PAST & PRESENT
Patronising the Indians
RAMACHANDRA GUHA
The letters of Barbara Cartland shed light on the close ties that once existed between the nationalist elite of post-colonial India and the British upper classes.
FOR the historian of modern India, the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML) in New Delhi represents Mecca, Rome, Jerusalem and Varanasi all rolled into one. Within its walls are the private papers of the most influential modern Indians, extensive holdings of the leading Indian newspapers (this one included), books, periodicals, pamphlets, Parliamentary proceedings. I have been an itinerant presence in its Research Room for the past 25 years, and, Inshallah, hope to be there off and on for the next 25 as well.
Surprise package
In past trips to the NMML, I have read letters exchanged between Jawaharlal Nehru and C. Rajagopalachari, and between Jayaprakash Narayan and Indira Gandhi. I have read letters by Mahatma Gandhi, by his son Devadas, by his adopted daughter Mira Behn, and by his remarkable secretary Mahadev Desai. But on my last visit I came across letters by someone lesser known in the annals of Indian history and politics. Who would have thought that this great repository of our modern history would contain letters written, in her own hand, by a once very popular romantic novelist named Barbara Cartland?
I stumbled upon this "find" — if one may call it that — while riffling through the papers of Padmaja Naidu. I knew that as the daughter and friend of nationalists, and a sometime Governor of West Bengal herself, Ms. Naidu would have corresponded with many important people. I did not reckon on Barbara Cartland being one of them. The index listed 19 letters written by the novelist. I asked for them to be brought to me, to find that while useless as history, they were yet of some sociological interest, as the following excerpts reveal.
Of sociological interest
Barbara Cartland to Padmaja Naidu, April 21, 1959: "We adored our trip to India and meeting such wonderful friendly people. You especially were one of the most exciting and brilliant members of our journey. We had such a gay time in Calcutta with the sweet Maharani of Burdwan... Edwina and Dickie [Mountbatten] are giving a huge party on Thursday... I do wish you were going to be there".
Same to same, October 26, 1965: "Dicky [Mountbatten] is in terrific form and although he has given up his job seems busier than ever. We are meeting for a shooting party in a few weeks time and I will give him all your news".
Same to same, January 31, 1966: "We are naturally very excited that Mrs. Indira Gandhi has become Prime Minister. I think it is a wonderful honour for women all over the world and I can't help being amused that America and England should talk so much about giving women equal rights and now have to take the lead from India who has put a woman in the most important post possible".
These letters shed light on the close ties that once existed between the nationalist elite of post-colonial India and the British upper classes. In the summer of 1966, Mrs. Cartland came here for a holiday, and went back with the impression that "everyone is anxious for someone like myself to speak in India". "I would at any time that it is important", she wrote to Padmaja Naidu, "fly over for a week for any meeting that would really help to cement the love and friendship between our countries. I feel since Edwina [Mountbatten]'s death that there are too few people going around without an axe to grind but just wanting to show that we in England do love you in India and really pay no attention to the muddle that politicians make of everything including the affections of the heart".
Later in the same letter, Mrs. Cartland wrote of how, after her children were married, "I think I will come to India and perhaps stay three or four weeks going round to all the places which might be pleased to see me and hear me talk on one subject or another. As you know, there are so many [organisations] that I am associated with these days and it would be easy for me to find an excuse to meet the women and the men and show them that we are still thinking of them in England and that India means a great deal in the world today and will mean a great deal more in the future".
Moments of understanding
Writers can have a somewhat delusional sense of their significance in the world of public affairs. It was fanciful of Mrs. Cartland to think of herself as a roving cultural ambassadress, representing the best of Britain to India, and the best of India to the world. But novelists, even novelists of the second-rank, can at times display a level of human understanding generally denied to the historian. It is only fair therefore that I end with a fragment representing Mrs. Cartland in a better light. After the 1966 elections in the United Kingdom, she wrote to Padmaja Naidu that she was "horrified at the result" (for, the Labour Party had vanquished her beloved Tories). Then she continued: "It was the first time that a Election is being fought on Television and the women voted for the most attractive and sexiest looking of the leaders! It is frightening for the future!"
ramguha@vsnl.com
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