Pandit Nehru had written in his will: I do not want any kind of religious ritual after my death.
Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru never hesitated to express his dislike and distrust towards religious customs in his writings and behaviour. Even in his will dated June 21, 1954, he wrote: “I do not want any kind of religious ritual after my death.” “I do not believe in death rituals and it would be hypocritical to accept them simply as a ritual.” However this was not possible. Were his last rites performed with the rituals of the Hindu religion? Did his daughter Indira Gandhi ignore her father’s wishes? But why only after death?
His cabinet colleague Gulzari Lal Nanda, who became interim Prime Minister after his death, said that during Nehru’s lifetime, the Mahamrityunjaya Mantra was chanted 4.25 lakh times with his consent. During this period, Nehru himself was also involved in it many times. Another of his cabinet colleagues, TT Krishnamachari, said that Nehru had become very religious in his last days. What is the truth?
Look at this world, not the other.
In his presidential address at the Lahore Congress conference in 1929, Nehru had said that I was born a Hindu. But I don’t know what right I have to call myself a Hindu or to speak on behalf of Hindus. But births matter in this country and by birthright, I would dare say to Hindu leaders that they should have the privilege of leading with generosity. I have no attachment to fanaticism and dogmatism in religion. I do not accept communalism in any form.
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In his autobiography he wrote: “Hindustan is considered a religious country above all else. Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and others are proud of their beliefs and demonstrate their truth by breaking each other’s heads. But I just want open sea. I am not interested in the afterlife or what happens after death. The problems of this life seem enough to occupy my mind.”
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (file photo)
Desire to eradicate scams
During the struggle for independence and then as Prime Minister of the country for seventeen consecutive years, Pandit Nehru tried to stay away from religious rituals. He wrote: “The present organized scene of religion in India and other countries has horrified me. I have condemned it many times and I wish to root it out. I almost always felt that religion has to do with superstition, opposition to progress, rigid principles, fanaticism, blind faith, exploitation and protection of established interests.”
The same thought of Nehru was also reflected in his will written on June 21, 1954: “I declare in all seriousness that I do not want any kind of religious ritual after my death. I do not believe in death rituals and to accept them even as a mere ritual would be hypocrisy and would be deceiving myself and others.”
Nehru had written about scattering the ashes from his funeral pyre in the country’s fields by plane. I had told him that the purpose of this is that the country’s farmers work hard in the fields and want their ashes to be part of the same soil. Expressing his desire to throw a handful of ashes into the Ganges in Allahabad, he made it clear that no religious significance should be taken away from it. I like Ganga-Yamuna since childhood. “As I grew older, this attachment continued to grow.”
Jawaharlal Nehru did not want any religious rituals after his death (Draft will/Courtesy: Nehru Memorial)
last wish ignored
Pandit Nehru died on May 27, 1964. Contrary to his wishes recorded in his will, he was cremated according to the customs of the Hindu religion. A pyre was made from sandalwood. Qualified experts from Kashi were flown in for the rituals. Ganga water and other materials related to the occasion were used.
Indira’s youngest son, Sanjay Gandhi, had lit his grandfather’s funeral pyre. The cremation and subsequent actions went against Nehru’s thinking. But all of these were edited. MO Mathai, one of the two witnesses to Nehru’s will, had told famous journalist Kuldeep Nayyar: “Nehru was against religious delusions. All this was done by Indira and Gulzari Lal Nanda. Earlier, he had also sung for Nehru’s long life at Teen Murti Bhavan.” According to Mathai, Nehru’s sister Vijayalakshmi Pandit was also against religious rituals, but she was helpless.
The mantra was chanted with consent while alive.
What is the truth behind Nehru’s 4.25 lakh chanting of the Mahamrityunjaya Mantra during his long life while he was alive? Nayyar has mentioned in his autobiography his conversation with the pandit who led the chant. Pandit had said, “During chanting, Indira Gandhi used to talk to Pandit Nehru on phone from time to time to show her presence.” Nanda had told Nayyar: “With the consent of Pandit Nehru, the Mahamrityunjaya Mantra was chanted four and a quarter lakh times. Many times Nehru himself was present during the singing.”
Nanda also claimed that this increased Nehru’s age by four to five years. They would have stayed alive longer. Provided that a particular person had not been inducted into the cabinet after suffering a heart attack in Bhubaneswar. According to Nanda, on the advice of an astrologer, Nehru had tried to withdraw the name of this minister, but by then the list of ministers had reached the president. According to Kuldeep Nayyar, the minister Nanda was talking about was Lal Bahadur Shastri. But in Nayyar’s opinion this statement of Nanda was not correct. Because if Nehru had wanted to withdraw Shastri’s name, he could have done so before the swearing-in ceremony.
Attachment to religion has increased in recent days
In his last days, another minister close to him, TT Krishnamachari, had also said that Pandit Nehru was very religious. Krishnamachari had told Nair: “When Nehru was asked in 1954 to remove his kurta to enter a temple in the south, he refused. But in his last days Nehru had become very religious. At the time of his death, Geeta and Upanishads were near his bed.”
In his briefcase he always carried a copy of the Gita and a copy of the UN. He kept a condensed version of the letter. Nehru believed that Geeta and Upanishads were not the creation of any divine power but of humans. Its creators were extremely intelligent and farsighted, but they were ordinary human beings. Mathai, who was very close to Nehru as his secretary for about fifteen years, said that if Nehru believed in any religion, it was Buddhism or his religion was like the deist movement in England, according to which there was no difference between God and nature. . . Not there. Nehru had once told the French intellectual André Malraux: “Perhaps my greatest value is the truth. “I don’t know, but I can’t live without him.”
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