From Nehru to JP, the political leaders mentored by Gandhi | Research News,The Indian Express

Gandhi's friendship with Nehru is known to be the most intriguing and fruitful kinds in the history of nationalsim. Rajaji on this other hand, was fondly referred to by Gandhi himself as "the keeper or my conscience".

Jawaharlal Nehru: Perhaps no other leader was as influenced by the Mahatma as the first prime minister of India, Nehru himself. Yet their relationship was a paradox. Both of them were poles apart in terms of their political and social ideologies, and yet they were intimately connected with each other. Not only were the two separated by 20 years in age, but also by intellectual and temperamental differences. Yet they stood together for more than 25 years. “Their partnership is one of the longest, most intriguing and fruitful in the history of nationalism,” wrote B R Nanda in his book, ‘Jawaharlal Nehru: Rebel and Statesman’. After Gandhi’s death, Nehru carried forward his ideas on pluralism to form the backbone of democracy in India.

Historian Percival Spear in his 1967 biographical essay wrote that despite being passionate and determined, Nehru had a strong need to depend on someone, “even if only to support the unending dialogue on India’s destiny.” At first this role of his mentor was carried out by his father Motilal Nehru, with whom he disagreed quite bitterly. After his father, it was Gandhi to whom he turned. “Nehru differed from his views even more radically than with his father’s but he had unbounded admiration for his idealism and personality,” wrote Spear.

The two had clashed on several occasions, including in the aftermath of the Chauri Chaura incident, in 1931 during the Gandhi-Irwin Pact, in 1934 over the withdrawal of the Civil Disobedience movement and also about the Second World War that broke out in 1939. There were several among Nehru’s colleagues, including Subhas Chandra Bose and J P Narayan, who expected and incited him to revolt against Gandhi’s dominance in the Congress. But it was his reverence towards Gandhi that led him to never carry their differences to a breaking point or encourage his followers to organise an opposition to the latter’s leadership.

Gandhi for his part dispelled any understanding of rivalry between the two when in 1936 he wrote in his weekly newspaper, ‘Harijan’, “Are we rivals?…I can not think of myself as a rival to Jawaharlal or him to me. Or if we are, we are rivals in making love to each other in the pursuit of the common goal.” Six years later, in 1942, Gandhi went on to declare Nehru as his political heir.

Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel: In contemporary politics, Nehru and Patel are often understood as arch rivals. What is often forgotten is the fact that they were in fact co-workers with a common affection and admiration for Gandhi. Patel’s initiation into the nationalist movement in fact was largely the doing of Gandhi. Maulana Abul Kalam Azad in his book, ‘India wins freedom’ (1959) wrote about the beginnings of the Gandhi-Patel friendship.

https://indianexpress.com/article/research/mahatma-gandhi-mentor-leaders-nehru-patel-jp-8185235/


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