things to come in India. The influence can be read in his public state-
ments: from an initial endorsement of the moderate and constitutional
nature of the Namboodiripad government to the expression of misgivings
about the lack of toleration of dissent in ‘communist’ Kerala. While the
Kerala Congress used all resources at their disposal to disrupt the
administration of the state, Namboodiripad’s letters to Nehru requested
his intervention in preventing Congress-led violence; Nehru expressed his
disapproval and did nothing.
The eventual dismissal of the Kerala government on July 30, 1959,
by the governor on the advice of the prime minister implicated Nehru
in a most significant act of destruction of constitutional propriety,
ranking alongside the dismissal and imprisonment of Sheikh Abdullah
in Kashmir. The Constitution of India provided regulations for the
declaration of an ‘emergency’ in a state and its temporary takeover by the
centre; the continuities with the 1935 Government of India Act had
always been considered disturbing (Section 93 of 1935 and Article 256
of 1950 which provide for this are largely indistinguishable). But the
actual use of this provision was considered improper; it had to be used
sparingly or it would open the floodgates to its abuse by central authority
against opposition governments in the federal units (Article 256 had been
used before, notably in Kashmir, where it was illegal to use it, but never
in so flagrantly partisan a manner as now). Nehru, in surrendering to his
party’s right wing and to external pressures, had struck a blow against the
propriety for which he had always stood.
The decisive role in this dismissal has always been attributed to the
new Congress president, Indira Gandhi, Nehru’s daughter, who was
elected in January 1959, allegedly without support or encouragement
from her father (though it was clear that no one could have become
Congress president if Nehru had actively disapproved). It might be said
that at a crucial juncture, over a political issue, Nehru’s personal life and
long-term yearnings caught up with him. From very early on in the life of
his daughter, he had always wanted to be close to her. But he was often
in jail and had to be satisfied with writing letters to her, or at least to his
idealised image of her, or she was abroad (in Oxford or in Switzerland, as
a student or an invalid). Then, from about 1947, Indira had begun to
spend much of her time with him as a sort of personal assistant on his
trips abroad and as social organiser and hostess at home, living with him,
along with her two sons, at Teen Murti Bhavan in New Delhi. (Indira had232 HIGH NEHRUVIANISM AND ITS DECLINE, c. 1955–63