Today is the
Children’s day- 14th November -which is the birth day of Pandit Jawaharlal
Nehru. The following write-up is an extract from which we can understand the
thinking, humility and approach of this great freedom fighter and builder of
India who belongs to all.
DARLING OF THE MASSES
A.A. Ravoof
No other
leader in the wide world had so much real love for the masses as Nehru. It was
inborn in him. Often he wondered how the people of India, the common people of
India, men, women and children, gathered in their thousands at his meetings, though
most of them did not know the language he spoke in and much less understood
what he said. Still they came, not so much to hear his oration as for the darshan, to get inspired by the sight of
the leader. He always loved to meet people to look into their eyes and fathom
what lay behind them, to understand their urges, their needs and sufferings.
How was he able to achieve this? No
one was conscious of it in a greater degree than Nehru himself. He said:
“Perhaps more than any other person in India at present, I have come in contact
with vast masses of human beings…I come in contact with them and I am receptive
to their feelings. And because I am receptive to their feelings I can make them
receptive to what I say. It has to be mutual. If I went about like a school
master or a boss ordering them about, their receptiveness would close up. I go
as a colleague and comrade and I credit them with intelligence to understand
the most intricate problems”.
On several occasions when as a security measure, the public
were kept at a distance from him, Nehru got excited and shouted:“I do not want
to see policemen and policemen everywhere. Where are the people? Who are you to
stand between me and my people?” Only when he heard the people greeting him
from somewhere did he relax or smile. This love for the masses and the
reciprocal regard and esteem and affection that he got in abundant measure were
unique, probably he was the one and only leader who enjoyed this love to the
point of deification.
In fact he exercised a hypnotic spell over the Indian masses
as no other leader did before. Dr. Matthai, a former Indian Finance Minister,
has said that it would be difficult to find in the history of this country,
since the days of the Mauryan Empire a single leader whose utterances and
messages were received with such enthusiasm and interest by the people from the
Himalayas to Cape Comorin. So much so that he had got used to this here-worship.
Very often he debated this issue within himself. At times he detested
hero-worship, yet he had got accustomed to it.
His love for the masses was absolutely genuine. Some years
ago Nehru told the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry that
the Second Five Year Plan was by no means over-ambitious. He added, people who
talked about the Second Plan being over-ambitious ignored the nature of the
problem and asked, was it ambitious for the Indian people to presume to think
that they could ever be prosperous, wealthy and strong? He continued: “When we
said that we could be independent and would not be ruled by any other country,
some people in our own country thought, “are these people, disunited, fighting
each other on religious grounds, caste grounds and language grounds,
poverty-stricken people, backward people, superstitious people who go and bathe
by the millions in the Ganges or the Jamuna or some other river if there is an
eclipse of the Sun or Moon, worthy of freedom?” Many people said so and that
argument might well have been justified logically on paper. But we dared, the
people of India dared, the ordinary peasant, the poverty-stricken peasant of
India dared and we succeeded. Therefore do not let it be said that we are
ambitious. The moment we cease to be ambitious, we go downhill.” Evidently
Nehru agreed with Browning who said:
Ah, but a man’s
reach should exceed his grasp or what’s a heaven for?
Nehru had an uncanny way of winning the love, affection and
esteem of his countrymen. To quote one instance: on April 15, 1959, Nehru was
on a visit to the city of Madras. A little earlier, he had displeased a section
of the South Indians by his remarks on Rajaji, his strong attack on those who
opposed the policy of his Government with regard to Hindi and his criticism of
critics in general. The South as a whole felt offended: still, when he came to
the State capital, the citizens of Madras did attend his meetings in their
thousands as usual but with heavy hearts.
Nehru mounted the rostrum and greeted the audience with
folded hands and with a mesmeric smile. Those who were very near him, those who
caught the glint in his eyes and the curve of his lips were completely charmed
and immediately forgot all about his offending remarks made on an earlier
occasion. He began: “I am a very fortunate person. I have come to Madras on a
very auspicious day – the Tamil New Year day. I congratulate you and give you
my good wishes for the New Year that is beginning today”. This impressed the
sensitive Tamilians and they were happy.
Then he added: “Arriving here today I had the best of New
Year gifts given to me. That was a party of children of Madras gathered
together for the inauguration of the Children’s Park at Guindy. Is that not a
piece of very good fortune for me?” Immediately after, a still larger section
came under his spell –the whole world loves the man who loves children.
Now he turned to the critics. He knew there was a good number
of them in the audience and that the best way to deal with them was to
recognize them. So he said: “It is good to have critics…..because the best of
us are apt to look at things in a limited way if there are no
critics………..Therefore I am not complaining of criticisms but I welcome them.”
The critics were naturally elated at this delightful reference to them and soon
became his friends.
Nehru remembered that he was harsh on Rajaji on a previous
visit and felt that he owed the Madras audience an explanation if not an
apology. He was quite ready for the job. He said: “A very eminent leader of
India whom we have honoured and respected for generations, Rajaji, has been
writing and sometimes showing displeasure at our policy. Anything that Rajaji
says has always merited consideration and respectful attention……………Now I may
perhaps venture to say one word for him with great respect and that is ………a
little charity sometimes in his thinking may not be out of place. We are not as
wise as he is. We may have other faults, but let us not be charged with lack of
good faith.” The job was so excellently and superbly done that Rajai-fans who
were harbouring a grouse in their minds forgave him and all their animosity and
antipathy towards Nehru turned into sympathy.
Having thus secured the sympathy of the audience, Nehru began
to have his say. He argued: “Let it be understood. It is not enough to
criticize us, it is not enough to say that we are going in the wrong way. It is
not enough to say that we are going too fast or that ‘you must have brakes and checks; otherwise
you break your necks.’ Let us analyse the problem. Let us try to find out what
it is.”
He paused and cast a thoughtful look at the audience. He
pondered for a while and resumed his speech: “I am quite honest with you. I
make no claim to any brilliance of understanding in economic matters and the
like……….I want you to consider whether all these wonderful Plans came out of my
head like Minerva coming out of the head of Jupiter. Rajaji knows that I am not
such a brilliant person. I am rather an ordinary person with certain
well-defined capacity, energy and fortunately with a good deal of health about
me so that I can throw myself about”
Seeing the audience veering round to him, he developed the
theme: “Of course always there is the driving force in our head, that we have
got to go ahead. If it is not there, I do not know what exactly we are for. I
hope none of us takes hold of these Ministerships just to earn a living. I
suppose many of us can earn much bigger amounts in other ways. After all, we
may not be quite so bad, not that bad.
Now Nehru’s hand was on the pulse of the public. He said in
all humility: “No single man, however able he is, can shoulder the burden alone
and if at any time those of us who are connected with the Government, either at
the Centre or in the States, imagine that they are supermen and that they need
not consult others, then they have failed in their work. It is with this spirit
that I wish to approach questions. Of course, I have failed often enough. I
make mistakes but I hope everything will be forgiven if I mean the right thing,
if I try to do right and if I endeavour to do so.” Nothing appeals to the
common man more than great men’s modesty and admission of mistakes. And more
members of the audience were being swept off their feet without their knowing
it.
The people were under his hypnotic spell. He said: “Well my
time is up. I am happy to have been able to come to Madras on this New Year Day
and to tell you something that I have in my mind. Life is exciting in India,
dealing with problems. I have had my share of this excitement and though there
are big problems, the faith, the idea that I have the affection and goodwill of
large numbers of people of India has helped me and will help me.”
Then he pondered for a while and seriously added: “ And if
any day, the people of India do not have that faith in me, they are perfectly
capable of asking me to retire and go away somewhere else and I should gladly
do it without a trace of, shall I say, resentment. I shall be very happy
indeed. But so long as I am in the job, I am in it. I have some energy still
and I propose to strive hard so long as there is strength in me to realize the
dreams we have had and the promises we have made. If I do not do so, I shall be
unworthy of your confidence, of the position we occupy…..I believe that this
huge social transformation cannot be brought about by government decree.
Millions of people have to work for it. Therefore I beg of you, consider these
matters, think of these problems, come to conclusions and then act upon them.
Jai Hind.”
Nehru did not like flattery or high-sounding encomiums. He
referred to it at a Coimbatore function when an address was presented to him
cataloguing the many virtues that he possessed and many more that he did not.
He shunned praise. Too much praise is like too much sugar in the tea; only a
few can swallow it.
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