BY CHANDRA DATTA PANDE

‘From log cabin to White House’ is rather a common-place feature of many a great man's life. Such is not the experience of Jawaharlal Nehru. In him, surely, we do not find a Mussolini or a Masaryk, cradled under the humble roof of a blacksmith or a coachman, and having to fight every inch of his way in the world, in misery and starvation. Yet, it cannot be gainsaid that his is a remarkable career; more so, because it has been singularly uneventful.

It was Booker. T. Washington who gave a splendid criterion of a successful life. "Success is to be measured," he says, "not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed." According to this criterion, it is quite possible to conceive of quite a large number of brave souls who have lived a more successful life than that of Jawaharlal Nehru, and yet have been denied the good fortune to be the cynosures of a nation's eyes.

While it cannot be denied that Jawaharlal got a good start in life by reason of his father's eminence, it would be far from correct to imagine that he owes his present position to his father. On the other hand, it adds considerably to the credit of Jawaharlal that he could achieve greatness, in spite of his father's high position. If the Christian scriptures are right in saying that it is as difficult for the rich to enter heaven as for a camel to pass through a needle's eye, it is no less true that the sons of great men can seldom reach the paternal level. It

is rarely that one finds a Younger Pitt surpassing the glory of a Chatham. And we know how even Austen Chamberlain has been taunted as Mr. Joseph Chamberlain's pale shadow. In our country the instances of inherited greatness are rarer still.

Jawaharlal Nehru had, besides his ‘unearned’ position, qualities which inevitably brought him to the forefront. Had he not been so fortunately placed in life, he would have been perhaps obliged to plod his way in the outskirts of politics for a time. But it is beyond doubt that a man endowed with his talents and animated by his ideals would have easily emerged out of obscurity. He was born to be great. But his circumstances tended to rob his achievements of their charm.

Though born and brought up in the lap of luxury, in an atmosphere least congenial to good training, he was by his fond but wise father subjected to the rigorous discipline of British Public Schools. After finishing his school career at Harrow, he entered Trinity College. In 1911, when he was running his twenty-second year, he took his bachelor's degree and was almost immediately called to the Bar. A year later, he returned to India fully equipped with all that British education could give to an Indian. But as it is apt to be under such training, he lacked a sense of appreciation of Indian tradition and culture. As he himself expressed in his memorable statement before the Court in May 1922, "he came back to India with an outlook more British than Indian." In that very year he attended the Bankipore Congress as a delegate, at a time when the Indian National Congress was completely in the hands of Moderates and titled dignitaries. No amount of prophetic vision would have enabled anyone to forecast that this elegant youth, who resented a sartorial discrepancy more than a change in the creed of the Congress, was destined to play such a great role in the struggle for the freedom of the country. And indeed, it requires no great stretch of imagination to conceive the exact mood in which this young man, who even today when seventeen more winters have passed over his head, is a veritable fountain of fiery extremism, listened to the orations of such seasoned Moderates as Rao Bahadur R. N. Mudholkar, the President of the session. Perhaps be did not relish his first experience of the Congress.

Pandit Jawaharlal's political career actually begins from the days of the Home Rule movement. He took a prominent part in popularising Dr. Besant's League in the province. He worked with so much zeal and vigour, that a year later, in 1917, he was elected Joint General Secretary of the All-India Home Rule League along with Mr. (now Sir) C. P. Ramaswami Aiyar. By the way, it is tempting here to observe that the difference in the politics of these two talented sons of India, who so recently had worked in unison, precisely indicates the advance that has been made in Indian politics in the last decade by the parties they both represent.

The advent of Non-co-operation made a world of difference in the outlook of the nation and in the lives of many a national leader. It was not merely a change of political programme, but a religious transformation. And nowhere was the transformation more remarkable than at Anand Bhawan–the far-famed mansion of the Nehrus.

Jawaharlal Nehru put his heart and soul into the N. C. O. programme. He worked in the spirit of a soldier. He spoke little but toiled ceaselessly. He had implicit faith in ‘Swaraj in

one year.’ He would be furious at the meetings of the Provincial Congress Committee if anybody suggested that funds should be provided for the coming year, because he could not tolerate anyone doubting the certainty of Swaraj on the 31st of December 1921. It was with this faith that he worked under Mahatma Gandhi's leadership, while the Mahatma on his part trusted him as his faithful and most favourite lieutenant.

Twice he was put in gaol. At the time of his second release, a veritable civil war was going on in the Congress camp. Das and Nehru had raised the standard of revolt and Sjt. Rajagopalachar was heroically holding his master's banner aloft. The whole country was divined like England at the time of the Wars of the Roses, into two camps ‘pro-changers’ and ‘no-changers.’ Jawaharlal was disgusted with the activities of the pro-changers led by his own father. Without any reservation he threw his weight in favour of the ‘no-changers’. At the Cocanada Congress, Maulana Mahomed Ali's choice of General Secretary fell on him, and no President since then could think of forming a Cabinet without including Jawaharlal.

Early in 1926, his wife's delicate health necessitated his stay in Europe for a period of more than twenty months. His sojourn on the Continent influenced him mightily. Jawaharlal made the best possible use of his leisure. He came into contact with eminent contemporary thinkers. He studied very extensively and observed minutely every phase of European life that affected the course of world events. His thorough knowledge of the French language enabled him to look at things from a point of view other than British.

As a delegate of the Indian National Congress to the first World Congress of the League against Imperialism at Brussels, he made a profound impression by his intellectual competence to grapple every problem that confronted the subject and oppressed nationalities of the world. In Europe, he generally moved in the circle of those revolutionaries who had made common cause with Russia for putting an end to British Imperialism. Thereby he naturally became a supporter of the Soviet organisation of society. But Jawaharlal was not a wholesale convert to the doctrines of Karl Marx. At the end of his sojourn, he had an opportunity to see the actual working of the Marxian programme in a country whose problems were the same as those of India. The young Pandit was greatly impressed by the all-round awakening that he saw amongst the Russian masses.

He returned to India at a most psychological moment. The all-British Simon Commission had been just announced. That had stirred the whole country. Straight from Europe, he came to Madras to attend the Congress. After having breathed the free air of European countries, it seemed anomalous to him that the Indian National Congress should cherish such an uninspiring ideal as ‘Self-Government within the ‘British Empire’. A sworn foe of Imperialism in every form and of British Imperialism in particular, he could not reconcile himself to it. He captured the imagination of the country. Mahatma Gandhi was in retirement. Jawaharlal was the hero of the Congress, and the advocates of Independence achieved a notable triumph. When at the All-Parties Conference at Lucknow the older leaders showed a tendency to lower the ideal in order to secure unity, Jawaharlal refused to countenance the move. He, along with Subash Bose, started a new organisation to uphold the cause of complete Independence.

At Calcutta, he was in a very delicate position. As a leader of the Independence movement, he was in duty bound to oppose the Nehru Report, and on the other hand he had to look to the wishes of his patron-leader Mahatma Gandhi, and his own father. In the end he chose to bow to the gentle persuasion of the Mahatma. He keenly felt his surrender and many

enthusiastic Independence-wallas accused him of his ‘lack of strength’; but unlike his younger colleague–Subash Bose–he earned the credit of entering into a reasonable compromise.

To the man in the street, Pandit Jawaharlal appeals neither on account of his high intellectual attainments nor his burning patriotism and sincerity of purpose, but for reasons which are singularly attractive to the plebian mind. He is spoken of as a class-fellow of the Prince of Wales. It is an obvious piece of street gossip. But is it not enough to be the son of Pandit Motilal Nehru to catch the eye of the public, –Pandit Motilal Nehru whose brilliant legal acumen and statesmanship are ‘commonplace’ before the splendours of his life? Were not his clothes washed in the laundries of Paris? And was not his presidential carriage drawn by thirty-four horses? This halo of glory which his great father bequeathed to him, has lent additional charm to his striking personality. His urbanity is polished; his intellectual equipment fine; his deep-set eyes full of life and light mark him out as a command- ing figure. People instinctively shrink from the intellectual superiority of his gaze. In an assembly, he maintains a retiring and rather thoughtful pose which really betrays his aristocratic bent. But in the company of friends and colleagues, he is extremely affable and often indulges in childish pranks. Unlike his father, he is free from all aristocratic disregard for humbler men.

Jawaharlal's sole passion is his patriotism and his only recreation incessant work. Occasionally he relaxes and takes to riding and swimming. Though thin and supple, he enjoys good health and has a tremendous store of energy. His reading of books is extensive, his mastery of details amazing; his grasp of modern problems and new ideas sound, his knowledge of International affairs vast. One suspects that his love of socialism is not so much due to the suffering and poverty of the working classes as to his intellectual conviction that the men who fatten, on unearned incomes are the helpers of foreign exploitation. He has no soft corner for them. He loves the poor because he hates the rich. And he hates the rich because they are the supporters of foreign rule. To a landlord, he is Lenin incarnate, and to many Russophile communists, he is a ‘tepid reformer’, ‘an exponent of bourgeois interest’ and at best a ‘social democrat’. To many a politician who has scrupulously fought shy of modern ideas, his head contains nothing but a hotchpotch of confused thinking. However, in Jawaharlal Nehru, one finds a link between the old and younger generations. But both schools harbour an apprehension about the efficacy of his leadership, the one believing that he goes too far in his extremism, the other feeling that he goes not far enough to strike terror in the Government.

It must be confessed that what may be said of Jawaharlal's qualities of head and heart cannot be said of his will and determination. He has shown himself lacking in assertion in the presence his ‘superiors’ –only two in number, Mahatma Gandhi and his own father. He comes to a right decision and is assured of a powerful following, but soon his amenability to persuasion overcomes his determination. He thus embarrasses himself. And if he earns the confidence of his superiors, he tries the patience of his youthful followers. In Calcutta and lastly at Delhi, he has betrayed his incapacity for bold action though he could have risen to the occasion. Those who have the opportunity of observing his trend of thought know full well how much be rues his surrender. He passes miserable days and nights. He gets vexed with his own weakness. Then he recants and gets deeper into the mire.

And then there is a legitimate complaint against his temper. He is easily piqued but his fury is short-lived. He often distorts his face in disgust and he cannot tolerate every speaker indulging in some ‘nonsense’. His thin lips quiver in anger, when he sees some ‘impropriety’ being abetted or shielded. He often finds himself pitiably helpless to check an outburst of bad temper, but his constant efforts to make due amends lend him added grace. Those who are acquainted with his sincerity of purpose and soundness of heart do not mind his cross temper and acerbity. It is reasonable to concede that his keen intelligence and impulsiveness prevent a proper judgment of what others say. If he did not possess extremely polished manners, his treatment of others might leave an impression of coarseness and vanity, elements completely foreign to his nature.

Up to the present moment of his career, Jawaharlal has had an unbroken record of success. And there is no reason to expect it will be otherwise in future. But as he has come to occupy the highest position in Indian Politics at a comparatively early age, there is room for apprehension. The destinies of India at a critical stage of her history are bound up with Jawaharlal. Will he lead her to victory and the glorious dawn of Swaraj?