Makkhan Lal is a professional Indian historian. Prof. Lal writes in First Post.
It is an accepted fact that without Sardar Patel we may not have seen India’s political geography the way it is.
This is not a fact. It is a tautology. It is always true that without x, y may have been different even if there is no connection between the two. The truth is without Hitler, Gandhian India would have managed to hang on to the Brits till about 1970.
However, in this article we shall talk about something that is very little known, even less talked about: How Sardar Patel was robbed of being the first Prime Minister of India, despite being elected to that destination.
He was elected by worthless shitheads- viz. 'Pradesh Committees'- who did what he told them.
Maulan Azad as Congress president
was a joke because Congress's policy was as stupid as shit. In the January Provincial elections, Muslims voted overwhelmingly for the League. Azad didn't catch any votes from his own community. He somehow didn't understand that he was neither the Imam ul Hind nor Ind's future Prime Minister. He was merely a silly man who had spent a lot of time in jail because....urm...that was the fashion back then.
By 1939, the Muslim League had gone virtually on war path and polarised the Muslim population on religious lines. To defuse the situation Mahatma Gandhi very wisely chose Maulana Abul Kalam Azad as the Congress president, just a couple of months before the Lahore Resolution for the creation of Pakistan.
But Azad was not popular with Muslims. There was no wisdom in choosing a 'show boy' derided by his own people. The fact is Azad's dad had been a big 'Pir' in Calcutta. But Azad wasn't able to turn this hereditary advantage into votes in the Corporate or Provincial elections. Fazl ul Haq and Suhrawardy didn't bother courting Azad. He was irrelevant. The other point is that the Brits had found him a crap interlocutor. This was because he had no power of his own. He was Gandhi's ventriloquist's dummy.
Because of various factors like World War II, Quit India Movement and most of the Congress leaders in jails, the annual elections for the post of Congress president could not be held until April 1946. Maulana Azad continued to be the Congress president and represented the Congress in various negotiations with the government and visiting British Missions.
Meanwhile Gandhi had met with Jinnah and thus conceded that the League was the representative of the Indian Muslim. Indeed, Gandhi had pretty much accepted the Lahore Resolution. He was pretending the Hindus would be prepared to buy off Jinnah with some big concession. But the Hindus were in no mood to do so.
Also, by the time the World War II was coming to an end, it was becoming clear that India’s freedom was not very far.
Had Churchill won the 1945 election, Gandhi could have postponed independence. Instead, Atlee won. After what had happened to Cripps, Atlee was determined to get the fuck out of the Indian quagmire as quickly as possible.
It was also very clear that it will be the Congress president— due to the number of seats the Congress had won in 1946 elections — who shall be invited to form the Interim Government at the Centre. Thus, suddenly the position of the Congress president became a matter of great interest.
But the Congress President was an utterly useless ventriloquist's dummy. Nehru alone could tell Gandhi to fuck off when he started talking 'Hind Swaraj' type bollocks. Moreover, Nehru could sink Congress by going over to the Socialists. Moreover, Atlee liked Nehru but blamed Gandhi for the stupidity of 'Quit India' while continuing to respect Nehru as a genuine anti-Fascist. The Americans, who were reading 'Discovery of India' considered Nehru the only smart Indian leader. This was because he made it clear that Gandhi was a crackpot who would have no influence. India would industrialize with the aid of Wall Street loans and f.d.i from big American corporations. Sadly, Nehru was incapable of pushing through this agenda because he thought everything should be Nationalized- i.e. turned into a loss-making money-pit.
Once the election for the post of Congress president was announced, Maulana Azad expressed his desire for re-election.
Azad lived in a fantasy land. What he didn't get was that nobody in their right mind wants to be united to Muslims- or Hindus, come to that. As for Sikhs- don't get me started. The one thing Jinnah did was scare the shit out of Hindus who decided to hang together rather than permit the return of Muslim hegemony by means of salami tactics. In particular, the non-Muslims of Punjab, Assam and West Bengal wanted to get the fuck away from the Muslims. The more sensible ones subsequently also got the fuck away from Hindus and Sikhs by emigrating to White ruled countries.
This fact has been accepted by Azad himself, but in a very twisted way.
Because he lived in a fantasy world. Also he may have been off his head on drink when he wrote his last book.
In his autobiography, India Wins Freedom, Maulana writes: “The question normally arose that there should be the fresh Congress elections and a new president chosen. As soon as this was mooted in the Press, a general demand arose
from Azad and nobody else
that I should be selected President for another term…. There was a general feeling in Congress that since I had conducted the negotiations till now, I should be charged with the task of bringing them to a successful close and implementing them.”
But those negotiations were shit because Gandhi was shit- or else didn't want Pax Britannica to end coz Ahimsa was off the table if the Brits weren't around to keep the peace and fight off invaders.
Maulana’s move agonised his close friend and colleague, Jawaharlal Nehru, who had his own expectations.
Nehru wasn't stupid. He knew Azad's career was over. Still, he'd keep him on as a yes-man precisely because the guy was a political nullity.
However, Gandhi had made his choice known in the favour of Nehru on 20 April 1946.
Nehru had made it known that either he'd rule or he'd pull the rug from under the Maha-crackpot.
This was not for the first time that Gandhi spoke about his choice of Nehru. He had been speaking about it for the last several years.
The plain fact is that Congress had adopted the Nehru report as its official policy sixteen years previously. Gandhi's money power gave him some salience but Nehru was confident that under universal franchise, Gandhian stupidity would get kicked to death. Bania ideology has limited appeal to people who hate Banias- which is everybody except crazy, cowardly, vegetarian, virtue signalers.
But, Maulana’s desire for re-election and various newspaper reports about it upset Gandhi and on 20 April 1946 he wrote to Maulana Azad, who had already been president of Congress for the last six years: “Please go through the enclosed cuttings… I have not spoken to anyone of my opinion. When one or two Working Committee members asked me, I said that it would not be right for the same President to continue…. If you are of the same opinion, it may be proper for you to issue a statement about the cuttings [the news item Gandhi had sent him] and say that you have no intention to become the president again…. In today’s circumstances I would, if asked, prefer Jawaharlal. I have many reasons for this. Why go into them?”
Why indeed! Nehru was a Hindi speaking, UP Brahmin. Azad was half Arab, half Afghan and though wholly Muslim, couldn't deliver Muslim votes.
He wrote in his book-
Even from the communal point of view, Muslims could expect nothing better (than the Cabinet Mission Plan). They would have complete internal autonomy in provinces in which they were in a majority.I was also convinced that if the Constitution for free India was framed on this basis and worked honestly for some time, communal doubts and misgivings would soon disappear.
I did my best to persuade my two colleagues not to take the final step. I found that Patel was so much in favour of partition that he was hardly prepared even to listen to any other point of view. For over two hours I argued with him. I pointed out that if we accepted partition, we could create a permanent problem for India.
However, despite Gandhi’s open support for Jawaharlal Nehru, the Congress overwhelmingly wanted Sardar Patel as its President
Nonsense! Shitheads who sit on Committees are merely corrupt cunts or eunuchs of various types. Congress didn't want Patel. Bombay Presidency did not want Patel. A guy who can't carry his own province, can't lead the country.
and therefore the first Prime Minister of India, because he was considered “a great executive, organiser and leader” with his feet firmly on the ground.
Political parties have to win elections. With Nehru, Congress would win big and stay together. Without Nehru, it would lose. Once Nehru came out and said that Gandhi had shit for brains, the entire country would breathe a sigh of relief. Sadly, this would mean that Godse wouldn't get the chance to achieve immortal fame by shooting that shithead.
Last date for the nominations for the post of the president of Congress was 29 April, 1946, and thereby the first Prime Minister of India. In those days as per the constitution of the Congress Pradesh Congress Committees (PCC) were the one Electoral College and only they could participate in the election process.
But Congress elections have always been a sham.
Let us not forget that by this time Gandhi had already made his choice known. Still 12 out of 15 Pradesh Congress Committees nominated Sardar Patel. The remaining three abstained. They did not nominate anyone. Thus, no Pradesh Congress Committee proposed the name of Jawaharlal Nehru or anyone else even on the last day of filing the nominations i.e. 29 April 1946.
Probably because they themselves knew everybody thought they were shit.
Thus, as per the rule, Sardar Patel stood elected Congress president unopposed.
Like Congress follows rules!
This upset not only the loyalists of Nehru but even those who may have been opposed to Patel for one reason or the other.
Everybody knew the Committee was shit- all Indian Committees are- but they needn't have made it so fucking obvious.
The machine opposed to Patel started working fast.
What machine?
JB Kripalani
who was so utterly useless that, like JP, he couldn't even fuck his own wife. That is why he took over from Nehru as Congress President. It was Wavell who appointed Nehru Premier of the interim government which is why Nehru gave up the party post. Later Kripalani would resign when he discovered everybody was laughing at him because he was useless and powerless and hadn't even got to fuck his own wife- whose political career was more successful than his own. Kripalani got his revenge on India by supporting Morarji Desai's candidacy of the Premiership. He truly had shit for brains.
took the lead in finding the proposers and seconders for Nehru’s candidacy, in deference to Gandhi’s wishes, during the Working Committee meeting on 29 April 1946 in New Delhi. Kripalani succeeded in getting a few Working Committee members and local members of AICC to propose Nehru’s name for the post. Though Gandhi knew whom he had recommended, Jawaharlal’s nomination almost missed the 29 April deadline, and also he could not get even one Pradesh Congress Committee, the only legitimate body entitled to nominate and elect the president of the Congress, to nominate Nehru.
Because Congress has never had anything to do with 'legitimacy' or following rules or being democratic or having sensible policies.
However, once Nehru was formally proposed by a few Working Committee members, which was totally illegal,
it was perfectly legal. Indeed, it would have been perfectly legal for Congress office-bearers to stick radishes up their asses and elect Charlie Chaplin their leader.
efforts began to persuade Sardar Patel to withdraw his nomination in favour of Nehru. Patel sought Gandhi’s advice who in turn asked him to do so and “Vallabhbhai did so at once”. But it must be mentioned that before advising Patel to withdraw Gandhi had given enough hints to Nehru to step down in favour of Sardar Patel. Gandhi said to Nehru: “No PCC has put forward your name…only [a few members of] the working committee has.”
Nehru now had the whip hand. Previously, Gandhi could blackmail Nehru by threatening to publish his letters in which he showed skepticism of Gandhi's program. Now, Nehru said the polite equivalent of 'publish and be damned'. Gandhi's habit of sleeping naked with little girls was enough to sink the maha-crackpot.
This remark of Gandhi was met by Nehru with “complete silence”. Once Gandhi was informed that “Jawaharlal will not take the second place”, he asked Patel to withdraw.
Gandhi was a shite negotiator. If his opposite number upped his demand to include shitting on Gandhi's head, then Gandhi would concede immediately while later stipulating that a fart in the face was all he had agreed to.
Dr Rajendra Prasad lamented that Gandhi “had once again sacrificed his trusted lieutenant for the sake of the ‘glamorous Nehru’ and further feared that “Nehru would follow the British ways.”
As opposed to such Indian ways as had led to the country being run by a handful of foreigners from a far away island.
When Rajendra Prasad was using the phrase “once again” he indeed was referring to the denial of presidentship of the Congress to Patel, always at the last moments in 1929, 1937 and 1946 in preference to Nehru.
Because Patel couldn't even get on with his elder- and smarter- brother, let alone anybody else.
Let it also be mentioned that Prasad was not the only person to complain about Gandhi “sacrificing his trusted lieutenant for the sake of the glamorous Nehru.”
Nehru wasn't liked by older Hindus. But nobody liked older Hindus.
There were many others. But Gandhi took the decision because he was convinced that “Jawaharlal will not take a second place but by giving Jawaharlal the first place India would not be deprived of Patel’s services and the both will be like two oxen yoked to the governmental cart. One will need the other and both will pull together”.
Nehru would let Patel sweat the small stuff but it was Mountbatten he'd come to rely on.
Sardar Patel was close to 71 when all this drama was unfolding. Patel knew that this was the only chance he could get to lead the country. Nehru, then 56, still had age with him.
Nehru actually had a plan for India- which the Americans appreciated. Sadly, Indians weren't interested in doing anything sensible. They preferred turning the country into a vast begging bowl unable to feed or defend itself.
Still, Patel accepted to take a second position because
he had no choice. The Mahasabha didn't want him. The Socialists did want Nehru.
of two reasons: first, for Patel post or position was immaterial.
Yeah, right! The guy's hobby was going to jail and sucking up to the maha-crackpot. What Vallabhai got out of Congress was the chance to outstrip and bury the memory of his more popular elder brother.
Service to the motherland was more important; and secondly, Nehru was keen that “either he would take the number one spot in the government or stay out. Vallabhbhai also reckoned that whereas the office was likely to moderate Nehru, rejection would drive him into opposition. Patel shrank from precipitating such an outcome, which would bitterly divide India.”
It would have buried the Congress gerontocracy.
However, Nehru’s so-called unopposed elevation to the presidentship of the Congress did not
occur. Kripalani became President probably because he was as useless as Azad. Apparently his elder brother had converted to Islam. Anyway, Sindhis were on the wrong side of the border.
automatically lead him to assume the office of the Prime Minister of India.
There was nothing 'automatic' about it. Wavell chose to offer the top job to Nehru precisely because he wasn't as utterly useless as Gandhi and Azad and other such shitheads. This was no mere caprice on the part of the Viceroy. Wavell was answerable to the Secretary State of India and thus, ultimately, to Atlee. Gandhi wanted power without responsibility- he wouldn't hold office but could make mischief- whereas Patel and Azad didn't have any power of their own and couldn't hold up their side of any bargain they made. Rajaji was a lightweight from the South where there was no Muslim problem. But Nehru was a Hindi speaker who could take an independent line to the Maha-crackpot. As the younger man, he could keep out of the interim Government and let the old coots take the blame for Partition or Muslim appeasement or whatever. But this also meant he could pull the trigger on Partition. Indeed, by cutting Punjab and Bengal down to size, his own UP would be able to dominate the country.
The truth is, Nehru always had power of his own because he was actually the least stupid of the Leftists. Bose had been crazy enough to go ally with Hitler and Tojo. The Communist Party would be foolish enough to try an insurgency against an Army recruited from the sons of 'kulaks'. Stalin, who had personal experience of the utter shittiness of the Indian communist, gave them good advise but it took a lot of beating and blood-letting to bring them to their senses. The others were parasites on Gandhi. Patel needed to find a new master and, because he was a sensible enough fellow, that is precisely what he did. Fortunately for his legend he died quickly enough not to become an embarrassment.
Another drama was unfolding.
Even after Nehru’s election as president of the Congress
Or rather Nehru's refusal to play second fiddle to the Maha-crackpot. Gandhi had simply made one mistake too many. Nehru had an emotional bond with the old coot but had lost faith in Gandhi's supposed spiritual connection with the Masses. The fact is 20 times as many Indians had joined the Army than had gone to jail under 'Quit India'.
had already a foregone conclusion and results announced in the first week of May 1946, Maulana (the friend of Nehru) had already announced on 29 April that despite this fresh election for the president, he shall continue to hold office of the Congress president until November 1946.
Nehru took over on 6th July. In September he became Premier of the interim Government.
It was again Gandhi who came to the rescue of Nehru and thwarted Maulana’s scheme.
What scheme? Azad was a joke.
Gandhi immediately wrote to him that Maulana’s “announcement does not seem proper.” Maulana, seeing that his game has been exposed by Gandhi, took a very strange stand. He wrote to Gandhi “I did not expect that you would think that Congress is not safe in my hands.”
What hands? The guy was a ventriloquist's dummy but one who spoke Urdu rather than the English of the British trained barrister.
The very same Maulana Azad, who had always been considered a great friend and confident of Nehru and who had issued a statement on 26 April 1946 to elect Nehru as Congress president, wrote in his autobiography, and published posthumously in 1959: “After weighing the pros and cons I came to the conclusion that the election of Sardar Patel would not be desirable in the existing circumstances. Taking all facts into consideration it seemed to me that Jawaharlal should be the new president.”
Was Azad a drunkard? That's the only question which interests us now.
He continued, “I acted according to my best judgement but the way things have shaped since then has made me realise that this was perhaps the greatest blunder of my political life. I have regretted no action of mine so much as the decision to withdraw from the presidentship of the Congress at this junction. It was a mistake which I can describe in Gandhi’s words as the one of Himalayan dimension.”
Similarly, my greatest regret is not taking the role of Susan in 'Desperately seeking Susan'. I'm much prettier than Madonna. Also my man boobs are bigger.
Azad added, “My second mistake was that when I decided not to stand myself, I did not support Sardar Patel. We differed on many issues but I am convinced that if he had succeeded me as Congress president he would have seen that the Cabinet Mission Plan was successfully implemented.
Patel, holding the Home portfolio, was outfoxed by Liaquat in Finance who had the backing of Muslim Civil Servants. Liaquat proposed to tax the Hindu bania out of existence. Suddenly, Partition became urgent.
He would have never committed the mistake of Jawaharlal which gave Mr Jinnah an opportunity of sabotaging the Plan. I can never forgive myself when I think that if I had not committed these mistakes, perhaps the history of the last ten years would have been different.”
Whereas, if only Azad had gone to Hollywood, he would have become Shirley Temple and sailed on good ship Lollipop.
Looking back to all those tumulus
I suppose 'tumultuous' is meant. A tumulus is a heap of earth.
years Rajagopalachari, who had all the reasons to be angry, unhappy and uncharitable to Sardar Patel because it was Patel who deprived Rajaji the first Presidentship of India, wrote almost 22 years after Patel’s death: “When the independence of India was coming close upon us and Gandhiji was the silent master of our affairs, he had come to the decision that Jawaharlal, who among the Congress leaders was the most familiar with foreign affairs, should be the Prime Minister of India, although he knew Vallabhbhai would be the best administrator among them all.”
Nehru was the only one with genuine anti-Fascist credentials. He was a friend of Cripps and Atlee. The Americans liked him because he supported the KMT and was knowledgeable about China.
He continued, “Undoubtedly it would have been better if Nehru had been asked to be the Foreign Minister and Patel made the Prime Minister.
In which case Nehru would have quit Congress. He might have cobbled something together with 'Kisan/Mazdoor' parties and made zamindari abolition his main plank.
I too fell into the error of believing that Jawaharlal was the more enlightened person of the two… A myth had grown about Patel that he would be harsh towards Muslims. This was a wrong notion but it was the prevailing prejudice.”
Rajaji didn't understand that Congress was extremely fucking harsh to Muslims in 1947/48. Gandhi knew better. Bihari Congressmen had killed plenty of innocent Muslims. But that they had been doing the same thing in 1917 when Gandhi was busy providing cover for them in Champaran.
Before we close, let us have a look at what Michael Brecher, one of the most sympathetic biographers of Nehru (Nehru: A political Biography), has to say on the issue of Nehru’s elevation to the presidentship of the Congress and the Prime Ministership of free India: “In accordance with the time-honoured practice of rotating the presidency, Patel was in line for the post. Fifteen years had elapsed since he presided over the Karachi session, whereas Nehru had presided at Lucknow and Ferozpur in 1936 and 1937. Moreover, Patel was the overwhelming choice of the Provincial Congress Committees… Nehru’s ‘election’ was due to Gandhi’s intervention. Patel was persuaded to step down.”
Nehru crushed Kripalani when he tried to take an independent line as Congress President. This didn't matter because Kripalani was wholly inconsequential. Nehru crushing Patel, however, would not have been a pretty sight. Gandhi's stock would have fallen in an irretrievable manner. Nehru merely needed to say 'Gandhi's stupidity delayed Indian independence and antagonized all the minorities- or, as in Madras, the non-Brahmin majority. That's another point against the Gandhians. Gujeratis or Tamils were intransigent on the Hindi issue. Nehru and Indira- actual Hindi speakers- didn't give a fuck about that rustic lingo.
“One month after the election the Viceroy invited Nehru, as Congress president, to form an interim government. If Gandhi had not intervened, Patel would have been the first de facto premier of India, in 1946-47.
Patel would not have been invited. Nehru mattered. Patel did not. Wavell was forced by London to make Nehru Premier and appoint a Cabinet. Wavell would not accept non-Leaguers for the 5 Muslim seats but agreed that they could remain vacant. That forced Jinnah's hand. Luckily for him, it turned out that Liaquat was way smarter than Patel and so the interim Government proved useless.
Gandhi certainly knew of the impending creation of the Interim government. One must infer, therefore, that he preferred Nehru as the first Prime Minister of free India.
No. We must infer that Gandhi knew Nehru could quit Congress. Patel couldn't.
The Sardar was ‘robbed of the prize’ and it rankled deeply. He was then seventy-one while Nehru was fifty-six; in traditionalist Indian terms the elder statesman should have been the first premier
Nonsense! The Brahmin outranked the Patel. Anyway, Nehru's daddy had been President. Motilal had created his own party. Nehru could do the same. Patel had no such autocritas. He had made a fool of himself by his feud with his own elder brother. Indeed, Patel had gone to court to prove that Vittalbhai was such a crap lawyer that he couldn't even draft his own will properly. Thus, Vallabhai prevented Netaji Bose getting any of his brother's cash.
and Patel knew that because of his advanced age another opportunity would probably not arise,” Brecher said.
Patel had no charisma. He was not a vote winner. He had hated playing second fiddle to his brother. But Nehru was way more important than Vittalbhai.
“There is striking parallel with Congress election of 1929; on both occasions Gandhi threw his weight behind Nehru at the expense of Patel,” he added
Vittalbhai was bigger than Vallabhbhai back then. What makes Patel great is that he openly favored his own community- one of the best and most successful India can boast of. If your people are smart, help them rise by all means.
Gandhi always yielded to the stronger party. His natural instinct was to surrender. His weapons were the weapons of the weak- refusing to eat or sulking in jail. But such weapons were useless once Pax Brittannica ended and the Brits fucked off back to Blighty. With hindsight, they should have done it 20 years previously. The Indians needed to learn that defending themselves involved building a Navy and an Armaments industry of their own. Ultimately, Nehru and Gandhi and all the other barristocrats who thought they were fighting the British were merely fighting common sense. Like Peter Pan, they lived in a Never Never land where the British Umpire was actually Captain Hook. Then the Brits departed and Nehru fucked things up so badly that by 1965, not just China, even Pakistan thought it could take down India's pants and make fun of its puny genitals. In that sense, Nehru was Gandhi's natural successor. It took the combined imbecility of two virtue signaling windbags to reduce Hindu India to beggary if not buggery.
No comments:
Post a Comment