January 29, 1948: India’s light goes out
By Willy | January 29, 2010
On this day in 1948, Mohandas Gandhi was shot and killed by Nathuram Godse, a fundamentalist Hindu who opposed the Mahatma’s fight against India’s traditional caste system. Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s prime minister and one of Gandhi’s closest associates, announced the assassination in a broadcast on All India Radio:
Friends and Comrades, the light has gone out of our lives and there is darkness everywhere. I do not know what to tell you and how to say it. Our beloved leader, Bapu as we called him, the Father of the Nation, is no more. Perhaps I am wrong to say that. Nevertheless, we will never see him again as we have seen him for these many years. We will not run to him for advice and seek solace from him, and that is a terrible blow, not to me only, but to millions and millions in this country…
(Read the full text of the speech)
In traditional Hindu fashion, Gandhi’s body was cremated and the ashes were scattered in the Yamuna River.
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Republic Day and Purna Swaraj
By Willy | January 26, 2010
Today is Republic Day in India, which celebrates the official adoption of the constitution on this day 60 years ago, which officially made the country a secular democratic republic. The date was planned to fall on the 20th anniversary of India’s first “Independence Day” in 1930, when Indians loyal to the Indian National Congress took the oath of Purna Swaraj. The oath, written mainly by Gandhi, declared the goal of the Congress to be Purna Swaraj (complete independence) from the British Raj. It was voted on just before midnight on New Year’s Eve 1929 by the Congress session in Lahore. Taking the Purna Swaraj oath was an exciting and memorable experience for many Indians, but it would be more than 17 years before India actually became independent.
(Read the full text of the Purna Swaraj declaration.)
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Jawaharlal Nehru’s 120th birthday
By Willy | November 14, 2009
On this day 120 years ago, in the United Provinces of British India, Jawaharlal Nehru was born. Pandit Nehru, as he came to be known, would grow up to be one of the leading figures in India’s struggle for independence, and independent India’s first prime minister. Among figures in the history of modern India, Nehru ranks second only to Gandhi in significance and prominence.
Cambridge-educated Nehru was the political successor of Gandhi, although the two men were opposites in many ways. While Gandhi advocated a return to ruralism and small-scale economies, Nehru was interested in industrial development and technological advancement. During the independence movement, Nehru faithfully followed Gandhi’s example of non-violence, although unlike Gandhi he did not believe in it as an ideology. Most visibly, Gandhi quit his western habits and lived as a peasant, encouraging his followers to do likewise. Nehru simplified his lifestyle to some extent, but remained a sophisticated urbanite.
Like the other leaders of the Congress party, Nehru spent many years in jail because of his non-violent protests against the British Raj. He devoted much of his time to writing. His most important works were Glimpses of World History (1934); his autobiography, published in the United States under the title Toward Freedom (1936); and The Discovery of India (1946). These books show a level of insight and erudition sadly uncommon in modern world leaders.
Ironic for the leader of one of the most religious countries in the world, throughout his life Nehru remained an atheist or agnostic. In his writings, he indicated a regret that he could not believe like his fellow countrymen and -women. Nehru’s life was marked with grief. His father, mother, and wife Kamala all died within five years of each other in the 1930s. Nehru was left with one daughter, Indira, who would also serve as prime minister of India.
After independence, Nehru steered India on a path of “non-alignment” by agreeing with the ideologies of neither the United States nor the Soviet Union. For seventeen years, Nehru led the world’s largest democracy through Partition, war with Pakistan, war with China, and famine, as well as economic and industrial development. As Gandhi’s successor, Nehru had an almost messianic popularity among the people of India. In world politics, he deeply resented Americans as neo-colonialists, but also distrusted the Soviet Union for their disrespect of human rights. Nehru died while still holding office on May 27, 1964. Both his daughter and her son were also prime ministers of India, and his family continues to influence Indian politics to this day.
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