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FREEDOM MOVEMENT
Eternal India
encyclopedia
Gandhi combined in himself the dual role
of a saint and an active politician. He had
been called by some
'the most saintly
among politicians'
and by others
'the most
political saint.'
According to Jawaharlal Nehru,
“Gandhi
was a unique personality and it was impos-
sible to judge him by the usual standards, or
even to apply the ordinary canons of logic to
him
According to Edward Thompson, "
He is
a superb judge of other men. His humanity
is one of the profoundest things that history
has seen. He has pity and love for every
race, and most of all for the poor and op-
pressed. "
Romain Rolland :
''Mahatma Gandhi has
raised up three hundred million of his fel-
lowmen, shaken the British empire and
inaugurated in human politics the most
powerful movement that the whole world
has seen for nearly two thousand years."
Louis Fischer :
"The symbol of India's
He was bom on 14th November, 1889
in Allahabad. His father Motilal Nehru
was a successful and wealthy lawyer. At
seventeen he entered Cambridge Univer-
sity; and at twenty he went down to London
to take his law degree at the Inns of Court.
He returned to India in 1912 to practice law.
His father's position as leading Mod-
erate in the Indian National Congress,
brought Nehru to the freedom struggle. He
joined the Congress and began to speak at
its sessions, but it was not until 1920, when
Gandhi launched his great Non Co-operation
movement
against
British
rule,
that
Jawaharlal found full expression for his
energies. He made tours in remote village
areas discovering the hard lot of the peas-
antry, organized volunteer workers, and
delivered speeches to large patriotic gath-
erings.
“I experienced (then) the thrill of
mass feeling, the power of influencing the
mass. ”
Jawaharlal
was
disappointed
by
Gandhi's sudden suspension of the Non-
Co-operation movement in 1922 after an
outbreak of violence. A trip to Europe for
his wife's (Kamala Nehru) health in 1926-
27 gave him a new perspective on the con-
flict between Indian nationalism and British
rule. Conversations with Socialists and
Communists -in Europe - especially at the
TRIBUTES
unanimous wish for freedom is Mahatma
Gandhi. A great man is like good sculpture,
made of one piece. A great man lives a
single-tracked life. Lincoln was great. He
lived for the Union. Lenin was great, he
lived in order to raise Russia out of the
feudal mire. Churchill is great because all of
his acts have been directed towards tke
preservation of England as a first class
power and in the same way Gandhi is great
because every single act that he performs
is calculated to promote the one great aim
of his life - the liberation of India. His
function ends when he frees India."
Lord Halifax :
“I suppose there can be few
men in all history who by their personal
character and example have been able
deeply to influence the thought of their
generation. ”
Stafford Cripps
There has been no
greater spiritual leader in the world in our
own times”.
Dr. Rajendra Prasad : “....
he has given us
JAWAHARLAL NEHRU (1889-1964)
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru
Congress of the League of Oppressed
People at Brussels-convinced him that the
principal international conflict was between
capitalist imperialism and anti-capitalist
socialism. A week's visit to Russia im-
pressed him with the achievements of the
Soviet system, and with the common inter-
est of Russia and India in opposing British
imperialism.
After his return to India Nehru threw
himself with renewed vigour into the na-
tional struggle. He demanded that the
Congress declare its ultimate goal to be, not
dominion status (as his father wished), but
complete independence. Jawaharlal was
supported- by Subhas Chandra Bose and
others, and Gandhi wisely yielded to their
demand in order to keep the nationalist
movement from splitting into Moderate and
Extremist wings, as it had in 1908.
and the world a moral substitute for war.
He has placed truth on its pedestal of glory
even in politics, no matter how harmful its
effect appears to be at the moment. ”
Jawaharlal Nehru
(at Gandhi’s death)
:
“The
light that shone in this country was no or-
dinary light; the light that has illumined this
country for many years will illumine this
country for many more years still, and a
thousand years later that light will still be
seen in this country, and the world will see
it and it will give solace to innumerable
hearts, for that light represented some-
thing more than the immediate. ”
Morarji Desai :
“Mahatma Gandhi be-
lieved in the divinity of Man and therefore
his life and teachings are valid for all time
and for all mankind. ”
Indira Gandhi:
“The Mahatma's great leg-
acy is the secularism for which he gave his
life. Secularism means neither irreligion
nor indifference to religion, but equal re-
spect for all religions- not mere tolerance,
but positive respect. ”
Later Nehru came increasingly to be
regarded as Gandhi's heir-apparent. De-
votion to the cause of Indian freedom, and
compassion for the lot of the nation's poor,
created between the two men an indissol-
uble bond. In their attitudes toward other
questions, however, Nehru and Gandhi
were poles apart.
Nehru's ideal India was a centralized
modern state with a planned industrial
economy. Despite their intellectual differ-
ences, however, Nehru found in Gandhi a
faithful friend and a wise counsellor. At one
time he telegraphed him,
“I feel lost in a
strange country where you are the only
familiar landmark...”
And after Gandhi's
assassination he mourned,
“the light has
gone out of our lives and there is darkness
everywhere. ”
India was fortunate in having Nehru as
Prime Minister after independence in 1947,
for he provided the dynamic leadership nec-
essary to preserve national unity and ac-
celerate economic progress. His sponsor-
ship of a
‘third force’
of neutralist nations
and his role as mediator between the
Western democracies and the Communist
powers enhanced India's position in world
affairs.
(Ref. Sec. K-Polity in VoUI, Nehru as Prime Minister
1947
-
64
)