The Peacemakers: India And The Quest For One World By MANU BHAGAVAN
Book Review by ARUN GANAPATHY
Who ever knew that at the time M K
Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru were leading India’s fight for Independence, they
were also fighting for the establishment of ‘one world’, a world government
that would check the power of the individual state? It’s this interesting facet
of history that Manu Bhagavan explores in his new book, The Peacemakers.
The book opens against the backdrop of World War II. Japan is at India’s doorstep, the Quit India resolution has just been passed and Nehru is stepping out of Gandhi’s shadows and outlining his vision for a new Indian state, even a new world order.
“The committee is of the view,” he says in one of his speeches, “that the future peace, security and ordered progress of the world demand a world federation of free nations, and on no other basis can the problems of the world be solved. Such a world federation would ensure the freedom of its constituent nations, the prevention of aggression and exploitations of one nation over another.”
Nehru’s idea wasn’t really new or indeed, original. Wendell Willkie, US president Franklin D Roosevelt’s special envoy to Britain, had first suggested ‘a grand world alliance as the way forward to a permanent and lasting, just peace,’ in his book, One World. Nehru read it in prison and was impressed, but it was his sister Vijaylaxmi Pandit who actually worked with the idea and championed it from San Francisco to Chicago. As she does so, Manu Bhagavan shines a torch on a personality — and events — from our history, little touched upon even in history books.
But this is just the beginning. By the middle of the book, it’s Nehru who’s back on centre stage. He is already leading India in her fight towards Independence; there are engaging battles with Hamidullah Khan, the Nawab of Bhopal, on the accession of the princely states to the Indian Union; and all the while you hear his hopes for a world order.
And then came Independence and the bloodshed of Partition. How could Nehru talk — internationally — of human rights, when people were tearing each other apart at home? Nehru knew it, and ‘turned momentarily wistful’, but it didn’t dampen his enthusiasm or persistence. The cold war between USA and Russia gave him the opportunity he needed. “Nehru decided,” writes Bhagavan, “that he had but one course open to him. He had to take his message directly to the world’s people.”
The book opens against the backdrop of World War II. Japan is at India’s doorstep, the Quit India resolution has just been passed and Nehru is stepping out of Gandhi’s shadows and outlining his vision for a new Indian state, even a new world order.
“The committee is of the view,” he says in one of his speeches, “that the future peace, security and ordered progress of the world demand a world federation of free nations, and on no other basis can the problems of the world be solved. Such a world federation would ensure the freedom of its constituent nations, the prevention of aggression and exploitations of one nation over another.”
Nehru’s idea wasn’t really new or indeed, original. Wendell Willkie, US president Franklin D Roosevelt’s special envoy to Britain, had first suggested ‘a grand world alliance as the way forward to a permanent and lasting, just peace,’ in his book, One World. Nehru read it in prison and was impressed, but it was his sister Vijaylaxmi Pandit who actually worked with the idea and championed it from San Francisco to Chicago. As she does so, Manu Bhagavan shines a torch on a personality — and events — from our history, little touched upon even in history books.
But this is just the beginning. By the middle of the book, it’s Nehru who’s back on centre stage. He is already leading India in her fight towards Independence; there are engaging battles with Hamidullah Khan, the Nawab of Bhopal, on the accession of the princely states to the Indian Union; and all the while you hear his hopes for a world order.
And then came Independence and the bloodshed of Partition. How could Nehru talk — internationally — of human rights, when people were tearing each other apart at home? Nehru knew it, and ‘turned momentarily wistful’, but it didn’t dampen his enthusiasm or persistence. The cold war between USA and Russia gave him the opportunity he needed. “Nehru decided,” writes Bhagavan, “that he had but one course open to him. He had to take his message directly to the world’s people.”
In his marquee speech at the UN general assembly, he said, “Cold war means nourishing the idea of war in the minds of men…it is opposed to all ideas of peace and cooperation.... Therefore, let us be clear in our minds as to what the right way is.... The means should always be peaceful, not merely in an external way in the non use of armaments, but in the approach of the mind.”
In Nehru’s voice, we actually hear Gandhi’s message of peace and nonviolence going global — and in bringing all their voices together, Bhagavan has done a splendid job weaving sound research, interesting details and good writing to create a fine history of post-Independence India.
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