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In March 1939, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru wrote a series of eight articles which were reprinted in a pamphlet and later included in his book The Unity of India (London, 1941). Nelson Mandela read it when he was a student at the University of Witwatersrand, where he had several Indian friends. He was greatly impressed and later read Nehru’s autobiography. He could recite long passages from Nehru’s writings even in 1991 when I met him at Luthuli House.
At the end of the last article, Nehru wrote:
“There is no easy walk-over to freedom anywhere, and many of us will have to pass through the valley of the shadow again and again before we reach the mountain-tops of our desire.
“Danger and difficulties have not deterred us in the past; they will not frighten us now. But we must be prepared for them like men who mean business and who do not waste their energy in vain talk and idle action. The way of preparation lies in our rooting out all impurity and indiscipline from our organisation and making it the bright and shining instrument that will cleave its way to India’s freedom.” (The Unity of India, page 132; Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru, New Delhi, Volume 9, page 520).
Nehru had been concerned with the “sorrow and tragedy” in the world with the rise of fascism – in Abyssinia, Spain, China, Palestine - and with problems which had arisen in the Indian national movement.
In 1953, Mandela ended his Presidential speech to the Transvaal African National Congress with the words:
“You can see that there is no easy walk to freedom anywhere, and many of us will have to pass through the valley of the shadow again and again before we reach the mountaintops of our desires.
“Dangers and difficulties have not deterred us in the past. They will not frighten us now. But we must be prepared for them like men in business who do not waste energy in vain talk and idle action.”
That was after the non-violent Defiance Campaign which had greatly expanded the membership and influence of the ANC, and built cooperation across “racial” lines in the struggle against apartheid tyranny. But the campaign had to be discontinued because of the new repressive laws by the apartheid regime. Mandela sensed that new methods of struggle must be explored.
In 1965, Ruth First edited a collection of Mandela’s speeches and the book, published by Heinemann in London, was entitled The Long Walk to Freedom. That was the title of Mandela’s autobiography and of the movie released a few days before he passed away.
Two nations across the sea, two protracted and intertwined struggles for freedom and two great leaders.
It is not surprising that India bestowed on Mandela the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding, the first international award he received while in prison, and, on his release, the highest national award Bharat Ratna (Jewel of India). He was the only person not of Indian origin to receive that award.
It is not surprising that the masses of people of India mourn the passing away of Mandela as if he was their own. The New York Times yesterday featured on its front page the photo of the mourners in Chennai, the city where I went to college and got my political education in the national movement while studying Mathematics.
