Feroze The Forgotten Gandhi

Bertil Falk

Description

Feroze Gandhi is often remembered as Indira Gandhi’s husband and Jawaharlal Nehru’s son-in-law. But who was Feroze Gandhi? A Congress worker, a young freedom fighter, a parliamentarian, or just another Gandhi? Diving into the history of the Nehru–Gandhi family, the Swedish journalist Bertil Falk brings together his 40-year-old research in this biography of Feroze Gandhi. Including first-hand interviews of people close to Feroze and personal experiences of the author with some rare photographs, this volume brings to light his significant, yet unrecognized, role as a parliamentarian, in cases such as the Mundhra case, Life Insurance and Freedom of Press Bill. It also busts some myths about Feroze’s controversial birth, his personal life, his importance as a politician, and his relationship with the Nehrus. With interesting details about Feroze as a young boy in Allahabad, to his years as a freedom fighter, journalist, Congressman and a politician, this volume examines the chronology of events that shaped the life of Feroze.

Sujets

• Political
• Lettres et linguistique
• Sri Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru
• Allahabad
• Communism
• Biography
• Freedom Movement
• Life insurance
• Feroze Gandhi
• Federal
• Politician
• Journalist
• Congress
• Politics
• Journalism
• Autobiography
• Independence
• India
• Parliament
• Jawaharlal Nehru
• Indira Gandhi

Informations

• Publié par: Roli Books
• Date de parution: 29 novembre 2016
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9789351941873
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 5 Mo

Extrait

FEROZE
the forgotten
GANDHI
 
OTHER LOTUS TITLES Adi B. Hakim, Rustom B. Bhumgara & Jal P. Bapasola With Cyclists Around The World Ajit Bhattacharjea Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah: Tragic Hero of Kashmir Anil Dharker Icons: Men & Women Who Shaped Today s India Aitzaz Ahsan The Indus Saga: The Making of Pakistan Ajay Mansingh Firaq Gorakhpuri: The Poet of Pain & Ecstasy Alam Srinivas & TR Vivek IPL: The Inside Story Alam Srinivas Storms in The Sea Wind: Ambani Vs Ambani Alam Srinivas Women of Vision: Nine Business Leaders in Conversation Amarinder Singh The Last Sunset: The Rise & Fall of the Lahore Durbar Hamish Mcdonald Ambani & Sons Jaiwant Paul The Greased Cartridge: The Heroes and Villains of 1857-58 Javier Moro The Red Sari: A Dramatized Biography of Sonia Gandhi John Lal Begam Samru: Fading Portrait in a Gilded Frame Khushwant Singh Train to Pakistan Lakshmi Vishwanathan Women of Pride: The Devdasi Heritage Lucy Peck Agra: The Architectural Heritage Lucy Peck Delhi a Thousand Years of Building: An INTACH-Roli Guide Madan Gopal My Life and Times: Munshi Premchand Manohar Malgonkar The Men Who Killed Gandhi M.J. Akbar Byline M.J. Akbar Blood Brothers: A Family Saga M.J. Akbar: Nehru The Making of India Maj. Gen. Ian Cardozo Param Vir: Our Heroes in Battle Maj. Gen. Ian Cardozo The Sinking of INS Khukri: What Happened in 1971 Madhu Trehan Tehelka as Metaphor Monisha Rajesh Around India in 80 Trains Mushirul Hasan India Partitioned: The other Face of Freedom Noorul Hasan Meena Kumari: The Poet Peter Church Added Value: The Life Stories of Indian Business Leaders Peter Church Profiles in Enterprise: Inspiring Stories of Indian Business Leaders Rajika Bhandari The Raj on the Move: Story of the Dak Bungalow Ralph Russell The Famous Ghalib: The Sound of my Moving Pen R.V. Smith Delhi: Unknown Tales of a City Salman Akthar The Book of Emotions Sharmishta Gooptu Bengali Cinema: An Other Nation Shovana Narayan Kathak Shrabani Basu Spy Princess: The Life of Noor Inayat Khan S. Hussain Zaidi Dongri to Dubai Sunil Raman & Rohit Aggarwal Delhi Durbar: 1911 The Complete Story Swapan K. Bandyopadhyay An Unheard Melody: Annapurna Devi an Authorised Biography Thomas Weber Going Native: Gandhi s Relationship with Western Women Thomas Weber Gandhi at First Sight Vir Sanghvi Men of Steel: India s Business Leaders in Candid Conversation FORTHCOMING TITLES Shahrayar Khan Bhopal Vignettes
 
FEROZE
the forgotten
GANDHI
a personal narrative by
Bertil Falk

 
ROLI BOOKS
This digital edition published in 2016
First published in 2016 by
The Lotus Collection
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Copyright Bertil Falk
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eISBN: 978-93-5194-187-3
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Contents
My Quest for Feroze Bhai
1. Controversies and Feroze Gandhi s Origins
2. Boyhood in Allahabad
3. The Rebel Finds a Cause
4. Eventful Days in Allahabad
5. From Boy to Veteran
6. A Well-Known Local Congress Worker
7. The Bumpy Road to Europe
8. London Years
9. Triumph of Will
10. Before the Wedding
11. Shaadi
12. Interlude
13. Quit India - the Feroze Way
14. Last Time in Jail
15. A Journalist in Anand Bhawan
16. The Assassination
17. Lucknow
18. National Herald
19. Rae Bareli
20. Romantic Interlude
21. Changing with the Times
22. Maiden Speech and Giant Killer
23. Behind the Scene of the Mundhra Case
24. A Guardian of Freedom of the Press
25. Upheaval in Kerala
26. Minor Skirmishes
27. Rae Bareli and Degree College
28. Other Sides of Feroze
29. Matters of the Heart
30. The Last Attack
31. The Last Rites
32. The Legacy of Feroze Bhai
Appendices
Bibliography
Index
 
My Quest for Feroze Bhai
Now, at long last - after almost four decades, my quest for Feroze Bhai has been completed. It all started in 1942 when I read a book about a boy in India who became a maharaja and my fascination for this country was born. It continued when I saw newsreels about the Indian struggle for Independence. I became a journalist, but it was not until 1977 that I, for the first time, came to India. The last day in New Delhi I went to Indira Gandhi s residence and asked if I could interview her for Kv llsposten ( The Evening Post ), where I was employed as the reporter of the graveyard shift.
I got forty minutes with the lady, who then was not in power. When I returned to Sweden with my article, one of the editors asked: Where is the picture proving that you have met her? A year later I was back in India with my daughter Katarina and was granted another interview with Indira Gandhi. Katarina took the picture that proved that I had actually met her.
I saw that Indira Gandhi had two sons and grandchildren, and I asked myself: Where is the husband, the father of her children? I asked people and was told that his name was Feroze and he was no one significant. I did some research and stumbled upon the Mundhra case and the Kerala affair and began to understand that Feroze Gandhi was not as insignificant as people were made to believe.
I decided to write an article about him in Swedish but the more I learned about him, I decided on a biography. Over the years I came back to India many times, looked for books where he was mentioned and began interviewing people who had known him or worked with him. This quest led me to his relatives in Bombay and Surat, to villages in Uttar Pradesh, where Feroze had once agitated and had been arrested, as well as to people like Onkar Nath Bhargava in Rae Bareli, Sita Ram Gunthe in Allahabad, Jagdish Kodesia in Delhi, Syed Jaffar and Swaroop Rani Bakshi in Lucknow and Shanta Gandhi in Bombay.
Furthermore, I met politicians like Minoo Masani, Tarkeshwari Sinha, Subhadra Joshi, Dev Kanta Barooah, Bishambar Nath Pande and H.C. Heda. I also met people in London and the United States, who contributed to my understanding of Feroze and Katherine Frank, author of Indira: The Life of Indira Nehru Gandhi who visited me in Sweden to take part in my research.
Most of my Indian friends told me that Feroze Gandhi s only identity was that he was the son-in-law of Jawaharlal Nehru. My senior journalist colleague and good friend P.D. Tandon in Allahabad said: If you are going to write a biography, I have a much better subject for you.
I said: I think that Feroze is underestimated.
No, P.D. replied, he was not underestimated. He was not overestimated. He was estimated. That s it.
Well, I replied. You are not the first to say things like that to me. The more I am told that Feroze does not deserve a biography, the stronger my urge to write one grows. My subject is Feroze and nothing else.
You have the right attitude, P.D. said, and then he went on to assist me enormously, sharing with me pictures, articles, documents, books, stories, and facts. Anything he could lay his hands on that would be of interest in my quest for Feroze Gandhi was passed on to me.
The more I have delved into Feroze s life story, the more I have appreciated him. He was a strongly outlined personality from his childhood, even though he did not always show the world s best judgement. Now and then he went astray, perhaps not more than many of us do, but nonetheless astray. I think of things like his bitterness, his smoking habit, his inferiority complex, his behaviour in certain situations and his inability to take care of his health.
He was also a man who loved life and living, who liked people and had many friends, even though there were others, who neither loved him nor liked him. And he had a few bitter enemies too. His network of contacts in different social strata was impressive. And he was for sure a womanizer. Feroze continued to work for the ideals he believed in to the very end. However, testimonies suggest that he gave up a lot of his ambitions in the sense that he no longer wholeheartedly subscribed to his own statement in an earlier context that if you try for anything long enough you get it .
Nevertheless, as a parliamentarian he is one of the most memorable that India has produced so far. He was a pioneer and, I would say, still is. That is good enough reason for writing his biography. There are of course other things that make him a right subject for a biographer. How many people on earth have had the first prime minister of the biggest democracy in the world as his father-in-law and his wife and his son as the prime ministers of that nation as well? Not to forget that Indira, during the Emergency in the 1970s, permitted their younger son to emerge as the unconstitutional dictator of India.
The wife of Sanjay Gandhi, Maneka became a member of the Lok Sabha and is now a minister in the NDA (National Democratic Alliance) government. After the horrible assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, the leaders of Congress requested his wife Sonia to become their new leader, but in vain. After seven years she gave in to the pressure and became a skilful leader of the Congress Party.
Similarly, Feroze s grandson Rahul is vice-president of Indian National Congress and represents Amethi in the Parliament. Priyanka, Feroze s granddaughter is a fine campaigner. Her cousin Varun Feroze, too is a Member of Parliament for the Bharat