Committee, but voiced his disapproval of Tandon’s views and his selec-
tion of Congress Working Committee members. Then, on December 15,
1950, Patel, the power behind Tandon’s candidacy, died, having been ill.
He received the obligatory tributes from his colleagues, Nehru included.
This was not altogether hypocrisy. Patel and Nehru had for over thirty
years been colleagues in the Congress, and had acquired a certain respect
for each other despite their strong disagreements. Nehru could hardly
deny that Patel’s organisational skills had contributed to the building
up of a strong state apparatus, and whatever their other disagreements the
two men had shared a belief in a strong, centralised state. To the extent
that the state was to be identified with the nation, both men were
nationalists; but they had very different views of that nation.
With Patel’s death, the balance of power shifted slightly. But the
ascendancy of the Congress right was still underpinned by the president
of India, Rajendra Prasad, who had attempted to block land reform
legislation relating to his home state, Bihar, in 1950, and had opposed his
prime minister by presenting his personal views on the Hindu Code Bill
to Parliament in 1951, causing a minor constitutional crisis. On both
occasions Nehru had threatened to resign as prime minister, and Prasad
had retreated. (On the latter, Nehru had been forced by the surprisingly
strong conservative opposition to compromise, diluting and splitting the
Bill up into four separate pieces of legislation on marriage, divorce,
succession and adoption passed between May 1955 and the end of 1956.)
The president had also, in April 1951, against Nehru’s advice, inaugu-
rated the rebuilt Somnath temple, in the erstwhile Junagadh state, which
in Hindu nationalist mythologies was an emotive symbol due to its having
been destroyed by ‘Muslim invaders’ almost a thousand years before. Patel,
as deputy prime minister in November 1947, had announced that
Somnath would be rebuilt. Nehru had felt that official support for the
rebuilding of a temple whose history was directly connected with anti-
Muslim sentiment was unwise. Prasad, however, and Patel posthumously,
won this battle.
Nehru was also under pressure from the secularright, represented
by Rajagopalachari. Nehru had earlier sought out Rajagopalachari as an
ally against communal forces within the Congress; now he was faced with
a home minister who felt that communalism was far less of a problem
than communism. In February 1951, Rajagopalachari opposed Nehru’s
commuting of death sentences on communists in connection with the
CONSOLIDATING THE STATE, c. 1947–55 185