ABSTRACT
The future looms large in this statement, a future signifying the attainment of swaraj, which in 1942–1943 no longer seemed a distant prospect. As Nehru himself, and others, often realised, where the average modern’s rational comprehension ended, Gandhi’s intuitive understanding began. Despite their awed appreciation of Gandhi’s leadership during the struggle for freedom, Nehru and his colleagues were convinced that independent India’s political and administrative demands would be completely different in nature. The viceroy’s council would be replaced by a central council of ministers, and the honourable members of the viceroy’s council would make way for Congress ministers. This is an ominous beginning. It betrays impatience with Gandhi even as it struggles to hold back that impatience. The beginning is intended to demolish. But it does not promise a well-thought-out demolition. Gandhi also understood that the circumstances within which he had discerned a new possibility, and within which it had to be realised, were invariably fluid.
