Mind over modernity

The making of the modern Indian mind is a complex area of research because of the significant role the long history of ancient and medieval India has played in shaping the country's diverse, plural, and region-specific society.

Given these complex and contradictory social and cultural processes, the country's encounter with the colonising West created a completely new situation that put Indians on the defensive by describing them as "brutes".

The anti-colonial nationalist movement confronted the intellectual racial snobbery of the British "civilisers" of India by undertaking an intellectual journey of "discovering" the rich and complex reality of Indian culture, values and ways of life.

In that great intellectual tradition, Gandhi, Bose, Nehru, and many other leaders have played a special role in the making of the modern Indian mind, the subject of Reba Som's study.

It should be clearly understood that colonial rule had to be intellectually "de-legitimised" to make Indians feel self-assured against the assaults of Macaulay, James Mill, John Stuart Mill, and many others. Reba Som in her monograph of four chapters tells us about the intellectual and political similarities and differences among Gandhi, Bose, and Nehru.

Since Som puts Bose between Gandhi and Nehru, the purpose is to construct the story by focusing attention on Bose. She writes, "Gandhi and Subhas, both deeply spiritual, were open at the same time to Western values, which had to be adopted to suit the realities of modern India" and "Jawaharlal, in contrast, was an agnostic and steeped in the western traditions of scientific and enlightened liberalism ..."

This statement leads her to link the influence of Hinduism on Gandhi and Bose and maintain that Nehru was different. Bose was intimately linked with the provincial politics of Bengal and he operated at the all-India level from that position.

While Som correctly situates Bose in the milieu of pre-Independence Bengal, she has made no attempt to assess its limiting influence on Bose's political role and intellectual growth. She says, "... an aspect of Gandhi that was anathema to the Bengali psyche was his unconditional condemnation of revolutionary terrorism." Did this not play a role in Bose's anti-non-violence opposition to the Gandhian movement?

On the contrary, although Nehru often differed with Gandhian techniques and tactics, he usually ended up accepting Gandhi. As Nehru confessed, "It was surprising how easy it was to win me over ... this happened on many occasions, and as neither party really liked the idea of a break we cling to every pretext to avoid it."

Bose's individualism and growing belief in military solution to win independence made him drift away from Gandhi, Nehru, and the Congress. Gandhi said, "Subhas Babu will never pardon the loincloth. We must bear with him. He cannot help himself. He believes in himself and in his mission. He must work it out as we must ours."

Gandhi and Nehru emerged as the tallest among India's leaders. Bose inspired the youth and radical elements of Bengal. His Forward Bloc was formed to launch an impending fight against British imperialism. Nehru described it as "a negative grouping, an anti-block" and Gandhi referred to Bose's radical speeches as "an act of dare-devilry".

Bose shows a clear preference for fascism and his admiration for Nazi discipline and principle of "leadership". His Indian National Army and armed struggle for independence of India from abroad were logical extensions of his ideology.

Gandhi and Nehru, on the other hand, continued their intellectual and political anti-colonial journey that did not appeal to someone with Bose's bent of mind.

Som has to make up her mind about Nehru, especially his relationship with Gandhi. At one place she states that "destiny chose" Nehru to be India's Prime Minister. Elsewhere she writes that Gandhi's declaration of Nehru as his "heir-apparent" is based on the "emotive" relationship between Bapu and his beloved disciple in preference to the rebel.

Som has not understood the real import of Gandhi when he stated, "He (Nehru) says that he does not understand my language, and that he speaks a language foreign to me. This may or may not be true. But language is no bar to a union of hearts. And I know this""that when I am gone he will speak my language." The relationship has nothing to do with emotion. Gandhi was the social philosopher of mass power and Nehru was just next to him in his mass appeal.

This apart, Som is absolutely wrong to ascribe "tradition-modernity" to either Gandhi or Nehru's intellectual profiles. Both were moved by the most modern idea of freedom for the country from colonial rule and Bose shared this idea with both of them, though his intellectual inspirations were fundamentally different.

Neither Gandhi nor Nehru could abide Bose's admiration of fascism, and Gandhi's belief in Hinduism was much more eclectic than Bose's belief in Vendantic Hinduism. The most important link among these three comrades-in-arms along with Tagore and many others was their belief in nationalism and universalism.

Som has lost a great opportunity to identify the import of the Indian national movement in the making of the modern Indian mind. Indian nationalists also made Indians universalists. In contrast, Hindu communalists are intellectually opposed to the twentieth-century mainstream leaders of the national movement because Hindutva is a plea for the non-existent Hindu Golden Age.

The greatest impact of this mainstream nationalist leadership on the Indian mind was to oppose British colonialism but not the British people. A question that Som has not raised is the long-term impact of these three leaders on the modern Indian mind, the subject of this study.

Gandhi, Bose, Nehru

Reba Som
Penguin
Pages: 259; Price: Rs 350