Nehru and Gandhi: The partnership that won Indian independence
Nehru and Gandhi both played starring roles as India broke away from British control in the 1940s. What made relations between the two men so dynamic?
Image: Jawaharlal Nehru (L) and Mahatma Gandhi (R) | Public Domain
On 15th August 1947, India finally shook off the shackles of British colonial rule dating back to the 18th century. Having spent decades campaigning for India’s freedom, Jawaharlal Nehru became the newly sovereign nation’s first prime minister.
It was the culmination of a lengthy, often tumultuous political journey for him, and one he couldn’t have undertaken alone. By his side since 1916 had been his trusty comrade-in-arms Mahatma Gandhi. Today, Gandhi is among the 20th century’s most iconic civil rights activists, but there was much more to him than just his image.
Nehru and Gandhi worked together as an effective tag team to secure Indian independence. While the charismatic Gandhi had the celebrity-like appeal to the masses, the more grounded Nehru was able to temper his colleague’s almost wayward idealism. Sky HISTORY examines how two very different men's shared goal carried India to independence.
When did Nehru and Gandhi first meet?
Gandhi was born ‘Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi’ in the Indian coastal region of Gujarat on 2nd October 1869. Gandhi studied law at London’s Inner Temple before returning to India. He was a socially awkward young man, so much so that, even as a trained lawyer, he struggled to cross-examine witnesses.
Unable to get a successful law practice off the ground in his homeland, Gandhi moved to South Africa, where he took up a new legal role. In his adopted country, he found himself a victim of racial discrimination, instilling in him a resolve to challenge this social wrong. He would take this activist spirit back home with him in the 1910s, when he joined the Indian National Congress (INC).
The INC held a gathering in the northern Indian metropolis of Lucknow in December 1916. According to Nehru’s autobiography, it was around this time that he first met Gandhi. Nehru was about two decades Gandhi’s junior, having been born on 14th November 1889. He was also from a much more affluent background – his father was the successful solicitor Motilal Nehru.
How did the Nehru-Gandhi relationship develop?
According to Nehru, Gandhi’s advanced years compared to his peers in the INC made him stand out. Nehru wrote that Gandhi ‘seemed very distant and different and unpolitical to many of us young men.’ Nehru, it seems, was pivotal in encouraging Gandhi to finally emerge from his ‘unpolitical’ shell. This would set the tone for the Nehru-Gandhi relationship going forward.
While Nehru admired Gandhi’s canny ability to appeal to the common man, Nehru was more practical-minded. Sometimes, Nehru’s headstrong nature could strain his friendship with the more spiritual Gandhi, who became famous for his commitment to nonviolent protest. However, Nehru and Gandhi were both determined to free India from what they saw as the repressive yoke of the British Empire.
This shared goal became the ‘glue’ keeping their relationship strong enough to weather disagreements that would break out between the two men. Though Gandhi originally advocated simple ‘self-rule’ for India, Nehru was aghast at this stance, thinking it didn’t go far enough. The Congress, he insisted, should instead declare India’s full independence from the British. Gandhi eventually sided with this viewpoint, and even became the poster boy for the cause.
How Nehru and Gandhi created a lasting legacy
Perhaps it could be said that, while Nehru won minds, Gandhi won hearts. Gandhi arguably never demonstrated this better than with his famous Salt March in 1930, when he and his followers marched 240 miles to Dandi. Upon reaching the Gujarat coast, Gandhi made his own salt in violation of British laws imposing tax on salt.
Nehru initially doubted that the protest would have a major effect, but later came to recognise the salt’s powerful symbolism. It was a mineral upon which India’s poor especially relied, and Gandhi’s efforts to show solidarity didn’t stop at donning his trademark shawl and loincloth.
Nehru and Gandhi did differ on the matter of how independent India should be governed. Gandhi had pushed for the country to be self-sufficient and follow traditional values. In sharp contrast, Nehru thought India had much to learn from the modernising West. As prime minister, he spearheaded India’s industrial development.
While Gandhi was assassinated in 1948, Nehru would remain prime minister until his own death in 1964. Nonetheless, it is a testament to the power of Gandhi’s methods that his story continues to more effectively capture the public imagination worldwide.
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