Feroze: The Forgotten Gandhi

Title: Feroze: The Forgotten Gandhi – A Personal Narrative

Author: Bertil Falk

Publisher: Roli Books, 2016 (First)

ISBN: 9789351941767

Pages: 304

Feroze Jahangir Gandhi deserves a special place in Indian politics, not only for his personal work as a freedom fighter and parliamentarian, but for also being the close relative of three Prime Ministers – the son-in-law of one, the husband of another and the father of yet another. As is expected from a man who entered into matrimony with a lady much higher than his station in life, Gandhi played second fiddle to Jawaharlal Nehru, his father-in-law and later to Indira, his wife, after she took over as the party president. But he came out of the shell in the last five years of life, locking horns with Nehru by exposing the widespread corruption in his cabinet. His well targeted allegations proved to be a real pain in the neck for Nehru that he had to sack his own trusted finance minister when it was proved that there is substance in the accusations raised by Feroze. His legacy was not so honoured during the Congress rule as the relations between Feroze and Indira had become strained in the last years and there was serious talk of trying for a divorce. This book is a biography of Feroze Gandhi that tries to clarify the real person underneath the political figure he grew into due to his high connections. Bertil Falk is a retired Swedish newspaper and TV journalist who became interested in India at the age of nine after reading a captivating story about an ordinary boy becoming a maharaja. This book is his personal narrative from four decades of research and one-on-one travels and interviews through political India.

The author tries to stir up controversy when he puts up Feroze Gandhi as some kind of mysterious figure whose both parentages are disputed. This is somewhat crude and plain uncharitable. He was born as the son of Jahangir Faredoon Gandhi and Rattimai Commissariat on September 12, 1912 at the Parsi lying-in hospital in the Fort area of Mumbai. He was later adopted by his maternal aunt, Shirin Commissariat, who was an unmarried doctor practicing at Allahabad. Falk searched for old records at the hospital, but turned up empty-handed. He then suggests that Feroze was indeed the biological son of his foster mother, born out of an amorous relationship with a reputed lawyer of Allahabad named Kamla Prasad Kakar. It is also noted that Kakar had arranged for Nehru's early release from jail in 1941 so that Feroze’s marriage with Indira could be solemnized with Nehru's blessings. But the author’s suggestion to do a DNA test of Feroze’s descendants comparing with those of Kakar’s to prove it beyond doubt is simply outrageous and a horrible invasion of individual privacy. He also opens up on another rumour that Nawab Khan, a Muslim liquor supplier, was his real father. However, he categorically refutes this one.

Falk was drawn to Feroze by his work in the last five years of his life. Remember, he died of a heart attack at the relatively young age of 48. During the last five years of his life, Feroze Gandhi forcibly came out with his own personal work on the political scene in the Lok Sabha by introducing ‘investigative journalism’ as a tool of parliamentary work. If he had died at 43 instead of 48, the author declares that he would not have bothered to write this biography. When India became independent, the British found it expedient to hand over power to the Congress party in the divided India because it had truly assimilated the British administrative principles and who were quite willing to play by the rules set by them. In effect, Congress could project an image of itself as the party that won Independence for India. During the first decade of parliamentary debates after the country turned a republic, the opposition failed to rally behind a cohesive principle or movement. The main opposition was the Communist party which was a distant second to Congress. The other opposition party was rightist, which ruled out any alliance or understanding with the left. The venal politicians and bureaucrats in Nehru's administration exploited this lack of effective opposition and unquestioned prominence to their advantage by indulging in rampant corruption. Feroze Gandhi, finding this unpardonable void, stepped into the shoes of the opposition leader. This book even suggests that Feroze’s leadership traits were immense though dormant, and there is even a hint that he would have succeeded Nehru or Lal Bahadur Shastri as prime minister had he been alive. This line of thought probably underestimates the vaulting ambitions of Indira and the author too discounts this hypothesis after a saner scrutiny.

Feroze was a part of the fabric and pattern that political success in India was made of. In spite of his matrimonial credentials, he was a man of ability and action and an individual with great potential. He served four jail terms and was as good a freedom fighter as anyone else. He had that experience of working among the rural folk, which, in the Congress, elites like Nehru could not claim. Feroze was elected on a Congress ticket from the Rae Bareli constituency. The author rules out nepotism in this case. He deserved the selection and if it was not for Nehru, Rafi Ahmed Kidwai, a prominent Congress politician with whom Feroze was in close proximity, would have ensured a ticket for him nevertheless. Falk also highlights a streak of inconsistency in his character. Feroze had bitterly complained about the treatment meted out to him by the French police at Paris where he had gone to cover a labour strike as part of the journalistic team of the National Herald. His camera was confiscated and he was ill-treated. This book presents another instance when the same man turned the aggressor against a lady journalist for essentially repeating the same scenario. Margaret Bourke-White was an American photographer and journalist for the Life magazine. She surreptitiously took the photo of Mahatma Gandhi as his body was laid on the floor in preparation for lying in state. She did this in clear violation of instructions and Feroze Gandhi forcibly confiscated the camera and destroyed the film by exposing it to daylight.

The author follows parliamentary debates to offer details regarding the Mundhra Scam, which was one of the first corruption scandals that rocked Nehru’s boat. Feroze vehemently attacked the finance minister T T Krishnamachari’s involvement in instructing the Life Insurance Corporation of India to salvage Mundhra’s crumbling finances by buying large tranches of the shares of his companies at artificially inflated prices. Krishnamachari had to resign, but this shook Feroze’s confidence in the socialistic model as he was under the impression that capitalism alone fostered corruption.

The author has done a great deal of work in tracing the sources of information he shares with the readers. He has met all the personalities who were still alive and could contribute to the knowledge on Feroze Gandhi. Most of the ground work was done in the late 1980s and early 1990s, but he presumably then took nearly two decades to compile it and publish in book form. This delay is unexplainable though Falk claims that it was due to his desire to publish the biography on the occasion of the centenary of Feroze’s birth in 2012. This time gap eats away at the relevance of the book, especially after the year 2014 when the BJP- led government made it a policy not to let go of any opportunity to strike at the Nehru dynasty’s legacy. This book also includes a nice collection of photos.

The book is recommended.

Rating: 3 Star