The Defeat of a Nationalist, 1942–7

Abstract

Nehru began his sentence of 1041 days with a sense of frustration and uncertainty: frustration because he had been denied the opportunity to play an active role in a world war from which, he believed, a new world was bound to emerge; uncertainty about the results the ‘quit India’ movement might achieve. Several leading Congressmen then believed, though they did not say to Gandhi, that the ‘quit India’ resolution was a greater blunder even than the resignation of the Congress ministries in 1939.¹. Nehru had revolted at a time when he knew it would most assuredly be misconstrued by the British as a stab in the back. Much of his conduct seemed to him to be determined ‘by the past complex of events which bear down and often overwhelm the individual’.² Likewise, the Congress revolt seemed to him inevitable; no matter how futile in terms of major results, it was, he believed, a manly, courageous and noble course for Congress to follow. The ‘quit India’ movement might not compel the British to withdraw from India but he hoped that at least it would succeed in arousing among the Muslim masses sympathy and admiration for Congress and would win them away from Jinnah’s Pakistan movement.

We are all, individuals as well as nations, products of our past (call it heredity or the cumulative effect of action) and our environments. To that extent, and it is a great deal, we are children of destiny, bound in many ways to walk along a pre-determined path.

Jawaharlal Nehru, November 1943

How have we played our part in this brief interlude that draws to a close ? I do not know. Others of a later age will judge. By what standards do we measure success or failure? That too I do not know…. In spite of all the mistakes that we may have made, we have saved ourselves from triviality and an inner shame and cowardice. That, for our individual selves, has been some achievement.

Jawaharlal Nehru, September 1944

We are little men serving a great cause, but because the cause is great something of that greatness falls upon us also.

Jawaharlal Nehru, 3 June 1947