Nehru, the family man

There are about 150 letters in this book ""most of them written by Jawaharlal Nehru to his sister, Vijay Lakshmi Pandit, between 1909 and 1947.

All of them have been chronologically segmented into seven sections and the volume's editor, Nayantara Sahgal (Ms Pandit's daughter), very aptly suggests in her introduction that they reveal Nehru's personality as a brother reacting to domestic concerns and issues.

You will be, therefore, sorely disappointed if you are expecting Nehru to discuss in these letters weighty issues concerning domestic and international political developments during that period.

Instead""and this is what makes this book a refreshing read""the letters throw light on Nehru not only as a doting brother, but also as a caring husband (almost every letter he wrote to Pandit till Kamala Nehru's death has a mention of his wife's health) and a father who was disenchanted with a daughter who did not go his way.

Much before Indira decided to marry Feroze Gandhi against her father's wishes, ignoring even Mahatma Gandhi's advice to rethink her marriage decision, Nehru had a clear inkling of how his dear daughter was treading a path that was not to his liking.

On at least two occasions, in his letters to Vijay Lakshmi Pandit, Nehru made no secret of his disenchantment with Indira.

"On purpose I wrote to Indu and asked her what she wanted to be""a doctor, engineer or what else? It was a very prosaic question meant to draw her down from the clouds.

Of course I received no answer. But I am quite clear that nothing that is worthwhile can be done in the clouds. She will have to come down and if she does not do so early she will do so late and then the process is more painful," Nehru wrote in 1933 from jail in Dehra Dun.

These are indeed harsh words from a father who might have expected a lot from his only child.

Nehru was quite worried about Indira's education. He was disappointed by her decision to return to India without completing her course in England.

Even Feroze Gandhi was aware of the problems Nehru had faced over Indira's decision on their marriage.

There is one letter (written in 1938) in this volume from Feroze Gandhi to Vijay Lakshmi Pandit, where the young man reveals to her that he has been in love with Indira for more than four years and seeks her help as someone in whom he can have complete trust.

The letters included in this volume do not give any indication of the circumstances under which Nehru agreed to the marriage. But Nayantara Sahgal's view is that once Indira made her resolve to marry Feroze Gandhi clear, Nehru decided to accept his son-in-law and gave him all the access and respect that he deserved.

The reason for this is explained by Nehru's genuine concern for Feroze Gandhi. In one letter, he writes: "It appears that Feroze Gandhi has got into hot water with his people because of his association with us and especially his long stay at Bhowali. Even before his political activities were greatly resented by his mother and the blame for them was cast on Kamala and me. [B]ut suddenly everything has fallen through and the poor boy is landed high and dry. Even ordinarily I would like to help him in this quandary but now my responsibility is all the greater because we happen to be the cause of it."

Sahgal adds some spice to the controversy by providing an explanatory note that reveals that there has been some debate about who Feroze Gandhi's real mother was.

The book has many other gems. Particularly poignant are those letters from Nehru to his young sister when she lost her husband, Ranjit. Nehru does not get unduly emotional.

He exercises classical restraint while acknowledging the irreparable loss his sister suffered not only on account of her husband's death, but also due to the property-related disputes she had to grapple with subsequently.

Nehru was a cautious and orthodox father for Indira. But for Vijay Lakshmi Pandit, he was a liberal brother who would advise his sister to ignore the traditional rituals a woman is expected to follow after her husband's death.

Nehru's concern at outdated laws in our country and for the need to revamp the legal system becomes evident on several occasions. The laws, which then denied a woman her due share in her ancestral property, pained Nehru very much and he saw in front of him how his own sister had to fight an ugly court battle with her deceased husband's elder brother.

Later as Prime Minister, Nehru did bring about the required changes in the property inheritance laws. But he failed to remove or ease the stringent foreign exchange laws, even though he suffered due to them during many of his visits abroad and eloquently recorded them in his letters.

Nehru could also laugh at himself. In a letter written from Hanoi, he tells his sister how his pyjama cord slipped and he could not tie it before meeting the Chinese Consul in Calcutta and then emplaning for Vietnam.

"Imagine my plight""holding on to my pyjamas, accepting bouquets, shaking hands, doing Namaskar, etc. etc. It was a terrible ordeal for an hour", he writes.

All these insights into Nehru as a person are a big plus. The only problem with the book is the lack of adequate annotation to developments and characters referred to in the letters.

Assuming that today's readers would know of the events and personalities during the first half of the twentieth century is a folly.

The editor should have taken care to explain and contextualise them a little (it would have been better, for instance, to know that the legendary doctor B C Roy, in whose abilities Nehru did not have much faith, was also a Congress stalwart from Bengal and the state's second chief minister after 1947, the first being PC Ghosh, who held the office briefly).

A family tree of the Nehrus would have been a helpful tool. But these are minor slippages.

Nehru's letters to his sister

Nayantara Sahgal (edited)
Roli
Price: 495
Pages: 400