Tryst with history

Every generation lives in a time of transition and good historians leave a chronicle for successive generations. One such historian and biographer was Sarvepalli Gopal said Keshav Desiraju. “He contributed greatly to the intellectual climate of independent India, – when hopes were high about the country’s future and the generation had many heroes to emulate” said Desiraju, who is also Gopal’s nephew, and therefore had direct access to his notes, research and methodology. 

Gopal, who is the son of Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, the country’s first Vice President and the second President of India, belonged to a generation that was fortunate in its heroes, said Desiraju. “If Gandhiji was the most extraordinary hero for that generation, there were other heroes too. Jawaharlal Nehru was a hero, representing the India of the future, which was secular. To Gopal, his father was a hero. It would be difficult to not have been captivated by Radhakrishnan’s intelligence and charm, or to not be impressed by his self-confidence and knowledge, diligence and questioning curiosity. This was also the time of Rabindranath Tagore, of Subhas Chandra Bose. For those who sought spiritual guidance, this was also the time of Sri Ramana Maharshi, Sri Aurobindo and Jiddu Krishnamurti,” he said.

Gopal, who did his schooling in England, began his historical training at the Presidency College in Madras. He then returned to Oxford for his D Phil on the Vice Royalty of Lord Ripon 1880-1884. Growing up in post-independent India, Nehru was undoubtedly Gopal’s hero. Gopal was the biographer of Nehru, resulting in three-volume work on the charismatic leader, which was commissioned by Indira Gandhi. “Gopal makes it clear that Nehru was a hero – of Gopal’s youth and independent India. Gopal was given complete access to Nehru’s papers and his regular meetings with the Prime Minister Nehru through most of the 1950s, when Gopal was in the historical division of the Ministry of External Affairs. In this way, Gopal became a leading authority within the government on the issue of the war with China,” added Desiraju, who is the grandson of Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan. 

The biography not only highlights Nehru’s illustrious career but the third volume also portrays the final years, when an ageing Nehru was confronted with the failures on the Chinese front and the increasing awareness of what was still left undone. Desiraju said that critics had pointed out that Gopal has been criticised for his devotion to his subject. “To my mind, this is a point that can be debated. I don’t believe that a biographer can maintain any great distance from his subject. In the case of Nehru and Gopal, I have no doubt that the distance is shortened by the charm, intelligence and luminance of the subject,” he added. 

However, Radhakrishnan: A Biography, Gopal’s book on his father, set the bar for biographical writing. “It is the novel of eloquence without extravagance. This is a son’s book”, says Gopal in the introductory chapter. Gopal added that the relations between his father had been much closer, over a much longer period. Yet, this didn’t prevent him from cautious objectivity in writing Radhakrishnan’s personal and professional life. His thoroughness as a researcher came to the fore in the writing of this book, where Gopal systematically began to read every line that Radhakrishnan wrote. From Essentials of Psychology in 1912 to Religion in a Changing World in 1967, Radhakrishnan was a prolific writer and great speaker. As a diligent biographer, Gopal went back to all the primary sources,” he recalled. 

Towards the end of his professional life, Gopal played a larger role in public affairs than he had at any other time in his career. “He moved the resolution condemning the Emergency at the Indian History Congress in Aligarh in 1975. Both, Radhakrishnan and his son Gopal, had an ambiguous relationship with Indira Gandhi. To Radhakrishnan, she was always the child of his friend. Her metamorphosis as a Prime Minister puzzled him. Gopal certainly shared a working relationship. She trusted him enough to give him access to her father’s papers for the biography. But I think she was also aware that he thought very little of her capabilities,” added Desiraju. 

Gopal’s generation came into adulthood in the 1940s, a generation that had witnessed the horrors of partition. The high secularism of the Nehru era, committed to a separation of state from religion was a dominant ethos, through most of Gopal’s adult life, said Desiraju. “Gopal’s generation lived through extraordinary times. The access to higher education was still restricted by history, geography, ancestry and income. The increasingly larger number of men and women were at Universities at Madras, Calcutta, Lucknow and Bombay, which were prime centres of learning. For those lucky enough to receive higher education, and Gopal was luckier than most, it was a good time to be alive,” he related, at a talk organised by Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH).