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- Minhaj Merchant’s Column The Constitution Makers Did Not Want Dynastic Politics In The Country
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Minhaj Merchant, Author, Publisher and Editor
Parliament During the debate on the Constitution, Rahul Gandhi had quoted Savarkar as saying that ‘There is nothing Indian in the Indian Constitution.’ Savarkar has always been the target of Congress. Rahul says that Mahatma Gandhi spent his life under the British Raj without any complaint, while Savarkar apologized to the British to ensure his release from jail.
What Rahul does not mention is that Mahatma Gandhi spent most of his time in prisons under comfortable house-arrest, where his associates lived with him to attend to his needs. Savarkar spent 13 years from 1911 to 1924 in the infamous Cellular Jail of Andaman, where he was brutally tortured by the British.
Historian Vikram Sampat has written the biography of Savarkar in two volumes. It also describes the condition of the Andaman jail, where Savarkar was kept. He writes that various means of torture were used in the jail. The prisoners were kept standing from 7 to 11 in the morning and again from 12 to 5 in the evening. Prisoners were punished for trying to find a comfortable position. They were tied in chains.
The prisoners could not bring their legs closer to each other. He had to walk, sit, work and sleep with his legs spread. This punishment could continue for weeks. Canes, bayonets, thick ropes and whips were also regularly used. Many prisoners were forced to defecate on the floor of their cells at night. Considering the small size of the cell, it looked like hell.
Whereas Mahatma Gandhi was kept under house arrest in big bungalows. For example—between 1942 and 1944—Mahatma Gandhi and his associates were imprisoned in the luxurious 19-acre Aga Khan Palace in Pune. As per a report, in 1942, this palace was converted into a prison to house the house arrest of Gandhiji along with his wife Kasturba, Secretary Mahadev Desai, Sarojini Naidu and his top leadership.
Some freedom fighters like Bhagat Singh chose revolutionary violence against British colonial rule and were given death penalty by the British. Those fighters – mainly members of Congress – who chose the path of peaceful protest were treated less harshly. But his strategy could have significantly delayed the attainment of independence had World War II not occurred.
The fatigue that gripped the British after fighting Germany for six years in World War II and taking huge financial loans from America played a major role in India gaining independence in 1947, two years after the war ended.
Rahul criticizes the apology letter written by Savarkar from jail. But Savarkar’s letter to the British authorities for his release from Andaman jail contained the same language, which the British used to pressurize all the Indian prisoners imprisoned there to follow. Other prisoners like freedom fighters Nand Gopal, Barun Ghosh, Sudhir Kumar Sarkar and Hrishikesh Kanjilal had also submitted a similar formal petition with the same words as Savarkar.
But those who wrote the final draft of the Constitution under the chairmanship of Ambedkar never envisioned a democratic India ruled by dynastic families. Gandhi, Patel, Bose and other stalwarts were determined to keep their families away from electoral politics. Most of them were successful.
Today there is no Mahatma Gandhi dynasty, Sardar Patel dynasty or Subhash Chandra Bose dynasty in politics. Jawaharlal Nehru should also be given credit for this that despite being the Prime Minister for 17 years, he did not allow his daughter Indira to become an MP or a minister. It was only after his death that Indira became a Rajya Sabha MP and held the post of Information and Broadcasting Minister in Lal Bahadur Shastri’s cabinet.
Rajiv Gandhi was also against family members going into politics. To be honest, today he does not like to see three members of his family as members of Parliament. The framers of the Constitution had not dreamed of nepotism in the country.
The writers of the final draft of the Constitution never envisioned a democratic India ruled by dynastic families. Gandhi, Patel, Bose were determined to keep their families away from electoral politics.
(These are the author’s own views)
