Nehru: The Invention of India

by Shashi Tharoor

The first months of Independence were anything but easy. Often emotional, Jawaharlal was caught up in the human drama of the times. He was seen weeping at the sight of a victim one day, and erupting in rage at a would-be assailant hours later. Friends thought his physical health would be in danger as he stormed from city to village, ordering his personal bodyguards to shoot any Hindu who might attack a Muslim, providing refuge in his own home in Delhi for Muslims terrified for their lives, giving employment to young refugees who had lost everything. Norman Cousins recounted how one night in August, Hindu rioters in New Delhi, ‘inflamed by stories of Moslem terror . . . smashed their way into Moslem stores, destroying and looting and ready to kill’: Even before the police arrived in force, Jawaharlal Nehru was on the scene . . ., trying to bring people to their senses. He spied a Moslem who had just been seized by Hindus. He interposed himself between the man and his attackers. Suddenly a cry went up: ‘Jawaharlal is here!’ . . . . It had a magical effect. People stood still . . . . Looted merchandise was dropped. The mob psychology disintegrated. By the time the police arrived people were dispersing. The riot was over . . . . The fact that Nehru had risked his life to save a single Moslem had a profound effect far beyond New Delhi. Many thousands of Moslems who had intended to flee to Pakistan now stayed in India, staking their lives on Nehru’s ability to protect them and a...