‘The Undying Light’: Ebb and flow of India, with Gopalkrishna Gandhi

Gopalkrishna Gandhi is an extremely perceptive observer of the world around us. He is also the inheritor of a distinguished lineage, connected to both Mahatma Gandhi from the paternal side, and C Rajagopalachari from the maternal side, though he wears this lineage very lightly. He has also lived a very active political and bureaucratic life and watched many monumental events of Independent India from close quarters. And he loves India, not just as his country (we all do), but as an extremely important social space in the modern world. His patriotism is not just an emotion, but rather a well-informed rational judgement.

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‘The Undying Light’ is partly autobiographical, partly a chronicle of the times, and partly a collection of his own subjective observations on the world he watched and has lived in. It is a story of the eight decades of India, starting from 1945, the year he was born, till contemporary times. The book is divided into eight parts, each representing a decade. Put together, these decades tell the story of the ebb and flow of Independent India. Seminal events have been chosen for the author’s gaze, and described with both passion and objectivity, if indeed such a thing is possible. It is a story of the people he met, the films he saw and the major events he observed sometimes from a distance and often from close quarters. In addition, there are crucial nuggets of information generally not known.

Broadly speaking, 1950s represented the height of idealism. Jawaharlal Nehru was the leader both of the Indian state and people. Most big decisions were taken keeping in mind the principles and priorities which had emanated from the national movement. There were moments though when these principles were compromised for the sake of expediency. It was, however, in the 1960s that a huge shift to realpolitik happened and the grand ideas ceased to be the guiding principles behind major policy decisions. In the 1970s, there was a clear shift towards authoritarianism and a definite disenchantment of the people with the system, exemplified by the Emergency and the JP movement, respectively.

From the 1980s onwards, the Republic began to come apart. All the major values upheld by the national movement and enshrined in the Constitution were put to a severe test. Secularism met its adversary in the Shah Bano issue and the Ram Janmabhoomi movement. Indian nationalism began to be questioned and challenged in the North-East, Punjab and Kashmir.

Why did this happen? Why did the ideational edifice, nurtured during the national movement and practised however imperfectly during the early decades of the Republic, collapse from the 1970s onwards?

The generation of leaders that populated the state and the Opposition had been brought up in the great anti-imperialist struggle. Such struggles generally produce leaders who can transcend self-interests and contribute towards larger causes. The generation that took over from the late 1960s onwards was completely devoid of any such idealism. Politics became simply a matter of administration and, worse still, an instrument for self and group promotion.

The ’90s experienced a civilisational collapse along with a tectonic shift in the nature and direction of the Indian economy. The first decade of the 21st century went through ups and downs before eventually settling for a steady downturn. Gopal Gandhi was both an observer and a participant in this great roller-coaster ride.

He has served many offices with sincerity, distinction and without compromising on his core values. He had two stints in the office of India’s President, with R Venkataraman and KR Narayanan. He served as a diplomat in Sri Lanka, South Africa and Norway. He was also the Governor of West Bengal and Bihar. But the most distinguished moment of his active life came in 2000 when parts of Gujarat and Rajasthan were struck by a severe drought. Deeply shaken, Gopal Gandhi decided to follow his instinct to go and live with the hungry and the deprived. And so, he took leave from office and set off for Kundaliya village in Gujarat. He initiated a collective project of building a bundh to store rain water. He dug out the mud, slept under a tree and did all his ablutions in the open. The philosopher in him raised many questions and he decided to put them to the women working along with him: “Is this work not very hard?” One woman replied: “No Bapu, the work is not hard. Our kismat (destiny) is.” Another one said: “This life is written for us from above.” Did this turn Gopal Gandhi into a fatalist? Perhaps it did. But that day, he fully lived up to being the inheritor of Mahatma Gandhi’s legacy, more than ever before and after.

In some respects, it is a strange book. Important individuals are described most endorsingly and with great appreciation. But the situations are described with a sense of irony, if not pessimism. There are laudable heroes caught in the midst of unfortunate situations. This paradox makes it a complex book, realist in its observations, pessimist in its description of the present, and yet optimistic in its conclusions.

The mood of despair while commenting on the post-2010 period has not been allowed to cloud over the basic optimism that somehow, in spite of everything, India will retain its DNA of pluralism and social toleration. Great optimism is held up without much supporting evidence.

The book is truly a collector’s item, a literary gem. It is profound and witty, critical without being bitter, and proceeds like a prolonged news bulletin of Independent India.

— The reviewer is a Visiting Faculty at BM Munjal University, Manesar