DID NEHRU'S PRIVATE LIFE IMPACT PARTITION AND AFTER?

Did Nehru's Private Life Impact Partition and After? 

Started reading Indian Summer: The Secret History of the End of an Empire by Alex von Tunzelmann. The introduction itself forced me to contemplate if private lives of politicians should be subjected to public scrutiny. And how do you know the closeness? Through gossips in closer circles that came out; by one’s own account as given by many eminent leaders such as Bertrand Russell ; or by such irrefutable piece of evidence such as a photograph of Jawaharlal Nehru holding hand of Edwina Mountbatten when they visited a refugee camp.

The author has argued that physical intimacy is important irrespective of whether this transformed into more personal interactions when they were together in private. This is not important. Many letters, eye-witness accounts prove that they shared an emotional and romantic relation. Nehru holding hand of Edwina or kissing her hand or touching her arm proved beyond doubt that they were comfortable in each other’s company.

The author argues: “Many in Britain, India and Pakistan would have considered holding hands pretty shocking in the early 1940s or 1950s, especially between a married woman and a widower”.  Judging from today’s standards when the society has become more globalised and liberal, where gay rights have been established and where adultery is no longer a crime, one can say how does it matter if or not Nehru was close to Edwina.

 

Without being salacious, she (the author) argues that from the point of view of a historian the closeness (emotional) is important since this would help explore if the personal equation had impact on the fate of the Empire and the event that unfolded during and after Indian’s independence. Could the British design to partition India be avoided?

There are many world figures who were rumoured to have affairs. US President John F Kennedy was reported to be very close to Merilyn Monroe.  Arnold Schwarzenegger had an affair with his housekeeper. In the recent times there are many more including US President Bill Clinton. But these affairs might not have impacted history as much as the romance of Nehru. Edwina’s daughter Pamela Hicks has said after going through Nehru’s love letters that they were deeply in love. But she added a caveat saying that it was spiritual.

Mahatma Gandhi argued that public figures should not have private lives. He was candid about his own personal relations with bevy of women and maintained record of his interaction with them. My Experiments with Truth is one of the rare autobiographies that is honest and frank. I would put Mahesh Yogi’s Autobiography of a Yogi  and Bertrand Russell’s Autobiography in that category. The Mahatma was in awe of Nehru. Hope the book has explored that as well. Nehru was more British than British and he had easy ways with White Sahibs. Is it that the Mahatma suffered from a complex that he favoured Nehru over stalwarts who could have done much better?

The book was published in 2007 by Simon and Schuster, UK. Its paperback edition came in 2017. The book has been given testimony by various eminent historians and appears to be based on assiduous research. Lot more on this I intend to write after I finish the book.

1 April 2020

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