The young Jawaharlal’s private tutor, Ferdinand Brooks, had been
recommended to Motilal for the job by Annie Besant, Fabian socialist,
Irish nationalist and now a member of the mystic-religious Theosophical
Society as well as of the Indian National Congress. Mrs Besant had
come to India in 1893 as a devotee of the new faith of Theosophy,
propounded by Madame Blavatsky, a Russian noblewoman, and H.S.
Olcott, an American lawyer and journalist. An Irish Home Ruler herself,
she was sympathetic to Indian demands for a greater share in govern-
ment, and was close to the social circles that frequented the annual
Congress sessions. Motilal, as befitted a member of these social circles,
had attended the first few sessions of the Congress. Founded in 1885
by liberal Englishmen and Indian notables and with a view to voicing
Indian opinion as did ‘Her Majesty’s loyal opposition’ in Britain, it had
a preponderance of members from the new Indian middle classes – doctors,
lawyers, teachers and newspapermen. It was as yet far from the organised
mass party of independence it was later to become; its annual sessions
met for three days a year in the pleasant weather of the winter months,
passed a few resolutions, and awaited the next session. Later, more
radical nationalists would refer to its members as ‘mendicants’, begging
favours from the British government and relying on the latter’s
non-existent goodwill for political change. Yet these radicals did inherit
the main achievement of the moderate years – a strong (and also aca-
demically respectable) economic nationalism that attributed to British
rule the economic decline of India and the lack of industrialisation in
India.
The influence of Mrs Besant and the almost-influence of Theosophy
on the Nehru family are worth dwelling upon. Theosophy claimed to
be a universal religion; it borrowed much from what it understood to be
Hinduism and Buddhism, and believed that a noble Aryan-ness could
be found at the root of these ancient world religions. Theosophy became a
movement capable of generating multiple meanings. Some who engaged
with its ideas later became connected with Aryan supremacist or fascist
organisations in Europe and elsewhere. Others remained content to
maintain a mystical connection with it.
The influence of Theosophy on many Indians was more significant.
In a social environment in which the culture and civilisation of India
had been denigrated, continuously undervalued or considered inferior
by the dominant values imposed by the colonising power, the suggestion14 THE MAKING OF A COLONIAL INTELLECTUAL