Glimpses Of Nehruvian History

BEFORE FREEDOM: NEHRU'S LETTERS TO HIS SISTER
Edited by Nayantara Sahgal
HarperCollins India
Price: Rs 395
Makarand Paranjape
Writing on 29 June 1943 from his confinement in Ahmadnagar Fort, Jawaharlal Nehru tells Nan (as his sister Vijayalakshmi Pandit was fondly called): “Letters are often more revealing than studied writing. But letter writing is not the same thing as writing a book, though the same qualities tell in the long run.” Willy-nilly, Nehru, thus, gives us the very tools to judge his own letters to his sister. These have been so lovingly and painstakingly put together by his niece, Nayantara Sahgal. Nehru is right: these letters are at once more revealing than his famous books, but, like the books, they are elegant, lucid, invariably readable, and also have that fine sensibility, which is characterised by a special kind of delicacy and reticence that were unique to Nehru’s personality.

Sahgal, in her introduction, tells us that one of her aims in publishing these letters is to keep a legacy alive. This is the legacy of her mother, Vijayalakshmi Pandit, the role she played not only in Nehru’s life, but in the life of the nation. Sahgal fears that this part of India’s recent history will be otherwise forgotten in the family feud in which Indira Gandhi foisted her own dynasty upon India. Sahgal believes that the sidelining of her mother is closely related to Indira Gandhi’s dictatorial tendencies and her promotion of her own sons as the country’s leaders. Sahgal describes how she looked for her mother’s replies to Nehru’s letters in the Nehru papers at the Nehru Memorial Library, but found very few of them. It is possible that these were separated from the main body of the papers or weeded out.

Sahgal’s attempt to redress this marginalisation of her mother appeals to our sense of justice and truth. But even otherwise the letters form such a rich archive that their publication hardly needs any special justification or validation. Without them, the complete works of Jawaharlal Nehru would not be all that complete. The letters are an invaluable source of information and understanding on crucial phases and aspects of Nehru’s life, especially his stints abroad and in jail. They also shed ample light on the family history of the Nehrus and that of their close relatives and friends.

The letters are divided into seven parts in chronological order; each section has an introduction by Sahgal that adds to their value. Some of the letters reveal subtle details about Nehru. For example in the 14th June 1926 letter written from Rome, we learn that Nehru loved Gothic and was more delighted with the Milan Cathedral than with St Peter’s or the Colosseum. His love for the outdoors, especially for skiing, is shown in a letter of 4 January 1927. There’s a wonderful letter of 12 September 1934 from Naini Prison in which Nehru talks of making “a work of art out of our lives, a song or a beautiful melody, even though that song may clutch at the throat and bring tears to the eyes”. We learn that Indira Gandhi used to speak fluent Bangla at Shantiniketan and even learned to dance. Or that Nehru too had to worry about minor problems like setting the water meter right at Anand Bhavan. We read about Nehru’s first flight from Allahabad to Cairo, via Jodhpur, Karachi and Baghdad. There’s a delightful episode in which Nehru has to hold up his pajamas because he lost the drawstring; he greets the Chinese Consul and a crowd of Congressmen, all the while in this compromising position. There’s a letter of 29 January 1943 from the Ahmadnagar Fort jail in which he assures the editor, Nayantara, “personally I like you enormously” so she needn’t consider herself “a very queer person and not at all a lovable type”. We also see Nehru’s lack of concern for money but his solicitude for his sister when she is deprived of her husband’s inheritance after the latter’s death.

With people he loves and trusts Nehru comes across as an altogether gentle and unassertive type of person. Between members of the family, there is a quiet aplomb that comes from knowing their place and position in the world, if not of their innate superiority over most other people. There are very few references to Gandhiji or to major political events in India. The letters from Geneva during Kamala’s illness show Nehru’s patience and tender concern, but not his love or anguish for his wife. The sense of being a public figure is evident in all letters in that a certain reserve is operative throughout. There is also a great deal of stress on proper behaviour, on norms of conduct for a family which was so much in the limelight. There is, finally, a remarkable absence of bluster or self-importance of any kind, but only a quiet confidence and self-assurance.

The title of the book is somewhat misleading. There are several letters here by correspondents other than Nehru. These other letter writers include not just Vijayalakshmi Pandit, but also her husband Ranjit Pandit, and their daughter, Chandralekha. A book like this definitely needs an index; I was sorry not to find one. It is not clear if this is the entire correspondence or if the editor has left some letters out. For instance, we have a letter written two days before Kamala’s death, but none immediately after. Finally, I wonder if all the letters included are worth publishing. Some are of a purely routine nature and could easily have been left out.

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