19/11/2025
INDIA'S FIRST PREMIER
(Portrait of Jawaharlal from the Amrit Bazar Patrika, Calcutta of August 15, Friday, 1947)
JAWAHARLAL, the first Premier of the first National Government of India, is a gorgeous gem, unsurpassed in glamour and glaze and a dazzling jewel unrivalled in colour and calibre. He shines like a moon in nights and like a sun in days in the political firmament of India. He is only one of his kind. He makes a class by himself. Gandhi nominates him as his legal heir, people instal him as an idol, youths accept him as their leader, down- trodden labourers hail him as their saviour, and the oppressed farmers recognize him as their deliverer. "The elder politicians value his loyalty younger rivals applaud his audacity. The Rightists find him indispensable, the Leftists amenable, He is aggressive enough for the nationalists and international enough for the Communists, reasonable enough for the capitalists and radical enough for Socialists" says Shri Krishna Kripalani.
Jawahar is a driving force in the political movement, a pulley in the national organization and pivot of the national planning and re-construction. To know the political history of India of the past quarter
century is to know all about Jawahar and Jawahar's "Jawahar". During this period he he has served India and shaped India.
"GANDHI - MOTI CONSPIRACY"
Jawahar is a protege of Gandhi -his loving Bapu, his great Guru. In his early days Ja- wahar was like a volcano in action, storm in rage, thundering waves in wrath and a beaming sharpened sword which, when drawn out of the sheath, known no return without having a full and pleasant bath in the enemy's blood. These symptoms presented a matter of grave concern and anxiety before Motilal, He was perturbed and perplexed to perceive
the blazing flames of smouldering revolutionary upsurge in the young heart of young Jawahar - the only son of his great father. He tried to win him back to moderation for which he sought the assistance of Gandhi - the master magician who whispered his infallible charms into Jawahar's ear and applied his mysterious magic wand over his head.
The Gandhi-Moti conspiracy was crowned with unique success. Jawahar, a the lion heart of the Ananda Bhawan, a was made a captive of Gandhi's Ashram. His nails teeth were trimmed and extracted. Gandhi put his fetters round his hands and feet. He threw Jawahar headlong into the blast furnace of Ahimsa melted, moulded and recast him into a shape of his own liking and the liking of his great parents. But even then, Gandhi could not completely destroy the natural temper and tension and the original fervour and impetuosity. The lion still roars and stalks his prey in broad daylight. New sharp nails and a set of deadly pointed teeth have already sprouted. He has jumped upon the neck of the bureaucracy which lies bleeding and gasping.
Gandhi and Jawahar are two different personalities, but there is a q***r communion between the two. Their combination is a singular instance of affinity between contradictions and alliance between oppositions. Both com- bined represent beauty and excellence in diversity. Gandhi is anything but complete and successful without Jawahar and Jawahar is anything but meek and moderate, mild and moistened without Gandhi. Both complement and supple- ment each other.
If Gandhi has dragged Jawahar to moderation, Jawahar has also pushed Gandhi up towards revolution. Nehru is simply straight and understandable but Gandhi is a riddle. Gandhi is a Gautam incarnate but the revolutionary eyes of Jawahar flash the determination of Pratap. Gandhi represents what is the best in Indian philosophy and religion whereas Jawahar represents a mixture of western political science and India's culture. Gandhi looks to western civilization through oriental glasses, but Jawahar looks to eastern culture and customs through occidental lenses. He himself says, "I have become a q***r mixture of the East and West, out of place everywhere, at home nowhere." At one place his illustrious sister Krishna Hutheesing remarks, "In him the East and West have blended, the former to show him the way of life and the latter to give him a wider un- derstanding of the impulses that move the destinies of man."
POLITICS HIS ONLY RELIGION
Gandhi cares much for religion and offers regular prayer to God but Jawahar does not care for any. Religion for Jawahar is mechanical and a kill-joy. He is an agnostic and Gandhi a moral mystic. If Gandhi seeks freedom for India, he also seeks freedom for his own soul from the bo***ge of birth and death but Jawahar seeks freedom for his country & that is his religion, his salvation. Jawahar thinks of this world only and not of the next. For Jawahar politics is the only religion but for the Mahatma religion and politics are interwoven.
The life of Jawahar since 1921 has been a life of tremendous political activities. During this period he has been dominating the political scene of India only next to Gandhi. Jawahar renounced his aristocratic ways of life and embraced the life of a soldier in a "battle
camp of austere conflict and tremendous sacrifice." He courted imprisonment on eight occasions. He has sacrificed his all-his Ananda Bhawan, his Kamla and now he has staked his life for India's goal.
Even in his fiftyeighth year Jawahar, the first Premier of the First National Govt., in spite of various losses and lamentations looks exceptionally charming and handsome and specially so when he appears dressed in milk-white 'khadi' which is supposed as a 'livery of freedom' and an emblem of service and sacrifice, purity and renunciation. At times he is seen wearing a stern, sullen and grave appearance and at times is very jolly and jocular with the characteristic captivating smile over his lips. These days he looks worried and fatigued. He is horribly overworked and tormented by mental agonies and pathos. The death of Kamla came upon his life as the greatest tragedy. Kamla was not only a wife to him but a constant source of encouragement and inspiration.
Jawahar himself admits that Gandhi, Motilal and Kamla, these three only have, influenced his life.
A "DICTATOR & TYRANT"!
What Maxim Gorki once featured about Lenin is also true about Jawahar- 'A leader who is not in some degree a tyrant is impossible. It is not that they want to be a tyrant, a dictator or an autocrat but circumstances compel them to be so. Similarly, he has not only inherited the autocratic spirit and flair of biting retorts of his father but also enjoys the proud privilege to become such on rare occasions. If he dictates, he also submits and obeyes. He dictates to enhance his country's cause and not his own. He is a dictator and a tyrant to those who are slack, sluggish and in- disciplined. His stern and grave appearance cause awe and terror to those who are unaware of Jawahar's responsive soul and sensitive heart. He is never mannerless, unreasonable and un- methodical. He has never contracted arrogance, egotism and self-conceit which feed and foster dictatorship. The following extract from the pen of his sister, Mrs. Krishna Hatheesing will serve an accurate reading into the character of Jawahar. "There are those who think Jawahar is arrogant and overbearing. They resent it. At times he is so, but by nature he is anything but arrogant and domineering. He would rather be out of the limelight. I am sure, he would have more peace of mind, if it were possible, but it cannot be ......... There are people who find fault with Jawahar and criticise him, but they just do not understand him, nor can they fathom his ways. He is human like the rest of us and has weaknesses that most human beings have. Only where the majority succumb, he does not, hence his greatness"
BROADNESS OF OUTLOOK
The political outlook of Jawahar is broad and international, Mr. Mathews, Professor of Christian World Relations in Boston, once described Jawahar as
"an apostle of nationalism who is really a citizen of the world". He is an apostle of the new world order based on international equality and fraternity. He is prepared to surrender a part of India's independence for establishing a real international order. He says, "If we claim independence to-day, it is with no desire of isolation. On the contrary, we are perfectly willing to surrender part of that independence, in common with other countries, to real international order."
Jawahar is a rationalist humane and unboundedly in thought and actions. Freedom of India is as dear to his as the freedom of people residing in any part of the world. Whenever and wherever in Europe or Asia the freedom and liberty of a people is threatened or thrown into jeopardy Jawahar stands by the side of the downtrodden and oppressed with all the sympathy at his command. This is why in our Jawahar America finds her Jefferson, China her Sun-yet-sen, Germany her Marx, Italy her Garibaldi and Russia her Lenin and Gorki both
rolled into one.
Amongst all the top-rank Congress leaders he enjoys the finest health. His life is regular and restrained. With inexhaustible energy he works at his table, flies in the air, drives on roads, walks on foot, enjoys a bullock-cart journey and addresses numerous meetings continuously for days together without reporting even a bit of head- ache or irritation. He is "more or less" a vegetarian. He does not eat meat but would not mind killing those animals. He takes eggs and does not refrain from taking a little or light wine, too, when he goes out of India He smokes but not in a chain like Azad. He is a passionate lover of outdoor life. He would like much to pass his spare time either in skeing or skating in snow clad Switzerland or going to some lovely place in the Himalayan region and seek a sight of relief and solace in the lap of nature. Besides this he loves
riding and enjoys swimming. But where is the time for him for all these hobbies? He is awfully pre-occupied with politics, his child-mate.
Above all, he loves reading, and writing English poetry but he does not get time for his intellectual pursuit unless he is put behind the prison bars. He is also very much fond of children and their innocent and hearty laughter.
He hates indiscipline and exploitation. He damns those who, in the name of Congress, truth and public good feather their own nests, He condemns those with the utmost contempt, who fleece the skin and suck the blood of their own impoverished countrymen.
Jawahar is not a demagogue. He does not hoodwink his listeners with his oratorical tricks. He speaks out his heart frankly and freely to them as a friend talks to a friend. Once Yusuf Meherally told Jawahar, "You are so aloof, I bet you have not a single real friend". Jawahar replied, "I like to open my heart before the crowds". Meherally bet Jawahar for having even a single real friend but Jawahar pointed out not one but millions. This novel art of approaching the human heart and mind is unknown to eastern or western orators. Wherever he goes his friends, admirers and lovers mob him. Sometimes it becomes difficult for his car to budge an inch. He immediately jumps out of his a car, joins the mob and walks on with them.
INTERNATIONALIST PAR
EXCELLENCE
Jawahar is an internationalist par excellence. He holds the Foreign Relations portfolio of the Indian Government. Now India has attained ambassadorial status and her foreign relations have received an unimaginable fillip at his hands during so short a period. She is now in a position to raise her head with honour and pride before any free country of the world. The Asian Relations Conference which held its session in New Delhi is another great achieve- ment of Pandit Nehru. It was the first of its kind ever held in Asia, Jawahar was its sponsor, creator and organiser. The conference heralded a new era, a new awakening, and a stubborn feeling of solidarity, understanding, friendship and co-operation amongst Asian coun- tries. Here Jawahar has made history.
-Tribhuban Nath.
