Feroze Gandhi - the Forgotten Gandhi; Author: Bertil Falk; Publisher: Roli Books; Pages: 320; Price: Rs 695/-

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Swedish author and journalist Bertil Falk who is  83,  began as a radio presenter at 12 and is a keen student  of Indian politics . He has extended support to the research work of Katherine Frank’s highly respected biography of Indira Gandhi. Falk has pulled out of calculated neglect the memory and portrait of Feroze Gandhi.

All know that Feroze Gandhi was Indira Gandhi’s husband, father of Rajiv and Sanjay Gandhi, and Jawaharlal Nehru’s son-in-law. Feroze’s Parsi family were residents of  Allahabad. Typically middle-class they become close to the aristocratic  Nehrus . Feroze Ghandhi (he changed it to Gandhi after his marriage) and Indira Nehru got acquainted when they were in England for five years .

 Their contemporaries were an exceptional group: PN Haksar, Jyoti Basu, Mohan Kumaramangalam, Nikhil Chakravarty and Mulk Raj Anand.

 Feroze and Indira were not academically distinguished; they did not obtain a degree.

The duo was swept by love and Indira wrote , “Feroze had been proposing to me since I was sixteen, it was on the steps of the Basilica of Sace Coeur, Paris, that we finally decided. It was the end of summer, Paris was bathed in soft sunshine…”

The marriage took place in  Allahabad, according to Vedic rites. Jawaharlal Nehru was not in favour of the marriage, but a self-willed Indira  rode over the opposition. 

Both husband and wife were jailed during the 1942 Quit India movement. Feroze remained  underground for  a year. He secretly operated a  radio station . Personally he was accomplished with some  negatives—he was a philanderer and would not mind skirting the truth. He remained loyal to his friends and displayed a warm heart. He was sympathetic to the depressed classes.

Nehru asked his daughter, son-in-law with their children to stay with him in Teen Murti House. As cracks appeared in the marriage things became difficult. Feroze did not relish staying with his Father-in-law and after becoming a Lok Sabha MP shifted to his official quarters . Feroze distinguished himself in Parliament  and successfully exposed the LIC , which had extended finance to a disreputable  Calcutta businessman Haridas Mundhra. This resulted in  the resignation of  finance minister TT Krishnamachari, who was  Nehru’s bete-noire. 

 Feroze Gandhi’s memorable speech in the Lok Sabha on December 16, 1957 on the scandal is a classic in parliamentary speeches. He said inter-alia : “Mr Speaker, there is going to be some sharpshooting and hard hitting in the House today, because when I hit, I hit hard and expect to be hit harder. I am fully conscious that the other side is also equipped with plentiful supplies of TNT.” Falk has reproduced Feroze Gandhi’s memorable speech  on the scandal.

Feroze Gandhi did not care for his health and was an indiscriminate eater. He suffered two heart attacks before succumbing to the third one in the first week of September 1960. He died at the Willingdon Hospital . He was only 48.

In this biography Feroze is revealed  as a man of many parts -- a prankster, an indomitable freedom fighter, blessed with a fine hand at mechanical matters as well as a green thumb, having a thorough knowledge of the Bhagavad Gita, egalitarian, democrat and crusader for press freedom.

Beginning from Feroze Gandhi's parents and his birth , the biography covers  his early years in Allahabad, his baptism into the freedom struggle, his growing closeness to the Nehru family, his desire to marry Indira, the period in Europe, his exploits during Quit India, his stint in journalism, his stellar role in parliament, the growing estrangement from his wife, his death and his legacy.

We are treated to several vignettes--  of how Mahatma Gandhi and Nehru, always found  time  to look into problems and issues of individuals and how the latter never tried to misuse his power even against those who were slandering him.

 ‘Candidly speaking,’ Falk says, ‘Feroze was as much a founding- father of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty as were Motilal and Jawaharlal Nehru.’ 

 Feroze remains something of a mystery to the end of the book. Birth, religious beliefs, his feelings for his wife and sons, his thoughts on Jawaharlal Nehru, and political ambitions are all veiled in obscurity.What Falk has produced  is a political biography that has less  on  personal details which only can bring a character to life. However, he establishes the claim that his subject ‘will be remembered as a fearless champion of the rights of parliamentarians and sovereignty of parliament’.“Feroze and Indira fought hard when Nehru persuaded by Indira sacked the communist government of Kerala in 1959,” 

 Feroze  was opposed to pandering to caste and religion. He tried to uphold the best in Nehru’s secular, socialist democratic ideals, believing these qualities to be essential for the survival of a federal nation that respected parliamentary rights and free speech.

Feroze was the first to attack corruption in 1955, only eight years after India became an independent nation. In 1955 he piloted the Parliamentary Proceedings (Protection of Publication) Act 1956 which empowered media as well as members of parliament. Falk writes,"He was a unique, real VIP, which stands here for a Very Investigating Parliamentarian," 

Bertil Falk’s book  will convince the readers that a great deal of political training and acumen that Indira displayed came from  her husband  and it is not possible to appreciate India’s post-independence history without going through his troubled life.

A very valuable contribution to an unknown area of Indian history.

P.P.Ramachandran.

25 / 12 / 2016

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