When Stone Walls Cry: The Nehrus in Prison by Mushirul Hasan; Published by Oxford University Press; Pages: 201; Price: 695/-

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Mushirul Hasan is former Professor of History and Vice-Chancellor of Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi . He was  Director General of the National Archives of India and was conferred the Jawaharlal Nehru Fellowship  He was elected President of the Indian History Congress  and later  its General President in 2014. He was awarded the Padma Shri .

Though hundreds of books have been written on the different facets of  Jawaharlal Nehru none has been written on his years in jail. Nehru  spent almost nine years in colonial jails, with the longest spell of 1,040 days following the Quit India movement. It was during that period in Ahmednagar Fort prison that he wrote his “The Discovery of India “.

 The book under review concentrates on the impact of life in jail on the members of the Nehru family who  served prison sentences during our struggle for  Independence. The grim walls of jail provided the place and time to the Nehrus  spend time usefully and gave directions to the struggle. Outstanding books like  “Glimpses of World History” and “Discovery of India” were written in  prison. Hasan purveys  the nation’s intellectual history and portrays  the ethos of the whole freedom movement during that era.

  “Discovery of India” reveals  Nehru’s intellectual passion, breadth of learning and fluidity of expression. One should recall that he wrote it  from memory and help from co-prisoners.  Nehru  wrote that he tried  “to construct India as an object that he and his compatriots can relate to in some fundamental way”.

One quote is  worthy of recall-- “She (India) was like some ancient palimpsest on which layer upon layer of thought and reverie had been inscribed, and, yet, no succeeding layer had completely hidden or erased what had been written previously. All of these had existed in our conscious or subconscious selves, though we may not have been aware of them. And they have gone to build up the complex mysterious personality of India.”

 “An Autobiography” was also penned in prison--an astonishingly self-revelatory work. “Glimpses of World History “ is an eloquent  testimony to Nehru’s intellectual attainments.

Nehru  wrote hundreds of letters from prisons — to his party colleagues, family members, friends and even unknown countrymen who wrote to him. Instead of worrying in solitary confinement , Nehru transmuted  his wrath  into writing. He turned to himself for fellowship and guidance and arranged his thoughts into words with grace and spontaneity.

 Hasan analyses  historical events connected with the jail terms. The evolution of Motilal  into a nationalist freedom fighter under Gandhi’s influence, giving up his lucrative practice, and his son’s persuasion, form a fascinating backdrop to the changes witnessed in Allahabad.

Motilal ensured that his  family’s connection with the nation became rooted and emotional. Novelist Nayantara Sehgal –a member of the family--believed that “history was ourselves and we were making it”.

Nehru’s writings, which highlighted the  splendour of the Continental and Indian civilization is of immense benefit to the student of Indian history.He presented the many-coloured life of other ages and countries, analysed the ebb and flow of the old civilisations, and took up ideas in their majestic  flow.  Nehru explored the unbounded universe in full variety. Nehru declared  that he was heir to all that humanity had achieved over tens of thousands of years, to all that it had thought and felt and suffered and taken joy in, to its cries of triumph and its bitter agonies of defeat, to that astonishing adventure, which had begun so long ago . He wrote of the imperative need  to apply India’s heritage  to the present and the future. He looked at the entire world with a fresh eye and gave a balanced view of man’s life on many continents. His was truly  global in his vision.

He wanted Asia’s history to be read as widely as possible so that the readers should think of all the countries and all the peoples, and not merely of one little country.

The “Discovery of India” is a hymn to the glories of India. He mapped the metaphysical and philosophic approach to life, idealised ancient India as a world apart, independent of and superior to the rest of the civilisations, toning down the barbarism of the caste system and throwing the warm colours of fancy around his narrative. He consciously followed Gandhi and Tagore in the direction of the universal. India appears  as a space of ceaseless cultural mixing.

 He conducts the reader through the labyrinth of a colonial era, narrates the most complex events, and recreates portraits of outstanding fellow countrymen. By and large, his writings make public the spirit and substance of his many-sidedness, the deep-seated urge to freedom, and the negative response to the concomitants and consequences of colonial rule.

Nehru kept the country together, established secular ideals, propelled it forward with the thrust of science and modernity, healed some of the wounds of Partition, and stood before the world at the head of the non-aligned camp.

 Even if his personal misfortunes had a melodramatic tinge, there was, always, a constant element of moral austerity to serve as a counterweight.

P.P.Ramachandran.

15 / 01 / 2017