When Gandhi met Nehru the first time

This day, 100 years, ago began a friendship that defined the idea of India

GN Bureau | December 26, 2016


#Mahatma Gandhi   #Jawaharlal Nehru   #India   #history   #freedom struggle  
Jawaharlal Nehru with Gandhiji and Abul Kalam Azad, Wardha, August 1935
Jawaharlal Nehru with Gandhiji and Abul Kalam Azad, Wardha, August 1935

Gandhi and Nehru. The two people, above all, who defined the national freedom movement, and thus, the moral template of the independent India. (That is not to belittle Tagore, Ambedkar and many others too.) It was on December 26, 1916 that the two met for the first time.

The backdrop was the Lucknow session of the Congress.

Gandhi, coming from Ahmedabad, made a stopover in Allahabad. On December 22, he delivered a lecture on economics and moral progress at the Moore College, with Madan Mohan Malaviya chairing the session. The next day he addressed a public meeting in the city, and then moved on to Lucknow for the Congress annual meet. On December 26 and 27, he attended the Congress sessions.

Chandulal Bhagubhai Dalal notes in his ‘Dinvaari’, the authentic source on Gandhi’s day-to-day engagements, that “It was here that [Gandhi] first met Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru.”

Nehru recalls this meeting in his ‘Autobiography’ thus:

“My first meeting with Gandhiji was about the time of the Lucknow Congress during Christmas, 1916. All of us admired him for his heroic fight in South Africa, but he seemed very distant and different and unpolitical to many of us young men. He refused to take part in Congress or national politics then and confined himself to the South African Indian question. Soon afterward his adventures and victory in Champaran, on behalf of the tenants of the planters, filled us with enthusiasm. We saw that he was prepared to apply his methods in India also, and they promised success.”

In the years to come, this unique relationship – friends, mentor-disciple, colleagues, fellow leaders – faced many trials and tribulations. Nehru underwent a radical change following Gandhi’s footsteps even as he refused to agree to his more radical ideas, for example, as expressed in ‘Hind Swaraj’.
 

Comments

 

Other News

Free food grains for 81.35 cr beneficiaries for five years

The central government will provide free food grains to about 81.35 crore beneficiaries under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) for a period of five years with effect from January 1, 2024, the cabinet decided on Wednesday. Terming it as a “historic decision”, a

“I wrote ‘Survival at Stake’ to provide food for thought about solutions”

Survival at Stake: How Our Treatment of Animals Is Key to Human Existence By Poorva Joshipura HarperCollins, 328 pages, Rs 499 With science now recognising animal consciousness, intelligence, emotion, and even morality, there must rise an awareness of

‘Bon Voyage’ through the Arctic: Exploring new horizons for India

India`s tryst with trade through the Arctic regions, including the Northern Sea Routes (NSR), has become an impact-making endeavor recently. The Arctic of yore is now a pivot – point of geopolitics, of climate change discussions, and for economic opportunities; 40% of oil and gas reserves said to be

Demystifying Contemporary Finance Theory and other lessons in investment

Investing Decoded: Simple Path To Building A Portfolio In Millions By Anirudh Rathore Penguin India, 320 pages, Rs 499

Deepfake: India to prepare four-point action plan

Deepfake has emerged as a serious threat to democracy and social institutions across the world. Propagation of deepfake content via social media platforms has aggravated this challenge. Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has, from time to time, advised social media in

Mumbai traffic: Let’s use some simple math

Two level of roads not enough, BMC to have triple traffic jams through underground junctions There is no shortage of short-sighted traffic experts who believe that creating more vertical space (either above or below the level) in already overcrowded and congested cities will be cou

Visionary Talk: Amitabh Gupta, Pune Police Commissioner with Kailashnath Adhikari, MD, Governance Now


Archives

Current Issue

Opinion

Facebook Twitter Google Plus Linkedin Subscribe Newsletter

Twitter