How Jawaharlal Nehru grew to become first Prime Minister of free India

As India’s freedom battle was approaching its end result, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi made his intentions clear that Indian National Congress (INC) must be dissolved. He felt the target of the INC was to liberate India from British rule; as soon as that purpose was completed, the group had no existential objective. Gandhi proposed that every one leaders who desired public service by way of electoral politics ought to type their very own political occasion and contest elections. This truly would have been democracy in the actual sense.
It is attention-grabbing to contemplate the attainable outcomes of such an thought.
Perhaps Nehru would have been rejected by the individuals, which most likely would have been the top of his political journey of the dynasty. Perhaps Sardar Patel would have been India’s first Prime Minister. Perhaps a more recent comparatively unknown face would have emerged because the nation’s chief following a fractured mandate.
However, Nehru and others inside the occasion understood that the INC had model recognition such that they might experience the wave of goodwill earned by the occasion through the freedom battle. Challengers might be implicitly or explicitly branded as a traitor for difficult the founding fathers of free India. Hence, Gandhi’s recommendation was conveniently ignored and the INC prevailed.
However, Gandhi’s recommendation was assiduously adopted in one other matter. In 1946, an inside election was held to resolve the President for the INC would ultimately change into the primary Prime Minister of unbiased India. Among the candidates had been Jawaharlal Nehru, Acharya Kripalani, and Sardar Patel.
The INC working committee and the varied state committees needed to ship in nominations for his or her most well-liked candidates. From the very starting, Gandhi brazenly favoured Nehru. Gandhi had defined his rationale behind backing Nehru ‘Jawaharlal can’t be changed right now while the cost is being taken from the British. He, a Harrow boy, a Cambridge graduate, and a barrister, is needed to hold on the negotiations with the Englishmen.‘
Gandhi additionally felt that Nehru was higher identified overseas and will assist India play a job in worldwide affairs. Even Maulana Azad endorsed Nehru three days earlier than the final date of nomination. He wrote in his autobiography, printed 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 outcomes confirmed that the members of INC had a drastically totally different opinion. Sardar Patel who was identified to be an awesome government, organizer, and chief, received 12 out of 15 state committees, the opposite state committees abstained from the method. Nehru didn’t obtain any nominations. This was a unanimous alternative for Patel whereas Nehru was resounding rejected. Sardar Patel was on his solution to turning into India’s first Prime Minister.
When Gandhi conveyed the outcomes to Nehru, as a substitute of humbly accepting the favored mandate, Nehru’s response was that of complete silence. Gandhi realized that whereas that Patel would comply with work as Nehru’s deputy, the reverse would most actually not occur. Thus Gandhi intervened and requested Patel to withdraw his nomination.
Gandhi unwittingly launched the anti-democratic tradition of the ‘party high commands’ overruling state models for inter-party issues. In deference to Gandhi, Kripalani nominated Nehru and withdrew from the competition. Patel who regarded Gandhi as his mentor then willingly stepped apart in favour of Nehru. Such a supreme sacrifice is unthinkable in modern instances.
There had been two main explanation why Patel accepted Gandhi’s request. Firstly, in contrast to Nehru, he by no means had coveted positions or posts, for him satisfaction was solely derived in his service to the nation. Secondly, Patel additionally knew that Nehru was not one to take rejection properly. He had an inkling that Nehru would most likely reject taking part in deputy to Patel and in reality change into a fierce opponent of Patel and an obstacle as he ruled the nation.
He knew Nehru had his myriad supporters who would additionally be a part of his faction of opposing Patel. Patel understood that this division between him and Nehru would additional divide a nation that was already plagued with numerous issues and was about to bear an nearly cataclysmic partition.
Dr. Rajendra Prasad later remarked: ‘Gandhi has once again sacrificed his trusted lieutenant for the sake of the glamorous Nehru.‘ Prasad’s utilization of “once again” was owing to the Patel was denied the presidency of the INC in 1929, 1937, and 1946 as opposed to Nehru and this variation at all times occurred the final second.
Nehru was therefore ‘elected’ unopposed and his path was cleared as India first Prime Minister. Maulana Azad later modified his opinion about his earlier 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 handed away in 1950 and in 1952, INC secured an enormous majority in free India’s very first election. Nehru remained India’s prime minister and continued to be prime minister until his final breath. It is unhappy, unlucky, and scandalous that the very first election that might resolve the chief of free India was manipulated. It wasn’t solely the election however the way forward for India that was rigged.