
of the Swaraj Party, which was about to contest the elections
and was likely to be the major opposition party in the central
and provincial legislatures*

The Nabha episode ended as dramatically as it had begun.
Jawaharlal, Gidwani and Santhanam received sentences amount-
isg to two and a half years each; but immediately afterwards
4 an executive order' of the Administrator of Nabha, 'suspended'
the sentence and expelled them from the State.

On return to Allahabad, Jawaharlal received a letter from
Ms friend Sri Prakasa,* congratulating him on his 'lucky escape
from Nabha land'* 'Would to God,' wrote Sri Prakasa, 'you did

* Now, Governor of Maharashtra.

TRAPPED IN NABHA 223

not put your head into the noose too often.' For Motilal it had
been an agonizing fortnight. Jawaharlal went through the ordeal
more philosophically, but he had to pay an additional price in
the form of a virulent attack of typhoid fever which he and his
companions contracted in Nabha prison.

The Nabha episode, which gave Jawaharlal a glimpse of the
administration of an Indian State, even under the aegis of a
senior British officer, turned him into a stout champion of the
rights of the people in 'Princely States*, British officials had un-
wittingly rounded off young Nehru's political education. The
externment from Mussoorie had given him an insight into the
problems of the peasantry in 'British India*; the trial in Nabha
suddenly illuminated the arbitrary regimes thriving in Indian
India'.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION

THE Legislative Assembly, the scene of Motilal's triumphs and
trials during the next six years, was not a sovereign body like
the British House of Commons or the Indian Lok Sabha of today.
Its constitution reflected the transitional stage in the unresolved
struggle between British imperialism and Indian nationalism. It
had a majority of elected members; it enjoyed wider powers of
debate and criticism than its predecessor, the Imperial Legisla-
tive Council, over which the Viceroy personally presided. But
it could not control, much less overthrow, the executive. The
Government of India was responsible not to the Indian legis-
lature in Delhi, but to His Majesty's Government in London.
In the Legislative Assembly a permanent and irremovable
executive confronted a permanent opposition; the disciplined
group of forty odd Swarajists was matched by almost an equal
number of officials, non-officials and Europeans. Between these
two groups, implacably opposed to each other, were fifty-odd
members who were wooed by both sides. Early in 1924 Motilal
was able to enlist the co-operation of Jinnah and Malaviya and
thus obtain the support of about thirty Moderate and Muslim
members; the resultant coalition, the 'Nationalist Party', was
able to outvote the Government in the opening session.

In this as in other legislatures, there were quite a few
members who owed their seats to good fortune, the favour of a
patron or the grace of the Government. The names of these
mediocrities are buried in the printed record of the Assembly
waiting to be momentarily resurrected by a patient scholar.
There were, however, eminent figures in that Assembly who
would have made a mark in any parliament in any country at
any time. Bipin Chandra Pal was the hero of the partition of
Bengal, who had thundered from a thousand platforms: in
1924 he was an extinct volcano. Sir Hari Singh Gour was a
prolific writer and speaker, who was often on his feet at question-
time. Sir Purshotamdas Thakurdas, the Bombay magnate, was

LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION 225

noted for his expert knowledge of commercial and industrial
matters. Sir P. S. Sivaswamy Iyer specialized in military topics.
N. M. Joshi was passionately interested in labour problems.
Diwan Chaman Lall and T. C. Goswami were young firebrands
of the Swaraj Party, the 'lion-cubs' of MotilaL K. C. Neogy and
Shamnukham Chetty were promising young men whose careers
were to continue to our own day.

The president of the Assembly, Sir Frederick Whyte, was
noted for his dignity, impartiality and the tenacious memory
which enabled him to recognize every member by name and face
almost on the opening day. The Leader of the Treasury Benches
and of the House was Sir Malcolm Hailey, the Home Member,
who possessed great experience, astuteness and skill in debate.
He was soon to be succeeded by the more genial Sir Alexander
Muddiman, whose innate courtesy, good-humour and resilience
sometimes helped to- take the edge off the inevitable bitterness.

One of the most distinguished members in the Assembly was
M. A. Jinnah, the future founder of Pakistan, who had left the
Congress when its reins had fallen into Gandhi's hands. Though
during the years 1922-3 there had been a talk of his joining the
Swaraj Party, he was the leader of an Independent' group. He
had a superior, almost supercilious air and his usual attitude
to those he encountered was one of withering scorn. Curiously
enough, his relations with Motilal were friendly. This may have
been because he found it easier to understand a fellow lawyer,
treating politics as a practical game, than a saint who professed
to spiritualize them. Or perhaps he sensed that calculated
insolence would not work with Motilal, but was likely to be re-
turned with interest. In any case, in 1924 Jinnah was still a
'Muslim Mazzini', whose nationalism was not swallowed either
by conceit or communalism.

Madan Mohan Malaviya's noble bearing, immaculate dress
and silvery eloquence won him respect of all sections of the
Assembly. He had attended some of the earliest sessions of the
Indian National Congress and had taken an active part in
the proceedings. In 1918-19 he was regarded as a firebrand by
the Government. However, in the nineteen twenties he seemed
a giant laggard from the Moderate era, wavering on the side-
lines when Gandhi started his campaigns, at one moment seek-
ing a truce between the Congress and the Government, at
another courting imprisonment. His deeply religious outlook

226 THE NEHRUS

and strict orthodoxy, which gave him his unique hold on the
Hindu masses, also made his politics, like those of his friend
Lajpat Rai, suspect to Muslims, Lajpat Rai himself did not join
the Swaraj Party until January, 1926* His powerful intellect and
flaming eloquence would have made him a great asset to the
party; unfortunately, he could not resist the siren call of
Responsive Co-operation which split the Swarajists soon after-
wards.

Another colourful personality in the Assembly was Vithal-
bhai Javerbhai Patel, who became a thorn in the flesh of the
executive, first as an unrelenting critic, and then as the president
of the Assembly. He was not an easy man to work with, but he
had a good deal of the singleness of purpose, subtlety, grit and
resilience of his more famous brother Vallabhbhai PateL

The most striking figure in the Legislative Assembly was per-
haps Motilal himself. His entry into the House was always an
event: the fascinated eyes of members and visitors fastened on
the princely profile, the majestic, immaculately dressed figure
of the Leader of the Opposition, moving forward with measured
steps and regal dignity to his seat He seemed to be in his
element; it was as if all his life had been a preparation for this
supreme moment He brought to bear on his legislative worfc
the unremitting industry which had been the secret of his
success at the Bar. It is significant that while Jinnah stayed in
the luxurious Maiden's Hotel. Motilal took up his lodgings in
the Western Court where most of the members of his party
were staying. He kept a vigilant eye and a firm hand on the
'Swaraj Party, which came to be recognized in and outside the
Assembly as a disciplined assault force.

Jayakar, who knew Motilal both as a colleague and as an
opponent, has recorded :

^Whenever he spoke in the Legislative Assembly, it was dis-
tilled sense and reason. Even when he let out pyrotechnics, they
rose from terra firma and came back to terra firma'.

Jayakar refers to the superb dignity and self-confidence of
Motilal who rose, 'from the daintiest meal with the quiet self-
possession of a person accustomed to enjoy the choicest gifts of
life, as if they were merely his due'. European members of the
Assembly, even members of the Viceroy's Council, found in

LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION Z2J

Motilal a charming guest and a delightful host. 'My wife and I
delighted to entertain him/ writes Sir George Schuster, "and he
always talked freely to her. It was common knowledge that Sir
Alexander Muddiinan and Motilal hit it off very well, What
was it that drew Motilal to the representatives of the Empire
which he was openly trying to subvert? Jayakar suggests that
'some secret affinity appeared to exist between them born per-
haps of the power to rule and govern men'. It is significant that
the finest tribute to Motilal's role as Leader of the Opposition
came from Sir George Rainy, a member of the Viceroy's
Council, who recalled the Veil-remembered figure * . . that ex-
quisite fitness of attire which symbolized the dean fighter and
the great gentleman and that impressive face, deeply lined and
careworn, on which character and intellect were so deeply im-
printed * . , He had a personality which impressed itself on the
most unobservant* Eminent as a lawyer, eminent as a speaker,
and in the first rank as a political leader, he could not but take
the foremost place wherever he might be, whether within these
walls or outside* The quickness of hds intellect, his skill in debate,
his adroitness as a tactician and his strength of purpose rendered
a formidable adversary in controversy'.

On February 8, 1924, within ten days of the opening of the
Legislative Assembly, a resolution was moved by Diwan
Bahadur Rangachariar, a non-Swarajist member, demanding a
Royal Commission for the revision of the Government of India
Act so as to secure for India the status of a Dominion within
the British Empire. Motilal moved an amendment proposing
that the new constitution should be framed by a 'representative
Round Table Conference', and approved by a newly-elected
Legislative Assembly in India before it was embodied in a
statute by the British Parliament.

On behalf of the Government, Sir Malcolm Hailey catalogued
the numerous interests which blocked India's progress to free-
dom : the Indian Princes, European commerce, the Secretary of
State's Services, the Minorities* He argued that responsible
government promised by the declaration of August, 1917, was
not 'necessarily incompatible with a legislature with limited or
restricted powers', that India could advance towards its destined

2Z8 THE NEHRUS

goal only gradually, that the British Government was the sole
judge of the manner and measure of each step, that the next
step, the appointment of a Royal Commission, could be taken
only after the ten years stipulated in the preamble to the
Government of India Act, 1919, had elapsed*

Motilal blandly questioned Hailey's premises. 'Now, sir/ he
said, 'our answer, straight and clear, as unequivocal as the
Preamble, is that the Preamble is bad, the whole Act [of 1919]
is . * * bad * * * devised to postpone, to stifle, and to suppress the
natural desire [for freedom] in the country/ He pointed out
that his amendment had been deliberately toned down to secure
the co-operation of other parties in the Assembly. 'We have
come here/ he added, 'to offer our co-operation, non-co-operators
as we are, if you will care to co-operate with us* That is why
we are here* If you agree to have it, we are your men; if you
do not, we shall, like men, stand upon our rights and continue
to be non-co-operators/ 1

This was MotilaTs maiden speech* 'So thoughtfully phrased
with such facility/ was the compliment which Hailey paid to it*
On the constitutional issue, Hailey did not make any conces-
sion : all that he could promise was an inquiry into such defects
as might come to light in the working of the constitution*

Seventy-six members voted in favour of Motilal's amendment
and forty-eight against it* The latter included the compact bloc
of officials, nominated non-officials, Europeans and a few Indian
members who were always at the beck and call of the official
whip* This was the first and the most spectacular defeat in-
flicted by the Swaraj Party on the Government; it was made
possible by the co-operation of Muslims and Moderates who
followed the lead of Jinnah and Malaviya* Thanks to this co-
operation, the first four budget grants were rejected in their
entirety, the Finance Bill was thrown out on its introduction,
and again on the following day, after it had been returned by
the Viceroy for reconsideration* Later in the year, the Swaraj
Party inflicted a crushing defeat on the Government when the
Legislative Assembly rejected the proposals of the Lee Commis-
sion on the Imperial Services* In actual practice all this had only
a nuisance value for the Government, The Viceroy had the last
word under the constitution; with a stroke of the pen he could

1 Legislative Assembly Debates (Official Report), vol. IV 1924, p. 370.

LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION

veto resolutions passed by the legislature, and 'certify' as law
measures rejected by it

Meanwhile, in the provincial field the Swaraj Party had also
made a strong impression. In December, 1923, Lord Lytton, the
Governor of Bengal, had invited C R. Das to form a ministry
to administer "transferred* or the 'popular' part of the provincial
administration* 'The members of this Party/ replied Das, 'are
pledged to do everything in their power by using the legal right
granted under the Reforms Act to put an end to the system of
Dyarchy/ Das was able to forge a working alliance with other
groups in the Bengal Council which gave him a dear majority. In
Bengal, and in the Central Provinces (where the Swarajists had
an absolute majority) there were votes of no-confidence in the
ministers, their salaries were refused, the emergency powers of
the Governors had to be invoked and the system of 'dyarchy*
became unworkable. These developments thrilled the intelli-
gentsia, the press was full of them, and the Swarajists were glad
to see the all-powerful bureaucracy humbled for once.

The emergence of the Swaraj Party on the Indian political
stage coincided with a new development in Britain: the advent
of a Labour Government in January, 1924. Since the days of
Keir Hardie, Indian nationalism had struck sympathetic chords
in the Labour Party. The new Premier, Ramsay MacDonald,
had visited India in 1909 and published some forthright criti-
cisms of the Indian Administration* A parliamentary committee
of the Labour Party for Indian affairs had been formed under the
chairmanship of Colonel Wedgwood - a friend of Motilal Nehru
and Lajpat Rai.

Lord Olivier, the new Secretary of State for India, soon after
mming into office cabled to the Viceroy his astonishment at the
fact that even 'Moderate and well-disposed' sections in India
seemed to doubt Britain's good faith. A paragraph in the
election manifesto of the Swaraj Party (which Motilal had issued
in October, 1923) particularly intrigued Lord Olivier, The parar-
graph ran:

'The guiding motive of the British in governing India is to
secure the selfish interest of their own country, and the so-
called reforms are a mere blind to further the said interests
under the pretence of granting responsible government to India,
the real object being to continue the exploitation of the un-

230 THE NEHRUS

limited resources of the country by keeping Indians permanently
in a subordinate position to Britain and denying them at home
and abroad the most elementary rights of citizens/

In response to Lord Olivier's request to Lord Reading, a con-
fidential memorandum was prepared in February, 1924, by
Mr Crear of the Home Department, listing the causes of Indian
discontent: the political and economic forces generated by the
war, the emergence of Gandhi, the Punjab tragedy of 1919 and
the "political immaturity of the Asiatic peoples'* The East has
always oscillated/ wrote Crear, "between inertia and cataclysm.
Political unrest once aroused, there is general impatience with
all gradual development, and particularly with the cautious and
empirical methods of British constitutional traditions. Circum-
spection is interpreted as insincerity/

To this memorandum Sir Alexander Muddiman, who was
soon to succeed Hailey as Home Member, added a footnote, the
brutal candour of which strangely contrasted with the vague
generalities and judicious evasions of Government spokesmen
in and outside the legislature. Muddiman wrote:

'My own feeling is that very many people thought that full
Dominion Status has to be granted in 1929* Montagu made no
secret of his intentions to secure this. Indians realize that they
are a very long way off this; the actual powers granted to the
Legislature are circumscribed in every direction; whenever they
talk about Dominion Self-Government, we tell them that there
is still a great deal to be done before they dare think of it; and as
a consequence they believe that the whole of the scheme was
meiely intended to delude them. It is the most dangerous thing
in the world to give the semblance of power without its
authority - it is bound to cause irritation and charges of bad
faith, I think this is the truth of it. Add to this the insistent
demand in England that we should keep the European services
at full strength; that we should keep and strengthen European
hold on the army.*

3
Lord Olivier's first speech in the House of Lords was con-

LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION

dilatory. 'The Government has the same ultimate aim/ he de-
clared, 'as the Indian Swaraj Party/ Thanks to Gandhi's em-
phasis on national 'self-reliance', there was not the same air of
expectancy in India in 1924 as had followed the formation of
the Liberal Government in 1906 with John Morley as Secretary
of State. Nevertheless, there is evidence to suggest that in the
first months of the Labour Government hopes of a reconciliation
between the Congress and the Government rose high -for a
while.

In the spring of 1924, S. R. Bomanji, a Bombay politician, a
friend of Motilal, Lajpat Rai and Colonel Wedgwood, was in
London and in touch with several ministers including Ramsay
MacDonald himself. A glimpse of his activities behind the scenes
is furnished by his letters to Motilal.

S. R. Bomanji to Motilal, March 20, 1924: 'I must congratulate
you on the brilliant way you have defeated the Government and
rejected the whole budget. Your successive rejections, even by
the diminishing majority, had a very chastening effect on the
die-hards here. If you can exert still greater pressure on your
side, I clearly see victory for us ... Wedgwood told me that
he had received your letters and he had found them very useful
and asked me to tell you about it'

Bomanji had a poor opinion of the new Secretary of State.
'Olivier is a bureaucrat by instinct/ wrote Bomanji, 'and claims
to know Indians by his experience in Jamaica. He is dominated
by the India Office . . . completely ... I have heard Olivier being
called a Tory by the Labour Party/ Bomanji was, however,
heartened by the attitude of other influential members of the
Labour Party in and outside the Cabinet "Lansbury, Spoor,
Wedgwood and other Labourites are firm/ he wrote, "and the
Prime Minister himself is firm/ A conference in London be-
tween Indian leaders and British statesmen, on the Irish model,
seemed on the cards, and Bomanji even speculated on the per-
sonnel of the two delegations, MacDonald, Olivier, Wedgwood,
Chelmsford and C P. Trevelyan were mentioned as British
representatives; C. R. Das, Motilal, Ansari, Jinnah, Kelkar and
a few others were expected to represent the Indian side.
Bomanfi's optimism was suddenly deflated by an interview with

232 THE NEHRUS

MacDonald who professed great annoyance at the Swarajist
tactics in the Indian Legislative Assembly.

Bomanji to Motilal, March 27, 1924: 'Since writing to you last
mail, I saw the Prime Minister. He complained of your holding
a pistol at him till he was finally in the saddle* I remonstrated
that we gave a fortnight's notice asking for a Round Table Con-
ference, and the Government's reply left us no hope or opening
and we were bound to stop the budget grants; otherwise we
would be powerless to have our grievances redressed for another
twelve months. Your prompt reply was very timely. I showed
it to the P.M. ... I have assured the P.M. as to your sincerity
and reasonableness, but he fears that your moderation may not
be shared by your colleagues. I have tried to disabuse his mind
, , . I have sent you a wire today drafted by Wedgwood/

Bomanji had an uneasy feeling that senior officials of the
India Office in London had got wind of Vhat I am doing, and
that the Prime Minister has been passing over the regular
channels, and I have been made to communicate with . . .
Motilal and C. R. Das'. Bomanji suspected that the British
bureaucrats in Delhi were conspiring with the British bureau-
crats in London to sabotage the negotiations. A few days later,
Premier MacDonald, seizing on what he considered a premature
leakage of the talks in the Indian press, sent a note to Bomanji
expressing his 'profound regret at the way things had gone . . .
if you had seen your way to have kept things going for a few
days more, something might have come out of it, as we are
working very hard indeed at this end to come to some arrange-
ments/

It is difficult to say how far Bomanji's initial hopes were based
on politicaTpossibilities and how far on wishful thinking. In his
first brief innings as Prime Minister, MacDonald revealed great
energy, initiative and drive, particularly in the conduct of
foreign affairs. So far as India is concerned, even if we assume
(and it is a large assumption) that MacDonald the Prime
Minister endorsed the opinions of MacDonald the Leader of the
Opposition, it is important to remember that in 1924 the Labour
Party was in office on the sufferance of the Liberals and the Con-
servatives. Srinivasa Sastri, who was in London in the summer
of 1924 shrewdly summed up the situation: 'The ministry has

LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION 33

no big plan for India, It only wishes to tide over the difficulty
somehow/* In April, igz4, Beatrice Webb, whose husband was
in the Cabinet, noted in her diary that MacDonald was deter-
mined to prolong the precarious life of his Government by
shedding the radical wing of his party, by courting the
Conservatives, and generally playing the role of a 'political
charmer/* This was hardly the posture for a British Prime
Minister who wanted to take a bold initiative in India.

* Jagadisan, T. N., Letters of V. S. Srinivasa Sostri, p. 260.

* Cole, Margaret (Editor), Beatrice Webb's Diaries 1914^931, p. 25.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
TUSSLE WITH GANDHI

JUST when the Swarajists were mounting their assault upon the
Government, a new and important development took place.
Gandhi, a state prisoner in Yeravda gaol, was operated upon for
appendicitis and released on February 5, 1924, on grounds of
health before he had served a third of his six years' term,

Gandhi's illness once again revealed the strength of his bond
with the Indian people* Leaders of all parties united in express-
ing their concern; among the numerous resolutions tabled in
the Legislative Assembly demanding his release, there was one
by JinnaL Another member, Mahomed Yakub, gave notice of a
resolution recommending the award of the Nobel Prize to
Gandhi. Colonel Maddock, the surgeon who had operated on the
Mahatma in the Sassoon Hospital at Poona, received congratula-
tions and thanks from all over the country. Gandhi himself was
inundated with letters and telegrams expressing hopes, which,
he confessed, 'staggered' him. There was nothing which he was
not expected to solve -from political conundrums to domestic
differences. The Nizam of Hyderabad sought his support for the
rendition of Berar, the Maharaja of Nabha for the restoration of
his throne, Hindu and Muslim leaders for their mutually con-
tradictory claims, the Swarajists for their council programme,
the 'No-Changers' for the reaffirmation of the undiluted doctrine
of non-co-operation.

The Bombay Government, when recommending the
Mahatma's release had mentioned the possibility that he 'would
denounce the Swarajists for their defection from the pure prin-
ciples of non-co-operation, and thus considerably reduce in legis-
latures their power for harm'. Motilal was naturally anxious to
secure Gandhi's support, or at least benevolent neutrality, in the
unresolved tug-of-war with the No-Changers. In March the
Mahatma moved down for convalescence to Juhu, a seaside
suburb near Bombay. As the Legislative Assembly was in session
Motilal could not immediately leave Delhi; but he tried to im-

TUSSLE WITH GANDHI 235

press Gandhi with the spectacular achievements of his party.
On March i8th, when the Legislative Assembly rejected the
finance Bill for a second time, Motilal telegraphed the good
news to the Mahatma. *I have your telegram,* Gandhi replied,
1 rejoice because the victory gives you joy but I cannot enthuse
over it * . . I never doubted your very great tactfulness and
persuasive eloquence/ What Gandhi questioned was not the
immediate success of the Swarajist tactics but the ultimate
wisdom of their strategy*

The basic differences between Motilal and Gandhi came into
relief during the long negotiations at Juhu in April-May, 1924.
'The two minds so strongly dissimilar/ wrote C F. Andrews,
who was at Juhu at this time, 'would not always work together/
MotilaPs arguments were reinforced at a later stage by C, R.
Das, but even the combined advocacy of these two brilliant
lawyers could not convert Gandhi. Eventually they agreed to
differ and issued separate statements*

Gandhi described the Swarajist leaders as 'the ablest, most
experienced and honest patriots'; at the same time he acknow-
ledged that his differences with them were not of 'mere detail**
Though he advised the 'No-Changers* not to obstruct the
activities of the Swarajists, he argued that council-entry was
inconsistent with non-co-operation; that a general policy of
'obstruction* in the councils was undesirable; that the councils
should be used, if at all, to implement the constructive pro-
gramme of the Congress*

Gandhi's arguments were refuted in a closely reasoned state-
ment issued by C. R. Das and MotilaL The rift between the
Mahatma and the Swarajists was open. It was much deeper than
the studied courtesy of the press statements made it out to be,
MotilaTs own views were expressed candidly, even pungendy,
in a memorandum he prepared on an earlier rough draft of
Gandhi's press statement.

1 agree/ he wrote, 'that the difference between Mahatmaji and
me is in some respects one of principle and not of mere detail.
Indeed on a dose examination, I have come to the conclusion
that it goes deeper and lies more in the theory on which the
principle is based than in the principle itself . Let us take Non-
violence and Non-co-operation separately . . . Mahatmaji's Non-
violence is carried on a very much higher plane than what I

256 THE NEHRUS

have agreed to adopt . * . The doctrine of Ahimsa (non-violence)
with all its implications and logical deductions has not been and
cannot be adopted by the Congress * . . Whilst Mahatmaji is not
prepared to resort to violence under any circumstances whatever
in thought, word or deed, many true Congressmen would undo:
certain conditions consider it their highest duty to resort to
actual physical violence. In fact I hold that it would be doing
violence to the highest and noblest feelings implanted in man,
if we ruled out violence in any shape or form under all con-
ceivable circumstances. If I see a bully ill-treating or assaulting
a person weaker than himself, I would not merely interpose my
body between the assailant and. the victim, and thus enable him
to have two victims instead of one, but to try to knock him
down and thus save both his victim and myself* Again, if I were
assaulted, I would defend myself, if necessary, by inflicting
violence on my assailant, and that violence under certain
circumstances may extend even to the causing of the assailant's
death . . .

'As for violence in thought it is obvious that one who is pre-
pared to resort to actual violence on certain occasions, cannot
be entirely fi'ee from the thought of it* By joining the move-
ment of non-violent non-co-operation, all I have undertaken to
do is, to refrain from inflicting, or even contemplating, violence
of any kind in carrying out the programme of non-co-operation
against the Government * . * If a Government official chooses
to behave to me like 'the bully of my illustration in matters
wholly unconnected with the Congress programme, he shall
receive exactly the same treatment as I would give to the bully*
The doctrine of -non-violence has, so far as I am concerned, a
limited application for the very special purpose for which I have
adopted it * . *

'Mahatmaji says entry into councils is tantamount to par-
ticipation in violence* I understand this to refer to the fact that
the councils are established by a Government which is based
on violence. I maintain that no one living under such a Govern-
ment can help participating in violence in that sense * * .

'Mahatmaji has been pleased to doubt the accuracy of the
statement, "that most Congressmen confine the definition of
non-violence to mere abstention from causing physical hurt to
his opponent". There may be some who take the extreme view
in theory, but I do not know a single follower of Mahatmaji who

TUSSLE WITH GANDHI 237

acts upon it. It is true that non-violence, even in the limited
sense that I give to it, must relate to both word and deed and
cannot be confined to abstention from causing physical hurt
only. But non-violence in thought must be ruled out entirely as
impracticable. Otherwise, we shall be weaving a cobweb of
casuistry around us from which it would be impossible to
extricate ourselves/

Motilal was dealing with the practical and not the theoretical
aspects of non-violence. If he treated its philosophical and
spiritual implications somewhat casually, he had at least the
courage to cut through the thickets of make-believe behind
which many of Gandhi's dose associates were often tempted to
take shelter. In the last year of his life Gandhi was to realize the
truth of some of these criticisms and to discover how few of
those who professed to follow him were prepared to pursue non-
violence to its logical conclusions.

Motilal applied the same ruthless logic to the rest of Gandhi's
thesis. He deprecated the continuing emphasis on the Khilafat
and Punjab wrongs (which were 'practically dead') and on the
'triple boycott' proclaimed in 1920. 'The honest thing to do/ he
asserted, 'is to admit failure and frankly give up the triple boy-
cott The Swarajists would have done it, had it not been for their
belief that they had no chance of success with the masses against
Mahatmajfs teachings/ Council-entry, he argued, was not a
negation but an extension of non-co-operation to a new field*
The legislatures, with their peculiar composition and limited
powers, were an ornamental rather than essential part of the
apparatus of British rule in India. By creating deadlocks in these
legislatures, the Swarajists hoped to expose to the world the true
nature of these 'sham parliaments'*

Gandhi had suggested that the programme of obstruction had
a strong smell of violence. 'Our Swarajist nostrils/ Motilal re-
torted, *are not trained enough to smell violence in it and fail to
see how the Swarajist programme can have a stronger smell of
violence than the breaking of the Criminal Law Amendment
Act and the various forms of picketing and hartals authorized
by the Congress. I take civil disobedience itself as the highest
form of obstruction/

Motilal and Gandhi were picking up the threads of a debate
which had begun in 19x2 and was not to aid until 1925* Noxt-

238 THE NEHRUS

violent non-co-operation, propounded as a political programme
in the special conditions of 1920, had already hardened into a
dogma. The Swarajists were -to borrow a phrase from the
current coinage of Communist polemics - the 'revisionists', with
one important difference : they had to contend with the living
Marx of non-violent non-co-operation.

No dish is colder and less appetizing than that of a dead con-
troversy. Nevertheless, the ideological debate on council-entry,
which rocked the Indian National Congress for nearly three
years, can be viewed in better perspective today than was
possible at the time. The founding fathers of Indian nationalism
had taken it for granted that self-government would come
through legislatures which would progressively become more
representative and exercise wider control over the executive
until they approximated to the Dominion Parliaments. This was
a belief shared by Hume, Dadabhai Naoroji, Gokhale, Tilak and
even Gandhi until the beginning of 1920. Gandhi had served his
political apprenticeship in South Africa where the Indian
minority was unrepresented in the local legislatures; his entire
political experience, extending over two decades, was confined
to agitation outside the legislatures; Satyagraha itself was
an extra-constitutional technique. In Hind Swaraj, Gandhi's
political manifesto written before the First World War, there
are some caustic comments on the British Parliament. It is there-
fore arguable that the tragic events of 1919 served only to
accelerate Gandhi's journey along a path to which he was in-
clined alike by temperament and past experience. Not all the
arguments he advanced against council-entry in 1924 were con-
vincing. It seemed as if he regarded the councils as an 'evil
thing' whose touch would contaminate and corrupt the true
nationalist Motilal's logical mind refused to swallow the curious
mixture of politics, metaphysics and sheer intuition which
Gandhi advanced against the Swarajist case. As we shall see
later, the Mahatma's intuition turned out to be less fallible than
Motilal's logic.

A footnote to this controversy suggests itself. Gandhi's pro-
posal that councils should be used, if at all, for the 'constructive
programme', not for mere obstruction, was rejected out of hand
by the Swarajists who were anxious to appear as good non-co-
operators as their opponents. Nevertheless important con-
sequences might have ensued, if the Congress had done in 1924

TUSSLE WITH GANDHI 239

what it did in 1937 and decided to work the constitution for
what it was worth. With the elimination of 'obstruction' from
the Swarajist programme, a number of Moderate and Muslim
leaders, including Jinnah, might have joined the Swaraj party,
or at least collaborated with it, on an enduring basis* 1 At the
same time a sympathetic administration in Britain might have
found it easier to hasten the pace of constitutional advance. This
line of reasoning is of course based on the assumption that the
British would have relaxed their grip on India within a measur-
able time without extra-constitutional pressures* This assump-
tion is rather a large one. As we have already seen, the first
Labour Government did not make a new departure in its policy
towards India. At the end of 1924 the Conservatives came into
power. 'I am not able/ Birkenhead, the new Secretary of State,
told the House of Lords in July, 1925, 'in any forseeable future,
to discern a moment when we may safely, either to ourselves or
India, abandon our trust.*

In spite of their polite phraseology, the statements issued by
Motilal and C R. Das on the one hand and Gandhi on the other
proclaimed to the world that there was a serious division in the
Congress leadership. *I seem to see/ Mohammed All, the Khilafat
leader, wrote to Jawaharlal, *an unholy glee on the face of some
No-Changers . . . Your father has preserved his good temper
more than I was inclined to expect; but that is perhaps more for
the public and especially for the Government/ The Government
were not deceived.

Viceroy to Secretary of State for India, fane 6, 1924. The prob-
ability of a split between Swarajists and Gandhi is increasing.
Interviewed by Associated Press * . . Motilal Nehru says, the
Swarajists have determined to stand on their own legs. Moonje,
the leader of the Central Provinces Legislative Party says that
the effect of Gandhi's dictum would be a dear deavage in the
Congress and practically all the intelligentsia will be exduded
from it. He adds that the Swarajists are now driven to concea-

1 Jayakar, M. IL, The Story of My Life, vol H, p. 76.
a Birkeoheai Eari of, F. E, The life of E E Smitfe, Hist Eaii of Btikeolifiad.
p. 509.

240 THE NEHRUS

trating all their energy on breaking Gandhi's hold on the
Congress/ 3

The conflict came to a head at the Ahmedabad meeting of the
All India Congress Committee in the last week of June. Pre-
viously anyone who paid four annas and accepted the creed of
the Congress could become a member* Gandhi's proposal to
limit membership of the Congress to those who sent in 2,000
yards of self-spun yarn was resisted by Motilal and Das, who
carried their protest to the point of staging a walk-out from the
meeting* They were persuaded to return, but another, and from
Gandhi's point of view a more serious dash took place, when
Das did not whole-heartedly support Gandhi's resolution con-
demning the murder of an English official by a young Bengali,
Gopinath Saha. That some of his senior colleagues should have
mental reservations about non-violence even in its political
applications came as a bitter disillusionment to Gandhi* There
were tears in his eyes. 'I felt/ he confessed later, 'that God was
speaking to me * . . and seemed to say, "Thou fool, knowest not
thou that thou art impossible? Thy time is up"/ 4

A split in the Congress, wider and deeper than that which
had paralysed it for a decade after the Surat Congress, loomed
large. But Gandhi, who was to preside over the Belgaum Con-
gress in December, 1924, was not spoiling for a fight -least of
all with Motilal.

Gandhi to Motilal, August 15, 1924: 'I thank you for your
letter. The more I think of it the more my soul rises against a
battle for power at Belgaum. But I do not want to be mixed up
with the councils' programme. This can only happen by Swara-
jists manning the Congress or their not acting upon the Con-
gress ... I would gladly occupy the place I did from 1915 to
1918. My purpose is not to weaken the power of the Swarajists,
certainly not to embarrass them. Show me the way and I shall
try my best to suit you . . /

Gandhi was ready to step off the political stage. Motilal was
as fair-minded in rejecting the offer as Gandhi had been in
making it. He replied to Gandhi on August 2jth:

3 Unpublished tekgram (N.A J.).

* Tendnlkar, D. G., Mahotmo, vol. H, p. 189.

TUSSLE WITH GANDHI 241

*I for one will be no party to an agreement which is based
upon your retirement from the Congress as a condition prece-
dent, not because I have the least doubt in my mind of being
fully able to run it with my colleagues throughout the country
according to our lights, but because of the fact [that] stipulat-
ing for your retirement goes against my very soul, quite apart
from the public odium involved in it I have the misfortune to
differ from you and am prepared to take the consequences at the
hands of the country in the normal way, but not by taking from
you an agreement disabling yourself ... You are of course your
own master and can take what step you think proper, but it
shall not be at our request, if it imposes the least disability or
restraint on you . . /

There were good reasons on both sides for not pressing
differences to a breach. Motilal and Das were aware of the
unique influence exercised by Gandhi on the masses. With his
position beyond the possibility of damage by any temporal
authority, Gandhi had no desire - and no need - to control the
party machine. His faith in the ultimate victory of his doctrine
and his method was so firm that he could afford to wait for more
propitious times. Moreover, he was anxious about the growing
communal antagonism in the country which was clearly more
dangerous than the Swarajist heresy. He had too wholesome a
respect for Das and Motilal - the two giants of the Swaraj Party
- to seek a head-on collision with them. With Motilal his re-
lations transcended the political nexus. In the last week of July
when the controversy was at its height Motilal learned from
press reports that Gandhi was indisposed, and immediately sent
him an affectionate rebuke.

Motilal to Gandhi, July 28, 1924: *. . . I am getting very
anxious about your health. The most obvious thing to do is to
stop all work at once and take complete rest But the misfortune
is that you will not do this ... I shall be perfectly frank with
you even at the risk of offending you. Let me tell you plainly
that the kind of work you are doing at present can wait, and
the nation will not be poorer if it is not done at all

1 should cut you off from all communication with India for
a time and send you out in the open sea for a very long cruise
without any land being in sight for six weeks . . . Your dak

242 THE NEHRUS

[mail] should wait for you at the ashram during your absence.
But it is useless to go on writing in this strain, I am afraid I can
make no impression on you. I have, however, made up my mind
about one thing, and that is that I will not be a particep criminis
in the suicide you are committing by troubling you with any
further correspondence or talk about any work, however urgent
it may be, till you have considerably improved in health , . .

'Let me ask you a question- Would you put me down as mad,
if I were to ask you to spend a few weeks on the bank of Ganges
some five miles out of Allahabad, at a garden house belonging
to a friend of mine which is at my entire disposal? This is the
only alternative to your going out to sea that I can think of for
the benefit of your health/

The sins and sorrows of his countrymen made it impossible
for the Mahatma to take a holiday. In September, 1924, he
went, not on a cruise, but on a twenty-one-day fast, in a des-
perate effort to stem the tide of communal bitterness and blood-
shed. He had not recovered from the after-effects of the fast
when he had to leave for Bengal where the Government had
promulgated an ordinance, raided the offices of the Swaraj Party
and arrested its prominent members, including Subhas Bose, a
lieutenant of C R. Das. The authorities accused the Swaraj
Party of complicity in anarchical crime. Gandhi challenged them
to prove the charge in a court of law. The Rowlatt Act is dead/
he wrote, 'but the spirit that prompted it is evergreen/ As an
answer to what he considered an offensive against the Swaraj
Party in Bengal, Gandhi decided to throw his weight in favour
of unity in the Congress and in the country. He reached an
agreement with Das and Motilal, according to which non-co-
operation (except for the boycott of foreign doth) was to be
formally suspended and the Swaraj Party was to become an
integral part of the Congress with powers to raise and administer
its own funds. In November, 1924, he was present at an All
Parties Conference in Bombay at which he invited the leaders
o various parties including Jinnah, Mrs Besant, Motilal, Chinta-
mani and others to explore a common political platform and
present a united front to the Government.

The Belgaum Congress over which Gandhi presided in
December, 1924, ratified his agreement with Das and Motilal.
The Mahatma made yet another chivalrous gesture to the

TUSSLE WITH GANDHI 2^3

Swarajists by giving them a majority of seats in the Working
Committee for the year 1925. To some observers, including his
faithful 'No-Changers', it seemed that Gandhi had yielded too
much ground to the Swarajists. The Viceroy wrote home:
'Gandhi is now attached to the tail of Das and Nehru although
they try their utmost to make him and his supporters think that
he is one of the heads, if not the head.'*

By the end of 1924 the Swaraj Party under Das and Motilal
had scored all along the line. Das was president and Motilal the
general secretary. The imaginative insight and emotional appeal
of Das formed a perfect foil to the objectivity and down-to-earth
empiricism of Motilal; their complementary qualities made them
an excellent team. Such was their mutual confidence that each
of them could, without prior consultation, use the other's name
for any statement or declaration. Their partnership was soon to
be cut short.

Das was determined to make the working of the new con-
stitution impossible in Bengal. He succeeded in his object. His
health was, however, broken by the terrific pressure at which
he was working. Once he insisted on being carried to the Council
Chamber in a stretcher. B. C. Roy recalls that when Motilal
came to Calcutta, Das recited his exploits and exclaimed:
'Motilal in Bengal, Dyarchy is dead/ 'Yes, Chitta,' Motflal re-
plied, 'Dyarchy is dead, but it has been a costly death/ This
premonition proved too true. In June, 1925, Das died. The news
reached Motilal at Chamba in the Punjab hills. Tor a long time,'
writes Jawaharlal, 'father sat still without a word, bowed down
with grief. It was a cruel blow to him/ Henceforth Motilal alone
had to shoulder the burden of leading the Swaraj Party. How
heavy the burden was to be was mercifully hidden from him in
the summer of 1925.

About the same time Lord Birkenhead delivered a speech
which aimed at the Congress the usual mixture of bullying and
banter. 'The speech/ declared Gandhi, % a notice to Indians
to set their house in order/ The Mahatma finally dosed the rift
in the Congress ranks by making further concessions to the
Swarajists. The 'yarn franchise' became an alternative to the
four-anna membership; the Swaraj Party became not only an

5 Reading, Marquess of: Rufus Isaacs, First Marqtiess of Reading, voL If,
p. 304.

244 THE NEHRUS

integral part of the Congress, but its sole agency for political
work.

The triumph of the Swarajists within the Congress was com-
plete. Within three years the rebels of 1922 were in possession
of the party machine* They had survived even Gandhi's resist-
ance. But this resistance had been half-hearted. The Mahatma's
logic may be inferred from a letter he wrote to Dr Ansari in
November, 1925: 'I could not convince the Swarajists of the
error of council-entry, and knowing also that my best friends
and co-workers had become Swarajists, I took it that I could not
do less than throw my weight with them as against other
political parties/ 6

5 G.S.N. Papers.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
EVOLUTION OF JAWAHARLAL

IN January, 1924, while Gandhi was in hospital, Ramsay Mac-
Donald about to form the first Labour Government and Motilal
on the threshold of his legislative triumphs, Jawaharlal nearly
landed in gaoh An account of the melodramatic incident during
the Ardh Kumbh Mela was given by him soon afterwards to
Gandhi's youngest son, who had been his fellow-prisoner in
Lucknow gaol.

Jawaharlal to Devadas Gandhi, January, 1924: '. . , The fact is
that I have done my utmost to land myself in jail. I have taken
part in a petty riot and richly deserve a spell of jail to quieten
my over-excitable nature . . . Malaviyaji [was] greatly put out at
a silly order of the Magistrate (against bathing at the confluence
of the Ganges and the Jumna) ... It was difficult for me to
restrain myself when there was talk of Satyagraha specially by
Malaviyaji, and on I went, like the men of the Light Brigade,
with little thought or reasoning. However, it is something to be
tried for a disobedience of law with Malaviyaji as one's co-
accused But I do not like to go to jail on a false issue. And
then I miss seeing Bapu 1 '

In fact, there was no prosecution; the Government were not
at all anxious to stir up the dying embers of political agitation
in what the Khilafat leader Mohammed Ali picturesquely called
the 'Disunited Provinces'. 'Let us all go forth, purged of all
narrowness, bigotry and intolerance/ Mohammed Ali wrote in
1923, while his brother Shaukat Ali referred to Gandhi as 'our
dear chief.' There were however only grandiloquent phrases.
Gandhi found on his release from gaol that the Hindu-Muslim
dissensions were no l&s serious than the group rivalries within
the Congress. Gandhi pleaded that religion was meant to unite
and not to divide; he talked long and earnestly to the leaders of

1 Mahatma Gandhi.

246 THE NEHRUS

both the communities; he devoted a whole issue of his weekly
paper Young India to an analysis of the communal malaise; but
all in vain* Even his three weeks' fast for communal unity in the
autumn of 1924 failed to purge the hearts of the fanatics on
both sides. If many a Congressman was a 'communalist under
his national cloak', 2 many a nationalist Muslim turned out to
be more Muslim than nationalist Gandhi was blamed by bigots
on both sides* The Hindus charged him with having roused
Muslim fanaticism and ambitions by his support of the Khilafat.
The Muslims accused him of leading them up the garden path*
Jawaharlal was completely out of tune with these communal
and factional politics, and did not align himself with any par-
ticular party. But this did not" prevent him from holding high
office in the Congress organization. Before his imprisonment in
1921, he was the secretary of the U.P. Congress. His election as
general secretary of the All India Congress Committee for the
years 1924 and 1925 was a pointer to the new status he was
acquiring in national politics. When Motilal wrote to Sir Har-
court Butler in 1920 that * Young Jawaharlal is known through-
out India', 3 the wish was father to the thought; but in 1923-5
the statement would have been perfectly valid. As a young and
favourite disciple of the Mahatma, Jawaharlal occupied a special
position. In March, 1922, during the brief interval between his
two tenns in gaol, he had rushed to Ahmedabad to see his be-
loved leader. In January, 1924, while Gandhi was lying in hos-
pital at Poona, Jawaharlal was longing for 'even a distant
glimpse* of 'Bapu* (father). Intellectually young Nehru was
probably nearest to Gandhi during the non-co-operation move-
ment. He began to drift away during the years 1922-5, a pro-
cess which was accelerated during the next three years. They
often disagreed, but the emotional bond between them never
gave way. The same could be said of the relations between
Jawaharlal and Motilal. Motilal's political views were firmly
held and vigorously expressed, but he did not try to ram them
down his son's throat. Only rarely were the tensions of national
politics reflected in the family: for the most part he was as
tolerant of Jawaharlal's political views as he was of Swamp
Rani's religious beliefs. Co-existence was practised in the Nehru

1 Nehru, J., Toward Freedom, p. 114.

8 Motilal to Harcourt Buder, May 19, 1920.

EVOLUTION OF JAWAHARLAL 247

family long before it became a political catchword in the world
outside.

An imperfect appreciation of the emotional bonds between
Gandhi and the Nehrus often led the critics astray. In 1924 it
was seriously suggested that Motilal was trying to push Gandhi
off the political stage; four years later Jawaharlal was credited
with the same ambition. The Trinity of 'the Father, the Son and
the Holy Ghost', was something more than a gibe of foreign
correspondents; it was one of the realities of the Indian politics
in the nineteen-twenties. The ties between Sabarmati and Anand
Bhawan were stronger than a political partnership could ever
supply* Their nature is illustrated by an incident in 1924 when
Gandhi heard of an estrangement between father and son over
the admission of little Indira to St Cecilia's School in Allahabad,
run by three European sisters, the Misses Cameron. The
Mahatma hastened to intercede on behalf of JawaharfaL

Gandhi to Motilal, September 2, 1924: "This is again early
morning after prayer. I hope you received my long letter . . .
This letter like the former is meant to be a plea for Jawaharlal.
He is one of the loneliest young men of my acquaintance in
India * . . I don't want to be the cause, direct or indirect of the
slightest breach/

Motilal, who was at Simla, telegraphed to Gandhi to say that
the story was a 'tissue of lies from beginning to end', that the
school to which Indira had been admitted was wholly uncon-
nected with the Government, that JawaharlaTs objections were
based not on principles of non-co-operation but on unsuitability
from the educational point of view. *I was solely prompted,'
he explained, 'by desire to give Indira companionship of children
of her age regardless of instruction and Jawaharlal agreed. Other
things reported to you [against me are] absolutely false . . too
mean for the proudest father in the world . , .'

On April 3, 1923, fawaharlal was elected Chairman of the
Allahabad Municipal Board. The 'non-co-operating* wing in the
Municipal Board had unanimously decided to nominate
Purushottamadas Tandon, but when it was suggested that the

248 THE NEHRUS

honour should go to a Muslim, he backed down in favour of a
local Khilafatist Kamaluddin Jafri. It was then realized that
Jafri was too ill to be able to function as Municipal Chairman,
and so almost at the last moment Jawaharlal was nominated as a
candidate likely to command the widest measure of support
Just when his father had become the Leader of the Opposition
in India's central legislature, Jawaharlal became the civic chief
of his home town. Curiously enough, the 'No-Changers', who
regarded membership of councils as a sin, did not object to
working the local bodies: one of the most prominent 'No-
Changers', Vaflabhbhai Patel, became the Chairman of the
Ahmedabad Municipality*

Jawaharlal took the direction of civic affairs seriously; he tried
to rouse the enthusiasm of the citizens, to accelerate the tempo
of the municipal organization and to pull the city fathers out
of the well-worn ruts in which many of them had moved all
their lives.

In Allahabad, as in many other Indian towns, membership of
civic bodies was (and is still) regarded as a sinecure, yielding
prestige, profit and patronage without definite responsibility.
But Jawaharlal made surprise inspections, called for quarterly
reports from the standing committees of the Board, set precise
targets for performance and prescribed codes of conduct. He
frowned upon nepotism. 'Members will remember,' he wrote on
April 19, 1924, 'that last year I wrote a note on patronage. I
was, and am, very much against chits and testimonials and
recommendations. We discussed this matter, and it was felt that
where a recommendation had to be made it should be in writing
and reasons should be given. On no account should a recom-
mendation be made orally.' He encouraged the idea of a muni-
cipal volunteer corps, 'a strong civic guard, open to all classes
and communities . . . thus a spirit of camaraderie, which has
been lacking amongst our citizens of late, might develop.' He
discouraged extravagance; when the expenditure on an address
of welcome to Maulana Shaukat Ali exceeded the sanctioned
amount, the city fathers, led by the Chairman, paid the differ-
ence out of their own pockets.

There was hardly a civic issue on which Jawaharlal did not
try to educate his colleagues. He wrote a long minute on a pro-
posal for segregation of prostitutes : 'Last year the Board made
a brave effort to abolish prostitution by passing a resolution and

EVOLUTION OF JAWAHARLAL 249

appointing a committee/ Segregation of prostitutes, even if
feasible (he wrote) was as undesirable as segregation of
criminals* 'I do not believe in issuing a fiat that prostitutes must
not live in any part of Allahabad except a remote comer. If this
is done, I would think it equally reasonable to reserve another
part of Allahabad for men who exploited women and because
of whom prostitutes flourish/ The solution lay not merely in
punitive measures but in socio-economic reforms. He suggested
a number of constructive measures such as educative propa-
ganda on venereal disease, the building of 'homes' for widows
and helpless women and improvement in the legal and economic
status of women.

This enthusiasm and industry did not produce the results
young Nehru had expected. Many of his colleagues on the
Municipal Board were more interested in securing appointments
for friends and relatives than in making Allahabad a model
city. The powers of the Municipal Board were circumscribed by
the Government, and almost every important reform faced ad-
ministrative or financial hurdles* Between the hopeless apathy
of his colleagues and the nagging interference of hide-bound
officials Jawaharlal felt frustrated. In April, 19x4, he felt he had
had enough of the Municipal Board and resigned from the
chairmanship. He was persuaded to continue, but finally re-
signed in February, 1925. Pirn, the British Commissioner of
Allahabad, asked him to reconsider his decision. Tou have had
a very difficult and uphill task/ Pirn wrote, 'and everyone
recognizes that you have carried it out with much ability and
conspicuous fairness to all parties in the board . . / The U.P.
Government formally regretted Tandit Jawaharlal's decision to
vacate a post he has filled with great ability and fairness'. How-
ever, Jawaharlal had no intention of losing himself permanently
in the local affairs of Allahabad. 'I feel that it is within the
power of a [Municipal] Board/ he wrote to an officer of the
Board from Nabha gaol in September, 1923, 'to make life a little
more bearable, a little less painful to the inhabitants of Allaha-
bad. This is worthy work. To me ... it is only secondary work.
My real passion, as I have repeatedly informed the Board, lies
in a different direction, and, God-willing, I shall go that way till
my purpose is achieved'.

Among those who had complimented Jawaharlal was C Y.
Chintamaniy the editor of the Leader. 1 hope/ he wrote, 'in spite

250 THE NEHRUS

of political differences you will not think it impertinent on my
part if I take the liberty of saying with what genuine admira-
tion your administration of the Allahabad Municipality is re-
garded by friends. Differ from your political opinions as I un-
fortunately do, allow me to assure you of my great esteem for
you for your exemplary sacrifice in the cause of the country/

3

During the years 1923-5 Indian politics were in the doldrums.
The Congress was riddled with personal and factional dissen-
sions. Gandhi, though still the most revered Indian, was plough-
ing a lonely furrow. The middle class had relapsed into the
torpor of the pre-Gandhian era, from which it was occasionally
roused by the noisy advocates of communalism. For the landed
and titled gentry and the high officials life again was on an
even keel; once again they could look forward to such prizes as
an invitation to a Government House party*

For Jawaharlal the aridity of politics was partly offset by
domestic happiness. In the first flush of Satyagraha in 1919-21
he had lived in public meetings and railway trains. It took him
some time to realize how much he had drawn upon the patience
of his family, particularly that of his wife.

Both father and son had given up legal practice during the
non-co-operation movement. After his release from gaol Motilal
resumed it in his spare time, but Jawaharlal could not bring
himself to go back to his profession. Jawaharlal and his wife did
not spend much, but the thought of being dependent upon his
father at the age of thirty-four made him unhappy. He wel-
comed a proposal which would have made him a salaried General
Secretary of the All India Congress; but to his chagrin the
prejudice against payment for political work from public funds
proved too strong, and the proposal fell through. He could of
course have got a well-paid job, but he feared it might distract
and even compromise him. Torn between these conflicting con-
siderations he sought Gandhi's advice The Mahatma was
sympathetic.

Gandhi to Jawdharlal, September 15, 1924: *. . . Shall I try to
arrange some money for you? Why may you not take up
remunerative work? After all you must live by the sweat of

EVOLUTION OF JAWAHARLAL 251

your brow even though you may be under Father's roof.
you be correspondent to some newspaper or will you take up a
professorship?'

Jawaharlal knew that even a reference to this subject was
likely to hurt his father. Somehow he screwed himself up to
broach it. Motilal pointed out that it was foolish and unneces-
sary for Jawaharlal to sacrifice all or most of his political
activities in order to make ends meet. After all, the father could
easily earn in a week what the son would take a year to spend.
The argument was not without force, though it did not resolve
the son's conflict. The consolation young Nehru offered to
Mahadev Desai in August, 1923, applied equally to himself*

"I have also the good fortune of having experienced to the fufl
the depths of a father's love and many times I hive wondered if
I was repaying in any way the love and care that had been
lavished upon me from the day of my birth. I have had to face
that question often and every time I have felt shame at my
own record . . .

"The lesson of service you learnt from your father you have
carried to the outer world. Your father could hardly have
grudged this or preferred a narrow domestic sphere for you to
the wider service of the country/

Jawaharlal's wife, Kamala, had not been well for some time.
In November, 19x4, she gave birth to a son who died after a few
days. Her health took a serious turn; in November, 1925, her
illness was diagnosed as tuberculosis. Dr M. A. Ansari, equally
eminent as a nationalist leader and as a doctor, was consulted
and suggested that she should be taken to Geneva for treatment
Gandhi, to whom the family always turned for solace in
moments of crisis, agreed.

During the winter months Kamala lay in a hospital at Luck-
now, and Jawaharlal, who was the General Secretary of the
Congress, was kept busy travelling between Allahabad, Luck-
now and Cawnpore, the venue of the 1925 Congress. Difficulties
arose over the issue of a passport. Jawaharlal refused to give an
undertaking that during his stay in Europe he would not take

252 THE NEHRUS

part in politics. Motilal spoke to Sir Alexander Muddiman and
the Government of India advised the U.P. Government that
'having regard to all the circumstances it would be undesirable
that such an undertaking should be required/

In March, 1926, Jawaharlal sailed from Bombay with his wife
and daughter; with them in the same boat were his sister
Vijayalakshmi and her husband Ranjit who had planned their
holiday in Europe long before Kamala's illness.

Jawaharlal had expected to be away from India only for six
months; actually he did not return till December, 1927* In the
summer of 1926 he was joined by his younger sister, Krishna.
Kamala was under treatment at Geneva for the first few months
before she was taken to a sanatorium in Montana. Her progress
was slow. It is a year, almost to a day/ Jawaharlal wrote to
Gandhi (March 15, 1927), 'since we landed at Venice, and it
must be confessed that the results of the year's treatment have
been far from satisfactory/ So long as Kamala was bed-ridden
it was not possible for Jawaharlal to leave her for long periods.
Still, Geneva as the headquarters of the League of Nations and
the venue of international gatherings, was not a bad place from
which to study the world scene. With a letter of introduction
from Gandhi, Jawaharlal went to see Romain Rolland. He made
a few friends, such as the young German poet Ernst Troller and
Roger Baldwin. Jawaharlal also came across some of the Indian
revolutionaries, Barkatullah, Madame Cama, Raja Mahendra
Pratap, Shyamji Varma. He found them a quaint mixture of the
picturesque and the pathetic, shadowed by the British secret
police, haunted by a past beyond recall, living in their own airy
castles out of touch with the political realities of the day.

Jawaharlal went to Europe at a time when the First World
War was still a recent memory, and the Second World War
not yet in sight; the aftermath of 1919 persisted, the pity and
fear of 1939 were still unguessed. A semblance of stability
had come to Western Europe with the signing of the Locarno
Pacts* but the canker of suspicion continued to poison relations
between Germany and France, between the Western Powers and
Russia. Asia and Africa were awakening from their long
slumber. The United States had left Europe to its own political
and economic chaos and retired behind the Atlantic moat
Europe was in the grip of labour unrest, unemployment and

EVOLUTION OF JAWAHARLAL 253

muffled echoes of class-war which gave rise to a variety of
nostrums, Socialism, Communism and Fascism.

Jawaharlal saw that powerful forces were at work in the
world which could not but affect India. In Geneva, and even
more in Montana, there was plenty of time for reading and re-
flection. From his vantage point in Switzerland, he was able to
survey Indian politics in a fresh perspective. The petty squabbles
which filled the columns of Indian newspapers faded out, and
the basic issues of Indian nationalism came into focus. He
realized how narrow and parochial the outlook of most Indian
parties and politicians had been. A hundred years before, Raja
Ram Mohun Roy had given a public dinner in Calcutta to cele-
brate the grant of a constitution to the people of Spain. But in
1926-7 few Indian politicians knew or cared about what was
happening in the world. Until 1920 the Indian National Con-
gress had been running a branch and a journal in England, kit
with the advent of non-co-operation and emphasis on 'national
self-reliance', foreign propaganda had been relegated to the back-
ground.

Jawaharlal also began to see the limitations of a purely
political approach to his country's problems; a brand-new con-
stitution alone could not carry India far without those social
and economic changes which had been arrested by the natural
conservatism of a foreign bureaucracy and its anxiety not to
antagonize vested interests.

It was perhaps because he was stimulated by his son that
Motilal began to show a keener appreciation of the economic
factor in Indian politics.

Motilal to Jawaharlal, January 27, 1927: 'You ask me to read
books on the world situation. My misfortune has always been
that I could never find the time to read anything which was not
necessary for the immediate need of the moment . . . You have
done a lot of reading . . . But let me again impress on you the
great need of the most careful study of economics and finance
for a public man in India. The present controversy on the
currency question has revealed the fact that many hundreds of
crores [of rupees] have been taken out of the country by the
simple process of manipulating the exchange and adjusting the
tariff to suit the British manufacturer and merchant And yet
the first and the latest protest made by any public man in India

254 THE NEHRUS

was by Gokhale ! Dadabhoy, Dutt and Digby only approached
the fringe of the problem/

After going through the Currency Commission's Report,
Gandhi had publidy confessed his ignorance of the mysteries of
high finance in an article in Young India entitled "Wanted a
Teacher'. The Indian merchants in Bombay were only too will-
ing to instruct the Mahatma and the Swaraj Party/ Motilal had
a shrewd suspicion that the Bombay merchants were not swayed
by undiluted patriotism, that they tended to represent the views
of the manufacturer and the middleman, rather than those of
the primary producer and the consumer. From Europe, Jawa-
harlal had been impressing on his father the importance of
encouraging aircraft manufacture in India and even named some
German firms from which technical help could be obtained.
Early in 1927 Motilal met Sir Samuel Hoare, the British
Minister for Air, at a luncheon party in Delhi. Sir Samuel
assured Motilal that the British aircraft industry was no less
advanced than the German. Reporting the conversation to Jawa-
harlal, Motilal wrote (February 3, 1927): 'The difficulty in our
case is that we cannot afford the capital. There is an offer by the
Government [of India] to subsidize the industry (for their own
purposes of course), but even men of the type of Sir Purshot-
amdas and Sir Victor Sassoon are not ready to take it up. These
men look for fat dividends and they get enough from cotton
[not] to think of anything else/ A few days earlier, Motilal
referred to 'the sudden love of the masses' among the textile
magnates one of whom frankly told Motilal that he could not
contribute to the funds of the Swaraj Party as it was trying to
establish 'Cooly Raj' in India.

The highlight of Jawaharlal's European trip came in
February, 1927, when he attended the 'Congress of Oppressed
Nationalities' at Brussels, along with representatives of a
number of countries in the Middle and Ear East, North Africa,
Central and South America, Italy, France and Britain. At Jawa-
harlal's suggestion the Gauhati Congress (December, 1926) de-
cided to participate in the Brussels Conference and nominated
him as its delegate. Jawaharlal wrote to Srinivas lyengar, the
Congress President, to ask whether he might define the political
goal of the Congress as independence; the word 'Swaraj' had

4 Mozaes, Frank, Str Purshotamdas Thakurdas, pp. 102-3,

EVOLUTION OF JAWAHARLAL 255

been rather vaguely employed in Congress resolutions. *l have
seen your letter to Srinivas lyengar/ Motilal told Jawaharlal.
Tou are quite right in saying that you cannot put the case for
India any lower than the people of other countries do. Saklat-
wala [Communist] M.P. is here and is making great fun of the
Dominion Status theory. It is of course unnecessary for you to
mention it. We (the Congress) ask for Swaraj and you can in-
terpret it to mean independence, as indeed it is/

JawaharlaPs speech at the plenary session of the Congress was
a trenchant attack on Britain. He described the early history of
British rule in India as *an epoch of predatory war - a period in
which freebooters prowled about and committed plunders and
robberies in an unbridled manner'. He accused British im-
perialism of encouraging India's communal divisions, uprooting
her educational system and undermining her economy. He was
hopeful that the liberation of his homeland would lead to the
liberation of Asia and of Africa. The resolution on India drafted
and moved by him declared, 'that this Congress accords its
warm support to the Indian national movement for the com-
plete freedom of India, and is of the opinion that the liberation
of India from foreign domination is an essential step in the full
emancipation of the peoples of the world. This Congress trusts
that peoples and workers of other countries will fully co-operate
in this task; this Congress further trusts that the Indian national
movement will base its programme on the full emancipation of
the peasants and workers of India, without which there can be
no real freedom/

During and after the conference, Jawaharlal took a keen in-
terest in mobilizing public opinion against the despatch of
British troops to China* In a joint resolution of the British,
Indian and Chinese delegates, the Congress of Oppressed
Nationalities demanded immediate withdrawal of all foreign
troops from Chinese territory and waters and urged 'the need
of direct action, including strikes and imposition of embargo to
prevent the movement of munitions and troops either in India or
China, and from India to China'.

There was something ironic in a conference of 'oppressed
nationalities* meeting in the heart of Western Europe, the
countries of which had parcelled out most of Asia and Africa
among themselves. But it would have been impossible for such
a 'subversive' gathering to take place in any of the 'dependen-

THE NEHRUS

cies* or 'colonies'. The Brussels meeting was by no means a
product of undiluted idealism. It was financed by the Mexican
Government, which resented American intervention in Latin
America, and by the Kuomintang, the Chinese Nationalist
Party, which resented British interference in China. The Soviet
Government was quick to see the propagandist value of the
conference. But though Marxist phrases were bandied about and
there were sincere Communists among the delegates, there were
also many socialists and 'pure' nationalists whose only ambition
was to end the domination of one country or race by another.

George Lansbury, the British Labour leader, presided over the
conference and was also elected president of the League Against
Imperialism, the 'permanent' organization to which the con-
ference gave birth. Jawaharlal was elected to the nine-man
executive committee of the League, which included such
celebrities as Romain Holland, Mme Sun Yat Sen and Albert
Einstein. Jawaharlal sent home detailed and enthusiastic reports
of the conference, and recommended that the Indian National
Congress should maintain links with Asia and Africa through
the League Against Imperialism. Tour participation in the
Brussels Conference/ wrote Motilal, 'has brought home to
everybody who has read your reports the importance of our
having a full-time representative in Europe and America/
Gandhi was less impressed.

Gandhi to Motilal, May 14, 1927: 'I read the public printed
report of the [Brussels Conference] from beginning to end and
I have now read the confidential report. Both are worthy of
Jawaharlal. I appreciate the view he presents about foreign
propaganda. But somehow or other, I still feel that our way lies
differently. I feel that we will not get the support of Europe
beyond a certain point, because after all most of the European
states are partners in our exploitation. And if my proposition is
correct, we shall not retain European sympathy during the
final heat of the struggle . . /

Gandhi had written to Jawaharlal in the same vein, and
sounded a note of warning against reliance upon external
support.

'I fancy/ Jawaharlal wrote back on April 23, 1927, 'you have

EVOLUTION OF JAWAHARLAL 257

got a wrong impression about my idea of the utility of the
League Against Imperialism. I do not expect much from it and
indeed I am quite sure that none of the members of the so-
called imperialist or oppressing nations will help us in the least
whenever their interests conflict with ouis. I have no illusion
about their altruism. But I welcome all legitimate methods of
getting into touch with other countries and peoples so that we
may be able to understand their viewpoint and world politics
generally. I do not think it is desirable, nor indeed is it possible,
for India to plough a lonely furrow now or in the future. It is
solely with a view to self-education and self-improvement that
I desire external contacts* I am afraid we are terribly narrow in
our outlook and the sooner we get rid of this narrowness, the
better. Our salvation can of course come only from the internal
strength that we may evolve, but one of the methods of evolving
such strength should be study of other peoples and their ideas/

Gandhi had feared that the League Against Imperialism
would not go far enough* But before long, it was the League
which branded Gandhi as a 'reactionary*. In November, 1929,
when the 'joint manifesto" under the signatures of several Indian
leaders, including Gandhi and the Nehrus, was issued to wel-
come Lord Irwin's declaration on Dominion Status for India,
the League Against Imperialism, without understanding the
shifting complexities of Indian politics, hurled abuse in stereo-
typed phrases ('chronic reformism' and 'the betrayal of the cause
of workers and peasants') at Gandhi and the Congress. This
denunciation came, curiously enough, at a time when the
Mahatma was about to launch a campaign of mass civil dis-
obedience. Jawaharlal had no intention of dancing to the
League's tune; the final break came in April, 1930, when he told
the office of the All India Congress Committee not to corres-
pond with it

In September, 1927, Motilal was at last able to take his
holiday in Europe. He was received in Venice by Jawaharlal.
Fortunately, Kamala was feeling better and during the next
three months the family travelled together in Italy, Britain,
France and Germany. In October they were in Berlin and
decided, at JawaharlaTs suggestion, to visit Russia to attend the
tenth anniversary celebrations of the Russian Revolution for
which they had received invitations from the Soviet Govern-

Z58 THE NEHRUS

ment It took them twenty-eight hours in a not-too-comfortable
train to travel from Berlin to the small town of Niegeroloje on
the Polish-Russian frontier. The people of Niegeroloje accorded
the Nehrus a welcome as simple and spontaneous as that of their
own Indian villages*

Tandit Motilal Nehru, one of the outstanding leaders of the
Indian National movement is expected here, today or to-
morrow/ the Pravda announced on November 5th. "He will
come to Moscow with his son Jawaharlal Nehru, leader of the
left wing of the National Congress/

On arrival in the Soviet capital they were greeted by officials
of the reception committee and S. J. Saklatwala, the young
Indian Communist member of the British Parliament whom
Jawaharlal had met in Brussels. They arrived a day too late to
witness the spectacular parade in Red Square, but spent four
busy days in Moscow. Motilal did not record his impressions,
but those of his son have survived in a series of articles in the
Indian press which were published in book form as Soviet Russia.
His intellectual curiosity sharpened by months of reading and
reflection, Jawaharlal arrived in Russia in a peculiarly receptive
mood. He was impressed by what he saw, and felt India could
learn much from the Soviet struggle to shake off its feudal past
The constructive side of the new regime made a strong impres-
sion upon him. He noted that in Moscow the contrast between
luxury and poverty was less glaring than in the big towns of
India and Western Europe, 5 that high officials in Moscow did
not live in a lavish style; that the State Opera House was
patronized not only by the upper dass but also by the common
people; that literacy was increasing fast; that the legal and
economic status of women had risen; that conditions in prisons
- at least, those shown to him - had improved.

Jawaharlal of course could 'not foresee the political and
economic changes which the next three decades were to bring
to Russia and the world. Communism was at this time linked in
his mind with opposition to alien rule and economic injustice.
'Whatever its faults/ he wrote about Communism in his auto-
biography, It is not hypocritical and not imperialistic*. Though
he learned to use the Marxist idiom, his affiliation to Com-
munism was never doctrinal, then or later. It was the construc-
tive side of the Soviet experiment which appealed to him - the
5 Nebru, Jawahaaial, Soviet Russia, pp. 13-4.

EVOLUTION OF f AWAHAKLAL 259

massive and planned assault on poverty, disease and illiteracy,
the tremendous push towards industrialization and away from
cramping custom and obscurantism. In 1927-8 he was not alone
in not seeing the other side of the Stalinist medal.

Tandit Jawaharlal Nehru/ wrote J. Coatman in his Years of
Destiny in 1932, 'has now one secret ambition which is to rival
Lenin or Stalin in the history of Communism,* Coatman, like
many others then and later, failed to see that Jawaharlal was too
firmly tied to Gandhi, to non-violence and to individual liberty
to lead a Communist revolution in India, that even his drive for
social and economic changes would be pressed only as far as
was compatible with Indian freedom and unity.

6 Coatman, ]U Years of Destiny, p. 95.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
RIFT IN THE LUTE

WHILE his son was seeking fresh perspectives in the solitudes of
Switzerland, Motilal was in the centre of the parliamentary
arena. The opposition to the Swarajists within the Congress had
died down. Gandhi let them hold the political stage, while he
and his close adherents - the few that remained - engaged them-
selves in the task of 'nation-building' by propagating hand-
spinning, Hindu-Muslim unity and the abolition of untouch-
ability.

The Swarajists had gone to the councils to wreck them 'from
within', by throwing out official resolutions, refusing supplies
and creating a constitutional impasse. They succeeded in in-
flicting a series of defeats on the Government during the years
1924-25. But their very success contained the germs of ultimate
failure* Except in the Central Provinces they did not command
an absolute majority in any legislature and needed the support
of other parties to out-vote the Government. That support was
sometimes (though not always) forthcoming, but at a price. The
price was the whittling down of the original Swarajist pro-
gramme. In Bengal Legislative Council Das was able to hold the
Government at bay, but only after conceding sectarian claims
which survived long after Das was dead and his Muslim sup-
porters had dropped off from the Swaraj Party,

In the Central Legislative Assembly Motilal was at first able
to reach an understanding with the Moderate and the Muslim
groups. The coalition, which came to be known as the
Nationalist Party, commanded the allegiance of more than 70 of
the 101 elected members; it carried everything before it in the
opening session in 1924. But like all coalitions it had to take
into account the lowest common measure of agreement among
its component elements. The alignment of forces on the floor of
the Legislative Assembly thus made the Swarajist strategy of
"uniform, continuous and consistent obstruction' impracticable.
In his maiden speech in the Central Assembly on February 8,

RIFT IN THE LUTE

1924, on the grant of self-government to India, Medial ad-
mitted 1 that he had 'toned down' his resolution 'to meet the
wishes of friends who are not Swarajists in this Assembly'.

MotilaFs resolution on self-government secured seventy-six
votes; the forty-eight members who voted against it included
officials, European non-officials, and a few Indian members who
had either been nominated by the Government or were in any
case at its beck and call. The utmost that the Government could
concede was an 'investigation of defects or difficulties in the
existing constitution'. The investigation which was to be
within the scope of the Government of India Act of 1919, was
entrusted to a committee headed by Sir Alexander Muddunan,
the Home Member of the Government of India. Motilal de-
clined to serve on a committee which had such circumscribed
terms of reference. Not until September, 1925, did the recom-
mendations of the committee come up for discussion before the
Assembly. The minority report signed by Jinnah and Sapru
called for major changes in the constitution, which the majority
report, representing the official views, ruled out. Motilal assailed
the narrow and niggardly spirit in which the Government had
approached the issue. He called for the dismantling of the half-
way house of dyarchy and for the setting up of full provincial
autonomy. He proposed that the Government of India should
immediately be made responsible to the central legislature, ex-
cept for defence and foreign and economic affairs which could
be 'reserved' to the Viceroy for a short 'transitional' period.

Official spokesmen, while counselling Indians to be patient,
drew attention to the provision in the preamble of the Act of
1919 for a review of the constitutional position after ten years.
'Wise men/ Muddiman said, 'are not the slaves of dates/ 'I say/
Motilal retorted, 'wise men are not the slaves of preambles
either. What sanctity is there in a preamble? Is not this Act of
Parliament, the Government of India Act of 1919, just like any
other Act of Parliament? [Is not] any legislative authority, not
to speak of the Mother of Parliaments, perfectly at liberty to set
aside its own Act under whatever circumstances it may have
been passed/ The struggle for freedom, he declared, would
sooner or later have its appointed end. 'It remains to be seen
whether England will share the credit of that achievement by
willingly giving a hand, or suffer that achievement to be wrested
1 Legislative Assembly Debates 1924* ^- *V, Part I, p. 370.

262 THE NEHRUS

from her unwilling hands* It is for England to choose/

England's choice - or at least the choice of her representatives
in India -was to mark time. Eighteen months had passed be-
tween the Assembly's resolution demanding responsible govern-
ment and the presentation of the Muddiman Committee's report.
During those eighteen months the edge of the Swarajist
opposition had been blunted. The Nationalist Party/ the in-
formal coalition of Swarajists, Moderates and Muslims which
had made possible the triumphs of 1924, had disintegrated. The
Swaraj Party had been sliding gradually but unmistakably from
its original creed of "uniform, continuous and consistent obstruc-
tion/ In August, 1925, V* J. Patel, the deputy leader of the party
in the Legislative Assembly, became its first elected president
Motilal himself accepted a seat on the Skeen Committee which
was to report on the setting up of an 'Indian Sandhurst'. The
Committee was headed by Lieutenant-General Sir Andrew
Skeen, Chief of the General Staff in India, and included Motilal,
Jinnah, Phiroze Sethna, Sahibzada Abdul Qayum Khan,
Jogendra Singh, Rama Chandra Rao, Ziauddin, Captain Hira
Singh, Capt. J. N* Banerjea, Captain Gul Nawaz Khan, Major
Dafle and E, Burden*

Though the committee was nominated by the Government
and its composition was not all that Motilal could have desired,
he decided to serve on it. One of the strongest arguments in the
armoury of the enemies of Indian independence was that Indians
could not defend themselves against external danger and in-
ternal chaos. In 1917 Motilal had interested himself in the cam-
paign for the grant of the King's commission to Indian nationals
and in the organization of the Indian Defence Force; eight years
later he was anxious to hasten the Indianization of the officers'
cadre of the British Indian army*

In September, 1925, it was decided that a sub-committee of
the Skeen Committee consisting of Motilal, Jinnah, Phiroze
Sethna, Abdul Qayum and Major Zorawar Singh with Major
Lumby as Secretary should tour England, France and Canada in
the following spring. Motilal, who was to preside over the sub-
committee, hastened to give the news to his son*

Motilal to Jawahflrlal, September 14, 1925 : *. . . As I have per-
haps already told you I was previously consulted about the con-
stitution of the sub-committee, and that [it] was approved by

RIFT IN THE LUTE l6j

me as the best we could have out of the bigger committee. I do
hope Dr Ziauddin and Capt Hira Singh will never know that
their exclusion is due to me. Abdul Qayum with all his com-
munal leanings is at least a gentleman, and Major Zorawar
Singh is a fine type of Rajput soldier, very well educated and
thoroughly independent He was introduced to me at Juhu by
Ranjit ... He has only recently been taken on the Skeen Com-
mittee, and from the first day supported the Indian view, and
took the attitude adopted by Jinnah and myself. He hdd a
King's commission and threw it up in disgust. Froan this alone
you can imagine how valuable a colleague he will prove to
Jinnah and me . . /

The prospect of a trip abroad after seventeen years pleased
Motilal, the more so because his daughter Sarup (Vijaya
Lakshmi) and son-in-law Ranjit Pandit had also planned a
holiday in Europe about the same time. He asked them to cancel
their passages, to travel by the same boat and to stay in the
same hotels as himself and his colleagues.

This pleasant prospect was to be shattered by a political storm
which not only made it impossible for Motilal to continue on
the Skeen Committee, but rocked the Swaraj Party from top to
bottom.

The discipline of the Swaraj Party, which had won the ad-
miration of friends and foes, received a rude jolt early in October,
1925, when Tainbe, the Swarajist president of the Ceaatral
Provinces Legislative Council, accepted a seat on the Governor's
executive council, Motilal lost no time in denouncing Taml>e*s
action, but was shocked to discover that it had apologists, if not
supporters, among his senior colleagues in the Swaraf Party. One
of them, N. C Kelkar, telegraphed his congratulations to
Tambe, and another, M, R. Jayakar, openly advocated a change
in the Swarajist strategy by harking back to Tilak's slogan cf
'Responsive co-operation'. There was hardly a distinction,
fayakar argued, between Tambe's appointment as an executive
councillor, Patel's election as Speaker of the Legislative
Assembly and MotilaTs acceptance of a seat os the Skeen Com-

264 THE NEHRUS

mittee: the time had come to seize 'all places of power, in-
fluence and constructive responsibility'*

Jayakar*s analogy was fallacious. Tambe had agreed to become
a limb of the provincial government without the knowledge of
his colleagues and party leaders. Patel was elected in the teeth
of official opposition and was to be a thorn in the side of the
Government throughout his five years tenure of office. MotilaTs
membership of the Skeen Committee did not in the least com-
promise his politics. As for the Responsivist talk of capturing
places of 'power, influence and responsibility', there was no
doubt that one day Indian nationalists would have to fill those
places. But had that day come? Could an Indian executive-
councillor or minister exercise real authority in the field of pro-
vincial administration? Was it not a dangerous pastime for a
nationalist opposition to accept responsibility without power?
It was one thing to storm and occupy the governmental citadel;
it was quite another to seek a premature and partial entry on
sufferance.

The Pandit is on the war-path/ Jayakar wrote 2 when the
controversy was at its bitterest. Many years later in the evening
of his life, he complained that Motilal forgot 'his usual dignity
and restraint*, and drove him (Jayakar) into opposition and open
rebellion. MotilaTs temper, once it was roused, was a terrible
thing and could lead him into untenable positions. In 1926 he
had a sharp argument with V. J. Patel, when the latter refused
to resign his seat in the Legislative Assembly or to contribute
part of his salary to the funds of the Swaraj party on the
ground that as President of the Legislative Assembly he could
not directly associate himself with one party. There is no doubt
that on this issue Patel was right and Motilal was wrong.

It is possible that if Jayakar had been handled more gently he
might not have led the revolt of 1926. But their differences were
not meanly those of emphasis or tactics. Motilal rightly sensed
that the very foundation of the Swaraj Party, as he and Das
had fashioned it, was at stake; his resolve is reflected in a letter
he wote to Gandhi.

Motilal to Gandhi, November 25, 1925: 'I quite agree that the
differences which have arisen are quite unfortunate - but as a
matter of fact they have always been there, and have only come
s Jayakar, M. &, The Story of My Life, vol. H, p. 668.

RIFT IN THE LUTE 265

to the surface. As you know the Marhatta group never took
kindly to non<xw>peration. They were compelled to join the
movement by the pressure of public opinion* The same causes
led them to join the Swaraj Party without believing in its
principles ... I am going to put it to them quite plainly that I
can under no circumstances agree to make it permissible to take
ministerships and executive councillorships by any member of
the Swaraj Party - "Responsive Co-operation** is a mere camou-
flage for taking these offices ... If [they do not agree], dbere is
nothing for it but an open fight We have been living on
patched-up compromises too long . . . The Cawnpore Congress
will settle the question/

The Cawnpore Congress witnessed a tug-of-war between the
rival ideologies within the Swaraj Party. The Responsivists,
Jayakar, Kelkar, Moonje and Aney, were supported by
Malaviya; they asked for the same freedom of action within the
Swaraj Party as Motilal and Das had claimed within the Con-
gress during the years 1912-3. They appealed to Gandhi The
Mahatma preferred to be a 'neutral' and 'peace-maker*, but his
closest adherents supported Motilal at Cawapore. The ino*e I
study the councils' work/ Gandhi wrote, 'the effect of {the
Swarajist] entry into the councils upon public life [and] its
repercussions upon the Hindu-Muslim question, the more con-
vinced I am not only of the futility but the inadvisability of the

council-entry I would welcome the day when at least a few

of the comrades of 1920 leave the councils to their fate.*

The day to which Gandhi was looking forward was to be
hastened by the fissures within the Swaraj Party. One of the
consequences of the Responsivist revolt was to make the official
programme of the Swaraj Party more militant Motilal realized
that the only way of preventing the slide downhill was to
resume the climb uphill. If the Swaraj Party were to remain the
spearhead of the nationalist struggle the drift from non-co-
operation to co-operation had to be stopped. At Cawnpoie he
reiterated his faith in mass civil disobedience, *the ultimate
sanction', and carried a resolution directing the Swarajists to
resign their seats in the legislatures if the Government failed to
respond to the 'national demand" for responsible self-govern-
ment

3 Gandhi to Srinivas lyengar, April 27, 1926 (O&H

l66 THE NEHRUS

In accordance with the mandate of the Cawnpore Congress
the Swaraj Party walked out of the Legislative Assembly on
March 8, 1926. On this occasion Motilal delivered a memorable
speech in which he recalled his resolution of February 8, 1924.
That resolution was, he said, a message to the people of the
United Kingdom which had gone unheeded. 'We know the great
power that this Government wields* We know that in the
present state of the country, rent as it is by communal discord
and dissension, civil disobedience, our only possible weapon, is
not available to us at present But we know also that it is
equally unavailing to remain in this legislature and in the other
legislatures of the country any longer. We go out today, not
with the object of overthrowing this mighty Empire, We know
we cannot do it even if we wished it. We go out in all
humility, with the confession of our failure to achieve our
objects in this House on our lips/

The 'walk-out 1 earned banner headlines in the nationalist
press, but it could not stop the rot that Tambe had started
within the party. The CJP. Swarajists had been joined by
Malaviya and Lajpat Rai. Motilal summoned the dissidents to a
conference at Gandhi's ashram at Sabarmati in the last week of
April. An agreement was reached, but remained a dead letter,
Another attempt at a rapprochement was made by Sarojini
Naidu at Simla, but it shared the same fate. It soon became
apparent that die differences between the two wings of the
party were not confined to the constitutional issue. The angle
of vision/ Lajpat Rai wrote to Motilal, 'with which we look
upon questions relating to matters on which the Hindus and
the Muslims differ is entirely different/ With the elections in
the offing, the appeal to religion was a crude but serviceable
hook for catching votes. Motilal was accused of bartering away
the interests of his own community. In fact, his agnosticism
placed him above the storms of religious passion. He had no
patience with fanaticism, whether it was of the Hindu or the
M??sltTft vintage. Of the latter he had a bitter taste when 3be
fisifced Delhi in April, 1926, to confer with Maulana Moham-
med AM and other Muslim leaders.

Motitef fco Gam&i, April 28, 1926: *. . . while I was there, the
conversation was more or less desultory interspersed with a few
acrimonious passages-at-arms between Mohammed All and me.

RIFT IN THE LUTE

All Hindu Congressmen, with the exception of yourself,
Jawahar and me were condemned as open enemies of Muslims
. . . On the other hand it was claimed that not a single Khila-
fatist of standing had ever deviated from tfae strict principle of
nationalism . . . I am sorry I was unable to agree either in the
sweeping condemnation of all Hindu Congressmen or in the
general commendation of all Khilafafete, and it was in this
connection that some heat was imported in the discussion , , /

In 1924 Gandhi had made a heroic but vain effort to halt the
communal conflict There were not a few who put down the
tension between Hindus and Muslims to the non-co-operation
movement and its alliance with the Khilafat cause and blamed
Gandhi for having played with the masses and roused them
prematurely. "The awakening of the masses,* Gandhi wrote,
'was a necessary part of die training, I would do nothing to put
the people to sleep again.* He tried to divot this awakening into
constructive channels and to educate the two communities out
of the mental morass into whkh they had slipped; he even tried
the shock-therapy of a three weeks' fast; but all in vainu Gandhi
found that the communal leaders were 'fighting not for loaves
and fishes, but fighting like the proverbial dog, not for the bone
but for the shadow*.

Since the basis of the franchise was communal, communalism
readied a peak in 1926, tfae election year. Faced with fanaticism
on both sides, Motilal reaffirmed his own secular faith* Jointly
with Abul Kalam Azad, who was to play an important role in
Congress politics during the next thirty yeais, he issued on
July 51, 1926, tfae manifesto of The Indian National Union'
which was to be open to all Indians 'not under tfae age of
eighteen*, who accepted the principles of religious liberty,
absolute tolerance of the views and practices of others, and
'adjustment of communal relations on the basis of strict legal
rights of communities and individuals'. 'I do hereby solemnly
affirm/ ran the pledge of membership, 'that tfae only way to
India's lasting prosperity and freedom lies in realization by all
communities of India of a common united nationality and har-
monious co-operation between them , . . My sole objective shall
be the good of the nation as a whole . . * H

The Indian National Union received the support of a number

* Indian Quarterly Register, *9*& TO*. B. pp,

268 THE NEHRUS

of eminent Indians of all creeds and shades of opinion, including
Sapru, Sastri, Ajmal Khan, Maharaja of Mahmudabad, Ansari,
and Sarojini Naidu. But it failed to make an impression on the
communal leaders or on the masses* The aims of the Union
were wholly unexceptionable; that they needed to be restated
at all was a melancholy commentary on the politics of that
period, charged as they were 'with artifically produced, de-
liberately sustained, tensions - communal, internicine, per-
sonal and all sorts'. 5 These tensions put the Swaraj Party at a
disadvantage in the electoral fight It did rather well in Madras,
Bengal and Assam, not so well in Bombay and the Central
Provinces, badly in the Punjab; but in the United Provinces it
suffered a rout Motilal later described the election as a fight
'between the forces of nationalism and a low order of com-
munalism reinforced by wealth, wholesale corruption, terrorism
and falsehood',

'Pandit Motilal is a solitary figure/ a friend wrote to Jawa-
harlal, who was in Switzerland at that time, 'with the whole
of educated India against him, but he is a giant of a man and
fights boldly and chivalrously/ 8 Motilal's own nephew Shamlal
Nehru was working against him; the communal tide had swept
away old colleagues and trusted workers and left him high and
dry* He was shocked at the vulgarity and vehemence of his
opponents, who accused him of being anti-Hindu, of plotting
to legalize cow-slaughter, and even of intriguing with Kabul.
It was difficult to believe that colleagues and friends of yester-
day could be so factious, so bitter, so unfair,

Motilal to Jawaharlal, January 6, 1926: 'You say that you
wished you ware here to help me. You do not know how often
I have felt this while plying my lonely furrow after being de-
serted by all the active workers* If you were here, and given me
your personal support, the result of the elections in the U.P. and
the other provinces, where we have suffered heavy defeats would
have been very different to what it was/

Motilal himself had fought with his back to the wall; he had
sought no quarter and given none. Early in 1927 he demanded
from Lajpat Rafs paper Bandt Mataram an unconditional

* Sarojini Naidu to Jawaharlal, October 15, 1926 <N.P.).
4 Sri Prakasa to Jawaharlal, November 26, 1926 (N.F.).

RIFT IN THE LUTE 269

apology, or else one lakh as damages for libel. The case was
filed but withdrawn thanks to Gandhi's mediation.

The elections left him disillusioned and disgusted. The Swaraj
Party was still the largest party in the country's legislatures, but
its strength and moral fibre had perceptibly weakened. The
"Indian National Union* had proved still-bom. To Motilal, the
political landscape appeared so grim that he seriously thought
of announcing his resignation at the annual Congress session
to be held in Assam at the end of December.

On the way to Gauhati his spirits revived. He traveled by a
small river steamer which cruised slowly down the Ganges and
the Brahmaputra. His only companions were Upadhyaya his
secretary, and Hari his personal servant. His only regret was
that he had no rifle with him with which to do a little shooting
as the steamer passed along the Sunderbans. The voyage and
the solitude and scenery of the Sunderbans hdped to relax the
accumulated tension of the election weeks. He was already
talking of 'returning vigour*.

He had expected another trial of strength with the dissidents
at Gauhati, believing that Lajput Rai and Malaviya, 'aided by
Birla's money', were trying to capture the Congress. These fears
proved groundless. At Gauhati all was plain sailing for Motilal.
This was partly due to the presence and support of GandM,
whom he had persuaded to attend, and partly to the failure of
the Responsivists to muster their forces. Lajput Rai, Jayakar and
Kelkar were absent; Aney and Moonje were present but passive.
Malaviya's pleas for the acceptance of office had no effect. The
original Swarajist programme as advocated by Motilal was con-
firmed. 'We have stood firm/ he told his son triumphantly,
'against all reactionaries and carried everything we wanted by
overwhelming majorities/

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
END OF THE TETHER

IN January, 1927, when the newly-elected Legislative Assembly
met at Delhi, Motilal discovered that the ratification of his pro-
gramme by the Gauhati Congress had not ended his difficulties
within the party. Only three years had passed since he had em-
barked on his legislative career, but he no longer felt the
optimism he had felt in January, 1924, when C* R. Das was
alive, public interest at a high pitch, the press favourable, the
Swaraj Party well-knit, when the support of other parties was
forthcoming and the bureaucracy was momentarily bewildered.
By 1927 the political kaleidoscope had violently shifted* C. R.
Das was dead, the Swaraj Party had suffered a deep schism; the
united front of progressive elements in the Legislative Assembly
had disintegrated; old colleagues and comrades turned against
Motilal and the elections had left a bitter taste in his mouth* He
had not yet drained the cup of ingratitude and disloyalty to the
full* Tortuous intrigues in the Swaraj Party came to light early
in 1927* C S. Ranga Iyer, the journalist whom Motilal had
employed on the staff of the Independent and then brought into
the Legislative Assembly, was in open revolt, with the surrep-
titious backing of Srinivas lyengar, the deputy leader of the
Swaraj Party and President of the Congress*

Motilal to Jawakarlal, March 24, 1927: 'We are practically at
die end of the Assembly session, but it is difficult to say whether
I shall continue to be a member up to the moment it is
prorogued* Things have been going from bad to worse in the
party* Srinivas lyengar, being the Congress President, was
allowed by me to have a full and free hand in party affairs,
while I remained more or less in the background* He took
advantage of this to promote disaffection in the party by en-
couraging Ranga Iyer and others to discredit me in various ways*
When I felt compelled to take disciplinary action he interceded
on their behalf, and cultivated sympathy for them among the

END OF THE TETHER ZJ1

members* After the proceedings were withdrawn, he set them
up again for some fresh mischief . . . The only alternatives
before me are either to put down the spirit of rebellion with an
iron hand or to retire. I think the latter is the better course, but
I have not definitely made up my mind . , /

But the letter continues with characteristic cheerfulness :

'Even with these worries, I have carried on very well - looking
younger and younger as I am getting older and older (so say
the New Delhi ladies)/

To Kamala, his daughter-in-law, who was slowly con-
valescing in a sanatorium in Switzerland, he wrote:

'I feel as strong as a horse in spite of all I have gone through*
Many European members of the Assembly come and ask me to
divulge the secret of health, which, they are sure, I have dis-
covered. I wish I had, as in that case I would first impart it to
you/

Rarely had the political outlook been bleaker in India than
at the beginning of 1927. Communal antagonisms, factional
rivalries and personal animosities seemed to have submeiged
basic issues* The Muslims do not want to hear anything,'
Shaukat Ali, the Khilafat leader, confessed to Gandhi, 1 'they
want us to organize them in the defence of Islam against the
Hindus/ This pandering to the worst passions of the mob - by
leaders of both communities - had brought about an atmosphere
which was deadly to rational politics.

Gandhi had told the Cawnpore Congress in December, 19x5 :
Today I would commence civil disobedience if the necessary
fire and fervour were there in the people* But alas, they are not/
Later he told a meeting at Comifla in Bengal that the Hindu-
Muslim problem had passed out of human hands into God's
hands* Nobody knew better than Gandhi that the communal
problem was not a simple equation between the Hindu and the
Muslim. At the request of a member of the Independent Labour
Party, the Mahatma gave a candid analysis of the political
triangle in India.
1 Shaukat AH to Gandhi, March 4, 19*7 (GN, Papess).

272 THE NEHRUS

*EF we were not disposed to quarrel/ he wrote, "no outside
power could make Us. But, when an outside power notices our
dissensions, it takes advantage of them consciously or uncon-
sciously. Everyone in India knows this and feels the effect of it
. . . Some honest British officials have not hesitated to make the
admission before me ... I am well aware that you can do
nothing to remedy this evil, even if you (the Labour Party) be-
lieved in it. The remedy lies in our own hands. All that you can
do is to give us, if you are in power, a good and workable con-
stitution. But you will certainly not be able to control your
agents here. The agents themselves know that they are agents
only in name, but in reality they are principals. I have before
now described the [Indian] Civil Service as a gigantic and most
powerful secret corporation that the world has seen* Like the
Masonic Brotherhood, it has got its signs and its unwritten
language through which it corresponds with its members." 2

Even during these lean years when the Mahatma had retired
from active politics, nothing important in the Congress was
done without his advice. He was the keeper of the consciences
of politicians who were at loggerheads with one another. This
was a fortunate circumstance for Motilal, who could always
bank upon Gandhi's advice and assistance in a crisis. His
opponents did not fail to notice his special relationship with
Gandhi. During the fierce controversies of 1926, Jayakar
bluntly asked Gandhi whether it was not a fact that Motilal
counted for more with him than he (Jayakar) did. 'I do not
know/ replied Gandhi, 'if it is true in any sense, I can only say
that it is a human failing which I have not yet overcome be-
cause I am unconscious of it* Whether he was conscious of it
or not, Gandhi never failed to support the elder Nehru in a
crisis; and but for this support, Motilal might have thrown in
his hand during the years 1925-27 when nationalist politics
passed through a particularly disheartening phase. As it was,
he felt deeply despondent about the future of his party and
country. His mood is mirrored in a letter he wrote to Gandhi
& May 6, 1927, his sixty-sixth birthday :

*By the way, I have entered upon my 67th year today and

Gamia to Dr ItoxmaiL Leys, MJP^ July 23, 1926 (G.&N. Papers).
to Jayaiar, Aagost i, 1926 (G.&N. Papers),

END OF THE TETHEK

arup [Vijayalakshmi] is celebrating the event by inviting a
lumber of people this afternoon to tea. Looking back through
he vista of 66 long years it presents to myself an almost un-
Broken record of time wasted and opportunities missed. It is
lepressing to think of litde, if any output of all these years, and
>f the less that can be reasonably expected within the brief span
till left to me * * * I have already begun the process of 'slipping
>ut' of the Assembly. During the last session I kept in the back-
ground as far as possible* When the next session comes round
n September, I shall most probably be in Europe. It will be open
o the Governor-General to declare my seat vacant, but I am
tfraid he will not In that case . . . I shall occupy myself outside
n the best way I can . . .'

Now, when he thought that his innings was drawing to a
lose, his thoughts turned often to his son, to whom he wrote
vhen the new Assembly had met in Delhi.

vtotilal to Jawaharlal, January 27, 1927: *. * . I wish first of all
o tell you what has since the opening of the Assembly forced
tself upon me many a time. We have among the members two
aen who were your contemporaries at Cambridge (Mackworth
foung and Ruthnaswamy). The former is the Secretary to the
jovernment in the Military Department, and the latter a
lominated non-official. Wnat I fed on seeing these men is that
rou should have been in my place. This would have been more
n the fitness of things than my being there. I don't know why
his idea recurs to me repeatedly on seeing your contemporaries/

In the summer of 1927 there were informal discussions among
Congress leaders on the choice of the president for the ensuing
ession which was to be held in Madras in December. A Royal
Commission was expected to be appointed, and 1928 promised
o be an eventful, perhaps a crucial year. At the instance of
innah and the Maharaja of Mahinudabad, Sarojini Naidu sug-
gested that Motilal should preside over the Madras Congress.
Jhe sought Gandhi's support for her proposal. There are too
nany forces just now working against Motilalji/ Gandhi told
ler. Motilal himself declined the offer, but in a letter to Gandhi
uggested Jawaharlal for 'the crown' as the Congress presi-
lency was described in Congress drdes, 'Jawaharlal presiding

IJ4 THE NEHRUS

bas an irresistible ^appeal for me/ Gandhi wrote back, 'but I
Bonder whether it would be proper in the present atmosphere
to saddle the responsibility on him/

The Mahatma sounded young Nehru, who was in Switzer-
land at the time:

There is some talk of your being chosen as President of the
coming Congress/ Gandhi wrote to him. 1 am in correspondence
with Father [Motilal] about it. The outlook here is not at all
happy We have lost hold upon the masses The question
then is how your services can be best utilized. What you your-
self think, you should do. I know you are capable of taking a
detached view and you will say quite unselfishly like Dadabhai :
**Put the crown on my head"/

Jawaharial did not fed -or at least did not show -much
enthusiasm for the proposal. Meanwhile, both his father and
the Mahatma had agreed that the time had not yet come for
him to take command. Gandhi wrote to Motilal :

"He is too high-sodted to stand the anarchy and hooliganism
that seem to be growing in the Congress, and it would be cnid
to expect him to evolve order afl of a sudden out of chaos. I am
confident, however, that the anarchy will spend itself before
long and the hooligans will themselves want a disciplinarian;
Jawaharial will come in then.**

The choice finally fell on Dr M. A. Ansari, who (Gandhi con-
fided to Motilal) "won't control the hooligans. He will let them
have their way; but he may specialize in the Hindu-Muslim
question and do something in the matter'.

H Motilal felt any embarrassment to sponsoring his son's can-
didature for the Congress presidency, he did not betray it. He
could of course write in complete confidence to Gandhi, in
whose heart Aare was a special place for Jawaharial. But he
was careful to keep the issue on a public rather than a private
plane:

*Y0u haw put it very well to fawahar to say whether he
wishes the "crows" ID fee put on his head* His own letters,
* GasJki te Motilai ftme 19* 1927,

END OF THE TETHER 275

which to my mind, breathed an unshakeable faith not only in
the ultimate victory against the forces of reaction, but also in
our present capacity to put up a strong fight, suggested the
idea to me and I forthwith communicated it to you. His reply
to you will show the extent to which he is confident himself/
Motilal concluded: 'My only fear is that the habit of playing
the role of the humble soldier in the presence of his great general
may check the necessary assertiveness required for the occasion/

Having reached a dead-end in national politics, Motilal de-
cided to take his long-deferred holiday in Europe. His plans for
going abroad with the sub-committee of the Skeen Committee
in March, 1926, had fallen through. Nor did he feel free, with
the chaos in the party and the country, to leave India in 1926.
Early in 1927 he was eager to re-join his son in Switzerland, but
there were two obstacles. One was the progress of the new house
which he was building in the compound of Anand Bhawan. For
many years Motilal had felt that Anand Bhawan was too large
for his family, particularly after his nephews had set up on their
own. With the cessation of his practice and the change in his
style of living which had followed his plunge into the non-
co-operation movement, Anand Bhawan seemed more and more
of a white elephant He decided to build a new house, smaller
and more compact. But it was not easy for him to do anything
in a small way; eventually the new house turned out to be more
compact than small. He took a keen interest in the design and
construction, but he was too preoccupied with professional and
political affairs to supervise the work; and the local engineers
had not much experience of modern sanitary and electrical in-
stallations. After a good deal of wasteful experiment, an
engineer was sent for from the Tatas, and the work had to be
done over again. The result was that in June, 1927, when the
house should have been receiving the finishing touches, holes
were being knocked in walls and ceilings and the floors and
verandas dug out.

The second hurdle which barred the way to Europe was
financial MotilaTs legal practice since his release from gaol had
been a sporadic affair. What with demands of his family and
party, he had long since run through his savings. The new house

276 THE NEHKUS

proved a serious drain on his resources. In 1927, when politics
began to stink in his nostrils, he was devoting greater attention
to his profession. But legal practice at the age of sixty-six was
a strenuous affair. A fortnight's pleading in an election case at
Farrukhabad in June left him 'more dead than alive', and the
offer of Rs. 2,000 a day for the next fortnight in Lucknow failed
to tempt him. He came back to Allahabad to rest, but there was
no rest for him. He had to drive himself to the limit if he were
to meet his immediate liabilities and find the wherewithal for
the European trip. When Gandhi, who was slowly recovering
in Nandi Hills in Mysore from a serious attack of high blood
pressure, asked for a donation for the Spinners' Association,
Motilal let him into his financial secrets.

Motilal to Gandhi, May 6, 1927 : *. . . I see your eagle eyes have
penetrated into my empty till from the heights of Nandi Hills
and have discovered something lying at the bottom. Yes, I am
making some money, but not much to speak of. April brought
ine Rs. 15,000 out of which 500 (a litde less than Rs. 7,000)
went to Switzerland, and the balance to pay outstanding bills
mostly on [house] building account. May has opened very well
with a single fee of Rs. 13,000, the whole of which has gone to
dear overdrafts in the various banks. The bigger creditors have
not yet been paid anything. These must be tackled now as they
have the first charge, and your "poor spinners" only the second*
I must be just before I am generous. Remember my offer [in
1920] to contribute a lakh a year to the Tilak fund if you
would let me continue my practice. But you refused to be
bribed, as you then put it . . /

The empty till was to be replenished by the Lakhana case,
which also determined the timing of MotilaTs trip to Europe*

As we have already seen, 5 the District Judge had decided the
case in 1918 in favour of Rani Kishori. The appeal against this
decision came up before the Allahabad High Court in 1921.
During these duflee years, the fortunes of the opposing counsel
had undergone a remarkable metamorphosis. Tej Bahadur Sapra
had become the Law Member of the Viceroy's Executive Council.
Motilal had iCTsOunced his practice at the Bar, but decided to
make an exception of this case; his reappearance at the High

END OF THE TETHER ZJJ

Court was a memorable event. In his homespun sherwsni he
presented a different, though not less formidable, figure than he
had done in his Savile Row suit.

Narsingh Rao engaged a distinguished lawyer (B. E
O'Connor), but Dunnaju's refusal to agree to a medical examina-
tion sealed his fate. Chkf Justice Sir Grimwood Meais and
Justice P. C Banerjea dismissed the appeal without going into
the question of law, *We are driven to the conclusion/ they
observed, 'that the only reason for her refusal is the fact that
she is well aware that she has never given birth to a child/

The High Court also turned down Narsingh Rao's rapiest for
a review. Nor would it grant him leave to appeal to the Privy
Council. Fortunately for Narsingh Rao, the Judicial Committee
of the Privy Council took a more sympathetic view and the
rather unusual step of granting him leave to appeal direct to the
Privy Council. The case is a very important one/ Motilal ad-
vised the London Solicitor H. S. L Polak, "and I shall probably
have to look after it personally in the Privy Council, however
much I may try to avoid it. It is one of the two cases which I
had to conduct after giving up my practice/

In 1925 Narsingh Rao left for England. "He has/ Motilal
warned Polak, *a special dread of my appearance in the Privy
Council and has declared his intention to arrange the hearing
in such a manner and at such a date as would make it impos-
sible for me to be present. I do not know how he hopes to
achieve that object . . /

The case took a sudden and unexpected turn in London. Their
Lordships of the Privy Council did not see why another chance
should not be given to Dunnaju to refute the allegation that she
had never borne a child. They selected for her medical examina-
tion two lady doctors whose names were not disclosed. One
afternoon, at an appointed time, the parties with their counsel
reported themselves at a given address. Presently the gynaecolo-
gists appeared and examined a woman who daimed to be
Dunnaju. The doctors gave a certificate that the woman had
given birth to a child. To this certificate, as proof of the woman's
identity, were attached her photograph and thumb impressions.
On the receipt of this certificate the Privy Council remitted the
case back to the Allahabad High Court

The finding of the London doctors introduced a Sherlock
Holmes touch into the case. If they were right, the question

278 THE NEHRUS

naturally arose why Dunnaju had so long and stubbornly held
out against a medical examination. There was a spate of
rumours. It was alleged that Dunnaju had never gone to London
and that another woman, M., had impersonated her; that the
thumb impressions of the two women were identical; that the
thumb impressions on the certificate were Dunnaju's, but the
woman actually examined was M *

Motilal made a thorough investigation* The passenger lists of
the ships s.s Devanha and s.s. Rawalpindi by which Dunnaju
was supposed to have travelled to and from England were
scrutinized to see whether any other woman had accompanied
or followed Narsingh Rao. A professional detective was engaged
to look for dues* And incredible as it may seem, even Gandhi
was made to take a hand in this detective hunt* From Sabarmati
Ashram, where he was spending the 'year of silence*, he tele-
graphed to Motilal (May 6, 1926): 'S - wires, K wires no other
woman in party/

It was a wild goose-chase. Ten months later, as the time came
for the hearing before the High Court, Motilal confessed to his
son: 'the mystery remains unsolved * * / The mystery deepened,
when some important papers relating to this case were lost and
then recovered in Anand Bhawan.

The opinion of the London gynaecologists swung the
pendulum in favour of Narsingh Rao. It was no longer possible
fco contest his legitimacy; but, even on the point of law, the
Allahabad High Court took the view that Naisingh Rao was
entitled to the disputed estate under the ordinary Hindu Law
and not under the 'gift deed' of his grandfather.

The last round of the legal batde was fought before the
Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. Rani Kishori had long
beea dead but her daughter Beti Mahalakshmi Bai insisted that
Motilal should personally conduct the case in London. Eminent
counsel were engaged on both sides. Sir John Simon, F. H.
Maugham and Motilal appeared for Beti Mahalakshmi Bai, while
Narsingh Rao enlisted the services of W. H. Upjohn and Sir
George Lowndes, a former Law Member of the Government of
India. The case was heaid by Viscount Sumner, Lords Atkinson
and S. P. Sinha, Sir John Wallis and Sir Lancelot Sunderson.
Their Lorfships disagreed with the Allahabad High Court and
decided the case IB favour of Motilaf s client. They came to the
conclusion that Narsingh Rao's claim could only be considered

END OF THE TETHER 279

in terms of the 'gift deed', that Raja Jaswant Singh's bequest in
favour of a grandson who had not been bora at the time of the
execution of the deed was invalid*

More than three decades had passed since the Lakhana case
had come to Motilal. In its long and tortuous course it had
brought him some headaches, but it had also brought him high
fees* In the concluding phase of the case he received nearly
Rs. 152,000. The expenses for my trip to Europe/ he taU his
son, 'must come out of the fees for the work in Europe.*

Apart from the Lakhana case, he had other reasons for not
delaying his departure for Europe. In February Jawaharlal had
attended the Congress of Oppressed Nationalities at Brussels
and sent home some photographs. *I have never seen worse
photographs/ was MotilaTs comment, *but perhaps they suit
the occasion, as you are the very picture of the representative of
an oppressed country/ Incomparably superior to these photo-
graphs was a likeness of Jawaharlal in a Beriin journal, but it
had the wrong caption: 'Barfcatullah of Ghadr Party*. 1 know,
Motilal added, 'that Barkatullah is wanted by the police of
various countries and am living in hopes that we shall not hear
of a case of mistaken identity in the near future/

Motilal's banter concealed a real concern for the safety of his
son* Sir Alexander Muddiman, the Home Member, with whom
Motilal was socially, if not politically, on the best of terms, had
recently met him at a dinner, and thrown hints that the Govern-
ment was keeping track of young Nehru's doings in Europe.
Motilal at once took Gandhi into confidence.

Motilal to Gandhi, May 6, 1927: *. . .1 am afraid he has
attracted too much attention of the India Office and things may
not prove to be quite pleasant to him and to us. Muddiman has
already hinted at it. He said : "J awa liar was sailing too near the
wind"* I replied that there was nothing strange in it -and in
fact it was the business of both father and son to do so. We
laughed it away, but he added significantly: "He has been to
Berlin and met some people who are not of the right sort'*
"How can you help meeting people of all sorts when they come
your way?" was my answer.

'He [Jawaharlal] says he has himself noticed that he has of
late been the object of attention on the part of the British Secret
Service which, he says, is the most perfect on the continent

THE NEHRUS

One of the reasons for my intended trip to Europe is to escort
the young gentleman safely home/

3

It was not until the end of August that Motilal was able to
sail There was a last-minute hitch. Dr Ansari, the president-
designate of the 1927 Congress, insisted on issuing a long state-
ment including comments on the Swaraj Party's work which
Motilal considered both ill-advised and ill-timed. Having failed
to dissuade Ansari, he urged Gandhi to advise him "to keep his
opinions to himself* The Mahatma administered a strong,
though good-humoured, rebuke to Ansari :

1 have this suggestion, keep these views to yourself. You are
in no way called upon to publish them* For, if I am no politician,
you are still less. When Swaraj is established you won't belong
to the diplomatic service, nor to the military * . You would be
content if you are placed in charge of the medical service, even
as I would aspire after nothing more serious or important than
the spinning department* The law, diplomacy, military and the
rest we shall leave to Motilalji and Company . . /

Ansari was a good friend of Motilal and a faithful adherent
of the Mahatma, but he ignored their advice and published the
statement Gandhi did what he could to soothe the elder Nehru;
he undertook to take Ansari in hand, to patch up internal
differences in the Swaraj Party, particularly those between
Srinivas lyengar and Shanmukham Chetty, which were weigh-
ing on MotilaTs mind on the eve of his departure for Europe.
1 want you to leave India with a light heart/ Gandhi wrote to
Motilal, *and to return to India with Jawahar and Kamala
within the Congress week/

Motilal sailed at the end of August for Venice, where he was
received by JawaharlaL fortunately, Kamala was well enough to
mow about, and during the next three months the family (ex-
cept for Indira who was in school in Switzerland) travelled to-
gether in Italy, France, Britain, Germany and Russia. The
Nehrus took the most expensive suites in the best hotels.
Motilal's presence gave the tour the real flavour of an aristo-
cratic holiday. 'Wherever we stayed with Father/ writes

END OF THE TETHER l8l

Krishna, "we were treated right royally* No sooner did we
arrive at a hotel than the manager sent flowers with his com-
pliments. He then came himself to see that we were comfort-
able. Everyone hovered around us all the time.' 1 Motilal himself
seemed to have finished with politics. He was in high good
humour, Once when the rest of the family was in Paris, he went
to a well-known firm of drapers in London to buy a coat for his
daughter* Not having the exact measurements with him, he
suggested to the manager to have a few shop girls -about
5 feet 2 inches in height -lined up in order to enable him to
select the right size* It was a most unusual request, bat the
manager was either so flabbergasted or awed by the peremptory
manner of the customer that he did as he was told*

Early in November the Nehrus were in Beilin and from there
paid a brief visit to Moscow* In December Jawaharial, Kamala,
Indira and Krishna sailed for India via Colombo and arrived at
Madras just in time for the Congress session during Christmas.

Motilal decided to remain in Europe for a few months more.
In January he was in Monte Carlo, which he described as 'the
most charming litde place that I have seen* You seem moving
about in a huge picture laid at your feet'. He visited the Casino
thrice, won and lost 'with the net result of some fir* 2,000 to
the good', but found it 'a disgusting affair'. What he enjoyed
most was motoring to Nice, Menton and San Remo*

The holiday mood was shattered when a medical check-up
revealed traces of albumin, and of glucoma 'implying stone
blindness sooner or later'. It was an unduly alarming diagnosis,
but Motilal read into it 'the beginning of the end 7 * 1 fed/ he
wrote to his son (January 4, 1928), 1 will be happier in the old
familiar surroundings and have accordingly made up my mind
to leave Europe as early as I can/ A month later he was back in
India*

6 Hutheesing, Krishna, With No fogrets, p. 46*

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
RISING TEMPO

'MY only hope/ Gandhi wrote in May, 1927, when the political
horizon seemed darkest, lies in prayer and answer to prayer/
Strange are the ways of Providence: it chose Birkenhead, the
Conservative Secretary of State for India, as its instrument for
the welcome change in Indian politics* If there were two things
in the world on which Birkenhead had no doubt, they were the
permanence of Indian discord and the permanence of British rule
in India. Of Hindu-Muslim differences he said: 'All the con-
ferences in the world cannot bridge the unbridgeable'. He could
not foresee a time when the sun would set on the British Empire.
There is, my Lords/ he told the House of Lords on July 7, 1925,
'no 'Tost Dominion", there will be no "Lost Dominion" until
that moment, if ever it comes, when the whole British Empire,
with all that it means for civilization, is splintered in doom/

Birkenhead was in no hurry to prepare the next instalment
of constitutional reform. But he had to reckon with the clause
in the Indian Reforms Act of 1919 which had prescribed an
inquiry into the working of the constitution after ten years. The
appointment of a Royal Commission was not due until 1929,
hit it seemed to Birkenhead 'elementary prudence* not to run
the risk of its nomination by a Labour Government. Tou can
readily imagine/ he told the Viceroy, 'what kind of a commis-
sion in its personnel would have been appointed by Colonel
Wedgwood and his friends.* The Act of 1919 was accordingly
amended so as to permit the appointment of the Commission
two years ahead of the schedule.

la the summer of 1927 V. J. Patel, the President of the Indian
Legislative Assembly, was in England ostensibly studying the
procedure of the House of Commons. He was in dose touch
with Geoige Lansbury, Graham Pole, Pethick-Lawrence, Fenner
Brockway and other Labour M JPs. who were regarded as 'friends

of BfefasbseacL R Life of R E Smith, the jirst Earl of Birkcnhcad,
p^ 5**-*-

RISING TEMPO 283

of India'. Patel had an audience with the King and interviews
with Baldwin and Birkenhead. Motilal felt tantalized and em-
barrassed by the reports of Patel's activities.

Motilal to Jawaharlal, June 15, i$2j: 'Pate! has, I am afraid,
already done enough to compromise Gandhiji and myself. He is
a dear but dangerous friend. While extolling us to the sides and
telling people in England that nothing can succeed in India
without the active support of the two of us, he hit upon the
absurd idea of putting me on the Royal Commission on Reforms,
which he says will come out in November ... I am receiving
letters from "friends of India*' extending warm welcomes . . .
My misfortune is that all mention of the Royal Commission and
the great things that it will accomplish falls flat on me * * /

These speculations had in fact no basis* Birkenhead decided
to appoint a purely parliamentary commission. For this decision
he had the backing of Lord Irwin, who had succeeded Lorf
Reading as Viceroy of India in April, 1926. A number of
plausible reasons could be, and indeed, were, advanced for the
exclusion of Indians: that a royal commission answerable to
the British Parliament had necessarily to draw its personnel
from that Parliament, that the representation of the 'numerous*
Indian parties would have made the commission an unwieldy
body, that the political and religious differences of Indian
members would have endangered its cohesion and impartiality.
The fact is that Birkenhead was afraid that Indian members
might join hands with the Labour MJPs. on the commission in
producing a scheme, which the Conservatives might not be able
to swallow.* The Chairman of the commission was Sir John
Simon, an eminent lawyer and a liberal politician; of its other
six members, the only one now remembered is Clement Attlee,
the future Prime Minister of England who was thai a Labour
back-bencher in the House of Commons,

The announcement of an all-white Royal Commission in
November, 1927, deeply hurt Indian opinion, which came to
look upon it as an inquisition by foreigners into India's fitness
for self-government "Not since the Dbert Bifl/ writes the his-
torian of Irwin's Viceroyalty, 'had racial feelings been stirred

2 Halifax, The Earl of, Fitls of Days, p. 115-

THE NEHRUS

so deeply.* 8 The Indian National Congress decided to boycott the
commission, 'at every stage and in every form'. Even Moderate
and Muslim elements, whose co-operation BIrkenhead had taken
for granted, joined in the boycott

As a sop to Indian feeling, Sir John Simon announced im-
mediately after his arrival in India early in February, 1928, that
the central and provincial legislatures would be invited to con-
stitute committees to assist the commission in its labours. But
these committees were to have only advisory status; they were
to have no say in drafting the report, and could even be ex-
cluded from the recording of evidence* This belated and half-
hearted concession failed to assuage wounded Indian pride.

Motilal was in England when the announcement was made*
The only honest course/ he remarked, 'is to declare what
Government wants to do and then to appoint a commission to
draft a scheme giving effect to that declaration/ He elaborated
his views in a speech in the Legislative Assembly on February 18,
1928, soon after his return from Europe. The occasion was
Lajpat Rai's famous resolution calling for a boycott of the
Simon Commission. 'I have the honour/ Motilal said, 'of know-
ing Sir John Simon personally, of working with him I have
myself described him as a very big man * * . but ... the biggest
thing that he, as an Englishman and as an Imperialist, quite
apart from being a lawyer of great eminence, is capable of doing
is bound to be the smallest possible thing from our point of
view/ He could not (he continued) advise his countrymen to
surrender their right of self-determination to the biggest man in
the world. He affirmed the principle 'that the British Parlia-
ment, the British public and the British Government have no
shadow of a right to force a constitution upon us against our
own wifl*. The Madras Congress had defined the goal of the
Indian people as "complete independence', but the Congress was
prepared to confer with 'all the other parties concerned, in-
cluding the Government* as to the kind of constitution which
was to be framed, the length of the 'transitional* period and
the anangesfiente suitable for that period* Motilal made a
pointed reference to Birkeahead's "exhibitions of temper** 'It is
easy to ie$y in die same strain, but I shall resist the temptation,
aad will only remark that heads that are swollen contain little
wisdom and pride always rides for a fall/

1 Gopal SL, Tke Vteroyslty of Lord Irww, 1926-31, p. 21.

RISING TEMPO 285

He concluded his speech on a minatory note: 'Governments
which have not paid attention to the lessons of history have in-
variably come to grief, to an ignominious end, and I have no
doubt that what has not been accomplished by die statesman-
ship of England will be accomplished by destiny, and destiny
and the people of India will add one more to the bag list of
fallen Empires/

By providing a common grievance, the Simon Commission
brought together parties and politicians who were poles apart.
The Congress, the National Liberal Federation, the Jinnah wing
of the Muslim League, all spoke with one voice. The bitter feuds
of 1926-7 were forgotten; Malaviya, Lajpat Rai, Jayakar and
Motilal presented an unbroken front to the Government. The
boycott resolution passed through the Legislative Assembly by
sixty-eight votes to sixty-two.

Sir John Simon and his colleagues were subjected to social as
well as political boycott* A number of Indian legislators, who weie
staying in the Western Court at New Delhi, where the 'Simon
Seven" were also accommodated, cut the Commissioners dead.
The boycott movement was intensified when the Commission
paid its second visit to India later in the year. The railway track
was patrolled and the most rigorous precautions were taken. 'It
is a strange comment upon the democratic spirit of friendliness
which should inspire the relationship today between Great
Britain and India/ wrote the Pioneer, 'that the Enquiry Com-
mittee of the Mother of Parliaments should be smuggled ashore
by zealous policemen and shepherded by unimaginative
officialdom/

On October 3oth, when the Simon Commission arrived at
Lahore, the police beat up a crowd which was demonstrating in
front of the railway station. Lajpat Rai, the most popular leader
of the province, received two blows on his chest. His death <m
November ijth, which sent a wave of humiliation and in-
dignation through the country, had the result on the one haad
of intensifying the boycott and on the other of hardening the
official attitude towards the demonstrators.

It was during the visit of the Simon Commission to Lucknow
that Jawaharlal felt for the first time baton blows on his back -
an experience without which his political education would not
have been complete. The first assault came on November ipth m
the course of a rehearsal for the big demonstration which was

286 THE NEHRUS

to greet the 'Simon Seven' on their arrival. A ban was imposed
by the local authorities on processions, but the local Congress
committee decided to defy it* A number of small processions
were taken out from different parts of the town and were in-
tended to converge on a fixed spot for a public meeting. While
Jawaharlal was marching at the head of one of these groups of
volunteers, he heard the datter of horses' hoofs* He looked back
and saw a bunch of mounted police, bearing down rapidly upon
his little procession; his immediate reactions are graphically
described in his autobiography :

'My own instinct had urged me to seek safety when I saw the
horses charging down upon us ... But then, I suppose, some
o&& instinct held me to my place, and I survived the first
charge, which had been checked by the volunteers behind me*
Suddenly I found myself alone in the middle of the road/

He might have swerved aside, had not his pride again over-
come his instinct of self-preservation* This, he recalled later, was

*a matter of a few seconds only but I have the clearest recol-
lections of that conflict within me , . . the line between
cowardice and courage was a thin one and I might well have
been on the other side".

He made up his mind just in time to receive some more re-
sounding blows from a mounted policeman who came trotting
up to him, 'brandishing his long new baton'.

Siaking and nearly stunned, he was relieved to find himself
stifl on his feet. Fearing that press reports of the assault next
morning might alarm his family, he telephoned his father and
&M, him not to worry, Motilal was not so easily reassured; he
could not sleep and, late at night, when the last train had
already gone, decided to leave for Lucknow by road. The motor
car broke down on the way and he arrived at Lucknow early
in die morning of November 3Oth, just when Jawaharlal, in
sjpitie of his injuries, was ready to leave for the railway station
for the gjrett demonstration which had been planned to greet
Simm Coraraission on its arrival. There was another assault
tfee mounted police; Jawaharial received more baton blows,

RISING TEMPO 287

but was fortunately carried off to safety by some Congress
volunteers.

Motilal was distressed when he saw his son's injuries. A touch-
ing letter came from Gandhi.

'My dear Jawahar/ he wrote, 'my love to you- It was all done
bravely. You have braver things to do. May God spare you for
many a long year to come, and make you His chosen instrument
for freeing India from the yoke/ 4

Jawaharlal was lucky to escape the kind of pearaanent dis-
ability which was sustained during these police assaults by his
colleague Govind Ballabh Pant, A curious commentary on the
whole episode is provided by the report of the deputy commis-
sioner forwarded by the ILP. Government to lie Government
of India, in which the dash between the police and the demon-
strators at Lucknow was described as 'rather like the clearing ol
a football ground in England when the crowd have broken
loose*.

While the Simon Commission continued what Gandhi called
its "blood-red progress', 5 Indian political leaders were busy with
the 'constructive side of the boycott*. A challenge from Birken-
head had stung them to frame an agreed constitution:

*I have twice in three years, during which I have been Sec-
retary of State, invited our critics in India to put forward their
own suggestions for a constitution to indicate to us the form,
in which in their judgment any reform of constitution may
take place. That offer is still open/

The Madras Congress had directed the Congress Working
Committee to draft a 'Swaraf Constitution in consultation with
other parties. In February, 1928, an Afl Parties Conference met
in Delhi with Dr Ansari, the Congress president, in the chair,
and voted for 'fall responsible government'. At its Bombay
meeting in May, it appointed a sub-committee to determine the

4 Gandhi to Jawahaiiat December 3, 1928.

5 Young India, December 6, 1928.

288 THE NEHRUS

principles of an Indian constitution. The sub-committee was
presided over by Motilal and included Sir Ali Imam and Shuaib
Qureshi (Muslims), Aney and Jayakar (Hindu Mahasabha),
Mangal Singh (The Sikh League), Tej Bahadur Sapru (Liberals),
N* M* JosM (Labour), G* R. Pradhan (Non-Brahmins)* Jawa-
harial, who was the General Secretary of the All India Congress
Committee, also acted as the Secretary of the Constitution-
making Committee, which came to be known as the Nehru
Committee,

The Nehru Committee had to find an answer to the sinister
question which was to shadow Indian politics for the next
twenty years : the position of the minorities, and especially of
the Muslim minority, in a free and democratic India* If British
autocracy was to be replaced by an Indian democracy, would it
give a permanent advantage to the Hindus, who heavily out-
numbered the Muslims? Was it, as Sir Syed Ahmed had put it,
a game of dice in which one man had four dice, and the other
only one?

One method of protecting Muslim interests was to incor-
porate special provisions or 'safeguards' in the constitution*
One of the safeguards was the institution of separate electorates,
the election of Muslim candidates by Muslim voters, which
was first introduced in the Minto-Morley Reforms* In 1909,
J* Ramsay MacDonald, then a Labour Member of British Parlia-
ment, wrote after a visit to India :

The Council Act has come, and the Mohammedan has re-
ceived preferential treatment. The flags are flying over the
Mohammedan camp; not a square inch of bunting flies over the
Hindu's head*' 6

Ten years later the 'preferential treatment* was extended by
the Reforms Act of 1919 even though its authors acknowledged
that 'division by creeds and classes means the creation of
political camps organized against each other, and teaches men
fe> think as partisans and not as citizens'*

The Lucknow Pact of 1916 between the Muslim League and
the Congress committed the latter to separate electorates* Un-
fortunately, communal daims had an inconvenient habit of
growing. By 1928 Muslim demands embraced "communal

* MacDoeakl J. Ramsay, The Awakening of India, p. 60.

RISING TEMPO 289

provinces' as well as 'communal electorates', guarantees of
Muslim majorities in the Punjab and Bengal, 'weightage* for
Muslim minorities in other provinces, reservation of one-third
of the seats in the central legislature and the posts under the
Government The memorandum of the Ahmediya community
to the Hartog Committee went so far as to ask for special schools
employing Muslim teachers for Muslim students! The com-
munal climate of the twenties encouraged a fantastic political
arithmetic of percentages of seats and jobs, which baffled the
Nehru Committee as soon as it set to work. Of the difficulties of
the Committee we have a Erst-hand version in a letter written
by Ansari, the Congress president, to Gandhi, dated June 28th,
1928:

*When I reached Allahabad there was a complete deadlock
[in the Nehru Committee] . The Sikhs would have no reserva-
tion of seats at all anywhere, neither for the majority nor for
the minority* The [Hindu] Mahasabha people would allow
reservation for the minorities, but none for the majorities. The
Congress and Muslim proposal was for a reservation of seats
both for the majorities and the minorities* I tried in private dis-
cussion with different people to come to a common formula . . /

The common formula stipulated for a Declaration of Funda-
mental Rights assuring every citizen the fullest liberty of con-
science, belief and culture, and for a reservation of seats in
legislatures under joint electorates. The Muslim demand for
constituting North West Frontier Province and Sind into
separate provinces was conceded on the basis of 'cultural 7
autonomy, which was also held to justify a Ranaresespeaking
province in southern India. The committee expressed the hope
that in a free India political parties would follow political and
economic rather than religious alignments. The committee
framed its constitution on the basis of Dominion Status, *not as
a remote stage of our evolution, but as the next immediate step'.

The constitution was drafted by Motilal with the help of his
son, before Tej Bahadur Sapru took a hand. Tej Bahadur is very
pleased with the draft report/ Motilal wrote to Jawaharlal on
July 21, 1928. 'In the sixty pages of typed matter he had only
six or seven verbal changes to suggest and said it was "A-I". He

THE NEHRUS

is now writing a few paragraphs OB Indian States, Dominion
State versus Responsible Government/

The Nehru Report offered not a constitution, but the outline
of a constitution, which could be amplified and put into the
form of a bill by a parliamentary draftsman* Among its im-
portant recommendations, which were to find their way into
the constitution of independent India, were a declaration of
rights, a parliamentary system of government, a bicameral legis-
lature, adult franchise, allocation of subjects between the centre
and the provinces, redistribution of provincial boundaries on a
linguistic basis, and an independent judiciary with a Supreme
Court at its apex.

Much hard work and heart-searching went into the report.
It was not easy to secure a consensus of opinion in a committee
whose members diverged widely in their views and aspirations.
The committee tried to reconcile the conflicting communal
claims and to find a via media between the radicalism of the
National Congress and the conservatism of the Indian Liberals*
The significance of an agreed constitution was quickly recog-
nized. The day of bondage is ending/ Mrs. Besant declared,
'and the dawn of freedom is on the Eastern horizon/ Dr Ansari
recalled the "years of utter darkness in which the spectre of
communal differences oppressed us like a terrible nightmare*,
and was glad that the work of the Nehru Committee had 'at
last heralded the dawn of a brighter day*. 'It is an achievement/
Motilal himself said in December, 1928, 'of which any country
in tibcf world might well be proud/

All this optimism was a little premature. The constitution had
been accepted "in principle* by the All Parties Conference in
Lucknow at the end of August, but there were a number of
mutually contradictory amendments, which were referred back
&> the Nehru Committee for consideration. The committee,
which was enlarged by the appointment of additional members,
iochiding Mrs Besant, Malaviya and Lajpat Rai, issued a supple-
mentary import, which was submitted for approval to an All
Parties Convention at Calcutta during the Christmas week. It
soon became obvious that communal daims had no fixity. No
sooeea- was an issue dosed, than it was sought to be reopened.
'I see/ Gandhi wrote to Motilal m Novenaber, 'you are having
BO end of difficulties, with Mussalman friends regarding your
report Bat I see you are unravefling the tangle with consum-

RISING TEMPO 291

mate patience and tact/ But not all MotilaTs patience and tact
could unravel the communal tangle, particularly as the British
Government was an invisible third party in possession of the
cake the two communities pretended to divide* The communal
politicians had one eyre on the Nehru Committee and the other
on the Simon Commission which was then touring India* The
dilemma was described by Motilal in December, 19x8: 'It is
difficult to stand against the foreigner without offering him a
united front. It is not easy to offer him a united front while the
foreigner is in our midst domineering over us/

At the All India Convention in Calcutta which was one of
the most representative gatherings of its kind, efforts were made
to reopen the communal issue. "We admit,* Motilal argued, 'that
there are in this report recommendations which perhaps we
ourselves might not have made individually [but they] are
likely to bring about unanimity and harmony between the
parties/ The report, he pleaded, was a 'structure. If you pull out
one brick, it is likely to crumble*. These pleas had no effect on
a vocal Muslim section led by Jinnah, who soon afterwards
lined up with the reactionary part of the Muslim League (led
by the Aga Khan) and the Ali Brothers to denounce the Nehru
Report The issues on which the breach occurred at the Calcutta
Convention were separate electorates, reservation of one-third
of the seats in the central legislature, and the vesting of
residuary powers in the Provinces/ These were modest demands
- compared with those of ten years later. It is, however, difficult
to say whether their acceptance in 1928-19 would have halted
the crescendo of communal daims which culminated in the
demand for Pakistan. The narrowness and rigidity of the Hindu
and Sikh politicians in these negotiations was bad enough, but
the fluidity of Muslim demands was worse. From 1906 to 1947,
each communal 'settlement* became the starting point for a
harder bargain, until nothing was left to bargain about.

Motilal himself was prepared to go very far in writing safe-
guards for the minorities into the constitution, but he felt a
line had to be drawn somewhere so that the growth of a
common citizenship and national spirit were not permanently
stunted. This is why he opposed separate electorates. The re-
jection of Jinnah's demands by the Calcutta Convention in
December, 1928, has been described as a turning point in his

7 Hie Proceedings of tiie Ali Parties Convention, p. 95.

THE NEHRUS

r/ away from nationalism towards Muslim separatism. But
it would have been impossible to find, then or later, two Hindu
leaders who were freer from communal prejudice or could take
a more rational and sympathetic view of the place of the Muslim
minority in a democratic India than Motilal Nehru and Sapru,
the joint authors of the Nehru Report. At the Calcutta Con-
vention, Motilal and Jinnah had conferred on the disputed issues.
Jinnah seems to have had a grievance that Motilal had given
him a cold reception. If the cold reception of an individual/
Motilal wrote, 'however great in one place, and a rather hot
reception of the same individual in another place is to affect
the solution of a great national problem we had better say good-
bye to it' *What Mr Jinnah said on the occasion/ Motilal added,
left ine odd and I could not work up an artificial warmth to
please him. 19

Motilal's own views on the place of religion in politics were
stated bluntly at the Calcutta Congress.

^Whatever the higher conception of religion may be, it has in
our day-to-day life come to signify bigotry and fanaticism, in-
tolerance and narrow-mindedness . . . Not content with its re-
actionary influence on social matters, it has invaded the domain
of politics and economics ... Its association with politics has
been to the good of neither. Religion has been degraded and
politics has sunk into the mire. Complete divorce of the one
from the other is the only remedy.* 1 *

As 1928 drew to a dose, the Nehru Report was running into
difficulties created by the supporters of communal claims. But
Motilal was no less worried by the opposition from a radical
wing of Congressmen led by Jawaharlal. The dash between
father and son is important not only in itself but for the pro-
found influence it was to exercise on the course of the national
movement

8 Bo&ttio, Hector, Jinnah* jx 95

9 Motilal to M A. Aosari, February 17, 1930.

* Natesan, Congress Prcs*dcntid Addresses 1911-34, p. 865.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
THE CLASH

'His Excellency desires/ Home Secretary Haig wrote on
October 18, 1928, 'that the utterances of Jawaharial Nehru
should be watched carefully/ 1 It was not only the Viceroy who
had reasons to be perturbed by the activities of young Nehru.
In Christmas week of 1927, soon after his return from Europe,
he had presided over a 'Republican Conference' and carried
through the Madras Congress a bunch of resolutions with an
aggressively anti-imperialist and prosotialist slant One of the
resolutions described 'complete national independence' as the
goal of the Indian people; another denounced in advance any
'warlike adventure', in which the British might be involved for
the furtherance of their imperialist aims. Gandhi was present at
the Madras Congress; though he did not attend all its meetings,
he kept a vigilant eye on what was happening. He was scandal-
ized by what seemed to him an utter lack of restraint in Jawa-
harlaPs activities and speeches after his long absence from India,
'You are going too fast/ he wrote on January 4, 1928, 'you
should have taken time to think and become acclimatized/
Jawaharial tried to explain, but that made matters worse. "The
differences between us/ wrote Gandhi, 'are so vast and radical
that there seems to be no meeting ground between us/

The European visit had given a sharp edge to JawaharlaTs
politics which prevented than from sliding smoothly into the
well-worn grooves of the Congress. The passion for intellectual
clarity fostered by travel, study and discussion had made him
impatient of the empiricism of die Congress elders, who believed
in muddling through problems as they arose, and were in per-
petual quest of nice formulae to maintain a facade of unity in
the party and the country.

Early in 1926, when Jawaharial sailed from Bombay, India
had seemed to him 'still quiescent, passive, perhaps not folly
recovered from the effort of 1919-1922'; on his return in

294 THE NEHRUS

December, 1927, he found her 'fresh, active and full of sup-
pressed energy'. To this subtle change in the atmosphere, testi-
mony has been left by the Viceroy in his memoirs. Lord Irwin
had concurred in Birkenhead's proposal for an all-white Royal
Commission, because he had been assured by his trusted advisers
that the Muslims would never boycott the commission and
therefore the Hindus dared not do so* Those who argued thus/
Irwin recalled in the evening of his life, 'were wrong, and the
mistake was perhaps evidence that some new force was work-
ing, of which even those, whose knowledge of India went back
for twenty or thirty years, had not yet learnt the full
significance.' 2

The 'new force' was galvanizing into activity almost every
sector of society, the urban intelligentsia, the young people, the
industrial workers, the peasantry. The sharp reaction to the
appointment of the Simon Commission revealed the increased
sensitivity of the intelligentsia. Youth Leagues were springing
up all over the country and students* conferences demanded
radical solutions for political and economic ills. The Com-
munist Party was active in important industrial centres. A spate
of strikes affected steel and tin-plate works at Jamshedpur, jute
mills in Calcutta, cotton mills in Sholapur, woollen mills in
Kanpur and the railways in southern and eastern India. The
strike in Bombay doth mills embracing 60,000 workers lasted
for more than five months. It has been estimated that nearly
half a million workers were involved in these strikes and thirty-
one million working days were lost. 3

Even the long-suffering peasantry was astir in 1928. There
was an agitation for the revision of tenancy laws in the United
Provinces. In Gujarat, Gandhi's home province, a peasants' re-
sistance campaign was organized under the leadership of
VaBabhbhai Patd to resist the increase of land revenue in
Bardoli taluk. A successful struggle after years of inertia was an
exMarating experience for lovers of Indian freedom; the cam-
paiga showed the latent energy which was waiting to be
harnessed to the national cause*

3 Halifax Earf of, Ftikws of Days, pp. 115-116.
3 Dutt, R. Palme, fo&a Today, p. 337.

THE CLASH 295

With this new mood of the country Jawaharla! was in
harmony; his tours and speeches helped to crystallize it, even
though they alarmed the more sedate sections in and outside
the Congress. He was invited to preside over numerous con-
ferences of students, peasants and workers in all parts of the
country. In his speeches and writings he made frontal attacks
on feudalism, capitalism and imperialism. He advocated a
'revolutionary oudook', questioned age-old assumptions and
suggested root-and-branch solutions* His position as General
Secretary of the Congress - an office into which he had stepped
back in December, 1927 -did not appear to hamper him. On
the contrary, he used his position to push the Congress, so far
as he could, in the direction in which he wanted it to go.

JawaharlaTs position as General Secretary of the Congress,
and the fact that his father was chairman of the committee
charged by the All Parties Conference with the task of framing
a Swaraj constitution, brought him into intimate touch with
the work of the committee* To some extent he shared the easy
confidence of that period that if a communal settlement could
be devised, it might serve as a bridge to Indian unity aad free-
dom. He helped his father in collecting and sortiBg data for the
report and even in drafting it, but he did not see eye to eye with
him on the fundamental postulate of the new constitution, that
it should be based on Dominion Status.

Since 1920, when the reins of the Congress had fallen into
Gandhi's hands, its avowed goal had been Swaraj (seif-nile).
Gandhi's definitions of Swaraj had been delightfully vague. Once
he described it as 'the abandonment of the fear of death*. On
other occasions he referred to it as the 'ability to regard every
inhabitant of India as our OWB brother or sister*, and as 'the
capacity of the people to get rid of their helplessness** These
definitions had the merit of being homely; they did not so much
define as give a glimpse of the new order the Mahatma wished
to usher in. The nearest Gandhi got to a political definition was
when he explained Swaraj as *a parliamentary Government of
India in the modern sense of the word*. In 1921 he frowned
upon Hasrat Mohanf s motion at the Ahmedabad Congress in
favour of 'complete independence'/ Six years later he reacted

* Natesan, Speeches and Writings of Mofwtma GonJH p. 745-

296 THE NEHRUS

equally sharply against a similar resolution which was passed
by the Madras Congress at JawaharlaTs instance* Gandhi's
opposition stemmed partly from his dislike of theoretical dis-
cussion of political issues, and partly from a feeling that for a
weak and divided people to talk of 'complete independence' was
an idle boast A dean break with Britain also went against his
e&kal grain; it ran counter to the basic urge in Satyagraha for
the 'conversion* of the foe of today into the friend of tomorrow.

*In my opinion/ Gandhi told the Bdgaum Congress in
December, 1924, 'if the British Government mean what they
say and honestly help us to equality, it would be a greater
triumph than a complete severance of the British connection*
I would, therefore, strive for Swaraj within the Empire, but
would not hesitate to sever all connections if severance became
a necessity through Britain's own fault I would thus throw the
burden of separation on the British people* The better mind of
the world desires today not absolutely independent states, but
a federation of friendly interdependent states/

MotilaTs legal, precise mind did not shrink from constitu-
tional deinitioas; nor were his politics coloured by moral pre-
possessions* He recognized that in a negotiated settlement there
was bound to be a transitional period for which special arrange-
ments fay mutual consent would be necessary* He knew that
Dominion Status was not to be despised* He had referred to it
in the Swaraj Party's manifesto in 1923; he had put it forward
as the united demand of non-official groups in the Legislative
Assembly in February, 1924, and September, 1925* True, he
had not objected to JawaharlaFs advocacy of complete inde-
pendence at the Brussels Congress in February, 1927, and had
declared for complete independence in his speech in the
Assembly on the boycott of the Simon Commission a year later*
But it was one thing to announce the goal of the Congress,
another to reconcile it with the views of the numerous parties,
feig and small, whidh were represented on the All Parties
Conference*

Hie popular view that in 1928 Motilal stood for Dominion
Status, and Jawaharial for 'complete independence* is an over-
stopfifeatton. The differences were not so much on the ultimate
goal, as on the imH^dkte tactics. Motilal was prepared to accept

THE CLASH 297

a compromise so that he could cany his colleagues on the All
Parties Committee and give an effective answer to Birkenhead's
challenge.

A compromise on this issue was, however, something which
Jawaharlal could not swallow. It contradicted the oceed of the
Congress, defined, at his instance, by the Madras Congress only
a few months earlier. It ran counter to his inmost convictions.
It made nonsense of the tirades he had delivered against British
imperialism from a hundred platforms since his return from
Europe. He did not equate Dominion Status with the substance
of freedom. He was doubtful if it could confer genuine equality
of status with Britain; and even if it did, he believed it would
only translate India from the 'exploited* to the 'exploiting* wing
of the empire. The concept of Dominion Status was still in
evolution in 1928; the Statute of Westminster was not to be
enacted until 1931. British statesmen were chary of using the
phrase 'Dominion Status* with reference to India; obviously
they were prepared to accord her only, in die words of the Vice-
roy, *a second class membership in the graded imperial society.*
In April, 1928, Birkenhead had privately admitted* to Irwin that
'His Majesty's Government were averse from using the phrase
Dominion Status to describe even the ultimate and remote goal
of Indian political development, because it has been laid down
that "Dominion Status'* means "the right to decide their own
destinies", and this right we were not prepared to accord to
India at present or in any way to prejudge the question whether
it should ever be accorded*. When Irwin used the phrase
'Dominion Status* in his declaration of October, 1929, he pro-
voked a first-class political crisis in Britain. In 1930, die Simon
Commission Report discreetly avoided a reference to Dominion
Status. And in 1931, even a sympathetic critic like Professor
A. B. Keith could argue that the authors of the declaration of
August, 1917, could scarcely have intended it to cover 'the
gready enlarged conception of Dominion Status'* 7

The controversy on dominion status versus complete inde-
pendence created a new obstacle for the Nehru Report. When it
came up for approval before the All Parties Conference at Luck-

5 Halifax, Viscount, Fulness of Days, p. 121.

6 Birkenhead, Earl of, RE., The life of F. E. Smith, first Earl of Birkcnhcad,
p. 518.

7 Keith, A. B., Letters On Impend Relations, p. 200.
K*

298 THE NEHRUS

now in August, 1928, the younger radical wing led by Jawa-
harlal and Subhas Bose suggested that the communal pact
should be ratified, but the question of 'Dominion Status' versus
complete independence should be kept open. The Nehru Report
was thus threatened by communal reactionaries on the one hand,
and young radicals on the other* Among the latter were some
who were neither so young nor so radical, but were using the
controversy to pay off old scores. The loyalty of Srinivas lyengar,
the deputy leader of the Swaraj Party, to his chief had long been
in doubt; in 1928 he was vociferously advocating 'complete in-
dependence', because Motilal was advocating Dominion Status,
lyengar became the president of the 'Independence for India
League' of which Jawaharlal and Subhas Bose were secretaries.
Strangely enough, when the Indian National Congress actually
unfurled the flag of independence and launched a Satyagraha
struggle in 1930, lyengar discreetly dropped out of politics. The
liveliest verdict on this veteran Swarajist from the south was
passed by Shankar in a cartoon entitled 'Little Boy Blue* with
the tell-tale caption: 'Wanted infoimation of the whereabouts
of Sjt Sirinivas Lyengar, Ex-President of the Congress, short,
thick-set, very peremptory, last heard of proclaiming Independ-
ence for India.* The Independence for India League was no
more than a pressure group within the Congress, 9 but it was an
unwelcome addition to the numerous and conflicting pressures
with which Motilal, as chairman of the constitution-making
committee, was already contending.

He had been persuaded to agree to preside over the ensuing
session of the Congress which was to meet at Calcutta in
December, 1928, but he made it known that if he did not secure
a majority for his report, he would resign. He was in an irritable
aad combative mood; the fact that his son was leading the
opposition to Dominion Status seemed to add to his irritation.
1 do not think/ Jawaharlal writes in his autobiography, 'that
at any previous or subsequent occasion the tension [between us]
bad been so great".

3
The controversy over Dominion Status only high-lighted in-

* fiftwltt$t Times, December 12, 1934.

* Bree&er, Midiad, frw^fwrrkJ Nefiru, p. 230.

THE CLASH 299

tellectual and temperamental differences which had always
existed between father and son. These differences had crystal-
lized as early as 1907, when Jawaharlal was in his teens. They
had brought on a first-class crisis in 1919 which was resolved
only after the entire family had plunged into non-co-operation.
During the years 1923-6, father and son were content to follow
their independent lines of activity. But in 1928, after Jawa-
harlaTs return from Europe, the intellectual gulf between them
was wider than ever.

Motilal's political philosophy was derived from his long
association with the Indian National Congress; it had been in-
fluenced by Gokhale and Gandhi; it enshrined parliamentary
democracy, equality before the law, and freedom from the
thraldom of caste and creed.

Proud, fearless and stubborn as he was, McdlaTs approach to
politics was rational, sceptical, almost cynicaL Unlike his son
he did not romanticize India's past nor idealize her "naked
hungry-mass*. Forty years at the Bar and in national politics had
dispelled such illusions as he may have had; he had seen some-
thing of the seamy side of life and knew the weaknesses of his
countrymen; he was incapable of following a leader or a dogma
blindly. He was suspicious of excessive emotion in politics. Af te
hearing Sarojini Naidu's poetic -and impromptu - presidential
address at the Cawnpore Congress in 1925, whkh moved the
audience to tears, his only comment was: 'But what did she
say?'

Motilal had visited England, but die England he knew and
admired was Victorian England. His mentor was Mill, rather
than Marx; his chief driving force was political libaty, not
social justice. He had an aristocratic disdain for money, whkh
he had earned and spent with an equal facility, but he did not
look askance at the institution of property. To him, as to most
of his contemporaries in the Congress and on the All Parties
Conference, property was a symbol of status and respectability,
a reward for initiative and hard work. The guarantee in the
Nehru Report of the vested rights in property to the zaiaindars
of Oudh, which so much shocked Jawahaiial, M must have
seemed the most natural thing to his father, to Sapru and to
other members of the constitution-making committee, who had
been nurtured on Anglo-Saxon conceptions of individual liberty.

Nehru, J., Autobiography, p* 175-

300 THE NEHRUS

Jawaharlal inherited his father's pride and fearlessness, but
not his caution and circumspection* He was one of those who
needed a cause to live and die for. The ecstatic politics of 1919-22
satisfied this craving. But when the curve of popular enthusiasm
fell, his faith did not sag* The enforced leisure in gaol gave him
time to read and think and to re-charge the battery of his mind.
Even as he occupied himself in the dull grind of municipal ad-
ministration, or the routine of the All India Congress Com-
mittee's office, his mind was being continually renewed by fresh
reading, a process which received a fillip from his stay in Europe
during 1926-7.

A Superintendent of Lucknow Gaol, an English Colonel, once
told Jawaharlal that 'he had practically finished his general
reading at the age of twelve', 11 For most of JawaharlaTs col-
leagues in Indian politics, general reading had ended not at
twelve but at twenty-five. Were it not for his reading habit,
which had been acquired early and preserved by spells in prison,
Jawaharlal's mind might also have been 'frozen'; he would then
have been spared troublesome thoughts and the agonies of
appraisal and re-appraisal from which most practising politicians
are so happily immune. His reading was eclectic, but with a
preponderance of history and economics. The image of the past
that he acquired and was to project in his historical writings,
the Glimpses of World History and The Discovery of India, did
not reek of the dust of the library shelf. It was the fruit of an
exciting voyage into time and space, from which he returned
with a sharper awareness of the present and an indomitable
faith in the future. He tried to balance himself on *a point of
intersection of the timeless with time', and saw India less as a
geographical and economic entity, composed of millions of in-
dividuals pursuing their separate ambitions, than as a great
nation whose spirit, despite the humiliations of the recent past
and the melancholy present, was unconquered and unconquer-
able. This buoyant optimism seemed almost romantic thirty
years ago, but it had a heart-warming qu ality which sustained
not only his own faith but that of millions of his countrymen
thiough the vicissitudes of the national movement There was
a time not long ago,' he wrote to his sister in 1931, Vhen an
Indian had to hang his head in shame in foreign countries . * .

** Nehru, J*, To&rgrd Freedom, p, 90.

THE CLASH

Today it is a proud privilege to be an Indian.' 11 It was perhaps
this quality which made Rabindranath Tagore describe Jaw*
harlal as 'the Rituraj representing the season of yoath and
triumphant joy of an invincible spirit of ight and uncom-
promising loyalty to the cause of freedom'* 18

If history gave a perspective to Jawaharlal's politics, economics
gave a practical edge to them. He saw political liberty not as an
end in itself, but as the means of a new social and economic
order. He was not alone in conceiving political liberty as a pie-
lude to social justice. Gandhi had never ceased to lay stress on
the needs of the downtrodden and the under-privileged. Indeed,
he claimed to be a socialist. 'But my socialism/ he wrote^ 'was
natural to me and not adopted from any boob. No man could
be actively non-violent and not rise against social injustice
wherever it occurred/ The Mahatma's social philosophy was yet
to go through its own peculiar evolution during the nin&een-
thirties in response to the needs of the time. In 1928 it appeared
to Jawaharlal, after his recent exposure to Marxist ideas, too
vague, too amorphous and inchoate, to form the basis of a
political programme.

Father and son, proceeding from different premises, did not
find it easy to argue at home. But they did aigue in public Hie
addresses they delivered at the Calcutta and Lahore sessions of
the Indian National Congress were in a sense their dialogue,
reflecting their differences on the tactics as well as the strategy
of the national movement.

MotilaPs outlook was that of a trained lawyer and a seasoned
politician* 'Pure idealism completely divorced from realities/ he
said, 'has no place in politics and is but a happy dream, which
must sooner or later end in a rude awakening/ He had, he said,
no quarrel with the ideals of the young men: 1 hold with them
that all exploitation must cease and all imperialism must go.
But the way to it is a long and dreary one * . . The masses want
bread. They have no time for theories and dogmas imported
from abroad . . * The occasion calls for skilful generalship not
academic discussions which take us nowhere/ Dominion status

12 Hutheesing, Krishna, With No Regrets, p. 75.

13 J. Nehru, A Bunch of Old Letters, p. 173*

302 THE NEHRUS

was *a very considerable measure of freedom bordering on in-
dependence*. And independence did not mean 'walking out of
the world . . . Indeed the more independent you are, the more
necessary it will be to establish relations all round'* Severance
of relations with Britain did not mean a cessation of all re-
lations, but 'such appropriate change in existing relations as is
necessary to transform a dependency into a free state'*

This was the voice of experience, of circumspection, of a man
who claimed to see 'the world as it is, and not as it should be'.
Against this, his son affirmed that 'success often comes to those
who dare and act . . . We play for high stakes and if we seek
to achieve great things it can only be through great dangers'*
The prospect of revolutionary changes did not appear to disturb
young Nehru; on the contrary, it seemed to uplift him. 'We
appear to be in a dissolving period of history/ he said, 'when
the world is in labour and out of her travail will give birth to a
new order/ This was not mere rhetoric. Everyone could see how
impatient he was of half-measures, compromises, vague gener-
alities. He was, he said, a socialist and a republican - 'no believer
in kings or princes, or in the order which produces the modern
kings of industry'. The central problem, he asserted, was the
conquest of power: 'the total withdrawal of the army of occupa-
tion and British economic control from India'. He questioned the
right of the British Parliament to decide the measure and
manner of India's progress. India was 'a nation on the march',
which no one could thwart. 'If we fail today/ he said, 'and
tomorrow brings no success, the day after tomorrow will bring
achievement/

As one reads these words in cold print today, it is difficult to
visualize the impact they made thirty years ago, when they fell
like burning coals on sedate Indian politicians and indignant
British officials* The three-pronged attack on imperialism,
capitalism and feudalism was calculated to antagonize at once
btireaucrats and businessmen, landlords and princes, to whom
yoking Nehru must have seemed a romantic idealist if not an
ett|*mt terrible of Indian politics. His economics were no less
aggressive than his politics. 'Our economic programme/ he told
the Lahore Congress in December, 1929, 'must be based on a
human oudook, and must not sacrifice men to money. If any
industry could not be run without starving its workers, then
the iB<fastry must be dosed down* If the workers on the land

THE CLASH 303

have not enough to eat, then the intermediaries who deprive
them of their full share must go. The philosophy of socialism
has permeated the entire structure of society the wodid over
and almost the only point in dispute is the pace and methods of
advance to its realization . . . India will have to end her poverty
and inequality, though she may evolve her own methods and
may adapt the ideals to the genius of her race/

This enthusiasm for socialism was not shared by Motilal,
whose aristocratic, legal background, saturated with ideas of
political liberalism and laissez faire, predisposed him against an
economic philosophy which aimed at an artificial egalitarianism.
There is a significant reference to socialism in Motiial's presi-
dential address to the Calcutta Congress, when he sounded a
note of warning against the fate which 'has been pursuing [us]
for the last twenty years or more ... It is dose upon CHIT heels
already in the garb of socialism and will devour both complete
independence and dominion status if you let it approach nearer*.

The conflict between father and son was in a sense a conflict
between age and youth. Every generation has its angry young
men, though the objects of anger change. Had not Motilal him-
self defied the superstitions and the taboos of his caste and com-
munity as tenaciously as his son, thirty years later, was fighting
the political and economic shibboleths of the Congress Old
Guard?

During the closing months of 1928, tension IB Anand
Bhawan was at its peak* Braj Kumar Nehru (now India's ABI-
bassador in Washington) was a student at Allahabad, and stayed
at Anand Bhawan during 1928-9. He recalls that Motilal tdd him
one day : 'Father and son are atilt, but Jawahar would not be
my son if he did not stick to his guns.* MotilaTs irritability was
exacerbated by the impetuosity of his son, who appeared to
be taking extreme positions, associating with young firebrands,
and making himself an easy target for the Government If Jawa-
harlal lives for ten years/ Motilal told Braj Kumar, *he "wiH
change the face of India/ and then added sadly: 'such men do
not usually live long; they are consumed by the file within

5

As the Calcutta Congress drew near, Motilal wondered
whether, like his friend C R. Das at Gaya in igzz, he would see

304 THE NEHRUS

his policies repudiated by the very session over which he pre-
sided. He summoned Gandhi to the rescue. The Mahatma was
none too well, but agreed to attend the Congress session*

Motilal was received with royal pageantry at Calcutta. He
rode in a carriage drawn by thirty-four white horses ridden by
youths. It was an impressive spectacle - men volunteers on
horseback; women volunteers in green-and-red bordered saris
with red bangles and small swords; the medical unit, the long
rows of motor cyclists with Subhas Bose in the uniform of a
Held Marshal of the Congress Volunteers Corps.

The pageantry without could not conceal the tension within.
Behind closed doors, Congress leaders discussed the crucial issue
of 'Dominion Status' versus Independence', which threatened
to split the Congress. In the "Subjects Committee* which
screened resolutions for the plenary session the discussions were
long, heated and bitter. On December zjth, Gandhi suggested a
via media; the Congress should adopt the whole of the Nehru
Report, including the Dominion Status formula, but if it were
not accepted by the Government within two years, the Congress
should opt for complete independence and fight for it, if neces-
sary, by invoking the weapon of civil disobedience.

Jawaharlal described the acceptance of Dominion Status as "an
extremely wrong and foolish act', and advocated civil dis-
obedience if complete independence were not granted within a
year. That evening there were further discussions, as a result
of which Gandhi moved on the following day (December 28th)
an amended resolution giving London only one year to accept
the Dominion Status formula. The amended resolution was
earned in the Subjects Committee by 118 votes to 45, but Jawa-
harial was absent and Subhas Bose did not take part in the
debate. Three days later, when Gandhi's resolution came up
before the plenary session, Bose opposed it and was supported,
rather inconsistently and half-heartedly, by Jawaharlal. Gandhi
was furious at this change of front by the young men. 'When
we have no sense of honour,' he said, 'when we cannot allow
our words to remain unaltered for twenty-four hours, do not
talk of independence/ The voting- 1,350 for, and 973 against -
gave a dear majority to Gandhi's resolution, but the issue hung
in the balance till almost the last moment.

fawaharlaTs vacillation at Calcutta, his conflict between his
and his loyalty to his father and Gandhi and the

THE CLASH 305

Congress, was then and later the subject of adverse comment,
But vacillation, like silence, is sometimes useful in politics. It
was a sound instinct which kept f awaharlal from breaking with
the Congress Old Guard in December, 1928. As events were to
show, it was he, not they, who had won at Calcutta, 'Complete
Independence*, instead of being the catchword of young
radicals, bade fair to become the batde-cry of the Indian
National Congress. And, most important of afl, the way had
been opened for Gandhi's return to active politics.

The Nehru Report was an earnest attempt on the part df
Indian leaders to come to terms with each other and with Britain,
Gandhi aptly described Motilal as *an eminently worthy am-
bassador of a nation that is in need of and in the mood to make
an honourable compromise'. 14 The Report could not claim the
adherence of all the parties; but it was endorsed by a vast
majority of them. Yet there is little evidence to show that it
received a serious consideration in official aides. The British
Parliament could never accept a position/ said the Viceroy on
January 28, 1929, 'which would reduce it to being a mere
registrar of the decisions of other persons/ 15

Birkenhead's allergy to the 'extremist politician' was such
that anything which came from that source was tainted in his
eyes. In April, 1928, he chided the Viceroy for the attention
which the local authorities in the North West Frontier Province
had given to Motilal and Srinivas lyengar during their visit *It
does not do to take these people too seriously/ Birkenhead ex-
horted Irwin. 'Indeed I find it increasingly difficult to take any
Indian politicians very seriously/

On August 29, 1928, Irwin telegraphed to Biikenhead:

have received a resolution [for the Legislative Assembly]
recommending immediate steps for establishing the Common-
wealth of India on lines indicated in the All Parties [Nehra]
Report . . . Our attitude could only be that Govemor-^eneral
in Councfl can take no such steps when the Indian Statutory
Commission is conducting its enquiry ... we will dedine to be
drawn into the discussion of [the merits of the Nehru Report] /*

M Young India, July 26, 1928.

15 Speeches of Lord Invin, vol. I, p. 53&

w Viceroy to Secretary of State (RAX).

306 THE NEHRUS

The appointment of the Simon Commission had provoked
Indian parties to frame an alternative constitution* But the very
existence of the Simon Commission became an argument for
ignoring that constitution. Ironically enough, events were soon
to move fast and to consign the Simon Commission's own report
-even before it was completed and published -to the waste-
paper basket of history,

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
ON THE BRINK

GANDHI had gone to Calcutta reluctantly. He had not intended
to take an active, much less a leading, part in the deliberations
of the Congress, but the tide of events overtook him and left
him, and indeed the entire Congress leadership, a little breath-
less and bewildered. If the Calcutta session registered a rise in
the political barometer, it also revealed a disconcerting lack of
discipline and cohesion in the party. On return to Allahabad
MotHal sent his thanks to Gandhi.

Motilal to Gandhi, January 12, 1929: 'Now that I have shaken
the dust of Calcutta I wish to apologize for all the trouble I gave
you. This is not a mere formality which is quite out of the
question between you and me* I cannot help feeling that ... I
took you out of your clean surroundings into an atmosphere
charged with unreality and untruth. It was quite apparent that
a good deal of what you saw and heard was not only not to your
liking, but even painful to you ... I know you are sot at afl
satisfied with what we have been able to achieve in Calcutta,
but there can be no doubt as to how I would have fared without
your support You have saved a complete fiasco . . .'

Gandhi's reply was characteristically gracious,

"No apology whatsoever is necessary for taking me to Cal-
cutta/ he wrote back. 'Of course I had never expected to have
to take such an active part ... as ciicumstances forced me to
take. But it was as well. I was quite happy over it and it gave
me an insight into the present working of the Congjsss
organization which I certainly did not possess. Ami after afl,
we have to battle both within and without . . /

The battle within was going to be a hard one. It seemed
scarcely possible that the British Government would accept the

308 THE NEHRUS

Nehru Report and grant Dominion Status by the end of 1929,
But what chance had the Congress of putting up a fight, if it did
not put its own house in order? Immediately after the Congress
session, Gandhi wrote urging Jawaharlal, who had been re-
elected as the General Secretary of the All India Congress Com-
mittee, to tour the country and reorganize the Congress com-
mittees. Jawaharlal complained of "an extraordinary paucity of
workers', 'They are practically non-existent/ he told the
Mahatma.

Early in 1929 Gandhi was planning a long trip abroad -
leaving in April and returning to India in October after visiting
Germany, Austria, Russia and possibly Poland, France, England,
the United States, Italy, Turkey and Egypt A trip abroad had
been discussed, planned and abandoned by the Mahatma several
times in previous years* In January, 1929, he was wondering
whether the time had come for him to deliver the message of
non-violence to the world before the experiment in India had
succeeded, and whether, after having piloted the ultimatum to
the Government through the Calcutta Congress, he could leave
the country for such a long spell* He discussed the pros and
cons of the trip with his entourage and with friends in India
and abroad. Motilal, who was also consulted, advised a post-
ponement

Motilal to Gandhi, January 14, 1929: *It is quite certain that
the year just begun is going to be an eventful one. What precise
trend the events will take, it is impossible to say, but it is highly
probable that there will be considerable excitement both at
home and abroad . . . Hailey [Governor of the U.P.] will come
back in March . . . His first move will be against Jawahar for
whom he has expressed the highest admiration to those who
were likely to be communicative to me. "It is such men that
make history/' he said to one of these. To others he spoke in a
differeat strain It is the easiest thing in the world to take a
dioitttighly straight and earnest patriot like Jawahar. All that
need be done (and I am almost sure will be done) is to get some
flunkey zamindar, or talukdar to oppress his tenantry beyond
endurance. The one man they will appeal to is Jawahar, and no
power on earth will restrain him from answering the call of
duty. The Government knows it and will profit by it, and
Jawahar will walk into their parlour. You can understand what

ON THE BRINK 309

this will mean to me, but will it do any good to the country?
Perhaps some, but in my opinion out of all proportion to the
price . . .

1 have pictured this ... and have looked round to see what
support and guidance would be available to me when any such
occasion arises. Sabarmati is indicated at once when any such
occasion arises. But what, when the gadi [throne] of Sabarmati
has shifted to Europe? The answer is plain. While there will be
a hopeless muddle in India, the occupant of the gadi would fed
miserable in Europe/

Jawaharlal, who was reported by his father to have 'put him-
self in training for gaol by giving up smoking and resorting to
a harder life than usual', urged the Mahatma to stick to his
schedule. 1 am afraid/ he wrote, 'Father's love for me makes
him take too tragic- a view of the possibility of my anest*
Gandhi cancelled his trip, though he told Motilal: 1 do not
know that Hailey will lay his hands upon Jawaharlal quite so
easily as you think/

MotilaPs apprehensions were not entirely groundless. As we
have already seen, in October, 1928, the Viceroy had directed
a special watch to be kept on Jawaharlal. Before long theie was
an opportunity for a prosecution. The Government of India
suggested to the Bombay Government that a speech delivered
by Jawaharlal on December 12, 1928, at the Bombay Presidency
Youth Conference might give grounds for proceeding against
him. The speech was pronounced seditious by the Advocate-
General, but the Bombay Government did not recommend a
prosecution. The speech in question/ wrote the Bombay
Government, 'does not appear to be a particularly favourable
one on which to base a prosecution. With much of what is said
in it, everyone must agree, for instance that the present system
of society is imperfect, and that much needs to be done to im-
prove the lot of the poor. Of the rest of the speech, a great part
is abuse of imperialism and of the British and Indian Govern-
ments, which is a commonplace among the opponents of the
Government today/ 1

The Government of India were rather taken aback by what
seemed to them the complacent reasoning of the Bombay

3 Bombay Government to Government of India, January n, 1929 (N,AJ.).

310 THE NEHRUS

Government, but they did not press for a prosecution. After a
high-level review, it was decided to issue a new directive to all
provincial governments to warn them of the dangers ahead. In
a secret circular letter dated February 21, 1929, the Government
of India described the Calcutta Congress,

'as a dear triumph for extremism. An ultimatum which every-
body knows cannot be complied with, has been presented to the
British Government . . . Though this resolution may to a large
extent have represented a political manoeuvre to avoid a breach
in the Congress ranks * , . [it was] a definite declaration from
which the Congress would find it difficult to recede. It is no
doubt true that the older leaders like Pandit Motilal Nehru and
even Mr Gandhi, the author of the resolution, are not anxious
to see these developments. But just as they have been forced
into the acceptance of a resolution in which they do not really
believe, so they may be unable to resist . . . the action that
resolution foreshadows. If the experience of the Calcutta Con-
gress is any guide, the decision of future policy appears to lie
almost entirely with the young men, notably Pandit Jawaharlal
Nehru and Babu Subhas Chandra Bose. There is a tendency for
the political and communist revolutionaries to join hands, and
Pandit Jawaharlal, an extreme nationalist, who is at the same
time genuinely attracted by some of the Communist doctrines,
stands almost at the meeting point . . . The situation contains
serious potentialities of danger ... If the extremist leaders press
on with their programme, it appears to the Government of India
that they should not have a free hand to develop their organiza-
tion, and increase their following with a view to striking at the
moment most favourable to themselves.'

Motilal's forecast that 1929 would be a year of excitement
pjoved true. In March Gandhi was arrested in Calcutta on the
charge of using a public thoroughfare for a bonfire of foreign
doth. He was fined one rupee, which was paid by someone
without his knowledge. The debates in the Legislative Assembly
became piquant The Public Safety Bill and the Trade Disputes
Bill bim^ght on a dash between the Government and the
and an undeclared war between Speaker Patd and

ON THE BRINK

the official benches. Verbal explosives were followed by chemical
explosives. On April 8th, two young men, Bhagat Singh and
B. K. Dutt, threw bombs in the Legislative Assembly with the
intention (as they put it later) 'not to kill but to make the deaf
hear*. There was a chain of terrorist outrages and a number of
conspiracy cases were started, Some of the young revolutionaries
caught popular imagination and became heroes overnight; their
names resounded in the bazaars and made headlines in the news-
papers; their pictures adorned the walls of laud-huts in remote
villages; even those who denounced their method, applauded
their motive* Public feeling reached a peak when a number of
these young revolutionaries went on hunger-strike to protest
against the treatment of political prisoners in gaols; one of them,
Jatin Das, died after a two-month fast, and was honoured as a
martyr*

Meanwhile, the industrial unrest which had characterized
the preceding year continued. The Government struck at die
trade-union movement, particularly at its Communist fringe.
Thirty-one labour leaders were arrested at one swoop in
March, 1929, and sent up for trial to Meerut, which was pre-
ferred to Bombay and Calcutta to avoid the inconvenience of a
jury. 'It seems to me/ Gandhi wrote, 'that the motive behiad
these prosecutions is not to kill Communism, but to strike
terror/ Jawaharlal took a leading part in organizing a Meerat
Prisoners' Defence Committee with his father as Chairman. It
was not easy to defend the ill-assorted group of prisoners in the
Meerut case, which was to drag on for three and a half years.
The lawyers who were entrusted with the day-to-day conduct
of the case charged heavy fees, and neither Motilal nor } awa-
harlal could afford to give the case sustained attention. At one
stage the prosecution tried to rope in Jawaharial by calling npon
him to produce the numerous letters, which ht, in his capacity
as General Secretary of the Congress, had received from abroad.
Secrecy was against the policy of the Congress, but if these
letters had been produced they could have beea used against the
accused and perhaps even against Jawaharlal himself; a iefu$al
to comply with the orders of the court could also lead to tremble.
JawaharlaTs arrest seemed on the cards and Motilal had a few
anxious days. However, the political climate was changing and,
as we shall soon see, Irwin had his own reasons for not baiting
the Nehrus.

312 THE NEHRUS

The Calcutta Congress had given *a year of grace and a polite
ultimatum to the British Government', A struggle in 1930
seemed not a possibility but a certainty. It was obvious that the
next Congress session was going to be a momentous one; the
choice of its president had therefore a special significance* Since
Gandhi alone could lead a struggle, his choice for the presidency
seemed natural, almost inevitable. Ten Provincial Congress Com-
mittees voted for him, five for Vallabhbhai Patel and three for
JawaharlaL But as we have already seen, the choice of the Con-
gress president was really made in the informal discussions
which preceded the formal election. In 1927 Gandhi and Motilal
had discussed JawaharlaPs candidature before Ansari was finally
chosen* In 1928, when MotilaTs own name was proposed, he
suggested that the honour should go to Vallabhbhai Patd, the
hero of Bardoli Satyagraha, and failing him, to JawaharlaL The
Hainis of young Nehru were not so evident to Subhas Chandra
Bose and J. ML Sen Gupta, the two young leaders of Bengal,
where the Congress was meeting* These two rivals, who seemed
to disagree on everything else, were agreed on Motilal being the
only possible choice for the Congress presidency for the Calcutta
Congress.

In 1929 Motilal again pressed the claims of his son on Gandhi.
As in 1927, he put the issue on a public rather than a private
plane.

Motilal to Gandhi, July 13, 1929 : '. . . Your accepting the chair
will give additional weight, dignity and prestige to the office,
though as you put it in your letter from the train, there will
hardly be any practical difference if you put Jawahar or
Vallabhbhai in it. You are the real power, whether on the
throne or behind it ...

1 have been thinking hard on the matter. It appears to me
that, leaving one awkward element in the case, all reasons point
to your accepting. That element was present in my case. It con-
sists in our apparent stinginess in parting with power and keep-
ing the younger set out of it ...

The revolt of youth has become an accomplished fact It
would be sheer flattery to say that you have today the same
influence as you had on the youth of the country some years
ago, ami most of them make no secret of the fact. All this would
indicate that the need of hour is the head of Gandhi and die

ON THE BRINK 313

voice of Jawahar . . * There are strong reasons for either you or
Jawahar to wear the "crown", and if you and Jawahar stand
together, as to which there is no doubt in my mind, it does not
really matter who it is that stands in front and who behind/

It is significant that in July, 1929, Motilal should have rated
Jawaharlal as indispensable to Gandhi, as Gandhi was to Jawa-
harlaL The radicalism of his son, which had seemed so in-
flammable and inopportune only a few months before, struck
him now as a vital spark which would light anew the torch of
the nationalist struggle. The 'revolt of youth', which had so
netded him at the Calcutta Congress, was now 'an accomplished
f act*, which he was prepared to recognize and indeed to support.
The political radicals, whose irresponsibility had so much
troubled him in 1928, now seemed to him as the repositories of
the nation's future, to whom power must be transferred by the
Old Guard of the Congress.

One may be tempted to argue that paternal affection was
clouding Motilal's judgment, that it is easy to talk of parting
with power when the recipient is one's own son. Motilal's
apparent inconsistency was in fact an indication of the slow
and painful process of conversion he had undergone since the
Calcutta Congress. In 1929 he was doing exactly what he had
done in 1920 and 1917; he was championing the views of his
son after initially repudiating and resisting them*

While Motilal was pressing his son's claims for the Congress
presidency, Jawaharlal himself was imploring Gandhi to leave
him alone. 'I am very nervous about the matter,' he wrote to
Gandhi on July 9th, 'and do not like the idea at all/ On
August 2ist, he telegraphed to the Mahatma: *Beg of you not
to press my name for presidentship/ A few days later he
enumerated at length his limitations for the high office of the
Congress president: 1 represent nobody but myself. I have not
the politician's flair for forming groups and parties. My one
attempt in this direction - the formation of the Independence
for India League last year -was a hopeless failure so far as I
was concerned . * . Most people who put me forward for the
presidentship do so because they want to keep someone else out
, . . If I have the misfortune to be president, you will see that
the very people who put me there . . * will be prepared to cast
me to the wolves/

314 THE NEHRUS

Gandhi was not moved by these arguments. At the Lucknow
meeting of the All India Congress Committee in September, he
made it dear that he would not accept his own nomination, and
pressed for fawaharlal's. Vallabhbhai Patel withdrew. Jawa-
harial was elected unanimously, but felt hurt and a little
humiliated by the mode of his election; as he put it later, he
climbed to his high office not by the 'main entrance, or even a
side entrance', but *by a trap door'. He was conscious of the gulf
between his ideas and those of most of the Congress leaders.
MotOal was delighted at the election of his son, and seemed
hardly aware of the conflict that was raging in JawaharlaTs
heart. It was left to the poetic diction of Sarojini Naidu to
capture their divergent moods.

Notdti to Jawafearlal, September 29, 1929: *I wonder
if in the whole of India there was yesterday a prouder heart
than your father's, or a heavier heart than yours. Mine was in
the peculiar position of sharing in almost equal measure both
his pride and your pain . . You are so sensitive and so fastidious
in your spiritual response and reaction, and you will suffer a
hundred-fold more poignantly than men and women of less fine
fibre, and less vivid perception and apprehension in dealing with
die ugliness of weakness, falsehood, backsliding and betrayal
. * , You said to me that you felt you had neither the personal
strength nor sufficient backing to put your own ideas and ideals
into effect . * * I fed you have been given a challenge as well as
offered a tribute/

3

If the Lahore Congress was a challenge to JawaharlaFs
capacity for leadership, it was even a greater challenge to Irwin's
statesmanship. In March, 1929, Geoffrey Dawson, the Editor of
The Times, after a three-month tour of India, noted* that the
situation was 'one of comparative ralin on the surface but ex-
pectancy beneath', that official circles acknowledged Irwin's
sympathy and sincerity, but ware not so sure of his being a man
*ol active determination'. Of the latter quality Irwin gave (in
Dawson's opinion) welcome evidence fay laondbing the Meerut
Conspiracy case. Special powers were also assumed by the
Joto Evdyn. Geoffrey Dewson md Otw Times, pp. 271-2.

ON THE BRINK 315

executive through the enactment, in the teeth of non-official
opposition in the Legislative Assembly, of the Public Safety Bill
and the Trade Disputes Bill* There were not a few in the Vice-
roy's entourage who would have liked him to go further, to put
the Congress in its proper place, to nip the challenge of 'com-
plete independence' in the bud, to lock up fawaharla! and
Subhas Bose, to dismiss Speaker Patel and to give India a
salutary dose of "resolute government". But Irwin was a wiser
and sadder man since he had concurred in the proposal for an
all-white commission* He sincerely wished to reveise the process
of estrangement of Indian opinion which had gone on un-
checked since November, igzj. The Simon Commission's report
was not to be published for another year, but Irwin already felt
that the commission would not be able to placate Indian opinion.
In the summer of 19x9, the Viceroy went to England for a
mid-term holiday and took the opportunity of discussing Indian
affairs with British statesmen. He was in touch with V. J* Patel
and Tej Bahadur Sapru, whom he hoped to use as 'honest
brokers' with the Congress.

'You may rest assured/ he wrote to Sapru, 'that I shall do
everything in my power that may lead to a solution of our
present difficulties, and I am sure that I can count upon your
help in that direction at this end/

To Patel he wrote:

Tou may rely upon me to do my best to find a way of peace,
and I hope that you, on your side, will use whatever influence
you have, if anything is done at this end, to get the Congress
leaders to meet it half-way/

Irwin's mission was facilitated by a change of government in
England. A Labour ministry headed by Ramsay MacDonald
took office in June, 1929. The new Secretary of State was W.
Wedgwood Benn (later Lord Stansgate). Though Benn acknow-
ledged to a Labour M.P. that he knew litde about India *on the
principle', as he put it, 'that cabinet ministers should be
appointed to the posts about which they know least', 3 testimony
was borne to his sincerity by friends of the Congress in England.

9 Brockway, Fenner, Inside the Left, p. 202.

316 THE NEHRUS

H. S. L Polak urged Gandhi to seize 'every opportunity of con-
tact that now presents itself owing to the change of Govern-
ment and circumstances in this country'. Graham Pole assured
Sapru that *Benn is entirely with us and working magnificently
* * [and] regards himself as representing Indians not British**

Irwin secured the endorsement of the British Cabinet for his
proposal for a Round Table Conference in London between the
representatives of India and Britain to discuss the framing of
a new Indian constitution* He was authorized to herald the
announcement of the conference by a declaration affirming that
the goal of British policy in India was Dominion Status. Neither
Lloyd George nor Lord Reading, the two stalwarts of the Liberal
Party, on whose support the Labour ministry's life depended,
gave much encouragement to the Viceroy. Nor did the idea of
a new declaration evoke much enthusiasm among his own
friends of the Conservative Party.

Irwin returned to India on October 25, 1929. Six days later
came his long-expected declaration :

'In view of the doubts which have been expressed both in
Great Britain and India regarding the intentions of the British
Government in enacting the Statute of 1919, I am authorized
to state dearly that in their judgment it is implied in the
declaration of 1917 that the natural issue of India's constitu-
tional progress, as there contemplated, is the attainment of
Dominion Status . . .'

The Viceregal announcement was an 'ingeniously worded
document' which could mean much or little. The moderate
leaders, to quote Irwin's biographer,* saw the conference 'as
their supreme opportunity for the full exercise of their intel-
lectual power and from henceforth they were Irwin's faithful
allies*. The Congress leaders, scanning the horizon for a gesture
whkh could open the path to self-government and prevent a
dash with the Government, discerned the possibility of a change
of heart.

Hie Viceroy had done his public relations job so well that
Sapra, V. f . Patd and Makviya were able to arrange a leaders'
conference on November ist-a day after the dedaration - and
to issae a 'joint manifesto* wdcoming the dedaration, under the

4 CampJ^Johnsoa, Alan, Lord Halifax, p, 225.

ON THE BRINK 317

signatures of Gandhi, Motilal, Ansari, Sapru, Maharaja of
Mahmudabad, Vallabhbhai Patel, and even JawaharlaL*

The Viceroy's announcement was thus well received in India,
but in England a storm broke over him and the Labour Govern-
ment The British Press and Parliament subjected his words to a
protracted post-mortem. Lord Reading, whose opinion as a
former Viceroy carried much weight, declared that the an-
nouncement was calculated to undermine the prestige and
authority of the Simon Commission. Lloyd George, the leader of
the Liberal Party, poured scorn on Wedgwood Bean, whom he
called 'the pocket-edition of Moses'. Baldwin, the leader of the
Conservative Party, whose protege Irwin was believed to be, did
not really rally to the support of the Viceroy's policy* Sir John
Simon and his fellow-commissioners, who had not been con-
sulted, felt that they had been shabbily treated by the Labour
Government; after the announcement of a Round Table Con-
ference, their report was likely to have only an academic in-
terest 6 Under such heavy fire, the Labour Government was
driven to the defensive. The Secretary of State explained away
the declaration as 'a restatement*, and an 'interpretation 7 of
Montagu's declaration of August, 1917* The Times compared
Irwin's words with a speech delivered by Birkenhead in 1927
and saw no difference between them. 7 Birkenhead himself, in the
course of a speech in the House of Lords, exhorted the Simon
Commission to treat the Viceroy's declaration as an 'irrelevance'.

Thus circumstances compelled the Labour Government to be-
little in Britain what the Viceroy was endeavouring to boost in
India. The difficulty, as Morley had bewailed twenty years
before, lay in synchronizing clocks in different hemispheres. It
was not easy to devise a formula that could pass for self-govern-
ment in India, and for British Raj at Westminster.

4

The debate in the British Parliament damaged the emotional
bridge which the declaration of October 3 1 had sought to build.
During the succeeding six weeks, Irwin set out with the willing
co-operation of Sapru, Patel and Jinnah, to repair the damage.

5 Indian Quarterly Register, 1919, voL II, pp. 49-50.

6 Simon, Viscount, Retrospect, p, 151.

7 The Times, November 4 1929-

318 THE NEHRUS

Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru to Lord Irwin, dated Allahabad November
11, 1929. 1 may be permitted to make two suggestions to Your
Excellency, The first is that if Pandit Motilal Nehru could per-
sonally see Your Excellency, the chances of a favourable atmos-
phere may in my humble opinion be enhanced * . * The second
is ... some measure of conciliation in the provinces/

Lord Irwin to Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru, 'November 12, 1929: *As
regards my seeing Pandit Motilal Nehru, I am unfortunately
starting on an extended tour on the evening of November 15th.
I had looked forward to seeing Pandit Motilal when next he was
in Delhi after my return just before Christmas, and having a
frank talk with him. If you think that it would be useful if I
wese to see h before I go off on tour, I should of course be
vary glad fe> do so . . /

Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru to Lord Irwm, November 15, 1929: 'Last
night I received Your Excellency's kind letter of the i2tL I at
once put myself into touch with Pandit Motilal over the tele-
phone at Lucknow * * , He has a professional engagement in the
Chief Court there * . he would wait [on you] on your return
fust before Christmas * * /

Irwin went off on his tour* Sapru requested Motilal to
summon a meeting of the signatories of the Delhi Manifesto at
Allahabad where the Congress Working Committee was to
meet on November i6th. Sapru succeeded in securing an en-
dorsement of the Delhi Manifesto, and passed on the good news
t*> the Viceroy's camp.

Sapru to Irwin, November 25, 1929: \ . . My task was made
difficult ... by the comments that had appeared in the Press in
England and die debate in Parliament On the i8th Novem-
ber the conference met at Pandit Motilal's residence. I received
a measure of support which was beyond my expectations . . .
Towards die end of the conference the atmosphere was heated,
fet Botwithstanding the fact that Mr Gandhi's point of view
was different from mine, I was impressed with the obvious desire
OB his part to maintain a peaceful atmosphere . . . nevertheless
fee felt ttat the situation was such diat the country expected
that soiDethiiig sboiild be done by the Government which would

ON THE BRINK 319

enable him to put the advanced section of his following consist-
ing mostly of young men in a reasonable and hopeful frame of
mind...

"My mind is not free from doubt and I cannot say what line
the Congress may take at Lahore . . , It is unfortunate that
Pandit Motilal could not wait on Your Excellency on 15th
November . . . My view is if Mr Gandhi could see Your Ex-
cellency and have a free talk with you, it might lead to an
easier situation/

Jinnah, who met the Viceroy at Bombay, also advised him to
see Gandhi. Sarojini Naidu-at Jinnah's instance -isadily com-
mended the proposal to the Mahatma, V, J. Patd and Sapru
remained in touch with MotilaL

The interview with the Viceroy, on which such great hopes
had been built, took place in the Viceroy's House at New Delhi
on December 23rd. It proved a complete fiasco. The Viceroy felt
almost personally betrayed; the edifice he had been constructing
laboriously since the summer crumbled to pieces before his eyes.
The intermediaries professed to be bewildered, and blamed the
failure on Gandhi Sapru's frustration can be seen in a letter
he wrote to two friends in England.

Sapru to Graham Pole and H. S. L Polafe, January 9, 1930: "At
my suggestion, and also that of Jinnah, the Viceroy agreed to
interview Mr Gandhi, Pandit Motilal Nehru, Jinnah, Patd and
myself. Accordingly we assembled at Delhi on 23rd December.
In the day, we met at Patd's house and the only three things
discussed were (i) political prisoners, (ii) the time for the Round
Table Conference (1930 or 1931) and (iii) personnel of the con-
ference. Mr Gandhi was not present during the conversations
as it was the day of his silence. He came to Patd's house at
4.0 p.m., broke his silence at 4.15 p.m., and quiedy went into
the motor car with Pandit Motilal Nehru, and drove to the
Viceregal Lodge* We three, that is to say, Jinnah, Patd and I
followed them in a motor car. When we went in, Mr Gandhi
first expressed his horror at the attempt to wreck the Viceregal
train which had been made that very morning. After that,
throughout the conversation, he was most truculent, which
took us all by surprise. Pandit Motilal was scaicdy less stiff.
Jinnah and I argued and reasoned with him but it was all wasted.

320 THE NEHRUS

His point of view was that the Viceroy should guarantee that
immediate Dominion Status would be granted. Our point was
that the door of the Round Table Conference being open * * * It
was quite dear to Jinnah and myself that we had been badly let
down and that these gentlemen had gone there determined to
break off relations with the Viceroy/

The attitude of Gandhi and Motilal had struck Sapru as in-
comprehensible, inconsistent, inexcusable. In fact it was not
the volte face which it appeared to him.

The Delhi 'Joint Manifesto* (which Jawaharlal had been per-
suaded &> sign against his better judgment, and Subhas Bose had
refused to sign) had interpreted the Viceregal declaration to
mean that the Round Table Conference 'would meet not to dis-
cuss whea Dominion Status would be established, but to frame
a Dominion Constitution for India". This interpretation, as
Irwin complained to Sapru, was a 'strained' one. The sincerity
of the peace-makers (who had no personal axe to grind) was
patent enough; and so was that of Irwin, who was risking his
political future by venturing on a policy which was anathema
to his own party. But no amount of personal sincerity and good-
will could alter the basic facts of the Indian situation in
December, 1929. The Congress was committed to a civil dis-
obedience campaign, if Dominion Status were not granted by
the end of the year. The Viceregal declaration of October 51,
1929, was an attempt to prevent that contingency. But the
strength of that declaration was its vagueness, which was dis-
sipated by the bluntness of Lloyd George, Reading, Simon,
Churchill and Birkenhead. The debates in the British Parliament
deflated the initial optimism of the Congress leaders. To Jawa-
harlal, who was repenting his signature to the Delhi Manifesto,
which he described as 'a dangerous trap*, Gandhi wrote on
November jth: 1 believe myself that there is a greater chance
of the Congress coming over to your view than your having to
resign from the presidentship/ A week later, Gandhi gave a
glimpse into the working of his mind 8 to Horace Alexander and
Fenner Brodcway, who had cabled for moderation:

1 have done whatever was possible, but you will be patient
* Gaadhi to Brockway and Horace Alocamkr, November 14, 1929 (G.S.N.

ON THE BRINK 321

with me if I do not take things quite on trust I would want
some absolute guarantee that things are not what they seem.
The Parliamentary debates contain nothing, not even in Benn's
speech, that could give me assurance that I may approach the
conference with confidence and safety. I would far rather wait
and watch and pray than run into what may after all be a
dangerous trap . * /

What Gandhi wanted - and needed - on the eve of the Lahore
Congress, was something definite, some proof of the British
desire to part with power, Irwin, chastened by recent criti-
cisms in England, was not in a position to make a precise com-
mitment; on the contrary he was deliberately playing for safety*
When the news of the forthcoming interview with Gandhi and
Motilal appeared in the press early in December, the Vicemy
sent frantic messages from his camp to Sapru and Fatal urging
them to emphasize that the interview had been arranged at
their (the intermediaries') suggestion 'otherwise, those who
wished to make mischief in England would at once say that tne
Viceroy was trying to buy off Congress Extremists'*

As for Wedgwood Benn, despite the eulogies he earned from
his colleagues in the Labour Party, he was under no illusions as
to his limitations* 'We cannot face an election on an Indian
issue/ Benn had frankly told Brockway soon after taking office. 9
The Labour Cabinet could not last a day without the support of
the Liberals; a radical departure in India was sure to unite
Liberals and Conservatives and to sweep the Labour Party out
of office. There is no evidence that Benn and Irwin were con-
vinced of the feasibility, or even of the justice of conceding full
Dominion Status in 1930, but even if they had been, they could
not have carried the British Parliament and public opinion with
them. It needed a series of Satyagraha campaigns, the Second
World War, and a Labour Government in power (not merdy
in office) to effect a real transfer of power from Britain to India,
It is impossible to resist the conclusion that the chances of a
settlement in December, 1929, were overrated by the 'peace-
makers', who were victims of their own optimism.

That Gandhi's attitude at the interview of December 23id
was not so perverse as it seemed at the time to the Viceroy and
the intermediaries, is evident from the official summary of the
9 Brockway, Feimer, Inside the Left, p. 203.

32Z THE NEHRUS

interview* Though Motilal considered this summary not quite
fak to Gandhi, it does not (as one reads it today) reveal the
Mahatma in an unfavourable light

Record of the meeting held at the Viceroy's House on Decem-
ber 23, 1929 :* Mr Gandhi expressed the horror he and those
who accompanied him felt at the attempt on HJE/s train that
morning, and their congratulations on Their Excellencies'
escape. He then asked His Excellency if he agreed with the in-
terpretation put by the Delhi Manifesto on his announcement
of October jist, with particular reference to the question of
the function of the proposed conference in London* Mr Gandhi
said that unless agreement was reached on this point, he felt it
fruitless to proceed further.

'His Excellency said that he had thought that the meaning
of his announcement was quite plain . . . if any misunderstand-
ing existed, he thought that this might largely be attributed to a
confusion of thought about the meaning of the term "Dominion
Status", The English view of Dominion Status was of an
achieved constitutional state . * * Indians . . - were liable to look
on it as a process which might contain a series of degrees* The
object, however, of the conference was to thrash out the prob-
lems which arose out of His Majesty's Government's definite
declaration of policy, and he pointed out the chance there was
of doing something big, and die danger of losing a great oppor-
tunity.

*Sir T.,B. Sapru . , . visualized the conference framing a policy,
which when the intermediate safeguards were removed, would
mean Dominion Status for India.

'His Excellency said that . . . while it was impossible to lay it
down that the conference was to draft any particular constitu-
tion, it would have the fullest opportunity to discuss any pro-
posals before it ... [The Conference] would rather follow the
fines of the Imperial Conference, a record being kept of the
general sense of the members and the extent of unanimity

Gandhi fdt that the Imperial Conference was on a
different footing. There al the parties to the discussion were
more or Jess of one mind. At the Indian Confeience this would

* As made fey Cunningham, Private Secretary to the Viceroy, and
ajaended by Sapra (Sapni Paj>ers).

ON THE BRINK 323

not be so ... Unless the establishment of Dominion Status
would be presumed at once as an immediate result of the Con-
ference, he [Mr Gandhi] would not take part in it . . .

Tandit Motilal Nehru said, he agreed with Mi Gandhi. The
British people exaggerated the difficulties in the way of
Dominion Status for India. There was no difficulty about having
Dominion Status at once, though he did not mean that the
Indian form of it would necessarily be exactly the same, as any
particular form of Dominion Status already in existence.

'His Excellency . . . referred to the case of Canada, she did not
rise to full Dominion Status in a jump ... .

Tandit Motilal admitted this, but said that the starting point
was there all the same. What India wanted was the starting
point.

'Sir T. B. Sapru and Mr Jinnah reasoned at length with Mr
Gandhi and Pandit Motilal Nehru . . . They thought that the
phrase in the Delhi Manifesto "suitable for Indian needs" was
specifically put in with the idea that the Conference would dis-
cuss safeguards.

Tandit Motilal denied this. Mr Gandhi said that his point
briefly was, that not Parliament, but India, ought to frame
India's future . . .

'His Excellency said that the real test was whether Mr Ganclhi
and his friends believed in British purpose. If they did believe
in it, their present attitude seemed to him inexplicable.

'Mr Gandhi said that he doubted the sincerity of British
purpose broadly, though he recognized that of individuals.

'His Excellency said that then there was obviously no
common ground between himself and Mr Gandhi . . .

'Mr Gandhi blamed British rule [for lack of unity] . . .

'His Excellency asked Mr Gandhi, as a matter of historical
interest, whether India was more united when the British came
to India than it was now.

'Mr Gandhi replied that the British had not helped India to
bring about unity in the country during the time they had been
here. Could the R.T.C. [Round Table Conference] bring about
unity in England ? . . .

Tandit Motilal gave it as his opinion that no Indian would be
satisfied with less than Dominion Status. He saw no difficulties
in the way himself. The whole crux was the transfer of power
from Great Britain to India/

324 THE NEHRUS

The last words were apparently borrowed by Motilal from
the presidential address which his son was to deliver at the
Lahore Congress. Throughout the interview, Gandhi and Motilal
stuck to one fundamental issue - whether the proposed Round
Table Conference would frame a scheme of Dominion Status
or get bogged down in subsidiary matters*

Sapra seems to have had a lingering regret that the game was
spoilt by the unpredictable Mahatma, that things might have
turned out differently if Irwin and Motilal had been able to
meet by themselves on November 15th. Motilal, who lacked
the stout optimism of an Indian Liberal which can read a
definite "no" as a clear "yes"/ 11 and was a party to the Calcutta
Congress compromise of the previous year, could hardly have
taken a line in opposition to his own son and Gandhi. A shrewd
observer had predicted early in December that 'Motilal Nehru
will in the end be overcome by his paternal affection'. 12 It was
not only paternal affection, but the aftermath of the parlia-
mentary debates and the imminence of the Lahore Congress,
which had led him to fall into line with his son. He had indeed
confessed to V. J. Patel, a fortnight before the interview with
the Viceroy, that he 'did not expect any results* from it. *At
present/ he added, 'all roads lead to Lahore/ 13

11 Motilal to Ansari, February 17, 1930.

n Jagadisan, Letters of Srinivasa Sastri, pp. 296-7.

13 Patel, G. L, Vithalbhcd Patel (Life and Times), vol. II, p. 1071.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
FREEDOM'S BATTLE

JAWAHARLAL arrived at Lahore on December 25th to preside
over the 1929 Congress. He received a welcome which, in the
words of the local nationalist daily, "even the kings might envy'. 1
He was the first president-elect of the Congress to ride a horse -
a white charger - followed fay a detachment of Congress cavalry.
The capital of the Punjab wore a festive look; the streets were
canopied with bunting and sparkled with coloured lights* The
procession swelled as it surged through the narrow streets of
Lahore* Windows, roofs and even trees were crowded with spec-
tators* Motilal and Swarup Rani watched the spectacle from the
balcony of the Bhalla Shoe Company in Anarkali, and joined
with others in showering flower-petals on their son. Never be-
fore in the history of the Indian National Congress had a son
succeeded his father as president* As Motilal made over charge
to Jawaharlal, he quoted a Persian adage: 'Herche kz pidar
wtawanad, pcsar tamam kunad.' (What the father is unable to
accomplish, the son achieves). This f atherly wish was prophetic.

The Congress was meeting again in the Punjab after exactly
ten years. The Amritsar Congress had been held in December,
1919; non-co-operation had followed in 1920. Was history going
to repeat itself? The 'ultimate sanction', as Gandhi put it, was
civil disobedience, but conditions did not seem ripe for a mass
movement There was no rallying-cry like the Rowlatt Bills, no
rankling grievance like the Punjab martial law, no emotional
bridge for Hindu-Muslim differences like the Khilafat Violence
was in the air: this was evident not only from the numerous
'conspiracy cases' being tried by the courts, but also from the
angry opposition to a resolution moved by Gandhi himself to
congratulate Lord and Lady Irwin on their lucky escape from a
bomb which had exploded under the Viceregal train a few days
before the Congress session.

The Khilafat was dead and most of its exponents had drifted

1 Tribute, December 27, 1929,

3Z6 THE NEHRUS

into communal politics* The Ali Brothers were no longer the
bellicose nationalists they had been in the early twenties;
Mohammed AH indeed warned Jawaharlal: 'Your present col-
leagues will desert you. They will leave you in the lurch in a
crisis. Your own Congressmen will send you to the gallows.*
The Moderates -or as they preferred to call themselves - the
Liberals - Sapra, Cbintamani, Sastri and others, had anchored
themselves to Irwin's project of a Round Table Conference; they
made no secret of their fear that Gandhi, Motilal and the Con-
gress were heading for disaster at the heels of Jawaharial and
the young men. Among the Congress leaders themselves there
were pleas for restraint Ansari, Sarojini Naidu and Malaviya
were inclined to trust in the sincerity of Irwin and to oppose
any precipitate action. The debates in the 'Subjects Committee',
were long and tense. The inaugural session was in fact held up
for six hours while the committee discussed and voted on the
main resolution. In the end, Gandhi's personal prestige and the
enthusiasm of the rank-and-file carried the day.

The Lahore Congress declared that the agreement to
Dominion Status in the Nehru Report had lapsed; henceforth
Swaraj would mean 'complete independence*. Congress members
in central and provincial legislatures were called upon to resign.
At midnight on December 3ist, the flag of independence was
unfurled on the bank of the Ravi There were scenes of wild en-
thusiasm in the Congress camp; Jawaharlal danced round the

The die had been cast. Once again after nine years the Con-
gress had dared to defy the British Empire. Once again it was
going to be blood, sweat and prison for those who followed the
Mahatma. But MotilaFs mind was made up. To Ansari, who in
February, 1930, was poised on the razor-edge of indecision,
Motilal wrote:

*! hope you will give me the credit of fully realizing what it
means to me and mine to throw my lot with Gandhiji in the
coming struggle. Nothing but a deep omviction that the time
for the greatest effort aad the greatest sacrifice has come would
ha^re induced me to expose myself at my age and with my
physical disabilities, and with my family obligations to the

'* Nehru, J. L., Towerd Freedom, p. 106.

FREEDOM'S BATTLE

tremendous risks I am incurring. I bear the clarion cafl of the
country and I obey.* 8

The Lahore Congress had authorized the AH India Congress
Committee to launch civil disobedience. But everyone knew that
the lead would be given by GandhL As the new year dawned,
the Government as well as the people waited for the Mahatma's
next move. He called for the celebration of 'Independence Day*
on January 26th. On that day, hundreds of thousands of people
in the towns and villages of India met and took a pledge that It
was a crime against man and God to submit to British rale*. Bat
soon afterwards Gandhi made an unexpected offer to the Vke-
roy : if the British Government would accept the 'Eleven Points' ,
he would not press on with civil disobedience. These 'Seven
Points', which included reduction in land revenue, abolition of
the salt-tax, scaling down of military and civil expenditure,
rdease of political prisoners and tile levy of a duty on foreign
doth, seemed to the Government a conveniently wide net to
secure for Gandhi's movement peasants as well as workeis, pro-
fessional classes as well as business interests. To Gandhi's own
colleagues, a month after the declaration of independence, the
proposal was something of an anti-climax. Gandhi wdtt knew
that the 'Eleven Points* did not add up to political independ-
ence, but by listing them he was setting a tangible test of the
Government's willingness to part with power.

The popular response to the celebration of 'Independence
Day* heartened Gandhi. Towards the end of February he an-
nounced that he proposed to open his campaign by breaking
the salt laws. The salt-tax, though relatively small (in 1930 it
amounted to no more than three annas per head) hit the pooiest
in the land* But somehow, salt did not seem to fit IBID a struggle
for national independence* The first impulse of the GoveroiBmt*
as of die Congress intellectual, was to ridicule the laotegarteaa
stage of revolution* and to laugh away the idea that the Kiag-
Emperor could be unseated by boiltag sea-water in a ketde.
B. C Roy, who was at Allahabad when Gandhi's plans for dbe
breach of the salt laws became public, recaHs that Motilal was
amused, even angered, by the apparent toefevaace of Gandhi's

8 Motilal to Anssoi, Feteasoy

THE NEHRUS

move* To Motilal, as indeed to many others, it seemed that salt
had become, like fasting and charkha, another of the Mahatma's
hobby-horses,

Gandhi decided to inaugurate the campaign by leading a band
of volunteers from Sabannati to Dandi on the west coast The
prayer meeing in the Ashram on March nth had a record
attendance. 'Our cause is strong/ said Gandhi, "our means the
purest and God is with us. There is no defeat for Satyagrahis till
they give up truth. I pray for the battle which begins to-
morrow/ Next morning, Gandhi and his seventy-eight com-
panions began die 241-mile trek from Ahmedabad to Dandi.
The march did not, as the Government anticipated, prove a
fiasco; it electrified not only the districts through which Gandhi's
path lay, but the whole country. Salt became the symbol of
national defiance. *At present/ said Gandhi, "Indian self-respect
is symbolized, as it were, in a handful of salt in the Satyagrahf s
hand. Let the fist be broken, but let there be no surrender of
salt* Today the pilgrim marches onward on his long trek/
Jawahaiial wrote, 'the fire of a great resolve is in him and sur-
passing love of his miserable countrymen. And love of truth
that scorches, and love of freedom that inspires. And none that
passes him can escape the spell, and men of common clay fed
the spark of life.'

Both Motilal and Jawaharlal were present at the meeting of
the AH India Congress Committee at Ahmedabad in the third
week of March, which empowered Jawaharlal, as Congress
president, to act on its behalf, to nominate his successor, and to
fiB vacancies in the Working Committee. From Ahmedabad, the
Nehras hurried to Jambosar, a small village in Broach district,
where Gandhi was scheduled to halt on his way to Dandi. It
was at this meeting in the early hours of March 23rd that
Motilal decided to make a gift of Anand Bhawan (renamed as
Swamj Shawm - The abode of independence') to the Congress.
Tbe family had already moved into the smaller house which
had been built in the compound and which was to be and is
still called Anand Bhawas.

Motilal's decision to give rather than sell the old house,
which might have fetched a lakh or two, was prompted by his
sesoive to throw his all into the battle which Gandhi had begun.
The formal ceremony took place on April 6th, the D-day for

FREEDOM'S BATTLE 329

the Salt Safyagraha, when Jawaharlal as Congress president
accepted the gift from his father.

By early April, the Government of India had discovered the
dangerous potentialities of Gandhi's strategy/ Immediately after
the Lahore Congress, the Viceroy had been assured of support
for 'firm executive action' by Secretary of State Benn, and ex-
horted to handle 'the revolutionary leadens with firm determina-
tion* by Premier MacDonald. From April onwards the Congress
was subjected to the sternest repression in its long history; the
Government sought to strangle Satyagraha with an iron ring
of ordinances, ten of which were issued during the next nine
months* "Those who were responsible for executing his orders
testify/ writes the Viceroy's biographer, 'that his religious con-
victions seemed to reinforce the very ruthlessncss of his policy
of repression/

As always, the Government were cautious in laying their
hands on Gandhi, but other leaders were not spared. Vafla-
bhbhai Patd was arrested on April 7th* Jawaharial, who had
been energetically co-ordinating the movement from Allahabad,
was arrested on April 14th* He was sentenced to six months*
imprisonment and taken to Naini gaoL He nominated his father
as 'acting president' of the Congress

For some months MotilaPs health had been causing concern.
Dr Ansari, who examined him on his return from Jambosar,
was so alarmed that he immediately communicated his findings
to Gandhi*

Dr Ansari to Gandhi, March 30, 1930: '* . * I found Panditji's
health in a very unsatisfactory condition this time. The con-
tinuous anxiety and strain which he has recently gone through,
and his visit to you [at Jambosar] and dusty walks had caused
a fresh exacerbation of asthmatic attack, and had placed a
further strain on his dilated heart* He could hardly walk or even
perform ordinary movements without losing his breath. As you
know, he has been running an erratic and high blood pressure
. * . His age is also such that he has little power of recuperation.
But he has not been sparing himself and is determined not to
spare himself in future . * /

* Nan4a, B. It, Mohatma Gandhi, pp. 293-6.

530 THE NEHRUS

Motilal turned a deaf ear to Assart's advice* He refused to
step aside and rest so long as the country was in the throes of a
struggle, and his son in gaoL

These were storing months for Indian nationalism. Once
again, and not for the last time, Gandhi's knack for organizing
Indian masses for corporate action delighted the nationalists as
much as it discomfited the authorities. On July loth the Director
of the Central Intelligence Bureau specially noted the 'awaken-
ing among Indian women, and the fact that the movement has
spread to the rural areas** The following week he expressed his
concern at 'the self-sacrificing attitude of many businessmen to-
wards the boycott movement, the unending supply of volun-
tseess for picketing, the participation of large numbers of women,
and above aO, the abundance of funds for every branch of Con-
gress activity. There are signs that the position may be further
complicated by the addition of large numbers of the labouring
classes to the forces of disorder*. Army Headquarters expressed
anxiety at the possibility of sedition seeping into the army.

lliese developments served further to stiffen the attitude of
die Government On May 5th, Gandhi was arrested and im-
prisoned without trial in the Yeravda gaol near Poona. His
efforts to keep the movement non-violent had succeeded to a
ranarkable degree* But there were stray cases of popular
violence, which were well-matched by official counter-violence.
On April 23rd there was a demonstration in Peshawar, follow-
ing the arrest of Abdul Ghaffar Khan when the troops opened
fire. The number of casualties was officially estimated at 50
killed and 33 wounded, but was placed at 125 by an unofficial
inquiry committee appointed by MotilaL In May martial law
was imposed in the mill town of Sholapur following acts of
arson and violence,

Q the "awakening of womes', which was the most striking
feature of 1930, Allahabad and the Nehru family were a fine
example. Not only Vifayalakshmi and Krishna, but the aged
Swarap Hani and the fragile Kamala were in the front line,
organizing processions, addressing meetings, picketing foreign
doth aad liquor shops. Medial did not like the idea of women
rushing about the t0wB in the hot weather, but Jawaharlal was

FREEDOM'S BATTLE 531

delighted when he received the news in gaol. 'By the time I
come out,' he wrote, 1 expect to find the womenfolk running
everything/

In Naini gaol, Jawaharlal occupied two of die four cells in a
small isolated barrack, where his only companions were die
prison guard, the sweeper and the cook. He kept to a rigorous
schedule of reading, spinning and weaving. The news of official
excesses in Sholapur, Peshawar and other places tormented
him; he felt he could identify himself with the unfortunate
victims of that repression only by making his own life in prison
as hard as possible. He begged his father not to send htm fruit
or ice; he could not, he wrote, 'hold high festival in gaol, when
imprisonment, floggings, firings and martial law are the lot of
those outside".

Meanwhile Motilal was expending the last of his eaeigy in
directing the campaign. He took a keen interest in the work of
the Peshawar Inquiry Committee, of which he had appointed
his son-in-law Ranjit Pandit secretary and V. }. Patrf president.
V* J. Patel also headed another committee, which made arrange-
ments with the Bombay mill-owners for die boycott of foreign
doth. To Sir Purshotamdas Thakurdas, one of Bombay's "cotton
kings', who had complained of the dislocation of trade and in-
dustry, Motilal wrote: 'Those who sow the wind, have to be
prepared to reap the whirlwind. This remark applies with equal
force to the Congress and the Government/

In June Motilal went to Bombay- the storm-centre of the
movement; with him went Swamp Rani and Ramala* They re-
ceived a tremendous welcome, but also witnessed some of the
fiercest attacks by the police on Congress processions. It was a
crowded and memorable fortnight, but its strain finally broke
MotilaTs physical frame. On return to Allahabad, he planned
to leave for Mussoorie for a short holiday on July ist, but he
was anested on the previous day and taken to Naini gad, where
his son was already serving a six-month team. The barrack in
which the Nehrus weje lodged was not too comfortable, and
the verandah attached to it was too narrow to serve as a pro-
tection against sun or rain. But Motilal would not hear of
leaving the company of his son for more spacious acxxaamoda-
tion in another part of the gaol The Government were con-
siderate enough to order the construction of a new verandah,
but it was completed too late to be of any use to Motilal

33* THE NEHRUS

Jawaharlal took charge of his ailing father and nursed him
with a devotion which moved him deeply.

*Hari>* Motilal wrote, 'could very well take a leaf out of
Jawahar's book in the matter of serving me. From early morning
tea to the time I retire for the night, I find everything I need
ia its proper place. The minutest detail is carefully attended to
and it has never become necessary to ask for anything, which
had so frequently to be done at Anand Bhawan . , . Jawahar
anticipates everything and leaves nothing for me to do* I wish
there were many fathers to boast of such sons/

To circumvent the gaol rule of one letter a fortnight, Motilal
had the brilliant idea of writing 'a circular letter* addressed to
all members of the family - outside the gaoL The letter dated
fdy 16, 1930, sounds almost like an after-dinner chat Tou are
doing a litde too much for your old bones/ he wrote to his wife*
TJse them sparingly if you wish to see Swaraj established in
your life-time/ Tour letter is not as detailed as I expected it to
be/ he wrote to his daughter-in-law, 'and there is no news about
your health - not a word/ He gave Kanaala detailed instructions
for planting fast-growing creepers and doob grass, and for keep-
ing trespassers off Swaraj Bhawan: 'All sorts of people are
about these days, and every wearer of a Gandhi cap is not a
follower of Gandhi/ To Vijayalakshmi he wrote: It was silly
of you to have left Bombay without proper treatment. You
seem to be too anxious to receive an invitation [to gaol]. There
would be some point in it, if you could be lodged with [your]
brother and myself, but that is impossible/

He chided Krishna for not writing : 'How is it, madness that
you have not sent a line this week?" To his twelve-year-old
grand-daughter Indira, who had been drilling the children's
volunteer 'anny* (vunar scna), he wrote: *What is the position
in the "monkey army"? I suggest the wearing of a tail by every
member of it, the length of which should be in proportion to
the rank of the wearer/

4

The comparative calm of Naini gaol was disturbed on July 27,
5 MotikTs personal servant

FREEDOM'S BATTLE 333

1930, by the arrival of the Liberal leaders Tej Bahadur Sapra
and M. R. Jayakar. They came on a peace-mission which,
ironically enough, was initiated by an interview given by
Motilal to George Slocombe of the London Daily Herald. At
the instance of V. J. Patel, Motilal had agreed to meet Slocombe.
The interview, which took place on June zoth at Bombay, be-
came the first link in that curious and unexpected chain of
events which culminated in the Gandhi-Irwin Pact eight months
later. At the end of the interview Slocombe drafted a statement
indicating MotilaPs views on the conditions on which the Con-
gress was prepared to suspend civil disobedience and participate
in the Round Table Conference.

T asked him/ wrote Slocombe, 6 'what his attitude would be if
he were to receive an invitation to the Round Table Conference.
"My reply would be/' he told me, "to ask you on what basis
the conference is convened if it was made dear . * * that the
conference would meet to frame a constitution for free India,
subject to such adjustments of our mutual relations as are re-
quired by the special needs and conditions of India and our past
association, I for one, would be disposed to recommend that
Congress should accept an invitation to participate in the con-
ference. "We must be masters in our own household, but are
ready to agree to reasonable terms for the period of transfer of
power from the British administration in India to a responsible
Indian Government We must meet the British people in order
to discuss these terms as nation to nation on an equal footing/* '

In July, 1930, Sapru (this time assisted by Jayakai) was re-
suming negotiations where they had been left off on December
23, 1929. MotilaPs statement to Slocombe was, on the whole,
a restatement of the position Gandhi and he had adopted during
the interview with the Viceroy* It did not, however, occur to
Motilal, until he joined his son in gaol, that talk of 'peace* in
the midst of a Satyagraha struggle was likely to demoralize the
people*

In Naini prison Sapru and fayakar argued at length with
Motilal and Jawaharlal, but found both equally impervious fa>
the idea of a settlement with the Government, and obviously
unwilling to commit themselves without consulting GandhL

f Sapru Papers.

334 THE NEHRUS

The Government then arranged for the Nehrus' journey in a
special train to Poona. There were protracted discussions in
Yeravda Gaol in which Gandhi, the Nehrus, VaUabhbhai Patel,
Sarojini Naidu, Jairanidas Daulatram, Syed Mahmud, Sapru
and Jayakar joined. The peace-makers reported the results of
these abortive negotiations to the Viceroy*

Sapru and Jayakar to Irwin, dated Bombay: August 16, 1930:
'+ . . Our conversation on the first day lasted for four hours;
talking was done mostly by Gandhi and Motilal-Jawaharial
taking part in the conversations occasionally. We urged it on
them that civil disobedience must be called off and they must
advise the Congress to participate in the ILT.C We pointed out
to them that, in our opinion, what Your Excellency had written
&> us in your published letter was in substance identical with
the trend of thought in the statement which had been sent to
us at Simla by a common friend with the approval of Pandit
Motilal . . .

"The salient feature of Mr Gandhi's position throughout has
been his insistence upon Seven Points, and particularly upon
tibe right to manufacture salt privately . . * In other woids,
Mr Gandhi's test of the [new] constitution would be whether
it gave him the power to enforce all or any of his "Eleven
Points**, if he so desired . . .

'As for the position of tibe two Pandits, both at Allahabad and
in the Yexavda Gad * . . we may state that Pandit Motilal was
of opinion that the tarns of Your Excellency's published letter
to us were not sufficiently definite, and that he and Pandit Jawa-
hadal Nehru would not be satisfied unless an agreement on all
vital matters are previously arrived at between the Congress and
the Government of India** 7

These negotiations showed that Gandhi was willing to
baigaia on details-a tendency which was to make possible, for
good or ill, the conclusion of die Gandhi-Irwin Pact* Motilal and
Jawaharlal, on die contrary, insisted on a concrete commitment
regarding the devolution of power from British to Indian hands.
H Moiilal had been by Gandhi's side at Delhi in February-
Maidi, 1931, die negotiations with Lrwin might possibly have
shared the fete of die Yeravda talks widi Sapru and Jayakar in
1950.

FREEDOM'S BATTLE 335

On this visit to Yeravda Gaol, Motilal told Lt-Coloael
Martin, the Superintendent, that he took very 'simple and light
food', and then gave a list of his requirements which (as Jawa-
harlal put it) would have been considered simple and ordinary
food only at the Ritz and the Savoy in London* Colonel Martin,
who had been feeding Gandhi on goafs milt, dates and oranges,
could scarcely conceal his amusement at the sophisticated tastes
of the elder Nehru. Not the least amusing part of the story is
that the Bombay Government wrote to the Government of India
to foot the bill for the extra expenses incurred by the dietary
requirements of the Nehrus at Poona.

Enforced rest in gaol and devoted nursing by his son could
not by themselves restore Motilal to health. He infected an offer
of release on medical grounds, and even telegraphed to Irwin
not to show him any favours. But his health was failing fast,
he was losing weight and becoming a shadow of himself. The
Government had no intention of incurring the odium of his
death in gaol and released him on September nth. Three days
later, he left for Mussoorie. With him went Swamp Rani,
Krishna, Vijayalakshmi and her children.

Kamala did not accompany her father-iiblaw to Mussoorie.
She was too tied up with the local Congress activities to be able
to leave Allahabad. Her own health had begun to fail barely
a year after her prolonged convalescence in Switzerland. In
December, 1928, she and her husband consulted many doctors
in Calcutta. With this background, her plunge in the Satya-
graha struggle in the summer of 1930 was a feat of courage
which filled her husband with pride, not unmixed with a
gnawing anxiety. From the gad he warned her against 'tempt-
ing the midday sun'. Gandhi, who had a special affection for
her, gave her much paternal advice: 1 understand you are
working too hard; your body will not bear excessive strain or
neglect* But her highly-strung, emotional nature made her
completely oblivious of herself . Her mind and heart were set on
a great cause which had been her husband's for so long, and had
at last become hers as well. Her mood is reflected in a letter she
sent to Jawaharlal in Naini GaoL

536 THE HEHRUS

Kamala to Jowaharlal, September, 1930: 'Jawahttl I & a ve re-

ceived your letter. The day of your release is approaching, but
I am doubtful if you wodid be set free. And even if you are,
you will again be pat behind the bars. But I am prepared for
everything . . . How I wish I were arrested before you come
out!'

The letter is more like one from a soldier to a comrade-in-
arms than from a wife to her husband* The ceaseless toil of these
months was before long to take heavy toll of Kamala. Her
intuition, that her husband would henceforth be more in gaol
than out of it, was a sound one. A few days before JawaharlaTs
term was to expire, the Government of India threw a broad hint
to the United Provinces Government to take the earliest oppor-
tunity of 'putting this irreconcilable out of harm's way'. He
was released on October nth, and tried to make the most of
his short-lived freedom for the national movement He con-
venal a meeting of the executive of the Provincial Congress
Committee and persuaded it to launch a no-tax campaign in the
rural areas* A district peasants' conference was summoned to
meet at Allahabad on October igth. Meanwhile, accompanied
by Kainala, Jawaharlal went to Mussoorie, where his father was
convalescing. It was a happy family reunion for three precious
days, and a wonderful holiday for Jawaharlal - the last he was
to spend with his father.

On October i8th Jawaharlal and Kamala returned to Allah-
abad in time for the peasants' conference. On the following day,
the rest of the family also arrived at Allahabad. Jawaharlal
received than at the railway station and immediately after-
wards, accompanied by his wife, went to a public meeting. As
he was returning home in the evening; his car was stopped
almost at the gates of Anand Bhawan, he was arrested and
taken to Naini Gad. Kamala went home alone to give the news
to the waiting family. Motilal was deeply distressed by the re-
arrest of his son within a week. He pulled himself together and
announced that he would no longer be an invalid. Strangely
enough he suddenly seemed much better; even the blood in his
sputum, which had been defying all treatment, ceased.

Motilal took back tbe reins of the movement. He was once
again in high spirits. 1 take my Gandhi cap off to the Naoroji
daa/ he wrote on November loth to Mrs Gosi Captain of

FREEDOM'S BATTLE 357

Bombay, 'for the great part they are taking in the national
struggle/ 'It has been decided by Pandit Motilal Nehru/ wrote
the Secretary of All India Congress Committee to all Provincial
Congress Committees, "that the i6th of November, 1930, should
be observed as "Jawahar Day" throughout the length and
breadth of India as a protest against the savage sentence of two
and a half years passed on the Congress President/ On
November i6th at hundreds of meetings all over the country
the offending passages from JawaharlaTs speech were read. At
Allahabad, Swamp Rani, Vijayalakshmi, Krishna and Indira
joined the procession and the meeting in Purushotamdas Park
was addressed among others by Kamak, who read the whole of
the 'seditious' speech for which her husband had been convicted,

The shock of his son's arrest had enabled Motilal to summon
the reserves of his dwindling strength for a last desperate effort
But will-power alone could not stem the progress of the fatal
disease. Chronic asthma had resulted in advanced fibiosis of the
lungs, forming a tumour on the right side of the chest, which
pressed upon the blood-vessels.

On November ijth Motilal left for Calcutta where he was
examined by two eminent doctors, Nilratan Saikar and Jivraj
Mehta. The Governor of Bengal generously allowed Dr B. C
Roy to leave Alipore Central prison for a few houis to make a
further examination* 'The X-rays have revealed/ Motilal wrote
to Vijayalakshmi from Calcutta, 'that the heart, die lungs and
liver are all affected/ A virulent attack of malaria further
lowered his resistance. He moved into a garden-house in the
suburbs of Calcutta, where he was joined by the whole family
except Kamala, who was busy with Congress work in Allah-
abad. He toyed with the idea of making a voyage to Singapore.
But he did not go to Singapore* He was approaching not a new
voyage but the end of an old one.

The news of Kamala's arrest on January i, 1931, brought
Motilal back to Allahabad. On January nth, when he turned
up for the fortnightly interview in Naini prison, Jawaharial was
shocked to see his swollen face and the rapid deterioration in his
health. A fortnight later, Gandhi, Jawaharial and all members
of the Congress Working Committee, 'original' and 'substitute*.

THE NEHRUS

were released. This brought Jawaharlal and Kamala back home.
The presence of his son and of Gandhi, who had left for Allaha-
bad immediately after his release, seemed to have a soothing
effect on MotilaL A number of Congress leaders came to
Allahabad to review the political situation, Motilal was too ill
to take part in their discussions but he insisted on meeting them.
He sat up in an easy chair to receive them as they came in twos
and threes; the swelling had obliterated all expression on his
face, but there was a glitter in his eye, his head bowed, and his
hands folded in salutation; his lips opened for a word of greeting
and even of humour. When the constriction in his throat
rendered conversation too painful, he wrote on little slips of
paper.

Thuee of the most eminent doctors in the country, Ansari,
Jivraj Mehta and B. C. Roy, were attending him* On February
4th, they decided to take him to Lucknow for deep X-ray treat-
meet, which was not available at Allahabad. Motilal was re-
hictant to go; he preferred to die in his beloved Anand Bhawan.
But he yielded to the persuasion of the doctors - and of Gandhi*

His courage and humour remained till the last He joked with
Swarup Rani about going ahead of her and waiting in heaven
to receive her* He did not, he said, want anyone to pray for HJTTI
after his death; he had made his own way in this world, and
hoped to do so in the next as weiL Pointing to the swelling on
his face, he said: 'Have I not qualified for a beauty com-
petition?* Turning to the masseur, who was. attending on him,
he asked: *Mr. Austin, how many Baby Austins do you
possess?* *Mahatmaji/ he said to Gandhi, 'you have perfect con-
trol over your sleep. I have perfect control over my digestion;
it never fails me**

The end came in the eariy hours of February 6th, while
Swaiup Rani and Jawaharlal were at his bedside. For several
hours his strength had been gradually ebbing; he was speechless
but conscious. One wonders what thoughts crossed his mind,
whether in those twilight hours he recalled the strange ad-
venture that Me had been to him: the fatherless childhood in
Ag*a and Khetrij the sheltering care of Nandlal and the
Persian lessons from tbe old Qazi; the carefree boyhood in Cawn-
poie and ABahabad and the good old Principal Harrison; the
deatfc of Nandlal and the struggle for survival at the Allahabad
Bar; die palmy days in Anand Bhawan, the drive in state to the

FREEDOM'S BATTLE 339

High Court, the poetry and politics and champagne in the
evening; the delightful interludes in Europe, and Jawahar at
Harrow, and little Nanni's birthday in Bad Ems; the glorious
morning of Jawahar's home-coming in Mussoorie and the Nehru
Wedding Camp at Delhi; the Home Rule furore and the coming
of Gandhi and Satyagraha; the months of agonizing suspense
and the exhilaration of the final plunge; Chauri Chaura and
the pleasures and pains of Gandhi's leadership; the bouts with
Hailey and Muddiman in the Assembly Chamber; Kamala in
Switzerland and the last trip to Europe; the Simon Commission
and the framing of a Swaraj constitution, the dash and com-
promise at Calcutta; the hero's welcome for jfawahar in Lahore
- and then another struggle. That struggle continued, hat it was
in safe hands, guided by 'the head of Gandhi and the voice of
JawaharlaT.

EPILOGUE

In June, 1912, two months before the return of his son from
England, Motilal had confided to his brother that he was looking
forward to an early retirement *in peace and comfort after a
most strenuous life of active work extending over thirty-five
years'. Little did he know that his last years were to be the most
crowded, the most strenuous and the most memorable of his life.
If he had indeed been able to enjoy his well-earned retirement,
he might have lived to a ripe old age, holding court in Anand
Bhawan, entertaining his friends, holidaying in Kashmir or the
South of France. His children and grand-children would then
have cherished his memory as that of a fascinating, if somewhat
formidable and mercurial patriarch. And in the Bar Libraries
of his province, and more particularly of Allahabad, he would
have been remembered as a brilliant lawyer, who had lived well
and laughed well - one of those fortunate few who had made
- and spent - a fortune at the Bar.

Motilal was destined for a larger role than that of a genial
patriarch or a local celebrity. He was to become one of the
heroes of India's struggle for freedom. He had not the missionary
zeal of his son, nor the ascetic streak of the Mahatma, but
Satyagraha appealed to that fighting spirit which in youth had
gloried in such sports as wrestling and in defying the tyranny
of his caste and community. He had always been ready to 'break
his knee with a foeman worthy of his steel'. In the armour of
this happy warrior there was a chink: the love of his son, but
Ais was his strength as well as his weakness; it turned the last
yeais of his life from a placid pool into a raging torrent, but it
also lifted him from the position of a prosperous lawyer to the
apex of national leadership.

So loog had Motilal been known to admire English ways,
Eagiish traditions and English institutions that when he turned
nebd against the Raj, the feelings of his numerous English
friends (is tihe words of an Anglo-Indian journal) 'resembled
dbose of a fond Bdwardian father whose delightful daughter
became a sd&agette and broke his windows'. The transition

EPILOGUE 341

was in fact not so sudden as it seemed to his contemporaries;
nearly a decade before Gandhi launched non-co-opeiaiioii,
HotilaTs politics had been shifting leftward. Nevertheless, it is
doubtful if, at the age of sixty, he would have made a dean
break with his past and plunged into the unknown, but for the
unshakable resolve of his son to follow the Mahatma. Motilal
loved the good things of life, but he loved his son even more.

The political partnership between father and son was the
more remarkable because of their intellectual and tempera-
mental differences. Motilal was the stern realist, Jawaharial the
irrepressible idealist; Motilal had the dearer head, Jawahadal
had the larger vision* Jawaharial -like the Mahatnia- learned
to strike the deep chords in Indian humanity; he took to the
crowd, and the crowd took to him. MotilaTs gifts weie more
suited to a legislative chamber than to the street-corneas his
public speeches, though spiced with Persian proveihs, were
dosely reasoned; it was truly said of him that he gave to the
mob what was meant for a parliament, fawaharial belonged to
an uncommon genre: he was an intellectual in politics; his
sensitiveness to currents of thought and events in India and
abroad kept his politics perpetually in flux and made it difficult
for his father to keep pace with him. This led to a dash, which
despite its toll of tension and anguish, did much good to both
father and son and also to the common cause they sought to
serve. It spurred on the ageing father and restrained the youth-
ful impetuosity of the son : it also made them recognize afresh
how much they meant to each other.

The process of political education was not one-sided. Young
Nehru also owed much to his father. For one thing, he was
spared the distraction of working for a living, which might have
compromised his politics and kept him away from the centre of
events. For another, he could not but be influenced by his
father's example: his integrity, pride, courage, tremendous
capacity for work, devotion to detail and freedom from pettiness.

During the nineteen twenties when non-co-operation had
collapsed and Gandhi had taken to the ashram and the ckarkka
and nationalist politics were at a low ebb, the Swarajists led by
C R. Das and Motilal kept up the spirit of resistance to foreign
rule. The Swarajists rendered another more important, if unin-
tended service. By bringing the Congress into the legislatures,
even for the avowed purpose of wrecking them, the Swarajists

342 THE NEHRUS

helped to acquaint the country with the mechanism, the pro-
cedures and the traditions of parliamentary government. The
Swarajist experience was thus not so barren as it seemed in
1930; it created precedents which hdped the Congress to contest
the elections and to accept office in 1937; it facilitated the in-
stallation of a fully-fledged representative government at the
centre in 1946.

Motilal was one of those outstanding men who were drawn
into the national movement under Gandhi's inspiration in 1920,
and who gave much to the national movement because they had
much to give* He seemed cut out for the role of a great parlia-
mentarian with his splendid presence, his gift of persuasive
advocacy, his freedom from doctrinaire rigidity and his capacity
for personal friendliness towards political opponents* These are
qualities which India will need in her leaders if she is to main-
tain her democratic institutions in fufl vigour, and build a better
future for her people in freedom and unity.

He also represented another great tradition, that of a liberal
secularism. There was hardly any Indian leader of his time who
was more fully emancipated from the bonds of orthodoxy and
sectarianism. He fought the narrowness of his co-religionists and
the mounting ambitions of Muslim communalism with equal
tenacity. His secularism did not stem from political expediency,
bat from that broad-based culture which had nourished several
generations of Nehrus in Delhi and Kashmir. He was a product
of the mingling of three cultures - the Aryan, the Mughal and
the European.

His sacrifices and fighting statesmanship cast a spell on his
generation and it is kit natural that he should be remembered
today chiefly as a legendary figure. He was, however, no copy-
book hea. He was refreshingly human in his school-boy
exuberance, insatiable curiosity and the bubbling enthusiasm
which enabled Him to make of his life an unending adventure
aad to laugh right to the very gate of death. He had his failings
foo-pdde, arrogance and a quick temper-but the sum of all
tjbese faults and virtues was a fascinating human being. The
heanok and the human were happily blended in him, and in
nothing was he more human than in his love for his son.
Motiiai's ambitions had been all for his son: his son's were all
for India. EOT India Jawaharial took risks and endured hardship

EPILOGUE 343

which filled MotilaFs heart with a perpetual conflict between
paternal pride and paternal anxiety.

Asked to describe MotilaFs greatest quality, Gandhi said:
'Love of his son/ 'Was it not love of India?' the Mahatma was
asked. *No/ he replied, 'MotilaFs love for India was derived
from his love for JawaharlaL'

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Unpublished Sources: This book is primarily based on original
sources, the Nehru family papers, official records of the Govern-
ment of India, and the unpublished correspondence of Mahatma
Gandhi and Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru.

The abbreviations used are: *NJ/ for Nehru Papers; TSLAJ/
for National Archives of India; *G*S.N/ for Gandhi Samarak
Nidhl

Published Sources : A large number of books, journals and news-
papers have been consulted; the following list is not exhaustive
but includes only such publications as have been cited in the foot-
notes* The year against each book is not necessarily the date of
first publication, but of the edition actually consulted.

All Parties Conference (Nehru) Report: Allahabad, 1928.

All Parties National Convention, Proceedings of: December, 1928.

BALL, w. MACMAHON: Nationalism and Communism in East

Asia; Melbourne, 1956.

BANERJEA, s. N. : A Nation in the Making, London, 1925*
BESANT, ANNIE : India Bond or Free; London, 1926.
BEVERIDGE, LORD : India Called Them; London, 1947.
BIRKENHEAD, EARL OF: The Life of F. E. Smith, First Earl of

Birkenhead; London, 1960*

BOLITHO, HECTOR: Jinnah; Creator of Pakistan; London, 1954.
BOSE, SUBHAS CHANDRA: The Indian Struggle; Calcutta, 1948.
BRECHER, MICHAEL: Jawaharlal Nehru; London, 1959.
BROCKWAY, FENNER: Inside The'Left; London, 1942.
BROGAN, D, w.: The Price of Revolution; London, 1951*
CAMPBELL-JOHNSON, ALAN: Lord Halifax; London, 1941.
CHATURVEDI, BANARsiDAS AND MARJORIE SYKES: Charles Freer

Andrews; London, 1949*
COATMAN, j. : Years of Destiny; London, 1932*
COLE, MARGARET: Beatrice Webb's Diaries 1924-32; London, 1956.
COTTON, SIR HENRY: New India or India in Transition; 1907,

Indian and Home Memories; London, 1911*
DUTF, R. PALME: India Today; Bombay, 1947,
DWiVEDi, & (E<L) : The Life and Speeches of Pandit Jawaharlal

Nehrv; Allahabad, 1930,

BIBLIOGRAPHY 545

GANDHI, M, K. : My Experiments with Truth or an Auto-
biography; Ahmedabad, 1945.

GOPAL, s.: The Viceroyalty of Lord Irwin; London, 1957.

The Viceroyalty of Lord Ripon; London, 1953.
GUPTA, j. N. : Life and Work of Romesh Chnndcr Dutt, London,

1911.

HALIFAX, EARL OF : Fulness of Days; London, 1957,
HARDINGE OF PENSHURST: My Indian Years; London, 1948.
Hindustan Times : New Delhi.
History of the Times: The i$Qth Anniversary and Beyond;

Volume IV, London, 1952.
HUGHES, E.: Keir Hardie; London, 1956.
HUTHEESING, KRISHNA: With No Regrets; Bombay, 1952.
Independent, Allahabad*

INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS : Reports of the Annual Sessions.
INDIAN STATUTORY COMMISSION REPORT: Calcutta, 1930.

IRWIN, LORD : Speeches of Lord Irwin; Volnme I, Simla, 1930*
IYENGAR, A. s* : All Through the Gandhian Era; Bombay, 1950*
JAGADISAN, T. N. (Ed.): Letters of Rt. Honourable V.. S. Sriwvasa

Sastri; Madras (n.d.).
JAYAKAR, M. R.: The Story of My Life; VoL I r Bombay, 1958,

VoL II, 1959.
KEITH, A* B.: Letters on Imperial Relations; Indian Reform and

International Law, 1916-1930; London, 1935,
KRISHANDAS: Seven Months with Mahattna Gandhi, Vol. I;

Madras, 1928,
Leader, Allahabad.

LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY DEBATES : 1924 to 1930.

MACDONALD, j. RAMSAY: The Awakening of India; London, 1910.
MALAVTYA, K. D. : Pandit Motilal Nehru; His Life and Speeches;

Allahabad, 1919.

MASANI, R. P. : Dadabhai Nooroji; London, 1939.
MITRA, N. N* : Annual Register, Calcutta.
MONTAGU, E. s.: An Indian Diary; London, 1930.
MORAES, FRANK: Sir Pwshotatndas ThaJmrdas; Bombay, 1957,
MORLEY, VISCOUNT: Recollections; VoL II, London, 1918.

Indian Speeches; London, 1909.
NANDA, B. R. : Mahattna Gandhi; London, 1958.
NATESAN, G. A.: Congress Presidential Addresses; 1911 to 1934;

Madras, 1934. Speeches and Writings of Mahattna Gmdfefe

Madras, 1933.
NATARAJAN, }. : History of Indian Journalism, Part II of Report of

Press Commission; Delhi, 1955.

346 THE NEHRUS

NATARAfAN, s.: A Century of Social Reforms in India; Bombay,
1959.

NHIRU, j. L.: A Bunch of Old Letters; Bombay, 1958. Soviet Russia;
Bombay, 1929. Toward Freedom; New York, 1941. (British
edition entitled An Autobiography; London, 1958.)

KEvmsoN, H. w.: The New Spirit in India; London, 1908.

PARVATE, T. v.: Copal Krishna Gokhale; Ahmedabad, 1959.

PATEL, G. I, : Vithalbhai Patel, Life and Times, Vol. II; Bombay,
1950.

Pioneer: Allahabad.

PUNJAB SUB-COMMITTEE: Indian National Congress: Reports I
and II; Lahore, 1920.

RADHAKRISHNAN, s. (Ed.): Mahatma Gandhi: Essays and Reflec-
tions; London, 1939,

RATCLIFFE, s. K.: Sir William Wedderburn, London, 1923.

READING, MARQUESS OF : Rf us Isaacs: first Marquess of Reading
VoL n, London, 1945.

RONAU>SHAY, EARL OF: The Life of Lord Curzon, VoL ffl;
London, 2928*

SAHGAL, NAYAOTARA: Prison and Chocolate Cake; London, 1954.

SEN, s. N.: Eighteen fifty-Seven; Delhi, 1957.

SHARMA, JHABARMAL: Khetri fea ItHas (History of Khetri in
Hindi); Calcutta, 1927.

Adarsh Noresh (Biography of Raja Ajit Singji of Khetri in Hindi);

Calcutta, 1940.
SHUKLA, CHANDRA SHANKER (Ed.): Indents of GandhijTs Life;

Bombay, 1949,

SIMON, VISCOUNT: Retrospect; London, 1952.

SITARAMAYYA, P.: History of the Indian National Congress;

VoL I, Bombay, 1946.

SPEAH, PEROVAL: Twilight of the Mughals; London, 1951.
TAYLOR, A* j. p.: From Napokon to Stalin; London, 1950.
TENDULKAR, D. G.: Mahatma, VoL I to ffl; Bombay, 1951-52.
THOMPSON, EDWARD: Rodindronth Tagorc; Lcmdon, 1948.
The Times, London.
Tribune, Lahore.

PKIVlRSmC OF ALLAHABAD 7O1H ANNIVERSARY SOUVENIR; Alia-
habad, 1958*

UJP. COUNCIL DEBATES.

SIR WHXIAM: ABon Ocfeman Hume; London,
1913,

EUSHBROQK (Ei): Great Men of India (n
BARL: Orders of the Day; London, 1953*

BIBLIOGRAPHY 347

WOODRUFF, PHILIP: The Guardians; London, 1955.

WRENCH, JOHN EVELYN: Geoffrey Dmvson and Our Times;

London, 1955*
Young India; Ahmedabad.
ZAKARIA, RAFIQ (Ed.); A Study of Nehru; Bombay, 1960*

INDEX

Abdul Ghaffar Khan, 330
Advocate, the, in
Afghanistan, 214
Aga Khan, 98, 114, 291
Agra, 21-2, 43, 106, 201, 338
Ahmedabad, 194, 197, 209, 240, 246,

248, 328

Ahmedabad Congress, 197, 295
Ahmediya Community, 289
Ahsanuiiah Khan, Hakim, 20
Aikman, Sir Robert, 99, 123
AJit Singh, 22, 38, 88
Afmal Khan, HaMm, 171
Ajudhyanath, Pandit, 50
Akalis, 217-18, 220, 222
Akbar, 19

Alexander, Horace, 320
All Brothers, 125, 156, 159, 193-4,

291, 326

Alice in Wonderland, 64
All Parties Conference, 287, 290,

296

All Parties Convention, 290-2, 295
Almora, 192
Ambala, 220
Amethi, Raja of, 118
America, 31, 41, 61, 256
Amherst, Lord, 35
Amritsar Congress, 171-3, 182, 325
Anand Bhawan, 17, 31-2, 40, 42, 51,

63-4, 68, 85, 105, 112, 116, 122-3,

129-30, 140, 151, 184-5, 195-7* 200,

205, 213-14, 247, 275, 278, 328,

332, 338-9.

Anderson, Principal, 21
Andrews, C. R, 168, 234
Aney, 265, 269, 288
Angell, Norman, 124
Anglo- Afghan parleys, 178
Ansari, Dr, M.A., 204, 206, 231,

244, 251, 268, 274, 280, 287-8, 290,

316, 326, 329-30, 338
Arabia, 214

Arnold, Sir Edwin, 185, 192
Arrah, 176-8, 180, 185, 188-9, 204
Arundale, G. S., 134
Arya Samaj, 36
Assam, 208, 269
Asthana, N. R, 135

Atkinson, Lord, 278

Attlee, Clement, 145, 283

Austria, 308

Avery, Sir Horace, 112

Azad, Abul Kalam, 125, 206-7, 267

Bad Ems, 16-17, 339

Bad Homburg, 66

Bahadur Shah, 19-20

Bajaj, Jamnalal, 206

Balfour, Arthur, 98

Balwant Singh, 28-9

Baldwin, Roger, 252

Baldwin, Stanley, 283; 317

Eandc Mataram, 268

Banerjea, Justice P.C, 277

Banerjea, Surendra Nath, 48, 51,

53-4, 103-5, "4 i*5 150
Banker, 164

Bankipore Congress, 124
BardoH, 200-3, 3 12
Barkatullah, 252, 279
Barrow, Rogers and Nevill, 168
Basu, Bhupendra Nath, 114, 144
Belgaum Congress, 240, 242, 296
Benares, 41, 57, 64 177
Bengal, partition of, 52-3, 57, 124
Benn, "W. Wedgwood, 315-17, 321,

329

Berar, 234

BerUn, 257-8, 279, 281
Bernard Shaw, George, 96
Besant Annie, 36, 64-5, 130-5, 137,

139-40, 142, i45> 147 149, 156,

159, 165, 171, 182, 242, 290
Beti Mahalakshmibai, 28, 278
Beveridge, Henry, 47
Bhardwaj Ashram, 31
Bhagat Singh, 311
Bhownaggree, Sir Mancherjee, 38
Bihar, 176

Bikaner, Maharaja of, 98
Birkenhead, Lord, 239, 243, 281-2,

287, 294, 305, 317, 320
Bishamber Nath, Pandit, 50
Bishan Sabha, 37
Blavatsky, Madame, 64-5
Boer War, 39, 153
Bomanji, S, K, 231-2

INDEX

549

Bombay Chronicle, 187-^
Bombay Congress, 158
Bonnerji, W. C, 51* 150
Bose, Subhas Chandra, 105, 104,

241, 304, 310* 312. 3i5 3*o
Bradford, Captain, 22
Bradlaugh, Charles, 64, 130
Brahmaputra, 269
Brahmo Samaj, 36
Bright John, 45
Britain, 254-5* *57
British Committee of Indian

National Congress, 174
Broach, 328

Brodcway, Fenner, 282, 3*0-1, 3*9
Broomfield, Judge, 209-10
Brooks, Ferdinand, T., 64, 78, 95,

101, 130

Brown, Dr Lennox, 38-9
Brussels Congress of Oppressed

Nationalities, 254-6, 258, 279, 296
Buddha, 41
Bugga, 174
Burden, E., 262
Burke, Edmund, 35
Butler, Sir Harcourt, 40, 179-80, 199,

246

Calcutta Congress, 292, 301-4, 307-

8, 310, 3i*-i3* 3*4
Cama, Madame, 252
Cambridge, 64, 76, 123* I3& "
Cameron, Misses, 247
Campbell-Bannerman, Sir Henry,

83, 102

Captain, Mrs. Gosi, 336
Canada, 262, 323
Carson, Sir Edward, 112
Cawnpore Congress, 251, 265, 271
Chafc Janki Nath, 188
Chaman Lall, Dewan, 199* ^5
Chamba, 243

Qiamberlain, Austen, 133* 142, *44
Chamberlain, Joseph, 52
Champaran, 159
Ohandavarkar, N. G., 76
Chaudhrani, Mrs. Sarla, 113
Chauri Chaura, 200-4, 339
Chicago Tribune, 191
China, 255-6

Chetty, ShaTi ml1 fcfr am f 225, 280
Chelmsford, Lori 95 W-4, H3-4

156, 158, 164-5, i6>8,

202, 231

Chintamaoi C Y-, 111-12, 135. 1^0,
148-9, 242, 249- 3*6

ChiroL Valentine, 12$

Choudhuri, logendranath, 27, 93

Churchill Winston, Sw 175. 3*o

Qvil Disobedience Enquiry Com-
mittee, 204

dark. Sir Edward, }g

Dayton, John, 191

Qevdand Sir C FU 166

Coatman, J^ 259

Coleridge, S. T-, 66

Colombo, 281

Colvin, Sir Auckland. 49-50

Common wcaL 131

Congress of Oppressed Nationali-
ties, 254.7

Cotton* Sr Henry, 51. 54

Craddock, Sir RegiaakL 135* 143

Crear, James, 230

Cripps, Sir Stafiord, 145

Curtis, UooeL 147

Curzon, Loi4 52-3, 57, 87. 124, 146

Dale, Major, 262

Daily Herald, 333

Dalhousie, Lord, 45

Dandi, 3^8

Darwin, Charles, 101

Das, C R^ 26, 170, i?ir i?^7 iBu
183-4* 204r5, 207, 215-16, 229,
231-2, 235, 239-43. 260, 264-5. *7*
303 340

Das, Jatiru 311

Daulatram, ^irajraias, 334

Dawsoa, Geofeey, 133* 165, 3U

Dayanand, Swami, 36

de Lambert, Comte, 100

*Delhi Mamfeto', 31^ 3i8. 32^ 322

Desai, Mafcadev, 168, 201, zn,

251

Dhammapada, 65
Dharam Sabha, 37
Dhar, Pandit iisfcan Narayan.

112

Dickens, C&arks, 64
Di^)y, 254

Discovery of Indte, 65, 3<
Donnd C J. O, 5^
Drinkwater, fofeiu 124
DufEerin, Lodl 45^ 49
DtHBraon case, 174 v*
Donnaf u, 29, 277-8
Diitt, B. K^ 3"

350

THE NEHRUS

Dutt Michael Madhusudan, 36
Dutt, R. C, 5* 103-4. 150* *54
Dwarkadas, Jamnadas, 164
Dyarchy, 229
Dyer, General, 165-6, 168, 175

East India Company, 18
Edge, Sir John, 27, 40
Egypt 308
Knstem, Albert; 256
EUenborough, Lord, 47
Englishman, the, 82
Essays of EUa, 71
Eton, 73, 95

Fatdb Singh, Raja* 21-2
Farrukhabad, 275
Farukhsiyar, 18
Rtzgerald, Sir G. Seymour, 38
Raster, E M, 31
Fuller, Sir Bampfyide, 87

Gandiu, Mahatma, 9, 10, 26-7, 41*
54, 124, 135, 145* 151-60, 162, 164,
16&-74, 181-5, 187, 189-97, aoo-5,
209. 212, 215, 230, 23*45, 250-2,
254, 256-7, 264-9, aji-3* 275,
278-9, 282-283, 287, 289-90, 293-6,
301, 304-5* 307-10, 31>14> 3io-iS,
330, 33** 334-5 337-9, 34>3

Gandhi Devadas, 201, 211, 225, 245

GandM-Irwin Fact, 333

Ganga Diiar, 18-19, 21

Ganges, 17, 245, 269

Garibaldi 95, 140

Ganhati, 254, 26970

Gaya Congress, 201*5, 303

Geneva, 251*3

George V, King, 114-15, 172

George, David Lloyd, 136, 143, 316-
17* 320

Germany, 252, 257

Gkadr Party, 279

Gfeose, Aurobindo, 26, 36, 56, 105
Oiose, MotHal 146
Glwse, Dr lask Bebari, 91
Qdwanl, Dr, 217, 222
Gb&terae, 'WiHam E, 57
Gtimpses of World History, 300
Go&dte, H S. 195, *oo
Gokfeafe, Gopai Knskia, 49,

Goswami, T. C., 225

Gorakhpur, 202

Gour, Sir Hari Singh, 224

Gujarat, 156, 294

Gupta, B. L, 103-4

Gupta, J. M., Sen, 312

Gupta, Nagendranath, 111

Guzdar and Company, R.R.M., 31

Hailey, Sir Malcolm, 225, 227-8, 230,

308-9, 339

Haksar, Colonel, 213
Haldane, Lord, 98
Hapsburg Empire, 173
Hardie, Keir, 82, 229
Hardinge, Lord, 158
Hardwar, 41
Hari, 62, 232, 269
Hariji, 176

HarkishenlaL 167, 169, 218
Harrison, Principal, 23-4, 338
Harrow, 64, 66-7, 70^0, 123, 159,

210, 339

Hartog Committee, 288
Hewett, Sr J. P^ 108
Hindu Mahasabha, die, 114, 289
Hmd Swaraj", 238
Hindu College, 35
Hira Singh, Captain, 262-3
Hoare, Sir Samuel, 254
Hodson, Captain, 20
Home Ruk League, 132, 135-6
Hooper, Miss, 75
Hbrniman, B. G., 164, 187
Hossain, Syud, 188
Hume, Allan Octavian, 45, 40,

50-1, 113, 150, 238
Hume, Joseph, 45
Hunter Committee, 170, 174
Hug, Mazhar-ul-, 145
Huiey, Aldous, 199

Ibbetson, Sir Denzil 87-8
Qbert BiU, 283

Imam, ^T AH, 288

Tii>Tn f Hasan, 145
Independence Day', 327
Independent, 149, 187-9
Indian Cml Service, 272
Indian Defence Force, 136-7, 262
Itu&Bi Mirror, 108
Indian National Union, 267, 269
ItK&m. Opinion, 111
Indwn

INDEX

Indian Social Reformer, 108

India, the, 52

Iqbal 125

Iran* 214

Irwin, Lord, 257, 283, 305, 314-10,

321, 3*> 334
Ishwar Saran, 112
Italy, 254, 308
lyengar, Sdnivas, 254-5, 2701, 280,

305

Iyer, Ranga, 188, 270
Iyer, Slvaswamy, Sr P, S, 225

55*

i*i, 191*
245-4 3*7,

Jafri, KtTP3l"^dm, 248

Jagat, Narayan, 148

Jagmohanlal, 38

Jaipur, 22

Jaito, 217-18

Jallianwala Bagh, 166, 168, 171

Jamaica, 231

Jambosar, 328-9

Jameson, Sir L &, 52

Jamshedpur, 294

Japan, 41* 61

Jaswant Singh Raja, 28-9, 279

Jawaharmul Pandit, 128

Jawan Bakht, Prince, 20

Jayakar, M. R^ 170, 191, 226-7,

263-5, 269, 272, 285, 332
Jeorani 21
Jinnah, M. A* 126, 145, 164, 171,

225, 228, 231, 234, 239, 242, 261-3,

*73 2&5 288, 291, 317* 3i9t 3*3*

334

Jogendra Singh, 262
Joseph, George, 188
Joshi, N. M^ 225, 288
Juhu, 234
Jumna, 17, 245

Kashmir, 18, 24, 180, 214

Kathgodam, 192

Katjn, K. N*, 27

Kaul, T^lr^mi Nazayan, 18

Kaul, Mausa Ram, 18

Kaul Raj, iS

Kaul Saheb Ram, 18

Keith, A. K, 297

Kdkar, N. C, 194* 231, 263, 265,

269

Khan, Abdul Qayum Khan, 262
Khan, Captain Go! Nawaz, 262
Khefcri, 21-2, 25, 38* 338

173^ 136^
193-4. in W, *
271, 325

Kiiian. Profesrar, 117
Kisbori, BaBi i&^ 25
Knar, K. NL, 124. 197
KnshnaHmrti, 130

labour Gomameai; 23^ 245, 31$,

317
Labour Party, 229, 251, 272

Tja^fc*^ 214

Lahore, 283

Lahore Congress, 301-2, 314,

Lafeat lai 5%. 96, 184,

195* zoi t 226V 231* 266,

z^5 290
Lakhana Case, 28-30, 276^0
Landsdowue, Lord, 57
Lansbcry, Gcoi^ 231, 25^ 281
Latin America, 256
La Toacbe, Sir J . J. D. 99
Lawrence, Jdm, 20, 22
Lawrence, Lord Pethkk, 145, 282
Leader, tfee, 111-12, 127, 13^* M&

249

League Against Imperiafisffl, 256-7
League of Nations, 252
Leys, Dr Norman, 272
Lloyd SSar George, i> 173
Lootrno, 252

Lowate, & Geosge; ify, 238
Locknow Ccmgress (191^. 1254,

143* 158

Lodcnow Fact 146, 288
Lytton, Lord, 229

Macaday, ioed, 35, 461, 61
MacDooald J. Ramsey, ifc 120,

231-3, 245* 288, 315. 3*9
Madcenzie, Sr Morel 38^
Madagan, Sir Edward, 169-70
Maddod^ Cokod 234
Madras Congress, 273, 281, 184.

287, 293. *&7
Maiey, J. L. 135* 164

KCaKorani, 21

Mahmndabad, Maharaja oi a6SL

*73 317

Makmod, Syed, 334
Malabar, 194
Makviya, Kapil Deo. 221, ziS,

265^ 269,285

35*

Malaviya, Madan Mohan, 50-1, 86,

90, 111, 113, 145, 169, 171, 184*

225, 245. 290, 316
Mangal Sngh, 288
Maharaj Singh, Rao, 123
Mansrovar Lake, 213
Mains, Six W. D., 147
Marseilles, 67
Martin, Lt-Colonel, 335
Mane, Karl, 238
Mary, Queen, 114
Matthai, Dr John, 26
Maugham, E H., 278
Mazumdar, Ambika Charan, 150
McKinley, President, 38
McRobert, Sir A., 116
Mears, Sir Grimwood* Chief

Justice, 29-30, 277
Meerut case, 311, 314
Mehdi, Syed Hyder, 188
Mehrauli, 19
Mehta, Dr Jivraj, 337-8
Mehra, Sr Pherozeshah, 54, 57-8,

131. 150
Menton, 281
Meredith, George, 212
Meston, Sir James, 134* 137-9* H3.

148, 163
MiH J. S., 57
Minchin, Lt-Colonel, 222
Minto-Morley Reforms, 288
Mirza Mughal, 20
Misra, Gokran Nath, 142, 145
Moderates, 194
Mohamed AH, 193, 239, 245, 266,

326
Montagu, E. S., 140, 142, 144-9,

157-8, 165, 167-9, *73 175 201,

317
Montagu-Gielmsford Reforms, 147-8,

150, 182
Montana, 252-3
Monte Carlo, 281
Moonfe, Dr, 239, 265, 269
Moore, Arthur, 199
Moriey, Joiin, 5T-& 87, 97> 99 u&9*

124. 231. 317
Moscow, 258, 281
Moti Sabha, 39
Mouatbatten, Lori 95, 145
Mount Kailas, 213
Mufearak AIL Munshi, 63
Mtiddiinaii, Sr Alexander, 225, 230,,

252, 279, 339

THE NEHRUS

Muddiman Committee, 262

Mukandlal, 19

Muir Central College, 23, 34, 63, 75

Muller, Max, 35

Mushran, Shamji> 112

Muslim League, 125-6, 143, 145, 171,

288, 291
Mutiny, 18-20, 36

Nahha, 216-23, 234, 249

Nadir Shah, 20

Naidu, Sarojini, 140

Naini Gaol, 17-18, 329, 331-2, 335-6,
338

Naini Tal, 210

Nair, Sir Sankaran, 55

Nandi rfills, 276

Nandrani, 25, 42

Naoroji, Dadabhai, 52, 55, 58, 131,
150, 238, 254, 274

Narsingh Rao, 29, 277-8

Nation, the, 212

Nationalist Journals Ltd., 188

Nationalist Party, 260

Nehru, Bansi Dhar, 21, 23, 37, 40,
63, 104, 122

Nehru, Biharilal, 25

Nehru, Braj Kumar, 200, 303

Nehru, Brijlal, 25* 34. 65, 84, 200

Nehru Committee, 288-91

Nehru, Indira (also Indu), 174, 178,
197, 214, 221, 247, 280, 332, 337

Nehru, Jawaharlal, birth, 25; cele-
bration of his birthdays; his
childhood, 62-3; early schooling,
63; influence of his tutor, Ferdi-
nand T. Brooks, 64; is initiated
into Theosophy, 65; leaves for
England with his father, 65; ad-
mitted to Harrow, 68; makes a
mark in the school, 70; receives
prizes and takes part in school
sports and the Cadet Corps, 71-4;
his correspondence with his
father, 75-8; visits India and
France, 78; unable to info with
English boys at Harrow, 79-80;
signs of his precocity, 81, 84; is
happy at his father's entry into
active politics, 86; his views on
Sinn Fein movement, oo; breeze
with his father over the Moder-
ates' attitude at Surat Congress,

INDEX

353

Nehru, Jawaharlai (Cottt.)
Qi-3; is admitted to Trinity Col-
lege, Cambridge, 94; effects of
public school training upon him,
95; his life at Cambridge, 96-9;
resents exclusion of Indians from
the Officers" Training Corps, 98;
tours the Continent with Ms
father, 100; has a narrow escape,
101; formative influence of Cam-
bridge, 101-3; decides not to com-
pete for entry into the Indian
Civil Service, 104-5; is delighted
at his father's attack on ortho-
doxy at the Agra Social Con-
ference, 108; his comments on
the titles conferred by the British
Government, 117; his intellectual
curiosity and love of literature,
119-20; incurs his father's wrath,
121; returns to India, 123; prac-
tises at the Bar, 123; his marriage,
127-8; goes on a perilous moun-
tain expedition, 128; attracted by
Home Rule movement, organizes
the Allahabad Home Rule
League, 136; resigns from the
Committee on Indian Defence
Force, 137; receives Mrs Besant
on arrival at Allahabad, 140;
attends Bombay Congress, 1491
criticizes the Viceroy on the
South African question, 158;
meets Gandhi, 158-9; decides to
join Gandhi's campaign against
the Rowlatt Bills, 159-60; attends
the meeting of the Congress In-
quiry Committee, 174; his com-
ments on General Dyer, 175; is
asked to quit Mussoorie, 179;
tours the rural areas of Pratap-
garh, 180-1; and the Independent,
188-90; is imprisoned, 196-7; re-
ceives a letter from Gandhi ex-
plaining the withdrawal of mass
civil disobedience, 202; is re-
leased, and rearrested, 209; his
political evolution, 210; his
routine in Luckaow gaol, 210-12;
is released, 215; declines to join
the Swaraj Party and acts as a
mediator between Pro-changers
and No-changers, 215-6; attends
the Delhi Special Congress and

Nehru, fawaharbi (Cant.)
is arrested at Nabba, 116-17; re-
fuses to defend himself, 220; is
convicted, bat

Nabha, 222; lakes part in Satya-
graha during the Ardh-Kumbh
Mela, 245; his emotional
with his father and GandM
246-7; his work as chairman of
the Allahabad Municipal Board,
248-50; desires iaancia! inde-
pendence, 250; leaves for Switzer-
land for the treatment of Ms
wife, 252; attends the Brussels
Congress of Oppressed Nationali-
ties, 254r7; visits Russia, 258-9;
question of his election as presi-
dent of the Congress, 274-5;
shadowed by the secret police,
279; returns to India, 281; is in-
jured during demonstrations
against the Simon Commission*
286-7; official concern at Ms
activities, 293; his role at and
after the Madras Congress, 293-5;
differs with Ms father on
Dominion Status as political goal
for India, 296-8; a conflict of
ideologies, 299-303: ck^L and
compromise at Calcutta, 304-5*
asked by GandM to reorganize
the Congress committees, 50$;
possibility of Ms prosecution,
309-11; organizes defence of
accused in Meerut Conspiracy
case, 311; his election to presi-
dency of the Lahore Congress*
312-14; signs DelM Manifesto, 317;
presides over the Lahore Congress,
325-6; his tribute to, and meet-
ing with Gandhi 32%; is arrested
and gaoled, 329; delighted at the
part taken by the ladies of the
Nehru family in the Satyagraha
movement 331; nurses his ailing
father in prison, 332; takes part
in negotiations with Sapru and
layakar, 333-4; Ms wife's heroic
role in the national struggle,
335-6; is rearrested, 336; is re-
leased, 337; is at his father's bed-
side in Ms last hours, 338;
emotional and political bonds be-
tween him and his father, 340-3-

354

THE NEHRUS

Nehru, Kamala, 128, 178, 185, 192,
196-7, 221, 251-1, 257, 271, 280-1,
530-2, 555"9

Ndrra, Krishna (also Betty), & 4*
115, 122, 184, 197^ *&* 350, 33^
335* 337

Nehru, Kishenlal, 25, 200
Nehru, Mohanlal, 25, 180, 200
Hdini, Motilal, ancestry in Kash-
mir and Delhi, 18; family up-
rooted by the Mutiny, 19-20;
brought up by his brother after
the death of his father, 21-2;
career at school and college, 22-3;
qualifies as a lawyer, 24; is
married, 24; death of his brother,
25; his success in his profession,
20-& the Lakhana case, 28-9;
builds 'Anand Bbawan', 50-1; his
hospitality, 32-3; visits Europe,
3&40; extent of westernization,
40-4; attends the annual sessions
of the Indian National Congress,
50-1; delivers presidential address
at the Allahabad provincial con-
ference, 59-61; his fits of temper,
62-5; makes arrangements for the
education of his son, 63, 65-6; ad-
raits his son to Harrow, 66-7;
writes farewell letter to his son,
68; his enormous practice at the
Bar, 69; receives reports from
Harrow, 70; birth and death of a
son, 76; his advice to Jawaharkl,
77; on die anti-partition agita-
tion, 84; is drawn into active
politics, 84-5; attends Surat Con-
gress, 91; expresses disapproval
of his son's political views, 92-3;
his friendly feelings for England
and Englishmen, 09; visits
Europe, 100; presides over die
Social Conference at Agra, 106-8;
his views on Motley's reforms,
109; his freedom from sectarian
politics, 111-12,* is elected to U.P.
Council 110-1; and the leader,
111-125 S* Nlhal Singh's pen-por-
trait of* 112-13; attends die
Aiahabad Congress, 113-14; his
experiences at Delhi Durbar, 115.
17; and homoeopathy, 11% on the
profession of law, 1 20; attends
Baakipore Congress, 114; and die

Nehru, Motilal (Ccmt.)
Lucknow Pact, 126; and Home
Rule Movement, 132, 135-41;
meets Mr Montagu and Lord
Chelmsford, 145-6; his attitude to
the reforms and differences with
the Moderates, 157-9; on Gandhi's
Satyagrapha struggle in South
Africa, 158; ridicules Passive Re-
sistance, 159; tries to wean Jawa-
harlal from Satyagraha, 160-1;
and the Punjab tragedy, 167-8;
experiences as a member of the
Congress Inquiry Committee, 170;
presides over the Annitsar Con-
gress, 171-2; his reaction to Privy
Council judgments and Hunter
Committee's Report, 174-5; con-
ducts Dumraon case, 176; his
zest and humour, 177-8; ad-
dresses Governor of the United
Press, 179; takes die final plunge
and supports non-co-operation at
the Calcutta Congress, 182-5;
metamorphosis in his life, 184-6;
founds and runs the Inde-
pendent, 187-90; is fleeted Gen-
eral Secretary of the Congress.
191; celebrates marriage of his
elder daughter, 192; differs with
Gandhi on die 'apology* in-
cident, 193; is arrested, 195-7; his
life in Lucknow gaol, 199-200; is
unhappy at Gandhi's withdrawal
of civil disobedience, 201; on re-
lease favours Congress entry into

. legislative councils, 204-5; issues
the Swaraj Party election mani-
festo, 207; addressed the Admini-
strator of Nabha State and visits
Jawaharlal hi Nabha gaol, 218-
21; as Leader of the Opposition
in Central Legislative Assembly,
224-8; his correspondence with
Bomanji, 231-2; his differences
with Gandhi on Council work,
234-44; impresses upon his son
the importance of the study of
economics, 255; declines to serve
on die Muddiman Committee,
262; nominated to the Skeen
Committee, 262; is confronted
with a split in Swaraj Party,
236-7; leads the walk-out of the

INDEX

555

Nehru, Motilal (Cone.)
Swaraj Party, 266-7; condemns
communalism, 2-66-7; is dis-
tressed by dissensions in his
party, 270; his relations with
Gandhi, 272; addresses Gandhi on
Jawaharlal's election as president
of the Congress, 217-5; constructs
a new house, 275; appears in the
lakhana case, 276-9; visits
Europe, 280-1; denounces die
Simon Commission, 283-5; frames
the Nehru Report, 287-92; <Mexs
with his son on Dominion status
versus complete independence,
296-8; his political philosophy,
299, 301-3; presides over the Cal-
cutta Congress, 304; advises
Gandhi to postpone his visit to
Europe, 307-9; corresponds wi&
Gandhi on the election of the
Congress president, 312-13; inter-
views the Viceroy. 310-24;
attends Lahore Congress, 325; his
decision to join Gandhi's cam-
paign, 326; visits Gandhi at Jam-
bosar, 328; donates Anand
Bhawan to the Congress, 32% his
ill-health, 329; conducts tfee cam-
paign after the arrest of his son,
331; is arrested, 331; life in Nairn
gaol 333; interview with Sio-
eoeabe, 333; negotiatioas with
Sapnt and Jayakai, 3345; re-

affcer &e resarrest of Jawaharial

535-337J an estimate of bis

character and career, 340-3
Nehru, Nandlal, 11-2, 24-5, 30, 40-2,

338

Nehru, Rameshwari, 84, 200
'Nehru Report*, 290-2, 297, 304-5,

308
Nehru, Sarup Kumari (see also

Pandit, Vijayalakshmi), 32, 41.

65-8, 75, 113, 115-16, 122, 192, 263,

273

Nehru, Shamlal, 25, 136, 200, 268
Nehru, Sari Shridhar, 63, 104, 223,

193
Nehru, Swamp Rani, 24-5, 41-2, 65,

68, 76-7, 115-17, 122, 126, 178, 185,

191. 106-7, 246, 325, 330-1, 335,

337^8
Nehru, Uma, 158

Neogy, K. C, 225
NeviD, Reginald, 174
NevissoB, H. W., 82

131

New Statesman, 212
raegBToloje, 258
Nightingale, Florence, 46
Nihal Singh, % 112-13
Nizam, the, of Hyderabad, 234

20

OXxsmor, B. E, 277

(XDwyer, Sir MidiadL 134, 163,

165-71

Okx>tt, CoioocL 64^
Oimer, Lord, 229-31
Ottoman Empire, 173

Pakistan, 225, 291
Pal, B. C, 54 9& 171. t8 224
Pandit, Ranjif. 192, 263* 331
Pandit, Vijayabksfemi, 252, 330,

3^2, 335, 337

Pant, Gorind Baflabh, 287
fcuis, 41* jB
Parmanand. Kanwar, 31
Fatei, VaBafeii^ai, 2w, 226, 24a

294, 312, 314, 317, 31$,
Platiel V. J., iS4, 194, 204, 220.

262-14, 282-3* 3*^ 3*5-17* 39- 321,

324. 32* 3*1
Patrani 21
Paul Sir Charks, 29
Peadaai Ld, 134-5. 165
Peshawar, 330-1
Filai. 145
Pira, A. W., 249
fvmeer, tbe, 81, 90, 104, in. 137,

ite> 285
Ftoiak, Heary S., 174, 182, 277, 316,

319

Poland. 508

Pole, Graham, 181, 316, 319
Poona, 45-6, 234, 245,
Porter, Leslie, 115-17
Powell H, 23
Pra<fiian, a &. 288
Pratapgarh, 180-1
Pratap, Raja Mahendra, 252
Pridiinath Pandit, 24. 39, 1
Pttiai. dw, 87

Quetta eardsquake, 175
Qureshi, Shuaib. 288

556

Qutab, 20

THE NEHRUS

Raiay, Sir George, 217
Raipor, 58 ,

Rajagopaladiari, C K. t 204-6

Raffcot, 27, 152, 192
Rajjmtana, 21-1
Rajvati, 42
Ramachandra, 19

Shri, 36

,

Rampal Singh, Raja, 48
RoHwiyfma, 51
Ram Prasad, Munshi, 27
Ranade, 36, 54* * w _ ,
ifcagachariar, Diwan Bahadur, 227
Rao, Rama Chandra, 262
Rattan Chand, i?4
Rataa Lai T 6
Rauf, Jtidgs, 170
Ray, Dr, 178
Resufejg, Lori 193-4, 201-3, 211,

222, 2,30, 283, 316-17, 320

fteay. Lci 45 , ,

Responsive Co-operation, 263, 265
toponsivists, 269
Rhodes, CeciL 5^
iUinm, Loii 45 81-2
Sabers, Oiarks, 124
Robertson, M. L, 166
R^^tsoo, Sir Benjamin, 154
Holland, Romain, 252, 256

Round Tabk Conference, 204* 227,
-231, 3i6-i7> 320. 3*2-4. 3*4 333-4

Rowiatt Ms, 156-9, i4 106, 173*
187, 210, 242, 325

Roy, Dr B. C, 243* 3*7 337^

Roy, Ra^i Ram Mohun, 35. 253

Russia. 252, 257* 308

Ruttaaswamy, 273

246,

Ashram,
, 278, 309. 328
SadruMn Qazi, 22
Saba, Gopinath, 240
Sakktwak 255* 258
SalfciwiTy, Lori 48
Salt Satyagraha, 328

an c T , ., 222

Sopra, Sir Tej Bahadur, 10, 20, 85.
Hir 135-7. 1 4^ 142, 148, 157^ 1^0*
8, 276, 288^, 202, 315-24, 326,
332, 334

Sartor, ^rataa, 337

Sr Victor, 254

Sastri Srinivas, 157* I 7 l > l82 z ^

268, 326

Saturday Review, the, 97
Satyag3raka* i73 1 7^, 182, 187, 194.

245, 250, 275. 329. 33 5, 338-40
Savile Row, 17
Scott, Sir Walter, 64
Schuster, Sir George, 227
Sen, Keshub Chander, 103
Sen, Madame Sun Yat, 256
Servants of India Society, 124
Se&e, 164

Sethna, Kiiroze, 262
Shakespeare, William, 35
Shaukat Ali, 245* 248, 271
Shaw, George Bernard, 64. 130
SMtey, P. B, 35
ShiWi, 125

Shiva Prasad, Raja, 50
Sholapur, 204, 33O-1
Simla, 180, 247* 266, 334
Simon Commission, 283-87. 291,

294, 296-7, 306, 3*5* 3i7 339
Simon, Sir John, 278, 317. 320
Singapore, 337
Smd, 289

Snha, Sir S. P., 108, 157-8, 167. 278
Srcar, N. N., 176-7
Skeen Committee, 262-4
Skeen, Lt-General Sir Andrew, 262
Sloconibe, George, 333
Smuts, General, 154
Sobhani, 164
Song CdcstSd, 185
South Africa, 27, 99> i*** 50.

182, 219, 238, 254
Soviet Russia, 258
Spain, 253

Spoor, Ben, 175. 2 U
Sri Prakasa, 222
Stotestmm, the, 99
Stansgate, Lord, 314
Scepben, Sir Ktzjanies, 47
St John Ambulance Brigade, 197
Stradiey, Sr John, 47
Sumner, Viscount, 278
Sundeoftans, 269 A fi ,

Sondcrial Pandit Sir, 27, 30, 7^

90 93* 99

Sanderson, Sir Lancelot, 278
Sarat Congress, 90-1, 124, 240
Swaraf Bfaawan, 51, 328, 332

INDEX

Swaraj Party, Swarajists, 205-9,
215-16, 222, 224-6, 228-9, *3ii *34-
44, 254, 260, 263-5, 268-70, iSo,
296, 342-

Switzerland, 253. 160, 268, 271,
275 A 33 5, 339

Syed Brothers, 18

Symond, Addington, 124

Tagore, Satyendranath, 103

Tagore, Rabindranatb, 168, 301

Tambe, 263, 266

Tandon, Purushottam Das, 211, 247

Tatas, 275

Taylor, A. f. P., 48

Tdang, 36

Tennyson, Lord, 214

Thackeray, W. M, 64

lliakur, S, B., 103

Tiiakurdas, Sir Purshotamdas, 224,

254* 331

Three Men In A Boot, 64
Tibet, 213-14
Tikari, Maharaja of, 205
lilak, B. G., 56-9, 85, 91, 124, 126,

133, 136, 140, 142, 147, 150, 156,

159, 171-2, 238, 263, 276
Times of India, the, 166
Tiwcs, The, 47, 81, 84, 133 3M
Tolstoy, L, 153
Trevelyan, C. P., 231
Trevelyan, G. M. f 95
Troller, Ernst, 252
Turkey, 125-6, 308
Twain, Mark, 64
Tweedy, Mr, 116
Tyabji, Abbas, 170
Tyabji, Badniddin, 150

UDah, Syed Nabi, 188
United States, 38, 52, 252, 308
Upadhyaya, 269
Upanishads, the, 65

Upjohn. W. H. 278

UJP. Council 180, 184, 21 5

Van&a, Shyam& 252
Varaia, Gang Prasad, 111
Veake, 257
Yktoeia, Queen, 56-7
Vljiaraghavacfaamr, C, 191, 205
Vincent, Sir WiSiam, 156, 163, 190
Vishwaaath Temple, 177
Vivekanaada, Swami, 44, 129

Wacha, Sir Dinshaw, ijt, 150

Wadia, a P-, 134

Wales, Prince of, 93, 195, 197, 208

Walhs, Sir John, 278

Warner, Sir W. Lee, 38

WaveH Lord, 95

Webb, Beatrice, 233

WeddertHirn, Sir William. 51, 113,

144, 150
We<fewood, Colooel 175, 129, 231.

282

Wednesday Review, 108
Wdls, H. G. 64
Western Court 199, 226
Whiteaway Lakiaw, Messrs., 178
Whyte, SAT Frederkt 125
Wilbee & Co., J. C, 74
Willingdon, Lord, 134
Wilson Johnston, ^ 218-19. 222
Wood, Dr Joseph, 66, 70-1,

84, 94

Yakub, Mahomed, 234
Years of Destiny, 259
Yeravda, 234, 330, 334-5
Young India, 246, 254
Young, Mackworth, 273
Yule, George, 50, 52

Zauk.90

Zeppelin, Count 100