Beginnings of Compromise, 1922–5

Abstract

The mental and physical discipline which Jawaharlal had acquired at Harrow may have been useful to him when he began his life in prison. Prison life was a challenge, and then there was the additional compensation of being in the company of fellow patriots and of his father. He easily filled his day with a crowded schedule — sweeping and dusting the prison barrack, washing his father’s and his own clothes, cooking, spinning, reading, conducting evening classes for the illiterate political prisoners, playing volley-ball, and sometimes lying in the open and indulging in his special hobby of watching the skies, the clouds, and studying their beautiful, changing hues.¹

Surely emotion should not be cheapened; it is too valuable a commodity. The teaching of the West has made me value restraint a great deal and I feel that we as a race are continually indulging in emotionalism and lessening our activity thereby. We pitch everything in too high a key.

Jawaharlal Nehru, March 1924