Chapter - III

Writing Differences: Jawaharlal Nehru

and Vijayalakshmi Pandit

Jawaharlal Nehru ( 1889 - 1964), popularly called Pandit Nehru, was the son

of a wealthy Indian barrister and freedom fighter Motilal Nehru. After completion of

his education in England, he joined India's independence movement under Gandhi's

leadership and emerged as one of the prominent leaders of the Congress Party.

Eventually Nehru came to be recognized as Gandhi's political heir. In 1947, he

became the first Prime Minister of independent India. His inaugural address while

assuming the office of the Prime Minister - "Long years ago we made a tryst with

destiny" is famous for its poetic charm. Nehru's long tenure was significant in

shaping the political traditions and economic policies of independent India. His

contribution to international politics was in form of the Non-Aligned movement.

Nehru was 4 7 when he wrote An Autobiography ( 1936). The autobiography has 68

chapters and 616 pages in total. Praising Nehru's An Autobiography, C D

Narasimhaiah says that it is:

... the most distinguished Indian autobiography ... indeed unsurpassed

by any autobiography coming out of the heat and dust of public life

anywhere in living history. (Narasimhaiah, 3)

Vijayalakshmi Pandit (nee Swarup Kumari Nehru) (1900 - 1990), an Indian

political leader and diplomat, was one of the world's leading women in public life in

the twentieth century. A sister of Jawaharlal Nehru, she was eleven years younger to

him. A member of the Nehru family, Vijayalakshmi's involvement in India's

independence movement and politics seems to have been a part of her destiny. She

married a promising lawyer of the Kashmiri brahmin community, Ranjit Sitaram

Pandit in 1921 but lived mostly with her family at Anand Bhavan, the home of the

Nehrus in Allahabad. Vijayalakshmi's participation in the Civil Disobedience

Movement of 1930 brought her in association with Mahatma Gandhi and other leaders

of India's freedom struggle. She became an active worker in the Indian nationalist

movement and was imprisoned three times by the British authorities in India. She

entered elective politics in 1937 by winning a seat in the United Provinces (now Uttar

Pradesh) legislature. She had the distinction to be the first Indian woman to hold a

cabinet post from 1937-39. Her husband died in 1944. In 1946, she was elected to the

Constituent Assembly.

In her individual capacity, Vijayalakshmi led an "unofficial" delegation to the

San Francisco Conference where the Charter of the United Nations was drafted in

1945 and proved more appealing than the official British-Indian delegation. In 1953,

she was elected the first woman President ofthe UN General Assembly. After Indian

independence, Vijayalakshmi served in several countries, including the erstwhile

USSR (1947-49) and the USA (1949-51), as an ambassador. Vijayalakshmi served as

the Governor of Maharashtra from 1962 to 1964. From 1964 to 1968, she was a

Member of Parliament (Lok Sabha) and represented her brother's constituency after

his death. She did not take an active part in the Indian politics after 1969. In 1978,

Vijayalakshmi was appointed the Indian representative to the UN Human Rights

Commission. She was 78 when she wrote her autobiography The Scope of Happiness:

A Personal Memoir (1979). The autobiography has 40 chapters and is somewhat more

48

than half the size of her brother's autobiography. Nayantara Sahgal, the well-known

novelist, is Vijayalakshmi's daughter.

It is interesting to study the writing differences in the autobiographies of

Jawaharlal Nehru and Vijayalakshmi Pandit who, being brother and sister, were

brought up in the same family. We have already discussed in foregoing pages how

female autobiographers display quite a different orientation towards the self and the

others then their male counterparts. The critical theories established by the male

tradition, however, tend to misread and marginalize women's autobiography-writing.

Feminist critics vehemently oppose these theories and create a poetics of difference.

After a detailed discussion on the theory of writing differences in the earlier chapter

this chapter proposes to apply the theory to the practice of autobiography-writing

through two texts: Jawaharlal Nehru's An Autobiography and Vijayalakshmi Pandit's

The Scope of Happiness. The pattern of the present chapter is based on the earlier

chapter. The four subtitles under which the differences were discussed in the earlier

chapter are further split into eight subtitles in the present chapter with a meaningful

change in their order. These subtitles highlight the writing differences in almost

binary oppositional terms like association, dissociation; personal, public; self­

conscious, self-confident, and fragmented, structured. The first of the pair stands for

the male trait while the latter for the female one.

Association

In a sharp contrast to the theories of Gusdorf and Olney, the psychoanalysts

like Freud and Lacan focus on the development of the female self through an intense

49

interaction with others, particularly like mother and father. The concept of

autobiographical self, self-creation and self-consciousness is profoundly different for

women and minorities. This kind of intense interaction with others, be it family or

society, is evident in Vijayalakshmi Pandit's The Scope of Happiness:

We were all one family living together in the manner of those days.

The joint family has ceased to exist, but it had its uses since it was a

form of social security and insurance and no one was abandoned.

Every boy was provided with an education and a job, a suitable

husband was found for every girl, and widowed aunts, grandmothers,

and others belonging to the family were integrated into it. They were

wanted and respected. There was, as always, another side of this

picture that was less pleasant. Many a young man who could have

made good on his own was content to remain a parasite under the

sheltering care of a more prosperous relative.

The children of the family belonged equally to every member of it, and

it was usual to see one sister-in-law bringing up and even nursing the

child of another along with her own. The grandmother had a special

status, and respect and affection for her grew with age. There was no

fear in the minds of the older men and women in the family that they

would be denied the love and shelter of the home at any time or for any

reason. And they, in their tum, gave the children and young people a

sense of perspective. Obligations and responsibilities were as

important as privileges- there had to be a balance. In some ways these

elders were anchors that kept the domestic boat steady and on an even

keel. They also kept the best traditions alive in the family, and it would

be unfair to brush aside the contributions they made. Obviously there

were some who did not give as much as they received, but this is the

way of life. (Vijayalakshmi: 29-30)

50

Vijayalakshmi Pandit, in her autobiography The Scope of Happiness,

associates herself with her father at the initial stage. She elaborately discusses the

various dimensions of her father's character, the tenderness he showed towards his

family and his interest in the smallest experience of the youngest member, his

exquisite courtesy, his biting sarcasm, etc. Vijayalakshmi further notes that no two

people could be more unlike each other than her parents. The only thing they shared

in common were their children, and even in that her mother did not get her fair share

for she declares:

No two people could have been more unlike each other than my

parents. The only things they shared in common were their children,

and even in this my mother did not get her fair share, for I was my

father's child in all respects. He was the dominating influence in my

life. I loved him deeply and he was my ideal of all that was great, good

and honourable. Even his fits of anger, which shook the whole house,

passed me by. He was a loving and too-indulgent a parent and I never

remember a harsh word from him even when my own conduct had

distressed him. His outstanding quality was his love of life and of his

fellowmen, and it is my good fortune to have inherited these. I have

been in love with life since I was born. I got the most out of every

experience, and living to me means involvement with the human race

and its problems. (Vijayalakshmi: 40).

Later, Vijayalakshmi associates herself with her brother, Jawaharlal Nehru.

She confesses that her unreasoning love for her brother did her considerable harm in

her political life. She however notes that it was 'Bhai' who encouraged her to discuss

things, read Shaw and poetry. He made her write essays and introduced her to subjects

that had not until then much meaning for her. Vijayalakshmi's views on the brother­

sister relationship are also applicable to her own relationship with Jawaharlal:

51

Bhai made me write essays and brought into my life topics that had not

until then had much meaning for me. He also opened a door for me to

Buddhism, in which he was at that time much engrossed. As I have

already mentioned, a brother occupies a very special position in the

Indian family and the brother-sister relationship is a cultivated and

meaningful one. He is the "protector" of his sister and in many cases

their hero. To me Bhai was a knight sans peur et sans reproche

The major event in our life in 1916 was Bhai's wedding. There was not

a family in the community which would not have been happy if their

daughter had been chosen as the bride of Jawaharlal Nehru. The

wedding was lavish to the point of ostentation - again one of those

contradictions in Father's personality difficult to reconcile with the

kind of man he really was. His love for my brother was deep- nothing

in the world was too good for him, and his bride must have the best of

everything. (Vijayalakshmi: 55).

Thus, we note that Vijayalaksmi Pandit associates first with her father and

then with her elder brother. However, from our point of view, the associations that

really develop her personality are the ones with the female members of the family and

the All India Women's Conference in particular. Women like Annie Besant and

Sarojini Naidu filled her with the ambition to be like them, "To be an Orator, to be

able to sway people with my words, this was my great ambition" (59) she notes. The

first time Vijayalakshmi attended a women's meeting was the one organized by her

cousin, Rameshwari Nehru, at the Mayo Hall of Allahabad University, to publicize

the South Africans' issue, to persuade women to leave their homes for one afternoon

and go out to hear other women speak.

52

Vijayalakshmi also tells us about her grandmother; lndrani, known as

'Jiyomaji', a remarkable woman, a matriarch. She enjoyed a special status in the

family. The younger women of the family her cousin, or 'bhabhis' as they were

called, were forward-looking for those days. Most of them spoke English and were

interested in various activities outside the home. Her cousin Rameshwari Nehru had

started a woman's magazine called Stree Darpan, The Woman Mirror which dealt

with subjects important to the Indian woman such as the need for better education,

inheritance, abolition of child marriage, divorce, remarriage of windows, and the right

to vote. We realize that there is strong 'female bonding' between Vijayalakshmi and

these female members of the family, especially with her daughter Chandralekha,

Nayantara and Rita. Vijayalakshmi further associates herself with Madame Chiang:

The Chiangs' visit at this time moved Indians. Their sympathy for

Indian aspirations for freedom was obvious and Indians supported this

Asian leader fighting against odds. Madame Chiang's impact on the

women was immense. We saw in her a symbol. The All India

Women's Conference in Particular, Composed as it was of educated

women, found in Madame Chiang an Asian woman leader of whom

they felt proud. I had gone to Delhi with Lekha to see the Chiangs, had

several meetings with them and, like most others, admired what they

were doing to defend their country. Madame Chiang told me that my

young daughters should not be kept in the country at this period, and

she suggested Wellesley College, of which she was an alumna, saying

that she would make inquiries when she reached the United States and

let me know if the girls could go there. (Vijayalakshmi: 155-156)

Thus, we note that Vijayalakshmi Pandit seeks her individuality through an

intense association with others.

53

Vijayalakshmi's autobiography further testifies the canonical belief that there

is always a man at the centre of a woman's autobiographical writing, and that she

herself is always in the periphery. The first half of her autobiography, The Scope of

Happiness clearly gives an impression that first Motilal Nehru and then Jawaharlal are

at the center and Vijayalakshmi is in the periphery; but the second half of her

autobiography seems to defy this notion as she projects herself as much stronger a

character. As the president of the All India Women's Conference, she passed a

resolution demanding immediate codification of the Hindu Law giving Hindu women

the right to inheritance and divorce. Besides this, the 'Chocolate Cake' (108) incident

presents her as a very strong character and an imaginative mother. This is the incident

from her autobiography which describes how her three young daughters were

introduced to the parents' jail-going during the freedom struggle. In 1930 when the

police team arrived with an arrest warrant for her husband for his disobedience to the

British Raj by joining the freedom fighters, Vijayalakshmi ordered a chocolate cake,

which turned a frightful incident into a celebration. Thus the jail-going was looked

upon as a reason to rejoice by all her daughters. Years later when Nayantara Sahgal,

Vijayalakshmi's -daughter and known Indian English novelist writes her

autobiography in two volumes, she names the first volume as Prison and Chocolate

Cake ( 1954 ). A sequel to the first volume was published in 1962 under the title -

From Fear Set Free.

Nayantara Sahgal was one of the first female Indo-English writers to receive

wide recognition internationally. Her fiction deals with India's elite responding to the

crises engendered by political change. Though part of the Nehru-Gandhi family,

Sahgal attained a reputation for maintaining her independent critical sense. Her

54

independent temperament led to her falling out with her cousin Indira Gandhi during

the most autocratic phases of Mrs. Gandhi's time in office in the late 1960s and

throughout the 1970s. Indira Gandhi cancelled Sahgal's scheduled appointment as

India's Ambassador to Italy within days of her return to power. Not one to be

intimidated, Sahgal wrote in 1982 a scathing, insightful account of Mrs. Gandhi's rise

to power - Indira Gandhi: Her Road to Power. Sahga1 authored other political

writings like The Freedom Movement in India (1970) and a collection of essays, Point

of view: A Personal Response to Life, Literature and Politics (1997).

Her novels bring out Nayantara Sahgal as a writer with feminist concerns

seeking an independent existence for women. She sees women as victims of

conventional Indian society engaged in their quest for identity. In her last novel

Mistaken Identity ( 1988) her concept of emancipation reaches its pinnacle where her

female character is an out-and-out rebel.

Nayantara Sahgal served as an advisor to Sahitya Akademi's Board for English

from 1972 to 1975. She was a member of Verghese Committee for Autonomy to

Radio & TV in 1977-78. In 1978, she was member of the Indian delegation to U.N.

General Assembly. She has also held the post of Vice-President of People's Union for

Civil Liberties. She received the Sinclair Prize (Britain) for fiction in 1985, Sahitya

Akademi Award in 1986, and Commonwealth Writers Award (Eurasia) in 1987. She

was also a Fellow of the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars,

Washington from 1981 to 1982.

Vijaya1akshmi's work as the Municipal Chairperson of the Education

Committee, as the first woman minister, her achievements as a diplomat at the U.N.

55

and as the Indian High Commissioner in England shows her as a stronger person in

the second half of The Scope of Happiness. The typical 'feminine' self of the

autobiographer gets transfonned into a 'female' self (both terms used in Showalterian

sense). Not only that she becomes confident, but she also shows an awareness of the

power that she holds. To substantiate this point one may tum to the delegation that she

led at the U.N. which included Raja Maharaj Singh, ex-chief Justice Chagla, P.N.

Sapru, V. K. Krishna Menon and Mr. K.P.S. Menon. Vijayalakshmi comments on her

experience of leading all-men delegation as under:

That night I went to meet the Viceroy. It was the first time I had been

in the Viceroy's House. I told Lord Wavell I was pleased to be able to

thank him personally for his previous help. I also wanted to thank him

for the privilege of sending me on such an important mission for India,

and I asked him to tell me something about it. He said my name had

come to mind as soon as Gandhiji suggested inscribing the South

African item on the agenda. "The Mahatma and I are fully in accord

with this. I have also told the Prime Minister you will make a good

Ambassador. I hope he will take my advice when the time comes." He

spoke a little about my recent tour in the United States and wanted to

know if I had enjoyed it. I told him I had, but I was much happier with

my present work in the Ministry. It was not at all the difficult evening I

had anticipated.

Next day I sat with Bhai and Sir Girja while a list of delegates was

drawn up. It was an all-star cast. The delegates were: Raja Maharaj

Singh, Ex-Chief Justice Chagla, Mr. Frank Anthony, the leader of the

Anglo-Indian community, and Nawab Ali Yawar Jung. The alternates

were: Mr. V. K> Krishna Menon, Mr. P. N. Sapru, Mr. G. S. Pathak

(later Vice President), and Mr. K. P. S. Menon. And once again I found

myself with a group of men, nearly all specialists in their own line but

56

friendly and ever helpful. Never did anyone of them show the least

resentment at being led by a woman. On the contrary, they were rather

proud of me (Vijayalakshmi: 206-7).

Her presence at the U.N. continued to surprise people who could not equate

her and the position she held with their traditional mind-set about Indian women.

Vijayalakshmi was also the first woman to hold the office of the U.N. President. At a - ..

Press conference in the U. N. Building following the election, her answer to the

question asked by reporters projects her as an individual asserting female rights-

female space. When asked: "How would you describe the sari you are wearing?" she

replied: "Did you ask my predecessor to describe his suit?" (276)

The tendency to associate with others to seek individuation is evident in the

other Nehru women's autobiographies as well. Like Vijayalakshmi, Krishna

Hutheesing, her sister and Nayantara Sahgal, her daughter also associate with others

in their autobiographies. Krishna Hutheesing (nee Nehru) was the youngest child in

the Nehru family. In her autobiography With No Regrets: An Autobiography (1943),

she associates herself with her parents, her brother and sister, and her husband. She

associates herself even with Anand Bhavan, the family home of the Nehrus in

Allahabad. In prison she associates herself with fellow women prisoners. Nayantara

Sahgal associates with her family - her mother, her father, and her sisters in her

autobiography Prison and Chocolate Cake. She associates with the servants at Anand

Bhavan and devotes a chapter to their description. Despite a vast difference in their

background, she associates herself with her husband Gautam and his family. In From

Fear Set Free, the second part of her autobiography Nayantara associates with her

children, Noni and Ranjit.

57

If we accept autobiography as a genre which celebrates centrality and success

of the autobiographer, as does the canonical theory advanced by Gusdorfian School of

thought, then we may feel that such traits are missing from women's autobiography.

Compared to many of the simple, home-maker autobiographers like Rasa Sundari

Devi (Amar Jiban, 1930), Lakshmibai Tilak (J Follow After, 1950), Ramabai. Ranade

(Ranade: His Wifo's Reminiscences, 1885, trans. 1910), Kamla Dongerkeri (On the

Wings of Time, 1968) and many others we expect leaders and political activists like

Vijayalakshmi to display a greater sense of self-esteem and assertion. But her

autobiography does not fulfill the expectation. In fact, she discusses her success in

public life. She gives all the details but often it is done in a typical 'feminine' manner.

Like so many women politicians the world over, like Golda Meyer and others,

Vijayalakshmi evades demonstration of confidence, power, authority, and success in

favour of a typical 'feminine self. Thus, to quote Shari Benstock from her Theory

and Practice of Women's Autobiographical Writing "the very requirements of the

genre are put into question by the limits of gender" (20).

Dissociation

Jawaharlal Nehru, Indian politician brought up in school and college on

Chemistry, Botany, and Geography. He uses Abraham Cowley's words for the

epigraph to his autobiography:

It is a hard and nice subject for a man to write of himself: it grates his

heart to say anything of disparagement and the readers' ears to hear

anything of praise of him. (I)

58

The much-famed autobiography opens with the wealthy Nehru heir's anxiety

as "An only son of prosperous parents is apt to be spoilt." (I) In Narasimhaih's view

the above words which remind one of the opening of Jane Austen's Pride and

Prejudice prepare the readers for a good laugh as the autobiographer displays great

capacity for self-introspection and have a good laugh at himself in the very first

opening sentence of the volume. Such a rare capacity to discover and digest truths

only could have inspired the famous painter friend of Nehru summed up her response

to Nehru's autobiography when she wrote:

I like your autobiography; where others would have said 'the sea saw

me', you say 'I saw the sea' (quoted by Narasimhaiah 5)

The critical theories established by the critics like Gusdorf, Olney, Misch and

Shumaker assert that the concept of autobiography is premised on a model of the self

identified as "endemically western and individualistic" (Gusdorf: 1956, 30). One

starts dissociating one's self from others and tends to think of himself as the centre of

a living space. In Preface to his Autobiography, Nehru asserts that he is an individual

living his separate life amidst the masses of humanity.

Jawaharlal Nehru's An Autobiography is considered by the critics as one of the

outstanding prose works in the annals of Indian writing in English. Written at the age

of forty -five, it is a literary expression of a man at the height of his powers. Nehru's

An Autobiography attests the male critical theories. From his very childhood he starts

dissociating from others and projects himself as the centre of a living space.

Jawaharlal Nehru wrote his entire autobiography in prison; " ... in the long solitudes

of gaol life" (Preface). Initially he dissociates from his father, Motilal Nehru. When

59

Gandhiji lead the Satyagraha Sabha in 1919, the members of which were pledged to

disobey the Rowlatt Act, Nehru was afire with enthusiasm and wanted to join it. He

hardly thought of the consequences - law breaking, gaol going etc. But suddenly he

realized that his father was dead against this new idea. It seemed to him preposterous

that Jawaharlal should go to prison. Nehru gives an honest account of the conflict

between the father and the son as under:

For many days there was this mental conflict, and because both of us

felt that big issues were at stake involving a complete upsetting of our

living, we tried hard to be as considerate to each other as possible. I

wanted to lessen his obvious suffering if I could, but I had no doubt in

my mind that I had to go the way of Satyagraha. Both of us had a

distressing time, and night after night I wandered about alone, tortured

in mind and trying to grope my way out. Father - I discovered later -

actually tried sleeping on the floor to find out how what it was like, as

he thought that this would be my lot in prison. (Nehru: 42)

Here was an only son of well-to-do parents, educated at Harrow and

Cambridge, with a promise of flourishing practice at the Bar; who loved life and took

a good look at the gay things of life before he enters a prison; and in spite of the

strength of his family bonds, he dissociated himself, and lived in offices, committee

meetings and crowds and served long terms of imprisonment enduring all the

hardships of prison life.

Later on he also dissociates from Gandhiji. He repeatedly tells us how his

views differed from those of Gandhiji. Jawaharlal complains of Gandhiji for not

training the nation to think and asks whether the way of faith was the right way to

train a nation. Owing to differences with Gandhiji the thought of resigning from the

60

congress working committee seized him for a time. He duly recognized the great

leadership of Gandhiji but never approved that Gandhiji should be above criticism.

Jawaharlal felt that Gandhiji had acted rightly in suspending civil disobedience but the

reason Gandhiji had given seemed to him like an insult to intelligence. Gandhiji wrote

in the weekly Statesman that he withdrew civil disobedience because:

. . . a valued companion of long standing was found reluctant to

perform the full prison task, preferring his private studies to the

allotted task. This was undoubtedly contrary to the rules of Satyagraha.

More than the imperfection of the friend whom I love, more than ever

it brought home to me my own imperfections. The friend said he had

thought that I was aware of his weakness. I was blind. Blindness in a

leader is unpardonable. I saw at once that I must for the time being

remain the sole representative of civil resistance in action. (Nehru:

505)

Jawaharlal, disapproving Gandhiji's statement on the withdrawal ofthe Civil

Disobedience, notes:

[Gandhiji] was perfectly entitled to treat his ashram inmates in any

manner he liked; they had taken all kinds of pledges and accepted a

certain regime. But the congress had not done so. Why should we be

tossed hither and thither for, what seemed to me, metaphysical and

mystical reasons in which I was not interested? Was it conceivable to

have any political movement of this basis? I had willingly accepted the

moral aspect of Satyagraha as I understood it (within certain limits I

admit). That basic aspect appealed to me and it seemed to raise politics

to a higher and nobler level. I was prepared to agree that the end does

not justify all kinds of means. But this new development or

61

interpretation was something much more far-reaching and it held forth

some possibilities which frightened me. (Nehru: 506)

Besides this, we note that Jawaharlal's autobiography is dominated by an

egocentric 'I'. In the 'epilogue', Nehru calls his autobiography: "an egotistical

narrative of my adventures through life" (595). He also notes that his objective in

writing this autobiography is primarily for his own benefit, ','~~ trace my own mental

growth" (596). Very consciously he presents himself as the centre of every incident,

representing, at the same time, the feelings of many others. In the Epilogue to his

autobiography, Nehru states how he shared the life's adventures with others and yet

maintained an individual identity:

The adventures have not been very exciting perhaps; long years in

prison can hardly be termed adventurous. Nor have they been in any

way unique, for I have shared these years with their ups and downs

with tens of thousands of my countrymen and countrywomen; and this

record of changing moods, of exaltations and depressions, of intense

activity and enforced solitude, is our common record. I have been one

of a mass, moving with it, swaying it, occasionally, being influenced

by it; and yet like the other units, an individual, apart from the others,

living my separate life in the heart of the crowd. (Nehru: 595)

He further notes:

Five and a half years ago, sitting in my prison barrack in the Almora

District Gaol, I wrote the last line of my autobiography. Eight months

later I added a postscript from Badenweiler in Germany. That

autobiography, published in England, had a kindly reception from all

manner of people in various countries, and I was glad that what I had

62

written had brought India nearer to my friends abroad, and had made

them appreciate, some extent, the inner significance of our struggle for

freedom. (Nehru: 599)

Jawaharlal also notes that about ten million people actually attended the

meetings he addressed, and probably several million more brought into some kind of

touch with him during his journey by road. Jawaharlal's An Autobiography thus,

attests the male tradition that men's autobiography in form is dominated by an 'I'

which is always at the center of every incident. Nehru starts dissociating from others

from his very childhood and projects himself as the centre of a living space. For him,

individuality lies in dissociating himself from others.

Personal

Women's autobiographies rarely mirror the establishment of the history of

their times. They tend to concentrate on their personal rather than public lives and we

are given domestic details, family problems, close friends and the people who

influenced them. This is seen even in the case of women whose political life is their

claim to fame. The Scope of Happiness attests that for a woman personal is political:

A year is a long period of time, and the inner resources that came to

our rescue in later imprisonments were still underdeveloped. In my

own case the personal problem outweighed those created by jail life.

During the excitement of public meetings and arrests there had been no

time for quiet thinking. I had not allowed myself a moment to consider

whether my decision to take a more active part in the struggle would

be harmful to my children's interest. One knew, of course, that prison

was the inevitable result of political work and that prison terms could

63

extend to two years or more, but the emotional wave which was

sweeping the country had me in its grip. I was swept along with the

tide, a willing victim. It was not possible to think logically.

(Vijayalakshmi: I 09-1 0)

The Scope of Happiness, at the first reading seems to contradict this for it

provides us with details of the Indian freedom struggle and the role Vijayalakshmi

played in it. However, when we compare her autobiography with Jawaharlal's An

Autobiography, we realize that most of the time Vijayalakshmi's prime concern is

with the personal rather than the political aspects of life.

In The Scope of Happiness, Vijayalakshmi provides us with the minutest,

personal details of the Nehrus. She elaborately describes her grandmother, her parents

and the other family members. She tells us that a characteristic of the Nehru was their

quick but short-lived temper. She also tells us an amusing story of their ancestor,

Pandit Mansa Ram Nehru, about this special characteristic.

We are also given details about the servants at 'Anand Bhawan' about her

father's personal valet Bhola Ram and her brother's valet Harilal. They were

'untouchables' and that they were treated as equals:

Father's personal valet for many years, Bhola Ram, belonged to the

Harijan community, and Hari Lal, my brother's valet, also an

"untouchable," became well known in his own right as a member of

the Uttar Pradesh Legislature. My own cook, Budhilal, who has been

with the family for forty-three years, and his brother, Tulsi Ram, who

served my brother until he died, both Harijans, are to us the equal of

any Brahman of the highest group. It is a joy as well as a matter of

64

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pride that their children are educated, hold good positions, and have

considerably raised their standard of living because of our

encouragement and trust. In the Uttar Pradesh Assembly one of the

able younger ministers is a lawyer and the grandson of one of Anand

Bhawan employees. He was a Harijan, known technically as a member

of the scheduled class. There are others also, who, but for the fact that

my father had the courage of his convictions, would not have been able

to make good as they have done. Parliamentary debates and demands

asking for a better deal for Harijans seem hypocritical to me. If those

who shouted loudest had done one fraction of what my father did more

than half a century ago the problem, by now, would have been resolved

and all Hindus emotionally and socially integrated. (Vijayalakshmi:

34-5)

There is an elaborate description of Jawaharlal's marriage in The Scope of

Happiness; as also the eagerly awaited birth of his daughter Indira.

Kamala's baby was born on November 19, 1917. Eagerly awaited by

the expectant grandparents, it was presumed that it would be a boy.

The baby was born in one of the rooms across the courtyard from

Father's room, and several of us were standing in the veranda awaiting

the announcement. Presently mother came out of the room and said,

"Hua ... " before the others realized the implication father laughed and

said "Baccha hua? Mother had not said a son is born but "it", has born.

·In the traditional way she could not bring herself to announce the birth

of a daughter!

Father wanted the baby to be called after his mother, Indrani, but it was

considered old fashioned by some, and finally the name Indira, then

much in vogue, was chosen. Because of his love of things Buddhist,

Bhai added Priyadarshini, meaning, "pleasing to behold." The Buddha,

the Enlightened One, was also known as Priyadarshini. The two names

65

together have suited lndu, as the family soon began to call her.

(Vijayalakshmi: 57-8)

She also tells us how her own birth was described as the "tempest". Besides

this, the way she describes her home and the embassy residence gives her

autobiography a typical feminine touch:

The Embassy residence had deteriorated a great deal by the time I went

to London. The chandeliers alone were unaffected by time and neglect.

Everything else required attention, especially the beautiful paneling,

which was dirty, and the parquet flooring, which needed expert

polishing. London demanded a high standard of entertainment, and we

were not equipped for this. After some futile attempts to persuade the

Ministry that an Embassy of this ranking must have better carpets,

crockery, silver, and other equipment, I began using my own things,

which were more suitable than anything our Government had provided

and which gave me pleasure to use. In India this gave rise to much talk

of my luxurious living and extravagance. In fact, I am told that the

wife of one of my successors in London complained that there was

nothing in the Embassy because Mrs. Pandit had removed everything

when she left! There were as many incidents of shortsighted policy of

Government here as in Washington, and unhappily for me I fell

between the two stools. The Ministry officials were afraid to sanction

anything for fear of Parliament, and members of Parliament would not

support any demand because I was the Prime Minister's sister.

(Vijayalakshmi: 288-9)

This emphasis on the personal rather than the political is witnessed in the other

Nehru women's autobiographies as well. Politics dominated the Nehru family as

Motilal, Jawaharlal and Vijayalakshmi played an eminent part in India's struggle for

freedom. The autobiographies of other Nehru women Krishna Hutheesing and

66

Nayantara Sahgal reveal that they too are not free from this influence. But their

interest is not politics per se. Like Vijayalakshmi, they focus on the personal incidents

in their lives rather than the political. Krishna wrote With No Regrets in the days of

her loneliness when other members of the Nehru family were either in prison or

occupied with India's independence movement. She narrates how her decision to take

up a job shocked her parents and how her family, after a serious consideration,

approved of her ma.rriage to Gunottam Hutheesing. Even the servants of the Nehru

family took a deep interest in the country's politics.

However, in Nayantara Sahgal's autobiography Prison and Chocolate Cake

and From Fear S~t Free, there is no documentation of politics for posterity. The

personal- family, friends, domestic affairs, family problems- is always ahead of the

political. Returning from the United States after the completion of her studies,

Nayantara was eager to see Jawaharlal Nehru who had become the first Prime

Minister of independent India by that time. However, his political position did not

mean much to her. She always looked for her Mamu with whom she had played as a

child. When Nayantara and her sister Lekha went to the USA for higher education,

India was still a British colony. When she was returning home, the country had gained

independence. Her mother was in Moscow as the first ambassador of the newly

independent country to Russia. On her arrival in India, Nayantara was supposed to

stay at the official residence of her Mamu who had become the first Prime Minister.

She had never visited New Delhi till then. She writes in Prison and Chocolate Cake:

As I thought about going home, I gradually became more accustomed

to the idea. So much had happened since I had come to America and

now Mamu was the Prime Minister, the first Prime Minister of an

67

independent India! I repeated it over and over again to myself in

wonder and awe, not quite believing it. It was a distant, dazzling title.

It spelt victory after a long, hard, sad battle, but to me it had no reality.

What had reality was Jawaharlal Nehru, the Mamu I had played with

and known and loved. He was infinitely more inspiring than the Prime

Minister of India. Suddenly I was eager and impatient to be with him

again. I had been the ardent little hero-worshipper, trudging solidly

. behind him in the make-believe processions of our games. Now I was

ready to walk ·beside him towards whatever future the building of a

New India would involve. (Sahgal, Nayantara: 202)

Vijayalakshmi's The Scope of Happiness, like the autobiographical writings of

Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Margery Kempe, Maya Angelou and Anais Nin, concentrates

on her personal life. Hers is a story of "unusual female achievement" nevertheless, in

the words of Patricia Meyer Spacks, "the narratives convey singular absence of

personal satisfaction in achievement" (132). Vijayalakshmi very honestly confesses:

It was a long time before one realized that "sacrifice" was often a cloak

for many actions that did not always stem from the highest motives.

Many wore it to hide what lay beneath. It was a period when mass

feelings were artificially stimulated, and many people- I among them

- imagined ourselves instruments of freedom in the hands of Gandhiji.

I write frankly because I have never quite forgiven myself for that first

jail tenn which broke up my home when my children most needed its

security and comfort. To stay at home and look after them would have

been dull. Perhaps I was envious of my friends who had broken away

from their ties and placed the burden of their personal responsibility on

others; perhaps I had a too-lenient husband who seldom -if ever,

interfered with my decisions. Whatever the reason, I am now sure that

I acted selfishly, thinking in vague tenns of personal political

achievements rather than the satisfaction I could have gained through

68

domestic duty honestly perfonned. Any one or all of these reasons

together may have driven me toward the final choice, but I had no

argument to still my conscience in those long dark hours in prison

when sleep would not come. (Vijayalakshmi: II 0)

Jawaharlal's autobiography provides us with the public aspects of his life and

the affairs of the world. He seldom concentrates on his personal life - the domestic

details and family details. While Vijayalakshmi's autobiography focuses on her

personal life rather than the public life. This emphasis by Vijayalakshmi, on the

personal rather than the political aspects of her life clearly contradicts the established

criterion about the content of autobiography. In The Scope of Happiness,

Vijayalakshmi provides us with the minutest, personal details ofthe Nehrus. This is

because, for Vijaya"takshmi personal is political.

Public

Jawaharlal Nehru's intention in writing the autobiography as he says in the

Preface "was to trace his own mental development and not to write a survey of recent

Indian history". But, as can be easily seen, history has invariably crept in, in this

account of his life. In fact, most of the six hundred and odd pages of the book are

taken up with the historical events of the Indian national struggle. Nehru's

autobiography not only focuses on its author but also reveals his connectedness to the

rest ofthe society: it is representative of his times, a mirror of his era. Nehru writes:

Matters came to a head in the Congress at the presidential election

early in 1939. Unfortunately Maulana Abut Kalam Azad refused to

stand and Shubhas Chandra Bose was elected after a contest. This gave

69

rise to all manner of complications and deadlocks which persisted for

many months. At the Tripuri Congress there were unseemly scenes. I

was at that time very low in spirit and it was difficult for me to carry

on without a break-down. Political events, national and international

happenings, affected me of course, but the immediate causes were

unconnected with public affairs. I was disgusted with myself and in a

press article I wrote: "I fear I give little satisfaction to them (my

colleagues), and yet that is not surprising, for I give little satisfaction to

myself. It is not out of this stuff that leadership comes and the sooner

my colleagues realized this the better for them and me. The mind

functions efficiently enough, the intellect is trained to carry on through

habit, but the springs that give life and vitality to that functioning seem

to dry up." (Nehru: 606)

V. K. Krishna Menon notes in his Unity of India:

... his treatment of the problems has given us much that is history,

expressed with directness and simplicity, yet with great foresight and

imagination. (1970: 22)

Jawaharlal Nehru's autobiography is a record of the impact of men and events,

the subtle influence of places, the fascination of nature and the force of the current of

history. It appears to be the testament of a whole generation. Personal history is

merged with national history and we are privileged to watch the evolution of

Jawaharlal's personality in the context of the drama of the national struggle. The

parallel between his personal history and the history of India is indicated in An

Autobiography. Nehru says that:

Indeed I often wonder if I represent any one at all, and I am inclined to

think that I do not, though many have kindly and friendly feelings

70

towards me. I have become a queer mixture of the East and West, out

of place everywhere, at home nowhere. Perhaps my thoughts and

approach to life are more akin to what is called Western than Eastern,

but India clings to me, as she does to all her children, innumerable

ways; and behind me lie, somewhere in the subconscious, racial

memories of a hundred, of whatever the number may be generations of

Brahmans. I cannot get rid of either that past inheritance or my recent

acquisitions. They are both part of me, and, though they help me in ... ;

both the East and the West, they also create in me a feeling of spiritual

loneliness not only in public activities but in life itself. I am a stranger

and alien in the West, I cannot be of it. But in my own country also,

sometimes, I have an exile's feeling. (Nehru: 596)

An Autobiography also reveals Nehru's faith in science and the scientific

outlook, a faith partly inherited from his father who was keenly interested in practical

science. In his autobiography, Nehru reiterates his faith in science "the great gift of

the west" and is convinced that "it was a good thing for India to come in contact with

scientific and industrial west" ( 436). He further adds:

What has been the record of British rule in India? Who are we to

complain of its deficiencies when they were but the consequences of

our own feelings? If we lose touch with the river of change and enter a

backwater, become self-centered and self-satisfied, and, ostrich-like,

ignore what happens elsewhere, we do so at our peril. The British came

to us on the crest of a wave of new impulse in the world, and

represented mighty historic forces which they themselves hardly

realized. Are we to complain of the cyclone that uproots us and hurls

us about, or the cold wind that makes us shiver? Let us have done with

the past and its bickering and face the future. To the British we must be

grateful, for one splendid gift of which they were the bearers, the gift

of science and its rich offspring. It is difficult, however, to forget or

71

view with equanimity the efforts of the British Government in India to

encourage the disruptive, obscurantist, reactionary, sectarian, and

opportunist elements in the country. Perhaps that too is a needed test

and challenge for us, and before India is reborn it will have to go

through again and again the fire that cleanses and tempers and bums up

the weak, the impure and the corrupt. (Nehru: 449)

Nehru's social and political thought in An Autobiography is intimately

connected with his belief in science. He admires the ideology of Marx because of ''the

scientific method he adopted" (591 ). According to Jawaharlal, while all other systems

and theories were groping about in the dark, Marxism alone offered a great solution to

the world crisis.

Nehru also gives a considerable space to the peasant and his plight; the

'zamindari' system; the exploitation of the peasant by the tax-gatherer; the destruction

of cottage industries; the plight of artisans; and scenes of famine in the midst of

plenty.

Nehru's autobiography, thus, has been an invaluable document as an account

of historical events, outstanding contemporary personalities, world movements and

the contribution of all this to our civilization. However, we feel that the autobiography

unfortunately leaves many things unsaid. The emphasis is clearly on Nehru's public

life and his personal life is relegated into the background. Mahadev Desai shrewdly

observes: "Although Nehru is sincere, we have a feeling of something missing,

something kept from us". (56).

72

Self-Conscious

The self-image projected in men's autobiographical writing is of confidence

and determination. While the self-image projected in women's autobiographical

writing is most often just the opposite. It reveals self- consciousness. As Rowbotham

notes in Women's Consciousness Men's World ( 1978), a woman can not experience

herself as an entirely unique entity because she is always aware of how she is defined

as a woman. Vijayalakshmi is not an exception to this self-consciousness common to

all female autobiographers:

A paradox about my father was his championship of women's rights

but his disregard for his daughters' education. He provided

opportunities but there was no supervision and no plan. Studies were

haphazard, and because there was no competition they were also rather

dull. Beginning with a governess, lessons were later conducted by a

series of tutors. As often happens in such cases, I knew more than the

average school-going child of my age, but there were subjects with

which I had only the slightest acquaintance. The mental discipline

which a formal education imposes was lacking and I am always

conscious of what I missed. I envied my girl cousins who went to

school and college, won prizes, and took degrees. (Vijayalakshmi: 59)

Women autobiographers are confined to the social order that limits them. They

find it difficult to transform the private ambition into public record. In The Scope of

Happiness, we feel that the self-image projected by Vijayalakshmi Pandit is of self­

consciousness rather than of confidence:

73

For many years my daughters have been urging me to write this book. I

have hesitated partly from laziness but mainly because I lacked

confidence in my ability to do so. Or perhaps the time had not come?

Even after I began I might never have reached the end but for the help

given to me by my eldest daughter, Chandralekha Mehta. In spite of

her duties as an ambassador's wife, she found time to do all the

research needed for the book as well as the typing of the first draft and

correcting the final one. Besides this, her infinite patience with all my

moods and her clear memory were of the greatest assistance

throughout. My daughter Nayantara Sahgal made time from her busy

schedule of work as a member of the Indian delegation to the United

Nations General Assembly in the fall of 1978 to edit the manuscript.

My daughters and I understand one another and they know my feelings

for them are too deep to require words of thanks. (Vijayalakshmi: xiii)

Vijayalakshmi further notes that her unreasoning love for Jawaharlal did her

considerable harm in political life. Nancy Chodorow's psychology of gender

socialization that the concept of isolate selfhood is inapplicable to women can be

applied to Vijayalakshmi's autobiography. She forms her identity in relation to others.

Vijayalakshmi very consciously notes:

A brother occupies a very special position in India. He is the guardian

and the protector of his sister, whose attitude to him borders on

adoration. Brother's day- Bahaiya duj- which follows the festival of

Diwali, is an important occasion all over the country. The sister and

brother renew the pledge of affection to each other and the brother

gives his sister a gift. In all religious ceremonies the brother's part is

symbolic of this relationship. In a period where women had no rights,

personal, civil, or political, where there was no divorce for Hindu

women and they were recognized through their relationship to a father,

husband, brother, or son, the role of the brother was one of the greatest

. 74

importance in the life of the sister, and his home practically the only

protection she had in case of marital or other troubles. My unreasoning

love for my brother did me inconsiderable harm in my political life. I

have a mind of my own and have always been able to use it whether in

small matters or larger decisions. But gradually I found myself

accepting Bhai's views; without any questioning. It is one thing to

implement a policy or carry out instructions of one's party leader but

quite another to shut one's own mind and abandon one's judgment in

favour of that of someone else, however loved and able. This was also

unfair to Bhai; who never tried to bring pressure on anyone. His way

was to lead you to the threshold of your own mind and let you do the

rest. (Vijayalakshmi: 51)

There is a special relation between women and convention. A woman is

demanded by the society to be timid, meek and apologetic. She is confined to follow

the social order that limits her. Motilal Nehru paid a lot of attention to the academic

career of Jawaharlal. He was sent to Harrow and Cambridge for his studies. However,

very little attention was paid to the studies of Vijayalakshmi - a daughter.

Vijayalakshmi notes that her father did provide opportunities but there was no

supervision and plan. She further notes that she almost developed a complex about her

lack of a formal education:

I developed a complex about my lack of formal education, and a

university degree symbolized for me a passport to opportunity. After I

was married this attitude annoyed my husband very much. "Stop

pitying yourself," he would say if I ever harped on the subject. "Unless

you get your values straight, you will never succeed in anything." My

values were ultimately set straight by Gandhiji, but it took a national

revolution to start a revolution in my mind.

75

For a girl, all roads led to marriage, and this is still mainly true in

India. Suitably, I had been betrothed at thirteen and the custom was so

usual that it made no impression on me nor did it change my life in any

way. a few years later, the engagement was ended by mutual consent

because of the widening political gap between our families.

(Vijayalakshmi: 60)

Society makes women dwell in a state of internal conflict with necessarily

intricate psychic consequences, notes Patricia Meyer Spacks. A woman is almost

sandwiched between her own expectations and those of others. Vijayalakshmi, in her

teens, had become attached to a young man, Syed Hossian. Since the Nehrus had

close Muslim friends, she thought it would be natural to marry outside her religion.

But she was persuaded that "this would be wrong" (65). Vijayalakshmi's mother felt

that her westernized upbringing encouraged her in 'unorthodox' ways and

Vijayalakshmi was sent to spend a little time with Gandhiji in his famous ashram.

In spite of her political and diplomatic achievements, we feel that there is

always a consciousness that she has not performed well the role prescribed to her- a

women's role, by the society. Vijayalakshmi regretfully notes that her first jail term

broke up her home, depriving the children of much needed security and comfort.

After the imprisonment of sixteen months when Vijayalakshmi came back to her

children, Rita, the youngest, did not even recognize her:

It was good to see the children again. Rita, the youngest, had

completely forgotten me in the sixteen months of our separation.

Lekha, being older and having had more experience of the national

movement, had adapted to life away from home. But Tara was a child

who needed a home and parents, and she had been most unhappy and

76

had fretted constantly for me. I was shocked to see how she must have

suffered, and now I suffered because of what I had done to the

children. To this day I cannot forgive myself. On the day we were to

return home there was a dramatic scene at the railway station. Rita

refused to leave Mrs. Vakil and clung to her, screaming all the way

down the platform to our coach. It was as if she were being kidnapped

and it was most embarrassing for me. Once in our compartment Lekha

wisely suggested exploring the lunch basket, and a chicken sandwich

helped to stop the screaming. At three years food is an important factor

in bringing solace! (Vijayalakshmi: 114)

The self-image of consciousness rather than confidence is traced in the other

Nehru women's autobiographies as well. Krishna Hutheesing, in her autobiography

With No Regrets projects the self-image of consciousness. Hers was a rather lonely

childhood. She remains conscious that her mother and other family members doted on

her 'bhai'. She is also conscious that as a woman from a respectable family she would

not be allowed to take up a job and that she cannot marry Gunottam Hutheesing

without the approval of the match by her brother who was the head of the Nehru

family after the death ofMotilal.

Nayantara Sahgal' s autobiographies Prison and Chocolate Cake and From

Fear Set Free reveal her consciousness as a woman in a male dominated society. She

grew up at Anand Bhavan, the home of the Nehru family. For Nayantara and her

mother Vijayalakshmi, 'home' always meant Anand Bhavan. But Nayantara remains

instinctively conscious that her real home would be where her husband lives. When

Nayantara leaves for the United States for higher education, her aunt Krishna comes

to see her off at the Bombay port. Offering a parting advice to the niece, Krishna asks

Nayantara "to look helpless but be efficient'' so that people may give her a helping

77

hand. In From Fear Set Free, Nayantara is conscious of the difference in her and her

husband's backgrounds. She is conscious that as children grown up at Anand Bhavan

she and her sisters were cut off from ordinary life around them. Before her marriage

with Gautam, she feels herself unfit for her husband's family:

Life would be different for me from henceforward, and not only as it is

different for any newly married woman. From the smallest detail to the

overall picture, it would be strange. I should shift from orange juice to

the cocktail circuit. (Sahgal, Nayantara: 81)

The character of Govind Ballabh Pant as depicted by Vijayalakshmi in The

Scope of Happiness is almost symbolic of the power of patriarchy. Vijayalakshmi

calls him "the kindest person imaginable" (135). He was very caring, but also kept a

vigilant eye on her way of living. Pantji did not like Vijayalakshmi's having male

friends and asked whether Ranjit knew the men who visited her. According to Pantji,

Vijayalakshmi was too good-looking to be living alone. Vijayalakshmi, assuring him

that there was absolutely no problem between Ranjit and herself, notes:

In spite of his heavy duties Pan~i kept a vigilant eye on my style of

living. Every evening when he left his office, and it was always late, he

would drop in to see me even though we might have met in the office

during the day. He nearly always found a group of friends, often men,

and much talk and laughter. This he did not like, and one day I was

summoned to his office and asked who the "men" were who visited me

and whether Ranjit knew them! I explained that Lucknow was the

center of the Kashmiri community. The men who came to the house

were people I had grown up with, and some were related to me. There

was absolutely no problem between Ranjit and myself. I ended by

assuring him on my word of honour that I would never do anything to

78

betray his trust in me or to degrade the name of Indian women. This

last, of course, was important, since our views on women differed. In

stead of melting his heart my words had hardly any effect on him.

"Well," he said grudgingly, "we shall see, but you are too good

looking to be Jiving alone." To my response that I was nearly thirty

eight years old he merely replied, "I do not think I shall be happy about

letting you live alone even when you are sixty-eight!" Pantji lived to be

proud of me and paid me what, to him, was the highest tribute that I •·

had upheld the name of Hindu womanhood! (Vijayalakshmi: 136-137)

Patriarchy, thus, intensifies a woman's tacits of rationality and finally she

emerges as a woman whose identity is formed in relation to others. On the death of

her husband, Ranjit Pandit, Gandhiji would not condole with her because

Vijayalakshmi is "the daughter, sister wife of great men" (177). She met with a

similar situation even in her role as the Indian Ambassador to the United States:

In Washington, however I was Madame Pandit, Nehru's sister, and my

being India's Ambassador was not taken seriously. It was an uphill

struggle during the first few weeks to insist on this recognition, but I

succeeded in obtaining it ... In Washington the newspapers were

constantly commenting on my sari and my hair style. The general

expectation was for me to "live up to my position." This was explained

to me by one of my early callers, Perle Mesta (of Call Me Madam

fame!}, who was a most friendly person. But the world in which she

lived was so different from mine, and her only knowledge oflndia had

come from a Maharaja she had once known. Our wavelengths could

not synchronize. I have always loved beautiful clothes and have

enjoyed doing all the things that make a house into a home -

decorating the rooms, arranging flowers, cooking and evolving new

dishes. But public life in India immediately after Independence

imposed many restrictions on one's way of living, and those who had

79

been through long periods of jail and rigors of the freedom struggle

itself had molded themselves on another and simple pattern. In my

case, even if I had wished to change it would have been easy because I

did not have the means to do so and it was best to keep to the old

design and create an image of new India, which I tried to do. Besides

this, I did not want to be a target for members of Parliament. I was still

the only woman ambassador, and it was difficult enough to persuade

Parliament that I did my work as efficiently as a man without having

debates about my clothes or my parties. Fortunately I had the help of

many American friends, men and women, whose advice I valued. They

were always ready to guide me along the proper social path, and I was

soon able to strike a happy medium between diplomatic ostentation

and Indian austerity! (Vijayalakshmi: 249)

Like Jawaharlal Nehru, Vijayalakshmi also had an illustrious political and

diplomatic career, though we feel that unlike Nehru whose autobiography projects the

self image of confidence, Vijayalakshmi is always conscious of her 'failure' to

perform well the role prescribed to her- a woman's role. The self-image thus,

projected by Vijayalakshmi Pandit, in her autobiography The Scope of Happiness is of

self-consciousness. The autobiographical intention ofVijayalakshmi Pandit, we feel is

to convince the readers of her self-worth and to authenticate her self-image not as a

political leader but as a woman.

Self-Confident

Gusdorfian concept of autobiography is premised on a model of the self that

starts dissociating oneself from the others and tends to think of him as the centre of a

living space, he thinks that his existence is significant to the world and that his death

80

will leave the world incomplete. The autobiography, thus, projects a self-image of

confidence and determination. According to Jelinek, men tend to idealize their lives to

make it seem heroic and often desist from revealing crisis in their childhood. They are

more likely to relate adult-crisis, usually turning points in their professional lives. The

self-image, thus, projected is·of confidence. Nehru confidently asserts the purpose of

writing An Autobiography:

My attempt was to trace, as far as I could, my own mental

development, and not to write a survey of recent Indian history. The

fact that this account resembles superficially such a survey is apt to

mislead the reader and lead him to attach a wider importance to it than

a it deserves. I must warn him, therefore, that this account is wholly

one-sided and, inevitably, egotistical~ many important happenings have

been completely ignored and many important persons, who shaped

events, have hardly been mentioned. In a real survey of past events this

would have been inexcusable, but a personal account can claim this

indulgence. (Nehru: Preface)

Jawaharlal Nehru's autobiography provides us with very little information

about his childhood and deals mainly with the adult crisis. An Autobiography begins

with the description of Nehru's ancestors and their descent from Kashmir. This is

followed by a very brief description of his childhood. The rest of the autobiography

focuses on his adult crises, his significant role in the Indian freedom struggle. An

Autobiography thus projects an image of self confidence presenting an unforgettable

picture of the man and his milieu. K.R. Srinivasa Iyengar notes in Indian Writing in

English ( 1980):

81

It was a very personal book, being a sensitive individual's

autobiography; on the contrary, it also struck one as the testament of a

whole generation -the generation that was striving hard to negotiate

the difficult passage from the dying old world to the new world that

was struggling to be born. (Iyengar: 303)

Estelle C. Jelinek, in her Women's Autobiography: Essays in Criticism .. very

interestingly notes that most autobiographers are achievers with self- sustaining ego

systems, and not surprisingly, therefore, most are only children or the oldest child.

The self of the older child is rarely threatened or influenced by younger siblings,

reinforcing the oldest child's confidence. Jawaharlal describes his autobiography as

an "egotistical narrative of my adventures through life" (595). Jawaharlal was the

oldest child. He was eleven years older than his next kin - Vijayalakshmi. After being

tutored at home in childhood, Nehru attended some of the most modem schools in

India. He travelled to England at the age of 15 to attend Harrow. He studied natural

sciences at Trinity College, Cambridge before choosing to train as a barrister at the

Inner Temple in London. During his stay in England, Nehru frequented the theatres,

museums and opera houses; and spent his vacations travelling across Europe. This

academic and progressive set up played an important role in shaping the young Nehru

into an elegant and channing intellectual and socialite. This background led to the

projection of a confident self-image in An Autobiography. In a sharp contrast to this,

Vijayalakshmi complains in The Scope of Happiness that unlike her brother, very

little attention was paid to her studies- a daughter. She expresses her consciousness of

this personal deprivation - "I developed a complex about my lack of fonnal

education." (60)

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Jawaharlal's autobiography provides a detailed description of the freedom

struggle and the role he played in it. In An Autobiography, we note that the personal

history is fused with the national history, and we are privileged to watch the

development of Jawaharlal' s character, personality in the context of the drama of the

national struggle. He sought satisfaction in his work and rushed about from end to end

in India:

·I carried about me microphones and loud speakers and addressed a

dozen meetings a day, apart from impromptu gatherings by the road

side. Some mammoth gatherings approached a hundred thousand; the

average audience was usually twenty thousand. The daily total of

persons attending was frequently a hundred thousand and sometimes it

was much greater. In a rough estimate it can be said that ten million

people actually attended the meetings I addressed, and probably

several million more were brought into some kind of touch with me

during my journeying by road (Nehru: 602).

Jawaharlal Nehru's An Autobiography, thus, projects an image of self­

confidence and determination. Nehru's autobiography portrays him as the son of a

wealthy Indian barrister and politician Motilal Nehru who became a leader of the left-

wing of the Indian National Congress at a remarkably young age. Congress President,

under the mentorship of Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru projects the self-image of

charismatic, radical leader, advocating complete independence from the British

Empire. Jawaharlal Nehru was a pivotal figure in the Indian independence movement.

In contrast to the self-image in the autobiography of his sister, Vijayalakshmi, which

reveals self consciousness; Nehru's active role in the Indian freedom struggle and the

prevailing social conventions lead to the projection of the confident self image:

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It was true that I had achieved, almost accidentally as it were, an

unusual degree of popularity with the masses; I was appreciated by the

intelligentsia; and to young men and women I was a bit of a hero, and a

halo of romance seemed to surround me in their eyes. Songs had been

written about me, and the most impossible and ridiculous legends had

grown up. Even my opponents had put in a good word for me and

patronizingly admitted that I was not lacking in competence or in good

faith.

Only a saint, perhaps, or an inhuman monster could survive all this,

unscathed and unaffected, and I can place myself in neither of these

categories. It went to my head, intoxicated me a little, and gave me

confidence and strength. (Nehru: 204)

Fragmented

The final criterion of orderliness, wholeness or a harmonious shaping is often

not applicable to women's autobiography writing. Irregularity rather than orderliness

is seen in women's autobiography writing. In Women's Autobiography: Essays in

Criticism, Estelle C. Jelinek notes that "the unidirectionality of men's lives is

appropriately cast into such progressive narratives". ( 17)

In contrast to the uniformity of Jawaharlal's autobiography Vijayalakshmi's

The Scope of Happiness tends to be irregular, often disconnected, or organized into

self-sustained units rather than connecting chapters. The scope of Happiness begins

with the emergency, followed by elections and then comes her childhood. This is

because according to Vijayalakshmi:

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. ···'"'

A story should begin at the beginning but when there have been several

beginnings; one's entry into the world is the least significant. The day

one is born is important but it is the beginnings one makes for oneself

that are important and they come a long time after one's birth.

I was born in the ancient city of Prayag, now known as Allahabad, in

the state of Uttar Pradesh, on the 181h of August, 1900. The code word

to my father, then in Paris, announcing my arrival, was "Tempest." No

one has ever told me why this word was chosen, but I am sure it played

a part in influencing my character, which has all the qualities of the

tempest!

The India of my childhood was a period of startling contradictions and

contrasts and a transition from age-old traditions and prejudices to new

ways to living and thinking; great wealth and grinding poverty,

wisdom and ignorance, the capacity to sacrifice for freedom yet

amazing subservience to the foreign ruler - all these made the pattern

of life in the early days of the century. But a new design was gradually

created and India once again has become the mistress of her destiny.

The story of my life is, in some respects, the story of the weaving of

this new design. Like the rest of my generation, of whom, alas, so few

are now left, I am acquainted with two lndias - the young India of

today and the ancient land of yesterday in which I was born.

(Vijayalakshmi: 24)

This indicates that Vijayalakshmi has consciously written her autobiography

in a particular manner. One may not recognize The Scope of Happiness as unifonn

with the male traditional autobiographies, but it also can not be condemned as

fonnless for it does have a curious fonn of its own which is analogous to the

autobiographies of Margery Kempe, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Anais Nin and Maya

Angelou.

85

Whereas Jawaharlal's prose style shows a kind of discipline and compactness

and is surcharged with poetic fire, Vijayalakshmi's prose style is less poetic and the

figures of speech are rarely used. She is less prone to use ornamental language than

her brother. Vijayalakshmi, however shares with her brother a deep love for nature. In

the following declaration she is almost echoing the present-day eco-feminists:

Nature to me is far more conductive to worship than a building, by

whatever name it may be called. I feel the presence of God when I am

in the mountains or beneath the stars or on the bank of a river

following majestically to its destination. I see him in the beauty of

trees and flowers. I have no reaction to chanting hymns or incense. So

that night, when I at last knew that my daughters were safe, I went into

the garden where the soft darkness enveloped me, and there was a

sense of peace and healing. I had moved from Anand Bhawan to a

small house not far away, as lndu and Feroze were now out of prison

and it was right that they should be at Anand Bhawan. As I sat in the

small garden I felt that my way of saying thank you would be through

trying to do something useful. I decided that since my children were

safe I would go to Bengal, where famine was raging and children

dying, and work to save them. (Vijayalakshmi: 170)

The Scope of Happiness also presents Vijayalakshmi as a good orator. Her

lecture-tour in the United States and her speeches at the U.N. were a great success.

Besides this, there is also the instance of her amusing quick-wit. When Winston

Churchill asked her how much English History she knew, she answered: "A great deal

-you never let me learn anything else". (284)

The autobiographies of the other Nehru women also attest what Jelinek calls:

"the continuous female tradition of discontinuity in women's autobiographical

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writing" (20). With portrayals of about eight persons - father, mother, brother etc

Krishna Hutheesing's autobiography With No Regrets reads more like a biography of

the Nehru family. Krishna herself remains in the periphery. The book records the

contribution of the Nehrus to India's freedom struggle till 1942. The narrative is

disconnected, fragmentary and moves in circles. In stead of focusing on the

chronological order of the incidents, Krishna arranges them in terms of their

importance in her life.

Nayantara Sahgal's autobiography Prison and Chocolate Cake also lacks the

chronological order. The narrative moves back and forth in time. It begins with the

description of herself and her sister Lekha's voyage to the United States for higher

education. Then she goes on to describe the introduction of the Pandit girls to the

national politics at a very early age. At the age of three Nayantara came to associate

prison with chocolate cake as the occasion of her freedom fighter father's

imprisonment was celebrated in the family with chocolate cake. Nayantara does not

talk about her childhood and parentage in the established tradition found in male

autobiographies. Prison and Chocolate Cake closes with Nayantara's return from the

United States and the death of Mahatma Gandhi. From Fear Set Free, the sequel to

Prison and Chocolate Cake, describes the eight years after her return to India- her

courtship with Gautam Sahgal, her marriage, and her domestic life as a housewife.

Once again the narrative in From Fear Set Free is disjointed, disconnected, and

fragmentary. Nayantara justifies this lack of chronological order in the Preface to

Prison and Chocolate Cake:

If I write haphazardly it is because I describe events as I remember

them and not necessarily in the order in which they occurred. It is

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putting together the pieces of a jig-saw puzzle. The pattern fonns in its

own way as the relevant pieces are located and not in the neat,

methodical way desired. Much of the atmosphere we knew as children

is fast vanishing, for already Gandhiji's name is history and Anand

Bhawan, our home in Allahabad, is a deserted house. Only a memory

remains of the glamorous aura which once surrounded it. I have tried

to recapture a little of that fading atmosphere. (Sahgal, Nayantara: 9)

Coming to Vijayalakshmi's language and style, she shows a preference for

modal structures such as 'might have been' 'could have been' indicating uncertainty.

Beside this, she also uses the adjectives such as 'lovely', 'channing', sweet', 'cute',

etc. The other female autobiographers like Mead, Nin, and Angelou have also used

such adjectives of emotion in their autobiographies.

Vijayalakshmi's The Scope of Happiness thus, differs from Jawaharlal's

autobiography in that it diverges from the canonical male tradition. The orderliness

seen in Jawaharlal Nehru's An Autobiography is missing in Vijayalakshmi's The

Scope of Happiness. Jawaharlal, as a man is conditioned to pursue the single goal of a

successful career whereas the 'multidimensionality' of Vijayalakshmi's socially

conditioned roles seems to have led to the fonnless nature of her life and her

autobiography as well. Vijayalakshmi is constantly aware of how she is being looked

upon as: "the daughter, sister, wife of great men" (177) The Scope of Happiness,

however, does have a curious form of its own. It attests the female tradition of

autobiography writing with its curious form which is analogous to the fragmented,

interrupted and fonnless nature of her life as a woman.

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Structured

Critics have noted that the autobiographers consciously shape the events of

their life into a coherent whole. The autobiography is unified as a chronological linear

narrative by concentrating on one period of their life, one theme, or one characteristic

oftheir personality. This is specially so in the case of men's autobiography writing for

they are socially conditioned to pursue the single goal of a successful career .

. . . a certain sincerity in writing combined with restraint colours a book

and makes it liked. (Nehru: Letters, 125)

Jawaharlal begins his Autobiography with a detailed description of the descent

of his ancestors from Kashmir. This is followed by his childhood experience and then

he relates his adult crisis and political career. This orderliness in Ja~aharlal's

Autobiography is evident because as a man he is conditioned to pursue the single goal

of a successful career. K. Chellapan, in his essay 'The Fusion of Poetry and History in

Nehru's An Autobiography and The Discovery of India' notes that Nehru was a

"Creator" of India in both the senses - poetic and political. He further notes that in

Nehru's writing one can note the fury and poetry of the Ganges.

What C. D. Lewis says in a different context is true of Nehru's prose as well:

there is constant traffic between prose and poetry. Jawaharlal's prose style shows a

kind of discipline and compactness, surcharged with poetic fire. In An Autobiography,

Nehru obliterates the wall between history and literature. He emerges as a visionary in

the modem sense of term. C.D. Narasimaiah in his Jawahar/al Nehru notes that

Nehru's An Autobiography contains as much veiled poetry as history and it can be

89

called a prose poem: "He sees as the poet sees... the simple in his exorable

complexity and the complex in its totalizing simplicity". ( 1959, II)

The poetic sensibility in Nehru is most intense when he describes the

Himalayas where he spent several weeks in the mountains after his wedding in 1916:

This was my first experience of the narrow and lonely valleys, high up

in the world, which lead to the Tibetan plateau. From the top of the

Zoji-la pass we saw the rich verdant mountain sides below us on one

side and the bare bleak rock on the other. We went up and up the

narrow valley bottom flanked on each side by mountains, with the

snow covered tops gleaming on one side and little glaciers creeping

down to meet us. The wind was cold and bitter but the sun was warm

in the day time, and the air was so clear that often we were misled

about the distance of objects, thinking them much nearer than they

actually were. The loneliness grew; there were not even trees or

vegetation to keep us company the base rock and the snow and ice and,

sometimes, very welcome flowers. Yet I found a strange satisfaction in

these wild and desolate haunts of nature; I was full of energy and a

feeling of exaltation. (Nehru: 37)

An Autobiography reveals another side of Nehru's personality equally well by

offering several illuminating glimpses of his rich emotional and imaginative nature

and his keen aesthetic sense. Nehru's rhetorical question, while in prison, "Is it a fact

that a circular wall reminds one more of captivity than a rectangular one?" And his

own answer, "the absence of corners and angles add to the sense of oppression" (217),

is an excellent example of his fine sensitivity. Nehru set a high store by the quality of

sincerity in writing. In a letter to his sister Krishna, he writes:

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The success of a book ultimately depends on certain immaterial and

insubstantial factors which one can not easily measure. Good writing

and presentation are, of course, important; the content is even more

important, but over and above these there comes a certain sincerity in

writing, combined with restraint which colours a book and makes it

liked. (1963; 125)

This quality of sincerity is very much evident in Nehru's An Autobiography.

Besides this, there is a lot of self-questioning in Jawaharlal's autobiography.

Some of the most memorable pages in his autobiography are those devoted to

relentless self-analysis. During a lathi charge, Nehru analyses his own reactions, as

the biological instinct for survival on the one hand and native pride and inborn

courage on the other hand, and is candid enough to confess: "yet the line between

cowardice and courage was a thin one, and I might well have been on the other side"

(78). Walter Crocker, in Nehru, A Contemporary's Estimate thus praises Nehru's

prose:

His prose is a just reflection of the man-sincere and idealistic, urbane

and cultured, vigorous yet graceful- a man endowed with a clear and

sharp mind, strong emotions, a feeling for beauty and a keen comic

sense. And, as his subject demands Nehru is in tum analytical,

eloquent, sarcastic and lyrical (1966; 66).

Jawaharlal Nehru's An Autobiography, thus, shares uniformity in form and

content with those of St.Augustine, Rousseau, Hume, Franklin, Gibbon and John

Stuart Mill. It is considered as one of the most outstanding prose works in the annals

of Indian writing in English. Written at the age of forty-five, An Autobiography is a

91

literary expression of a man at the height of his powers. John Gunther, a journalist of

world renown, thinks Nehru writes English as hardly half a dozen men alive can

match. In addition to revealing several facets of Nehru's personality, the

autobiography also gives us an unmistakable sense of the growth of the writer's mind.

In light of the foregoing analysis of Jawaharlal Nehru's An Autobiography and

Vijayalakshmi Pandit's The Scope of Happiness, the researcher is of the view that

these two autobiographies uphold the gynocentric theory of "gender-difference" in

autobiography-writing. Though having the same socio-political and economic

backgrounds, the brother and the sister project an essentially different orientation of

'self-image' in their autobiographies. An Autobiography consistently focuses on the >

important role that Nehru played in the contemporary public affairs. In contrast,

Vijayalakshmi undermines her political achievements to underscore the significance

of personal affairs in her life. Given the evident "poetics of difference" in

autobiographies of Nehru and Vijayalakshmi, the researcher finds a confirmation of

the theory that gender affects writing.

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