Why Gandhi chose Nehru in 1947

To call Nehru a Gandhian would outrage many. In popular imagination, Nehru and Gandhi form a binary. Professional Gandhians relish in citing the correspondence between Gandhi and Nehru in which Nehru does not seem too excited about the economic programme of Gandhi and his philosophy as expounded in Hind Swaraj. They do so to prove that Nehru was the antithesis of Gandhi.

Nehru is seen as a sansari while Gandhi is revered as griha-tyagi. This despite the fact that Gandhi and Kasturba lived together and Gandhi never abandoned his children and his clan. But Gandhi is the one who is believed to have renounced the world whereas Nehru is seen to have clung to power. Gandhi is seen as the saint while Nehru as an aesthete.

The fact is that Nehru lived a spartan life and lived on frugal means. He once warned his daughter who was in Europe that she would not be able to live like the son of Motilal Nehru.

There were critical differences between Gandhi and Nehru and yet Gandhi was confident that Nehru would speak his language after he was no longer there. What was this language? And why did Gandhi repose complete and unqualified trust in Nehru? What made him feel that Nehru was the most reliable custodian of his dream of India?

Gandhi was never pardoned by his followers for choosing Nehru over and above many eminent leaders in the Congress. Once a leading Gandhian told me that it was Gandhi’s mistake, perhaps his biggest. They feel embarrassed that an astute mind like Gandhi was misled by his heart in this crucial matter. My father recalls a meeting in Barakar, a small town in Bengal way back in 1960 in which a leading socialist leader blamed it on the Brahminical mindset of Gandhi who chose Nehru because he was a Brahmin.

Equal rights of all Indian communities was imperative

To understand the decision of Gandhi of making Nehru his successor, one needs to go back to the last days of India under the British and Gandhi. Partition of India was imminent. The challenge before the leaders was to make the passage from one colonial India to two independent nations of India and Pakistan peaceful. That was not to be. Muslims and Hindus turned on each other and blood flowed. The myth of Ganga-Jamuni culture was shattered.

Let us go back to the records. It was Nehru who was most vocal against the communal politics of the Muslim League and Jinnah. Gandhi was not a revered figure for Muslims either. Yet, both Gandhi and Nehru were firm in their belief that India, even if Pakistan had to be created, was going to be a land where Muslims would have rights equal to Hindus.

"Muslims would not live like vassals of Hindus in India," Gandhi declared firmly. Not so sure were many of his companions and followers who later came to be known as authentic Gandhians because of their dhoti and kurta. Recent studies by Purushottam and Rajesh Ankit, who are reading the documents of 1946-1947, reveal that these Congressmen were not averse to Muslims being pushed out of India and dispossessed of their rights if they chose to stay back.

The mission of Gandhi was to persuade people that they were not creatures of an abstract idea of nation. They had to imagine nation as a neighbourhood. To do so it was necessary to save neighbourhoods. They should not be habitats of people who are alike. To seek to see one's reflection in the face of the other is not humanity. To understand differences and not integrate them with one's self is humanity.

It was only Nehru who shared this conviction of his mentor Gandhi. Gandhi was acutely aware of this. For him the rights of the minorities were sacred.

'Hind ke Jawahar bane Raho'

Secularism for Gandhi had a very simple principle: no privileges for the majority. Nehru was in Bihar in the bloody days of 1946. Bhagalpur was in the grip of anti-Muslim violence. To restrain the attacking rioters, the military opened fire and nearly 400 were killed. Nehru felt a disquiet about the deaths, as he confessed to Padmaja Naidu. Nevertheless he was satisfied that strong action has been taken against the rioters.

Gandhi went on a fast which was to be his last to persuade the Hindus and Sikhs of Delhi that the claim of Muslims over the city had to respected. Nehru secretly fasted with him. Gandhi, upon discovering it, wrote to him urging him to give up the fast. It was a two liner which ended with 'Hind ke Jawahar bane Raho' (May you remain the jewel of India).

RK Karanjia in the course of an interview addressed Nehru as statesman. He was stopped by Nehru who said that the only statesman was Gandhi. He was merely one of the children of the Gandhi era.

Neither was Gandhi blinded by his affection for Nehru nor was Nehru being modest. The meaning of Gandhi can only be revealed in Nehru. One is not surprised that the killers of Gandhi are trying furiously to erase Nehru from the national memory for they know that once it is done, Gandhi dies his final death.

Apoorvanand teaches Hindi at the University of Delhi, and is a literary and cultural critic.