How likely is it that Gandhi and Nehru were British agents?

PM Nehru was pro-communist since his education days in England. Nehru developed closed links with British communist, leftists and Labour Party leaders in 1920s and 1930s like Bernard Shaw. This was driven by the anti-imperialist socialism model. Nehru was in correspondence and held meetings with key British Communist Party leaders such as R. Palme Dutt and Harry Pollitt. Dutt in particular sought to influence Nehru to align the INC more closely with the communist line.

After independence in 1947, PM Nehru tried his best to develop friendly relationship with USSR has his top foreign policy priority. Nehru sent his sister Vijay Lakshmi Pandit as first Indian Ambassador to USSR for 1947-1949. But despite Nehru’s best effort, India-USSR (now Russia) relations were not improving as expected by PM Nehru. But why?

USSR leader Joseph Stalin disliked both Gandhi ji and PM Nehru and suspected them to be British spy. PM Nehru never met Joseph Stalin. Sister and Ambassador Vijay Lakshmi Pandit failed to break this ice. PM Nehru’s interaction with Stalin was via subsequent Ambassador KPS Menon (tenure 1952-1961). This means first two Indian diplomats Vijay Lakshmi Pandit (tenure 1947-1949) and Dr. S Radhakrishnan (tenure 1949-1952), failed to improve India-USSR relations.

Dictator leader Stalin may have killed millions of his fellow citizens in USSR but he can still be remember for two big achievements – transforming USSR into an industrial powerhouse and victory over Nazi Germany during WW-II. One prominent socialist leader in Southern India named his son Stalin. Stalin also rightly identified Indian top leaders Gandhi ji and Nehru as British agent. It is well documented that Gandhi ji and Nehru enjoyed VIP treatments in jails as a freedom fighter. Gandhi ji was receiving a huge (in today’s terms) monthly salary from the British administration.

Joseph Stalin died on 5 March 1953 and Nikita Khrushchev soon emerged as the dominant leader of USSR, becoming First Secretary in September 1953. Under Nikita Khrushchev, India-USSR relations gained strength to strength with the passage of time. PM Nehru visited the Soviet Union for the first time (as PM) in June 1955 at the invitation of Soviet Premier Nikolai Bulganin and Soviet Communist Party General Secretary Nikita Khrushchev. This visit laid the foundation for a strong and enduring relationship between the two countries. During his nearly a month long visit across various USSR cities and unprecedented warmth shown to the Indian leader, Nehru expressed his admiration for the Soviet economic model, which he believed could offer an alternative to the capitalist system that, in his view, bred wars.

The reciprocal visit in 1955 by Soviet leaders to India also lasted nearly a month, with visits to various Indian cities, further cemented the relationship. Nikolai Bulganin became the first Russian Prime Minister to visit India post-Independence, accompanied by Nikita Khrushchev, the Secretary of the Communist Party. This was the breakout moment of India-USSR relations and subsequently defence and geo-strategic cooperation boomed. But all this is after Joseph Stalin’s death.

Unfortunately, most Indian failed to realize that Gandhi ji and Nehru were British agents only till 2014. Congress never supported non-congress parties like Gadar Party of Punjab or Jugantar group of Bengal and top freedom fighters like Chandra Shekhar Azad, Sardar Bhagat Singh, Khudiram Bose etc. Congress maintained the British propaganda that these freedom fighters are ‘terr0rists’ as they follow violent method and do not follow Gandhi ji’s non-violence ideology and not supported them legally. Gandhi ji was brought from South Africa when congress leadership of ‘Lal-Bal-Pal’ became too aggressive and restless and demanded complete swaraj. Gandhi ji's non-violence acted as a pressure deflection for the British. Other commonwealth countries like Malaysia, Kenya, Uganda etc. also gained independence despite no Gandhi ji there but India was partiotined. Both British and Gandhi ji had a pro-Pakistan bias.

Picture source: Google / Respective rightful owner

How India-Russia relations overcame the bitterness of Stalin years

During his recent visit to Russia, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar noted that India-Russia relations remain steady and robust, based on strategic convergence and mutual benefits. The bilateral ties have come a long way since 1947, when the Soviet Union, under Joseph Stalin, did not hold a high opinion of New Delhi.

https://www.indiatoday.in/history-of-it/story/india-russia-relations-joseph-stalin-jawaharlal-nehru-mahatma-gandhi-s-jaishankar-2481713-2023-12-29

Jawaharlal Nehru And How His Love For Marxism Affected India

Genesis and Growth of Nehruism by Sita Ram Goel is a must read for every Indian. 

https://swarajyamag.com/ideas/jawaharlal-nehru-and-how-his-love-for-marxism-affected-india

Jawaharlal Nehru’s ‘Whither India’ (1933) Remains as Relevant Today as It Was Then

Two months after his release from British prison in August 1933, Nehru wrote a series of articles published in a pamphlet titled “Whither India?” It was his personal manifesto on the destiny he would want his country to follow, while she engaged herself in the struggle for independence from the British rule and thereafter as a sovereign nation. Although not so widely known as his more famous Toward Freedom, Discovery of India and Glimpses of World History , the pamphlet was published in every major Indian language besides English and elicited tremendous response especially from the young, to whom it was primarily addressed. As our country is still struggling with poverty, inequality of income and agrarian distress, this pamphlet remains as relevant today as it was eighty-seven years ago when it was published. Nehru was at his rebellious best when he penned “Whither India?” it was the closest he came to “translating Lenin’s pamphleteering brilliance to the Indian scene”, says Stanley Wolpert in his biography of Nehru (p. 157). Repeated incarceration in British prisons, the last one of twenty months duration, had embittered him and filled him with resentment for the British Raj, which he saw propped up by the twin evils of capitalism and imperialism says the biographer. Nehru was convinced that India’s salvation lay in social and economic change. “The alternative is fascism,” he insisted, “the last weapon which vested interests can employ to keep what they have” (p. 153, ibid.) Nehru, the young Cambridge student, who had heard the great Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw deliver a lecture entitled “Socialism and the University Man”, was now a passionate freedom fighter and an avowed socialist and would expound his own views by writing ‘Whither India’ on the path his country must follow. Few in the audience on that afternoon sometime in the year 1907 would have imagined, however, that one of the Indian students listening to Bernard Shaw would one day become one of the leading proponents of democratic socialism and one of the most eminent figures of the Twentieth century. Nehru was writing “Whither India?” at a time when the country was at the crossroads, unable to decide on the path she should follow for the attainment of independence. Nehru “felt let down, ignored for the most part during his long incarceration, his radical program at Lahore all but forgotten between the round tables”. In a despondent mood, he met his mentor Gandhiji in Poona and, following a long discussion about Congress strategy and tactics, wrote to him, “In our recent conversations, you will remember that I had laid stress on…clearer definition of our national objective…we stand for complete independence. Sometimes a little confusion arises because of vague phraseology.” Complete independence, Nehru insisted, included “full control of the army and foreign relations as well as financial control” (Stanley Wolpert, p. 155) One may point out that most of the Congress leaders fou

https://janataweekly.org/jawaharlal-nehrus-whither-india-1933-remains-as-relevant-today-as-it-was-then/