Biography
Portrait of a crusader
HAVOVI ANKLESARIA
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A biography of Minoo Rustom Masani, written with admiration by a close associate.
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The commendable ease and accessibility of the writing leaves one wishing for more.
Minoo Masani, S.V. Raju, National Book Trust, Hard cover Rs. 200, paperback Rs. 40.
Minoo Rustom Masani played a central organisational role in the creation of political parties and institutions in the formative post-Independence period. He was a lawyer who gave up his practice to participate in the freedom struggle, a parliamentarian par excellence, and a crusader for individual liberties. In 1943 he was elected the youngest Mayor of Bombay, and between 1946 and 48 had a brief stint as Ambassador to Brazil.
Throughout his political career he pursued an independence of thought and conduct, making the right to dissent almost a personal crusade. His involvement in the framing of the Indian Constitution was crucial. And of course, there were his books which will probably be his greatest legacy: India’s Constitution at Work, Our India, Socialism Reconsidered
, Bliss was it in that Dawn… among others.
Too brief
This informative little biography by S.V. Raju, covering only 99 pages, touches on all these aspects. The author’s task however, is not simply to present the life of a “principled politician”, but to recover a crucial era of frenetic political activity on the Indian sub-continent as reflected through the beliefs and political affiliations of his subject.
Masani’s early years are outlined in a thee-page summary — schooling in Bombay and obtaining an Arts degree, then studying Law in England at the London School of Economics. Here he became a socialist, visited the Soviet Union and met Jawaharlal Nehru. Returning to India in 1928 as a barrister, he practised briefly, but was drawn into the Freedom Movement and joined the Congress. This was the beginning of a chequered career — employment at Tatas, phases of jail terms, and years in Parliament on both sides of the bench.
He was first detained on May 2, 1932 on suspicion of being a Civil Disobedience activist and spent two months in prison without trial. He spent the following year in Nasik Central Jail where he met Jayaprakash Narayan, Manohar Lohia, and Achyut Patwardhan. With Yusuf Meherally they decided to form the Congress Socialist Party as part of the Indian National Congress. He courted arrest again in February 1943 and spent two months in Pune’s Yerawada prison.
His Parliamentary career began in 1945 when Sardar Vallabhai Patel nominated him for the Legislative Assembly as the Congress candidate. He won the 1957 General Election as an Independent from Ranchi and set about to form a liberal democratic party to break the monopoly of the various socialist and communist parties. He, like so many intellectuals of his generation, had given up Socialism because he could not accept the brutality of Stalin’s regime.
Masani and C. Rajagopalachari founded The Swatantra Party in June 1959, with Rajaji as its guiding light and Masani as its General Secretary. He appointed S.V. Raju as secretary in the Central Office, marking the beginning of a lifelong association. The Party was phenomenally successful in the elections of 1962 and 1967, but in August 1974 it met for its last convention. Masani had already resigned as its President and announced his retirement from politics.
As Editor of Freedom First, Masani suspended publication of the paper during the Emergency and sought judicial redress against censorial objections. The Bombay High Court upheld his stand. In 1981, to round off a distinguished record of public service he founded the Society for the Right to Die with Dignity, and in 1989 with failing eyesight wrote his last book, We Indians. He passed away in May 1998.
A few niggles
Such a brief account of a life extraordinaire will inevitably have omissions of which the most notable is Masani’s date of birth. The book does not adequately elaborate for contemporary Indians the indignities and pressures borne by previous generations in fighting for their principles. The relationship of the Congress Socialist Party to the National Congress is only briefly mentioned, and the chapter on Gandhi says little about Gandhian economics. Raju describes the reasons for the break-up of the Swatantra Party, but not with the depth that such a crucial event in the Indian political landscape deserves. Also, Masani’s remarkably easy, free-wheeling relationship with the Tatas is hardly explored.
Despite J.R.D.’s claim that Masani was a good judge of character, he had an extraordinarily opaque view of people and did not form personal relationships easily. There was in him an obdurate refusal to make any concession to the sensibilities of others. The wonder is his abiding friendship with Raju, sustained over 40 years.
The shortcomings of the book, undoubtedly the result of space constraints imposed by the publisher, are minor in view of its scope. The commendable ease and accessibility of the writing leaves one wishing for more. Unlike biographies of the laudatory kind this one admires without being obsequious.
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