Mahadev now dispatched Nehru a letter with the messages their mutual master had wanted him to convey. These were: (i) that Nehru should once more assume the Congress presidency, since that ‘was the only way’ in which ‘the bitter controversies of today could be avoided and your policy and your programme could be given a fair and unobstructed trial’; (ii) that in Europe he should make no speeches or statements. Gandhi told Nehru that ‘it would enhance your prestige and India’s to impose upon yourself a vow of silence…until your return here’.37 Nehru agreed to be Congress president in 1936, the
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