As India’s freedom struggle was approaching its culmination, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi made his intentions clear that Indian National Congress (INC) should be dissolved. He felt the objective of the INC was to liberate India from British rule; once that goal was accomplished, the organization had no existential purpose. Gandhi proposed that all leaders who desired public service via electoral politics should form their own political party and contest elections. This actually would have been democracy in the real sense.
It is interesting to consider the possible outcomes of such an idea.
Perhaps Nehru would have been rejected by the people, which probably would have been the end of his political journey of the dynasty. Perhaps Sardar Patel would have been India’s first Prime Minister. Perhaps a newer relatively unknown face would have emerged as the nation’s leader following a fractured mandate.
However, Nehru and others within the party understood that the INC had brand recognition such that they could ride the wave of goodwill earned by the party during the freedom struggle. Challengers could be implicitly or explicitly branded as a traitor for challenging the founding fathers of free India. Hence, Gandhi’s advice was conveniently ignored and the INC prevailed.
However, Gandhi’s advice was assiduously followed in another matter. In 1946, an internal election was held to decide the President for the INC would eventually become the first Prime Minister of independent India. Among the candidates were Jawaharlal Nehru, Acharya Kripalani, and Sardar Patel.
The INC working committee and the various state committees had to send in nominations for their preferred candidates. From the very beginning, Gandhi openly favoured Nehru. Gandhi had explained his rationale behind backing Nehru ‘Jawaharlal cannot be replaced today whilst the charge is being taken from the British. He, a Harrow boy, a Cambridge graduate, and a barrister, is wanted to carry on the negotiations with the Englishmen.‘
Gandhi also felt that Nehru was better known abroad and could help India play a role in international affairs. Even Maulana Azad endorsed Nehru three days before the last date of nomination. He wrote in his autobiography, published posthumously in 1959: “After weighing the pros and cons I came to the conclusion that the election of Sardar Patel would not be desirable in the existing circumstances. Taking all facts into consideration it seemed to me that Jawaharlal should be the new President….”
The results showed that the members of INC had a drastically different opinion. Sardar Patel who was known to be a great executive, organizer, and leader, won 12 out of 15 state committees, the other state committees abstained from the process. Nehru did not receive any nominations. This was a unanimous choice for Patel while Nehru was resounding rejected. Sardar Patel was on his way to becoming India’s first Prime Minister.
When Gandhi conveyed the results to Nehru, instead of humbly accepting the popular mandate, Nehru’s reaction was that of total silence. Gandhi realized that while that Patel would agree to work as Nehru’s deputy, the reverse would most certainly not happen. Thus Gandhi intervened and asked Patel to withdraw his nomination.
Gandhi unwittingly introduced the anti-democratic culture of the ‘party high commands’ overruling state units for inter-party matters. In deference to Gandhi, Kripalani nominated Nehru and withdrew from the contest. Patel who regarded Gandhi as his mentor then willingly stepped aside in favour of Nehru. Such a supreme sacrifice is unthinkable in contemporary times.
There were two major reasons why Patel accepted Gandhi’s request. Firstly, unlike Nehru, he never had coveted positions or posts, for him satisfaction was solely derived in his service to the nation. Secondly, Patel also knew that Nehru was not one to take rejection well. He had an inkling that Nehru would probably reject playing deputy to Patel and in fact become a fierce opponent of Patel and an impediment as he governed the nation.
He knew Nehru had his myriad supporters who would also join his faction of opposing Patel. Patel understood that this division between him and Nehru would further divide a nation that was already plagued with various problems and was about to undergo an almost cataclysmic partition.
Dr. Rajendra Prasad later remarked: ‘Gandhi has once again sacrificed his trusted lieutenant for the sake of the glamorous Nehru.‘ Prasad’s usage of “once again” was owing to the Patel was denied the presidency of the INC in 1929, 1937, and 1946 in preference to Nehru and this change always occurred the last moment.
Nehru was hence ‘elected’ unopposed and his path was cleared as India first Prime Minister. Maulana Azad later changed his opinion about his previous endorsement of Nehru “It was a mistake on my part that I did not support Sardar Patel. We differed on many issues but I am convinced that if he had succeeded me as Congress President he would have seen that the Cabinet Mission Plan was successfully implemented. He would have never committed the mistake of Jawaharlal which gave Mr. Jinnah an opportunity of sabotaging the Plan. I can never forgive myself when I think that if I had not committed these mistakes, perhaps the history of the last ten years would have been different.”
Michael Brecher wrote in his commendatory biography of Nehru wrote: “In accordance with the time-honoured practice of rotating the Presidency, Patel was in line for the post. Fifteen years had elapsed since he presided over the Karachi session whereas Nehru had presided at Lucknow and Ferozpur in 1936 and 1937. Moreover, Patel was the overwhelming choice of the Provincial Congress Committees…. Nehru’s ‘election’ was due to Gandhi’s intervention. Patel was persuaded to step down….“If Gandhi had not intervened, Patel would have been the first de facto Premier of India, in 1946-47. The Sardar was ‘robbed of the prize’ and it rankled deeply.”
C. Rajagopalachari, who wrote in Bhawan’s Journal in 1972, “Undoubtedly it would have been better if Nehru had been asked to be the Foreign Minister and Patel made the Prime Minister. I too fell into the error of believing that Jawaharlal was the more enlightened person of the two. A myth had grown about Patel that he would be harsh towards Muslims. This was a wrong notion but it was the prevailing prejudice.”
Patel passed away in 1950 and in 1952, INC secured a massive majority in free India’s very first election. Nehru remained India’s prime minister and continued to be prime minister till his last breath. It is sad, unfortunate, and scandalous that the very first election that would decide the leader of free India was manipulated. It wasn’t only the election but the future of India that was rigged.
