Book Excerpt: Of Nehru, Atheism And Spirituality

Masti Venkatesh Iyengar (1891-1986), the Kannada writer, shared a variety of sentiments towards Nehru. He admired his ideals of non-alignment and world peace. He was angry at his disapproval of the idea of linguistic states. He was simply exasperated at his secularism. In 1953, Masti's editorial in Jeevana, a monthly magazine he ran, recalled a newspaper reporting that Nehru would offer puja for Goddess Tulaja Bhavani in Maharashtra. The following day, that newspaper had clarified that he wouldn't offer puja there. While Nehru respected all forms of worship, the clarification continued, he never offered puja at any temple. Why was visiting a temple, Masti wondered, such a difficult idea for "the dharma of our modern people?"

In an editorial from the following year, Masti argued that Nehru's remark made at the inaugural occasion of the Bhakra Nangal Dam that such an achievement ought to be "worshipped" shared the same attitude that long held that the rivers Ganga, Yamuna, Cauvery, and Godavari be worshipped. A previous editorial of his had even claimed that the tolerance and generosity of Nehru were inherited from Hindu dharma.

Written soon after Nehru's death in 1964, Masti's essay of condolence provided a lengthy survey of the leader's life, virtues, and achievements. The closing part of this essay shows him, yet again, refusing to read Nehru's secularism literally: "Jawaharlal had thought that he was indifferent to matters of religion (dharma). Does the self (atman) exist? Is it eternal? Do god and heaven exist? These questions appeared unnatural to him." "But," Masti continued, "Nehru's actions were truly rooted in religion. The essence of religion is that one must secure the well-being of the world, without prioritizing one's, or one's family's, interests. Religions might preach this in the name of god while the modern mind might do so in the name of mankind. Although the act of achieving the goal might seem to differ a bit, the achievement is the same. A poet's spirit was at the bottom of it all." "This is why," Masti observed further, "Nehru overflowed with bhakti when he encountered persons with a noble consciousness such as Gandhi and Tagore."

In a speech delivered at a college in Madikeri in 1956, Kuvempu (1904-1994) tried to shake the student enthusiasm for Nehru's ideas of a modern India: "It looks like we are determined to live in a Masti Venkatesh Iyengar (1891-1986), the Kannada writer, shared a variety of sentiments towards Nehru. He admired his ideals of non-alignment and world peace. He was angry at his disapproval of the idea of linguistic states. He was simply exasperated at his secularism. In 1953, Masti's editorial in Jeevana, a monthly magazine he ran, recalled a newspaper reporting that Nehru would offer puja for Goddess Tulaja Bhavani in Maharashtra. The following day, that newspaper had clarified that he wouldn't offer puja there. While Nehru respected all forms of worship, the clarification continued, that he never offered puja at any temple. Why was visiting a temple, Masti wondered, such a difficult idea for "the dharma of our modern people?"

Kuvempu's essay on Nehru's scientific vision and rationality, written a few months after the leader's death in 1964, offered an intriguing view. Dismissing any characterisation of Nehru as an atheist, he pointed out that an acknowledgment of a force larger than himself could be seen in Nehru's writings, speeches, and letters and in his conduct and relations with elders. Anyone who saw the photos of Nehru and Vinoba Bhave at the Sarvodaya meeting in Mysore in the newspapers could not possibly mistake the former for an atheist. Nehru's body posture and facial gestures expressed sentiments that were impossible to describe fully. Older than Vinoba, and only second to Gandhi in relation to the leadership of the freedom struggle, and an internationally renowned statesman, and immensely read, Nehru had still bowed to Vinoba.  Authority, power, and honour had surrendered here to kindness, humility, charity, and devotion. This proved beyond doubt, for Kuvempu, that it was wrong to view Nehru as an atheist. In matters of sacrifice, love for the country, courage, empathy, intelligence, oratory, and writing talent, Kuvempu felt Nehru was an "extraordinary man" and that "some great spirituality was behind each one of these qualities."

Nehru might have openly sported his secular ideals and atheist outlook but Masti and Kuvempu, in their own distinct ways, hadn't taken it at face value. 

Excerpted with permission from Another India: Events, Memories, People by Chandan Gowda (Simon and Schuster India, 2023.)

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