28 February, 1963: Passing away of Rajendra Prasad

A foreward by Rameshwari Nehru to a book by Y. G. Krishnamurthy

          

          Amongst the close associates of Mahatma Gandhi, there are indeed few who are faithful to his teachings and who live the life he wanted us to live. Gandhiji’s ideals were so high and living upto them so difficult that the fact that there are so few who can reach any where near that ideal is not surprising. Rajindra Babu is one of those very few bright stars who have gone nearest to that ideal.

          

           Early in life he came into contact with Mahatma Gandhi. His earnest soul was touched by his life and ideals his generous nature responded quickly, he gave up his Work as a Prof. in a Patna College and joined Gandhiji in his work for the workers of the plantations of Champaran Distt. Since then, he has become a staunch follower of Gandhiji and in obedience to his behest has served, suffered and sacrificed for the country. His grim determination gave him strength to conquer all obstacles and endure all hardships which came in his way. He has never wavered in the discharge of his duty by the country nor flinched from the sacrifices it involved whenever a call came. He laboured and suffered and used his great scholarly knowledge and wisdom for the service of the people. The greatness he has achieved in the estimation of the people is not due only to the services he has performed. The outstanding excellence of his character and his noble qualities have won the heart of millions.         

          

         His love for truth is exemplary. He not only speaks the truth but lives it. Whatever he believes in he practices. His Ahimsa is of a very high order. It is positive. He not only abstains from doing harm to anybody, but positively loves every one. He radiates love and is tender like a woman. He is courteous to the core and humble and unassuming. He is a great Scholar. He knows many languages and sciences and yet speaks and behaves as a simple common villager. His language is understood and appreciated even by the uneducated and hence his popularity amongst the general public. He is equally appreciated by the intellectuals as they know he is learned and rely on his advice and guidance. He carried out his duties as a soldier and servant of the country, as its leader, as the President of the Indian National Congress, as a Minister of the State and as the President of the Constituent Assembly with equal skill. His mode of dress and his way of eating and living is simple like that of a peasant. It is a great pity that of late he has lost his health. He suffers from Asthma, but inspite of weak health, he goes on working and serving. May he be blessed with long life and health to serve the people with his great talent and high qualities is the earnest prayer of millions.

     

(Mrs. Rameshwari Nehru)

New Delhi

8^th October 49

Source: Rameshwari Nehru Papers, MSS, NMML

Portraits of HINDUTVA

The Prescient Gandhi: Reviewing the Social, Political, Economic, Moral a...

The Prescient Gandhi: Reviewing the Social, Political, Economic, Moral a...

The Prescient Gandhi: Reviewing the Social, Political, Economic, Moral a...

The Prescient Gandhi: Reviewing the Social, Political, Economic, Moral a...

H.C. Mookerjee’s review of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad

A Biographical Memoir by Mahadev Desai, 22 February 1942

This very readable book not only gives information not generally known to the public on the life and activities of the President of the Indian National Congress but also throws a flood of light on those elements on his religious, intellectual and political make-up which have placed him in the unique position he occupies to-day in the public life of India.

The first four chapters give an account of the rich heritage to which Maulana Abul Kalam Azad was born and the way in which he developed his inborn powers. There is next a quick transition to the social, economic and political education the Maulana sought to impart to his brothers in faith by starting his deservedly known “Al Hilal”. Uncompromising in his views and outspoken in given utterance to them, the Maulana was interned but his activities did not in any way suffer from the cause.

            
          The chapters which will probably have the greatest appeal for the reader are those headed “A Declaration of Faith”, “Views on the Religion” and “Another Campaign”. A large part of the first of these consists of an English translation of the statement made by the Maulana in that polished Urdu of which he is such a great master when he was sentenced to one year’s imprisonment for the prominent part he had taken in the non-co-operation movement when Congress declared a boycott of all functions arranged to give a reception to the Prince of Wales and Government in that connection declared Congress volunteers to be illegal. This statement lays down clearly and in the most eloquent of terms those eternal and immutable principles on which freedom has based itself everywhere and at all times. Part of it quoted below has a significance all its own even to-day, two decades after the ideas found expression from the eloquent pen of the Maulana:

“It is my belief that liberty is the natural and God given right of man. No man and no bureaucracy consisting of men has got the right to make the servants of God its own slaves. However attractive be the euphemisms invented for ‘Subjugation’ and ‘Slavery’ still slavery is slavery, and it is opposed to the will and the canons of God. I therefore consider it a bounden duty to liberate my country from its yoke. The notorious fallacies of ‘reform’ and ‘gradual transference of power’ can produce no illusion and pitfalls in my unequivocal and definite faith. Liberty being the primary right to men, it is nobody’s personal privilege to prescribe limits or apportion shares in the distribution of it. To say that a nation should get its liberty in graduated stages is the same as saying that an owner should by right receive his property only in bits and a creditor his dues by instalments. What-ever philanthropic acts might be performed by a man who by a man who as usurped our property, his usurpation would still continue to be utterly illegal.

           

          “Evil cannot be classified into good and bad. All that is in fairness possible is to differentiate the varying degree. For instance we can say very heinous robbery and less heinous robbery, but who can speak of good robbery and bad robbery? I cannot, therefore, at all conceive of any justification for such domination because by its very nature it is an act of iniquity”.                

            

        Shree Mahadev has proved that with all his learning and scholarship, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad is intensely practical. This rare combination of qualities is probably responsible for the position he occupies in what even the most uncharitable of critics must admit as our largest, most influential, non- communal oraganisation the doors of which are wide open to admit members of every religious, social and economic group. The reader should be thankful to Shree Mahadev for the exceedingly lucid way in which he has explained this great qualification of the President of the Indian National Congress.

In Shree Mahadev’s biography we are given an opportunity of entering into the Maulana’s inner sanctum. We get a picture of the man as he is, his religious beliefs, his outlook on the very interesting and important political problems of our motherland and his deep and abiding patriotism which has kept him in the service of our motherland in adversity and prosperity and, most of all, which has enabled him to meet with unflinching courage uncharitable criticism and even downright obloquy. One feels as one goes through the book that India need not despair so long as she has, as her children, men of the type of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. The services he has already rendered to us and which we are certain he will continue to render so long as the breath of life is in him rightly entitle him to be called as he has actually been called be Shree Mahadev “The First Servant of the Nation”.      

Source: M.K. Gandhi (Pyarelal Papers), MSS, NMML  

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19 February, 1916: Gopal Krishna Gokhale Death Anniversary

The Legacy of Mahatma Gokhale by M.K. Gandhi (Extracts)

(Written for the occasion of the Foundation-day of the Bombay Bhagini Samaj, in memory of the late Gopal Krishna Gokhale, on his first death anniversary – the 19^th February 1916)

It seems that Mahatma Gokhale functioned as if the words addressed by Krishna to Arjuna had been addressed to him by India, the mother of us all, and had been made by him the guiding principle of his life. For it will be readily admitted that whatever he did, whatever he enjoyed, whatever he sacrificed, whatever he gave in charity, whatever austerities he performed, he dedicated them all to his mother land.

What is the moral of Gokhale’s life? What legacy has he left for us?

These questions were answered by Gokhale himself in his last words to the members of Servants of India Society...“Don’t waste your time in writing a biography or setting up a statue, but pour your whole soul into the service of India. Then only shall you be counted among her true and faithful servants.” 

Gokhale wrote articles in the quarterly of the Sarvajanik Sabha in Poona. He imparted fresh lustre to the Fergusson College by his work there as a professor. He tendered evidence before the Welby Commission. All India thus recognised his intrinsic worth. He so deeply impressed Lord Curzon by his ability that Viceroy feared Gokhale as he feared no one else. Gokhale covered himself with distinction as a member of the Supreme Council in Calcutta. He served on the Public Service Commission in spite of his failing health. On this and many other aspects of his work others have written with greater qualifications than I can claim to possess. Again, the lesson which, in my opinion, we have to learn from his life cannot clearly be deducted from these activities.

Gokhale’s life was that of man of religion. Every thing he did was done in the spirit of a devotee as I can testify....It would not be improper to say that his very doubt was inspired by religion. A man who leads a dedicated life, who is simple in habits, who is the very image of truth, who is full of humanity, who calls nothing his own – such a man is a man of religion, whether he himself is or is not conscious of it. Such was Gokhale as I could see during the twenty years of my friendship with him.

 

Fearlessness was a very important element in Gokhale’s composition. Indeed this virtue is an indispensable quality in a man of religion. There was a reign of terror in Poona subsequent to the assassination of Mr. Rand and Lt. Ayerst. Gokhale was in England at the time and referring to it he spoke to a Committee of influential members of British Parliament. Some statement made in that speech could not be substantiated later on. Therfore, when Gokhale returned to India, he tendered an apology to the European officials whom he had charged with misconduct and thus incurred the displeasure of some ignorant people who called him a coward and advised him to retire from public life. He rejected this advice with the noble words:-

            “Public duties undertaken at the bidding of no man, cannot be laid down at the desire of any one. Whether one works on a higher plain or a lower one is a matter of small importance. One is always glad of the appreciation by the public of what one has done............ But it is not the highest purpose of existence, never really the highest. If it comes, to give the words of Herbert Spencer, well; if not, well also, though not so well.”

            Gokhale did his duty conscientiously and never wasted a single selfish thought on what view the public would take of his action. I believe, he had the capacity to cheerfully mount the gallows for the country’s sake, if necessary. I know to mount the gallows more than once was very much easier for him than face the practical situation. But he never so much thought of turning his back to it.  

            ...We cannot all acquire learning like him and the learned men do not always serve the people. But can all cultivate virtues like courage, truthfulness, patience, humility, a sense of justice, straightforwardness and perseverance and dedicate them to the nation. This is the spirit of a devotee. This is what Gokhale meant when he spoke “Public life being spiritualised.” All who conduct themselves in such a spirit of dedication will always see their way clear before them and claim a share in the legacy which Gokhale has left for us all. Such devoted workers will be endowed with all such gifts as they need as the Lord has promised, and Gokhale’s life is an illustration of that promise having been abundantly fulfilled.  

Source: Jayaprakash Narayan (I-II) Instalment, MSS, NMML

Session 4: India, Japan and US-History, Opportunities and Challenges

The Indo-Pacific: Political, Security and Economic Dimensions, Part-2

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