The God Who Failed: An Assessment of Jawaharlal Nehru's Leadership

by Madhav Godbole

Nehru's life is unique in that it is the veritable history of modern India both pre and post-Independence Writing about Nehru means reliving history in every sense of the term.' No leader of independent India has towered as high over Indian politics as Jawaharlal Nehru. Highly educated and articulate, he had a deep understanding of the history and culture of India and was responsible for laying much of the foundations on which today's India is built, an enlightened Constitution, parliamentary democracy with adult suffrage and secularism. However, of equal significance are Nehru's failures, for which he and his admirers have been increasingly criticized since the turn of the century. These include the imbroglio that took place when Kashmir became a part of India, the Indo-China border dispute of 1962, his overlooking the growing menace of corruption on his watch and Nehru's futile pursuit of his own brand of dubious socialism The God Who Failed, An Assessment of Jawaharlal Nehru's Leadership provides an objective and unbiased look into Nehru's legacy his triumphs, his failures and his unfulfilled vision for India. Written by the veteran administrator and author Madhav Godbole, this book is a powerful account of the leader who shaped modern India as we know it.

Genres: History, India, Biography, Politics, Nonfiction

378 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 1, 2014

About the author

Madhav Godbole is a retired Indian civil servant. He joined the Indian Administrative Service in 1959 and took voluntary retirement in March 1993, when he was Union Home Secretary & Secretary(Justice). His distinguished career includes assignments such as Secretary, Petroleum & Natural Gas, and Secretary, Urban Development in Government of India, Principal Finance Secretary, in Government of Maharashtra, and Chairman, Maharashtra State Electricity Board.

He worked in the Asian Development Bank, Manila, from 1980 to 1985. Dr.Godbole has written 18 books in English and Marathi, of which 10 are in English. His essays and research papers have been published in several English and Marathi books. Of his 8 books in Marathi, four books have been awarded prizes for non-fiction, intellectual writing.

Dr.Godbole has been chairman of several committees including Enron power project, good governance, and management of India’s international borders. He has an M.A. and Ph.D. in Economics from Bombay University and an M.A. in Development Economics from Williams College, USA.

Dr.Godbole and his wife Sujata live in Pune.

Reviews

[Anil Swarup · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the finest books on Nehru. The title is a trifle misleading as Nehru is not painted either way. Both his failures and successes have been highlighted in an extremely balanced manner. The author quotes elaborately from the speeches and actions of Nehru to bring out his persona and Nehru's views on a wide range of subjects. Nehru's tumultuous relationship with his contemporaries, primarily Sardar Patel, emerges quite eloquently. Yet the author feels that "Nehru and Patel complemented each other".
Nehru was a socialist but his advice to socialists was : "Before you talk of socialism you must ask yourself how much wealth you have created by your own labour. It is necessary to learn how to produce wealth before thinking what to do with it".
Nehru was also clear about the role of the Judiciary : "No court, no sustem of judiciary can function in the nature of the third House, as a kind of house for correction". He must surely be turning in his grave to see what is happening now.
Despite the infirmities Nehru was termed as "the Light of Asia" by none other that Winston Churchill and "Pure as crystal" by his mentor, the Mahatama who had chosen him over Sardar to lead the country. The author quotes Jagat Mehta to sum up the problem with Nehru : " (His) failures were not of naivete but of idealism without the yeast of statecraft". His relationship and understanding of China is a classic example of his failed idealism.

[Pranav Joshi · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars, but there is no such option on Goodreads, so make it four. A very comprehensive assessment of 1) Nehru's failures on China and Kashmir and 2) His administrative activities as the leader of the government.
Negatives - No discussion at all on his personal life which has given birth to so many conspiracy theories. It was essential to try to set the record straight even though the issue might have been personal.
This is not a book which is a total estimate of Nehru, though it attempts to be so. The author seems to have addressed most of the controversial issues around Nehru, and brought him out well as a statesman, a progressive and a visionary par excellence, as well as a poor judge of men, too much of an idealist, and perhaps, too much of a democrat. Yet one gets the feeling that a lot, both positive and negative, has been left unsaid. So there is no feeling of completeness on reading this book.
I would have preferred to read MJ Akbar's book, but I felt this one was more balanced in the sense that it was more critical. For decades after the death of Nehru a Congress project was afoot to project him as the perfect human being. For several years now, and especially since 2013-14, an attempt is also being made to represent Nehru as the worst of all men. Both extremes have to be abhorred, and a fair portrait needs to be put forward. In this respect Godbole's book goes a long way.

[Alok · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really exhaustive read to help understand the first Prime Minister of independent India. The best thing about the book - it sticks to the temporal scope it chose while evaluating Nehru, quite successfully. The period covered is from just about the time of independence to Nehru’s death in 1964.

The title, though provocative, doesn’t completely describes the major part of the book. Godbole devotes an entire chapter on the mistakes Nehru committed. But apart from that chapter, he gives contexts and enumerates and explains in great detail how Nehru was probably one of the best things that happened to the nascent democratic republic of India.

Godbole makes his points using immense amounts of references and quotations. For me, that was good, and bad.

Good, because not only did Godbole allows the reader to decide for him/herself what to make of the facts he provided, one also gets to know the perspectives from multiple point of the views from that time.

Bad, because I couldn’t find a detailed and critical analysis from the author himself in his own words to a satisfactory amount. From a man with experience and caliber like Godbole, I would be lying if I said I didn’t have those expectations.

Overall, a great read and something to come back to for future references while discussing Nehru at any platform.

[Venky Iyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a slow reader, and I took over two months to read this book, not because it was badly written, but because there is a ton of details and I needed to make notes and refer to other sources as I kept reading. The book is sometimes repetitive and sometimes bordering on dull. This book taught me the lesson that it must be very difficult to write gripping political nonfiction.

This book is also a bit of an enigma, because on the one hand, the author is unsparing in his descriptions of the negatives of Nehru’s personality and the failures of his policies and practices as political leader and Prime Minister. On the other hand, the author also goes to great pains to stress that Nehru was a sterling human being and an outstanding leader, an architect of modern India and one of the more memorable of twentieth century international political figures.

I will leave it to each reader to form his or her own conclusions.

I wanted to read this book, and I am glad I read it. I am trying to absorb as much of India’s political history as I can because I am writing my own series of novels featuring a political protagonist. And I can vouch without hesitation that this book taught me a lot I did not know about Indian “idols” like Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and their contributions to the independence of India and its struggles as an infant democracy. Equally important, this book taught me that these idols were not gods or even supermen. They were human, with all the virtues and vices that characterize that species. This book taught me that history books, especially those taught in academia, only show the Dr Jekyll—usually the public face--in historical idols. Just like the Mr Hyde part of the split personalities is almost never seen by the public, it is almost never mentioned in history books.

To that extent, I am very grateful to the author for all the insights I gained from this book into the Mr Hyde sides of Gandhi, Nehru and Patel. Some of these insights were new (to me), profound, fascinating and also often disappointing, even depressing.

Would I recommend this book? Indeed, I would, but only to those like me who are keen to gain “inside knowledge” into the life of Jawaharlal Nehru and his contemporaries and into that part of India’s history, both before and after independence, that these people played a major role in.

[Akshat Upadhyay · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lets start with the good things: This book gives an excellent account of Nehru's role in particularising secularism for India, a far cry from the separation of church and the state, rather focusing on equal tolerance of all religions by the state, the genesis and transitory nature of Article 370, views on China and Nehru's advocacy for communist China's entry into the United Nations, among many others. The author also focuses on Nehru's love affair with socialism, the impact of socialism on India's initial economic inception, his insistence on following correct democratic procedures inspire of owning an almost authoritarian mandate over the country. Failures of Nehru include inept administration, excessive centralisation of decision making, mixing of sentimental and professional issues, failure to follow a balanced policy of privatisation along with public sector growth and refusal to admonish officials or ministers for malpractices or reluctance to push through policies considered a bit maverick or not conforming with the majority.

Now with the not so good things of the book. one major flaw of this book has been the lack of context. The author has given numerous examples while explain a facet of Nehru's character but unless one is up-to-date with the nuances of the Constitution or its exceptional cases, one is at a loss to comprehend the intimacy of the characteristic just by referring to the case. Another thing is that this book feels like a paean to Nehru rather than his critique. Considering that the book is named The God who Failed, I was expecting a bit more critique and a little less adulation filled eulogy.

However, ignoring the title, this is a good book if one wants to go through a summary of the major policy decision taken during Nehru' time.

Four stars

[Muthu Raj · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book. Godbole is a master. And for all his faults, Nehru is distinctly human, an able politician and an extraordinary administrator with a special eye for the details. This book will smash the pedestal you have put Nehru on, then painstakingly rebuild it, a few feet shorter, but sturdier all the same. If you read one book on Nehru, let it be this. If you read a lot of books, let this one be the last. This is as objective as it is going to get. ;)

[navbakshi · Rating 4 out of 5]

A detailed point wise analysis

list of good and bad along with analyses of India when it attained freedom... The choices available, flip side and choices made without hero worship or malaise to anyone. Could have been edited more... Maybe the author wanted to balance the book... Pros equal to come even when pros we're not there

[animesh jain · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good assessment on the life & policies of India's first Prime Minister

[Pradhuman Bhati · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good read to understand Nehru in an unbiased manner. Suitable for all Nehru admirers.

[Preetam Chatterjee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book: The God Who Failed: An Assessment of Jawaharlal Nehru's Leadership
Author: Madhav Godbole
Publisher: Rupa Publications India (3 November 2014)
Language: English
Hardcover: 374 pages
Item Weight: 703 g
Dimensions: 15.24 x 2.39 x 22.86 cm
Country of Origin: India
Price: 368/-

In human dealings, a person is remembered more for his flaws than his accomplishments. This is more so in the case of a personality like Nehru, who had an extraordinarily lengthy and incessant term of seventeen years as the prime minister, through three successfully fought Lok Sabha elections.

For most of this period, he was the ‘uncrowned King’ of India. The Congress Party was in power at the centre and in most of the states with comfortable majorities.

There were no compulsions of coalition politics, evident from the 1990s till May 2014. If Nehru had remained firm and stern, with his enviable popularity and mass mandate, nothing could have stopped him from addressing the critical issues facing the country with resolve and long-term vision.

What then went off beam?

Nehru’s letdowns were for the most part because of his own inadequacies, his extreme inability to build a team of advisors, and commonly an air of pre-eminence in his dealings.

There was another important cause as well. It must be borne in mind that Nehru had a disastrous and forlorn family life due to the prolonged illness of his wife Kamala, who died on 28 February 1936 in Lausanne, in Switzerland. By his rearing, nature and training, he was an extremely private person. He himself underlined this element in his make-up in a letter to Dr Syed Mahmud dated 24 November 1933: ‘Yes, we did not discuss personal matters. You ought to know me sufficiently to realize that I never discuss them unless the other party takes the initiative. I would not do so even with Kamala [his wife] or Indu [his daughter]. Such has been my training…’ According to one official, ‘Nehru is not a demonstrative person; in that respect he is very much the English public school type. He will never tell you that he appreciates your work but he shows his affection and kind-heartedness in indirect ways.’ (Brecher 1959; p.4)

The author has divided his book into six chapters:

Chapter 1: Nehru’s Legacy: What Remains of It, deals, among others, with Nehru and Patel, two power centres, attributes of Patel, if Vallabhbhai Patel had become the prime minister, and what remains of the Nehru legacy.

Chapter 2: The God Who Failed, deals with major disappointments of Nehru—the Kashmir embarrassment; China—living in one’s own make-believe world; declining a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council; taking liberties with the Constitution—misuse of Article 356, First Amendment of the Constitution by which the Ninth Schedule was incorporated, sowing the seeds for abolition of fundamental right to property, and appointment of a ‘nominated’ chief minister; neglecting the enactment of the uniform civil code; non-separation of religion from politics; under-estimating the menace of corruption; and neglecting the population policy.

Chapter 3: Laying the Foundations of the New Nation, emphasizes Nehru’s policies on 16 primary issues which Nehru had to face at the time.

Chapter 4: Principal Strands of Nehruvian Governance, highlights Nehru’s stress on parliamentary democracy, secularism and socialism.

Chapter 5: Nehru’s Long-term Vision, puts the spotlight on four key areas—five-year plans, panchayati raj, foreign policy and inculcating a new administrative culture.

Chapter 6: Jawaharlal—The Unique Blend, deals with the tryst with destiny, integrity in public life, fortnightly letters to chief ministers, no detail was too small, the inimitable Nehru, Nehru’s trek to Bhutan, overall assessment, Nehru’s will and testament and the test of a leader.

The book contains six significant annexures:

(i)Vallabhbhai Patel’s Prophetic Warnings to Nehru on Chinese Expansionist Intentions;

(ii)Nehru on China—Extracts of Speeches and Writings;

(iii)The Genesis of Article 370—Framing of India’s Constitution and Extension of Certain Provisions of the Indian Constitution to Jammu and Kashmir;

(iv)Dr B.R. Ambedkar on the Uniform Civil Code;

(v)Dr B.R. Ambedkar on Village Panchayats—Extract of the Speech in the Constituent Assembly on 4 November 1948, and

(vi)Nehru—The Poet, Extracts of Writings.

A detailed bibliography is given at the end.

Extracts from Nehru’s speeches and writings have been presented by the author in a chronological progression to enable the readers to see Nehru’s reactions and thinking on important issues, as they unfolded.

Nehru’s speeches and writings have been brought out by the Government of India and the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund (JNMF), among others. They are of great help to a researcher.

Nevertheless, though over fifty years have elapsed since the death of Nehru, cabinet notes and related papers of the period are still not in the public domain. Consequently, it is unfeasible to arrive at an objective appraisal of how the vital issues facing the country were debated and decisions arrived at.

Some portions of the text have been italicized to invite the reader’s attention. Reference to the source is given at the end of the quotation in the bracket with the name of the author of the book, year of publication, and page number(s).

It cannot be overlooked that Nehru’s life is unique in that it is the veritable history of modern India—both pre- and post-independence India. Writing about Nehru means reliving history in every sense of the term. Regrettably, rather than the merits and demerits of the point, it is often the loyalty to the Nehru–Indira Gandhi ‘first family’ which holds sway in such discussions. This trait of worshipping heroes is long embedded in the Indian psyche.

I would terminate this review with the closing speech in the Constituent Assembly of B.R. Ambedkar, Chairman of the Drafting Committee, who had inter alia, emphasized:

We must observe the caution which John Stuart Mill has given to all who are interested in the maintenance of democracy, namely, not to lay their liberties at the feet of even a great man, or to trust him with powers which enable him to subvert their institutions. There is nothing wrong in being grateful to great men who have rendered life-long services to the country. But there are limits to greatness. As has been well said by the Irish patriot Daniel O’Connell, ‘no man can be grateful at the cost of his honour, no woman can be grateful at the cost of her chastity and no nation can be grateful at the cost of its liberty’. This caution is more necessary in the case of India than in the case of any other country, for in India, Bhakti, or what may be called the path of devotion or hero-worship, plays a part in its politics unequalled in magnitude by the part it plays in the politics of any other country in the world. Bhakti in religion may be a road to the salvation of the soul. But in politics, Bhakti or hero-worship is a sure road to degradation and to eventual dictatorship. (Mukherjee 2007; pp. 217–18)

A must read for history buffs.

Grab a copy if you choose.

[Abhishek Prakash · Rating 3 out of 5]

First things first. The title of the book is misleading. This book of not a Nehru bashing book. Instead in a very clear and precise manner tries to deconstructs the leadership of Nehru. The good, the bad and the ugly.
It shows a man with his heart in the right place. Trying to always do better for goods country. But like all mortals slipping here and there.
It's true that he failed big time in some things. But it's equally or more so true that India today is what it is due to him. Who knows what India would be without him at the helm in developing years.
About the book - It's an excruciating read. Exhaustive, too exhaustive. No fluency.
It's better read as more for research purpose than anything else.

[Rajendra · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book comes out as an unorganised pile of random facts. There is no thread of narrative. The style of writing is typically bureaucratic with plenty of "inter alia" s and "where in" s

[M.S.V.V.Sesharao · Rating 4 out of 5]

Intresting