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Home , Vallabhbhai Patel

HINDUSTAN TIMES, NEW DELHI 08 hindustantimes SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2019

YEARS ON Disciples

1869 - 2019

PERSPECTIVE THE TWELVE APOSTLES OF

LEGACY The men and women who — within the government, or as part of the Opposition and civil society — carried forward ’s work. They humanised power and held it to account. They fought for economic self-reliance, equality and religious pluralism

any years ago, while work- excessive reticence. Azad, who was Gan- ing in the Manuscripts Sec- dhi’s closest Muslim colleague, was dev- tion of the Nehru Memorial astated by the Partition, which was Museum and Library, I a body blow to his idea of a com- M found a postcard by an posite and pluralistic . unknown Tamil to that Nonetheless, as our first Min- great Indian, Chakravarthi Rajagopala- ister of Education and Cul- chari (Rajaji). Written in the late 1950s, it ture, he oversaw the expan- described Nehru, Patel, and Rajaji as being sion of our public universi- the “heart, hand, and head” of Mahatma ties while creating new Gandhi respectively. This was so utterly national academies for lit- apt. After Independence, the humane Nehru erature; music, theatre took forward Gandhi’s pluralism in bring- and dance; and art respec- ing linguistic and religious minorities tively. aboard in nurturing a democratic India. The As Indian democracy pragmatic Patel, having organised the Con- found its feet in the 1950s gress into a fighting force before Independ- and 1960s, there were some ence, now integrated the princely states sterling Gandhians in Gov- while reorganising the administrative ernment, and some sterling structure of the country. The visionary Gandhians in Opposition too. Rajaji, after working for a spell with his col- Pre-eminent among the leagues in government, broke with them to latter was Acharya J. form the Swatantra Party to take on the B. Kripalani, who dominant and arrogantly complacent Con- knew Gandhi even gress. longer than Patel, The politics of today has tragically made Rajaji, or Nehru. The two and met in Santiniketan soon into rivals, whereas they were in fact, col- after Gandhi returned from leagues and co-workers. The two men had South Africa, and then Kripalani disagreements, personal and political; yet worked alongside Gandhi during the they nobly set these aside to work together Champaran . Like Nehru and in uniting the country and giving it a demo- Patel, Kripalani spent many years in British cratic template. There are few letters by pol- jails; unlike them, after Independence he iticians as moving as those exchanged left the ruling Congress Party and became a between these two Indians in the immediate voice of conscience in Opposition. He was aftermath of Gandhi’s assassination. Thus elected as an MP from three different states, Nehru told Patel that “with ’s death, purely on the strength of his personal credi- everything is changed and we have to face a bility. Kripalani became a trenchant critic different and more difficult world. The old of the Nehru government in the , controversies have ceased to have much sig- especially during the border crisis with nificance and it seems to me that the urgent China, when he devastatingly exposed the need of the hour is for all of us to function as failures of the Defence Minister, V. K. closely and co-operatively as possible…”. Krishna Menon. Patel, in reply, said he “fully and heartily When was promulgated in reciprocate[d] the sentiments you have so June 1975, Kripalani was 87 and ailing. feelingly expressed… Recent events had Nonetheless, he organised a protest meeting made me very unhappy and I had written to at Rajghat on October 2, Gandhi’s birthday. Bapu… appealing to him to relieve me, but Shortly afterwards he was taken to hospital. his death changes everything and the crisis A friend, going to visit him, saw his body that has overtaken us must awaken in us a punctured by tubes of all kinds. When he fresh realisation of how much we have asked Kripalani how he was, the aged but 3 achieved together and the need for further still spirited soldier of democracy 2 joint efforts in our grief-stricken country’s answered: “I have no Constitution. All that interests.” is left are Amendments”. 1 Had Nehru and Patel not buried their dif- One great Gandhian started out in gov- Illustration: MOHIT SUNEJA ferences in early 1948 there may have been ernment and ended up in Opposition. This no Republic at all. Scarred by Partition, with was the aforementioned C. Rajagopala- 6 7 communal riots savagely continuing and chari, whom Gandhi once called the millions of refugees to be resettled, with a “keeper of my conscience”. Rajaji was the 4 Communist insurgency brewing and Hindu first Indian Governor-General, then Union 5 As, of course, did that other macher, whose book Small is Beautiful memory of the Father of the Nation. Alto- fundamentalism increasingly emboldened, Home Minister, then Chief Minister of 10 and far more famous Indian draws on what he learnt from Gandhi and gether, Badshah Khan may have been the with monsoon failing and foreign exchange Madras State. However, he increasingly 12 democrat, Jayaprakash Nar- from Kumarappa. bravest Gandhian after Gandhi. reserves alarmingly low, the country was worried that the hegemony of a single party 8 9 ayan (JP). His initial bond with Kumarappa spent the years after Inde- The story of Gandhi and the Indian free- akin to a basket-case. Few foreign observers over such a large country was unhealthy for Gandhi was through his wife, pendence largely in rural Tamil Nadu. Mira dom movement is well known; the story of thought it would survive as a single nation; democracy. So he left the Congress in 1956; 11 Prabhavati, who lived in the Sab- behn worked meanwhile, in the Garhwal Gandhians in enriching the life of independ- none thought it could ever become a func- three years later, at the age of 80, he started armati ashram. In Gandhi’s lifetime Himalaya, also on rural sustainability. She ent India more or less forgotten. That so tioning democracy. Yet it did. This miracle a brand-new party called Swatantra. This JP was a flaming socialist who thought was a precocious critic of large dams and of many of his followers did so many admira- was owed to the joint efforts of many men promoted liberal values and free-market the Mahatma a timid reactionary. After monocultural forestry, and of the greed and ble things after he was gone, is striking testi- and women, functioning closely and co-op- economics, while being — in the best Gan- 1. Jawaharlal Nehru his death he came closer to his path. While hubris of modern man too. As she wrote in mony to Gandhi’s leadership and his pen- eratively, but perhaps to three patriots dhian tradition — conspicuously free of 2. J.B. Kripalani his opposition to the Emergency is part of April 1949: “The tragedy today is that edu- chant for team-building. Powerful and above all: Nehru and Patel, and the Law caste or community prejudice. our history and folklore, his other contribu- cated and moneyed classes are altogether famous men — in India and elsewhere, and 3. Minister and chief architect of the Indian I come next to Gandhi’s most remarkable Vallabhbhai Patel tions to our democratic life, while equally out of touch with the vital fundamentals of whether these be powerful and famous men Constitution, Dr B.R. Ambedkar. female follower, Kamaladevi Chattopad- 4. Khan Abdul notable, remain far less known. I think espe- existence — our Mother Earth, and the ani- in politics, sport, or business — tend to cen- Ambedkar had been a lifelong critic of the hyay. After Independence, Prime Minister Ghaffar Khan cially of his decades-long work in seeking to mal and vegetable population which she tralise all authority and glory in them- Congress Party and especially of Gandhi. He Nehru offered her a ministership in his cabi- 5. Jayaprakash bring about an honourable compact sustains. This world of Nature’s planning is selves. Gandhi was an astonishing excep- was persuaded to join the Government of net. However, she chose to stay out of party Narayan between the Indian state and its citizens in ruthlessly plundered, despoiled and disor- tion. He had this rare ability to identify an Independent India by the Mahatma’s close politics altogether, and directly serve the Nagaland and in Kashmir respectively. ganised by man whenever he gets the individual’s talent, to bring that person 6. Maulana Abul associate, Rajkumari . Nehru aam admi and aam aurat instead. Kamala- Writing about Kashmir in 1966, JP chance. By his science and machinery he close to himself, to nurture and develop that Kalam Azad and Patel, on the other hand, were pre-emi- devi first worked on the rehabilitation of ref- remarked: “If we continue to rule by force may get huge returns for a time, but ulti- person’s character and abilities, and then nent among Gandhi’s disciples, or, as I ugees; and then on reviving India’s handi- 7. and suppress these people and crush them mately will come desolation. We have got to set them free to live their life as they them- choose to call them for the purposes of this crafts sector. She did admirable work in 8. Kamaladevi or change the racial or religious character study Nature’s balance, and develop our selves chose to do. essay, apostles. Working under the both fields, without ever calling attention to Chattopadhyay of their state by colonization, or by any lives within her laws, if we are to survive as These Gandhians after Gandhi worked Mahatma’s direction while we were still a herself, and while nurturing a devoted other means, then I think that means politi- a physically healthy and morally decent inside government, seeking to humanise it. 9. J.C. Kumarappa colony, after his death they took forward his cadre of colleagues and co-workers. cally a most obnoxious thing to do.” species.” They worked in the Opposition, seeking to example to make a united and democratic Another female activist prominent in 10. Mira behn Two other apostles of Mahatma Gandhi I have profiled, all too briefly, eleven hold the ruling party to account. They country out of so many disparate and civil society was Mridula Sarabhai, daugh- 11. Mridula were very active in civil society work in extraordinary disciples of Gandhi, who car- worked in civil society, promoting economic divided parts. ter of Gandhi’s early patron Ambalal, the Sarabhai independent India. These were J. C. Kumar- ried on their master’s work after his death. self-reliance, social equality, religious plu- After Independence, Patel and Nehru brother of the future architect of India’s 12. C. Rajagopalachari appa and Mira behn (Madeleine Slade). Both The twelfth apostle of my title worked in the ralism, and environmental sustainability. were in government until their deaths, in space programme, Vikram. After Partition, joined Gandhi’s ashram in the 1920s, and country sundered out of an undivided India, Like their mentor, these apostles of Gandhi and May 1964 respectively. Mridula behn did heroic work in restoring were close to him ever since. Both were pio- namely, . This was Khan Abdul understood that the nation was not a fin- Also serving in an official capacity were two abducted women to their families. There- neering environmentalists. Kumarappa Ghaffar Khan, the Frontier Gandhi. Bad- ished article but a work-in-progress. They other members of the Mahatma’s inner cir- after, she devoted herself to the rights of the was a trained economist with a deep interest shah Khan struggled for decades for justice knew that there remained a large chasm cle. These were Rajendra Prasad and Mau- Kashmiri people, who in the 1950s — like in renewing rural life on sustainable lines. and freedom for the Pathans, battling the between the ideals of the Constitution and lana . Prasad did an out- now — were deprived of many of the essen- From 1947 until his death in 1960, he pro- Pakistani state and the Pakistani military, everyday life on the ground. They devoted standing job as President of the Constituent tial liberties that citizens in other states of moted water conservation, organic farming, while armed only with the weapons of truth, themselves to bridging that gap, in what- Assembly of India, guiding its deliberations India possessed. A person of principle and and community forest management, while love, and non violence. He spent many years ever way they could. We could learn from with a sure and occasionally firm hand. courage, devoted to democracy and to non advocating what he called an “economy of in prison, and many years in exile too. Visit- them still. Then he became the first President of the violence, she enjoyed the rare privilege of permanence”. He influenced a whole gener- ing India in Gandhi’s centenary year, 1969, Ramachandra Guha is the author of a two-volume Indian Republic, an office he upheld with being jailed both under the Raj and in Inde- ation of Indian social workers, as well as the he scolded us for allowing communal vio- biography of Gandhi, published in this country by Allen dignity and rectitude, albeit perhaps with pendent India. celebrated Western economist E. F. Schu- lence to smoulder on in violation of the Lane. He lives in Bengaluru.