Nehru and Sardar

A new book more or less confirms something about which there has been a lot of speculation: Nehru did not intend to make Sardar Patel a member of his first Cabinet

No one has ever explained why Vappala Pangunni Menon, who played a critical role in the transfer of power and the integration of Indian states in the 1940s and ’50s, has been ignored by historians. There are no books or biographies on him. He’s simply forgotten. Yet, this was a man who began life as a typist but rose to the very highest rungs of the civil service. Under the British, he was, in fact, the Constitutional Advisor to the Viceroy. This was unprecedented.

Fortunately, this lapse and injustice has been corrected. On the 12th, the first biography of this neglected hero will be released. Written by his great-granddaughter Narayani Basu — who also happens to be my niece — it’s called V. P. Menon: The Unsung Architect of Modern India.

Historians will pay attention to what Narayani reveals of VP’s key role in two critical areas. He saved India from the terrible balkanisation that Mountbatten’s original devolution of power would have entailed. Virtually, at the last moment, the Viceroy accepted Menon’s advice and the transfer of power happened in accordance with VP’s suggestions. Menon also played a vital role in the integration of the Indian states. He ensured that 565 different pieces came together to create a single country. But I want to write about a different subject. I suspect it will attract greater attention in the present political environment. 

Narayani more or less confirms something about which there has been a lot of speculation. Nehru did not intend to make Sardar Patel a member of his first Cabinet until V. P. Menon stepped-in and ensured the Sardar’s inclusion.

The issue first cropped up 18 days before Independence. A report of a staff meeting at Viceroy’s House dated 28th July 1947 says: “VPM said he was concerned about the way things were going in regard to the selection of Ministers... he had hoped that this would be a Ministry of Talents, possibly including a number of young men. However, it appeared that Pandit Nehru was having great difficulty forgetting his loyalties...” As a result, Narayani writes, “Mountbatten sent for Nehru and advised him to let go of those he was holding on to, simply because they were his old friends... ‘With such a Cabinet, Congress could remain in power for the next few years’, Mountbatten told Jawaharlal. ‘Without it, it will be done’.” 
 

However, Nehru didn’t get the message. Narayani writes: “In the first week of August, Nehru submitted his official list of the people he wanted to serve in independent India’s first Cabinet. The list should have been headed by Sardar Patel. It wasn’t.” This is when VP got into action. 

Relying on his tape-recorded interviews to Harry Hodson, which are part of the Hodson papers at the School of Oriental and African Studies, Narayani writes: “When news of this reached VP, he was aghast. ‘I went straight away to Mountbatten. I told him if you do this, you will start a war of succession. Congress will be split in two. Have no doubt about it... So, Mountbatten went to meet Gandhiji and as a sop, Sardar’s name was finally included’.” 

 The Hodson papers also carry interviews with Mountbatten that confirm this. “Now, to be honest, this story does ring a very faint bell with me,” Mountbatten told Hodson. “I have a feeling that this was such a very hot potato that I probably just mentioned this to Nehru at tea time and made a point of not recording it anywhere and probably not even of passing on the story.”

It’s hard to believe Nehru contemplated excluding Patel from his government but that does seem to have been established by Narayani. “Mountbatten’s correspondence with Hodson provides sufficient corroboration of VP’s assertion that Jawaharlal, whether out of spite or fear of the Sardar, intended to exclude his only potential rival — and the one person who could govern India better than himself — from the Cabinet.”

However, Narayani’s book goes one critical step further. She also writes VP believed “Nehru had begun a sustained and deeply calculated move to whitewash Sardar Patel from public memory... an allegation he stood by until the end of his life. ‘When he (Sardar) died, a deliberate campaign was begun to efface his memory’, VP asserted. ‘I know this, because I have seen it...’.”

Now, if only Nehru could respond.